SPACE science is poised for lift-off

SPACE science is poised for lift-off. Scientists say manned missions to the moon and Mars, as well as the robotic exploration of outer space, are likely to be high on the agenda after President Barack Obama recently nominated a former space shuttle astronaut to head America's space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

If the US Senate approves his appointment, retired Major-General Charles Bolden will take over NASA as it winds down the decades-old shuttle program and works towards the long-held dream of returning astronauts to the moon by 2020. General Bolden would also oversee a broad review of manned and robotic space exploration.

"It's certainly a sound political move," says jason Held, the president of Saber Astronautics Australia, the Sydney-based arm of a prominent US aerospace consortium.. "He's an astronaut, so the people in favour of manned space flight will certainly be happy."

Dr Held says it is not yet clear where General Bolden stands on budgetary issues - particularly the balance between manned and unmanned space flight. "But it's unlikely that President Obama would pick an administrator unless they shared a good deal of overlap in the vision for a future NASA," he says. "I, for one, will have an ear to the ground during the confirmation hearing - that will be the earliest hint of NASA's future direction."

University space researchers, too, are elated at the prospect of a new direction for the influential US agency, once mired in mishaps, mission cancellations and demoralising budget cuts.

"The fact that President Obama has made the appointment of a former astronaut, rather than a top-level engineer or scientist, does suggest that he's keen to see that NASA's priorities are to be moved in the direction of more manned space flight missions," says Monash University astrophysicist Andrew Prentice.

"The only problem is that such missions are extremely expensive and this would put pressure on the other arm of NASA's activities - namely the unmanned space program, especially the launch of new probes to Jupiter, Saturn - and beyond."

Dr Prentice says unmanned missions of this kind produced "enormous advances in our understanding of the universe, which might now be put in jeopardy if there were huge overruns on the manned spaceflight program" - especially if NASA wants to go back to the moon.

As the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing approaches, Dr Prentice says General Bolden will no doubt take advantage of public excitement generated by the anniversary to ensure that the US undertakes a similar mission in the near future.

In addition to extensive military and NASA experience, General Bolden, who has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and a master's in systems management, served as chief executive of a defence and aerospace consulting firm and worked briefly as an aerospace lobbyist.

VCAA links:

VELS Science Level 4 http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/essential/discipline/science/level4.html

A sample unit ‘Out of this World’ for Level 4 http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/support/level4/outofthisworld.html

Small is beautiful

The scope for robots has never been brighter - or smaller.

Prototype mini-robots already exist, and plans are under way in Australia and abroad for still tinier ones, spanning millimetres or less. Even a few very rudimentary nanobots have been made, such as minuscule thermometers and sensors, measuring billionths of a metre and observable only with special microscopes.

In addition to being small, lightweight, relatively inexpensive to mass produce and readily transportable, a variety of ingenious robots in the centimetre range can fly, walk, climb, dig - even swim, given the right conditions.

A tiny robot can only achieve so much: they are poorer in sensing and communicating motion, and lack the processing power and instrumentation of their bigger cousins.

But if micro-robots can effectively work in a co-operative manner, scientists say, their performance may be comparable or even superior to that of a single bulky version.

To work co-operatively, baby bots rely on swarm intelligence, a form of artificial intelligence based on the collective behaviour of self-organised systems. "Researchers have studied ant colonies, bees and bird swarms and developed algorithms for co-ordination and self-assembly," says Professor Heikki Koivo of Helsinki University, in Finland.

Experts expect baby bots will spawn a staggering range of commercial spin-offs. Scientists envisage Lilliputian robots engaged in cleansing (such as monitoring and cleaning turbines), exploration in remote regions, such as jungles or deserts, and factory production (making circuit boards and other small devices).

In the nano-realm, Professor Koivo anticipates the advent of nano-scale machines, such as molecular computers, which use individual atoms or molecules to solve computational problems and are eventually likely to replace traditional, silicon computers.

Such revolutionary computers could provide the "intelligence" of a nano-robot, Professor Koivosays. "And molecular motors will be used to drive the device."

So taken is he with the prospect of nano-scale appliances that he predicts they will eventually be "embedded almost everywhere".

VCAA links:

· VCE Physics Units 3 & 4: Electronics and photonics; Further electronics; Electric power; Photonics http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/physics/physicsd.pdf

· VCE Chemistry Unit 1: Materials http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/chemistry/chemistry-sd-07.pdf

· VELS Science Level 6 http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/essential/discipline/science/level6.html

VELS DCT Level 6 http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/essential/interdisciplinary/design/level6.html

Travel on air

Legendary French author Jules Verne, who helped pioneer science fiction, once described an imaginary world where vehicles ran on air. Soon they may do just that: a car that literally drives on air may be just around the corner.

Designed by French auto-engineer Guy Negre, the Airpod relies on air compressed by renewable energies, such as hydro, solar and wind power, to drive distances of up to 200 kilometres at speeds approaching 50 km/h. The compressed air sits in cylinders housed in the boot.

An onboard pump can refill the cylinders overnight; during the day, a one-minute recharge, using a heavy-duty version of tyre pumps at a compressed-air station, would enable the carbon-neutral vehicle to travel for 100 kilometres.

Engineers are confident that improvements to the prototype system will result in higher speeds, greater distances - and an environment that's a lot cleaner.

VCAA links:

· VCE Chemistry: Unit 4: Supplying and using energy http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/chemistry/chemistry-sd-07.pdf

· VCE Environmental Science: Unit 3: Energy and global warming http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/envscience/envirosciencesdesign.pdf

VCE Systems Engineering: Unit 3: Systems engineering and energy http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/systemseng/systemsengindex.html

· VELS Science Level 6 http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/essential/discipline/science/level6.html