To the Stars with Data: January 16 2022
Autonomous semi-trucks, TONS of asteroids, space stations avoiding danger, and much more
Hello Datanauts!
Soooo, when can we stop saying “Happy New Year!” to colleagues we haven’t seen since 2021? Can we all agree that the cutoff date is January 15? Great.
As a reminder from last week, I'm trying out a new layout where I go in-depth on 2 articles and provide briefer explanations of 6-7. (Before, I only went in-depth on 4 and did not provide any others.) I'd really appreciate any feedback, particularly if you dislike the new layout!
Now, let’s go to the stars with data!
Thought-Provoking Data Viz
🌠 Eyes on Asteroids
Quick hits. Eyes on Asteroids is a live, interactive 3D data visualization/ simulation of notable asteroids and comets in the solar system. (It only shows ~28,000 of the 1,113,000+ NASA-recognized asteroids in the solar system.) Users are able to use the time gauge at the bottom of the screen to move forward or backward in time (trust me; you won’t regret trying it) and can even filter to only Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs). PHOs must be larger than 150 meters and approach Earth’s orbit within 7.5m kilometers (or 5% of the distance between Earth and the Sun).
Digging deeper. Okay, maybe it’s a bit too close to the release of Don’t Look Up to include a visualization about asteroids and Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs). However, I have some good news: the most likely PHO to potentially hit Earth is 2010 RF12 between 2095 and 2121. It has a huge chance (95.3%) of missing Earth entirely. Luckily for us, NASA’s next-generation asteroid impact monitoring system just went online recently, so we are becoming ever-more certain about possible asteroid impact events.
Earth News
🚚 Fully-autonomous semi-truck operates on public roads in world first
Quick hits. In a world-first, a class 8 semi-trick drove on a public highway without a person in its cabin or any other human interaction. The truck drove from a large railyard in Tucson to a high-volume distribution center in Phoenix, over 80 miles away. To ensure a smooth trip, a lead car scouted potential anomalies a few miles ahead of the truck, while a number of police cars trailed a few miles behind. Also included above, here’s a video of the drive.
Digging deeper. Companies have promised autonomous vehicles for over a decade, and we seem to finally be approaching fruition, indicated by a number of pieces of news coming out as of late. In addition to this semi-truck almost operating at a level 5 state (more information on “levels” here), we’ve seen news of autonomous delivery robots operating at level 4, Cruise and Waymo being able to charge money for robotaxi services in San Francisco (SF has only allowed these to operate for free in the past), and much more. We are quickly approaching the commonplace legal operating of level 4 and level 5 autonomous vehicles in a number of countries!
More Earth News
🍎 California law requiring proper disposal of food waste went into effect on January 1. The law requires most California residents to separate food waste from trash. Municipalities will then use the food waste to generate compost or biogas.
🩺 First-ever pig-to-human heart transplant ends successfully (so far). Yes, you read that right. A pig heart was transplanted into a human and the patient is still doing well!
🚗 Volvo to unveil unsupervised autonomous driving feature “Ride Pilot” in California. ‘We will not require hands on the steering wheel and we will not require eyes on the road’.
🕳 Chinese scientists construct a device that simulates low- or no-gravity. Though the device is only 2 feet across, scientists can now experiment in zero-g without going to space!
Space News
💥 China accuses US of unsafe space conduct after Tiangong has to maneuver twice to avoid collisions
Quick hits. Within 2021 alone, the Chinese space station Tiangong (“heavenly palace” in English) has had to maneuver twice to avoid collisions with SpaceX’s Starlink satellites and has thus accused the US of unsafe space conduct. Considering that astronauts live aboard Tiangong, such maneuvers are literally a matter of life and death, upping the stakes from potential collisions between satellites. However, the International Space Station has had to avoid possible collisions from debris from China’s 2007 anti-satellite test, so experts note that China doesn’t have a “clean record” either.
Digging deeper. With up to 12,000 Starlink satellites orbiting in the near future, if even one satellite collides with something else, we could have potentially tens of thousands of new pieces of space debris in orbit, each orbiting tens of thousands of miles/kilometers per hour. (As noted by NASA, space debris can orbit up to 18,000 miles per hour (~29,000 kmph), so even very small pieces cause huge damage upon collision.) I’ll leave you with one question: how do you combat tens of thousands of small things flying around at 18,000 miles per hour?
More Space News
🪐 Researchers discover a football-shaped exoplanet. It’s the first time a football-shaped exoplanet has been found (of the 4,903 NASA-recognized exoplanets).
💧 Chang’E-5 (Chinese moon rover) finds in-situ evidence of water on the surface of the Moon. “So what? There’s water on the moon.” - you, maybe. Finding water on the moon is important because if we can find a way to obtain water while on the moon, sustaining a permanent moon base becomes much easier (among many other important reasons!). Here’s the research paper for the nerds out there.
💪 Tiangong’s robotic arm successfully maneuvers a cargo spaceship to another dock. Successful tests of robotic arms help make them a more reliable option for future space stations, which would grant astronauts much more power in operating outside a spacecraft.
Future-Thinking Companies
🐑 Woola. They make a bubble-wrap replacement out of wool that would otherwise be wasted. They raised €2.5M Seed in Dec 2021.
🐟 Plantish. They make plant-based salmon that has the same nutritional content as actual salmon.