Gizmorama - June 1, 2015

Good Morning,

Do you know the best way to maneuver an asteroid? Well, if you do know, please contact NASA. They might be interested in what you have to say.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- NASA asks for new ideas to bolster asteroid redirect mission --*
WASHINGTON (UPI) - NASA is asking American tech, engineering and aerospace firms for fresh ideas on how best to maneuver an asteroid.

The ultimate aim of the space agency's Asteroid Redirect Mission is settled. Officials want to capture a boulder from a near-Earth asteroid and place it into orbit around the moon. But NASA isn't sure how to get started.

Agency engineers need a strategy and a robotic spacecraft. A lot details need to be filled in. And they're hoping a spark of creativity from the private sector can help get the ball rolling. That's why the agency issued a Request for Information, or RFI.

They don't want proposals -- just ideas.

"Today's call for ideas from our industry partners is another important milestone for the Asteroid Redirect Mission, a critical capability demonstration mission that's part of our stepping stone approach for sending American astronauts to Mars in the 2030s," Robert Lightfoot, an associate administrator at NASA, said in a press release. "As part of our acquisition strategy, we're asking for more information toward the ARM spacecraft concept and also on commonality with a notional robotic satellite servicing spacecraft."

But NASA doesn't want just any starry-eyed idea. They want the ideas to meet quite a few specifics. The agency wants ideas on how to build a spacecraft that employs advanced Solar Electric Propulsion technology.

They also want to know how they can test asteroid defense technologies during the mission. Additionally, NASA officials would prefer a spacecraft that could also be used for a robotic satellite servicing mission.

The ultimate purpose of the redirect mission is to enable testing related to the agency's planned future trip to Mars.

Interested companies have 45 days to come up with their ideas and send them to NASA.


* Scientists develop first artificial molecular pump *
EVANSTON, Ill. (UPI) - Scientists have figured out how to mimic nature by creating an artificial molecular pump that can power cells in a feat of "radical chemistry," as one scientist involved with the development called it.

The design of the tiny device is significant because scientists managed to figure out how to transfer energy from molecule to molecule the same way that it happens naturally -- no small feat.

"All living organisms, including humans, must continuously transport and redistribute molecules around their cells, using vital carrier proteins," said Sir Fraser Stoddart, the Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry in Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, in a press release. "We are trying to recreate the actions of these proteins using relatively simple small molecules we make in the laboratory."

The pump uses energy from chemical reactions to move smaller molecules around in order to metabolize and store energy from food.

As researchers managed to siphon energy from molecules while forcing them to act in ways they may not normally, the next goal will be to increase how much energy is siphoned and stored, closer to the real thing.

"This is completely unlike the process of designing the machinery we are used to seeing in everyday life," Stoddart said. "In a way, one must learn to see things from the molecules' point of view, considering forces such as random thermal motion that one would never consider when building an agricultural water pump or any other mechanical device."

The study is published in Nature Nanotechnology.

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