A Real-Time Map of All the Objects in Earth's Orbit

As reported by Gizmodo: Fellow space nerds, I come bringing sweet internet relief for the Monday doldrums. It’s stuffin.space, a real-time, 3D-visualized map of all objects looping around Earth, from satellites to orbital trash.

A view of the US GPS constellation satellite tracks.

The site updates itself daily using the latest satellite data from Space Track, a US Department of Defense website, which monitors satellites and space junk that are at least the size of a standard softball. (This excludes top-secret military satellites, of course.) In total, stuffin.space tracks 150,000 objects. Type in a satellite name to scope out its altitude, figure out its age, group satellites by type, and so on.

It started as a passion project in April for 18-year-old James Yoder, an alum of FIRST Robotics, the high school robotics competition. He wanted to learn more about 3D graphics programming and WebGL, a JavaScript API.

“Using those orbital parameters, stuffin.space uses a propagation model to predict the location of every satellite in real time, with an accuracy of within a few kilometers, and displays the data using a WebGL visualization with an accurate view of the Earth’s rotation and sunlight angle,” Yoder told Gizmodo in an email.

Yoder heads to college this fall to study electrical engineering at the University of Texas, Austin. A homemade site mapping Earth’s orbital bric-a-brac in real-time? Not a bad project for an incoming freshman to have under his belt.

Making All Cars Driverless Could Reduce Emissions by 90 Percent

As reported by Popular Science: With large tech companies like Google and Uber circling driverless cars, the conversation has mostly been one of “how soon can we do this?” and not “should we?” Of course, autonomous cars would be cool, but what are the advantages besides the obvious luxury of not needing an error-prone, human hand behind the wheel?

Researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California say another advantage exists — an environmental one. If a fleet of autonomous electric taxis were to replace everyone’s gas-powered, personal cars, we could see more than a 90 percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions and almost 100 percent decrease in oil consumption from cars, all while saving money in the long run. Right now that may seem like a long shot, but a study earlier this year said that 44 percent of Americans would consider buying a driverless car in the next 10 years, even if it would cost $5,000 more.

Now this may seem obvious: if you started to only build electric cars, emissions and oil consumption will fall. But what surprised Berkeley researchers was how most efficient such a system would actually be, even with the relatively high cost of electric vehicles today.

“You don’t often find that, where the cheapest is also the greenest,” said Jeff Greenblatt, co-author of the study.

A fleet about 15 percent of the size of all private cars could service the same population, if scheduled correctly, estimated Greenblatt. But the real savings would be found in the operating cost. Even when estimating that an electric, driverless car would cost $150,000 up front, researchers say that a car that could drive 24/7, not require a salary and use no gasoline would pay for itself before five years. The paper says that price will drop drastically, citing an IHS study that says autonomy will only add around $5,000 to a car’s current sticker price by 2030.

When asked about the limiting range of electric cars (right now the popular Nissan Leaf gets 84 miles per charge), Greenblatt told Popular Science that a fleet would be able to compensate for that range, versus a single-owner car—when the battery is low, a car would simply drive back to the main station, to be replaced in the field by a charged car.

Researchers relied heavily on the idea they called “right-sizing,” meaning the car dispatched would be fit to the trip’s needs. For instance, a different car would be sent for one-person trip, versus a group of four people heading out for a long-distance road trip. Greenblatt said that if based purely off current technology, that might be a situation where an autonomous hybrid car would be deployed.

The biggest issue right now: these cars don’t commercially exist. However, it seems both Google and Uber are looking to change that, and according to Berkeley press, researchers from this study already have talks scheduled at Google.

Uber CEO To Tesla: Sell Me Half A Million Autonomous Electric Cars In 2020

As reported by Green Car Reports: Tesla Motors is one of several automakers planning to put a self-driving car on sale sometime in the next few years, and it already seems to have at least one big fan.

This person isn't a celebrity owner or safety advocate, but rather the CEO of preeminent ride-sharing company Uber.

If Tesla can build a fully-autonomous car by 2020, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick says his company would it. In fact, he'd buy every one Tesla builds.  Yes, all 500,000 electric cars Tesla expects to produce in that year, according to Forbes (via Charged EVs).

That boast comes not directly from Kalanick himself, but from Steve Jurvetson--an early Tesla investor and board member.

UberCab app

Jurvetson relayed what he claimed were Kalanick's remarks at the recent Top 10 Tech Trends dinner, hosted by the Churchill Club.

He used his speaking time there to extol the virtues of autonomous cars.  "I believe they are already safer than my parents," he said, "and I would trust my kids with them."  He claimed that autonomous driving could significantly reduce the number of taxis on New York City streets, and still allow patrons to get a ride within 30 seconds of hailing one.

Those benefits are of course theoretical and dependent on a number of variables--including Tesla's ability to meet its autonomy and production-volume goals.  Tesla CEO Elon Musk previously said he expects the company to build 500,000 cars per year by 2020.

That prediction was reconfirmed by Tesla chief technical officer JB Straubel at a conference in Washington, D.C. last month.

London anti-Uber taxi protest: June 11, 2014 (photo by Flickr user David Holt)

This would bring Tesla's cumulative output to 1 million vehicles by that point.

But will any of those vehicles be able to drive themselves?

Tesla Model S P85D, 2015 Detroit Auto Show

Tesla has been building cars equipped with hardware for the first phase of its "autopilot" autonomous technology since last fall, although the system still isn't available to consumers.

Initially, cars will be able to pass other vehicles with no involvement from the driver other than the flick of a turn signal.

Musk has said that Tesla plans to develop the technology to the point that a car can be summoned from a garage to meet its owner.

Tesla may not offer this technology on all of its models, though.  By 2020, much of Tesla's sales volume will consist of the Model 3, a 200-mile electric car priced at $35,000 before any incentives.  The lower price point may mean Tesla will skimp on features like autonomous driving.

That would mean Uber would take delivery of somewhat fewer Tesla cars, but still an impressive amount.

Watch When a Drone Flies Through Fireworks

As reported by Wireless Design Mag: Have you ever wondered what a fireworks show looked like from the “inside?” The following video, filmed with a GoPro Hero 3, was given an up close and personal view of an Independence Day fireworks display over West Palm Beach, Florida—flown into the action by a DJI Phantom 2 unmanned aerial vehicle.

You probably won’t see many drone-filmed pyrotechnic videos circulating this year, however. Since the video went viral after last year’s Fourth of July, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has declared certain areas, such as Washington, D.C., a “no-drone” zone. Other local regulations make it increasingly difficult for drone enthusiasts to operate their aircrafts during such events. Restrictions are intended to promote safety: for instance, small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) considered “recreational” in nature can’t fly higher than 400 feet or through or above surrounding obstacles, and must be visible at all times.

Even so, the video is nothing short of spectacular. Despite some close calls with a few whizzing firework shells, the aircraft emerged from the explosive show unscathed.

What if Earth's Magnetic Field Flipped?

As reported by HowStuffWorks: At the moment, the Earth's Southern Magnetic pole is actually at the North Pole, (Geographic Northern Pole) and the Earth's Northern Magnetic pole is in Antarctica.  Our compass' have a north and south magnetic direction as well - but opposite poles attract, so the northern pole of our magnetic compass is pointing to the Earth's southern magnetic pole.

Imagine though getting out of bed and finding an upside-down world. Earth's magnetic field has flipped — now Greenland is in the northern magnetic pole, Antarctica in the southern, and your compass says North is South. What should you expect from a planet where you can't trust a compass to point the way you're used to?

The magnetic field does more than provide compasses a reference point: It shields us from the full impact of the solar wind — charged particles emitted from the sun that would otherwise bombard us with ultraviolet radiation. The origins of the magnetic field start thousands of miles beneath Earth's surface, where convection in the outer core produces electrical currents that, in combination with Earth's rotation, create and sustain a magnetic field that runs through the planet like a bar magnet with two poles, north and south.

When we talk about Earth's magnetic field flipping, we mean an event where those poles reverse. Based on information stored in cooled lava rocks, we know this has already happened before — about 170 times in the last 100 million years [source: Fleming]. The last time it happened was 780,000 years ago, but the causes of these reversals remain mysterious, and there's no way to fully predict when the next one might occur [source: Roach].

However, we know that a flip doesn't happen overnight. Instead, it takes anywhere from a century to 20,000 years to complete, and it's accompanied by a decline in strength of the magnetic field. Based on measurements that began in the mid-1800s, we're in the midst of one such weakening right now, and in 2014, data from European Space Agency satellites revealed that the magnetic field loses 5 percent of its strength with every passing decade [source: Sneed]. Some say the decline could stop at any time — the strength of the magnetic field today is still stronger than it's been for most of the last 50,000 years — while others says it's an indicator that the magnetic field will flip within the next 1,500 years.

Besides today's compasses pointing south instead of north, what would happen if the magnetic field flipped? While the atmosphere would still help shield the planet from radiation, the weakening of the magnetic field that precedes the reversal could make us vulnerable to cancer-causing energy particles and cosmic rays [source: Sanders]. A flipped magnetic field could disrupt communications systems and power grids. It could also produce multiple north and south poles, and birds, whales and other migratory animals that use the field to establish a sense of direction could encounter problems.

That said, a reversal of the poles probably doesn't spell doom for humanity: There's no evidence that past flips of the magnetic field caused mass extinctions or other catastrophes. You'll definitely need a new compass though; and probably a new GPS and/or Smartphone as well.

Space-Debris Drone in Development

As reported by Engadget: The Swiss aren't big on littering, and that philosophy apparently applies to space, too. After the nation's EPFL Center for Space Engineering launched its first satellites (the tiny SwissCubes) into orbit, the very next mission planned was "CleanSpace One" to get them out of orbit. For one, the researchers didn't want to add to the reams of existing space garbage threatening other satellites and astronauts at speeds of up to 15,000mph. But mainly, they want to test a practical system for cleaning space junk with relatively small targets. After considering various systems, the EPFL has settled on a "Pac-Man" solution that will trap the satellites with a conical net.

The operation will be tricky, because just finding the 4x4-inch satellites is going to be difficult. As such, the researchers are developing a high dynamic-range camera and image processing system that can spot bright reflections coming off the SwissCubes as they spin in space. Meanwhile, if the net doesn't deploy just so, the cubes could bounce off the cleanup satellite and end up in a worse spot than before.  

The team rejected several capture options, including articulated arms with claws and a "tentacle" scheme. It settled on a cone-shaped net that unfolds and closes back down, saying "this system is more reliable and offers a larger margin for maneuvering than a claw or an articulated hand." After the Clean Space One satellite gobbles up all the cubes, it will de-orbit and burn everything up on the way back down to earth. The team has now passed the prototype phase and hopes to develop the first engineering models, with the aim of launching the space junk collection satellite by 2018.

ISS Finally Resupplied After Unprecedented String of Failures

As reported by Wired: Russia's Progress 60 cargo ship successfully landed on the Pirs Docking Compartment of the International Space Station (ISS) on 5 July, delivering much-needed supplies to the crew. 

The craft brought an array of fresh cargo -- the first since April -- to the Expedition 44 crew living and working onboard, including 106 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water and 3,133 pounds of spare parts and hardware for experiments. The unpiloted Progress 60 is now set to remain attached to ISS until November. 

The ISS crew greeted the arrival of supplies with unreserved glee, reporting that it felt like "Christmas in July".

Their relief perhaps isn't surprising: it's the first time the ISS has received new supplies since 14 April, following a series of ill-fated resupply missions; just last week, SpaceX's umannned Falcon 9 rocket, which was carrying cargo including new water filtration equipment and experiment materials, exploded just a few seconds into its flight due to a still-unknown glitch.

An earlier Progress resupply flight in May saw the spacecraft spin out of control and disintegrate shortly after reaching orbit, while Orbital Sciences' private Antares rocket (also unmanned) exploded while attempting to take supplies to the platform in October 2014. Although NASA confirmed after the most recent disaster that the ISS crew had enough supplies to live and work comfortably until at least October, the arrival of supplies provides around an extra month of vital provisions such as food and water.

Soon the crew of ISS can look forward to a supplies boost from the Japanese HTV-5 spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch its four-day trip on 16 August. Before that, three new ISS members are set to arrive on a Russian Soyuz craft on 22 July, which will then be transporting three of the current crew members back to Earth.