May 20, 2022 05:33 PM
(This post was last modified: May 21, 2022 05:31 PM by C C.)
NASA suspends ISS spacewalks because its spacesuits are leaking water
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-spacesuits-leak...1848949499
EXCERPTS: It might be time for NASA to ditch its aging ISS spacesuits. The space agency announced a pause to all its spacewalks until it has a better handle on a lingering and frightening issue that’s causing water to leak inside of astronauts’ helmets.
The latest incident happened during an extravehicular activity (EVA) in March, but this isn’t the first time a helmet has filled up with water during a spacewalk—a potentially life-threatening scenario for astronauts. NASA has raised concerns that the aging spacesuits on board the ISS might not be usable anymore and that it may be time to swap them out for a newer model currently in development. The spacesuits that NASA uses now are more than 40 years old, and the agency seems to be running out of fully functional space suits; only 18 usable units are available on the ISS, according to a 2017 report.
[...] The suits can only be properly examined by engineers on Earth, so the agency is planning on sending them back during the upcoming SpaceX cargo Dragon mission in early June. Until then, NASA will consider the risk of conducting a spacewalk as opposed to the risk of ignoring a potential repair that might need to be done on the space station exterior. “We’ll have to look at risk versus risk,” Weigel said during the briefing... (MORE - missing details)
Ancient technology that was centuries ahead of its time
https://bigthink.com/the-past/examples-a...echnology/
INTRO: We like to think of technological innovation as a gradual, steady, and fairly linear process. However, this is not necessarily the case. Archaeological excavations throughout the world reveal that, once in a while, ancient civilizations developed inventions that were decades if not centuries ahead of their time.
It is sometimes said that these inventions rival or outmatch modern science. This, too, is a misconception. While many ancient super technologies — from Roman concrete to Damascus steel — were once lost, they have since been recreated by present-day researchers. Usually, any difficulty in recreating them stems from the lack of original instruction rather than an inability to comprehend the invention itself.
Equally erroneous is the notion that ancient civilizations stumbled upon these technologies by accident, or that they were designed by idiosyncratic geniuses who were not representative of their day and age. Although many inventors mentioned in this article were indeed considered geniuses, they cannot and should not be separated from their surroundings. Their work is not anachronistic, but a testament to the ingenuity and scientific potential of their respective civilizations... (MORE - details)
COVERED:
Greek fire: flames that don’t go out
Antikythera mechanism: a cosmic clock before Copernicus
Damascus steel: swords that will not dull
The Houfeng Didong Yi: the world’s first seismoscope
Roman concrete: cement that does not crack
Baghdad battery: a rudimentary taser (for pain relief)
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-spacesuits-leak...1848949499
EXCERPTS: It might be time for NASA to ditch its aging ISS spacesuits. The space agency announced a pause to all its spacewalks until it has a better handle on a lingering and frightening issue that’s causing water to leak inside of astronauts’ helmets.
The latest incident happened during an extravehicular activity (EVA) in March, but this isn’t the first time a helmet has filled up with water during a spacewalk—a potentially life-threatening scenario for astronauts. NASA has raised concerns that the aging spacesuits on board the ISS might not be usable anymore and that it may be time to swap them out for a newer model currently in development. The spacesuits that NASA uses now are more than 40 years old, and the agency seems to be running out of fully functional space suits; only 18 usable units are available on the ISS, according to a 2017 report.
[...] The suits can only be properly examined by engineers on Earth, so the agency is planning on sending them back during the upcoming SpaceX cargo Dragon mission in early June. Until then, NASA will consider the risk of conducting a spacewalk as opposed to the risk of ignoring a potential repair that might need to be done on the space station exterior. “We’ll have to look at risk versus risk,” Weigel said during the briefing... (MORE - missing details)
Ancient technology that was centuries ahead of its time
https://bigthink.com/the-past/examples-a...echnology/
INTRO: We like to think of technological innovation as a gradual, steady, and fairly linear process. However, this is not necessarily the case. Archaeological excavations throughout the world reveal that, once in a while, ancient civilizations developed inventions that were decades if not centuries ahead of their time.
It is sometimes said that these inventions rival or outmatch modern science. This, too, is a misconception. While many ancient super technologies — from Roman concrete to Damascus steel — were once lost, they have since been recreated by present-day researchers. Usually, any difficulty in recreating them stems from the lack of original instruction rather than an inability to comprehend the invention itself.
Equally erroneous is the notion that ancient civilizations stumbled upon these technologies by accident, or that they were designed by idiosyncratic geniuses who were not representative of their day and age. Although many inventors mentioned in this article were indeed considered geniuses, they cannot and should not be separated from their surroundings. Their work is not anachronistic, but a testament to the ingenuity and scientific potential of their respective civilizations... (MORE - details)
COVERED:
Greek fire: flames that don’t go out
Antikythera mechanism: a cosmic clock before Copernicus
Damascus steel: swords that will not dull
The Houfeng Didong Yi: the world’s first seismoscope
Roman concrete: cement that does not crack
Baghdad battery: a rudimentary taser (for pain relief)