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In March, the NASA Engineers began to gather data by effectively using a network of ground sensors to extract the details from an experimental air taxi. This taxi evaluated the interpretation of aircraft, above the cities, in diverse weather conditions. This campaign will further be used by the researchers to embrace collision avoidance, landing operations, and air taxi operations in all kinds of weather.

About Joby Aircraft and Operations

Over the years, NASA has observed how the wind shaped by the terrain can impact the newly introduced aircraft. However, this time, in their latest test, the Joby Aviation demonstrator aircraft will generate the wind from the aircraft itself.

Joby aircraft generated air flow data by launching its air taxi demonstrator, taking a flight over NASA’s ground sensory array, nestled near the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Centre in Edwards, California. The Joby aircraft is embedded with six rotors, enabling vertical takeoffs and landings and tilt to offer lift in flight. The researchers further focused on the air caused by the propellers, in a circular motion, more like a turbulent flow.

Result of First Array

The rolling wind can potentially impact the aircraft’s performance, specifically when the aircraft is close to the ground. Not only the aircraft, but those flying within the proximity and people on the ground, will equally be affected. To measure such complex wind turbulence, NASA further upgraded its sensors and incorporated a new lidar.

According to Grady Koch, Lead for this project, NASA’s Langley Research Centre in Hampton, Virginia, “The design of this new aircraft, paired with the NASA lidar technology during this study, warrants a better understanding of possible wind and turbulence effects that can influence safe and efficient flight”.

Second Array for Improved Aircraft Tracking

Additionally, NASA has set up another array that includes radar, cameras, and microphones to gather improved data on aircraft. These nodes, for several months, will be responsible for collecting data during routine flights.

Furthermore, the agency will use this data from ground nodes to improve the efficiency of its distributed sensing technology, and other sensors will be installed in the area where aircraft operate.

What Does the Future Hold?

With this technology, the air operations will be transformed into better ones with effective tracking of aircraft near the traffic corridors and landing zones. The distributed sensing holds the potential to embrace air traffic management, ground-based landing sensors, and more.

This experimental air taxi, Joby aircraft, will help NASA develop the essential technology that will change the face of air flight operations in the high-traffic areas. The air taxi and drone companies will benefit from the implementation of this new technology.

NASA scientists have been studying crystals to optimise the process of crystallisation for decades. Various researchers have conducted research on crystals within the first quarter of the year, the latest being protein crystallisation in microgravity. Alexandra Ros from Arizona State University led the research by launching a protein crystallisation test in the International Space Station (ISS). The experiments are meant to determine the growth of protein crystals in space using newly developed microfluid devices. The research agenda is to examine whether space-grown crystals can achieve better quality than those formed on Earth.

What is Crystallisation, & How Does It Impact Our Lives?

It is the process of freezing of liquid or molten materials in the form of highly organised molecules called crystals. These crystals can be a blend of different types of materials. This world consists of crystal examples everywhere. It would be wrong to say that we don’t live in a world of crystals.

Be it a coffee mug, cellphone or silicon that is used to form the brains of electronics and used in memory chips, everything is a result of crystallisation. Other types of semiconductor crystals are used as detectors for different radiations, such as gamma rays, infrared rays, etc. Lasers used in scanning the product are made of optical crystals. Turbine blades are an example of metal crystals used in the jet engine.

Why and How NASA Studies Crystals?

The scientists studied the growth of zinc selenide crystals in space, with the crystals on Earth, explained NASA. The result from the observations marked the way for the improvement of the operations of infrared wavelength in the high powered lasers. The research findings provide an insight into the strong influence of gravity on the electrical, optical and structural characteristics of the crystals.

Researchers have optimised the crystal usage for several years to study the types of crystals for growing in space.

The crystals grown on Earth have defects such as little cracks; these cracks can damage the properties of the crystals. This marks a strong reason why scientists want to study crystals in space, thus getting a complete microgravitational environment where they can grow better. Convection produced due to the presence of the gravitational force degrades the quality of crystals.

However, this convection is not seen in the environment of microgravity, helping in the better quality crystals. The ISS is now converted to a complete lab for the study of the formation of crystals, which can be further applied in technology and medicine.

NASA scientists safely created controlled flames in space for years. The research on fire spread will help to enhance the combustion understanding, with the protection of future explorers.
In the absence of Earth’s gravity, the behaviour of flames is different compared to Earth. In general, the warm air rises and gets replaced by cool air from below. This circulation effect doesn’t take place in microgravity, i.e. space. Combustion study in microgravity gives a rare opportunity for scientists to know about the fundamentals of combustion without the effect of gravity.

Astronauts Fire Safety

The scientists studied combustion in space to protect astronauts from fire accidents, explained NASA. Astronauts should be aware of what to do in case of a fire emergency. In contrast to Earth, astronauts cannot evacuate the spacecraft and dial 911. The environment of the spacecraft needs to be made as protective as possible with the help of materials that don’t burn. Research is crucial when some materials could even be more flammable in the partial gravitational environments.

Study of Flames Spread in Microgravity

International Space Station design embarks on the study of combustion while keeping the crew protected during the time of tests. The major study for flames aboard the station is the Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR). However, CIR includes small-scale flame studies and needs less crew interaction. SoFIE (BPS-powered Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction) experiment has been designed to slot into the CIR and allows studies of ignition and flammability of solid spacecraft items. Large-scale flame studies were conducted aboard the Northrop Grumman Cygnus Spacecraft after departure from the station. These Saffire experiments helped to scale up the fire spread studies.

Saffire Experiments Findings

A breakthrough for scientists has been made by the Flame Extinguishment Experiment (FLEX), which was funded by NASA’s ISS National Lab and examined the spread of flames in various shapes using cool microgravity flames.

Under SoFIE Study, there were two tests conducted, SoFIE (GEL and MIST), that help determine the early flame development and spread of the fire. The combustion study in space can help in designing less-polluted vehicles on Earth too in future.

The research findings are aiding in the best structural design for space with fire safety standards in response to space, and not just Earth. The first research will be conducted on the Moon under FM2 tests, which will be the first flammability test on a body other than Earth. Findings will be based on the intensity of fire, the spread of flame and the strength of the flammable material.

At El Curaca, in the Atico River Valley, archaeologists Jósef Szykulski and associates have made a major finding: a huge, round stone tomb. It was found in October of 2024 that the Chuquibamba, or Aruni, people had lived at the site between the years 1000 and 1450 AD. Along with relics of pottery, bone, stone tools, maize cobs, and textiles, the tomb included twenty-four men, women, and children. The bones suggested that, given their linens, all of the dead were victims of injuries fit for combat scars.

The expensive grave goods buried with the bodies imply that the Aruni side prevailed in the war. Currently using 3D scanning to document the skulls, Szykulski and his team are conserving the fabrics discovered and examining the ceramics and wood objects taken from the tomb.

Ancient Battle-Scarred Tomb Uncovered in Peru Reveals Clues About Pre-Inca Conflict and Culture

Rising in the Atico River Valley of Peru, a large circular stone monument marks evidence of the historical struggle between the Chuquibamba, or Aruni people, as per a translated Facebook post. There are several Aruni relics scattered all around the monument. Living in what is now El Curaca, Aruni people lived between 1000 and 1450 A.D. Along with the bones of men, women, and children, archaeologists under Jósef Szykulski at the University of Wrocław uncovered textiles, pottery, bone, stone tools, and corn cobs.

Wearing textiles, the skeletons implied that all the dead were victims of traumas compatible with war wounds. The expensive grave goods buried with the bodies imply that the Aruni side prevailed in the war. Using 3D scanning, Szykulski and his colleagues are recording the skulls; they are also maintaining the linens and examining the ceramics and wood objects unearthed from the tomb.

Funded by the National Science Center of Poland, the study effort will better grasp the pre-Inca archeological cultures of the Atico River Valley using ancient DNA analysis.

The Gleissberg Cycle, named after the German astronomer Wolfgang Gleissberg, helps to explain why space weather is projected to get more intense in the following decades. More sunspots, flares, and coronal mass ejections result from the sun’s twisted magnetic field in this cycle. The proton soup surrounding Earth will get denser as solar cycle 25 wanes and passes. Long-term observations of the sun’s continuous active character suggest more high-energy protons and hint towards Earth’s atmosphere getting hotter.

Hidden Solar Cycle Awakens, Fueling Surging Solar Activity

As per the new study, the unexpected surge of solar activity during the ongoing solar maximum may be tied to a lesser-known, 100-year-long cycle that is just beginning to ramp up again. The findings could lead to further increases in solar activity that may threaten Earth-orbiting spacecraft and continue to trigger vibrant auroras across the globe. Influenced by periodic solar activity patterns, the 11-year solar cycle is said to be a natural fluctuation in the activity of our home star that spans a tranquil solar minimum to a chaotic maximum, releasing severe storms at solar maximum and then returning to this condition.

Scientists believe the Centennial Gleissberg Cycle (CGC) may have resumed, therefore skewing the computation of the continuous solar maximum. NOAA satellites supplied data on proton flux from the South Atlantic anomaly.

Hidden Solar Cycle May Signal Stronger Space Storms Ahead

Auroras at the end of Solar Cycle 25 result from space weather phenomena, including a supercharged geomagnetic storm which occurred in May 2024. This unusual behaviour poses questions about the presumptions and suggests that the CGC minimum might be past. Future cycles may be as active and strong as the CGC maximum approaches, thereby perhaps affecting the sunspot cycle more than formerly believed. The radiation sensitivity of astronauts could provide challenges for private satellite mega constellations and satellites.

However, not everyone entirely agrees with the new findings. Proton flux has only gone down over the past year, so it could just be a temporary dip caused by the natural variability of the sun, the report adds. For their findings to be conclusive, the study team most likely requires some additional years of data.

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