TYB
Earthquake Watch, Solar Storm Coming, Ice Problem | S0 News and frens
May.12.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaHHiMyHPe4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMGmzho_Kxk (S0: Ocean Collapse Update (May 10, 2026 Livestream))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D3zx3NK8Po (Ray's Astro: 500 Earthquakes in 2 Days - What’s Happening in Brawley, California)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHNMIMyP_AU (On the Pulse with Silki: "The Scale of WHAT we are dealing with is UNPRECEDENTED" Alaska Earthquake Center TSUNAMI WARNING)
https://youtu.be/dCMA_SItziY?si=ngf3MHBBwJV50fRa (Mysterious moon towers: Are there bases on the lunar surface? | Reality Check)
https://www.space.com/stargazing/auroras/sun-unleashes-colossal-solar-flare-and-coronal-mass-ejection-raising-the-chances-of-northern-lights-this-week
https://www.adsadvance.co.uk/surrey-space-centre-delivers-analysis-of-space-weather-radiation-storm.html
https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/spectacular-northern-lights-display-forecast-33931228
https://gizmodo.com/a-gigantic-atmospheric-anomaly-keeps-showing-up-on-venus-astronomers-finally-know-why-2000757051
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/california/2026/05/11/hundreds-of-earthquake-brawley-california-today/90034688007/
https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/05/1167485
https://meteoagent.com/schumann-resonance-forecast
https://www.tornadohq.com/
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes-volcanoes/news/302121/Volcano-earthquake-report-for-Tuesday-12-May-2026.html
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
https://spaceweather.com/
https://www.space.com/astronomy/asteroids/does-dantes-inferno-from-the-14th-century-depict-an-asteroid-impact
extra space objects
https://www.space.com/stargazing/astrophotography/nothing-short-of-magical-astrophotographer-captures-lyrid-meteors-beside-the-milky-way
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/the-cosmic-shells-that-birthed-life-d31404e7efe9
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/serious-matter-avi-loeb-reveals-two-ufo-interpretations-e3fc24506f54
https://usaherald.com/3i-atlas-may-be-the-first-real-world-test-of-what-the-disclosure-era-actually-means/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LEauAtmBCo (Stefan Burns: An Unexpected "Asteroid Wave" Has Begun…)
Does Dante's Inferno from the 14th century depict an asteroid impact?
May 11, 2026
Dante's famous 14th century epic poem, "Inferno," which is the first part of the Italian writer's "Divine Comedy," represents the first time a giant impact of a massive object falling from the heavens was envisaged, according to an expert in the specialized field of geomythology.
In the poem, the massive object in question is the Devil himself, Lucifer, who fell onto the Earth after being expelled from heaven.
Yet, according to Timothy Burberry of Marshall University in West Virginia , this fall and subsequent impact is described by Dante in very similar terms to an asteroid impact.
Burberry is a professor of English and an expert in geomythology, a field which involves searching old folk tales, myths and stories for evidence of real geological events.
Written between 1308 and 1321, Dante's "Inferno" depicts the main character — Dante himself — being guided through Hell by the spirit of the ancient Roman poet Virgil.
In what is considered one of the greatest works in the history of European literature, Dante and Virgil travel to the Underworld, where they are taken across the River Styx to Hell by the ferryman Charon — in fact, two of Pluto's moons, Charon and Styx, are named after these details.
The characters then cross the nine concentric circles of hell, beginning with Limbo and then various circles where the souls of those who commit different sins end up.
Along the way, the poets encounter the likes of Cleopatra and the various antagonists of the Trojan War — Achilles, Helen of Troy and Paris — in the second circle where those who fell under the sin of lust end up.
Further into Hell, in the seventh circle, those who committed great violence, such as Alexander the Great and Attila the Hun, are found. And at the very center of Hell is Satan himself, the traitorous Archangel Lucifer, depicted as a monstrous creature with wings and three heads.
Each of those three heads is literally eternally chewing on the bodies of history's three greatest traitors up to that point, at least from Dante's point of view: Brutus and Cassius who had Julius Caesar murdered, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus.
The pertinent part, from the point of view of Burberry, comes towards the end of Inferno. Dante and Virgil escape Hell by clambering down Satan's monstrous hide and through Earth's center of gravity.
Having descended from the northern hemisphere, they climb back up into the southern hemisphere.
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Back in the 1300s, the Earth's southern hemisphere was largely unexplored and considered to be mostly ocean — indeed, even today we know it to be 81% ocean. However, Virgil explains to Dante that long ago the southern hemisphere had been completely covered in land.
When God expelled Lucifer from heaven, Lucifer plummeted to Earth, smashing through the surface and continuing to burrow down until he reached the center of the planet, creating Hell.
The displaced rock raced to the surface, forming the Mountain of Purgatory (which Dante and Virgil climb up in Dante's "Purgatorio," which is the second part of the "Divine Comedy"), becoming the central peak of a multi-ringed crater, the rings forming the nine concentric circles of Hell.
The land of the southern hemisphere pulled away from this vile impactor, restructuring itself in the northern hemisphere.
Burberry therefore argues that what Dante is describing is an impact of an asteroid or a comet, violent enough to restructure large parts of the Earth.
Perhaps it was similar to the impact thought to have contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, or even the impact that formed the moon 4.5 billion years ago.
If Burberry is correct, then this would be remarkable foresight from Dante.
In the fourteenth century the heavens were considered to be (mostly) fixed and eternal and the concept of things falling to Earth from the stars was unheard of.
In fact, it took until the first half of the nineteenth century for meteors to be recognized as being a celestial, not atmospheric, phenomenon, and that meteorites came from space.
"Although Dante was not a scientist, he was one of the first persons in history to think through the physical effects of a large mass slamming into the Earth at high speed," writes Burberry in the abstract of his paper about the subject.
"In Dante's vision, the Devil's size and velocity are such that when he lands, he instantly creates Hell: a massive, circular, terraced crater that reaches to the center of the Earth."
Regardless of whether Dante meant to depict an impact from space or not, it does illustrate how geomythology can preview threats from natural disasters long before our scientific knowledge can catch up, argues Burberry.
Given the era in which Dante's "Inferno" was written, before Copernicus and Galileo, by describing something falling to Earth Dante was highlighting an idea that indeed went against the established norm at that time.
Burberry presented his research in a poster at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna, Austria, held between May 3–8.
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NASA's Artemis 3 rocket is taking shape for 2027 launch to test lunar landers
May 11, 2026
It's only been a month since NASA's Artemis 2 astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean to wrap up their 10-mission around the moon, and the space agency is already readying the rocket for the next Artemis program test flight.
The first stage of the Artemis 3 Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is now vertical inside NASA's cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, where it awaits integration with its engine section, NASA announced in an X post on Sunday (May 10).
"Technicians at @nasakennedy have completed operations of lifting the largest section of the core stage for NASA’s Artemis III SLS rocket into High Bay 2," the post said.
Once the launch vehicle's four RS-25 engines are attached, the stage will be transferred to the VAB's taller High Bay 3, where engineers will mate the remaining sections of SLS and the Orion spacecraft ahead of a launch date currently targeted for the latter half of next year.
The core stage of Artemis 3's SLS rocket is 212 feet tall (65 meters) and houses the four main RS-25 engines used to launch it into space.
When fully assembled with its upper stage, Orion spacecraft and twin solid rocket boosters, the SLS rocket will stand 322 feet tall (98 meters) and weigh 5.75 million pounds (2.6 million kilograms) when fully fueled.
NASA's Artemis program aims to fly regular astronaut missions to the moon beginning in 2028, and eventually build a permanent base at the lunar south pole by the early 2030s.
Artemis 2 launched to the moon on April 1, and flew NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a lunar flyby.
The mission also served as Orion's first crewed spaceflight. Now that Orion has proven itself with astronauts onboard, its next mission — Artemis 3 — will stay in Earth's orbit on a test flight for Orion and one or both of NASA's Artemis moon landers..
Artemis 3 was initially slated as the Artemis program's first crewed lunar landing, but delays in the development timelines for the landers selected through NASA's Human Landing System contracts, SpaceX's Starship vehicle and Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander, prompted NASA to rethink the Artemis mission architecture.
Now, to ensure the landers meet all the qualifications needed to safely deliver astronauts to the lunar surface, the next Artemis mission will forgo a flight to the moon altogether.
Artemis 3 astronauts will launch aboard Orion to Earth orbit, where they will rendezvous with either or both Starship and Blue Moon to practice proximity and docking maneuvers.
NASA has indicated that Artemis 3 will fly with whichever landers are ready when it comes time to launch the mission.
If they can do that successfully, and also demonstrate uncrewed lunar touchdowns, NASA plans to launch Artemis 4 in 2028 as the program's first crewed moon landing.
Starship is currently the lander contracted for that mission, but the readiness and performance of both landers during Artemis 3 could possibly change that arrangement if Blue Moon completes its qualification testing first.
It took about a year for components of the Artemis 2 SLS to arrive and undergo stacking inside the VAB before the rocket was fully assembled, though the same progress for Artemis 3 will be dependent on the production and testing status of the vehicle's various stages.
If all goes according to plan and at least one of the mission's moon landers is ready, NASA hopes to launch Artemis 3 sometime in late 2027.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/nasas-artemis-3-rocket-is-taking-shape-for-2027-launch-to-test-lunar-landers-photo
https://twitter.com/NASA_Marshall/status/2053490242255011983
other Artemis
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/i-am-artemis/i-am-artemis-kathleen-harmon/
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/johnson/nicholas-houghton-engineering-crew-safety-for-artemis-ii/
https://x.com/JerryMoran/status/2054198162714251552
https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasas-spacex-34th-commercial-resupply-mission-overview/
https://www.spacex.com/launches/crs-34
https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/05/12/live-coverage-nasa-spacex-to-launch-34th-cargo-dragon-mission-to-the-space-station/
https://science.nasa.gov/biological-physical/odyssey-nasa-analyzing-bacteria-in-space-simulated-microgravity/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF-GsJmqJA8
NASA’s SpaceX 34th Commercial Resupply Mission Launch and Overview
May 12, 2026
NASA and SpaceX are targeting a mid-May launch to deliver scientific investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station.
Loaded with about 6,500 pounds of supplies, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will lift off aboard the company’s Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Following its arrival to the orbital complex, Dragon will dock autonomously to the forward port of the space station’s Harmony module.
Watch agency launch and arrival coverage on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and NASA’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.
For more than 25 years, the International Space Station has provided research capabilities used by scientists from more than 110 countries to conduct more than 4,000 experiments in microgravity.
Research conducted aboard the station helps advance long-duration missions to the Moon as part of the Artemis program and to Mars, while providing multiple benefits to humanity.
Science highlights:
In addition to cargo for the crew aboard the space station, Dragon will deliver several new science experiments, including:
ODYSSEY will evaluate how well Earth-based microgravity simulators recreate space conditions. Researchers will examine bacterial behavior in space and compares the results to experiments conducted in microgravity simulators on Earth.
STORIE will monitor charged particles in orbit around the Earth, which respond to space weather and can affect assets like power grids and satellites. The instrument could help researchers gain knowledge to better predict and respond to these changes.
Laplace will study the movement and collision of dust particles in microgravity to understand particle motion in space. Researchers hope to learn more about Earth’s origins and provide fundamental understanding of how planets in our solar system and beyond came into existence.
Green Bone will observe how bone cells grow and develop in space on a bone scaffold made from wood. Microgravity results could help researchers improve products that treat fragile bone conditions such as osteoporosis.
SPARK will evaluate how red blood cells and the spleen change in space for future astronauts. Researchers will observe human samples and imagery taken before, during, and after spaceflight to identify ways to protect astronaut health during long-duration space missions.
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Arrival and return:
NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot will monitor the spacecraft’s arrival.
Dragon will remain docked to the orbiting laboratory for about a month before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, returning critical science and hardware to teams on Earth.
Cargo highlights:
Launch
European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device Power Cable – A replacement power cable is launching for installation on the European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device.
Catalytic Reactor – A vital component of the Water Recovery and Management System, the catalytic reactor oxidizes volatile organics from wastewater that are removed by the Gas Separator and Ion Exchange Bed orbital replacement units.
This part is launching to maintain on orbit sparing.
Universal Pretreat Concentrate Tank – This is a passive tank to provide alternate pretreat concentrate to the Universal Waste Management System (UWMS) and Waste Hygiene Compartment (WHC).
Two units are launching to maintain this hardware, in tandem with Russian pretreat tanks currently used. A universal pretreat concentrate tank adapter will accompany the tanks to connect with the Russian hose.
Additional equipment launching includes an Ultraprobe to replace a worn ultrasonic inspection tool, a Remote Sensor Unit to restore spares for the station’s vibration monitoring system, and flexible repair patches for sealing the pressure hull if needed.
The mission also will deliver an updated ARMADILLO (AOGA ReMediation, Advanced DeIonization and Limited Life Optimization) cartridge and hose assemblies to improve water processing for oxygen generation, along with a nitrogen recharge tank assembly to help maintain the station’s gas reserves.
Return
When Dragon returns in mid‑June, it will bring back an ocular imaging device used to monitor crew eye health, a sorbent bed that filters trace contaminants from cabin air, and a separator pump from the Waste and Hygiene Compartment.
The Advanced Plant Habitat, which supported long-duration plant biology studies, also will return for eventual museum display. A pressure management device that recovers vestibule air during depressurization will come back for repair and storage as a ground spare.
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Joint Earth Observation Mission Quality Assessment Framework – Optical Guidelines Documents Released
May 11, 2026
NASA's Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) program, in conjunction with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), has released the Joint Earth Observation Mission Quality Assessment Framework – Optical Guidelines.
Released on April 26, 2026, the Optical Guidelines document provides specific guidelines for the mission quality assessment of optical sensors as part of the implementation of the generic Earth Observation (EO) mission quality assessment for the optical domain.
This document summarizes the goals of the Joint Earth Observation Mission Quality Assessment Framework, reviews how optical mission quality is demonstrated through documentation, outlines guidelines for verifying that a mission’s data quality aligns with stated sensor performance, and provides appendices containing information on common radiometric and geometric calibration and validation practices.
“The release of these joint guidelines for EO data from optical missions both documents the rigorous standards we have for commercial data and bolsters the confidence of the user community in the CSDA’s commercial data acquisitions,” said CSDA Project Manager Dana Ostrenga.
“By releasing this document to the public, we’re giving end-users the opportunity to review the approach for verifying whether the quality of commercial EO data is consistent with the stated performance of the mission.”
The Joint Earth Observation Mission Quality Assessment Framework was produced as part of an ESA and NASA partnership supporting Earthnet Data Assessment Project (EDAP) and CSDA activities, the document details the methodology used to assess the quality of data from commercial satellite data providers.
This framework provides standardized, transparent, and repeatable data quality assessment processes and outputs to support mission selection, data integration, and the trusted use of commercial EO data for science and applications.
Furthermore, the agencies intend to update the guidelines in step with the evolution of the market and the advancement of Earth sciences and applications of EO data products.
About the Joint EO Mission Quality Assessment Framework
The expanding range of applications for EO data products and the availability of low-cost launch services have resulted in a growing number of commercial EO satellite systems.
This growth in the marketplace has prompted space agencies like NASA, ESA, and others to explore the acquisition of commercial EO data products and their potential to complement the capabilities and services currently available for scientific and operational purposes.
To ensure that decisions regarding the acquisition of commercial data can be made with confidence, ESA, NASA, and other stakeholders agreed there was a need for an objective framework to assess the quality of data from commercial sources.
To that end, ESA established the EDAP, which performs early assessments of EO mission data to evaluate their quality and the potential integration of these missions as third-party missions within ESA’s Earthnet program.
The development of EDAP led to the Joint Earth Observation Mission Quality Assessment Framework, which was later customized for the different types of sensors used in atmospheric, synthetic aperture radar, thermal infrared, and now, optical EO missions.
This joint framework serves as the foundation for the CSDA program's comprehensive evaluation process to ensure the quality of commercial EO data.
The process focuses on assessing geometric and radiometric quality, validating data against trusted reference datasets, ensuring completeness and traceability of dataset documentation, and evaluating data accessibility and utility.
Together, these rigorous evaluation efforts help build trust in commercial partnerships, ensure scientific integrity and interoperability, and foster innovation within the EO community.
https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/earth-science/joint-earth-observation-mission-quality-assessment-framework-optical-guidelines-documents-released/
https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/joint-optical-guidelines-jul2025-signed.pdf
extra NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-to-annual-lunabotics-robotics-competition/
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/australias-cloudy-beauty/
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/curiosity-blog-sols-4886-4892-ingenuity-and-perseverance-curiosity-style/
https://science.nasa.gov/photojournal/nasas-curiosity-takes-close-look-at-rock-that-got-stuck-on-drill/
NASA’s C-20A Flights Advance Understanding of Earthquake Dynamics
May 11, 2026 4:51PM
NASA’s C-20A aircraft completed a series of flights on April 29 over Central California to contribute new data to improve the accuracy of the region’s earthquake models and support NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), the U.S.-India satellite mission launched last year to track hazards, monitor ecosystems and crops, and measure change in ice sheets and glaciers.
The flights — part of an ongoing campaign that began Sept. 30, 2025, will include additional flights this year to build a longer time series — used airborne radar to measure ground movement along the San Andreas fault.
The C-20A, based at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, carries the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), an instrument developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
The UAVSAR flights were coordinated with NISAR’s orbit. Data from UAVSAR can help improve scientists’ understanding of how Earth’s atmosphere affects NISAR’s measurements.
During the flights, UAVSAR recorded surface motion driven by crustal deformation on the San Andreas fault and mapped land subsidence in the Central Valley caused by groundwater withdrawal.
The campaign was part of a six-month effort to calibrate NISAR’s L-band radar and validate the instrument’s measurements, which will cover nearly all the planet’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days.
A joint mission between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), NISAR was designed to study Earth’s most complex natural processes, including the subtle motions and deformation of the land around faults that can help researchers assess the likelihood of earthquakes.
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/science-news/2026/05/11/nasas-flights-advance-understanding-of-earthquakes/
extra extra NASA
https://nasawatch.com/personnel-news/insourcing-at-nasa-ames/
https://astrobiology.com/2026/05/nasa-spaceline-current-awareness-list-1199-8-may-2026-space-life-science-research-results.html
https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/institute/pickering-lecture-to-feature-nasa-isro-radar-missions-early-findings-at-ascend-2026/
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/may-2026-satellite-puzzler/
posts hanging
SpaceX fuels up Starship V3 megarocket for 1st time ahead of crucial test flight (photos)
May 12, 2026
Launch could come as soon as Monday (May 19).
SpaceX has fueled up the new variant of its Starship megarocket for the first time ever, preparing for a crucial test flight that could launch in less than a week.
The company assembled a Starship Version 3 (V3) vehicle for the first time over the weekend, stacking a Ship upper stage atop a Super Heavy first-stage booster at its Starbase site in South Texas.
That set a new record for the world's tallest rocket at about 408 feet (124.4 meters), besting Starship V2 by 4 feet (1.2 m).
Then, on Monday (May 11), SpaceX announced it had conducted a successful launch rehearsal with the vehicle, a milestone that centered on the loading of huge amounts of liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellant.
"Launch rehearsal complete. During a flight-like countdown, more than 5,000 metric tonnes (11+ million pounds) of propellant were loaded on the fully stacked Starship and Super Heavy V3 vehicles for the first time," SpaceX wrote Monday in a post on X that featured four photos of the rehearsal.
SpaceX is developing Starship to help humanity settle the moon and Mars, finish deploying its Starlink broadband megaconstellation and perform a wide variety of other spaceflight tasks.
The giant vehicle debuted in April 2023, on a test flight that ended in a dramatic explosion just a few minutes after liftoff. Starship has flown 10 more suborbital test missions since then, most recently in October 2025. The last two flights have been completely successful.
All 11 missions to date involved Starship V1 or V2. The upcoming Flight 12 will mark the debut of V3, the first Starship variant that's capable of exploring deep space.
So there's a lot riding on Flight 12, for both SpaceX and NASA. The space agency picked Starship to be one of the two crewed landers for its Artemis program of moon exploration, along with Blue Origin's Blue Moon.
One or both of those private landers could launch as soon as next year, on NASA's Artemis 3 mission to low Earth orbit. That flight will test rendezvous and docking operations using Artemis' Orion capsule and Starship and/or Blue Moon, agency officials have said.
If all goes well with Artemis 3, Artemis 4 will put astronauts down near the lunar south pole as early as late 2028. It's unclear which private vehicle will fly on that mission — likely whichever one is ready in time.
SpaceX has not yet announced a target date for Starship Flight 12, but the suborbital test could apparently launch as soon as next Monday (May 19). The company had already conducted "static fire" engine tests with both Ship and Super Heavy, clearing the way for Monday's launch rehearsal.
Starship will still need to tick a lot of boxes after that flight before it gets fully up and running. For example, the vehicle does not have a life-support system, and it has yet to reach orbit or demonstrate off-Earth propellant transfer.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-fuels-up-starship-v3-megarocket-for-1st-time-ahead-of-crucial-test-flight-photos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWwj371KZwI
with a side of Space Force and some assorted space news for dessert
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/star-catcher-raises-65-million-to-build-the-first-power-grid-in-space-302769128.html
https://indiandefencereview.com/sudan-desert-cattle-burial-culture-discovery/
https://www.space.com/science/climate-change/a-hidden-wildfire-pollutant-causes-thousands-of-excess-deaths-per-year-satellite-data-shows
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/5220/1
https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Preparing_for_the_Future/Discovery_and_Preparation/Moving_like_an_inchworm_a_smarter_robot_for_planetary_exploration
extra ESA and UK.Gov
https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/Boost/A_new_Boost!_for_space_transportation_companies
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/how-we-protected-the-uk-and-space-in-april-2026
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/combined-space-operations-initiative-principals-board-meets-to-advance-combined-operations-efforts
Moving like an inchworm – a smarter robot for planetary exploration
11/05/2026
The inchworm may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think of planetary explorers, but a recent ESA Discovery activity led by the University of Gothenburg looked to one of nature's most elegant crawlers for a new approach to soft robot locomotion.
A robot exploring another planet needs to traverse unpredictable, uneven terrain, withstand extreme temperatures and radiation, and do all of this with minimal power and without maintenance.
Conventional rigid robots – like those deployed on Mars – have a fixed number of joints and degrees of freedom, limiting their ability to squeeze through narrow gaps or adapt to irregular surfaces.
Soft robots, by contrast, are flexible and compliant, making them far better suited to unstructured terrain. The challenge has always been how to make them move with precision.
Muscles without motors
The Gothenburg team built their robot around a dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) – a type of artificial muscle consisting of a thin, flexible polymer sandwiched between two compliant electrodes, which contracts and extends radially when a voltage is applied.
DEAs are promising because they mimic the behaviour of biological muscle: they can deform significantly, respond quickly, and store and release energy efficiently.
In this case, the team used a rolled version of the actuator (an RDEA) to drive the robot's inchworm-like motion – contracting and extending axially to inch forward.
A key requirement for any robot destined for planetary exploration is that it can operate reliably in a harsh radiation environment.
The compliant electrodes used in the actuator are made from single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) – a cylindrical nanomaterial formed from a rolled sheet of graphene.
Experiments and simulations have shown that SWCNTs have fault-tolerant properties that allow them to withstand mechanical damage and provide partial shielding against Martian radiation, specifically alpha and proton particles simulated at 10 MeV energy.
This fault-tolerant behaviour could significantly extend the operational lifespan of a robot deployed on Mars or the Moon. The design also operates at relatively low voltages, reducing power consumption and minimising the risk of failure – both critical considerations when a robot is millions of kilometres from the nearest repair technician.
"The core challenge we were trying to solve was achieving multidirectionality in soft robots without the need for complex electronics or multiple actuators," explains Dr Hari Prakash Thanabalan of the University of Gothenburg, the project's lead researcher.
"The inchworm became a model due to its simple yet effective design – its locomotion is controlled mainly by contraction and extension of its body, which makes it a well-suited source of inspiration for a robot that needs to adapt to the surface on which it moves."
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"Biomimicry is increasingly central to advanced space concepts, and this activity is a good example," says Ugo Lafont, Space Materials & Technology Specialist and ESA lead on the project.
"The key enabling technology is the rolled dielectric elastomer actuator – a cylindrical artificial muscle that continues to function even when partially cut or punctured. This fault-tolerant behaviour is essential for any device destined for the harsh conditions of space."
While testing the robot's locomotion on 3D-printed substrates, the team made an unplanned finding that has opened up a promising new line of research. The substrates had groove patterns 3D printed into their surface, and the team noticed that the robot's legs were hooking onto the grooves as it moved – causing it to align itself with the groove direction.
"Initially we tested the robot on groove angles that were perpendicular to the direction of motion," says Dr Thanabalan. "We realised that the robot was 'hooking' its front legs onto the grooves on the surface.
This led us to experiment with increasing the groove angles – and the robot started aligning itself with the groove direction as it locomoted. It was our Eureka moment!"
By systematically varying the groove angle from 0° to 5°, 15°, and 30°, the team demonstrated that passive surface interaction alone – without any additional actuators or electronics – could steer the robot precisely.
The steeper the groove, the more strongly the robot reorients itself. The robot was also tested across sequences of substrates with different groove angles, successfully navigating left turns, right turns, and combinations of both – demonstrating true multidirectional locomotion from a single actuator.
The grooved substrates are, of course, a controlled laboratory environment, and passive steering alone would not be sufficient on the unpredictable terrain of another planet.
But the finding demonstrates an important principle: that surface interaction can substitute for complex onboard control systems, pointing towards robots that are simpler, lighter, and more resilient.
The road ahead
The next steps for the research follow both strands of the activity's findings.
On the locomotion side, the team plans to improve the robot's robustness to thermal cycling and radiation exposure, and to integrate sensors that would allow it to respond more intelligently to its environment without significantly increasing its complexity.
On the steering side, the longer-term goal is to combine the groove-guided principle with onboard sensors and feedback systems, allowing the robot to navigate natural, unstructured terrain.
Ultimately, the team hopes to test the robot on terrain that mimics the surface of other planets – including the Mars Yard at ESA's ESTEC facility in the Netherlands – as a first step towards validating its performance under realistic exploration conditions.
"As the design matures, incorporating multiple actuators into an optimised configuration could enable not only locomotion but also controlled steering, independent of the terrain's texture," says Ugo Lafont.
The 'Soft Annelid-Inspired Robot with Peristaltic Gait using Low Voltage Fault-Tolerant Artificial Muscles for Planetary Exploration' activity was submitted through ESA's Open Space Innovation Platform and funded by the Discovery element of ESA's Basic Activities.
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Zelensky’s alleged cocaine use ‘an open secret’ – former spokeswoman
12 May, 2026 03:01 | Updated 12 May, 2026 08:54
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s alleged drug use is “an open secret,” former spokeswoman Yulia Mendel has claimed on the Tucker Carlson Show.
Allegations of drug use first surfaced during the 2019 presidential election campaign, in which Zelensky defeated Petro Poroshenko.
Zelensky, a former actor, dismissed the claims as slander at the time, and both candidates underwent tests for alcohol and drugs.
Mendel worked for Zelensky from 2019 to 2021 and has since become highly critical of her former boss. In an interview released on Monday, Carlson asked whether Zelensky used drugs, to which Mendel replied: “This is an open secret.”
“The thing is that I’ve never seen him taking drugs. However, [while] writing my book, I met a lot of people who confirmed that they saw him taking drugs in different clubs.
Only one saw him taking drugs in 2021,” she claimed. Mendel added that she learned about an alleged “supplier” from a person working at Kvartal 95 Studio, the entertainment company Zelensky co-founded in the 2000s.
“All these people are talking about cocaine, yes,” Mendel said, adding that before interviews, Zelensky had a habit of spending 15 minutes in the bathroom and emerging as a “different person.”
Mendel described her former boss as being obsessed with his public image at home and abroad. She claimed that at one point, Zelensky told her: “I need Goebbels propaganda, I need thousands of talking heads,” referring to Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels.
Mendel also accused Zelensky of sending critics, including journalists, to the front line as punishment.
Political opponents, including Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, have frequently accused Zelensky of abuse of power. Last year, US President Donald Trump called Zelensky – whose presidential term expired in 2024 – a dictator for refusing to call a new presidential election.
Zelensky has argued that elections are prohibited under martial law and that a permanent ceasefire with Russia would be required before a new election can be held.
https://www.rt.com/russia/639876-zelensky-drug-use-claims-secret/
extra RT
https://www.rt.com/news/639870-berlin-kiev-develop-deep-strike/
https://www.rt.com/russia/639881-eu-russia-envoy-debate/