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Carnegie Mellon unveils Andy lunar rover
The Andy Rover is designed to explore rough lunar terrain ( Photo: CMU)
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has unveiled Andy, a four-wheeled unmanned rover designed to explore the rough terrain and recently discovered pits of the Moon. Developed in cooperation with Pittsburgh's Astrobotic Technology, the solar powered robot is CMU's entry for the US$20 million-plus Google Lunar XPrize, and may one day help pave the way toward permanent outposts on the Moon.
Named after Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon, Andy was built to withstand the freezing cold and boiling hot temperatures of the lunar surface in the Lacus Mortis, or "Lake of Death" region. The product of nine months labor by a workforce made up mostly of 50 CMU students, it's powered by 100 W solar panels and a 20 V lithium-ion battery.
Despite its light weight of 33 kg (72.7 lb), Andy has been designed to handle rough terrain. Standing 102 cm (40 in) high, its four 30 cm wheels provide 18 cm of ground clearance, as well as a wide stance and a low center-of-gravity. Meanwhile, its brushless in-wheel electric motors allow the rover to negotiate slopes and rocks at speeds of up to 18 cm/sec (7 in/sec). In addition, CMU says that Andy has the "softest footprint and greatest strength-to-weight ratio of any space rover to date."
Andy is designed for reliability using terrestrial parts and high degree of redundancy is built in, with fault detection and correcting software to swap between components. Its interface uses landing imagery and a 3D path reconstruction for navigation and recording. It also has panoramic near real-time cameras, and its autonomous driving systems was originally designed by CMU for NASA's Mars rovers.
Though it's primary goal is to win the Lunar XPrize, which was established to promote private exploration of the Moon, CMU emphasizes that Andy's mission goes well beyond that. One particular objective will be to seek out polar ice deposits in permanently shadowed craters, which could be used to produce air and rocket fuel for future explorers, as well as looking at the recently discovered Moon pits that may lead to caverns that could be the key to building manned outposts on the Moon.
CMU says that in its next phase of development, Andy will receive better hardening against radiation by installing space-certified parts. The rover will also carry a payload of artwork coordinated by Lowry Burgess, CMU professor of art, and Mark Baskinger, associate professor of design
"Every extraterrestrial robot carries some DNA from Carnegie Mellon, but Andy would be the first true CMU robot to make the leap from Earth," says William "Red" Whittaker, professor of robotics and director of the Field Robotics Center. "This is the culmination of lots of work by lots of people and is the next step toward Carnegie Mellon becoming a spacefaring university."
Source: CMU
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/carnegie-mellon-unveils-andy-lunar-rover/34987/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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