June 5, 2023

The Upper Atmosphere Is Cooling, Prompting New Climate Concerns (Source: WIRED)
There is a paradox at the heart of our changing climate. While the blanket of air close to the Earth’s surface is warming, most of the atmosphere above is becoming dramatically colder. The same gases that are warming the bottom few miles of air are cooling the much greater expanses above that stretch to the edge of space. This paradox has long been predicted by climate modelers, but it has only recently been quantified in detail by satellite sensors. The new findings are providing a definitive confirmation on one important issue, but at the same time they are raising other questions. (6/3)

Astronomers are Searching for a Galaxy-Wide Transmitter Beacon at the Center of the Milky Way (Source: Universe Today)
Most modern SETI efforts have focused on wideband searches for narrowband beacons from planetary systems or neighboring galaxies. In particular, a rotating beacon near Galactic Center (GC) is considered a promising technosignature to SETI researchers. For an advanced species, such a beacon would provide a means for communicating with the entire galaxy without the need for direct contact. For species dying to know if they are alone in the Universe but not so eager as to advertise their location, a beacon is doubly attractive because it would also allow some anonymity to be maintained. (6/2)

After Launching a 3D-Printed Rocket Into Space, This Company Is Going Bigger (Source: CNET)
Relativity Space is turning its attention to its next project, the Terran R, a significantly larger rocket capable of carrying large payloads into orbit such as satellites. The Terran R is scheduled to launch in 2026. Ellis says his eventual goal is to help establish a base on Mars, a project that he believes 3D printing could play a critical role in achieving. (6/4)

Congress Asks GAO for Review of GeoXO Weather Satellite Program (Source: Space News)
Two members of Congress have asked the GAO to review NOAA's plans for a new generation of weather satellites. In a letter last week, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK), chair of the House Science Committee, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, asked the GAO to review plans for the GeoXO series of geostationary weather satellites. The letter did not raise any specific issues with GeoXO itself but said that past cost and schedule overruns on the GOES-R series of weather satellites led them to make sure lessons learned from it are incorporated into GeoXO. NOAA expects to spend nearly $20 billion to build and operate six GeoXO satellites through mid-century. (6/5)

Frying Food in Microgravity (Source: ESA)
Scientists have demonstrated that one popular fast food can be prepared in weightlessness. Greek researchers flew an experiment on a zero-g plane to test if potatoes could be fried in microgravity. Without gravity, the researchers wondered if steam bubbles would cling to potatoes, shielding them from hot oil and leaving them undercooked. In those experiments, though, the steam bubbles detached from the potatoes, suggesting that French fries might one day be on the menu for astronauts. (6/2)

Is it Time to Categorize Space Assets as Critical Infrastructure? (Source: FNN)
Recently, the Cyberspace Solarium Commission released a report recommending that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should identify space systems as a critical infrastructure sector. Such a move could help improve the nation’s overall cybersecurity measures, but what else could it do to protect our interests in space? To learn more, we got a return visit from Vishnu Reddy, professor of planetary sciences at the University of Arizona. Click here. (6/2)

How NASA Plans to Melt the Moon—and Build on Mars (Source: WIRED)
In June a four-person crew will enter a hangar at NASA JSC and spend one year inside a 3D printed building. The 1,700-square-foot space, which is the color of Martian soil, was designed by architecture firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and 3D printed by Icon Technology. Experiments inside the structure will focus on the physical and behavioral health challenges people will encounter during long-term residencies in space. But it’s also the first structure built for a NASA mission by the Moon to Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technology (MMPACT) team, which is preparing now for the first construction projects on a planetary body beyond Earth.

NASA's MMPACT team is preparing for the construction of sustainable, long-lasting structures. To avoid the high cost of shipping material from Earth, that means using the regolith that’s already there, turning it into a paste that can be 3D printed into thin layers or different shapes. The team’s first off-planet project is tentatively scheduled for late 2027. For that mission, a robotic arm with an excavator, which will be attached to the side of a lunar lander, will sort and stack regolith, says principal investigator Corky Clinton. Subsequent missions will focus on using semiautonomous excavators and other machines to build living quarters, roads, greenhouses, power plants, and blast shields that will surround rocket launch pads.

The first step toward 3D printing on the moon will involve using lasers or microwaves to melt regolith, says MMPACT team lead Jennifer Edmunson. Then it must cool to allow gasses to escape; failure to do so can leave the material riddled with holes like a sponge. The material can then be printed into desired shapes. How to assemble finished pieces is still being decided. To keep astronauts out of harm’s way, Edmunson says the goal is to make construction as autonomous as possible. Click here. (5/23)

Most Aliens May Be Artificial Intelligence, Not Life as We Know It (Source: Scientific American)
e would like to propose a new way of thinking about the Fermi paradox. It stands to reason that there are chemical and metabolic limits to the size and processing power of organic brains. In fact, we may be close to those limits already. But no such limits constrain electronic computers (still less, perhaps, quantum computers). So, by any definition of “thinking,” the capacity and intensity of organic, human-type brains will eventually be utterly swamped by the cerebrations of artificial intelligence (AI). We may be near the end of Darwinian evolution, whereas the evolution of technological intelligent beings is only at its infancy.

Few doubt that machines will gradually surpass or enhance more and more of our distinctively human capabilities. The only question is when. Computer scientist Ray Kurzweil and a few other futurists think that AI dominance will arrive in just a few decades. Others envisage centuries. Either way, however, the timescales involved in technological advances span but an instant compared to the evolutionary timescales that have produced humanity. What’s more, the technological timescales are less than a millionth of the vast expanses of cosmic time lying ahead. So, the outcomes of future technological evolution could surpass humans by as much as we intellectually surpass a comb jelly. (6/1)