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Astrophysicists find the birth sites of gigantic elliptical galaxies which they say gives new clues about how they were formed. The galaxies look like bulging footballs and how they were created remains a mystery to scientists -- until now.

Although they are very different today, Venus, Earth, and Mars were very similar in their youth. All three were warm, with thick, water-rich atmospheres. But over time, Mars became a cold, dry planet with a thin atmosphere, and Venus became superheated, with a crushing, toxic sky. Only Earth became a warm ocean world teeming with life. But why?

We know that Mars once had vast seas. It had the right conditions for life in the beginning, but with less gravity than Earth and a weak magnetic field, Mars lost much of its atmosphere over time, and most of its water either froze beneath the surface or became chemically locked in Martian clay. If Mars had been larger and more geologically active, perhaps it would have become another living world.

Which raises the question of Venus. In terms of mass and composition, Venus seems to be nearly a twin of Earth. Its surface gravity is 90% of Earth’s. While it doesn’t have a strong magnetic field like our world, it is geologically active. We can even see evidence of volcanic activity on its surface. Venus also retained a thick atmosphere, so why is it a hell-world compared to Earth?

The most common model of early Venus is that the planet was Earth-like once. Its water-rich atmosphere would have rained upon the surface to create warm seas and rivers, just like Earth and Mars. Some models suggest that Venus could have been Earth-like until 700 million years ago. But eventually, either because of its proximity to the Sun, a lack of magnetic field, or some geological process, Venus underwent a greenhouse transformation. Its oceans dried, and its atmosphere thickened to become the deadly world we see today. Perhaps we on Earth should look at Venus as a cautionary tale of what happens when greenhouse gases dramatically increase.

Two possible histories of Venus. Credit: Constantinou, et al

But new research argues that Venus was never a wet world. While it did have a water-rich early atmosphere early on, it never retained the water, and seas never formed on our planetary sibling.

The study begins by calculating the rate at which water, carbon dioxide, and other molecules are decomposed within the atmosphere. Ultraviolet radiation striking the upper atmosphere as well as chemical interactions can break apart these molecules. To maintain stable levels of water, for example, it must be replenished through volcanic activity.

On Earth, the volcanic gases released are mostly water vapor because Earth’s interior is rich in water. This allows our planet to replace water that decomposes in our upper atmosphere. But the interior of Venus is much more dry, with only 6% of the gases being water vapor. The rest is mostly carbon dioxide and sulfur compounds. In this model, the composition of volcanic gases is the main driver of how a planet’s atmosphere evolves, not the initial composition of the atmosphere. So, with little volcanic activity, the atmosphere of Mars thinned. With dry, sulfur-rich volcanic gases, Venus became a greenhouse world. With water-rich volcanic gases, Earth remained an ocean planet.

Currently, there is evidence for both evolutionary models on Venus, and neither can be ruled out. Future projects such as NASA’s DAVINCI mission could give us a richer view of the Venusian atmosphere, but until then, it remains to be seen whether the fate of a planet is written in its rock or its sky.

Reference: Constantinou, Tereza, Oliver Shorttle, and Paul B. Rimmer. “A dry Venusian interior constrained by atmospheric chemistry.” Nature Astronomy (2024): 1-10.

The post Maybe Venus Was Never Habitable appeared first on Universe Today.

An analysis of ancient cuneiform texts suggests people thought of emotions in a different way almost 3000 years ago, showing how culture influences our most intimate experiences

The latest weather forecasting AI model from Google DeepMind can beat the leading providers more than 97 per cent of the time, and it is quicker and cheaper to run

A bird-inspired robot called RAVEN can walk, hop and jump into flight, an ability that could help people develop fixed-wing drones that can take off and land anywhere

Natural selection isn't just something that happens to organisms, their activities also play a role, giving some species – including humans – a supercharged ability to evolve

The weather here is atrocious: a constant cold drizzle from leaden skies, keeping us inside. Fortunately, the house is warm and there’s often a fire. Yesterday afternoon we went to see the progress on Elzbieta and Andrzej the Second’s new house a few kilometers near Dobrzyn. It is coming along wonderfully (see below):

First, though, our cats. Here is the hyperaffectionate Szaron, who has slept with me for three nights. (You may have seen this photo earlier today!)

I have never met such an affectionate cat. I swear, if you start petting him you have to stop of your own accord, for he will continue to demand pets forever!

Yawning.

Kulka, who can be distinguished from Hili because she has more white on her body:

More Kulka. Just this minute she had a violent altercation with Hili, screaming and lashing out at The Princess. They hate each other, and I can’t understand why. Cats!

Kulka at the window:

Kulka looking wary:

Hili in Andrzej’s chair, which she owns. Very often when Andrzej is working on the computer, Hili lies behind him as a kind of feline backrest:

Dinner: A delicious pork roast served the other night with potatoes and a Zubr:

When the cherry cheesecake was gone, Malgorzata made an apple cake, but a cake with a crust made of almonds, butter, eggs and sugar (Splenda):

The inside:

The leftover pork roast was made into a delicious stew, with the meat chopped up and served with stir-fried chopped peppers, leeks, Chinese cabbage, garlic, and soy sauce, along with different spices. It was terrific, and I had the leftovers for breakfast today.

Et voilà: Below is Elzbieta and Andrzej’s new house, which I suspect will be ready to move in by summer. You may remember that this house was eight years in the making, with one contractor or another refusing to take on the job. Finally someone offered to build it using old bricks from a demolished barn and some ancient wood from a house in southern Poland.

When I was here 1.5 years ago, the place was mostly a shell without a roof or second floor. It’s now a nearly completed house with the finishing touches being put on. It came with two stray dogs and a cat, all adopted by these animal lovers. I hope that Leon and Mietek—who remain in the Wroclawek apartment—get along with their new companions.

There is a huge garden outside where Elzbieta and Andrzej the Second are even now growing vegetables, flowers, and fruits.

The resident cat, named Hela:

And here’s Sofia, one of the resident d*gs:

The future dining room. It is all wood inside with exposed beams.  Because there are thieves about, either Andrzej the Second or Elzbieta must sleep in the basement at night, with their partner spending sleeping in the Wroclawek apartment. This will continue until the house is done.

There are at least three bedrooms.

Here is a heating stove, but a regular stove will also be installed nearby when the kitchen is finished. In the background is an inside wall made from the old barn bricks:

Two windows and views outside:

A view outside down toward the stream. Some miscreant destroyed the beaver dam that was there, but the beavers have returned and built a home by the bank:

The upstairs has a large master bedroom, and here’s its attached bathroom (everything is still under construction):

Here are two of the bricks taken from the 100-year-old barn and used inside the house. The first has the footprint of a d*g in it (Andrzej the second likes to display the bricks with impressions on them):

This one records the number of bricks made at the factory on a given day:

One cannot visit the house without being served snacks and tea. There were two kinds of cake (apple and bean) and a herbal tea concocted by Andrzej the Second. He also went into the garden and returned with a kind of pearlike fruit that we ate (it was good, though full of seeds). Does anybody know what this dark fruit is?

Wildfires are already changing as a result of climate change but we don’t know what will happen as our planet gets even warmer. The answer could be hidden underground

The theme at SBM this week is questions for Trump’s nominees for key health positions within the federal government. David got the ball rolling with an excellent summary of the nominees and questions for each. Jonathan followed up with his own list of questions. I would like to continue the theme, focusing on our preparedness for the next pandemic. It is arguably […]

The post Questions About Pandemic Preparedness first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

Welcome to a Hump Day (“Jornu di gobba” in Sicilian), December 4, 2024, and National Cookie Day. Here are my favorite commercial cookies (of course they’re called “biscuits” in the UK):

It’s also International Cabernet Franc Day, Wildlife Conservation Day, National Sock Day, Wear Brown Shoes Day, and International Cheetah Day. Here’s a wild cheetah I photographed in South Africa this year:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the December 4 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*This seems to have some on so suddenly that I didn’t become aware of it until last night (Polish time).  South Korea appears to be in substantial political and social turmoil because its president, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law in the country—for a time. When he declared the speech, nearly 300 South Korean troops stormed the Parliament.  After the country’s Parliament voted against the move, he rescinded martial law, but the damage had been done. (Article archived here.)

Yoon Suk Yeol won South Korea’s highest office in 2022 by a threadbare margin, the closest since his country abandoned military rule in the 1980s and began holding free presidential elections.

Just over two years later, Mr. Yoon’s brief declaration of martial law on Tuesday shocked South Koreans who had hoped that tumultuous era of military intervention was behind them. Thousands of protesters gathered in Seoul to call for his arrest. Their country, regarded as a model of cultural soft power and an Asian democratic stalwart, had suddenly taken a sharp turn in another direction.

But the events that led to Mr. Yoon’s stunning declaration on Tuesday — and his decision six hours later to lift the decree after Parliament voted to block it — were set in motion well before his razor-thin victory. They were a dramatic illustration of South Korea’s bitterly polarized politics and the deep societal discontent beneath the surface of its rising global might.

. . . . .Mr. Yoon, a conservative leader, has never been popular in South Korea. He won election by a margin of only 0.8 percentage points. The vote, analysts said, was more a referendum on his liberal predecessor’s failures than an endorsement of Mr. Yoon.

. . .From the start, however, Mr. Yoon faced two obstacles.

The opposition Democratic Party held on to its majority in the National Assembly and then expanded it in parliamentary elections in April, making him the first South Korean leader in decades to never have a majority in Parliament. And then there were his own dismal approval ratings.

Mr. Yoon’s toxic relationship with opposition lawmakers — and their vehement efforts to oppose him at every turn — paralyzed his pro-business agenda for two years, hindering his efforts to cut corporate taxes, overhaul the national pension system and address housing prices.

The article also describes social problems in South Korea, including skyrocketing real-estate prices and a lack of jobs that has made young people discontented, less likely to marry and have children.

. . . . by Tuesday night, Mr. Yoon had turned startlingly defiant. He declared that “the National Assembly, which should have been the foundation of free democracy, has become a monster that destroys it.”

Not long after, as protesters rushed to the gates of the National Assembly, lawmakers voted to lift the president’s measure. Mr. Lee, the opposition leader, who survived a stabbing attack in January and later staged a hunger strike against the Yoon government, said Mr. Yoon had “betrayed the people.”

Hours later, Mr. Yoon said he would comply with the legislature’s order. But even then, with his political future now thrown into profound uncertainty, he added a plea.

“I call on the National Assembly,” he said, “to immediately stop the outrageous behavior that is paralyzing the functioning of the country with impeachments, legislative manipulation and budget manipulation.”

Yoon has apparently even accused his opponents of being in league with North Korea, and said this: “The martial law is aimed at eradicating pro-North Korean forces and to protect the constitutional order of freedom,” he said.”  Well, the turmoil in government and the prospect of military rule has abated for the moment, but the opposition is calling for Yoon’s resignation, and threatening to impeach him if he doesn’t step down. North Korea, of course, is watching this with delight, and probably trying to figure out how to use it to the DPRK’s advantage.

*Another one of Trump’s cabinet picks, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for Secretary of Defense, had of course gotten in trouble for accusations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking, and lack of relevant experience. Now Trump is pondering replacing him.  Guess who might be the candidate? (Article archived here.)

President-elect Donald Trump is considering Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a possible replacement for Pete Hegseth, his pick to run the Pentagon, according to people familiar with the discussions, amid Republican senators’ concerns over mounting allegations about the former Fox News host’s personal life.

Picking DeSantis, a 2024 GOP primary rival for the presidency, would amount to a stunning turn for Trump. But he would also find in the governor a well-known conservative with a service record who shares Trump’s—and Hegseth’s—view on culling what they see as “woke” policies in the military.

Trump allies increasingly think Hegseth may not survive further scrutiny, according to people close to the president-elect’s team, which considers the next 48 hours to be crucial to his fate.

DeSantis, who served as a Navy lawyer in Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, was on an earlier list of potential defense secretary candidates that transition officials presented to the president. Trump ultimately went with Hegseth. But as Hegseth’s nomination has faltered, that list has been revived and DeSantis is again among the choices Trump is considering, the people said.

The discussions are in their early stages, one of the people said, adding that Trump has floated DeSantis’s name in casual conversations with guests at Mar-a-Lago, his private Florida club.

DeSantis is tasked with replacing Florida senator Marco Rubio, who is Trump’s choice for Secretary of State. And guess who is plumping for Rubio’s job should he be successfully confirmed?: do

Already, DeSantis has been preparing to name an interim replacement for Sen. Marco Rubio, whom Trump has nominated as his secretary of state. Allies of Trump have been pushing for that person to be Lara Trump, the president-elect’s daughter-in law, who in March was elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

My guess: DeSantis, who does have service experience, won’t get the job given his paucity of leadership experience in the Navy. But what do I know? The only certainty is that Trump is going to have one wonky Cabinet.

*I have taken to reading Bret Stephens’s op-ed columns in the NYT as he usually has a sensible take on things. His latest, which intrigued me because of the Chicago connection, is called “Can Rahm Emanuel flip the script again?” (You may remember that Emanuel was Obama’s chief of staff, a Representative from Illinois, mayor of Chicago (not a popular one), and now is Ambassador to Japan. Stephen’s thesis is that Rahm, who is politically savvy, could turn around the abysmal performance and prospects of the Democratic Party (column archived here).

There’s a buzz around Rahm Emanuel — the former Bill Clinton adviser, former Illinois congressman, former chief of staff to President Barack Obama, former mayor of Chicago — possibly becoming the next head of the Democratic National Committee. The progressive left despises his pragmatism and liberal centrism. He has a reputation for abrasiveness. And his current job, as ambassador to Japan, has traditionally served as a posting for high-level political has-beens like Walter Mondale and Howard Baker.

But he also has a gift for constructing winning coalitions with difficult, unexpected partners.

. . . . Emanuel’s tenure as ambassador was distinguished by his role in engineering two historic rapprochements — last year between Japan and South Korea and this year between Japan and the Philippines — that, along with the AUKUS defense pact with Britain and Australia, form part of a broad diplomatic effort by the Biden administration to contain China.

. . . . So how do Democrats reclaim their old advantages?

“From ’68 to ’88, a 20-year run, you had ‘law and order,’ ‘welfare queens,’ Willie Horton — that was the Republican message,” Emanuel recalls. “Bill Clinton comes around and takes the equation of crime, immigration, drugs, welfare, the whole basket of cultural issues, and gets them off the table.” All of these required Clinton to pick at least as many fights with his party’s left as he picked against Republicans, and even now there are parts of the Democratic Party that are still sore about it.

“As I always say to the left, what part of the peace and prosperity were you most upset with?” he asks. “Which part did you hate? Was it the income growth, the employment growth, the drop in welfare rolls, the drop in crime, the fact that America was respected around the world, peace in the Middle East? Which part did you hate most?”

Emanuel doesn’t think it’s impossible for Democrats to repeat Clinton’s feat, though whether it will take one bad election or more remains to be seen. As in his views about the geopolitics of Asia, where Chinese blundering and bullying should play to America’s advantage, so too in domestic politics. Trump “is going to turn the Oval Office into eBay,” he predicts. It will be the Democrats’ challenge to illuminate the fact. The trick in both cases is not to undermine your own side as you try to defeat the other.

“I think Democrats prefer losing and being morally right to winning,” he says. “Me, I’m not into moral victory speeches. I’m into winning.”

Given his abrasiveness and straight talking that made him an unpopular mayor of Chicago, this strategy may not play well with progressives on the Left, who, in the end, did undermine their own side.

*The Editorial Board of the Washington Post has come out strongly against Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter. The op-ed is “Hunter Biden pardon undermines Democrats’ defense of justice system” (archived here).

President-elect Donald Trump is selecting radical MAGA loyalists for top national security positions, signaling his intention to upend the professionalism and independence of institutions that wield some of the federal government’s most awesome powers. Political opponents, journalists and others could be victims. And President Joe Biden just gave him cover.

To be clear: Mr. Biden had an unquestionable legal right to pardon his son Hunter. But in so doing on Sunday, he maligned the Justice Department and invited Mr. Trump to draw equivalence between the Hunter Biden pardon and any future moves Mr. Trump might take against the impartial administration of justice. He risks deepening many Americans’ suspicion that the justice system is two-tiered, justifying Mr. Trump’s drive to reshape it — or, because turnabout is fair play, to use it to benefit his own side.

Mr. Biden, of course, argues that pardoning his son strikes a blow for fairness in law enforcement. His statement on the pardon — in which he uses the words, “I believe in the justice system, but …” — claims that “no reasonable person” could “reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son.” Yet such considerations were apparently not so compelling when he pledged previously not to pardon Hunter. And his son clearly broke the law. A federal jury of Hunter Biden’s peers found him guilty of three firearm-related felonies in Delaware. Hunter also pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges that carry a penalty of up to 17 years in prison. The gun charges, essentially that the younger Mr. Biden lied on a purchase application form when he denied using drugs, are particularly hard to ignore. Such laws, however rarely enforced, are on the books to help keep firearms out of the hands of those who might pose a danger to themselves or others.

. . . Any Democrat who refuses this week to condemn Mr. Biden’s pardon will have less credibility to criticize Mr. Trump, his meddling at the Justice Department and his choices for key positions in that agency. No one should be surprised if Mr. Trump invokes the Hunter Biden pardon to justify clemency for many more of his allies, potentially including Jan. 6 insurrectionists. With this one intemperate, selfish act, the president has undermined, in hindsight, the lofty rationales he offered for seeking the presidency four years ago and indelibly marred the final chapter of his political career.

I can hear it now when Trump pardons the insurrectionists, “If crooked Joe Biden can pardon his own son, I have every right to pardon those who were simply standing up for democracy.” The last sentence is correct: Biden will go down in history as at best a mediocre President, and at worst a self-serving one.

*The journal Science reports a study by Kevin Hatala, Louise Leakey and their colleagues, also published in the journal, that two species of hominims coexisted at the same time and place (what is now Kenya, and 1.5 million years ago).  Here’s the original paper (click to read):

. . . and the editor’s summary:

It is now well accepted that hominin evolution is a story of many lineages existing contemporaneously. Evidence for this pattern has mostly come from fossils being dated to similar time periods. Hatala et al. describe hominid footprints from 1.5 million years ago in the Turkana Basin in Kenya that were made by two different species within hours or days of each other (see the Perspective by Harcourt-Smith). Analyses showed that the footprints were made by individuals with different gaits and stances, and the authors hypothesize these to be Homo erectus and Paranthropus boilei. Although fossils of both species occur in the area, these footprints show that they coexisted and likely interacted. —Sacha Vignieri

And from the Science news piece, which gives a photo:

One day 1.5 million years ago, two or three individuals of our genus Homo walked along a muddy lakeshore. Hours before or after they passed, another member of the human family, likely the smaller brained, big-jawed Paranthropus, hurried along the same shoreline. These early hominins would have seen giant cranes, ancient horses and antelopes—and, possibly, each other, according to a new study of their intermingled footprints published today in Science.

Fossils had hinted that different types of early hominins were contemporaries in Africa at about this time, but the tracks provide the strongest evidence yet that these two species, each with their own distinct upright stride, were in the same place on the same day.

“It’s very exciting—we are getting two very clear, distinctive gait patterns from different species of hominins in a matter of hours or even minutes,” says Charles Musiba, a paleoanthropologist at Duke University who was not part of the study. “They may actually have come across each other.”

These ancient footprints trample the old view, proposed in the 1950s by the evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, that no two hominin species overlapped in time and space, says William Harcourt-Smith, a paleoanthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History who wrote a commentary accompanying the new paper.

To occur in the very same layer, the two prints were likely made within days of each other, as fossilizing footprints require special conditions: usually humans making impressions in mud that are very quickly filled up with volcanic ash or other quick-depositing sediments.

Fossils of both species, one in our genus Homo and the other one of a “robust” hominim that went extinct without leaving descendants, are also found in the same layer of sediments, supporting the authors’ claims.  Hatala et al. discuss the different gaits of these individuals; individuals in Homo, for example, walked more flat-footed than we do now. Here’s a photo of one Homo footprint taken by the paper’s first author:

(From Science news piece): An early member of our genus Homo left a single deep footprint as it slid its toes in the mud near where another type of hominin walked on the same day.Kevin G. Hatala

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili and Andrzej have a difference of opinion about what weather is worse:

Hili: It’s cold and wet outside. A: I prefer frost and snow. Hili: I totally don’t understand it.

In Polish:

Hili: Na dworze jest zimno i mokro.
Ja: Wolę mróz i śnieg.
Hili: Tego zupełnie nie rozumiem.

And a photo of Szaron:

*******************

From Jesus of the Day. I’m usually bad at these things, but surprisingly, I saw what it was almost immediately. Don’t let on in the comments lest you spoil it for others:

From Cat Memes:

. . . and I couldn’t resist this from Meow (it’s got eyebrows, too):

From Masih. I can’t embed this tweet with a horrific video, but if you click below you can see it on X. As Masih says, “This video, sent to me by a woman from Tehran, shows her scars from being lashed for not wearing hijab.”  Note: if you are repelled by the effects of severe lashing by isogynists, do not click!

This is what happens to you in Iran if you don’t cover your hair.

Found while perusing X:

From the “you couldn’t make this stuff up” file:

A “misinformation expert” at Stanford, @jeffhancock, billed the state of Minnesota $600/hour to prepare an expert declaration on the dangers of AI-generated content. He swore under penalty of perjury that everything stated in the… pic.twitter.com/UIWfMfRMm1

— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) December 3, 2024

From Free Black Thought via Luana: our conference at USC next month!

Register to attend the Censorship in the Sciences conference at USC and hear @mdcbowen and @omni_american explain why they started FBT.

As a bonus, you’ll hear keynotes from @jon_rauch, @JMchangama, @wil_da_beast630, and @glukianoff, as well as talks by @Musa_alGharbi,… pic.twitter.com/oEnsMtNY6K

— Free Black Thought (@FreeBlckThought) December 3, 2024

Another book I don’t have to read. . .

It's hard to describe just how dull the Merkel memoirs are.

— Stanley Pignal (@spignal.bsky.social) 2024-12-04T06:43:17.052Z

From my Twitter (X) home feed, which so far is much more interesting than my Bluesky home feed (I don’t follow anyone on either platform):

That’s the most human looking face I’ve ever seen on a monkey. pic.twitter.com/QCi69qL20M

— Nature is Amazing (@AMAZlNGNATURE) December 3, 2024

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one I reposted:

He lived at most four days after this photo was taken. https://t.co/wkZHjJ6iz5

— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) December 4, 2024

Two posts by Dr. Cobb, First, a Korean opposition member desperate to overturn the martial law described above. Matthew says, “N.b.,  the coup is over, the President is a fool, but this guy is smart!

Lee Jae-myung, Leader of South Korea's Democratic Party, live-streamed himself scaling the walls of the National Assembly to bypass military barricades so that he could vote to overturn the President's martial law.

— Adam Schwarz (@adamjschwarz.bsky.social) 2024-12-03T16:55:41.973Z

It is a truth universally acknowledged that this tweet is unfair to the American novel:

Goal of the protagonist in:French novel: "to fall in love"British novel: "to get married"Russian novel: "to become a great man"American novel: "to kill that fuckin' whale, man. I want that GOD DAMN whale to die. FUCK, I hate whales so much!!"

— Existential Comics (@existentialcomics.com) 2024-12-03T18:49:34.818Z

There are slimmer sci-fi pickings than usual at the end of the year, but gems can still be found, whether that’s a visit to George R. R. Martin’s Wild Card universe, or a graphic novel adaptation of Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem

How can artificial intelligence (AI) help astronauts on long-term space missions? This is what a recent study presented at the 2024 International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy, hopes to address as an international team of researchers led by the German Aerospace Center introduce enhancements for the Mars Exploration Telemetry-Driven Information System (METIS) system and how this could help future astronauts on Mars mitigate the communications issues between Earth and Mars, which can take up to 24 minutes depending in the orbits. This study holds the potential to develop more efficient technology for long-term space missions beyond Earth, specifically to the Moon and Mars.

Here, Universe Today discusses this incredible research with Oliver Bensch, who is a PhD student at the German Aerospace Center regarding the motivation behind the study, the most significant results and follow-up studies, the significance of using specific tools for enhancing METIS, and the importance of using AI-based technology on future crewed missions. Therefore, what was the motivation behind this study regarding AI assistants for future space missions?

“Current astronauts rely heavily on ground support, especially during unexpected situations,” Bensch tells Universe Today. “Our project aims to explore new ways to support astronauts, making them more autonomous during missions. Our focus was to make the great amount of multimodal data, like documents or sensor data easily, and most importantly, reliably available to astronauts in natural language. This is especially relevant when we think about future long-duration space missions, e.g., to Mars where there is a significant communication latency.”

For the study, the researchers improved upon current METIS algorithms since current Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) Models and are known for producing errors based on specific environments where they are deployed. To combat this, the researchers incorporated GPTs, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Knowledge Graphs (KGs), and Augmented Reality (AR) with the goal of enabling more autonomy for future astronauts without the need for constant communication with Earth ground stations.

The goal of the study was to develop a system that can improve astronaut autonomy, safety, and efficiency in conducting mission objectives on long-duration space missions to either the Moon or Mars. As noted, communication delays between the Earth and Mars can be as high as 24 minutes, so astronauts being able to make on-the-spot decisions could mean the difference between life and death. Therefore, what were the most significant results from this study?

“In our project we aim to integrate documents, like procedures, with live sensor data and other additional information into our Knowledge Graph,” Bensch tells Universe Today. “The stored and live updated information is then displayed in an intuitive way using augmented reality cues and natural language voice interaction, enhancing the autonomy of the astronauts. Reliable answers are ensured by backlinks to the Knowledge Graph, enabling astronauts to verify the information, something that is not possible when just relying on large language model-based assistants as they are prone to generating inaccurate or fabricated information.”

Regarding follow-up studies, Bensch tells Universe Today the team is currently working with the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative and aspires to work with astronauts at the European Space Agency’s European Astronaut Centre sometime in 2025.

As noted, the researchers integrated Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) Models, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Knowledge Graphs (KGs), and Augmented Reality (AR) with the goal of enabling more autonomy for astronauts on future long-term space missions. GPTs are designed to serve as a framework for generative artificial intelligence and was first used by OpenAI in 2018.

RAGs help enhance generative artificial intelligence by enabling the algorithm to input outside data and documentation from the user and are comprised of four stages: indexing, retrieval, augmentation, and generation. KGs knowledge bases responsible for enhancing data through storing connected datasets and the term was first used by Austrian linguist Edgar W. Schneider in 1972. AR is a display interface that combines the elements of the virtual and real world with the goal of immersing the user with a virtual environment while still maintaining the real-world surroundings. Therefore, what was the significance of combining RAGs, KGs, and AR to produce this new system?

“Traditional RAG systems typically retrieve and generate responses based on a single matching document,” Bensch tells Universe Today. “However, the challenges of space exploration often involve processing distributed and multimodal data, ranging from procedural manuals and sensor data to images and live telemetry, such as temperatures or pressures. By integrating KGs, we address these challenges by organizing data into an interconnected, updatable structure that can accommodate live data and provide contextually relevant responses. KGs act as a backbone, linking disparate sources of information and enabling astronauts to access cohesive and accurate insights across multiple documents or data types.”

Bensch continues, “AR enhances this system by offering intuitive, hands-free interfaces. By overlaying procedures, sensor readings, or warnings directly onto the astronaut’s field of view, AR minimizes cognitive load and reduces the need to shift focus between devices. Additionally, voice control capabilities allow astronauts to query and interact with the system naturally, further streamlining task execution. Although each technology provides some benefit individually, their combined use offers significantly greater value to astronauts, especially during long-duration space missions where astronauts need to operate more autonomously.”

While this study addresses how AI could help astronauts on future space missions, AI is already being used in current space missions, specifically on the International Space Station (ISS), and include generative AI, AI robots, machine learning, and embedded processors. For AI robots, the ISS uses three 12.5-inch cube-shaped robots named Honey, Queen, and Bumble as part of NASA’s Astrobee program designed to assist ISS astronauts on their daily tasks. All three robots were launched to the ISS across two missions in 2019, with Honey briefly returning to Earth for maintenance shortly after arriving at the orbiting outpost and didn’t return until 2023.

Each powered by an electric fan, the three robots perform tasks like cargo movement, experiment documentation, and inventory management, along with possessing a perching arm to hold handrails for energy conservation purposes. The long-term goal of the program is to help enhance this technology for use on lunar crewed missions and the Lunar Gateway. But how important is it to incorporate artificial intelligence into future crewed missions, specifically to Mars?

“Astronauts are currently supported by a team during training and their missions,” Bensch tells Universe Today. “Mars missions involve significant delays, which makes ground support difficult during time critical situations. AI assistants that provide quick, reliable access to procedures and live data via voice and AR are essential for overcoming these challenges.”

How will AI assistants help astronauts on long-term space missions in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

The post Astronauts on Long Missions Will Need Personal AI Assistants appeared first on Universe Today.

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