Science is Cool....

[Fish]

This is a repository for all cool scientific discussion and fascination. Scientific facts, theories, and overall cool scientific stuff that you'd like to share with others. Stuff that makes you smile and wonder at the amazing shit going on around us, that most people don't notice.

Post pictures, vidoes, stories, or links. Ask questions. Share science.

Why should I care?:

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by ptlyon

Because they finally figured out that "give them a millimeter and they'll take a kilometer" just doesn't sound right

Heh, indeed it does not

[Fish]

Science, bitches!

NASA-Supported Collision Avoidance System Saves Unconscious F-16 Pilot In Fourth Confirmed Rescue

Two pilots who credit a NASA-supported technology with saving one of their lives during a May training exercise mishap paid a visit to NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, to meet with some of the very engineers responsible for its development.

A United States Air Force Major and F-16 flight instructor, and a foreign Air Force pilot student, spent an afternoon at the NASA center, as guests during the center’s 2016 NASA Honor Awards.



The pilots spent the day with NASA Armstrong center director David McBride, project manager Mark Skoog, and several other engineers and managers responsible for developing and advancing the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System, or Auto-GCAS. Both pilots say that without the system, developed in part by NASA, one of them would not be alive today.

Auto-GCAS is an aircraft software system that activates upon detecting a collision course with the ground. It warns the pilot, and if imminent collision with the ground is determined, it locks the pilot controls and performs an automatic recovery maneuver, returning full control back to the pilot once the aircraft has cleared the terrain.

“There have been numerous accident reports over the years where it’s been pilot error,” explained the flight instructor, who graduated from pilot training in 2007 and now teaches young pilots how to fly F-16s. “That’s one of the things that frames my discussion with a lot of the young students that I teach, is that your chances of dying in combat are up there, it’s a dangerous thing. But most F-16 pilots over the years die in training accidents.”

The Tucson Air National Guard had been conducting a standard training scenario, known as basic fighter maneuvers, or BFM, in F-16s. For the student, it was his first high-aspect BFM flight. In essence, the scenario was designed for the student to fly a head-on pass with the instructor, with both aircraft flying directly at each other initially. Then, once they pass, or “merge,” each pilot tries to out-maneuver the other. The exercise is meant to train pilots in maneuvers necessary for aerial combat, and requires three dimensional maneuvering under high g.

Following the pass, the student banked his F-16 and began maneuvering, pulling more than 8 g. It was at this time that he experienced what’s known as a g-induced loss of consciousness, or G-LOC, and fell unconscious.

The aircraft, meanwhile, continued to bank, rolling to approximately 135 degrees, allowing the nose to start slicing and causing a steep dive toward the ground. The situation was especially perilous since the student, having intended to maneuver with high gravitational force, had advanced his throttle to “full afterburner” and significantly increased his aircraft’s thrust.

Continuing to accelerate, the aircraft began to plummet toward the ground, eventually reaching supersonic speed at Mach 1.12.

Meanwhile the instructor had noticed the anomaly, and began calling for his student to “recover, recover.” With no response, it was clear that the pilot was in a G-LOC situation. The instructor maneuvered to fly behind the distressed aircraft. However, the student’s F-16, flying at supersonic speed, pulled away and beyond visual line of sight.

“By the final ‘recover’ call, I’m basically just hoping that he recovers, because I’d lost sight of him at that point,” the instructor said. “I was really hoping I wasn’t going to see any sort of impact with the ground.”

Just as the instructor made his third and final “recover” call, the Auto-GCAS in the student’s aircraft activated, rolling the aircraft to a safe, upright position, and performed an automatic, stabilizing pull-up.

The pilot regained consciousness and promptly pulled back his throttle to “idle” speed.

“My memory is that I started the fight and then I could see my instructor and the next thing I remember is just waking up,” the pilot recalled. “It feels weird because I think I’m waking up from my bed. In my helmet, I can hear him screaming ‘recover, recover’ at me and when I open my eyes I just see my legs and the whole cockpit. It doesn’t really make sense.

“I got up over the horizon pretty fast again. It’s all thanks to the Auto-GCAS system, which got me out of the roll and started the recovery for me.”

Ultimately, the aircraft recovered at approximately 3,000 feet above the ground. This is high for where Auto-GCAS would have normally performed the recovery, but the system, assuming the throttle would remain at its current position with full afterburner, and that the pilot would remain unconscious, calculated an increase in the amount of altitude required for recovery.

“About maybe 30 seconds to a minute after I had gotten everything under control again,” remembered the student. “The first thing I thought about was my girlfriend, and then my family, and then my friends back home, and the thought of them basically getting a call (that I had perished).”

Following the potentially tragic incident, the student followed specific instructions from his instructor, was able to land his aircraft safely, and was promptly attended to by medical personnel.

The development of Auto-GCAS goes back over 30 years, first flying at Edwards Air Force Base as a collaboration between NASA, the Air Force Research Lab, AFRL, and Lockheed Martin. The program was originally included as a test safety system to allow for other requested testing to take place. Testers quickly took note of the potential of Auto-GCAS, and agreed that it may hold broader-reaching ramifications than the primary test systems.

However, Skoog, who has worked with autonomous systems since the beginning of his career, says that the system was met with initial opposition including from the fighter pilot community.

“There were some instances where we saw families of pilots who’d been lost in mishaps and we knew that it could be prevented,” Skoog said. “It was very challenging. There’s a personal burden and a clear moral responsibility to get the message out to the decision makers so that they can properly administrate funds to bring this kind of potential life-saving technology forward.”

Auto-GCAS was eventually incorporated into the Fighter Risk Reduction program and was subsequently fielded on the F-16 in September of 2014. Since then, the system has prevented at least four confirmed aircraft situations that could have resulted in loss of life.

“After having gone through so much initial resistance from the pilot community, to now, where just weeks after its implementation there was a complete reversal in pilot opinion,” Skoog said. “They are finally seeing what we in the test community saw for a long time.”

For the student, the system, he says, made all the difference in his life.

“This was an isolated incident for me, but, from the bottom of my heart, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been a part of developing the Auto-GCAS system,” he said. “It’s everyone, not just engineers, but politicians and people just trying to get the ball rolling on having the Air Force use it. They are the reason that I am able to stand here today and talk about it. I’m able to continue to fly the F-16, and I’m able to go home and see my family again. So thank you, so much.”

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by ptlyon

Because they finally figured out that "give them a millimeter and they'll take a kilometer" just doesn't sound right

Now that I think about it, drug dealers use metric weights, right? Maybe that's because they work internationally or something.

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Now that I think about it, drug dealers use metric weights, right? Maybe that's because they work internationally or something.

Only with certain drugs. Pounds isn't metric is it?

Ounces? Grams?

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

Only with certain drugs. Pounds isn't metric is it?

Ounces? Grams?

Maybe it's only the imports like cocaine. Domestics like marijuana may still use the english system. No wonder drug addicts always seem confused.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by ptlyon

When in Rome, did you do what the other youths did?

Yes.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk (so spelling be damned!!!)

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Maybe it's only the imports like cocaine. Domestics like marijuana may still use the english system. No wonder drug addicts always seem confused.

Even cocaine is broken down into grams and ounces at some point

[Pants]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

Even cocaine is broken down into grams and ounces at some point

An 8-ball is an 8th of an ounce. I'm not sure, but I believe that's the standard amount of cocaine one usually obtains for personal use.

An "eighth" is a also the standard amount of marijuana one would usually procure for personal use.

These are obviously not metric. However, I do believe when it comes to distributing these sort of things, the standard unit of measure of cocaine is a "key," which, of course, is a kilogram. Conversely, marijuana is usually counted by pounds.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Pants

An 8-ball is an 8th of an ounce. I'm not sure, but I believe that's the standard amount of cocaine one usually obtains for personal use.

An "eighth" is a also the standard amount of marijuana one would usually procure for personal use.

These are obviously not metric. However, I do believe when it comes to distributing these sort of things, the standard unit of measure of cocaine is a "key," which, of course, is a kilogram. Conversely, marijuana is usually counted by pounds.

Somewhere along the line, it appears that some guy is accepting shipments in kilograms and then repackaging in ounces. If you can convince that guy to keep using metric on the outbound side, I bet the metric system would gain some traction, at least among investment bankers and strippers.

[Nickhead]

Solar storm heading towards Earth threatening to break your Sky TV and mobile phones

http://www.express.co.uk/news/scienc...-mobile-phones

Modern-day Britain could go into meltdown after scientists forecast the solar storm to hit between now and Friday which could wreak havoc with technology.

Solar storms affect Earth’s technology as radiation is thrown at the planet from the Sun.

While humans are protected from the radiation by the atmosphere, the rays can heat the outer atmosphere, causing it to expand which can affect satellites in orbit. That could lead to a lack of GPS navigation, mobile phone signal and satellite TV such as Sky.

[BigRedChief]

I'm totally convinced that when Quantum computing combines with this, our human evolution is not going to be fast tracked but light speed evolution is going to occur.

Room-temp superconductors could be possible https://t.co/daYcmwYaCr

— Phys.org (@physorg_com) September 29, 2016

[Huffmeister]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

I'm totally convinced that when Quantum computing combines with this, our human evolution is not going to be fast tracked but light speed evolution is going to occur.

I've begun to wonder if this is the answer to the Fermi Paradox.

If there's a natural progression to the advancement of all civilizations in the universe (biological evolutions, stone age, mathematics, harnessing the power of the atom, information age, space travel, harnessing quantum mechanics, etc), then maybe the answer to Fermi's question of "Where is everyone?" is that there's a certain point in that natural progression in which intelligent life evolves into something else completely. Maybe a higher dimension?

This definitely isn't a new idea. It's been explored by most sci-fi writers, including legends like Asimov and Clarke. I just feel like it's a plausible answer to Fermi's Paradox.

Of course, it could also be that the reason that we have heard from anyone is because space is big and interstellar distances are the biggest barrier.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Huffmeister

I've begun to wonder if this is the answer to the Fermi Paradox.

If there's a natural progression to the advancement of all civilizations in the universe (biological evolutions, stone age, mathematics, harnessing the power of the atom, information age, space travel, harnessing quantum mechanics, etc), then maybe the answer to Fermi's question of "Where is everyone?" is that there's a certain point in that natural progression in which intelligent life evolves into something else completely. Maybe a higher dimension?

This definitely isn't a new idea. It's been explored by most sci-fi writers, including legends like Asimov and Clarke. I just feel like it's a plausible answer to Fermi's Paradox.

Of course, it could also be that the reason that we have heard from anyone is because space is big and interstellar distances are the biggest barrier.

I had never heard of Fermi's quesiton. Thanks for that. I checked it out. Very interesting.

I'm thinking it's more of a we don't know what we're listening for and it's too far away, plus we're still infants in universe years.

[FlintHillsChiefs]

Originally Posted by O.city

I had never heard of Fermi's quesiton. Thanks for that. I checked it out. Very interesting.

I'm thinking it's more of a we don't know what we're listening for and it's too far away, plus we're still infants in universe years.

My thinking is that life as we know it is rarer than we think. We used to think that "okay, so as long as the ball of rock is close to the same size as ours, and is far enough away from its sun, but not too far, then viola!"

The truth is it is much more complicated than that.

Here are some factors that I think most people don't consider.

1) It takes about 3-4 generations of stars to get the necessary heavy metals we need for life (iron, high enough concentration of carbon, sodium, calcium, zinc, etc) to exist in a meaningful abundance. That means that life probably wasn't possible in the universe until about 6-9 billion years ago.

2) In addition to a solar system based Goldilocks zone, there is also a galaxy wide Goldilocks zone. Too close to the center, the chances of you getting hammered with radiation from nearby stars going supernova or getting sucked into a blackhole are much higher. The probability of going the necessary hundres of millions or billions of years without a catastrophic event are next to nil. That means the best places for live to form and thrive in a galaxy are going to be along it's outer arms.

3) Earth is lucky in that it has a Jupiter. Solar systems that don't have a Jupiter-like planet on the opposite side of the sun from the earth-like planet are not going to be likely to have life. Jupiter not only shields us from asteroid impacts, but it also helps stabilize Earth's axis of rotation. Without Jupiter, our axis of rotation would eventually flop over towards the Sun. It also helped stabilize the rotations of the planets in the solar system into their stable orbits we see now.

4) Plate Tectonics. Thinking goes that plate tectonics are essential to keep a planet at equilibrium. Plate Tectonics sequester carbon, etc. Venus is a "bottle-cap" planet, in which it has no plate tectonics, and billions of years ago, Venus had a runaway greenhouse gas problem, which is why it is as hellish as it is now.

5) Earth-Gaia collision. A while back, Earth collided with a Mars sized planet, which gave us two things. First, we got an unusually large core. The molten core is what emits the magnetosphere, which protects us from the Sun's radiation. Secondly, we got a huge moon compared in respect to the size of our planet. The tidal interactions between our earth and the moon may have been essential to the formation of life.

So, in conclusion, I would say that the most common estimates for intelligent life in the galaxy (around 10,000) is way too high. I'd say its most likely that there are 100 at most. My personal guess is there are probably no more than 20 intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Huffmeister

I've begun to wonder if this is the answer to the Fermi Paradox.

If there's a natural progression to the advancement of all civilizations in the universe (biological evolutions, stone age, mathematics, harnessing the power of the atom, information age, space travel, harnessing quantum mechanics, etc), then maybe the answer to Fermi's question of "Where is everyone?" is that there's a certain point in that natural progression in which intelligent life evolves into something else completely. Maybe a higher dimension?

This definitely isn't a new idea. It's been explored by most sci-fi writers, including legends like Asimov and Clarke. I just feel like it's a plausible answer to Fermi's Paradox.

Of course, it could also be that the reason that we have heard from anyone is because space is big and interstellar distances are the biggest barrier.

I hadn't thought about that. Interesting thought. It is a big sky.

I've always assumed that as civilization advances their ability to perform long range scans will improve. But, even if that is a truism, maybe more advanced civilizations find us but don't bother trying to contact us for many reasons.

I'm still of the same opinion as Hawking, there is a greater chance of our first contact to not being a pleasant one. They will indeed be hostile.