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Submission + - An engineering analysis of the Falcon 9 first stage landing failure

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Link here.

SpaceX founder and chief technology officer Elon Musk tweeted that "excess lateral velocity caused it [the booster] to tip over post landing." In a later tweet that was subsequently withdrawn, Musk then indicated that "the issue was stiction in the biprop throttle valve, resulting in control system phase lag." In this statement, Musk was referring to "stiction" — or static friction — in the valve controlling the throttling of the engine. The friction appears to have momentarily slowed the response of the engine, causing the control system to command more of an extreme reaction from the propulsion system than was required. As a result, the control system entered a form of hysteresis, a condition in which the control response lags behind changes in the effect causing it.

Despite the failure of the latest attempt, SpaceX will be encouraged by the landing accuracy of the Falcon 9 and the bigger-picture success of its guidance, navigation and control (GNC) system in bringing the booster back to the drone ship. The GNC also worked as designed during the prior landing attempt in January, which ended in the destruction of the vehicle following a hard touchdown on the edge of the platform.

Submission + - The car that knows when you'll get in an accident before you do (fusion.net)

Submitted by aurtherdent2000
aurtherdent2000 writes: I’m behind the wheel of the car of the future. It’s a gray Toyota Camry, but it has a camera pointed at me from the corner of the windshield recording my every eye movement, a GPS tracker, an outside-facing camera and a speed logger. It sees everything I’m doing so it can predict what I’m going to do behind the wheel seconds before I do it. So when my eyes glance to the left, it could warn me there’s a car between me and the exit I want to take. More at Robot Learning lab at Cornell University and Stanford University: Brain4Cars project.

Submission + - Spitzer Space Telescope Finds New Planet (brevardtimes.com)

Submitted by Aspiring Astronomer
Aspiring Astronomer writes: Astronomers discover a gas planet 13,000 light-years away in our galaxy by using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. This newfound planet is one of the most distant planets known, as it is located much closer to our galaxy's central disk than our solar system.
The telescope was able to determine an approximate distance of this planet by joining techniques of microlensing and parallax to create a measurement for the planet. This combined the use of a ground telescope in Chile with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Knowing the distance of this newly discovered planet helps scientists calculate the mass of the planet, which is about half that of Jupiter.

Submission + - SpaceX Dragon launches successfully but no rocket recovery

Submitted by monkeyzoo
monkeyzoo writes: SpaceX has successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft en route to the International Space Station with supplies (including an Italian espresso machine). This was also the second attempt to recover the launch rocket aboard a ship, but that apparently was not successful. Elon Musk tweeted that the rocket landed on the recovery ship but too hard to be reused.

Submission + - Securing The U.S. Electrical Grid

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress (CSPC) launched a project to bring together representatives from the Executive Branch, Congress, and the private sector to discuss how to better secure the U.S. electric grid from the threats of cyberattack, physical attack, electromagnetic pulse, and inclement weather. In this interview with Help Net Security, Dan Mahaffee, the Director of Policy at CSPC, discusses critical security challenges.

Submission + - Robo Brain Project Wants To Turn the Internet into a Robotic Hivemind (popsci.com) 1

Submitted by malachiorion
malachiorion writes: Researchers are force-feeding the internet into a system called Robo Brain, to make the world's robots smarter. Weirder still: Every word in that sentence is true. Robo Brain has absorbed a billion images and 120,000 YouTube videos so far, and aims to digest 10 times that within a year, in order to create machine-readable commands for robots—how to pour coffee, for example. I spoke to one of the researchers about this ridiculously ambitious, and pretty ingenious project, which could finally make household bots viable (in about 5 years...which is still pretty great). My story for Popular Science.

Submission + - Why There Shouldn't Be a Chess World Champion (slate.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An article at Slate makes the case that the time has come to stop crowning World Chess Champions. This week, challenger Magnus Carlsen is trying to take the title from reigning champion Viswanathan Anand. Despite currently holding the title, Anand is very much the underdog, which only serves to illustrate why the current system is broken. The article suggests measuring greatness the same way tennis does. Quoting: 'Here’s what Carlsen should do: Beat Anand for the title, and then work with FIDE to institutionalize four big tournaments as chess’s Grand Slams, simultaneously eliminating the title of world champion. Corporate funding for even major chess tournaments can come and go with frustrating regularity, meaning FIDE itself has to get involved. Perhaps the grand slam tournaments could be located in three cities permanently—Moscow, Amsterdam, and a Spanish locale such as Linares would be natural picks—with a fourth that would rotate from year to year. This would give chess the same clear and predictable yardstick for greatness that golf and tennis have instead of the extremely crude world champion benchmark.'

Submission + - Robots can learn to hold knives — and not stab humans (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by aurtherdent2000
aurtherdent2000 writes: We humans enjoy not having knives inside of us. Robots don’t know this, three laws be damned. Therefore it’s important for humans to explain this information to robots using careful training. Researchers at Cornell University develop co-active learning method where humans can correct robot's motions and it learns how to properly use objects such as knives. They use it for a robot performing grocery checkout tasks.

Submission + - Researches use computer generated 10 year old girl to catch online predators 1

Submitted by mrspoonsi
mrspoonsi writes: Dutch researchers conducted a 10 week sting, using a life like computer generated 10 year old Filipino girl named sweetie. During this time 20000 men contacted her, 1000 of these men offered money to remove clothing, 254 were from the US, 110 from the UK and 103 from India. Terre des Hommes launched a global campaign to stop "webcam sex tourism".

Submission + - Tesla Model S Top Speed: At Least 132 MPH On Autobahn (motorauthority.com)

Submitted by cartechboy
cartechboy writes: There are few places in the world outside of a race track that you can safely--and legally-- go faster than 130 mph, but the Autobahn in Germany is one of them. After Tesla announced it'll offer a future special 'autobahn' tuning package to improve the Model S's high-speed driving characteristics, one owner took his car for a high-speed run on the infamous Germany highway. He hit a maximum speed of 212 km/h, or 132 mph. With 416 horsepower on tap and full torque available from a standstill thanks to the electric motor, the Model S went from 60 mph to 100 mph in less than five seconds. (Given the included video is mostly focused on the speedometer, lets hope the driver at least glanced at the road.) Only once the car passed 100 mph did its acceleration begin to slow.

Submission + - Possible Mammoth "Blood" found (phys.org) 1

Submitted by westtxfun
westtxfun writes: "Russian scientists claimed Wednesday they have discovered blood in the carcass of a woolly mammoth, adding that the rare find could boost their chances of cloning the prehistoric animal." As scientists unearthed the recent find, very dark blood flowed out from beneath the mammoth and the muscle tissue was red. This is the best-preserved specimen found so far and they are hopeful they can recover DNA and clone a mammoth.

Submission + - Stanford's Flying Fish Glider Bests Ordinary Jumping Robots (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Researchers at Stanford University have developed a small "aircraft" that resembles a flying fish which can jump and glide over a greater distance than an equivalent jumping robot. Using a carbon fiber spring to take off, the jumpglider has a pivoting wing that stays out of the way during ascent, but which locks into place to glide farther on the way down.

Submission + - Chinese Solar Panel Quality (sucks)

Submitted by Eugriped3z
Eugriped3z writes: TFA in the NY Times indicates that manufacturing defect rates for solar panels manufactured in China vary widely, anywhere from 5-22%. Secrecy in the terms of settlements negotiated by attorneys representing multi-million dollar installations perpetuate the problem by masking the identity of unscrupulous or incompetent actors. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that unit labor costs in Mexico are now lower than in China, spurring yet another lap around the globe in the, "race to the bottom," as James Cameron searches for the bar which globalization and the world's insatiable appetite for entertainment has lowered out of sight.

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