[summary]Venus’s atmosphere has drawn a lot of attention lately. In particular,
the consistent discovery of phosphine in its clouds points to potential
biological sources. That, in turn, has resulted in numerous suggested
missions, including floating a balloon into the atmosphere or having a
spacecraft scoop down and suck up atmospheric samples. But a team of …

Continue reading "Floating LEAVES Could Characterize Venus’s Atmosphere"

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first on Universe Today.

Venus’s atmosphere has drawn a lot of attention lately. In particular, the consistent discovery of phosphine in its clouds points to potential biological sources. That, in turn, has resulted in numerous suggested missions, including floating a balloon into the atmosphere or having a spacecraft scoop down and suck up atmospheric samples. But a team of engineers led by Jeffrey Balcerski, now an adjunct at Kent State University but then part of the Ohio Aerospace Institute, came up with a different idea years ago – use floating sensor platforms shaped like leaves to collect a wide variety of data throughout Venus’ atmosphere.

The Lofted Environmental and Atmospheric Venus Sensors (or LEAVES) project was funded by NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program in 2018. The mission design is simple enough: design lightweight platforms with a wide surface area, attach some low-cost and weight sensors to them, release them from a mothership transiting into orbit around Venus, and let those platforms float down through the Venusian atmosphere over the course of a few hours, all the while sending back atmospheric, chemical, and temperature data to the mothership.

There are a few enabling technologies behind the idea. The first is a lightweight yet robust and deployable structure that could support a platform of sensors and not be destroyed by Venus’s notoriously hellish environment. Designing this structure required understanding expected flight times and geolocation requirements, as well as the requirement that the system must be trackable by orbital radar in order to communicate back to the mothership. The resulting design resembles the famous inverted pyramid at the Louvre.

Venus is one of the most interesting planets in the solar system – and has captured Fraser’s imagination.

Inside that structure, the second enabling technology sits—harsh environment sensors designed to operate in Venus’s extreme environments. Chemical, pressure, and electrical sensors have undergone extensive development work over the past few years, and some are approaching readiness for use on Venus. They are also lightweight, allowing the structure to descend slowly, which is necessary to complete its mission goals.

After receiving the NIAC Phase I grant, the team led by Dr. Balcerski got to work modeling LEAVES’ structure and mission design. They quickly realized that delivery methodology and a system’s light weight would be critical to future missions. As such, they modeled depositing a series of upwards of 100 LEAVES throughout Venus’ atmosphere, each of which would be networked back to the mothership that deposited them as part of its planned orbital maneuver. They also thought there were several planned Venus missions, such as DaVINCI, which could easily take LEAVES on as a secondary payload with no real risk to mission success or uptime, as the LEAVES would fall and be destroyed by the lower Venusian atmosphere in a matter of hours.

But those hours of data, relayed back to the mothership and then on to Earth, could provide invaluable insights into the inner workings of Venus’s atmosphere. LEAVES would be able to reach a wide altitude range—it is estimated to operate between 100 km and 30 km in altitude. It could also be spread literally all over the world, allowing for a more complete picture of the Venusian atmosphere than other mission designs, which would only capture a small vertical slice of the atmosphere.

Venus’s environmental is rough on technology, to say the least. Fraser discusses the new technologies that could one day survive on its surface.

Given the potential impact of what we might find in the Venusian atmosphere, any mission designs that allow us to capture a large amount of information about a wide swath of it would be welcome. Dr. Balcerski and his colleagues think they have advanced the LEAVES concept to a Technology Readiness Level of 3-4. However, they haven’t yet received further support for LEAVES, and development appears to be on hold. But, given the increasing interest in exploring the Venusian atmosphere, perhaps it’s time to look at this lightweight, inexpensive way of doing so again.

Learn More:
Balcerski et al. – LEAVES: Lofted Environmental and Atmospheric VenusSensors
UT – There are Mysteries at Venus. It’s Time for an Astrobiology Mission
UT – Scientists Have Re-Analyzed Their Data and Still See a Signal of Phosphine at Venus. Just Less of it
UT – The Clouds of Venus Could Support Life

Lead Image:
Artist’s depiction of several LEAVES falling through Venus’s atmosphere.
Credit – Balcerski et al.

The post Floating LEAVES Could Characterize Venus’s Atmosphere appeared first on Universe Today.

Wer immer das neue Fahrinfo programmiert hat, sollte entweder weniger (oder mehr) Drogen nehmen, die neue Android-App ist einfach nur fürchterlich geworden, hier nur ein paar Highlights:

1.) Es funktioniert nicht mehr direkt aus dem Adressbuch die entsprechende Adresse an das Fahrinfo zu übergeben, die einzige Weg ist nun Copy + Paste
2.) Die Widgets sind weg - Abfahrten an den Haltestellen in der Nähe, Ticket.
3.) Überhaut Abfahrten in der Nähe - statt sich das direkt anzeigen zu könne muss man nun auf der Karte die entsprechende Haltestelle auswählen, dann geht das.
4.) Mein Deutschlandticket war weg. Ich musste mich dafür in der App bei der BVG anmelden, und da ich - wie überall, wenn möglich - 2FA aktiv habe, erstmal den Yubikey ins Handy gesteckt, nach Anmeldung wurde es dann in die App geladen. Zum Glück ist mir das zuhause passiert, das wäre sehr lustig geworden wenn ich unterwegs kontrolliert würde: Username/Passwort via Bitwarden einfügen, Schlüsselbund herausholen, Yubikey ins Handy usw.

Wie kommt man auf die Idee ein solches Update was sich komplett von der alten Version unterscheiden und dazu noch unvollständig ist (keine Widgets, usw) einfach mal so auszurollen? Die Bewertungen im Play Store sprechen Bände.

Zum Glück habe ich noch Öffi, das funktioniert viel besser und ist ergonomisch keine solche Katastrophe wie das neue Fahrinfo.

#bvg #fahrinfo #Berlin

Am Morgen des 23. Juli 2024 hat die freie Journalistin Aya Velázquez alle Protokolle des Covid-19 Krisenstabs des Robert-Koch-Instituts(RKI) veröffentlicht. Ein Whistleblower der im RKI gearbeitet hat, hat ihr die Unterlagen und 10GB dazugehöriges Begleitmaterial zukommen lassen.

Um 10:00 folgte eine Pressekonferenz zu dieser historischen Enthüllung. Zwei Mistreiter, der Finanzwissenschaftler Professort Stefan Homburg und der freie Journalist und Pädagoge Bastian Barucker, hatten die Protokolle im Vorfeld von Frau Velázquez erhalten und sie durchgearbeitet.

Alle Protokolle sind hier downloadbar: https://rki-transparenzbericht.de
Alle Corona-Protokolle der Bundesregierung: https://corona-protokolle.net
Blog von Aya Velázquez: https://www.velazquez.press
Youtube-Kanal von Stefan Homburg: / @sthomburg
Blog Bastian Barucker: https://blog.bastian-barucker.de

Meine Arbeit unterstützen: https://blog.bastian-barucker.de/unterstuetzung/

Der Download-Server des Presseteams ist überlastet. Die ungeschwärzten Sitzungsprotokolle des RKI-Krisenstabs und die 10 GB Zusatzmaterial findet Ihr hier in P2P-Netzwerken:

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QmZ2ucoxLvUtMpbS7uwYEaSxHDN1p3rkfPGLeQCJttSKJs >> RKI-Krisenstab-Einzelsitzungen_2020-2023.zip

QmbRpLZhFNihjR82GKXDPqP9BA28vJW3NDS8ssFFu7NLZ7 >> Zusatzmaterial_2020-2023.zip

RKI-Krisenstab-Protokolle_gesamt_2020-2023.zip

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