.By  Fabienne Lang

There will soon be dogs roaming around on Mars. Well, robot dogs.

NASA/JPL Caltech scientists are working on “Mars Dogs,” which are robot dogs set to autonomously navigate the Red Planet’s rough terrain and underground caves, as was first reported by Live Science.

The team presented its plan virtually on December 14 at the annual American Geophysical Union (AGU). 

These Mars Dogs will operate much in the same way as the rovers Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance, but will be able to do much more.

These new four-legged robots will be more agile and will come equipped with sensors informing them when obstacles come in the way, will be able to select specific paths, and create virtual maps of underground tunnels and caves, said the scientists.

These robotic dogs will be able to get back up if they fall down on Mars’ tricky terrain — something current rovers aren’t able to do. 

Looks like dogs will still be man’s best friend on a different planet. 

Continue reading… “NASA Wants to Send Robot Dogs to Roam Mars”

By Deepak Sharma

The project intends to use graphene-based bio-medical sensors in integration with existing diagnostic tools or other portable electronic devices such as smartphones to enable real-time and portable disease detection.

Sparc Technologies Ltd (ASX:SPN) has established a new graphene bio-medical division aimed at developing non-invasive graphene-based breath sensing devices for detection of diseases in humans and animals.

Sparc will advance the project together with cornerstone shareholder, strategic partner and leading graphene research centre the University of Adelaide (UA) in order to seek to establish and develop non-invasive sensing devices for human and veterinarian applications.

The focus of the project will be research into graphene-based sensing devices for the detection of a selection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in exhaled breath that are understood to be indicators of disease.

Continue reading… “Sparc sets up graphene sensor project to detect human and animal diseases”

DAN ROBITZSKI

But don’t worry — the company says it can’t see inside your home.

A few months ago, a company called Capella Space launched a satellite capable of taking clear radar images of anywhere in the world, with incredible resolution. It can even see inside some buildings, including spotting airplanes inside hangars — though only in the case of lightweight structures, the company clarified, and not dense ones like high rises or residential homes.

And unlike most of the huge array of surveillance and observational satellites orbiting the Earth, its satellite Capella 2 can snap a clear picture during night or day, rain or shine.

“It turns out that half of the world is in nighttime, and half of the world, on average, is cloudy,” CEO Payam Banazadeh, a former system engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Futurism. “When you combine those two together, about 75 percent of Earth, at any given time, is going to be cloudy, nighttime, or it’s going to be both. It’s invisible to you, and that portion is moving around.”

On Wednesday, Capella launched a platform allowing governmental or private customers to request images of anything in the world — a capability that will only get more powerful with the deployment of six additional satellites next year. Is that creepy from a privacy point of view? Sure. But Banazadeh says that it also plugs numerous holes in the ways scientists and government agencies are currently able to monitor the planet.

Continue reading… “A New Satellite Can Peer Inside Some Buildings, Day or Night”

Fred Lambert 

Volvo Group’s construction equipment division announced that it began deliveries of its first electric construction machinery to customers.

It’s an important step toward electrifying construction machinery.

It’s not just passenger vehicles that are getting electrified. Many other industries are also looking at advancements in batteries and electric powertrains and starting to see how it could benefit them.

Wouldn’t it be nice to reduce emissions and noise pollution and cut down on fuel costs at construction sites? Electric machinery can do that.

Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) has been early in pushing for the electrification of construction equipment.

In 2018, we reported on the company unveiling several new electric prototypes for an all-electric quarry project.

Last year, they announced that they will stop development of diesel engine-based compact wheel loaders and compact excavators in order to sell electric versions instead.

Today, they are announcing that they started deliveries of their electric construction equipment to actual customers.

Continue reading… “Volvo begins deliveries of its electric construction machinery”