Cool STEM News:

A robotic spacecraft just latched onto an active satellite in orbit | The Verge (01:47)

• A robotic spacecraft from Northrop Grumman latched onto an old communications satellite in deep orbit and extended its lifespan by five more years.

• The Mission Extension Vehicle-2 (MEV-2) marked Northrop’s second successful docking of an object in space. 
  • Launched in August last year from French Guiana in South America
  • MEV-2 docked with IS-10-02 directly in its operational GEO orbital location.
  • Caught up to its target and clamped onto it to provide the IS-10-02 with more fuel. 

• A representative explained the clamping process to TechCrunch and you can think of it as a “jetpack” of some sorts:
  • “The MEV-2 docking system consists of a probe that we insert into the liquid apogee engine on the aft end of a satellite. Nearly 80% of satellites in orbit have this feature, allowing the MEV to service a variety of customers. The liquid apogee engine acts as a “cone to capture” to help guide the probe which once it passes through the throat of the engine, expands to capture the client satellite. The probe is then retracted pulling three stanchions, or feet, up against the launch adaptor ring, securely clamping the two vehicles together.”

• This falls after their first successful extension mission of another Intelsat Satellite (IS-901) last year with the MEV-1. 

• Major Step Up: MEV-1 was servicing an inactive satellite while MEV-2 serviced a working satellite.

• Could this lead to other more creations that extend a satellite’s life? Or maybe utilize the clamping mechanism for removing space junk?

The ‘Iron Man’ body armor many of us may soon be wearing | BBC (08:30) 

• Imagine wearing a high-tech bodysuit (e.g. exoskeleton) that makes you super strong and tireless. 

• Looks like something out of a video game from the images.

• The equipment is increasingly being worn in real life around the world. And one manufacturer, California’s SuitX,  expects it to go mainstream according to the founder Homayoon Kazerooni:
  • “There is no doubt in my mind that these devices will eventually be sold at hardware stores … As the prices come down you’ll be able to simply buy them at Home Depot.”
  • The average cost of these exosuits is around $45k.

• There has been an increase in exoskeleton usage across multiple industries according to Adrian Spragg, an expert on the technology at management consultancy Accenture: 
  • “Many of the early applications have been focused on military and medical applications, but in the last several years there’s been an explosion of use in a range of cases.”

• The main explosion in usage is the manufacturing industry where these exosuits can help workers alleviate the pain of moving around all shifts since they have shown to take roughly 50% of the load off of your muscles and joints.
  • Reduces the chance of muscle-related injuries.

• Seems like global exoskeleton sales are expected to rise according to an ABI Research report: “the exoskeleton market is valued at US$392 million in 2020 and will grow to US$6.8 billion in global revenue in 2030.”

• Sandra Wachter, a senior research fellow in AI at Oxford University, is optimistic about the use of exoskeletons but provides some caution as well:
  • “Problems, however, arise if robotics also [doubles] as workplace surveillance. Are these suits tracking your movements, how fast you move, and how often you take breaks? Does a system compare this data with those of other workers to score or rank them? What happens if you move slower than others, or take breaks more often?”

• More optimistic note: Could this tech provide employees with the benefit of working fewer hours? Assuming these suits improve performance (less muscle strain), then could that lead to at least improving the amount completed in the normal shift time frame?  

Gov. Gordon Offers Up Wyoming To Host Elon Musk-Funded XPRIZE | WyomingPublicMedia (18:13)

• Don’t think I mentioned this before on the podcast but back in Elon Musk stated that on Twitter: “Am donating $100M towards a prize for best carbon capture technology”.
  • Putting his money where his mouth is. 

• Roughly two weeks later, The XPRIZE Foundation officially announced the $100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal, sponsored by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation. 
• Mentioning this because Wyoming’s governor Mark Gordon started to initiate the conversation with the non-profit XPRIZE Foundation to utilize the state of Wyoming as a host for this competition. 
  • Note: Power Plants in Wyoming were utilized for the last Carbon XPRIZE competition.

• In a statement sent to the foundation & Musk from the governor’s office:
  •  “There are many who would prefer to slam the door on our fossil energy resources. However, we both know that the United States could stop using fossil energy tomorrow and the impact on CO2 [carbon dioxide] emissions would be negligible as Asia electrifies and their carbon emissions grow exponentially.”

• To win the competition teams must showcase their innovation can not only remove carbon dioxide, but scale up economically to reduce CO2 at the gigaton, or billion ton, level.

• Wyoming seems like the place to utilize since it already has the infrastructure according to the governor: 
  • “I would like to offer the use of the Wyoming ITC to conduct your prize competition. As the largest post-combustion carbon research facility in the Western Hemisphere, we have ready infrastructure that cannot be offered elsewhere.”

• The $100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal will officially launch on Earth Day, April 22, and will take place over four years.

• It’s not yet clear where the competition will be held. But I appreciate some states stepping in saying they want to take part in this effort. 

Uganda Startup Makes Carpets, Hair Extensions Out of Banana Waste | Interesting Engineering (29:41)

• Fun fact: Uganda is the largest producer of bananas in sub-Saharan Africa. 

• According to a Reuters report, That fruit is now being utilized by a local startup, TexFad, to produce environmentally friendly products such as textiles, carpets, biodegradable hair extensions. 

• In the same vein as the plastic waste brick conversion by Gjenge Makers company (Ep. 46) and the coffee pulp reforestation usage (Ep. 51).

• TexFad is utilizing fiber extracted from the banana tree’s trunk that normally goes to waste (burned or thrown away).

• The company takes the waste (trunks of the trees) and tosses them into a machine to transform the waste into “long leathery fibers”. 

• Fibers are dried and then utilized for their biodegradable products.

• TexFad is experimenting with various uses of banana fibers, producing carpets and market-testing hair extension products, according to Kimani Muturi, the company’s managing director and founder.

• Muturi forecast TexFad will make 2,400 carpets this year, more than doubling last year’s output and boosting revenues. 

• The firm, which has 23 employees, made about $41,000 in sales last year, its best figures since launching in 2013.

• What started Muturi on this process of creatively utilizing this waste: “When I looked around I saw that bananas grow abundantly in this country … we generate a lot of waste from the banana gardens.

Cool or Not Cool?

Scientists created embryos with human and monkey cells, stoking ethical concerns | Fast Company (34:15)

• A study published in Nature showed that human cells can indeed grow when implanted inside macaque monkey embryos. 

• Goal of the Study: find ways to develop human organs and tissue that can be used for transplants.

• Process/Result of the Study:
  • Took 132 monkey embryos and injected them with human stem cells.
  • Used a process that allowed them to develop monkey embryos for up to 20 days in a lab.
  • Only three of the embryos made it to day 19 before they collapsed.

• An interesting finding was that the human and monkey cells were able to communicate with one another, allowing the human cells to survive.
  • Cell Communication is important because it allows the cells to determine what can exit and enter the individual cells. 

• The study’s authors see this research as key to better understanding human development and primate evolution, and an opportunity to advance the use of chimeras for organ creation.

• Why it Could be Cool:
  • The demand for organs is great.
  • In the U.S. alone, according to OrganDonor.gov: 
    • Over 100,000 people are registered on the national waiting list for a transplant. 
    • Every 9 minutes, another person is added to the transplant waiting list.
    • 17 people die each day waiting on a transplant.

• Why it Could be Not Cool:
  • Potential for “rogue scientists” to use this research to develop true human-monkey chimeras.
  • An example of that happening was a scientist in China creating the world’s first gene-edited babies. 
  • Ethical Questions were raised about raising these chimeras purely for organ extraction. Would that raise PETA concerns? Or Human rights violations?
  • Rules for these types of studies are “foggy” at best: 14 day limit for the development of human embryos for research.
    • Scientists are trying to extend that to 28 days.
    • How does that relate to a monkey embryo with human cells?
  • Finally, scientists have made huge strides in developing human tissue and organs (known as organoids) in a lab.
    • • So do we even need to use animals as human organ growth vessels?