After a month at the International Space Station, the SpaceX Dragon capsule has returned to Earth with nearly two tons of cargo aboard. The payload includes 20 live mouse astronauts, part of a NASA study examining biological changes in blood vessels and eyes caused by the zero-gravity environment of space.
The Dragon capsule was launched back in August with more than three tons of supplies for the International Space Station, including the Hewlett Packard Spaceborn Computer that may someday help humans reach Mars. In addition to the live mice, the delivery also included a special treat for the space station astronauts.
The mice are part of NASA’s Rodent Research-9 study, enacted to find ways to help humans cope with the effects of a zero-gravity environment. The study may also help arthritis sufferers back here on Earth.
.@Astro_Paolo and @AstroKomrade released @SpaceX #Dragon with Canadarm2 at 4:40am ET today for return to Earth. https://t.co/5rHQlLLgWo pic.twitter.com/PhQkutEWdN
— International Space Station (@Space_Station) September 17, 2017
Live Science reports that scientific experiments onboard include lung tissue that was grown in space and protein crystals created in microgravity that may help combat Parkinson’s disease. The Michael J. Fox Foundation is supporting the research, helping scientists design optimized therapies to find a cure for the disease.
The Dragon capsule from SpaceX is currently the only vehicle capable of ferrying cargo to and from the ISS (when the rocket doesn’t blow up during launch, that is). Russia’s Progress and Cygnus spacecraft can deliver supplies, but both capsules are designed to burn up during reentry into the atmosphere. The Soyuz can bring human astronauts to and from the ISS, although there’s not much room for cargo onboard.
This was the 12th cargo mission for the SpaceX Dragon program, and it’s also the last time SpaceX plans to use a brand-new capsule for the assignment. From now on, the company plans to launch used and refurbished capsules for future missions. They may be facing some competition soon however, as Boeing’s Starliner space capsule is poised to begin providing transportation service into space.
After their month-long excursion in space, the 20 intrepid mouse astronauts don’t have much to look forward to. After splashing down in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Long Beach, California, the mice will be flown to the lab where they’ll be euthanized and dissected for research.
San Francisco startup Dimensional advertised for people to walk robot dogs through city streets. The New York Times reported that the job could include carrying a roughly 33-pound robot back to the office if it overheated. A lift home is an awkward requirement for a labor-saving machine.
Keeping the hardware running is only one challenge. Anthropic's robotics tests found that language models mostly failed when controlling joints directly, but did better when directing trained controllers. Giving an AI agent a body doesn't teach it to handle ordinary household objects.
Soon, a mattress protector may be more than a bed cover. Australian medtech company Sleeptite and researchers at RMIT University have received a US patent for FlexiSense, a smart bedding technology that tracks body position and posture to help caregivers identify when older residents may be at risk of falling.
The technology is being developed for Sleeptite’s in-bed monitoring system, REMi, and was recently on display at The MedTech Conference in Boston. A peer-reviewed study in Flexible and Printed Electronics says the sensors can also be made at scale without sacrificing performance or durability.
AI companies spend enormous amounts of time convincing us their technology is safe and secure. But what happens when those same companies become targets of increasingly sophisticated AI-powered attacks? Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is now facing that question. According to a Washington Post report, cybersecurity startup Cathedral discovered vulnerabilities that let its researchers access sensitive information in Anthropic's internal systems.
The researchers used AI agents to identify potential entry points in less than 12 hours. Interestingly, they didn't need to crack Claude itself. Instead, they exploited weaknesses in third-party business applications that Anthropic uses for everyday operations. Anthropic's security testing program disclosed the findings, which allows outside researchers to identify and report vulnerabilities.