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3D printer successfully makes little space shuttle models in microgravity
July 10, 2024
Scientists with the University of California, Berkeley, have carried out successful tests of a next-gen microgravity 3D printer called SpaceCAL.
The tests were carried out as part of the Virgin Galactic 07 mission, a crewed suborbital spaceflight that launched on Monday (June 8).
During its 140-second trial run, SpaceCAL 3D printed four items from a liquid plastic called PEGDA.
These included space shuttle models and small tugboats called "Benchys," conventionally used as benchmarks (hence the name) to evaluate a printer's quality and performance.
"SpaceCAL performed well under microgravity conditions in past tests aboard parabolic flights, but it still had something to prove, said Taylor Waddell, a Ph.D. student and contributing researcher on the project, in a statement.
"This latest mission, funded through NASA’s Flight Opportunities program and with support from Berkeley Engineering and the Berkeley Space Center, allowed us to validate the readiness of this 3D printing technology for space travel.
3D-printing technologies have surged in the last decade, changing manufacturing forever. Early models were primarily printed using 3D pixels called voxels, which are built up very meticulously — point by point; layer by layer — into a 3D structure. In the last five years, scientists have advanced the capabilities of this tech ever further, manufacturing more sophisticated and creative 3D parts made from materials ranging from metals all the way to biomaterials.
SpaceCAL's predecessor on the ground, simply called "computed axial lithography" (which is where the CAL comes from), was developed by Hayden Taylor and his group at Berkeley in 2017.
The scientists aimed to address a lack of 3D printing techniques capable of printing complex, custom-defined 3D geometries in a single print step.
Instead of building structures from the bottom up, CAL used light to trigger the chemical hardening of projected patterns in a photosensitive resin, "such that in a single unit operation with a single development step, a 3D part of arbitrary user-defined geometry is generated."
The curing of the design occurs as a result of a polymerization reaction, in which chemical building blocks found in the resin connect into a chain, or polymer, under light, which results in high-resolution, complex 3D structures precisely and rapidly forming.
CAL (and SpaceCAL) can create intricate parts in as little as 20 seconds — a remarkable improvement over printers that typically require hours to create similar objects.
The team has also demonstrated the system's versatility, successfully printing with over 60 different materials, such as silicones, glass composites and different biomaterials, according to the press release.
Its ability to operate effectively in microgravity environments, where many other 3D printers face challenges, makes both CAL and SpaceCAL particularly promising for applications in space exploration.
In fact, low-gravity environments may give 3D printing an edge as the absence of gravity minimizes issues related to material flow and settling, enhances some material properties, and can improve freedom of design.
"With CAL, we were able to demonstrate — first on those [first] zero-G missions and now on this spaceflight — that we can print parts in microgravity that are not possible on Earth,” said Waddell.
These developments are exciting as 3D printing will likely be an integral part of upcoming space missions. NASA and the European Space Agency have already begun pushing ahead with plans for 3D printing on the moon and in the International Space Station.
"You can reduce that upmass, make these missions go faster and reduce risk by bringing manufacturing technologies with you," said Waddell.
This could provide astronauts with a means of independently producing building materials, tools, medical equipment and spare parts on site.
"If your spacecraft is breaking down, you can print O-rings or mechanical mounts or even tools," Waddell said.
With advancements in 3D bioprinting, this could also mean replacement organs or tissue. "CAL is also capable of repairing the crew," Waddell added.
"We can print dental replacements, skin grafts or lenses, or things personalized in emergency medicine for astronauts, which is very important in these missions, too."
But 3D printed objects in space could still make their way to our planet to serve humans living on the ground. "The long, long-term goal is to print organs up in space with CAL, then bring them back down to Earth," Waddell said.
"These experiments are really focused on pushing technology for the betterment of everyone," he continued. "Even though it's for space, there are always tons of ways it can benefit people back here on Earth."
https://www.space.com/spacecal-3d-printing-virgin-galactic-07
Saharan dust outbreak lingers across some US states this week
July 9, 2024
From the late spring to early fall, the Saharan Air layer, a large plume of super dry and very dusty air that originates over the Saharan Desert in Africa makes a trek more than 5,000 miles (8,047 kilometers) across the Atlantic toward the United States.
These dust storms happen pretty frequently in the summer, during the Saharan Air layer's peak season. Every three to five days, pockets of dust come off from these storms and can travel to different areas. This week, the mass of dust that began its journey about two weeks ago from Africa spread out across the Gulf Coast states stretching from Florida to Texas, altering the local weather patterns.
"It's a two-mile thick layer, very thin as far as the grand scheme of the atmosphere, but that dry air can really affect the weather. The dry air can really suppress afternoon clouds and help cool things down but you can still get storms popping in the late afternoon," Jason Dunion, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Hurricane Program Field Director and a meteorologist, told Space.com. "It also can make for some of your hottest days when these dust outbreaks come overhead in places like Texas and Alabama."
While researchers expect to see these gigantic dust storms during this time of year, what was most interesting about this particular outbreak was how it didn't impede Hurricane Beryl while the storm traveled across the Atlantic. Tropical systems need plenty of moisture to form, and when they encounter dust and dry air, that can weaken. Beryl was unfortunately just in the right place at the right time with this wave.
"Beryl was tucked on the southern side of it. It was still able to feed in that moist tropical air down to the south of the dust outbreak. A lot of that dry air went along with the system that became Beryl as it went through the Caribbean and brought with it a lot of that Saharan dust on the north side of Beryl today [Monday, July 8],” Dunion said. "If a tropical system can stay south enough to protect it from that dry air, it can still intensify. But some of these systems that plow through that dust layer kind of curve to the north, they can really get weakened."
Researchers can track the outbreaks with satellite imagery collected with instruments like the NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES)-R series.
"I think we take it for granted that we're able to track something like Beryl all the way back to Africa or one of these Saharan dust outbreaks overhead today in the Gulf states; we can track that back two weeks. I think our bigger awareness of what's happening has really increased," Dunion said. "It's still important to look at what's happening right where you are. That's why we take our Hurricane Hunters out to study any of these storms. The National Weather Service balloons are measuring that dry air and so I think the satellites help with the bigger picture.
While Saharan Dust storms can cause headaches with the heat and reduced air quality, they also bring out sunrise and sunset chasers hoping to catch quite the tapestry of colors across the sky as the dust particles scatter the sunlight.
"It can make for some really interesting sunsets too; you get that orange glow," Dunion said. "Definitely sunrise and sunset are the time of day to really appreciate that dust that's overhead."
https://www.space.com/sahara-dust-us-gulf-states
The James Webb Space Telescope finds a jeweled ring in the cosmos
July 9, 2024
A sparkling jeweled ring, created through a cosmic phenomenon called gravitational lensing, has been imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope.
The new image captures a distant quasar known as RX J1131-1231, which lies about 6 billion light-years from Earth.
The powerful gravitational field of a nearby elliptical galaxy, located in the foreground of the image, warps the light of the quasar — which is an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN) — creating a bright arc and duplicate views of the object, ultimately procuring a visual that looks like gemstones on a ring.
Quasars are powered by large amounts of gas and dust falling into a galaxy's supermassive black hole, causing the region to shine very brightly.
The effects of gravitational lensing, which occurs when a massive object, like a galaxy, bends the light from a more distant source, allow astronomers to study regions close to the black hole part of distant quasars, according to a statement from the European Space Agency (ESA).
"Measurements of the X-ray emission from quasars can provide an indication of how fast the central black hole is spinning and this gives researchers important clues about how black holes grow over time, "ESA officials said in the statement.
The elliptical galaxy creating the gravitational lens in the new JWST image appears as a small blue dot in the center of the ring.
The galaxy acts as a natural telescope, magnifying the light from the more distant quasar, which is otherwise too far away to study.
"If a black hole grows primarily from collisions and mergers between galaxies, it should accumulate material in a stable disc, and the steady supply of new material from the disc should lead to a rapidly spinning black hole," ESA officials said in the statement.
"On the other hand, if the black hole grew through many small accretion episodes, it would accumulate material from random directions.
Observations have indicated that the black hole in this particular quasar is spinning at over half the speed of light, which suggests that this black hole has grown via mergers, rather than pulling material in from different directions."
The new image was taken using the JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) as part of a larger study of dark matter and its distribution in the universe.
With these recent observations, and previous views from other telescopes, RX J1131-1231 is considered one of the best lensed quasars discovered to date.
https://www.space.com/jeweled-ring-james-webb-space-telescope-image
NASA astronaut captures moonrise from unique vantage point: ‘Dancing in moonlight’
Jul 10, 2024 07:10 PM IST
A beautiful photo of a moonrise taken from space has left people stunned. The moon is seen above the horizon in the picture taken by NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick from the International Space Station.
“NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick has been living aboard the International Space Station for about four months. The commander of NASA’s SpaceX’s Crew-8 mission launched to the ISS on March 3, 2024, with Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin and Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps.” NASA wrote.
While talking about the scene, Dominick said, “A sliver of a moon rises out of noctilucent clouds and appears to look towards the horizon awaiting the imminent sunrise.”
NASA described the image as, “A crescent moon floats over the Earth’s atmosphere, which resembles ocean-blue water. Layers of orange and black appear underneath the horizontal band of blue stretching across the center of the image. The crescent moon is white and stands out against the blackness of space. “
https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/nasa-astronaut-captures-moonrise-from-unique-vantage-point-dancing-in-moonlight-101720596596629.html