Space hack: Jupiter on $1 million?

Thanks to its standard, modular shape and deployment methods, CubeSats over the past decade have made access to space a realistic proposition for tinkerers and astro engineers alike. Projects ranging from simple student demonstration satellites to serious science have been flown.

Through its partners at the University of Kentucky and Morehead State University (MSU), Kentucky Space is working on a couple of new cubes. KySat-2 is a single-unit spacecraft (the spacecraft are created in one-, two- and three-unit sizes) that Kentucky Space has covered extensively through its "K2 Tuesday" series. Lest you believe the spacecraft are mere toys, a follow-on to the Cosmic X-ray Background Nanosatellite is being developed at MSU to study the X-ray relic radiation from the Big Bang - it may make a significant contribution to cosmology.

Serious stuff, that.

If a University of Michigan group has its way, however, a new plasma propulsion system may further revolutionize spaceflight, by making interplanetary CubeSats feasible. Space.com:

The scientists and engineers are developing a new plasma propulsion system designed for ultrasmall CubeSats. If all goes well, they say, it may be possible to launch a life-detection mission to Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa or other intriguing worlds for as little as $1 million in the not-too-distant future.

What's the big deal?

Unlike explosive chemical propulsion systems, which discharge gasses under high pressure and are powerful but inefficient, ion and plasma thrusters use the comparatively gentle method of electrically accelerating ions using benign propellants such as water. The result is a quite modest but efficient motor that can produce phenomenally high speeds given a sufficient period of time. It can't be used to escape the Earth's gravity well, but long duration spaceflight becomes much more affordable. Match that motor with the Kleenex tissue box-sized CubeSat and interplanetary flight on a budget is within reach.

The proposed engine is not unlike the ion thruster aboard the much larger proto-planetary explorer Dawn, and will weigh less than one pound, while its water or iodine supply of propellant will weigh a scant five pounds.

The creators of the CubeSat Ambipolar Thruster, or CAT, are seeking funding to launch a demonstration flight sometime in the next 18 months, according to the Space.com piece, "New Space Engine Could Turn Tiny CubeSats into Interplanetary Explorers:"

Raising $200,000 should make all of this possible, while meeting other funding milestones will allow the CAT team to tackle 'stretch goals.' If the Kickstarter campaign nets $500,000, for example, the team will fast-track its space trip by purchasing a commercial launch, while raising $900,000 will enable a two-CubeSat 'space race' to escape Earth orbit.

Building on another recent development in space exploration, the team is seeking funds through a Kickstarter campaign. The crowdfunding site has successfully helped fund a CubeSat-sized Arduino-powered science testbed, ArduSat; a social media powered, single-unit CubeSat called SkyCube that will tweet from space; and ARKYD, a sharable space telescope, which is part of a much more ambitious enterprise to eventually mine asteroids.  

At IdeaFestival 2013, Ariel Waldman will present a "Hackers Guide to the Galaxy," a discussion of all the ways in which ordinary people with ordinary budgets can explore the final frontier. Don't miss it!

I'll post a video interview with Ariel to the blog soon. 

Stay curious.

Wayne

Image: CAT: A Thruster for Interplanetary CubeSats on KickStarter.

Video: Five Questions with IF13 speaker, Maria Konnikova

If careful observation is simultaneously a conversation, can one become a great "observationalist?"

What's happening in the brain during meditation?

In the latest in our occasional "Five Questions" interview series, we recently spoke with IdeaFestival 2013 speaker Maria Konnikova, author of "Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes," who answers those questions and more in the video embedded here.

Enjoy.

Magician Alex Stone, who Maria mentions during the interview, is among the many other fascinating people who will speak at IF13.

Festival Passes are now on sale, but don't wait too long to make that purchase! We're anticipating another sellout this year. 

Wayne

Innocence after guilt: 305 post-conviction DNA exonerations

As of this past April, there have been 305 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the United States, including 18 exonerated individuals who spent time on death row.

Thanks to the "transformative technolgy" of DNA testing, Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, says that nearly half of the time the real perpetrator of the crime has been identified with the extant DNA.

But only five percent of the total number of cases leave biological evidence. So the project has begun to expand the scope of its activities to address the wrongful convictions of individuals for reasons ranging from the unreliability of eyewitness testimony to prosecutorial misconduct, and is working with law enforcement as well as the courts on a reform agenda.

The Innocence Project, recently added to the speaker lineup for 2013, will participate in the IdeaFestival! Festival passes are now on sale.

Stay curious.

Wayne

It's Here! IF13 Agenda

Can you train to be a great "observationalist?" Will the maker movement reach the final frontier? And given what we know about the fallibility of eyewitness testimony, what should we make of the wrongful conviction of individuals freed from prison?

Can humor really tackle difficult subjects that an earnest seriousness can't?

It's here! The IdeaFestival 2013 agenda, featuring presenters such as Maria Konnikova, Ariel Waldman, the Innocence Project, the always imaginative artists from Creative Capital, comedian Chris Bliss (life's goal: don't be an attorney) and many others, has been posted to the IdeaFestival web site.

Festival passes are now on sale for IdeaFestival 2013. But don't wait too long to purchase! Festival passes sold out last year, and demand this year is ahead of last year's pace.

Here is Insider Louisville's rundown of the program. Give it a read.

Thrivals updates are coming soon - as are Skyped interviews with Maria Konnikova, Technology Review's Jason Pontin, Ariel Waldman and others.

Stay curious!

Wayne

Body thinking

If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it - Isadora Duncan

We think with bodies.

In a conclusion emerging from disciplines as different as philosophy, artificial intelligence, neuroscience and evolutionary biology, academia is coming to understand that our thinking, while catalyzed in the brain, is initiated by our bodies. Our bodies are not just transportation for our heads, as Sir Ken Robinson famously said, but the co-conspirator in the sense-making enterprise of human life. No two people, even identical twins, will ever encounter that exact same external stimuli in their lifetimes, which means, among other things, that the first-person experience is unique to each of us.

Where Do Thoughts Occur?

The body’s influence over our perceptions is more than just academic — it could have serious consequences in high-stakes situations, argues Jessica Witt, a psychologist at Colorado State University. She wondered if embodiment could help explain tragic misperceptions such as the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo, who was killed by New York police officers who perceived Diallo’s motioning to open his wallet as the brandishing of a gun.

To investigate, Witt and a colleague showed college students photos of people holding different objects and asked them to quickly decide whether what they saw was a gun or some neutral object, like a shoe or a cell phone. 

When participants were themselves holding a plastic toy gun, versus some neutral object, they were about 30 percent more likely to perceive the object in another person’s hand as a gun. Merely seeing a gun nearby had no such effect on their perceptions. 

'We see the world in terms of our ability to act,' Witt concludes. The same object 'can look different, depending on what we’re intending to do and our ability to perform that intended action.'

It also raises questions about how particular kinds of bodies might inform the thinking and experiences of the embodied.

Aesthetically, body thinking may account for some of the skill exhibited by dancers and studio furniture makers alike, who, through the long experience of trial and error can feel their way toward the spectacular.

There are many ways to know.

Stay curious.

Wayne

Image: Some rights reserved at ballet dancers