Within the next decade, a spacecraft may journey to an asteroid, grab a boulder, redirect the asteroid’s orbit, and travel back to Earth with its cargo in tow. The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) may sound like science fiction but it is an important part of NASA’s attempt to study near-Earth objects and test new space technologies that may help take people to Mars.
In September, the space agency began accepting proposals from private companies in its ARM Umbrella for Partnerships (ARM-UP). On Wednesday, NASA and the White House will discuss three virtual updates for the mission at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Nowhere near Greenbelt? No problem. The agency will host a Facebook Live event at 3 p.m. EST to outline its mission, conduct a Q&A, and take participants on a virtual tour of Goddard’s Robotic Operations Center.
ARM will consist of two missions — the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) and the Asteroid Redirect Crewed Mission (ARCM). Set to launch in 2021, ARRM will send a robotic vessel to an asteroid millions of miles in deep space. Once there, the probe will perform a series of flybys, surveying the asteroid for a loose boulder and suitable spot to land. After descending and capturing the boulder, the probe will take off, orbit the asteroid, and attempt to deflect its trajectory by conducting a “planetary defense demonstration.” As it sounds, such a maneuver is practice for if — rather, when — an inbound asteroid threatens Earth.
The spacecraft will eventually carry the boulder back to lunar orbit where it will rendezvous with the crewed stage of the mission. Astronauts will collect samples from the asteroid and return them to Earth for what the agency calls the biggest space haul of asteroid matter.
ARM is by no means NASA’s only asteroid exploration mission. Last week, the agency launched the $800 million OSIRIS-REx probe, which stands out as the first spacecraft specifically designed to collect and return asteroid material. If all goes as planned, the probe will return to Earth with its payload in September 2023.
Google has been finding more ways to make Gemini a part of your daily routine, from putting together playlists to ordering groceries through your favorite apps. Now it's expanding those capabilities to more services, with Google Search joining in, too.
The company has announced a new Connected Apps Platform that makes it easier for developers to bring their services to both Gemini and Search. Alongside this, Google is adding new partners to its growing lineup, bringing more of the apps people already use into its AI ecosystem.
In the broad context of AI and its perceived harms, health and medical risks often pop up in the conversation. The warnings even come from frontier AI labs, such as ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which have warned about misusing AI to cook up bioweapons. Security experts have already spotted a few such incidents in the wild, especially with the usage of AI models without any solid guardrails.
Well, it appears that the risks run deeper. As per an analysis appearing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), AI bots are now being deployed to influence public policies governing health risks to citizens. In this instance, an attempt was made using AI bots to thwart regulations that aim to restrict the sale of disposable vapes, all while disguising the manipulation efforts as a response from real humans.
What if checking your drinking water for dangerous chemicals were as simple as plugging a tiny gadget into your smartphone? Researchers in Japan have developed a compact sensor that could make that possible, potentially bringing sophisticated water contamination testing out of expensive laboratories and into people's hands.
Scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have created a portable device capable of detecting extremely low concentrations of PFAS, commonly known as "forever chemicals." The findings were published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics, which demonstrate how an inexpensive sensor and a smartphone could make identifying potentially harmful chemicals in water a lot easier.