tardigrade cosmonaut honored

During a brief ceremony held in a former outdoor smoking shelter behind the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pastor Tina, CA, scientists preparing for an impending launch stood still during a moment of silence ahead of the upcoming launch of a hearty tardigrade. Selected from a group of other hypsibius gagarinorum, the tiny traveler, like intrepid Laika before it, was chosen due to a proven ability to survive in harsh conditions such as extreme cold and prolonged deprivation. Exploiting the animal’s natural cryptobiosis, or suspended metabolism, gives NASA scientists hope that at least one hypsibius gagarinorum tun will reach another star system, most likely the cluster humans call Alpha Centauri.

[ americanifesto / 場黑麥 / jpr / urbanartopia / whorphan ]

on swarming micro-satellites

Eschewing standard methods for raising and operating communications and weather-tracking satellites, Queen Pylta the Terrible University in the Glorious Republic of Grigovia is pioneering the use of micro-satellites. Funded and supported by both private and public organizations, including Grigovians for A Free Cosmos and the country's National Center for Atmospheric Studies, the program is on course to reduce the cost of fielding functional orbital gear by 90% and to decentralize access to space. Lifted into the heavens by helium balloons tethered together, 4 of 12 micro-satellites fold open to become broad sails made from an ultra thin, microwave-reflective and photon-absorbent material. Using toy-inspired manipulator arms, a LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging)- and video-based guidance system, and open-source artificially-intelligent software, the other 8 micro-satellites pull themselves into place behind the surface of the sails. Ground-based emitters then bombard the sails with microwaves, pushing the cluster into near-Earth orbit. At this point, the 4 micro-satellites closest to the tethered balloons use shears to trim them loose and activate thrusters filled with compressed gas to flip over the cluster so that the sails point (some of the time) toward the sun. The cluster's final step is for the 4 remaining satellites to run out communications antennae as well as sensors for measuring atmospheric conditions. In its initial testing phase, the program shows promise, although the system of shared intelligence – individual satellites contributing any available memory and processing power, sometimes even writing new algorithms, to help solve the puzzles they as a whole face – is still in its infancy. Long live these brave robotic cosmonauts!

© americanifesto / 場黑麥