Category: Tech

Jeff Bezos’ aviation company Blue Origin has unveiled Blue Ring, a spacecraft platform focused on providing in-space logistics and delivery.

Blue Ring is part of a newly-formed Blue Origin business unit called In-Space Systems. It provides end-to-end services that span hosting, transportation, refueling, data relay, and logistics, including an “in-space” cloud computing capability, for missions in medium Earth orbit out to the cislunar region and beyond.

The platform can host payloads of more than 3,000 kg, and provides unprecedented delta-V capabilities and mission flexibility, the company said in a statement on October 16. It will be powered by a hybrid chemical and solar-electric propulsion system, designed and mostly manufactured by Blue Origin. It would harness electric power from roll-out solar arrays that span about 144 feet. A single Blue Ring could carry more than 6,660 pounds of payloads.

Blue Ring engines would not be repurposed from Blue Origin’s current engine line in use on the New Shepard suborbital system and other craft, said reports.

Headquartered in Kent, Washington, Blue Origin won a $3.4 billion NASA contract earlier this year to build a lunar lander for the US space agency’s astronauts.

Dubai Police plans to deploy fully electric, self-driving patrol cars equipped with artificial intelligence (AI). A prototype of the high-tech patrol car was unveiled in the five-day GITEX Global 2023 held at Dubai World Trade Centre from October 16-20.

These state-of-the-art patrol cars are equipped with sophisticated AI technology, enabling them to identify criminal activity, recognise individuals’ faces, and scan vehicle license plates. The design of these vehicles is tailored for deployment in residential areas, where the need for enhanced security is critical.

The vehicle has an advanced camera with a 360-degree capture capability. Its battery lasts up to 15 hours and can reach speeds of 5 to 7 kilometres per hour. It is also equipped with direct communication technologies, allowing it to liaise in real-time with the Command and Control Centre at the Dubai Police’s General Operations Department.

Notably, these innovative patrol cars come with an integrated drone, which can access areas that the vehicle cannot reach and maintains direct wireless communication with the patrol team once deployed.

Micropolis Robotics is responsible for the custom mechanical system of these vehicles, with each wheel having independent steering, braking, and throttle mechanisms. This unique set-up enables the patrol cars to move in multiple directions, including forward, backward, sideways, and even execute donut moves. Furthermore, these autonomous patrol cars operate almost silently, making them discreet in their surveillance efforts.

While the autonomous police patrol cars are currently undergoing further testing, they are expected to be patrolling the streets within the next year.

In a remarkable feat, a 21-year-old computer science student has harnessed the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to decode letters from scorched scrolls dating back 2,000 years, which were once considered completely unreadable. The discovery was announced on October 19 by Professor Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, along with a team of collaborators.

They researchers initiated the Vesuvius challenge in March, an endeavour aimed at expediting the deciphering of these ancient texts. The challenge, supported by Silicon Valley investors, offered cash rewards to researchers, who could extract legible words from the carbonised scrolls.

The scrolls, comprising more than 1,800 charred papyrus documents known as the Herculaneum papyri, were unearthed in the 18th century in Italy. When the volcanic eruption in AD 79 reached the town of Herculaneum, it not only buried the Roman settlement, but also incinerated these scrolls in the library of a luxurious villa.

Two computer science students, Luke Farritor in Nebraska and Youssef Nader in Berlin, took up the Vesuvius challenge. They significantly improved the search process and, remarkably, both independently arrived at the same deciphered word. Farritor was the first to identify a word and was awarded $40,000, while Nader also succeeded and secured a $10,000 prize. Subsequently, more letters from these ancient scrolls have been uncovered by researchers.

Software company Adobe, at its annual MAX conference, unveiled a new futuristic “digital dress” that lets wearers change patterns on its surface on the go.At the conference, from October 10 to 12, in Los Angeles, California, Adobe showed major new AI capabilities, highlighting how generative AI can be used by design professionals in their daily workflow.

The dress, developed under Adobe’s Project Primrose, is made of sequins that are “reflective light-diffuser modules” built using liquid crystals such as those used in smart lighting. The sequins are basically tiny screens built using smart materials.

A video from the conference showed Adobe researcher Christine Dierk wearing the strapless outfit. The patterns on the dress begin to shift with the touch of a remote button. The dress not only had static changes, but also animated designs with patterns fading in and out. The researcher, who designed and stitched the dress, demonstrated that the outfit will even respond to movement.

The reflective-backed polymer-dispersed liquid crystal used in the dress is a material commonly used in smart windows. This low-power non-emissive material can be cut to any shape, and dynamically diffuses light. Designers can use this technology into clothing, furniture, and other surfaces for unlimited style possibilities such as the ability to download and wear the latest design from a favourite designer.

A mobile tower has been installed for the first time at Siachen Glacier, the world’s highest battlefield. In collaboration with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the army personnel established the base transceiver station (BTS) at forward posts on October 6 to extend mobile communication for the soldiers deployed at more than 15,500 feet, said XIV Corps or Fire and Fury Corps responsible for guarding borders with China and Pakistan.

Fire and Fury Corps posted the news on social media platform X on October 12. Devusinh Chauhan, Minister of State for Communications, Government of India, and industrialist Anand Mahindra were among eminent people who also took to the social media platform to laud the significant development.

The new BTS has fulfilled the long pending requirement of mobile connectivity to the soldiers deployed in the most trying circumstances to guard borders with China and Pakistan.

Earlier, the 3,000 troops deployed at Siachen communicated through satellite phones and landlines. Mobile connectivity now gives them unhindered access to the rest of the world. It would also facilitate quick transfer of data and images from posts situated upwards of the Siachen base camp, where a soldier remains posted for 90 days due to the extreme harsh weather conditions. 

IIT-Bombay and Laurus Labs backed ImmunoACT have received the approval for India’s first CAR-T cell therapy, NexCAR19 (Actalycabtagene autoleucel) — a breakthrough treatment for some types of cancers — from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).

NexCAR19 has been approved for relapsed-refractory B-cell lymphoma and leukemia.

The approval will offer hope to thousands of blood cancer and lymphoma (cancers of the lymph system) patients in the country who cannot afford to travel abroad to avail the cutting-edge therapy, an advanced form of immunotherapy first launched in the US in 2017. So far, most Indian patients went to the US where it cost around $400,000 or over Rs. 3.3 crore.

Patients who are eligible for the treatment can register with the hospitals offering the treatment for it, said the ImmunoACT in a statement on October 13.  To begin with, the therapy would be available in around 20 government and private hospitals treating cancer across most of the major cities, at around Rs 30-35 lakh per patient, it added.

As part of the phase 1 and 2 trial of the therapy in India, 60 patients underwent treatment across various hospitals, such as Tata Memorial Hospitals’ Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer in Mumbai.

The India-Pakistan ICC World Cup match on October 14 set a global streaming record with more than 3.5 crore people watching the clash on Disney+Hotstar. The new global streaming viewership record has beaten the record set by the Indian Premier League (IPL) final between Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans on May 29 with a viewership of 3.2 crore viewers.

In the match played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India defeated Pakistan by 7 wickets to register its 8th World Cup victory against the team in a historic rivalry that has been on since 1991. With the massive win, India dethroned New Zealand from the top of the ICC World Cup 2023 points table. 

Indian bowlers dominated the game, as the Pakistan team was all-out on a low score of 191 runs all out in 42.5 overs. Apart from Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra Jadeja all got two wickets each.

The batters reached the target in 30.3 overs. Indian captain Rohit Sharma blazed a 36-ball half-century and Shreyas Iyer gave the finishing touches with an unbeaten 50 runs. Sharma scored 86 runs off 63 balls, including six fours and six sixes.

Amazon’s first pair of prototype satellites for its planned Kuiper internet network was launched into space on October 6 from Florida, US. It is the company’s first step towards its mission of deploying thousands more satellites into orbit to beam internet service globally.

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket carrying the satellites lifted off from Cape Canaveral shortly after 2 p.m. Eastern time (1800 GMT). The mission aims to test Amazon’s first pieces of technology in space. The e-commerce and web services giant plans to deploy 3,236 more satellites in the next few years and offer broadband internet globally.

The two satellites were built at the US company’s satellite plant in Redmond, Washington. It later said that the satellites were deployed, and its mission operations center had made contact with them.

Amazon has pledged to invest $10 billion into its Kuiper project, which was announced in 2019. The US Federal Communications Commission has asked the company to deploy half its planned satellite constellation by 2026.

To deploy the rest of the Kuiper network, Amazon last year announced a bulk launch deal for 83 rockets. The largest commercial rocket procurement ever, the company will get the rockets from various companies, including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, ULA and Europe’s Arianespace.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will execute the first of multiple test flights ahead of its first manned mission to space, Gaganyaan from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on October 21. The test involves launching the module to outer space and bringing it back to earth and recovering it after touchdown in the Bay of Bengal.

The test is intended to test the crew module or the part of the vehicle where the Indian astronauts will be housed. ISRO will launch an empty module before bringing it safely back to Earth.

“The success of this test flight will set the stage for the remaining qualification tests and unmanned missions, leading to the first Gaganyaan mission with Indian Astronauts,” ISRO said in a statement on October 6.

The test Crew Module (CM) will be similar to the pressurised module that will hold crew members during their ascent to space, but this version will be unpressurised. This CM will be launched via a single-stage liquid rocket specifically developed for this mission that will simulate an abort scenario.

On the other hand, the real CM will be carried on a 143-foot-tall (43.5-meter) Launch Vehicle Mark-3 rocket with a solid stage, liquid stage and cryogenic stage.

The test module will have other components, such as drogue parachutes designed to stabilise and slow the spacecraft during reentry and recovery aid actuation systems, and a Crew Escape System and CM Fairing and Interface Adapters to help assess the emergency escape system used to eject astronauts if required.

On October 14, as parts of the world will plunge into partial darkness during the annular solar eclipse, NASA will send rockets flying into the shadow of the eclipse. Under its mission, Atmospheric Perturbations around the Eclipse Path (APEP), the US space agency will launch three rockets to learn how the sudden drop in sunlight affects Earth’s upper atmosphere.

On Saturday, the people living near the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico will see sudden bright streaks from the three NASA rockets racing towards the Sun when its brightness will dim to only a bright “ring of fire.”

During a total solar eclipse in 2017, many instruments in North America, even those located hundreds of kilometres outside the path of the eclipse, detected atmospheric changes. The eclipse also impacted important infrastructure such as GPS and communication satellites. The impact made it crucial to understand and model any disturbances to the ionosphere and what effect they can have.

The APEP mission will launch three rockets—the first will be launched about 35 minutes before the peak eclipse, one during the peak, and the third about 35 minutes later. Each rocket will deploy four small scientific instruments that will measure density, temperature, and changes in electric and magnetic fields.

The project is spearheaded by Aroh Barjatya, an engineering physics professor of Indian origin at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.