SpaceX Celebrates Successful Dragon Splashdown

As reported by Popular Mechanics: Last night, Elon Musk tweeted this gorgeous photo of the Dragon supply ship returning after splashdown.

Update: Tuesday, 7:52 PM ET: The SpaceX Dragon supply ship successfully splashed down, completing its four-week ISS mission.

Update: Tuesday, 6:34 PM ET: The Dragon supply ship is continuing its descent — splashdown is slated for 7:45PM ET.

After SpaceX Launch Solar Storm DSCO Satellite Heads for Gravitational Sweet Spot: L1

As reported by National Geographic: The Deep Space Climate Observatory, launching later today from a SpaceX rocket, will keep an eye on Earth from a very special perch. Called a Lagrangian point, the spacecraft’s future home is part of a constellation of stable parking spots for satellites in orbit.

At one of these points, the pull of the sun and the Earth combine in just the right way to keep a satellite from being flung out of the solar system. The new satellite, also known as DSCOVR, won’t be alone at its Lagrangian point. For 30 years, space agencies have been capitalizing on the unique properties of these quirky places. (See “Spacecraft to Watch Earth and Warn of Solar Storms.”)

A spacecraft in one of these pockets needs very little fuel to stay at a constant location relative to the Earth, helping extend the life of the mission.

What’s more, satellites that stay in this sweet spot between the sun and Earth avoid the dramatic temperature swings and periodic magnetic disruptions that Earth-orbiting satellites encounter as they pass behind the planet.

Five Lagrangian points, named for mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange, occur with any circular orbit, not just the Earth’s path around the sun.

The Earth and moon together create five Lagrangian points, for example. And some of the stable pockets created by Jupiter’s orbit have captured so-called Trojan asteroids.

Limited Real Estate
The DSCOVR satellite will travel a million miles, or roughly one percent of the way to the sun, to its home at the Earth-sun Lagrangian point known as L1. From there it will have unobstructed views of the sun and Earth.

If this is such a great location for a satellite, won’t it start to get crowded?

In fact, several other missions have also taken advantage of L1.

The first, launched in 1978, was the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3), which was diverted along an elaborate trajectory to allow it to make the first intercept of a comet's tail. Three decades later, a private group tried unsuccessfully to revive the dormant satellite when its complicated orbit brought it close to Earth again. (See “Zombie Spacecraft Rescue Planned by Private Group.”)

DSCOVR will be joining a few other satellites already located at L1: the Advanced Composition Explorer, which compared solar and interstellar particles; the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, which is studying the sun; and the WIND mission to study the impact of solar wind.

Stacking Satellites
So won’t the new satellite send these others hurtling into space like balls on a pool table?
Fortunately, multiple missions can play together nicely at this spot because the spacecraft don’t sit directly on L1. Instead, they move around the point in one of two types of looping orbits, known as Lissajous orbits or halo orbits.

It’s as if they become tiny moons orbiting an invisible planet circling the sun at the same pace as Earth.

Marc Kuchner, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, says it’s just like commercial airspace. “You can fly a lot of planes between Los Angeles and New York,” he said. “Just like you can stack a lot of 747s in 40,000 feet, you can also stack a lot of satellites at L1, L2, or any of these Lagrangian points.”

Mission commanders don’t avoid placing their satellites at the point itself out of pure politeness, but to keep an uncluttered line of communication.

“The problem is the sun is in the background then,” said Robert Farquhar, a retired NASA mission design specialist sometimes known as the master of getting to places, who figured out how to redirect ISEE-3 onto its comet intercept course. Solar interference can make it hard for the satellite to send data back to Earth.

The equilibrium at L1 is not completely stable, so these satellites require periodic “station keeping” adjustments to keep them orbiting correctly. Eventually they will run out of fuel and will not be able to hold their positions.

The Other Sweet Spots
Another point, L2, is also located along the straight line that passes through the Earth and the sun. It is about a million miles away on the opposite side of Earth, in the direction of our planet’s shadow.

This second point is a preferred perch for missions that need to search deep into space and whose sensitive instruments would be particularly challenged by hot and cold extremes, the magnetic field, or solar wind.

The James Webb Space Telescope, launching in 2018, will peer out from L2 with a number of infrared sensors to study the period shortly after the big bang, the formation of solar systems like our own, and other topics. (See video: “Building the Largest Space Telescope Ever.”)
Both the European Space Agency and the China National Space Administration have already placed probes at L2.

The other Lagrangian point along the Earth-sun axis is called L3, but since it sits on the far side of the sun, it’s less useful for space probes: A satellite there would never have a direct line of communication with the Earth.

The final two Lagrangian points, L4 and L5, are the most stable of the group, and are located partially ahead and partially behind the Earth along its orbit.

Europe's Experimental IXV Mini-Space Shuttle to Launch This Wednesday

As reported by Space.com: The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to launch an experimental space plane this Wednesday to test out technologies needed for vehicles to survive the return to Earth from space.

The unmanned space plane, called the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), is slated to blast off Wednesday (Feb. 11) at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT) from French Guiana. Its suborbital flight will last 100 minutes. But first, the reusable spacecraft must separate from the rocket by itself while out of contact with Earth. (You can watch the IXV liftoff live here on Space.com, courtesy of ESA.)

"The crucial moments will certainly be those after the blackout phase … The signal from the vehicle after this phase will be an important sign," Giorgio Tumino, ESA's project manager for IXV, told Space.com via email.

  "The telemetry reception after the blackout will be an important contribution to the mission's success," Tumino added. "An important moment after that will also be the correct deployment of the parachute, since several missions worldwide failed this phase."

If everything goes according to plan, the 16.4-foot-long (5 meters) IXV space plane will detach autonomously from its Vega rocket at an altitude of roughly 200 miles (320 kilometers). It will soar as high as 280 miles (450 km) and then come back to Earth for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

IXV was originally supposed to launch in November, but the mission was postponed to perform additional safety analyses of the mission's launch trajectory. (Vega rockets usually launch northward to send payloards into a polar orbit, but the IXV's Vega will head eastward on a suborbital path, ESA officials said.)

Space planes are not a new concept for ESA. In the 1980s, the agency was developing a small space-shuttle-like craft called Hermes to bring up to three astronauts into space at a time.

Hermes managers added safety precautions, such as ejection seats, to the vehicle's design after NASA's Challenger space shuttle exploded during launch in January 1986, ESA officials have said. But the added cost and complication eventually led to the Hermes program's cancellation in 1992.

"[IXV] is a completely new program, although it builds also on technological work done during the Hermes period," Tumino said. "An example is the thermal protection system, whose first elements were developed in the frame of the Hermes program."

Re-entry study could be useful for multiple applications, he added. Some possibilities include missions returning from other planets, or creating reusable rocket stages.

ESA aims to follow the IXV mission with another unmanned space-plane project called PRIDE (Program for Reusable In-Orbit Demonstrator for Europe), which would deploy satellites in orbit before returning to Earth for a runway landing.

ESA is also studying re-entry of one of its International Space Station cargo vehicles that is expected to return from space Feb. 27, bearing a load of trash. The Automated Transfer Vehicle-5, which is named after the late Belgian astronomer and physicist Georges Lemaitre, harbors internal sensors to track the vehicle's behavior during re-entry, when it is designed to break apart and burn up.

Google Earth Pro is now Free

Google Earth Pro Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

As reported by C/NET: Google Earth has been around for years, yet it still makes my jaw drop.

I mean, seriously, for centuries the only way to get a "bird's-eye" view of our planet was to spin an actual globe. Now we can "fly" to any location and zoom all the way in from space to a couple hundred feet above real, satellite-mapped ground.

Most amazing of all, Google made this tool available for free. This despite an educational -- and, let's be honest, entertainment -- value that's virtually impossible to measure.

What you maybe didn't know is that Google has long offered a Pro version of Earth as well, one that cost a hefty $399 per year. Now, however, you can get Google Earth Pro absolutely free.

First things first: The words "free trial" still appear in that URL, but as you'll see when you click through to the sign-up page, "Sign up is no longer required for Google Earth Pro." All you have to do is download the installer, run it, then sign in using your e-mail address (as your username) and license code GEPFREE.

Second things second: Do you really need this? Probably not, as Pro was created with business/enterprise users in mind -- but it does afford some pretty cool extras not found in the free version, including:

• Advanced measurements: Measure parking lots and land developments with polygon area measure, or determine affected radius with circle measure.
• High-resolution printing: Print images up to 4,800 x 3,200 pixel resolution.
• Exclusive pro data layers: Demographics, parcels, and traffic count.
• Spreadsheet import: Ingest up to 2,500 addresses at a time, assigning place marks and style templates in bulk.
• Movie-Maker: Export Windows Media and QuickTime HD movies, up to 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution.

So, yeah, you could print ultra-high-resolution images of, say, your neighborhood. (The free version tops out at 1,000 pixels.) Or add high-def fly-over videos to your movies. Pretty sweet stuff.

And don't overlook the huge thrill of scoring a $400 product for free. That's always fun.

Homeland Security and the US Military are Testing Commercial Drone Nightmare Scenarios

As reported by The Verge: Here's a hypothetical matchup for you. A column of tanks covered in thick armor, capable of firing many bullets of both large and small caliber. On the other side, a bunch of plastic quadcopters you bought at the local Walmart. Who wins? According to exercise by the US military, the drones have it hands down.

This was one of several fascinating factoids from a Wired report on a recent meeting hosted by the Department of Homeland Security, the goal of which was to access just how dangerous these "toys" can be.

Along with DHS and the US military, the Federal Aviation Administration was in attendance.

That agency has a mandate from Congress to come up with new rules governing domestic drones by the end of this year. So far the agency has basically delivered a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and some delightfully low budget Youtube PSAs.

A DIJ Phantom 2 Vision Plus commercial drone.

Other fascinating factoids from this meeting include:

• Syrian rebels are importing consumer-grade drones to launch attacks
• A DJI Phantom 2 can carry three pounds of inert explosive. Or at least you can strap that to one sitting on a table and make it seem terrifying
• The software DJI recently used to try and prevent drones from flying over the White House was originally developed to keep the craft out of China's Tiananmen Square Square
• The military has attached automatic weapons to cheap commercial drones and fired them with great success

The reassurance offered by the Wired piece is that it's actually pretty easy to jam the radio signals which are used to pilot these drones. As several commenters point out, preventing a drone on autopilot from flying a route pre-mapped out and routed by its built-in GPS might prove to be a lot more difficult to deter.

Judge Rejects Most of LightSquared Claims Against Deere, GPS firms

As reported by Reuters: A U.S. judge dismissed the bulk of two lawsuits by bankrupt wireless venture LightSquared and equity owner Harbinger Capital Partners accusing Deere & Co and other GPS firms of misleading them about interference concerns and hastening the company's insolvency.

In an opinion rendered on Thursday in Manhattan federal court, Judge Richard Berman threw out Harbinger's lawsuit, and nixed nine of 11 claims asserted by LightSquared, serving a blow to its hope for hefty damages that could help salvage its business.

LightSquared has been in bankruptcy since 2012, when the Federal Communications Commission revoked its license to build a planned wireless network over fears it could interfere with GPS systems.

Harbinger, the hedge fund run by Phil Falcone, would have to give up much of its equity and all of its operational control of LightSquared under a restructuring plan being voted on by creditors.

The lawsuits alleged that Deere, Garmin International , Trimble Navigation Ltd, and a GPS industry group led LightSquared to believe the planned network would not pose an interference risk.

It wasn't until LightSquared had pumped $4 billion into the project, the plaintiffs argued, that the GPS industry voiced their concerns.

Judge Berman dismissed many claims from both plaintiffs, including breach of contract and civil conspiracy, leaving alive only LightSquared's claims for negligent misrepresentation and constructive fraud.

That Berman did not scrap the lawsuit entirely, however, means LightSquared will still have the chance to probe the GPS companies' books and records during discovery.

"LightSquared is pleased with the court's decision," a company spokesman said in an emailed statement to Reuters. "The litigation process will move forward with discovery."

LightSquared believes any potential interference is a result of GPS device designs, rather than LightSquared's planned network, the statement added.

Lawyers for Harbinger and for the defendants did not respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit could impact LightSquared's bankruptcy, where the company has been trying to convince potential investors that its spectrum will regain FCC approval and ultimately have value. That effort could benefit from a perception that GPS companies acted improperly in raising concerns about interference.

LightSquared's bankruptcy, a contentious case in which Dish Network Corp Chairman Charles Ergen is the largest creditor, has been closely watched in the restructuring world, as several reorganization attempts have fallen flat due to ongoing acrimony between the company and its creditors.

Programming Safety into Self-Driving Cars: Fault-Tolerant Planning, and "Undecidedness" in AI

As reported by Science Daily: For decades, researchers in artificial intelligence, or AI, worked on specialized problems, developing theoretical concepts and workable algorithms for various aspects of the field. Computer vision, planning and reasoning experts all struggled independently in areas that many thought would be easy to solve, but which proved incredibly difficult.

However, in recent years, as the individual aspects of artificial intelligence matured, researchers began bringing the pieces together, leading to amazing displays of high-level intelligence: from IBM's Watson to the recent poker playing champion to the ability of AI to recognize cats on the internet.

These advances were on display this week at the 29th conference of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) in Austin, Texas, where interdisciplinary and applied research were prevalent, according to Shlomo Zilberstein, the conference committee chair and co-author on three papers at the conference.

Zilberstein studies the way artificial agents plan their future actions, particularly when working semi-autonomously--that is to say in conjunction with people or other devices.

Examples of semi-autonomous systems include co-robots working with humans in manufacturing, search-and-rescue robots that can be managed by humans working remotely and "driverless" cars. It is the latter topic that has particularly piqued Zilberstein's interest in recent years.

The marketing campaigns of leading auto manufacturers have presented a vision of the future where the passenger (formerly known as the driver) can check his or her email, chat with friends or even sleep while shuttling between home and the office. Some prototype vehicles included seats that swivel back to create an interior living room, or as in the case of Google's driverless car, a design with no steering wheel or brakes.

Except in rare cases, it's not clear to Zilberstein that this vision for the vehicles of the near future is a realistic one.

"In many areas, there are lots of barriers to full autonomy," Zilberstein said. "These barriers are not only technological, but also relate to legal and ethical issues and economic concerns."

In his talk at the "Blue Sky" session at AAAI, Zilberstein argued that in many areas, including driving, we will go through a long period where humans act as co-pilots or supervisors, passing off responsibility to the vehicle when possible and taking the wheel when the driving gets tricky, before the technology reaches full autonomy (if it ever does).

In such a scenario, the car would need to communicate with drivers to alert them when they need to take over control. In cases where the driver is non-responsive, the car must be able to autonomously make the decision to safely move to the side of the road and stop.

"People are unpredictable. What happens if the person is not doing what they're asked or expected to do, and the car is moving at sixty miles per hour?" Zilberstein asked. "This requires 'fault-tolerant planning.' It's the kind of planning that can handle a certain number of deviations or errors by the person who is asked to execute the plan."

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Zilberstein has been exploring these and other practical questions related to the possibility of artificial agents that act among us.

Zilberstein, a professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, works with human studies experts from academia and industry to help uncover the subtle elements of human behavior that one would need to take into account when preparing a robot to work semi-autonomously. He then translates those ideas into computer programs that let a robot or autonomous vehicle plan its actions--and create a plan B in case of an emergency.

There are a lot of subtle cues that go into safe driving. Take for example a four-way stop. Officially, the first car to the crosswalk goes first, but in actuality, people watch each other to see if and when to make their move.

"There is a slight negotiation going on without talking," Zilberstein explained. "It's communicating by your action such as eye contact, the wave of a hand, or the slight revving of an engine."

In trials, autonomous vehicles often sit paralyzed at such stops, unable to safely read the cues of the other drivers on the road. This "undecidedness" is a big problem for robots. A recent paper by Alan Winfield of Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the UK showed how robots, when faced with a difficult decision, will often process for such a long period of time as to miss the opportunity to act. Zilberstein's systems are designed to remedy this problem.

"With some careful separation of objectives, planning algorithms could address one of the key problems of maintaining 'live state', even when goal reachability relies on timely human interventions," he concluded.

The ability to tailor one's trip based on human-centered factors--like how attentive the driver can be or the driver's desire to avoid highways--is another aspect of semi-autonomous driving that Zilberstein is exploring.

In a paper with Kyle Wray from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Abdel-Illah Mouaddib from the University of Caen in France, Zilberstein introduced a new model and planning algorithm that allows semi-autonomous systems to make sequential decisions in situations that involve multiple objectives--for example, balancing safety and speed.

Their experiment focused on a semi-autonomous driving scenario where the decision to transfer control depended on the driver's level of fatigue. They showed that using their new algorithm a vehicle was able to favor roads where the vehicle can drive autonomously when the driver is fatigued, thus maximizing driver safety.

"In real life, people often try to optimize several competing objectives," Zilberstein said. "This planning algorithm can do that very quickly when the objectives are prioritized. For example, the highest priority may be to minimize driving time and a lower priority objective may be to minimize driving effort. Ultimately, we want to learn how to balance such competing objectives for each driver based on observed driving patterns."

It's an exciting time for artificial intelligence. The fruits of many decades of labor are finally being deployed in real systems and machine learning is being adopted widely and for different purposes than anyone had ever realized.

"We are beginning to see these kinds of remarkable successes that integrate decades-long research efforts in a variety of AI topics," said Héctor Muñoz-Avila, program director in NSF's Robust Intelligence cluster.

Indeed, over many decades, NSF's Robust Intelligence program has supported foundational research in artificial intelligence that, according to Zilberstein, has given rise to the amazing smart systems that are beginning to transform our world. But the agency has also supported researchers like Zilberstein who ask tough questions about emerging technologies.

"When we talk about autonomy, there are legal issues, technological issues and a lot of open questions," he said. "Personally, I think that NSF has been able to identify these as important questions and has been willing to put money into them. And this gives the U.S. a big advantage."