So in reading up on the Lunar XPrize I found that there's some controversy over the bonuses, specifically the Heritage Prize and the Apollo Heritage Prize. There's a few individuals and groups that feel that places like the Apollo landing zones should be kept as free from future human interference as possible to maintain their astroarchaeological value. That attempts to film or revisit these areas will result in them being covered in tracks or damaged in some way.
The Heritage Prize is $1mil to the first team to transmit an 8 minute mooncast from a site of human-historical significance including high quality video, a near-real-time video stream, and panorama view. The Apollo Heritage Prize is $4mil, and is the Heritage Prize but at one of the sites of the Apollo landings with specific emphasis on capturing video of the craft on the surface.
No word yet on whether they get extra money for bringing back the bags of poo.
or it has already been attacked by parasitioid wasps or flies, which will burst out of the caterpillar's body after a week or so
Ugh. That's something I never want to image search ever again.
I had a framed electron microscope image of an adult wasp bursting out of the body of an aphid hanging above my desk during my PhD
Can't believe I forgot it when I graduated....
1) do you have pictures of this? This sounds awesome. Way cooler than the parasites I run into, which are dumb.
2) Wait, adults? I thought they generally ate the way through in a larval state, am I wrong with that? Or is it only certain clades of things?
So, I don't have a picture because it was taken by a grad student before I got there, which is why I treasured it so much. Image searching isn't helping me too much either.
As to the second point, it depends. Some parasitoids consume their host during the larval state, kill it, chew their way out as larvae and then pupate in soil, or somewhere else. Others instead complete their entire life cycle inside the host- they pupate and eclose inside their host, emerging as adults. Both of these strategies (and many more!) have specific names that I can't remember right now. Insect parasitoids have some of the most complex and weird diversity of lifecycles around (look up polyembryonic parasitoids if you're bored- they basically asexually reproduce during embryonic development and multiply from one egg into millions of parasitoid larvae, each with individual castes inside the body).
The most famously small insect, from this family, is less than 100 microns long, which is smaller than a lot of amoebas and other single celled organisms. It's so tiny, that the wasp actually ejects the nuclei from it's neurons to save space in it's body.
Following a fair bit of outrage about how badly Ming’s first contact with humans had panned out, the team pointed out to the BBC that ocean quahog clams are used in clam chowder all the time and that these soup clams might also be hundreds of years old. None of the other 200 clams dredged up in their climate change research got names, they also said.
Ocean quahog clams are well known to live to be very, very old, but it’s not certain why that is. Like other long-lived animals, such as the naked mole rat, the animal has been a subject of much research, in hopes of applying their long-life secrets to humans.
Long lived animals are usually things i would not want to be more like. Clams, alligators, tortoises, naked molerats.
So hey guys, more moon talk again. The US government approved the first ever private company expedition to the moon.
A bit on some of the entities involved in this.
Google Lunar X Prize
The Google Lunar X prize is an award of $20 million to the first private organization to land a robotic lander on the moon, travel 500 meters above, below, or on the lunar surface, and transmit high-definition video and images back to earth. The current deadline for this is December 2017, but it has been pushed back before from it's original deadline of December 2015 on the stipulation that at least one team had to secure a launch contract by December 2015. Two of them did, being the Israeli Space IL and the US Moon Express.
There are additional bonuses to be awarded on completion of certain conditions, like the filming of areas of the Apollo missions.
The Outer Space Treaty
In accordance with the Outer Space Treaty, states must approve and monitor private space missions that happen within their jurisdiction.
While the treaty disallows governments from claiming extraterrestrial resources, it does not specifically disallow private entities from doing so. However it does state that States that launch objects into space retain ownership of that object are are responsible for damages by that object. What that entails or even means in practice is not well stated.
Moon Express
The company Moon Express started in 2010 with the ultimate goal of winning Google's Lunar X prize and establishing infrastructure for sending media to and from the moon, as well as mining it for resources like Niobium, Yttrium, and Helium-3. They have invested over $500,000 in NASA through a program (granted via the "Space Act" of 1958) whereby they have been able to commercialize NASA facilities and technology.
Reimbursable Agreements - Agreements where NASA's costs associated to the activity are reimbursed by the Agreement Partner (in full or in part). NASA undertakes Reimbursable Agreements when it has unique goods, services, and facilities that are not currently being fully utilized to accomplish mission needs. These may be made available to others on a noninterference basis and consistent with the Agency's missions and policies.
They had a working prototype of a lunar lander within a year of their founding, at least partially due to their ability to share resources with NASA.
They're contracted with New Zealand's Rocket Lab for three launches on their Electron Rocket (brand name, not an indication of the kind of rocket).
They're also contracted with NASA for lunar data services, which is valued in the millions of dollars.
They're also contracted with the ILOA for assistance establishing the International Lunar Observatory.
International Lunar Observatory Association
The ILOA is an international organization that plans to advance human knowledge through placement of observatories on the moon. Currently the ILO-X 7cm optical telescope is contracted to be landed on the moon with Moon Express's first launch (MX-1). They have already landed the Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope on the lander of the Chang’e-3, with additional contracts to land more telescopes on the lunar surface with Chang'e-4/5/6.
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab, founded in 2006, will be providing the use of its Electron Launch Vehicle to Moon Express. The ELV is a two-stage vehicle using Rutherford engines. Rutherford engines use battery powered motors to control the pumps that combine the fuel and the oxidizer, removing the need for a secondary engine. It's also almost entirely 3D printed via electron beam melting process.
The US Government
The FAA, the NOIA, NASA, the DoD, the White House, the FCC, and the Department of State all had to sign off on the mission, which first sought approval in April 2015, and received it's final approval last month. It's worth noting that there's no official process for this, which has led to a really long and drawn out phase in the planning as multiple agencies were required to work together on this. This has prompted the feds to try and come up with a licensing process for future missions, though it's still unclear who exactly would be in-charge. However as of July 2016 Moon Express has become the first company to receive approval for private space missions beyond Earth's orbit.
SpaceIL
SpaceIL is an Israeli non-profit who have secured reservations with SpaceX for a launch in 2017. Instead of a tracked or wheeled vehicle their lander will travel the requisite 500 meters for the XPrize by hopping from its landing site to its secondary site via rocket propulsion. Of their 200+ members they are 95% volunteers, which makes them unique among the competition. Especially as they're one of only two teams to currently have launches contracted and it was their team's contract with SpaceX that secured the extension on the XPrize to 2017.
So hey guys, more moon talk again. The US government approved the first ever private company expedition to the moon.
A bit on some of the entities involved in this.
Google Lunar X Prize
The Google Lunar X prize is an award of $20 million to the first private organization to land a robotic lander on the moon, travel 500 meters above, below, or on the lunar surface, and transmit high-definition video and images back to earth. The current deadline for this is December 2017, but it has been pushed back before from it's original deadline of December 2015 on the stipulation that at least one team had to secure a launch contract by December 2015. Two of them did, being the Israeli Space IL and the US Moon Express.
There are additional bonuses to be awarded on completion of certain conditions, like the filming of areas of the Apollo missions.
The Outer Space Treaty
In accordance with the Outer Space Treaty, states must approve and monitor private space missions that happen within their jurisdiction.
While the treaty disallows governments from claiming extraterrestrial resources, it does not specifically disallow private entities from doing so. However it does state that States that launch objects into space retain ownership of that object are are responsible for damages by that object. What that entails or even means in practice is not well stated.
Moon Express
The company Moon Express started in 2010 with the ultimate goal of winning Google's Lunar X prize and establishing infrastructure for sending media to and from the moon, as well as mining it for resources like Niobium, Yttrium, and Helium-3. They have invested over $500,000 in NASA through a program (granted via the "Space Act" of 1958) whereby they have been able to commercialize NASA facilities and technology.
Reimbursable Agreements - Agreements where NASA's costs associated to the activity are reimbursed by the Agreement Partner (in full or in part). NASA undertakes Reimbursable Agreements when it has unique goods, services, and facilities that are not currently being fully utilized to accomplish mission needs. These may be made available to others on a noninterference basis and consistent with the Agency's missions and policies.
They had a working prototype of a lunar lander within a year of their founding, at least partially due to their ability to share resources with NASA.
They're contracted with New Zealand's Rocket Lab for three launches on their Electron Rocket (brand name, not an indication of the kind of rocket).
They're also contracted with NASA for lunar data services, which is valued in the millions of dollars.
They're also contracted with the ILOA for assistance establishing the International Lunar Observatory.
International Lunar Observatory Association
The ILOA is an international organization that plans to advance human knowledge through placement of observatories on the moon. Currently the ILO-X 7cm optical telescope is contracted to be landed on the moon with Moon Express's first launch (MX-1). They have already landed the Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope on the lander of the Chang’e-3, with additional contracts to land more telescopes on the lunar surface with Chang'e-4/5/6.
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab, founded in 2006, will be providing the use of its Electron Launch Vehicle to Moon Express. The ELV is a two-stage vehicle using Rutherford engines. Rutherford engines use battery powered motors to control the pumps that combine the fuel and the oxidizer, removing the need for a secondary engine. It's also almost entirely 3D printed via electron beam melting process.
The US Government
The FAA, the NOIA, NASA, the DoD, the White House, the FCC, and the Department of State all had to sign off on the mission, which first sought approval in April 2015, and received it's final approval last month. It's worth noting that there's no official process for this, which has led to a really long and drawn out phase in the planning as multiple agencies were required to work together on this. This has prompted the feds to try and come up with a licensing process for future missions, though it's still unclear who exactly would be in-charge. However as of July 2016 Moon Express has become the first company to receive approval for private space missions beyond Earth's orbit.
SpaceIL
SpaceIL is an Israeli non-profit who have secured reservations with SpaceX for a launch in 2017. Instead of a tracked or wheeled vehicle their lander will travel the requisite 500 meters for the XPrize by hopping from its landing site to its secondary site via rocket propulsion. Of their 200+ members they are 95% volunteers, which makes them unique among the competition. Especially as they're one of only two teams to currently have launches contracted and it was their team's contract with SpaceX that secured the extension on the XPrize to 2017.
Also my phone tried to correct that to Trichoplax and I have rarely felt so sciency
..........goddamit @BugBoy you just made me realize that I called (AND LINKED) to the Family Mymaridae as the wasp family that has the tiny wasps with no nuclei in their neurons....and it's actually Trichogrammatidae
Speaking of peer review, I need to finish reviewing this paper. Is it correct? I honestly have no idea. That would take literally months of work to figure out.
But have they given me enough information to replicate the results if I wanted to? is it based on an accurate interpretation of previous results? Is the maths correct? Can they tie the results into valid experimental data observed by other people? Are their conclusions reasonable given the results? So far, yes to all the above, so I'll vote to accept it.
Yeah man that's basically my standard for accepting a paper for publication after review
In a related note (if you've seen my posts in D&D's [chat] thread) I actually spent the last two months trying to replicate the methods from a paper to no avail.....I exhausted every option, contacted the manufacturers for all my equipment, had several companies re-make fresh reagents, talked to the authors of the manuscript directly, even had someone else do the experiment while I watched
Only for it to work first try when I used the methods from the CDC, and not published literature
I've now added "contact authors of original paper and ask them to provide replication of their experiment" to my to-do list....
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One year from today will be the first total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous United States since 1979, so probably the first one many people here will have an opportunity to see.
I wonder what the chances of going to graduate school in a hard science are after having graduated with a LA degree? A friend's sister went to pharmacy school after graduating with an English degree, so it seems possible, but I don't have a lot of course work in hard sciences or mathematics.
If not possible then I'll probably go back to school to get a PhD in history of tech/science just because the topics align with economic history really well.
I wonder what the chances of going to graduate school in a hard science are after having graduated with a LA degree? A friend's sister went to pharmacy school after graduating with an English degree, so it seems possible, but I don't have a lot of course work in hard sciences or mathematics.
If not possible then I'll probably go back to school to get a PhD in history of tech/science just because the topics align with economic history really well.
Do some lab work, sneak your way onto some papers or author one if you have a PI that let's techs run real projects, take the classes, you'll get in somewhere, especially if you publish. But ask yourself real long and hard why you want a PhD in the sciences. (No I'm not in year 4 and growing more bitter all the time, nooo)
I wonder what the chances of going to graduate school in a hard science are after having graduated with a LA degree? A friend's sister went to pharmacy school after graduating with an English degree, so it seems possible, but I don't have a lot of course work in hard sciences or mathematics.
If not possible then I'll probably go back to school to get a PhD in history of tech/science just because the topics align with economic history really well.
Do some lab work, sneak your way onto some papers or author one if you have a PI that let's techs run real projects, take the classes, you'll get in somewhere, especially if you publish. But ask yourself real long and hard why you want a PhD in the sciences. (No I'm not in year 4 and growing more bitter all the time, nooo)
i mean, the rest is good advice for getting into a graduate program but if you don't have the science or maths background required then you're not going to get far. They're building-block subjects.
Yea, I guess I just blocked things in my mind like when I realized the undergrad didn't know about DNA replication. Just that moment of...huh.. well...man, I need you to do this PCR and we are just...going to take babysteps toward you understanding what is going on here.
“From what we know, there is a non-zero probability that there is an atmosphere,” Reiners said, which seemed to be his way of saying that he was excited.
One year from today will be the first total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous United States since 1979, so probably the first one many people here will have an opportunity to see.
April 2015 I called a small resort like place in southern Illinois that is in the middle of the eclipses path, and the guy that owned the place answered the phone. We had a good 30 minute laugh about how he has no idea what he will do because, in no particular order:
The police were already telling him to plan to not be able to leave his home for at least 2, but probably 3 days, because of the amount of people they were expecting. They are expecting both sides of the road to be full of parked cars days beforehand for miles around, and all roads in the area to be parking lots the day of.
Contacting the Burning Man crew about how to host a gathering of a million or so people
Already being offered $10,000 a room a night.
Contacted by someone claiming to be a representative of the Saudi royal family
and a few others I can't think of right now.
Bottom line, avoid southern Illinois. Don't even try it if you value your sanity.
One year from today will be the first total solar eclipse visible from the contiguous United States since 1979, so probably the first one many people here will have an opportunity to see.
April 2015 I called a small resort like place in southern Illinois that is in the middle of the eclipses path, and the guy that owned the place answered the phone. We had a good 30 minute laugh about how he has no idea what he will do because, in no particular order:
The police were already telling him to plan to not be able to leave his home for at least 2, but probably 3 days, because of the amount of people they were expecting. They are expecting both sides of the road to be full of parked cars days beforehand for miles around, and all roads in the area to be parking lots the day of.
Contacting the Burning Man crew about how to host a gathering of a million or so people
Already being offered $10,000 a room a night.
Contacted by someone claiming to be a representative of the Saudi royal family
and a few others I can't think of right now.
Bottom line, avoid southern Illinois. Don't even try it if you value your sanity.
Yeah, my current plan A is NE Georgia. Plan B is to get refundable hotel rooms in Nashville and Columbia, SC and sit on the weather forecast.
Most "normal" hotels are either already taking reservations or will be in the next few weeks.
SpaceX has found a client for its first gently used Falcon 9 rocket. Satellite company SES will be launching a geostationary satellite on the pre-owned rocket to provide coverage for the Andean region of South America. They may be getting a discount on using the like-new rockets.
SES was also the first commercial satellite company to contract Space X for flights. http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/08/spacex-finds-a-customer-for-its-first-reused-rocket-satellite-operator-ses/
I wonder what the chances of going to graduate school in a hard science are after having graduated with a LA degree? A friend's sister went to pharmacy school after graduating with an English degree, so it seems possible, but I don't have a lot of course work in hard sciences or mathematics.
If not possible then I'll probably go back to school to get a PhD in history of tech/science just because the topics align with economic history really well.
Do some lab work, sneak your way onto some papers or author one if you have a PI that let's techs run real projects, take the classes, you'll get in somewhere, especially if you publish. But ask yourself real long and hard why you want a PhD in the sciences. (No I'm not in year 4 and growing more bitter all the time, nooo)
i mean, the rest is good advice for getting into a graduate program but if you don't have the science or maths background required then you're not going to get far. They're building-block subjects.
Yeah, and that's honestly why if I end up going back to academia at all it'll probably be to study the history of science/technology alongside economics and then just pay attention to the science fields/industries that fascinate me (like machine learning and robotics and commercial space flight) because they often have very serious implications and boons for the economy that seem to be overlooked a lot.
Posts
been there done that
I want to be the first man to walk on the sun
Smash Mouth beat you to it.
Sol's the goal
The Heritage Prize is $1mil to the first team to transmit an 8 minute mooncast from a site of human-historical significance including high quality video, a near-real-time video stream, and panorama view. The Apollo Heritage Prize is $4mil, and is the Heritage Prize but at one of the sites of the Apollo landings with specific emphasis on capturing video of the craft on the surface.
No word yet on whether they get extra money for bringing back the bags of poo.
Many thanks @Arch
It's surprisingly difficult to envision
http://citybugs.tamu.edu/files/2011/11/smallest-insect-and-Paramecium_sm.jpg
There you go. Unless you mean those don't count as real-deal
Also my phone tried to correct that to Trichoplax and I have rarely felt so sciency
Somebody once told me...
[citation needed]
[1]
"All Star", "Astro Lounge", Smash Mouth. 1999 HOS Recording. Redwood City, California.
Long lived animals are usually things i would not want to be more like. Clams, alligators, tortoises, naked molerats.
Parrots are cool though.
We're invading your face. Be prepared.
..........goddamit @BugBoy you just made me realize that I called (AND LINKED) to the Family Mymaridae as the wasp family that has the tiny wasps with no nuclei in their neurons....and it's actually Trichogrammatidae
*shamefully hands over PhD*
this day Bugboy, you became a Bugman
Yeah man that's basically my standard for accepting a paper for publication after review
In a related note (if you've seen my posts in D&D's [chat] thread) I actually spent the last two months trying to replicate the methods from a paper to no avail.....I exhausted every option, contacted the manufacturers for all my equipment, had several companies re-make fresh reagents, talked to the authors of the manuscript directly, even had someone else do the experiment while I watched
Only for it to work first try when I used the methods from the CDC, and not published literature
I've now added "contact authors of original paper and ask them to provide replication of their experiment" to my to-do list....
But where can you see it? GreatAmericanEclipse.com has put together a list of suggested great viewing locations. Start planning those road trips for 2017!
If not possible then I'll probably go back to school to get a PhD in history of tech/science just because the topics align with economic history really well.
Do some lab work, sneak your way onto some papers or author one if you have a PI that let's techs run real projects, take the classes, you'll get in somewhere, especially if you publish. But ask yourself real long and hard why you want a PhD in the sciences. (No I'm not in year 4 and growing more bitter all the time, nooo)
i mean, the rest is good advice for getting into a graduate program but if you don't have the science or maths background required then you're not going to get far. They're building-block subjects.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2016/08/24/exoplanet_discovered_orbiting_proxima_centauri.html
“From what we know, there is a non-zero probability that there is an atmosphere,” Reiners said, which seemed to be his way of saying that he was excited.
?
(What a guy
I look forward to us buying jumpgate technology soon!
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
April 2015 I called a small resort like place in southern Illinois that is in the middle of the eclipses path, and the guy that owned the place answered the phone. We had a good 30 minute laugh about how he has no idea what he will do because, in no particular order:
and a few others I can't think of right now.
Bottom line, avoid southern Illinois. Don't even try it if you value your sanity.
Yeah, my current plan A is NE Georgia. Plan B is to get refundable hotel rooms in Nashville and Columbia, SC and sit on the weather forecast.
Most "normal" hotels are either already taking reservations or will be in the next few weeks.
SES was also the first commercial satellite company to contract Space X for flights.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/08/spacex-finds-a-customer-for-its-first-reused-rocket-satellite-operator-ses/
http://www.ses.com/4233325/news/2016/22407810
Yeah, and that's honestly why if I end up going back to academia at all it'll probably be to study the history of science/technology alongside economics and then just pay attention to the science fields/industries that fascinate me (like machine learning and robotics and commercial space flight) because they often have very serious implications and boons for the economy that seem to be overlooked a lot.