Online Cortex Thoughts on Science and Technology

On Thursday October 16th at 7pm PST, JPL will host a webcast of a lecture on the new Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Rover. This webcast will require RealPlayer—the free RealPlayer 8 Basic can be downloaded from RealPlayer.
More info can be found here at JPL.

This talk is part of the JPL von Kármán Lecture Series.
Here is the Summary from the JPL Website:

New Wheels on Mars: The Mars Science Laboratory
Dr. Richard Cook
Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager

Building on the success of the two rover geologists that arrived at Mars in January, 2004, NASA’s next rover mission will depart for the Red Planet in 2009. Twice as long and five times as heavy as the Mars Exploration Rovers, the Mars Science Laboratory will collect Martian soil and rock samples and analyze them for organic compounds and minerals which demonstrate that Mars can or did support life. This sophisticated science laboratory will be delivered to the Martian surface using an innovative new landing system. The spacecraft will start by steering itself through the Martian atmosphere in a fashion similar to the way the Apollo entry capsule controlled its entry through Earth’s upper atmosphere. This approach will allow the spacecraft to fly to a desired location above the surface of Mars before deploying its parachute for the final landing. Then, in the final minutes before touchdown, the spacecraft will activate its parachute and retro rockets before lowering the rover package to the surface on a tether.

If you are local, you may be able to attend the talk:

Thursday, October 16, 2008, 7p.m.
The von Kármán Auditorium at JPL
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA
+Directions

Friday, October 17, 2008, 7p.m.
The Vosloh Forum at Pasadena City College
1570 East Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA
+Directions

Posted under Astrobiology, Exploration, Mars, Research, Robotics, Space, Technology

I have just launched a new blog that focuses entirely on advances in robotics.

This blog will provide information about research-quality advances and links to the more technical aspects, such as journal papers, computer code, and other resources.

Please visit Robots Everywhere!

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

Posted under Exploration, Intelligent Systems, Research, Robotics

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured for the first time ever an avalanche in progress on another world! 

These images were taken with the Hi Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) flying on the MRO.  This image was taken at 34° latitude and 235.8° longitude, which is in Mars’ north polar region. The geology of this region is that of a layered dome of material, and this cliff is located at the edge of it. The cliff is about one half of a mile high! (70 m = 2300 ft) and is incredibly steep with slopes as great as 60°.  The cloud of dust is about 590 feet across and extends about 625 feet from the base of the cliff.

This image was taken on February 18, 2008 at 1:05pm Martian local time. In the northern hemisphere of Mars, spring began on December 10, 2007, and the Carbon Dioxide ice (seen in the left side of the image at the top of the cliff) is beginning to thaw in the spring “heat”.  The Carbon Dioxide ice does not melt, instead it sublimes (turning from a solid to a gas).   As it does sediments and ice in these steep cliffs give way to avalanches. 

The scientists have been watching these particular locations with the hope of catching one in action.  They have succeeded!

Here you can compare before (PSP_007140_2640) and after (PSP_007338_2640) photos.

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

Posted under Astronomy, Exploration, Mars, Space

BigThink.com is a new website that is the YouTube of people’s opinions.  They have topics of conversation along with videos of experts and viewers providing their opinions.

This is potentially an exciting new medium for the exchanging of ideas.  However, in a world where we have come to believe that everyone’s opinion is somehow worthwhile, this could also be a disaster.  They have imposed some structure which will most likely avert the problems I anticipate here (with only 5 minutes of thought).

BigThink.com has experts providing their opinions along with a set of unanswered questions.  It will be very interesting to see how this progresses—especially in the areas of hot debate.

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

Posted under Fun, General, Information, Internet

What good is a cortex if it doesn’t dream a little?

I have been thinking about Ariel Caticha and Carlo Cafaro’s derivation of Newton’s Second Law from probability theory (http://arxiv.org/abs/0710.1071).  In this derivation, they assume three things:

1. There exist basic entities called particles
2. There is an intrinsic uncertainty about a particle’s position
3. There is change… not time necessarily, but change.

The first thing I like about this derivation is the fact that distance in space derives from distances between probability distributions describing particles at two positions.  Distance comes from the Kullback-Leibler Divergence, and leads directly to the Pythagorean Theorem.  More on that in another post… 

The derivation results in an expression describing an interaction between two particles and this results in changes in position which, when parameterized, leads to F = ma. 

The mass turns out to be related to the uncertainty in the position of the particle.  The more uncertain one is about a particle’s position, the more difficult it is to accelerate it (change its change in position).

uncertainty in position^2 = 1/mass

This is quite satisfying as it is reminiscent of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.

But what implications does this picture hold?
First, it gives us another viewpoint of mass.  Multiple equivalent viewpoints always leads to constraints.  These constraints can be used to figure out how things work… or at the very least to rule out possibilities.
(see my earlier post on E8 to get another picture of mass)

Well, photons have no mass.
So there is infinite uncertainty associated with the position of a photon.  In fact, I am not sure photons “travel”.  I prefer to imagine that they just “are”.  One way to imagine photons might be to see them as lines connecting two particles in spacetime.  The photon is spread out across space.

So now comes the important question.  Given this probabilistic picture, what can we learn about mass?  Do we need a Higg’s boson?  I would think not.  Except, today I spoke with Ariel, and the way that the Higgs imbues mass is by having the particles scatter off of it.  The more the particles scatter, the less certain we are of their position… and the more mass the particle has.  Maybe this is where the Zitterbewegung originates.  And maybe the Higgs boson is just a reflection of an intrinsic uncertainty.

Instead, I imagine that as these ideas are refined to describe more than Newtonian mechanics, and include spin, charge and flavor, a relationship between the particles and their masses would emerge naturally. 

Again, these are raw thoughts… not even half-baked… and should be treated as such.  My grandma always said that eating raw dough will give you worms. 
Just think what thinking raw thoughts might do!!!

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

Posted under Philosophy, Physics, Probability, Research