Mars Curiosity Rover: Lessons Learned on Wheel Design

Public domain image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

"The anomalous wheel wear suggests that loads and terrains representative of actual operational conditions were not adequately simulated during life testing"

 

The tyres are made from aluminium. According to this recommendation by JPL, metal fatigue and single event punctures caused by wind-eroded, immobile pyramidal shaped rocks was responsible for the damage.

The Curiosity rover has travelled over 20 miles on the surface of Mars since it landed on the red planet in 2011 as part of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. The robot is about the size of a small car and weighs around 900 kg.

5 Live Science Podcast — Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Pulsars

Image produced using Bing Image Creator.

In this 5 Live Science podcast, Northern Ireland native Jocelyn Bell Burnell talks with Dr Chris Smith about radio astronomy and her discovery of pulsars. These are rotating neutron stars that emit beams of electromagnetic radiation from their magnetic poles, the radiation sweeping the Universe like a lighthouse beam. Neutron stars are extremely dense. Atoms are mostly empty space, a simplistic model resembling our Solar System with electrons existing in outer orbitals and a nucleus at the centre. However just like the Solar System, there is lots of space between the electrons and nucleus. In a neutron star, gravity squeezes everything together so tightly that nuclei in adjacent atoms pack up against each other. The result is super-extreme density and according to Scientific American, a ping-pong ball sized piece of a neutron star would weigh over a billion tonnes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0kds1xg

Linked content, courtesy the BBC. The BBC in no way endorses content on this blog.

Video From Photos Using AI — Turning Your School Photos into Videos

Image created by Bing Image Creator

Many of us over a certain age don't have any "home movies" of ourselves from when we were young and just handfuls of photos, not like the hundreds or thousands that parents take of their kids today. Imagine if you could turn your photos into home movies?

I've been playing with this AI, video generating online application called Hailuo AI that can turn photos into videos. You might remember Pic Me, the animated TV series for pre-school kids where a child's face was cut out and pasted onto an animated body that got up to all sorts of activities. However this AI technology is light years ahead. Once an image is uploaded, just like with Dall-E, Bing Image Creator or other AI image generating application, a text description of what the video should look like is provided is provided by the user. The application then effectively "skins" the person in the image and wraps their outsides around wire frames it can animate.

The results are somewhat mind boggling. Try it on your old school photos.

Pump Post Mortem

Checking the capacitance of the run capacitor. © Eugene Brennan

 

I've been doing a post mortem on my central heating pump. The shaft is spinning freely, there's very little rust internally and just as predicted, the run capacitor for the motor had failed, a part that would have cost about €5 to €8. I thought the leads for the capacitor might have been held by spring clamps, just like the power cable, but the pump was facing inwards when in situ, so I couldn't get at them to check. It turned out they were crimped onto the connector plug terminals. So the replacement capacitor's leads would have had to be joined to the existing leads, soldered and heat shrinked. According to the plumber, the pump would have swivelled out for access and the threads aren't sealed with Plumber's Mait, washers are used for sealing. So I'll be fitting a new one myself the next time, or probably this one with a replacement capacitor. (I've fitted two pumps before in the workshop).

 

WARNING! If you're ever checking mains capacitors, make sure they're discharged first, because they can potentially be charged to almost 400 V DC and lethal.

 

Circulating pump. © Eugene Brennan

Not much sludge accumulated in the pump. © Eugene Brennan

Motor run capacitor. © Eugene Brennan

Pump details. © Eugene Brennan

 

Sailing By

Image generated by Bing Image Creator

You may have heard Joe Duffy's segment the other day on Liveline about the BBC Shipping Forecast, broadcast at 00:48 on BBC Radio 4, before the station closes down at 1 am. On LW, the frequency then carries the BBC World Service. For some, the forecast is like a soothing mantra, the repetitive structure and intonation or melody of the words easing them off to sleep. In this documentary, local man Al Ryan who is a BBC presenter, amongst others, speak about the forecast which celebrates its centenary this January.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002699p