Future Olympic Tech & Fast Cheetahs | SciByte 58

We take a look at the possibilities for future Olympic technology, land speed records not at the olympics, discoveries from Flickr, spacecraft updates, Curiosity update and as always take a peek back into history and up in the sky this week.

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Show Notes

A horse is a horse

• The low down
• The first successfully cloned horse was born in 2003
• Today, there are only a few hundred equine clones, created mainly for breeding
• In 2007 the FEI’s general assembly decided that cloning was "potentially against the spirit of sport in that it was unfair
• Significance
• July 2012 the Féderation Equestre Internationale (FEI) lifted a ban on cloned horses and their progeny competing in the Olympic Games
• The FEI has been careful to emphasize that cloning is a breeding technique only
• A key factor in the decision was the high price of cloning, which has since come down
• The federation determined that the clones were only 98 percent copies of the originals, the 2 percent margin was what ultimately caused the FEI to overturn the ban
• Currently the American Quarter Horse Association won’t allow clones, neither does the Jockey Club, which registers thoroughbreds in North America
• A key factor in the decision was the high price of cloning, which has since come down
• The federation determined that the clones were only 98 percent copies of the originals, the 2 percent margin was what ultimately caused the FEI to overturn the ban
• Currently the American Quarter Horse Association won’t allow clones, neither does the Jockey Club, which registers thoroughbreds in North America
• A top stallion for in vitro fertilization can go for tens of thousands of dollars
• The cloning process can cost more than a hundred thousand U.S. dollars, and there are no guarantees that the clone will match the talent of the original
• The most common use for cloned horses is to perpetuate genetic material, while the original horse can travel and compete
• Most male horses in high-level competitions are geldings and a mare can bear only so many foals
• Of Note
• In the end only 300-odd horses compete in the Olympics, and clones would have to battle their way to the top just as traditionally bred horses do.
• Needless of any cloning ruling it is widely agreed that environment, training, nutrition, and relationship with the rider have an incalculable impact on the horse’s performance
• Multimedia
• IMAGE Prometea the world’s first cloned horse with her mother in 2003 | National Geographic, Photograph by Giovanna Lazzara, AP
• Further Reading / In the News
• Cloned Horses Coming to the Olympics? | National Geographic

— NEWS BYTE —

Possible Olympic tech for the future

_{Credit: John MacNeill | Credit: John MacNeill}

• Holographic Obstacles
• In Olympic equestrian events 100 riders are injured in eventing falls every year, and when a multi million-dollar horse goes down, even a minor injury like a twisted ankle can end its career
• Line-of-sight infrared beams could monitor the edges of the obstacles; if the horse breaks the beam, the system would instantly alert the judges, and the crowd, to the fault
• Smart Landing Pads
• Scoring the exact length of a long or triple jump can be imprecise and time-consuming when landing in a sand pit
• Researchers at Arizona State University have developed a 2,016-pressure-sensor array to map where an athlete hits the ground
• Underneath the sand in the landing pit, a dozen or so of the mats could record the exact point of touchdown where computer could automatically calculate the length of the jump
• Head-up Goggles
• During events swimmers are not able to see where they stand in the event
• With an integrated head-up display could broadcast a live view of the competition and help racers to better pace themselves
• Automatic Goalkeeper
• German researchers have developed an automated goal-tracking system for american soccer (football)
• Actuators around the net generate a magnetic field across the face of the goal.
• When the ball passes through that field, a chip embedded in the ball sends a signal to the ref’s watch within one tenth of a second.
• Retractable Diving Board
• On a good day, a diver’s head misses the board by a couple of inches
• In the one second a typical diver is airborne above the plane of the board, it could retract as much as three feet
• Multimedia
• IMAGE | PopSci.com Credit :John MacNeill
• Further Reading / In the News
• Summer Olympics: 2020 – How technology is going to make the 2020 Olympics better, safer, and more exciting | PopSci.com

Land speed record

_{YouTube channel : NationalGeographic | Credit: Ken Geiger, National Geographic}

• The low down
• At the Cincinnati Zoo five cheetahs each complete several sprints a day, bolting out of the back of one of the zoo’s vans and chasing fluffy toy dogs as they were pulled across a meadow on a high-speed cord.
• They used to long sprints regularly running for zoo crowds on a USA Track & Field-certified course
• It’s not only good for the individual cats, who get much-needed exercise, but good for the species as well
• The zoo’s track-star cheetahs have helped raise over a million U.S. dollars for conservation
• Significance
• Olympian Usain Bolt’s made a new world record of 9.58 seconds in a standing 100-meter dash
• On June 20, Sarah an 11-year-old cheetah was radar-timed at up to 61 miles (98 kilometers) an hour in a standing 100-meter dash
• The June 20 sprint is the fastest timed 100 meters ever run by anything on the planet
• Of Note
• Even though this record was broken almost certain that cheetahs in the wild—lean, hungry, chasing down antelopes for their own survival or that of their cubs – have run considerably faster.
• Multimedia
• YouTube Cincinnati Zoo Cheetah Sets New World Speed Record in 100 Meter Run | CincinnatiZooTube
• YouTube Cincinnati Zoo Cheetah Sets New World Speed Record in 100 Meter Run | NationalGeographic
• Social Media
• Cincinnati Zoo @CincinnatiZoo
• Further Reading / In the News
• Cincinnati Zoo
• Cheetah Breaks Speed Record—Beats Usain Bolt by Seconds | news.NationalGeographic.com

— TWO-BYTE NEWS —

New species on Flickr

• The low down
• While randomly flipping through images posted on the online database an entomologist spotted a previously unknown species of lacewing
• The new lacewing, which has a 30-millimeter wingspan, were taken in a forested park north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by an amateur photographer and then posted online
• The entomologist suspected the creature was an undescribed species; however, the the photographer had released the insect after taking its picture
• Researchers had to wait until the shutterbug revisited the area and collected a specimen before they could officially write up their discovery
• Multimedia
• IMAGE New Lacewings species, Semachrysa jade | Credit: Guek Hock Ping
• Further Reading / In the News
• ScienceShot: New Species Discovered, Thanks to Flickr | https://news.sciencemag.org

– SPACECRAFT UPDATE –

Slowly but surely inch by inch Voyager 1 eyes the edge of the Solar System

• Last time on SciByte
• Habitable Planets & Chimps | SciByte 24 – Voyager 1 – Update [December 7, 2011]
• Talking Robots & Voyager 1 | SciByte 51 – Voyager 1 takes one step closer to interstellar space [June 19, 2012]
• The low down
• Researchers are eyeing three key parameters for signs that Voyager 1, which launched in 1977, has escaped into interstellar space
• Two of these three parameters are now changing faster than at any other time in the last seven years
• A single day (July 28), the probe measured a 5-percent jump in the level of high-energy cosmic rays coming from outside our solar system, researchers
• The last 5-percent increase Voyager 1 observed took place over a full week in May
• Three days later, however, both measurements had returned to near their previous levels
• Further Reading / In the News
• Signs Changing Fast for Voyager at Solar System Edge | NASA.gov
• Voyager 1 Spacecraft Zooms Ever Closer to Solar System’s Edge | Space.com
• Winds of Change at the Edge of the Solar System | UniverseToday.com
• Signs changing fast for Voyager at solar system edge | Phys.org

Morpheus setback

• The low down
• The Morpheus project is what one former project manager called ““Home Depot engineering”
• They are designed as low-budget projects using off-the-shelf parts to build something very quickly that gets 80 percent of the answer and allows the project to keep moving forward
• These type of projects partner with non-traditional aerospace companies
• Significance
• The Morpheus is designed to deliver about 1,100 pounds (500 kg) of cargo to the moon, burn liquid oxygen and methane fuel
• Designed and built by engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the insect-like vehicle, had previously made several flights attached to a crane before the attempted free-flight on August 9, 2012
• The engines, appeared to ignite as planned, lifting the vehicle into the air. But a few seconds later, Morpheus rolled over on its side and plummeted to the ground.
• Of Note
• An investigation is currently underway to determine the cause
• Multimedia
• YouTube Morpheus Landing Explodes on First KSC Free Flight Test | SpaceVidsNet
• Social Media
• Morpheus Lander @MorpheusLander
• Further Reading / In the News
• Project Morpheus
• Morpheus Lander Crashes and Burns | UniverseToday.com
• NASA’s Morpheus lander in fiery crash at Cape Canaveral | Reuters.com

– CURIOSITY UPDATE –

Curiosity Rover Update

_{Credit: JPLnews | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech}

• Last time on SciByte
• Curiosity Rover & Interview with Dr. Robert Zubrin | SciByte 57 – Curiosity Rover [August 7, 2012]
• Mayan Calendar & Cancer Research | SciByte 46 – Curiosity Rover [May 15, 2012]
• Mayan Calendar & Cancer Research | SciByte 46 – Curiosity Rover [May 15, 2012]
• Sub Glacial Lakes & Updates | SciByte 33 – The future of space [February 14, 2012]
• Spacecraft Updates | SciByte 23 – NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity” Rover : Updates and more [November 30, 2011]
• Curiosity Rover | SciByte 22 – Launching This Week : NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity” Rover [November 22, 2011]
• Landing accuracy
• The rover touched down about one-and-a-half miles (2.4 kilometers) from the point it was targeting
• Zeroing in on Rover’s Landing Site | mars.jpl.nasa.gov/
• **Curiosity’s Location
• Curiosity Cradled by Gale Crater | mars.jpl.nasa.gov
• A Whole New World for Curiosity | mars.jpl.nasa.gov
• Sky crane crash caught on film?
• An image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been annotated to show the relative positions between NASA’s Curiosity rover and the impact site of its sky crane, or descent stage.
• This image was used to determine whether the rover was pointed in the right direction to have captured an image of the plume from the crash of the descent stage
• Witnessing the Descent Stage Crash?
• Inspecting Curiosity’s Descent Stage Crash Site | mars.jpl.nasa.gov/
• All the colorful images
• Previous rovers, like Spirit and Opportunity took color images by combining black & white images taken through colored filters
• Curiosity’s Mastcam takes color pictures in the exact same manner that consumer cameras acquire color images.
• The color images we receive are what a cell phone or camcorder would record
• First High-Resolution Color Mosaic of Curiosity’s Mastcam Images | Mars.JPL.NASA.gov
• White Balancing
• Scientists can re-balance the colors of an image to better represent how the terrain colors would look on Earth
• Exposed by Rocket Engine Blasts (Color) / White-Balanced | mars.jpl.nasa.go
• A look at the landing area
• An area excavated by the blast of the Mars Science Laboratory’s descent stage rocket engines shows details of the underlying materials
• Of particular note is a well-defined, topmost layer that contains fragments of rock embedded in a matrix of finer material.
• Exposed by Rocket Engine Blasts | mars.jpl.nasa.gov/
• Landings on Mars have become more and more precise over the years
• Landing Accuracy on Mars: A Historical Perspective | mars.jpl.nasa.gov/
• Software Update
• The software update will occur during a series of steps Aug. 10 through Aug. 13, and will install a new version of software on both of the rover’s redundant main computers
• The rovers software was made to be upgraded as needed for the different phases of the mission
• The new software versions key capability is image processing to check for obstacles
• The software update completed without any complications Aug 14
• Drivers License
• There are plans to test the steering actuators on Sol 13
• Engineers are hoping drive forward a couple of meters, and then maybe turn and back up
• Multimedia
• YouTube Mars Curiosity Rover Report (Aug.10, 2012) | JPLnews
• Image Galleries
• Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover | JPL.NASA.gov
• Jet Propulsion Laboratoty Photojournal
• Social Media
• Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
• Further Reading / In the News
• Mars Rover Curiosity Survives ‘Brain Surgery,’ Set for 1st Drive | Space.com
• First High-Resolution Color Mosaic of Curiosity’s Mastcam Images | Mars.JPL.NASA.gov
• This Week in the Future, August 6–10, 2012 | PopSci.com
• Photo mystery solved? Mars rover snapped pic of rocket stage crash, NASA says | Phys.org
• Curiosity Mars rover installing smarts for driving | Phys.org
• Mystery Cloud in Mars Rover Landing Photo Solved | Space.com
• NASA Primes Mars Rover Curiosity for Software Upgrade | Space.com
• First High-Resolution Color Mosaic of Curiosity’s Mastcam Images | NASA.gov

SCIENCE CALENDAR

Looking back

• Aug 19, 1887 : 125 years ago : Eclipse by baloon : Mendeleeff observes eclipse | Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834–1907) used a balloon to ascend above the cloud cover to an altitude of 11,500 feet (3.5 km) to observe an eclipse in Russia. He made the solo ascent above Klin without any prior experience. While his family was rather concerned, he paid no attention to controlling the balloon until after he had completed his observations, at which time he worked out how to land it. Mendeleev is the Russian chemist known for the ordering of the Periodic Table of the Elements. Yet, he was interested in many fields of science. He studied problems associated with Russia’s natural resources, such as coal, salt, metals, and the petroleum industry. In 1876, he visited the U.S. to observe the Pennsylvania oil fields.

Looking up this week

• Did you see …

• Perseid Meteor shower

• Keep an eye out for …

• Wednesday | Aug 15 | Around Twilight | In the West you can see Spica, Mars and Saturn again if you missed it earlier this week. Spica is the highest point, Saturn is to the right, and Mars is the nearest the horizon

• Thursday | Aug 16 | First light of Dawn | Orion is starting to come up in the east-southeast, to the right of Venus

• Friday | Aug 17 | Early morning | Mars, Saturn and Spica are again visible

• Friday | Aug 17 | New Moon

• Venus and Jupiter | Dawn | In the east before and during dawn

• Further Reading and Resources

• Weekly SkyWatcher’s Forecast: August 13–19, 2012 | UniverseToday.com

• Sky&Telescope

• SpaceWeather.com

• StarDate.org

• For the Southern hemisphere: SpaceInfo.com.au

• Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere : astronomyonline.org

• Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand : rasnz.org.nz

• AstronomyNow

• HeavensAbove