Hubble Placed in Emergency Safe Mode | S26E149

This is Spacetime Series twenty six, episode one hundred and forty nine, for broadcast on the thirteenth of December twenty twenty three. Coming up on space Time, the Hubble Space Telescope placed into emergency safe mode, the new Joant European and Japanese EarthCare mission slated for launch in May, and the joint Orchest military alliance to build a deep space radar station in Western Australia. All that and more coming up on space Time. Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has been placed in emergency safe mode following an issue with one of its gyroscopes. As you, managers say, the orbiting observatory is in good health and its instruments are all stable. The telescope automatically entered safe mode when one of its three operating gyroscopes suddenly gave faulty readings. The gyros are used to measure the telescope's turn rates and a part of the system that determines which direction the telescopes pointing in. While in safe mode, science operations are suspended and the telescope weights for new instructions from the ground. Hubble first went into safe mode on November nineteenth. Although the operations team success to recover the spacecraft to resume observations the following day, the unstable gyroscope caused the observatory to again suspend operations on November the twenty first. Then, following another successful recovery, Hubble again entered safe mode on November the twenty third. It's been there ever since. Scientists are now running a series of tests to try and characterize what the issue is and work out if there's a solution. If necessary, the spacecraft can be reconfigured to operate with only one gyro. The spacecraft had six new gyros installed during its fifth and final Space Shuttle servicing mission in two thousand and nine. Now, so far, three of those six gyros have remained operational, including the one that's currently experiencing fluctuations. Usually, Hubble uses three gyros to maximize efficiency, that could continue to make scientific observations even if any one gyro remained working. There been a number of proposals suggested for another servicing mission to the orbiting outpost, and this latest issue adds some urgency to that idea. In fact, back in September last year, NASA and SpaceX decided to examine a plan to send a crew Dragon spacecraft to reboost and possibly service Hubble in order to extend its life. The baseline concept involved a crew Dragon spacecraft docking with Hubble, possibly using a capture mechanism installed during the last Shuttle servicing mission in two thousand and nine, and then raising its orbit. Hubble's orbits gradually decay due to atmospheric drag, and it's now flying at around five hundred and thirty five kilometers above the Earth. Continued orbital decay creates a fifty percent probability that Hubble will re enter Earth atmosphere in twenty thirty seven, bringing a fiery end to the mission. The SpaceX Dragon servicing mission would raise Hubble's orbit back up to around six hundred kilometers that's where it was first deployed by the Space Shuttle Discovery over three decades ago. That would add an additional fifteen to twenty years to its lifespan. This time last year, NASA issued a request for information from commercial space operators of various concepts for commercial missions to reboost Hubble. The agency received eight responses, including one from satellite servicing company astro scale in partnership with space transport company Momentus. Their plan would use astroscales currently under development dock to attached to the Hubble and their Momentus's orbital transfer vehicle. A sort of space tug would attach onto the dock and lift the telescope into a higher orbit. But while that's quite feasible and similar operations have already been carried out with privately run satellites, replacing Hubble's gyroscopes would require a very different sort of mission this space time still to come. A look at the new joint European Japanese EarthCare Mission and the August Defence Alliance to build a new network of deep space radar stations, including one base in Western Australia. All that and more still to come on space time. The Joint European Japanese Earthcloud Aerosol Radiation Explorer Mission, or EarthCare, has now been slated for launch in May next year on a mission to advanced sciences understanding of the interaction between clouds, aerosols and radiation in its atmosphere. The two three hundred and fifty kilogram spacecraft is being jointly developed by Jacks of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agent and the European Space Agency ISA. It'll be launched into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon nine rocket of Space Complex forty at the Cape Kennadal Space Force Space in Florida. Clouds remain one of the biggest uncertainties in how the atmosphere drives the climactic system. A better understanding of the relationship between clouds, aerosols, and radiation is a high priority in both climate research and weather prediction. For example, what happens to infrared radiation when emitted from the Earth's surface and trapped in clouds, and what role do aerosols play in reflecting solar radiation back into space? And then how do these processes affect climate and weather. The Earth Care Mission will provide novel observations to answer some of these questions using four state of the art scientific packages. There will be an Atmospheric Lighter or light Detection and Ranging system designed to measure the vertical profile of aerosols and clouds in Earth's atmosphere by emitting light pulses and then analyzing the reflected to precisely provide the distribution and properties of aerosols and clouds, including their altitude, their thickness, and detailed optical properties and aerosol types. This information will be crucial for improving cloud models and understanding the role of aerosols and clouds in Earth's energy balance. Then there is a cloud profiling radar. It will allow scientists to observe the internal structure of clouds. Operating the millimeter wavelength range, the cloud profiling radar penetrates through clouds and light precipitation, providing detailed insights into their vertical structure and velocity, particle sized distribution, and water content. The radar is essential for studying cloud processes such as their formation and dissipation, and it will contribute valuable data for improving weather climate models. Also, Aboard is a multi spectral imager. It will provide a much wider field of view to give context to profile measurements. It will be able to capture high resolution images in modible spectral bands in both the visible and infrared part of the spectrum. This will allow scientists to differentiate between various types of clouds, aerosols, and the Earth's surface. It will also provide a three dimensional cloud and aerosol filled using the atmospheric glider, iron cloud profiling radar data, which is crucial for understanding the radiative impact of clouds and aerosols on the Earth's climatic system. And finally, there will be a broad band radiometer which will measure the radiator fluxes at the top of Earth's atmosphere as the satellite travels along in its orbit. The radiometer views the atmosphere from three directions, allowing it to accurately quantify the matter reflected solar radiation and the outgoing thermal radiation emitted by the planet. This is known as Earth's energy balance, and comparing this to the radiation calculated from the combined observations of the other instruments will help scientists improve their current understanding of aerosol cloud radiation interaction. This report from Easter TV. Clouds remain one of the biggest mysteries and how the atmosphere drives the climate system. A better understanding of the relationship between clouds, aerosols, and radiation is a high priority in both climate research and weather prediction. For example, what happens to the trapped infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface, what role the clouds and aerosols play in reflecting solar radiation back to space. The Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer satellite will answer these critical scientific questions. Let's take a closer look at the instruments. The Multi Spectral Imagure instrument will provide an overview in multiple wavelengths to set the scene. The Cloud profiling radar will detect vertical motion within clouds, providing details on their internal dynamics. The atmospheric lidar will detect the top of clouds and it will provide profiles of the atmosphere with information on aerosols. The broadband radiometer will observe reflected sunlight and heat radiated from the Earth, measuring the reflected solar and outgoing infrared radiation making coincident measurements. Earthcare's unique set of four instruments will provide a comprehensive view of the interplay between clouds, aerosols and radiation. And in that report from Easter TV, we had from Earthcare's Mission and Optical Payload Manager Costka Wallace, this is space time still to come. Yorkist Defense Alliance to construct a new global deep space radar network, including one base in Western Australia and later in the Science report, Global emissions from fossil fuels are now expected to hit record highs this year, increasing by one point one percent. All that and more still to come on space time. The Australian, British and United States Defense Coalition orcus OF in ounced plans to build three new deep space radar installations in the United States, Britain and at Exmouth in Western Australia. The trilateral initiative, known as the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability or DARK, will be specially designed to provide a new space domain awareness capability tracking dangerous objects. The networking is stated to be operational by twenty twenty six and will provide twenty four hour global and all weather coverage, which has been difficult to obtain with existing technology. DARK promises several advantages over existing radar systems tracking objects in geostationary Earth orbit. It boasts higher sensitivity, better accuracy, increased capacity, and more agile tracking capabilities. The facility will be partly funded by the United States Space Force and is currently being developed by Northrop Grumman. The announcement was made jointly by the Australian Defence Minusta, the Richard Miles, the UK Secretary of State for Defense Grant Chaps, and the United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The tripartite agreement is the latest step in strengthening the alliance between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, which has already seen agreements for camera to buy at least three Virginia class nuclear powered submarines from the United States and for Australia and Britain to combine forces a new fleet of American technology based nuclear submarines. This space time and time that would take another brief look at some of the other stories making us in science this week. With a science report, global emissions from fossil fuels are projected to hit a record high this year, increasing by one point one percent. A report by Earth System Science Data Is found that there is no sign of the rapid and deep decreases in total emissions which needed to tackle climate change. While emissions are declining in some countries, the report shows that these simply aren't enough to reverse the overall growth in global fossil fuel emissions in countries such as China and India. A new study has found that biological women who drink energy drinks in the lead up to becoming pregnant could be more likely to have high blood pressure during their pregnancy. The findings were reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association based on data from two different long term health studies. Birth studies included data on energy drink intake, and the researchers compared this to a range of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including miscarriage, gestational diabetes, preclampsia, gestational high blood pressure, and pre term birth. The researchers said that of all the outcomes they looked at, only high blood pressure was associated with energy drink concin UMP, and the association was only found among participants from one of the studies used. The authors say this means their finding should be interpreted with caution, especially because energy drink consumption is relatively low among participants. However, more research should be done are the potential risks of energy drinks. A report in the British Medical Journal claims that young people who use social media on a daily basis are more likely to engage in risky behaviors such as drug use, unprotected sex and fighting. The research is part of an international systematic review of meta analyzes into risky behavior. The studies authors analyze the results of one hundred and twenty six previous studies on teens and social media, finding that overall, frequent or daily social media use was associated with higher odds of drinking alcohol, using drugs and tobacco, sexting, inconsistent condom use, and anti social behaviors such as bullying, fighting, and aggression. The research is exposure to content showing similar risky behaviors was most strongly associated with the behavior. They say that while most studies relied on self reported data on social media use and risky behavior, which could have influenced the results, their studies showed more research should be done into which aspects of social media could cause the most harm. It's been a big week for AI, with Google launching its new AI model and AMD launching their new artificial intelligence chips at its Advancing AI conference in San Jose, California. With details from the conference, we're joined by technology editor Alex o'harov Royce from Tech Advice Start Life. AMD have secured their place in history alongside Nvidia as a company that can make the chips that power these generative AI systems, the ones that are giving all the answers to chat, GBT from open AI, from hugging trace from a range of different large language models. And AMD of course, is AI is the most transformational technology in fifty years and the biggest driver, of course has been generative AI. So they now have this AMD instinct MI three hundred x chip. Now this chip is almost twice as powerful as the one from Nvidia, the one that they're selling for between twenty five thousand and forty thousand US dollars a pop. And you need several of these, you know, some systems have hundreds of these so power the generative AI systems that have taken over the world in the past year. They also have the new eighty forty series of Windows chips. So this is the chip that runs Windows Windows eleven and can run links on other programs. And they launched on earlier this year called the seventy forty, and it had the first AI neural engine inside of an X eighty six chip for PCs. And now they're launching the second generation of this AI powered line, the eighty forty, with an even more powerful AI chip. And they've done this, they're launching the second generation AI chips for PCs before Intel has launched its first generation, So very positive news from AMD, who continue their market leadership. This week there's also the news of the AI Alliance. What's that about? Well, IBM, Meta, AMD and the total of fifty companies have launch their new AI Alliance. This is an international community of learning technology developers, researchers and adopters collaborating together to advance they say open, safe and responsible AI. But interestingly Open AI the company behind the world famous chat GBT that everyone else is trying to copy. They're not on the list. And of course they're saying all the right things. There's all these things I want to do. You can read the full press release that I've reprinted from the Alliance on Tech Advice that life. But there's a lot of regulation that's coming down the pipeline from different governments Europe, the US, UK. They're investigating AI, they're going to be regulating it. And some of these companies are trying to get ahead of the term they well they are, they are, and of course they've made a big sub adnance about responsible ad But all these companies want to be part of setting the agenda, not following someone else's agenda, and when you've got Chat, GPT and Open Air on one side, getting all the money, in the fame and the kudos, even though there's quite a number of other companies who are just as powerful. They're banning together with this alliance. And look now only got to announce in the last week. We'll yet to see what the true results are. But yet more AI news and Googles launched its new Gym as well. Yeah, they're calling it the most capable AI model yet, and they say that it's built from the ground up to be multi modal, So this Gemini can generalize and seamlessly understand, operate across and combine different types of information including text, images, audio, video, and code all at the same time. So you can give it very sophisticated prompts and it can do this multimodal reasoning and advance coding. And it's got three different sets, so it's got Ultra pro and Nano so it can run on a data center right down to your pixel phone and it can do their sort of chat deputy responses right on your phone without having going to the cloud. But it's got this flexibility. The system can scale from data centers right downto your mobile phone. So this is something that Google is doing to compete with Chat Juputy four and the upcoming Chat Jupiter five. And the power of the engine you have running your AI systems determines how quick and smart and good it is and how often it doesn't hallucinate, it doesn't give you the wrong information. And Google has just launched their challenge to the rest of the industry. And what else is on the website this weekctionaries have got AI words that have entered their Words of the Year list. So for Oxford, the word of the year or one of the words of the year was prompt, which is the question or the statement that you give to a GPT to create what it is you want and the more details you give, the better the result. For Cambridge the word is hallucinate, where your GPT system is confidently spotting this information as though it's absolutely real, but it's absolutely wrong. And then Mariam Webster actually has a sort of a redefinition of the word authentic. Authentic is the word of the year. And this, you know, with the rise of artificial intelligence, you've got these deep fake videos, you've got the actors who are worried about competing with AI versions of themselves. You've got AI writing scripts, You've got AI doing all these things, and there's going to be a move back to people who are able to hand craft something made by humans, not made by AI. And so they're highlighting the word authentic because it's got a different flavor now that we have all this AI, fake artificially generated stuff. So that's their word of the year. There's also hackers who are predicting the biggest cybersecurity worries. In twenty twenty four, LG's brand Rey launch, Microsoft launching its new Incredible Seeing AI app, and plenty more. Please come and visit Techadvice dot Life. That's Alex saharov Royd from tech Advice dot Life, and that's the show for now. 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