Online Cortex Thoughts on Science and Technology

CLARAty (Coupled-Layer Architecture for Robotic Autonomy) is a framework for reusable robotics software. It was developed in part by my former colleagues at NASA Ames Research Center in collaboration with Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Minnesota (my alma matter).

They are in the process of making the framework and several modules publicly available. 

Videos of systems using CLARAty can be found here.
Presentations on CLARAty can be found here.
Publications can be found here.

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Posted under Computation, Exploration, Intelligent Systems, Robotics, Software, Solutions, Space, Technology

While much of Mars looks like the deserts of Utah, the Martian South Polar regions have revealed some surprising geology unlike anything we have here on Earth.

At the 2007 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco, Chris Okubo, Candace Hansen, and Timothy Titus who work with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Camera presented research suggesting that these intriguing structures are caused by explosions of subliming carbon dioxide.

The theory is that there is a layer of translucent Carbon Dioxide ice and when the surface is heated during the summer months, the ground beneath the ice heats up vaporizing the Carbon Dioxide gas.  This gas flows uphill and bursts out of weak spots in the ice.  This results in geysers which spew Carbon Dioxide gas and Martian dust into the atmosphere.  The gas refreezes and snows out forming the white material along the spider-shaped network of tunnels blown out by the subliming Carbon Dioxide.

This same process is believed to be responsible for similar more extensive landscapes called lacework and lizard skin.  It would be fascinating to see these from the ground.

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY 

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Posted under Astronomy, Exploration, Mars, Space

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was fortunate to be able to attend the Premier Showing of the documentary “In the Shadow of the Moon” and the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.  I had no idea what to expect, although the brochure mentioned joining the filmmakers and the astronauts.  It was unclear to me if they were referring to astronauts from the Shuttle missions, or if there would be astronauts from Apollo.

I went with Deniz Gencaga, and he spotted Buzz Aldrin almost immediately on arrival.  Accompanying Dr. Aldrin were Alan Bean (Apollo 12), Charlie Duke (Apollo 16), Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14), and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17). We were fortunate to get to meet and speak to each of these gentlemen… 5 out of 12 of the only humans to ever set foot on an alien world.

There was always a crowd surrounding Buzz Aldrin (picture above), and we didn’t spend a lot of time with him.  We did end up walking behind him down the hall of the Planetarium on the way to the theater.  I was impressed to see that Buzz was slowing down to take time to look at the fantastic photos of Mars, and Jupiter along the way.  I love to see people truly interested in discovering new things, and it was great to see that even a man who walked on the Moon is moved by photos of the surface of Mars.  I thought that he probably appreciates these images in a way that I never can.

We spend quite a bit of time talking to Alan Bean, who was extremely friendly.  I thanked each of these gentlemen for the inspiration they gave me when I was young, and Alan asked what I did.  I told him about my time as a Research Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, and that I am today a physics professor at the University at Albany—still doing NASA-funded research.  I found out that he is an artist, and has a website with paintings of various moments and events, real and imagined, on the Moon.  These paintings are excellent and I urge you to take a look. 

Harrison Schmitt and his wife Teresa were extremely kind to us.  We spent some time talking with Harrison, and I told him about our research to look for organic molecules in space.  Teresa then asked if we had a camera and if we would like a picture taken with Harrison.  I had brought my camera, but didn’t want to impose on these people who I was honored to meet.  I excitedly agreed.  Below is the photo Teresa Schmitt took of Deniz and me. 
Thank you!!!

I tried to find Harrison Schmitt later, since I wanted to ask what the Valley of Taurus Littrow looked like.  This is an extremely deep valley, but I can never quite make it out its depth and scale on the Apollo images.  Unfortunately, I did not find him.

We spent some time listening to Charlie Duke give an interview.  He told a story about the only moment that he was actually afraid during the mission.  Apollo 16 flew in 1972 during the summer olympics.  Charlie decided that he would try for the high jump record, and he jumped high off the lunar surface.  However, he fell backwards, and at that moment he feared (rightfully so) that this jump would end up killing him.   Fortunately it didn’t!

Last, we met Edgar Mitchell.  However, he had realized that he had lost his wife.  We couldn’t help him with that, so we said goodbye and wished him luck.

It was a fantastic experience, and I was extremely pleased to see that after all these years of attention, these gentlemen were as friendly and as open as ever.  I would again like to thank them all for their efforts, sacrifice, bravery and most of all the inspiration that they gave a generation of boys and girls.

It is too bad that the children of today do not have heroes of this magnitude to look up to.  It has been so long since we have had true heroes, that it seems we have forgotten what being a hero means and have replaced the concept of Hero with that of Celebrity.  Sad.

I did have one funny moment where I was looking for someone to take a photo of Deniz and me in front of a mural depicting the lunar landscape.  I saw a man walking along with his son, and I started to ask him to take a photo of us.  All I said was “Excus…” when I realized that I recognized him.   I paused to consider, and then I realized that it was Stephen Colbert!  I never did ask him, although now I wish I’d had.

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Posted under Astronomy, Exploration, Space

I had the great fortune last night to attend the premiere showing of the new documentary “In the Shadow of the Moon“.  This film won Best Documentary Award at the Sundance Film Fetsival, and I must say that it was truly inspirational!  It is a fantastic film that documents the Apollo missions to the Moon by interweaving footage from the Apollo missions with recent interviews with the astronauts who flew in those missions.  To hear them recount their experiences was utterly fascinating, and to be privvy to their insights and thoughts on the mission after almost forty years is invaluable.  The Apollo Program was an heroic act of almost unfathomable importance, and unfortunately we are perhaps still too close to the event to truly appreciate the effort, innovation, brilliance, foresight, bravery, and sacrifice of those individuals involved.

I felt that the star of the show was Michael Collins.  On camera he is extremely charismatic and personable, and his intelligence and wit are both refreshing.  If I could choose one astronaut to accompany me to the Moon, it would be Michael Collins.  I believe that it was Michael Collins who noted that during their world travels to celebrate their accomplishment, people all over the world would declare “We did it!”.  This is a unity that is unprecidented, despite the fact (as Michael Collins notes) that it was ephemeral.  I marvel at how science and exploration can unite humanity in ways in which no other human endeavors can.

I had not realized that the astronauts played major roles in the design of their spacecraft.  This is in stark contrast to the way NASA operates today where contractors are paid to design the spacecraft and equipment. 

In addition, at Mission Control in Houston, only astronauts were allowed to talk to the astronauts.  For instance, Charlie Duke (Apollo 16 Lunar Module Pilot) served as capcom during the historic Apollo 11 mission.

I was amused by the fact that Buzz Aldrin‘s obsession with rendezvous led to his being nicknamed Dr. Rendezvous.  It was, in fact, his Ph.D. research in orbital dynamics and rendezvous that made these missions possible.  I was also impressed by his statement that once you have walked on the Moon, you will forever be a man who walked on the Moon.  This is an enormous image to live up to, and these men have had to spend their entire lives continuing to live up to this image.

I highly recommend seeing this film.

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Posted under Astronomy, Exploration, Space

Now THAT is a volcano!
The New Horizons spacecraft images an eruption of the volcano Tvashtar on Jupiter’s moon Io.

New Horizons is on its way to Pluto and is currently performing a gravity assist from Jupiter to slingshot it out to the outer solar system.  As it is passing by, it is imaging and collecting data from Jupiter and its moons.  Jupiter’s moon Io is the innermost of the Gallilean moons (discovered by Galileo Galilei and Simon Marius in 1610) with a diameter of a little over 1000 miles.  The surface gravity is weak (between 1/5 and 1/6 of that of Earth’s) only a little more than our Moon’s surface gravity.  For this reason, when a volcano erupts, it ERUPTS!!!  In this picture the plume is maybe 100 miles high!

Jupiter’s strong magnetic field rips these sulphurous vapors off of Io at a rate of about 1 ton per second forming a torus of material orbiting Jupiter.  Io acts as an electrical generator as it moves through Jupiter’s magnetic field creating a potential difference of about 400,000 Volts causing a current of about 3 million Amperes of current flowing through Io’s ionosphere.

Io is tidal-locked to Jupiter keeping its same face toward Jupiter as it orbits, much like our Moon is tidal-locked to Earth.  However, Jupiter’s other moons cause Io to wobble creating tidal forces stretching Io by about 100 meters (compared with the strongest tides on Earth that raise the water levels a little over 10 meters).  These tidal forces result in heating of Io creating hot spots at temperatures of 3000 degrees Fahrenheit compared to the -225 degree surface temperature in places where this heating does not occur.  Thus Io is covered with volcanoes.

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Posted under Astronomy, Exploration, Space