NASA has told Elon Musk’s SpaceX to halt work under a contract it won to develop a lunar spacecraft, pending the outcome of challenges by rival bidders at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Reuters reports. Last month, NASA awarded SpaceX the moon contract over billionaire Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin and defence contractor Dynetics. The project calls for humans to be back on the moon for the first time since 1972.
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/nasa-tells-spacex-halt-lunar-lander-work-pending-challenges-by-rivals-2021-04-30/
New observations from Earth are lifting the veil on some of Venus's basic properties, reports phys.org. By repeatedly bouncing radar off the planet's surface over the last 15 years, a UCLA-led team has pinned down the length of a day on Venus, the tilt of its axis, and the size of its core. The findings are published today in the journal Nature Astronomy. The new radar measurements show that an average day on Venus lasts 243.0226...
Americans who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can safely do many outdoor activities without wearing a mask, according to updated guidance Tuesday from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "There are many situations where fully vaccinated people do not need to wear a mask, particularly if they are outdoors," said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. "If you are fully vaccinated and want to attend a small outdoor gathering with people who are...
Researchers at the University of California Berkeley have created a quadrupedal robot with a leash that could take on the role of a guide dog, Tech Xplore reports. "A well-behaved guide dog usually needs to be selected and trained individually," said Zhongyu Li, a researcher at UC Berkeley's Hybrid Robotics Group. "In addition, the skills from one dog cannot be transferred to another one. This makes training guide dogs both time consuming and labour...
Tesla executives on Monday claimed a driver was behind the wheel at the time of a crash that killed two in Texas this month, the Washington Post reports. That claim contradicts local authorities who have said they were certain no one was in that seat. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, said the steering wheel was “deformed,” indicating a driver’s presence at the time of the crash. Mark Herman, constable for Harris...
Lyft Inc. will sell its self-driving technology unit to Toyota Motor Corp. for $550 million, Reuters reported today. Lyft will receive $200 million cash upfront for Level 5, with the remaining $350 million paid over five years, the companies said. The deal marks Toyota's latest foray into ride hailing at a time of growing consolidation in the capital-intensive self-driving industry. Toyota said in February it would develop and build autonomous minivans for ride-hailing networks with Aurora and...
NASA helicopter Ingenuity completed its third flight on Mars today, moving farther and faster than before, with a peak speed of two metres per second, reports phys.org. The helicopter covered 50 metres. "Today's flight was what we planned for, and yet it was nothing short of amazing," said Dave Lavery, the Ingenuity project's program executive. Video clips will be sent to Earth in the coming days. Ingenuity's flights are challenging because of conditions vastly different...
Workplace figures from Statistics Canada show that between one and five years after robots are adopted in a workplace, firms that bring on the machines see about 20 per cent more employees than they had before adding the robots, CBC reports. More robots could increase productivity for Canadian companies, according to researcher Jay Dixon, whose research showed that while Canadian companies tended to hire more people after investing in robots, the distribution of jobs changed, with companies...
Research by a team at the University of Michigan could help harness the body's ability to block pain, Medical Xpress reports. All opioid drugs work on receptors that are naturally present in the brain and elsewhere in the body. "Normally, when you are in pain, you are releasing endogenous opioids, but they're just not strong enough or long lasting enough," says Dr. John Traynor. The team had long hypothesized that substances called positive allosteric modulators could be...
The International Space Station's population swelled to 11 today with the arrival of SpaceX's third crew capsule in less than a year, CBC reports All of the astronauts — representing the U.S., Russia, Japan and France — managed to squeeze into camera view for a congratulatory call from the leaders of their space agencies. A recycled SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts arrived at the space station a day after launching from NASA's Kennedy Space Center....
