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Could Martian concrete lay foundation for better 3D printing? – Daily Commercial News

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Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a Martian concrete made from materials found in abundance on the Red Planet.

The process of making and 3D printing structures could lead to astronauts living on Mars for up to a year and there’s hope their findings could impact construction on Earth.

PhD student Matthew Troemner, who is working with Gianluca Cusatis, a Northwestern University professor who pioneered the research, says NASA has been the inspiration behind the development of Marscrete.

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NASA’s Mars One strategy is to robotically construct a human settlement on Mars starting in 2025 with humans arriving five years later.

There are challenges, clearly. The Apollo Lunar Module sustained astronauts on the moon for only 75 hours, but the Martian habitat must last a full year. Marscrete combines regolith (Martian soil) and sulphur liquefied by heating to 120 C to 140 C and the viscous slurry is then mixed via a screw extruder.

According to documents submitted to NASA, the design calls for a “3D-printable inner spherical shell and outer parabolic dome and an interior layout with separate wet rooms (lab, kitchen, bathroom) and dry rooms (bedrooms, workstations) to limit the resources needed for construction. Two hatch openings directly across from each other allow habitat units to easily connect and foster community.”

The layout was inspired by the NASA-funded HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) project, a Mars flight crew training simulator.

JOEL WINTERMANTLE — Northwestern University Prof. Gianluca Cusatis announced in 2016 that the team had come up with a solution for creating a concrete-like construction material on Mars in response to NASA’s call for entrants. It is called Marscrete.

Cusatis announced in 2016 that they had come up with a solution for creating a concrete-like construction material on Mars in response to NASA’s call for entrants.

The initial formula used a simulated form of Martian soil created from Hawaiian volcanic ash by NASA for experimental purposes. Liquid molten sulphur, found in abundance on Mars, substitutes for water.

Sulphur concrete is already used on terra firm here on Earth and is a highly corrosion-resistant mix for nonstructural application but not so resilient to heat.

However, the initial testing found Marscrete is twice as strong as Earth sulphur-concrete mixes and, given the lower gravity on Mars, is more than suitable for sustainable structures while it also reacts to bond with the Martial sand.

“There’s no snow load on Mars of course,” says Troemner. “But there are intensive winds. However, the atmosphere is such that they are actually of lower intensity than here on Earth.”

One of the challenges, he says, has been to stiffen the mix so that it lays down with minimal slump, liquid enough to be 3D printed but stable enough to cure without shape shifting.

The idea is for a robotic arm, controlled by programming, to lay down a 2.5-by-2-inch tube of material, layer by layer, like toothpaste, allowing for details like access ports, until the structure is fully formed. While the external pressures aren’t overly problematic the interior pressure needs to be robust so the structure must be sound.

Since 2016, he says, the team has upped its game on the project and expanded their scope into a new formulation and is now designing the IT systems and remote robotic arm to effect 3D printing. Machines and materials would be sent first to remotely create structures and then humans would follow and test and use the structures.

After garnering interest from NASA the research slowed for lack of sponsorship and industry partnership, says Troemner. But around 2018 NASA launched more design challenges and the Northwestern team entered a virtual design for a structure and finished fifth out of a global field and a share of the $100,000 prize, the highest place of any other university.

“We were also competing against private companies with funds so we were thrilled,” he says.

With more interest came more partners and sponsors, he says, and soon Oracle, a massive IT company, was on board as were Chicago architects Skidmore Owings Merrill and others followed.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to produce a physical construction of a one-by-three-metre foundation because we’d been late getting started with the 3D,” he says, adding interest has also grown at the university with the team growing to two dozen students and faculty from several disciplines.

However, the concept and path to execution now have considerable traction while the mix is also advancing, now using material made from crushed Mohave desert boulders better approximating Martian sand which is primarily silica with aluminum oxide and other oxides.

Automation giant ABB is also on board now as the system required to 3D print structures on Mars takes shape.

To keep things safe, they’ve built a controlled environment where the prototype 1:3 scale robotics can operate remotely, sealed from humans because of the hot sulphur component. They’re pumping the molten sulphur and sand material separately and then mixing them at the nozzle for better mechanical logistics. They are now looking at adding one to three per cent polyethylene to the mix to provide more strength.

“NASA says that parts of the spacecraft can be repurposed on site,” says Troemner, adding that parts that may have foam packing materials or shields in the spacecraft can be shredded into fibres on site and added into the mix.

Shooting for the stars sounds esoteric, admits Troemner, but the immediate benefits of the learning from the research and investment could pay off on Earth first, making it a win-win.

“The backbone of all this research is for it being applicable on Earth,” he says, noting that large scale 3D printing of buildings has many applications and resolving issues such as the optimal size of aggregates that can be pumped and printed and how to insert conduits and rebar resolves many challenges.

“Sulphur concrete isn’t necessarily cost effective or environmentally friendly but for structures you need quickly, like for disaster relief or for the military to build temporary barracks, there are lots of options. It’s a matter of finding the right market.”

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Mar 30: An Australian Atlantis and other lost landscapes, and more… – CBC.ca

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Quirks and Quarks54:00An Australian Atlantis and other lost landscapes, and more…


On this week’s episode of Quirks & Quarks with Bob McDonald: 

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Archaeologists identify a medieval war-horse graveyard near Buckingham Palace 

Quirks and Quarks9:04Archaeologists identify a medieval war-horse graveyard near Buckingham Palace

We know knights in shining armour rode powerful horses, but remains of those horses are rare. Now, researchers studying equine remains from a site near Buckingham Palace have built a case, based on evidence from their bones, that these animals were likely used in jousting tournaments and battle. Archaeologist Katherine Kanne says the bone analysis also revealed a complex, continent-crossing medieval horse trading network that supplied the British elite with sturdy stallions. This paper was published in Science Advances.

University of Exeter researchers analyzed horse skeletons found near Buckingham Palace and conducted isotope tests on teeth to find out more about the animals’ origins. (University of Exeter)

In an ice-free Arctic, polar bears are dining on duck eggs — and gulls are taking advantage

Quirks and Quarks9:22In an ice-free Arctic, Polar bears are dining on duck eggs — and gulls are taking advantage

Researchers using drones to study ground-nesting birds in the Arctic have observed entire colonies being devastated by marauding polar bears that would normally be out on the ice hunting seals, except the ice isn’t there. What’s more, now they’re enabling a second predator — hungry gulls that raid the nests in the bears’ wake. Andrew Barnas made the observations of this “gull tornado” by following around polar bears in East Bay Island in Nunavut. The research was published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

Aerial video of a polar bear on grassy, rocky terrain with white birds circling nearby.
A polar bear storms eider duck nests on East Bay island in Nunavut, while herring gulls follow closely behind to snack on any remaining eggs. (Submitted by Andrew Barnas)

A NASA mission might have the tools to detect life on Europa from space

Quirks and Quarks8:05A NASA mission might have the tools to detect life on Europa from space

NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, due to launch this fall, is set to explore the jewel of our solar system: Jupiter’s moon, Europa. The mission’s focus is to determine if the icy moon, thought to harbour an ocean with more water than all of the water on Earth, is amenable to life. However, postdoctoral researcher Fabian Klenner, now at the University of Washington, demonstrated how the spacecraft may be able to detect fragments of bacterial life in a single grain of ice ejected from the surface of the moon. The study was published in the journal Science Advances.

The silhouette of the spacecraft is flying over a brightly pink, blue and orange tinted moon with lots of darker coloured veins underneath with a slightly eclipsed Jupiter looming in the backdrop.
Scientists think under Europa’s icy shell, there is a global, saltwater ocean with twice the volume of Earth’s oceans combined. (NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech)

Pollution is preventing pollinators from recognizing floral plants by scent

Quirks and Quarks7:50Pollution is preventing pollinators from finding plants by scent

Our polluted air is transforming floral scents so pollinators that spread their pollen can no longer recognize them. In a new study in the journal Science, researchers found that a certain compound in air pollution reacts with the flower’s scent molecules so pollinators — like the hummingbird hawk-moths that pollinate at night — fail to recognize them. Jeremy Chan, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Naples, said the change in scent made the flowers smell “less fruity and less fresh.”

A huge insect that looks like a hummingbird hovers over a vibrant pink flower with its long antenna inside one of the blooms.
Scientists found that a hummingbird hawk-moth’s ability to recognize the smell of flowers is hampered by air pollution. (Thomas Kienzle/AFP/Getty Images)

An Australian Atlantis and underwater archeological remains in the Baltic 

Quirks and Quarks17:14An Australian Atlantis and underwater archeological remains in the Baltic

During the last ice age, sea levels were more than 100 metres lower than they are today, which means vast tracts of what are currently coastal seafloor were dry land back then. Geologists and archaeologists are searching for these lost landscapes to identify places prehistoric humans might have occupied. These included a country-sized area of Australia that could have been home to half a million people. Archaeologist Kasih Norman and her colleagues published their study of this now-drowned landscape in Quaternary Science Reviews

Another example is an undersea wall off the coast of Northern Germany that preserves an underwater reindeer hunting ground, described in research led by Jacob Geersen, published in the journal PNAS.

a black-and-white depiction of a small group of caribou walking between a low stone wall and an ocean coastline.
An artist’s representation of caribou being directed by a hunters’ stone wall, as it would have appeared 8-11,000 years ago, before rising sea levels left it 20m below the surface of the Baltic Sea. (Michał Grabowski)

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Solar eclipse April 8 – South Grey News

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March 28, 2024

Graphic: Appalachian Mtn Club

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Grey Bruce Public Health is urging residents to resist the temptation to look directly at the sun during the upcoming solar eclipse and take steps to safeguard their visual health during this relatively rare celestial event.

On April 8, 2024, parts of southern and eastern Ontario will experience a total solar eclipse for the first time since 1925. Grey-Bruce will be outside of the so-called Path of Totality — a narrow area where the moon will completely block out the sun — but will still experience a partial eclipse.

The eclipse is expected to begin at about 2 pm and continue until 4:30 pm The eclipse will peak around 3:20 pm.

It is never safe to stare directly at the sun, but it may be tempting to do so during a solar eclipse.

Looking directly at the sun during an eclipse can cause retinal burns, blurred vision, and/or temporary or permanent loss of visual function, according to the Ontario Association of Optometrists. Damage to the eyes can occur without any sensation of pain.

Grey Bruce Public Health advises the following:

  • Do not look directly at the sun without proper eye protection during the solar eclipse. Looking at even a small sliver of the sun before or after the eclipse without proper eye protection can harm vision.
  • Keep a close eye on children and other vulnerable family members during the eclipse to ensure they do not inadvertently look up at the sun without proper eye protection.
  • To safely view the eclipse, ISO-certified eclipse glasses that meet the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard must be worn. Ensure these glasses are in good condition, without any wrinkles or scratches, and that they fully cover the entire field of vision. Put on the glasses when looking away from the sun, then look at the eclipse. Look away from the sun before taking the glasses off.
  • Regular sunglasses or homemade filters will not protect the eyes.
  • It is not safe to view the eclipse through a camera/phone lens, telescope, binoculars, or any other optical device.

Other ways to safely experience the solar eclipse include watching a livestream of the event or creating and using an eclipse box or pinhole projector.

Anyone experiencing temporary vision loss or blurred vision during or after the eclipse should speak with their eye care professional or healthcare provider as soon as possible.

Anyone experiencing blindness (immediate or delayed) after viewing the eclipse must seek emergency care immediately.

More information on the upcoming eclipse is available on the GBPH website.


At South Grey News, we endeavour to bring you truthful and factual, up-to-date local community news in a quick and easy-to-digest format that’s free of political bias. We believe this service is more important today than ever before, as social media has given rise to misinformation, largely unchecked by big corporations who put profits ahead of their responsibilities.

South Grey News does not have the resources of a big corporation. We are a small, locally owned-and-operated organization. Research, analysis and physical attendance at public meetings and community events requires considerable effort. But contributions from readers and advertisers, however big or small, go a long way to helping us deliver positive, open and honest journalism for this community.

Please consider supporting South Grey News with a donation in lieu of a subscription fee and let us know that our efforts are appreciated. Thank you.

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NASA to launch sounding rockets into moon's shadow during solar eclipse – Phys.org

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This photo shows the three APEP sounding rockets and the support team after successful assembly. The team lead, Aroh Barjatya, is at the top center, standing next to the guardrails on the second floor. Credit: NASA/Berit Bland

NASA will launch three sounding rockets during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, to study how Earth’s upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight momentarily dims over a portion of the planet.

The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) sounding rockets will launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to study the disturbances in the created when the moon eclipses the sun. The sounding rockets had been previously launched and successfully recovered from White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, during the October 2023 .

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They have been refurbished with new instrumentation and will be relaunched in April 2024. The mission is led by Aroh Barjatya, a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, where he directs the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab.

The sounding rockets will launch at three different times: 45 minutes before, during, and 45 minutes after the peak local eclipse. These intervals are important to collect data on how the sun’s sudden disappearance affects the ionosphere, creating disturbances that have the potential to interfere with our communications.

The ionosphere is a region of Earth’s atmosphere that is between 55 to 310 miles (90 to 500 kilometers) above the ground. “It’s an electrified region that reflects and refracts and also impacts as the signals pass through,” said Barjatya. “Understanding the ionosphere and developing models to help us predict disturbances is crucial to making sure our increasingly communication-dependent world operates smoothly.”

A sounding rocket is able to carry science instruments between 30 and 300 miles above Earth’s surface. These altitudes are typically too high for science balloons and too low for satellites to access safely, making sounding rockets the only platforms that can carry out direct measurements in these regions. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The ionosphere forms the boundary between Earth’s lower atmosphere—where we live and breathe—and the vacuum of space. It is made up of a sea of particles that become ionized, or electrically charged, from the sun’s energy or .

When night falls, the ionosphere thins out as previously ionized particles relax and recombine back into neutral particles. However, Earth’s terrestrial weather and space weather can impact these particles, making it a dynamic region and difficult to know what the ionosphere will be like at a given time.

It’s often difficult to study short-term changes in the ionosphere during an eclipse with satellites because they may not be at the right place or time to cross the eclipse path. Since the exact date and times of the are known, NASA can launch targeted sounding rockets to study the effects of the eclipse at the right time and at all altitudes of the ionosphere.

As the eclipse shadow races through the atmosphere, it creates a rapid, localized sunset that triggers large-scale atmospheric waves and small-scale disturbances or perturbations. These perturbations affect different radio communication frequencies. Gathering the data on these perturbations will help scientists validate and improve current models that help predict potential disturbances to our communications, especially high-frequency communication.

This conceptual animation is an example of what observers might expect to see during a total solar eclipse, like the one happening over the United States on April 8, 2024. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

The APEP rockets are expected to reach a maximum altitude of 260 miles (420 kilometers). Each rocket will measure charged and neutral particle density and surrounding electric and magnetic fields. “Each rocket will eject four secondary instruments the size of a two-liter soda bottle that also measure the same data points, so it’s similar to results from fifteen rockets while only launching three,” explained Barjatya. Embry-Riddle built three secondary instruments on each rocket, and the fourth one was built at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

In addition to the rockets, several teams across the U.S. will also be taking measurements of the ionosphere by various means. A team of students from Embry-Riddle will deploy a series of high-altitude balloons. Co-investigators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Haystack Observatory in Massachusetts and the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico will operate a variety of ground-based radars taking measurements.

Using this data, a team of scientists from Embry-Riddle and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory are refining existing models. Together, these various investigations will help provide the puzzle pieces needed to see the bigger picture of ionospheric dynamics.

The animation depicts the waves created by ionized particles during the 2017 total solar eclipse. Credit: MIT Haystack Observatory/Shun-rong Zhang. Zhang, S.-R., Erickson, P. J., Goncharenko, L. P., Coster, A. J., Rideout, W. & Vierinen, J. (2017). Ionospheric Bow Waves and Perturbations Induced by the 21 August 2017 Solar Eclipse. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(24), 12,067-12,073. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076054

When the APEP- launched during the 2023 annular solar eclipse, scientists saw a sharp reduction in the density of charged particles as the annular eclipse shadow passed over the atmosphere.

“We saw the perturbations capable of affecting radio communications in the second and third rockets, but not during the first rocket that was before peak local eclipse,” said Barjatya. “We are super excited to relaunch them during the total eclipse to see if the perturbations start at the same altitude and if their magnitude and scale remain the same.”

The next total solar eclipse over the contiguous U.S. is not until 2044, so these experiments are a rare opportunity for scientists to collect crucial data.

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NASA to launch sounding rockets into moon’s shadow during solar eclipse (2024, March 27)
retrieved 28 March 2024
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