Future planetary missions could explore in extremely cold temperatures that stymie existing spacecraft, thanks to a project under development at JPL.

When NASA returns to the moon with Artemis, the agency and its partners will reach unexplored regions of the lunar surface around the South Pole, where it can get much colder at night than even on frigid Mars. Such surface conditions would be challenge for current spacecraft, which rely on energy-consuming heaters to stay warm.

A technology demonstration being developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California may offer a solution that would enable exploration during the dark of lunar night, a period that spans about 14 Earth days. The project, which recently underwent testing at JPL, is called Cold Operable Lunar Deployable Arm (COLDArm). It combines several new technologies to create a robotic arm system that can function in temperatures as low as minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 173 degrees Celsius).

"Going to the moon, we need to be able to operate during colder temperatures, particularly during lunar night, without the use of heaters," said project principal investigator Ryan McCormick. "COLDArm would let missions continue working and conducting science even in extreme cryogenic environments."

To explain the project, McCormick recalls a scene from the 1991 movie "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" in which a hostile android made of liquid metal is stopped cold—literally frozen solid—by a giant spill of liquid nitrogen. "The bad guy can't work in those temperatures, but COLDArm could," McCormick said.

While COLDArm won't be operating in liquid nitrogen, it could operate on a lander sent to a frozen ocean world like Jupiter's moon Europa, where its lack of heated parts would have the added benefit of allowing collection of volatile materials without significantly affecting the temperature of samples. It could free up some two hours of time and up to 30% of a mission daily's energy budget that Mars rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance spend warming up their robotic arms so their gears don't stress and break in the cold.

The 6-foot-6-inch (2-meter) arm is equipped with two commercially available cameras for 3D mapping that have the same imaging sensor that is built into the 13-megapixel color camera used by NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter—one of several technologies COLDArm is adapting from the little rotorcraft. A variety of attachments and small instruments could go on the end of the arm, including a 3D-printed titanium scoop for collecting samples from a celestial body's surface. Like the arm on NASA's InSight Mars lander, COLDArm could also deploy instruments to the surface.

This past September, in a JPL test bed filled with material to simulate lunar regolith (broken rock and dust on the moon), COLDArm successfully completed experiments that assessed its ability to gather data on the properties of that regolith. Now COLDArm has been sent on to complete the same rigorous testing in spacelike conditions that every mission faces. It's targeting a launch in the late 2020s.

What makes COLDarm work

Several key new technologies allow the COLDArm system to function in extreme environments. First, the arm uses gears made of bulk metallic glass, a solid metallic material with a unique composition and structure that makes it tougher than ceramic and twice as strong as steel, with better elastic properties than either. These gears require no lubrication or heating to function in the cold.

Because the arm's cold motor controllers don't need to be kept warm in an electronics box near the core of the spacecraft, they can be installed closer to the science instruments, requiring no insulation and less heavy cabling.

And a sensor embedded in COLDArm's "wrist" gives the arm feedback, allowing it to "feel" what it's doing in all directions, like a human jiggling a key into a keyhole and turning the lock. That device, called a six-axis force torque sensor, can also operate in extreme cold.

In addition to employing cameras designed for commercial use, COLDArm leverages other technology that has been proven aboard Ingenuity: a powerful processor akin to those used in consumer smartphones and open-source flight software, called F Prime, that JPL developed. Like the Mars helicopter, COLDArm could operate autonomously, performing tasks and collecting pictures and sensor data without real-time input from mission controllers back on Earth.

Motiv Space Systems, a partner on COLDArm, developed the cold motor controllers and also built sections of the arm and assembled it from JPL-supplied parts at the company's Pasadena, California, facility.

With future Artemis missions in mind, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California is testing new technology that could be beneficial for the cold temperatures on the moon and Mars.

According to Monday’s announcement, the Cold Operable Lunar Deployable Arm—or COLDArm—project “combines several new technologies to create a robotic arm system that can function in temperatures as low as minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 173 degrees Celsius)” without a heater.

When NASA returns to the moon, it will travel to unexplored areas around its south pole, which can be much colder at night than Mars; the lunar night lasts approximately 14 Earth days. According to the Lunar Planetary Institute, this part of the moon can be as cold as minus 267 degrees Fahrenheit. NASA noted that these conditions are difficult for current spacecraft that rely on energy-consuming heaters for warmth to keep equipment running. However, the new technology could allow for exploration without heat. 

“Going to the Moon, we need to be able to operate during colder temperatures, particularly during lunar night, without the use of heaters,” Ryan McCormick, project principal investigator, said. “COLDArm would let missions continue working and conducting science even in extreme cryogenic environments.”

COLDArm is able to work in extreme temperatures and environments because of several new technologies. Specifically, it uses gears made from bulk metallic glass—a solid, metallic material with unique composition and structure that make it tougher and stronger than ceramic and steel, respectively—which does not need lubricants or heat to work. Current lunar lander robotic arms “require heaters to keep the gears inside the arm from stressing and breaking when exposed to extremely cold temperatures experienced during the lunar night.” As a result, the new arms conserve power and mass for the mission because no heaters are necessary.

Its cold motor controllers can be installed near the science instruments because they do not need to be kept warm, so this means they do not need insulation or heavy cabling. COLDArm also has a six-axis force torque sensor in its wrist to regulate the amount of force it exerts and it will receive feedback to let the arm “feel” what it is doing in all directions. This sensor can operate in very cold temperatures.  

COLDArm uses a six and a half foot, or two meter, arm equipped with two commercially available cameras to use for 3-D mapping. The cameras use the same imaging sensor as the 13-megapixel color camera in NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. The arm can have a variety of attachments or small instruments attached to the end of it, such as a 3-D-printed titanium scoop for lunar trial collection. The arm can also deploy instruments to the surface. 

Lastly, COLDArm may be able to be programmed to autonomously perform tasks and collect pictures and sensor data without real-time human input. 

In September, NASA tested COLDArm in a test bed with materials simulating lunar regolith—or broken rock and dust on the moon’s surface—and COLDArm successfully gathered data on the properties of that regolith. COLDArm is now undergoing testing for space-like conditions that every mission will face. 

Motiv Space Systems helped develop the cold motor controllers on COLDArm in addition to building sections of the arm and assembling it. The project is funded through the Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative and managed by NASA’s Game Changing Development program.

COLDArm is expected to launch within the next five years. 

WASHINGTON — Sarcos Defense has received a $1 million contract from U.S. Army Applications Laboratory to test a robotic arm meant for integration onto the service’s self-propelled howitzers, the American company announced Thursday.

A subsidiary of Sarcos Robotics and Technology, Sarcos Defense will perform tests on the robotic system with the aim of meeting Army requirement, according to the news release. Tests are to involve shock and vibration absorption as well as the technology’s ability to withstand the elements.

“Our ultimate goal with the development of this robotic ammunition solution is to help the Army successfully accomplish their missions with lower rates of injury by having a robot lift and place the heavy ammunition rounds,” Reeg Allen, vice president of business development, said in the release. “We are excited about this accelerated testing that will help get this robotic system into the hands of Army personnel soon.”

The robotic arm was meant to alleviate issues caused by prolong and repetitive lifting of 100-pound rounds of ammunition into the cannon loader, while also mitigating risks to soldiers.

The Army has worked to increase the firing capacity of its cannons over the last several years. In August 2020, the service announced is was seeking small business innovators to increase the rate of fire for its self-propelled howitzers.

By April 2021, the service told Defense News it had picked five small businesses to build prototypes to address increased rates of fire. This project, dubbed SPARTN Fire Faster, was one of three engaged to increase the rate of fire for howitzers.

(Reuters) -Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd cannot buy some of the most advanced chip designs after the SoftBank-owned British chip tech firm Arm Ltd determined that U.S. and Britain would not approve licences to export technology to China, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

This is the first known time that Arm has decided it could not export its most cutting-edge designs to China, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The British chip tech firm concluded that the U.S. and UK would not approve the sale of its latest Neoverse V series because the performance was too high, the report added

Alibaba and Arm did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

The development comes two months after the U.S. published a sweeping set of export controls, including a measure to cut China off from certain semiconductor chips made anywhere in the world with U.S. tools, vastly expanding its reach to slow Beijing's technological and military advances.

The Biden administration also plans to place Chinese chip maker Yangtze Memory Technologies and 35 other Chinese firms on a trade blacklist that would prevent them from buying certain American components, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

Arm launched its next generation of data center chip technology called Neoverse V2 earlier this year to meet the explosive growth of data from 5G and internet-connected gadgets.

Over the past year, Arm has released several new core designs, including Neoverse N2 and Neoverse V1 and V2, the latter of which are the highest- performance cores to date, the report said.

Chinese companies have been blocked from purchasing Neoverse V2 and its previous generation V1 because of the U.S. and UK export controls that are connected to technologies listed under Wassenaar, an agreement that limits the movement of "dual-use" technologies sought for both peaceful and military purposes, FT said, citing people briefed on the reasoning behind the move.

(Reporting by Rhea Binoy in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Dhanya Ann Thoppil)

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A 30-minute video about health insurance terminology has racked up more than a million views. 

Host Dan Weissmann spoke with Brian David Gilbert, the person behind the video. 

Gilbert is best known for his videos for Polygon, a media company focused on video games. But when he left that job to strike out on his own, he needed new health insurance. In this episode of the “An Arm and a Leg” podcast, Gilbert explains how his quest to find coverage inspired him to tackle one of his most difficult subjects yet: U.S. health insurance.

Watch Gilbert’s video here:

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