Tag: aging
NASA refuses to let go of its aging interstellar explorer
A spacecraft can’t live among the stars forever.
But NASA isn’t quite ready to say goodbye to its 1970s-era Voyager 2, its second-farthest spacecraft exploring what lies beyond the solar system’s outermost planets. It is slowly dying as it hurtles through interstellar space at more than 34,000 mph.
Voyager’s team of engineers has already turned off heaters and other power vampires that aren’t crucial for flying. The situation has become more dire, though. With the spacecraft’s power supply dwindling, NASA was on the brink of shutting down one of its five onboard science instruments. That would mark the beginning of the end for the decades-long science mission.
In the nick of time, engineers devised a new plan to squeeze more life out of Voyager 2. From 12 billion miles away, they’ve pinpointed a hidden trove of power within one of its parts that could prevent them from having to shut down a key instrument for another three years.
“The science data that the Voyagers are returning gets more valuable the farther away from the sun they go, so we are definitely interested in keeping as many science instruments operating as long as possible,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Both Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, are way older than their original life expectancy. They were intended to study Jupiter and Saturn, their moons, and Saturn’s rings. For the two-planet mission, they were built to last just five years.
After their initial success, engineers doubled the mission objectives to include two more planets: Uranus and Neptune. Together they’ve explored four planets, 48 moons, and a host of planetary magnetic fields and rings.
Now the Voyager spacecraft are exploring the limits of the sun’s influence. They are the first probes to travel outside the so-called “heliosphere,” the sun’s protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields. The twins are helping scientists answer questions about its role in shielding Earth from radiation found in the interstellar environment. Scientists define interstellar space as the place outside the sun’s constant flow of material affecting its surroundings.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech illustration
Engineers found the extra stash of power in a part designed to protect the science instruments from changes in their voltage. Electrical fluctuations could potentially damage instruments, so a regulator triggers a backup circuit to access the reserved power from their generators. Now Voyager 2’s instruments will use the power rather than set it aside.
Want more science and tech news delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for Mashable’s Top Stories newsletter today.
Both Voyager probes work on radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which turn heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. The process yields less power each year.
As far as Voyager 1 goes, it is already operating one fewer science instrument than its sibling because one of its instruments failed early in the mission. That means NASA won’t have to decide whether to turn another off until next year. If this new power strategy works for Voyager 2, the team will consider doing the same for Voyager 1.
Although Voyager 2 is now flying without a voltage safety net, engineers feel confident that its electricity is relatively stable, posing a small risk to the onboard instruments.
“The alternative offers a big reward of being able to keep the science instruments turned on longer,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager’s project manager, in a statement. “We’ve been monitoring the spacecraft for a few weeks, and it seems like this new approach is working.”
Case study: How Interstates rehauled its aging data center infrastructure
Stem Cell ‘Junk Yards’ Reveal a New Clue About Aging
Aging kung fu brawler Sifu has arrived on Steam
Want to save your aging computer? Try these 5 Linux distributions
Honda’s aging hydrogen fuel cells get new life in data center
Honda bailed on the Clarity — its only hydrogen-powered car in the U.S. — but the automaker hasn’t quit on fuel cells. That’s the message Honda sent with a peculiar announcement today: It’s putting some old Clarity fuel cells back to work, combining them into a backup power system for its data center just south […]
Honda’s aging hydrogen fuel cells get new life in data center by Harri Weber originally published on TechCrunch
T-Mobile’s Aging 2G Network Will Shut Down Next Year – CNET
Cutting Calories May Slow Aging In Humans, Study Suggests
Eating fewer calories appears to slow the pace of aging and increase longevity in healthy adults, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature Aging.
The study, which was funded by the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, is the first-ever randomized controlled trial that looked at the long-term impact of calorie restriction. It adds to an already large body of evidence that a calorie-restricted diet can provide substantial health benefits, including delayed aging, said the study’s senior author, Dan Belsky, who is assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. “The main take-home of our study is that it is possible to slow the pace of biological aging and that it may be possible to achieve that slowing through modification of lifestyle and behavior,” Belsky said.
In a phase 2 clinical trial, which ran for two years, 220 adults were randomized to cut their caloric intake by as much as 25% — 500 calories for people who generally consume 2,000 calories a day — or to make no changes to their diet. The participants had a body mass index, or BMI, ranging from 22 to 27…. Dr. Evan Hadley, director of the geriatrics and clinical gerontology division at the National Institute of Aging, said that most people in the calorie-restriction group only ended up cutting their daily caloric intake by about 12%. “But that 12% was enough to have significant changes,” he said….
The researchers found that people who cut their calories slowed the pace of their aging by 2% to 3%, compared to people who were on a normal diet. That translates, Belsky said, to a 10% to 15% reduction in the likelihood of dying early. “We all have the power to change the trajectories of aging,” he said.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for submitting the story.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.