September 30, 2020

A Student Just Proved Paradox-Free Time Travel Is Possible (Source: Popular Mechanics)
In a new peer-reviewed paper, a senior honors undergraduate says he has mathematically proven the physical feasibility of a specific kind of time travel. University of Queensland student Germain Tobar, who the university’s press release calls “prodigious,” worked with UQ physics professor Fabio Costa on this paper. In “Reversible dynamics with closed time-like curves and freedom of choice,” Tobar and Costa say they’ve found a middle ground in mathematics that solves a major logical paradox in one model of time travel. Let’s dig in.

The math itself is complex, but it boils down to something fairly simple. Time travel discussion focuses on closed time-like curves (CTCs), something Albert Einstein first posited. And Tobar and Costa say that as long as just two pieces of an entire scenario within a CTC are still in “causal order” when you leave, the rest is subject to local free will.

“Say you travelled in time, in an attempt to stop COVID-19's patient zero from being exposed to the virus. However if you stopped that individual from becoming infected, that would eliminate the motivation for you to go back and stop the pandemic in the first place. This is a paradox, an inconsistency that often leads people to think that time travel cannot occur in our universe. [L]ogically it's hard to accept because that would affect our freedom to make any arbitrary action. It would mean you can time travel, but you cannot do anything that would cause a paradox to occur." (9/25)

Machine-Learning Nanosats to Inform Global Trade (Source: ESA)
The latest batch of tiny satellites to monitor trade on Earth from space have launched. The nanosatellites join a fleet of about 100 objects in low Earth orbit that help to predict the movement of the world’s resources, so that businesses and governments can make informed decisions. The two machine-learning capable satellites were launched on a Russian Soyuz launcher, alongside two further satellites that will be used to forger inter-satellite links.

These connections allow satellites to act as relays, sending data to one another and down to ground stations, which cuts the time between data collection and its delivery to customers. The satellites have been built by Spire Global UK, a satellite-powered data company that provides predictive analysis for global shipping, aviation and weather forecasting. These services have been developed thanks to the UK Space Agency under the ESA Pioneer Partnership Project.

Spire uses automatic identification systems aboard ships to track their whereabouts on the oceans. Its network picks up the identity, position, course and speed of each vessel. Thanks to embarked intelligent machine-learning algorithms, it can predict vessel locations and the ship’s estimated time of arrival at port, enabling port authorities to manage busy docks safely and market traders to price the goods carried aboard. (9/28)

Pandemic Relief Proposals Leave Out DoD Contractors (Source: Defense News)
Coronavirus relief legislation in the House and Senate does not include funding to reimburse defense contractors for coronavirus-related expenses. Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act has authorized reimbursements, but so far they have not been funded. (9/30)

Space Force Interested in Lockeed-Ball Antennas (Source: Space News)
The US Space Force is considering the use of antenna technology developed by Lockheed Martin and Ball Aerospace as the service looks to update its aging network of dish antennas. Phased array antennas have demonstrated the capability to execute "simultaneous contacts across multiple orbital regimes at different frequencies." (9/30)

Space Force Doesn’t Want to Send a Human To Do a Robot’s Job (Source: C4ISRnet)
Since it was established in Dec. 2019 — and probably even before that — one question has plagued the U.S. Space Force: when will they send humans into orbit? While Space Force officials have tried to keep the focus on what their personnel will do on the ground to support the nation’s space assets, they’ve done little to dampen speculation. The Space Force probably didn’t help itself when it released a recruiting ad earlier this year that seemingly implied its members would literally be going to space.

But for anyone joining the Space Force to be an astronaut, Maj. Gen. John Shaw has some potentially bad news. “I think it will happen,” said Shaw during the AFWERX Engage Space event Sept. 29. “But I think it’s a long way off....First, space isn’t really all that habitable for humans. We’ve learned that since our early space days,” he explained. “And the second is, we’re getting darned good at this robotics thing in space.” (9/30)

Work, Float, Eat, Dream: Life on the International Space Station (Source: Air & Space)
For the past 20 years, without interruption, a small huddle of people—typically six at a time—have been living and working 250 miles over our heads, circling endlessly through the vacuum of space at five miles per second. Their work is demanding and dangerous, and more specialized, perhaps, than any work has ever been. Nobody else, anywhere, does what they do.

To date, 240 people from 19 countries have visited the International Space Station, almost half of them for long-term stays in an outpost with the volume of a six-bedroom house. No one person, no one crew, could convey the space station story in its entirety. But we asked some of the people who’ve spent the most time there: What’s it like? Click here. (9/30)

Lunar Deep Freeze Challenge: Help NASA Return Frozen Moon Samples (Source: NASA)
When the first woman and next man land on the Moon in 2024, they will explore the permanently shadowed and extremely cold regions of the Moon’s South Pole. Astronauts on Artemis missions will have to contain samples and carry them in multiple spacecraft during transport back to Earth. To aid in the effort, the NASA Lunar Deep Freeze Challenge, led by the NASA Tournament Lab, is seeking input on how to return cold samples collected in these regions where temperatures are less than -238°F (-150°C), while preserving them in their original, frozen state back to Earth for further analysis.

Samples from the lunar South Pole have significant scientific and technological value, and may provide key insights that benefit future lunar missions. The challenge asks for novel solutions to deliver or enable long-term cryogenic containment through a small, lightweight, and efficient approach. (9/23)

Is Dark Matter Just Black Holes Made During the Big Bang? (Source: WIRED)
Their very blackness makes it hard to estimate how many black holes inhabit the cosmos and how big they are. So it was a genuine surprise when the first gravitational waves thrummed through detectors at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in September 2015. Previously, the largest star-size black holes had topped out at around 20 times the mass of the sun.

These new ones were about 30 solar masses each—not inconceivable, but odd. Moreover, once LIGO turned on and immediately started hearing these sorts of objects merge with each other, astrophysicists realized that there must be more black holes lurking out there than they had thought. Maybe a lot more. The discovery of these strange specimens breathed new life into an old idea—one that had, in recent years, been relegated to the fringe. We know that dying stars can make black holes. But perhaps black holes were also born during the Big Bang itself. (9/29)

Blue Origin Plans for Cape Canaveral iInclude Filling Wetlands (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Blue Origin plans to expand its rocket facilities in Cape Canaveral include a request to fill wetlands adjacent to its existing building near Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, according to a report in Florida Today. The newspaper reported Blue Origin Florida LLC applied for a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to fill 10.32 acres of wetlands near its current facilities, which are part of its efforts to build is heavy-lift New Glenn rockets with plans to begin launches as early as next year.

The public notice of the permit application also notes secondary impacts to another 7.45 acres of wetlands, and the public has until Oct. 13 to comment on it in writing to: Attention: District Engineer, Cocoa Permits Section, 400 High Point Drive, Cocoa, Florida 32926. The plans are for the expansion to be a tank cleaning and testing facility. Blue Origin’s existing manufacturing and launch facilities at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport already required it to offset wetlands impacts, which it did by building a mitigation site within its 139-acre land where it plans its expansion, the newspaper reported.

This proposed project is for an area within that mitigation area, according to the public notice, which also states Blue Origin plans to offset it by purchasing mitigation credits, according to the report. Florida Today reports the Corps notice says the project could affect the eastern indigo snake, but not likely to adversely affect it, and that it does not expect for it to adversely affect the wood stork, and have no effect on the Atlantic salt marsh snake, Florida scrub-jays, manatees and piping plovers. (9/29)

International Space Station Air Leak Forces Middle-of-Night Crew Wakeup (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
A small air leak at the International Space Station finally has been traced to the Russian side, following a middle-of-the-night search by astronauts. NASA said Tuesday that the two Russians and one American on board were awakened late Monday to hurriedly seal hatches between compartments and search for the ongoing leak, which appeared to be getting worse.

It was the third time in just over a month that the crew had to isolate themselves on the Russian side, in an attempt to find the growing leak. It turns out instead of the leak getting bigger this time, a temporary temperature change caused the erroneous cabin air pressure reading, according to NASA. The leak was first spotted a year ago. (9/30)