tenaciouschildengineer

[tenaciouschildengineer]

The Importance of Understanding Energy Conservation in a Transforming AI Economy.

Written by: Neoneela Boevets

JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! This topic has been on my mind a lot lately… Not only because I have been on the job hunt, but because the job market is shifting at a catalytic rate. In the age of automation, robotics, AI, climate change, and government policies being implemented- it leaves us wondering what the future holds for us. What does the job market look like in 30 years? Or 50 years? 100 years?

“Machines could take 50% of jobs in the next 30 years”

-Moshe Vardi, CS Professor, Rice University

The new industrial revolution will set new grounds of what our values are and what value can humans provide. Do you remember when travel agencies were a relevant service when booking a vacation? They were certainly a higher demand then compared to now. Do you remember Blockbuster? What happened to all those jobs? They shifted, zero marginal cost businesses such as Netflix and TripAdvisor replaced them.

In the article, “You Will Lose Your Job to a Robot—and Sooner Than You Think”, Kevin Drum argues that the post golden age will create an even wider economic gap for the rich, and that there will be little to no jobs left for humans. Because of this, It is up to our government to ensure that social welfare and environmental regulations should take place in order for us to be ready for the future of AI, and unfortunately this is not what’s happening, the article discusses that our government is not prioritizing the future of AI, stating that: “They refuse to see that global warming is behind changing weather patterns because dealing with climate change requires environmental regulations that are bad for business and bad for the rich. Likewise, dealing with an AI Revolution will require new ways of distributing wealth. In the long run this will be good even for the rich, but in the short term it’s a pretty scary prospect for those with money—and one they’ll fight zealously. Until they have no choice left, conservatives are simply not going to admit this is happening, let alone think about how to address it. It’s not in their DNA.” This cannot be said better, we are too ignorant to shift the tectonics of macroeconomy as the digital minds of the future. 

A UBI (Universal Basic Income) system will be needed in case of emergency for sure. This is actually one of Andrew Yang’s central missions in his political campaign. And he's not wrong. UBI will be basic minimum food and a place to live, basic necessities. It's not supposed to be luxurious. Not every American will need it. Jeff Bezos will be okay without it.

The article fails to mention new jobs that will also occur as automation and AI use increases. Humans will shift towards new jobs or no job at all which may require the government to create a universal stipend. We cannot imagine yet how humanity will keep itself busy in the AI world. A caveman would have no concept of being a web developer, so same goes with humans of 2023 trying to grasp the future of AI.  We will have jobs. I know that there are plenty of opportunities for people to be able to make the standard of living they want under the circumstances that we are in - if they want more than the standard of living. Just take a look at social media influencers as an example…will we shift to jobs that are more creative & fun?! There is always something to hustle from. But making sure UBI is set in stone, is always a good back up plan to have, again not knowing what the future holds in regard to the job market. 

*This is a similar argument of Americans living on welfare, they want to make more too and be a part of a working-class society. Will there be a better standard of living with the age of automation Hopefully, yes. But a UBI system will be needed just in case.

** Here's more on "Debunking the myth of the Lazy Welfare Recipient" Debunking the myth of the lazy welfare recipient | Harvard Kennedy School

On the flipside (yay! positivity!), we also have a culture that is becoming more environmentally conscious and finding ways to minimize resources- making it a cheaper standard of living. We got the tiny home movement, van life, etc. There are all sorts of innovations happening right now! Not to say that's practical for everyone- especially with big families- but could be one day, with the inclusion of a sustainable system. 

The biggest point that the article makes is that the government has failed us in preparing us for the AI revolution. The party system inherits “short term thinkers” which is why environmental problems are not prioritized when they should be, the article states,” renewable energy already gets plenty of attention, even if half the country still denies that we really need it. It’s time for the end of work to start getting the same attention. “With that being said, there needs to be more governmental involvement in the future- as we do not have a choice, in universal income, the age of AI, and climate change- we need a proper leadership and direction. In my work, I can vouch that politics, robotics, and environmental problems are VERY interconnected. 

Which leads to the next topic… Energy! 

In regard to energy conservation, it is important to take into consideration the goal of having a cleaner environment. This is vital for a president in having a non- partisan diplomacy in understanding climate change and all science practices. Key decisions revolve around technology. Stay skeptical, promote energy efficiency, have a diverse set of sustainable energy practices. People in higher levels need to be educated in the application of physics in technology. Heat is a transfer of energy and the ability to do work. Nobody can create nor destroy energy. This is an important concept to learn how to control energy. We need to challenge how we utilize energy today. For example, car engines use 10-30 percent of energy from gas alone. Most of the energy is lost! How do we save more energy? We must look for other sources that utilize most of the energy produced efficiently or even look at sources from the past like radial engines (might be a landslide), not only newer technologies. Utilizing energy is what makes the world go round especially with the huge surges of population growing at an extreme rate. 

Energy conservation is a vital concept in the manufacturing, industrial worlds, and everyday life! 

This leads us to a more efficient economy and environment, a decrease in overtime relative costs, which is hopefully what the many goals are for presidents to engage in. If a president does not understand the importance of these concepts, they would not know how to keep up with the developing world.” As a solution, citizens need to care more about politics, vote, be more educated and involved in order to have a better government. FUND EDUCATION, OUR FUTURE! What makes it hard is the how. To point out the obvious- it would be so much more productive for our society if all people cared to make a difference, and all cared about this problem. We need to make environmental products profitable; everyone likes money. I am hopeful that we can get there; it has to happen pretty soon though. Science will play a role in finding solutions. And we need elect people who inherit long-term thinking to help us towards these goals.

If you are interested in this discussion and would like to dive more into this topic, here's a good book to read: https://www.oecd.org/futures/35391210.pdf

Source: 

Drum, Kevin. “You Will Lose Your Job to a Robot-and Sooner than You Think.” Mother Jones, 26 Oct. 2017, 

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/you-will-lose-your-job-to-a-robot-and-sooner-than-you-think/. 

[tenaciouschildengineer]

Washing Machine Squeegee in Microgravity

Do you ever wonder how astronauts wash their clothes in space?

Fun fact: Astronauts do not wash their clothes in space. They just throw away their clothes!

This summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in the International Space Station (ISS) Washing Machine Challenge for my internship at NASA. Student participants were put into groups to develop different parts of a washing machine to be designed for use in microgravity. Our group was chosen to create the squeegee, an apparatus that would separate, control, and collect water from the cloth in a microgravity environment. 

The “squeegee” was composed of bristles and a vacuum. The idea is that the water would be grasped around moving rollers covered in hydrophilic coating. Water would then be collected by the squeegee and pulled into the Water Collection Unit (WCU) with the help of the bristles and a vacuum. The WCU would take the shape of a triangular force because capillary forces are still present in microgravity, meaning that the water would tend to be attracted to move towards corners, thus allowing us to have a better control of where the water goes. After the collection of the water, the water will then be vacuumed into the tubes and prepare to be reused for the next load.

For our team, I was tasked with developing a risk assessment for the squeegee, and suggested changes to eliminate or reduce risk factors in further iterations of the design- to put it-what are the next steps? This involved categorizing possible risks by the level of severity and probability of occurrence, and providing a solution for that function. Direct application of the process helped me better understand the field of safety, and its importance to mission success. Once safety hazards were recognized, our team had an easier time improving our design. Most risks/hazards came from controlling the water… Some risks included the suction not being equal on both ends of the rollers, creating clogs or build up of water in areas we don't want the water to divert to, a mitigation could be implementing sensors to control intake of water, another problem that could arise is mold build up on the bristles- which would have to be manually cleaned by astronauts on the ISS. But the real question is: Do we have time for this?

Problem: Water remains the biggest problem in maintaining a washing machine because there is a limited weight limit on the ISS. Water would have to be reused/recycled in each load. Also the energy of reusing water on the ISS would be costly and inefficient. The next steps for this design would be incorporating beads that would wash the clothes using little to no water at all and would cut energy usage on the ISS by at least 70%.

What is the application of this? The most important part of this project was relating to how we could incorporate sustainable practices on Earth. Xeros Machine is already currently developing beads in washing machines to save water and energy! And that’s awesome!!!

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/glenn/2021/nasa-glenn-interns-take-space-washing-machine-designs-for-a-spin

[tenaciouschildengineer]

In-Situ Resource Utilization Capabilities, Sustainability

“Advancing in Situ Resources Utilization Capabilities To Achieve a New Paradigm in Space Exploration”, defines In-Situ Resource Utilization “(ISRU) as involving any hardware or operation that harnesses and utilizes ‘in-situ’ resources to create products and services for robotic and human exploration. (page 1) “In Situ” refers to resources found at the site of the exploration which are not carried to the site by spacecraft. Some of the main advantages of  ISRU resources is reducing the cost of launches by optimizing propulsion, reducing launch/landing mass, to create new products, improve our infrastructure, and decrease crew health related mission risks. ISRU products do not require resupply missions, are more efficient, self sustainable, and extend the range for NASA’s missions to the Moon and Mars. Table 1 from the article illustrates the impact of ISRU in terms of propulsion, life support, habitat, mobility, and power.   

Why is this a big deal? Sustainability practices are the future for Earth, Mars, and the Moon. Using Regolith, we can improve our life on Earth by utilizing our resources in a variety of uses. Regolith can be used to make a radiation shield for the ROV, and allow the ROV to fix its own damages with the help of 3D printing mechanisms. 

ISRU can be used to improve existing propulsion systems. As the propulsion system relates to ISRU, ISRU can provide the ability to generate propellants using either sent materials or utilizing space resources. If we could 3D print propellants and generate pressure vessels, we can conceivably manufacture rocket propulsion devices on the Moon. The greatest challenge in 3D printing propellant is that it’s highly flammable. The use of other processes in the production of propellant would be much safer, because it is easier to avoid overheating propellant. 

The article, “System Architecture Design and Development for a Reusable Lunar Lander” exhibits the propulsion design in Gateway. In the design of Gateway, the propulsion system is reusable, using liquid propellant. A pressure-fed system and a pump-fed system uses nitrogen or helium to create movement using the pressure. It works by pushing “the propellant down to the combustion chamber, where it is ignited and exhausted. These types of systems are very reliable for small changes in velocity due to the simplicity of the design.” The design would have to be able to handle extreme amounts of pressure. Also the propellant design could greatly support in situ transportation operations, as mentioned in the Advanced ISRU article: ”Making propellants and establishing surface and potentially orbital propellant depots can also support and enable surface hoppers, reusable landers, and cis-lunar transportation systems,” thus reducing the amount of flight trips, and providing a tremendous reduction in life cycle costs. 

Life Support: Human Explorations and Operations Mission Directorate HEOMD focuses on the “Moxie” Mars Oxygen Isru Experiment, which can convert oxygen using Mars’ atmosphere. This would result in a reduction of the mass of the rocket, due to the decrease in oxygen tank requirements. Understanding how to create oxygen from Mars' atmosphere also makes us more independent in our conquest of Mars. The Resource Prospector mission (RP), uses a land rover, with ISRU capabilities. RP helps attain a further goal of spending more time on Mars/Moon to “perform a low cost mission to a near-permanently shadowed location at a lunar polar location to perform the first ‘ground-truth’ measurement of water and other volatile resources.”(page 7) The RP mission helps us better understand future explorations in the conquest of regolith. 

Habitat: Using regolith as a way to manufacture and construct elements to create radiation protection, also known as radiation shielding used in infrastructure. Using ISRU resources, radiation shielding can be created to help with maintenance and repair of other systems that need the protection. Advancing situ article points out the advantage of using this for habitat “ in case(s) of life support system or logistic delivery failure, radiation shielding not possible with Earth delivered options, feedstock production for in situ manufacturing of replacement parts, and propellant production to eliminate leakage or increased boiloff issues.”(page 3) This is a clear advancement in situ feedstock manufacturing (proving this may be difficult).

Mobility:  “Hoppers” are an important part of extending surface travel. The “Advancing in Situ” article states, “ these hoppers could be one-way, i.e. refueling the original delivery lander to hop to another location, or two-way where hoppers could be fueled to travel to a destination, perform science and take samples, and return to a centralize base location (Hub-and-Spoke surface architecture).” thus allowing more mobility, and providing a redundant base for resources and energy storage. In the event of a catastrophic failure, the operation can continue and it's not a complete loss in scientific exploration. 

Power: storage and regeneration using thermal cycling (energy) or radioisotope power systems is a better alternative to solar power. Operations cannot be dependent on solar energy. The difficulties of solar energy do not allow operations to be done in the shadow condition. In advance, relying on thermal or radioisotope power would avoid the troubles of worrying about dust storms blocking up solar arrays. Solar panels can be used for redundant power supply. Supplementing a solar array but a backup battery use would be more beneficial in more difficult climates. 

The “Ionic Liquid Facilitated Recovery of Metals and Oxygen from Regolith” article shows the importances of retaining regolith. Regolith is made up of useful material such as Oxygen, Silicon, Aluminum, Iron, Magnesium, and Calcium. Elements that are needed for ISRU utilization. The process of recycling these metals is done by using the process of  electroplating. 

For example, a metal-like substance called Nickel Chromium Alloy (can be found in iron meteorites), is used for heating elements’. This substance is temperature resistant, and can be used to create structures. Nickel Chromium Alloy can be recycled and can be electroplated, to form as a sheet and be used as a thermal protection against the sun, to avoid corrosion. Bulk electroplating is used to recycle the metal by using electrolysis. The disadvantage of this process is the energy needed to perform needs full heat capacity, meaning it can not perform as well in shadow regions. These metals are dependent on this process. Luckily, we can use Ionic liquids(organic salts) as a potential source to shape metals in room temperature. The challenges that come from collecting regolith as stated in the presentation is that “these materials are found in highly stable oxides.” To process regolith, it would require recovering the elements back into their original and pure elemental form, and  require “processing these oxides to recover high purity materials.”The disadvantages that come with this process can be highly abbassive to RP because they require lots of chemicals in use, heat, and a tremendous amount of energy to achieve final pure substances.

The article “Lunar Prospecting: Searching for Volatiles at the South Pole”,  demonstrates the challenges from the Resource Prospector (RP) mission. The RP mission includes “a rover for mobility, prospecting instruments to locate and characterize volatiles, a drill to collect regolith samples, and an in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) payload for analysis.” in the lunar polar location in order to deposit measurements of water and volatile sources. The RP main goal is to prospect, acquire or gather, then process the feasible materials found. The Impact of RP is the reduced risk of human exploration. Some of the mission strategic knowledge gaps include, lunar cold traps, detecting volatile species, inconsistent irregular patterns of water, and  “the mineralogical, elemental, molecular, isotopic makeup of the volatiles” as well as 

“ the lunar surface trafficability”(page 1). The RP poses an uncertainty in real time science. The article states “uncertainty introduced by the communications networks and the DSN make this infeasible” (page 4), making it harder to complete “real time” science.  Improving antenna signals, could do so much more with ISRU, as well as adding an antenna to the “hub of the hopper” using the shielding material of lunar regolith. 

 How does “real-time science” influence the path and the timing of the planned operation system of the lunar rover, Resource Prospector, to prospect, collect, and process in-situ resources on the Moon?

“Real time science” refers to the ability to make decisions in the moment, near time. Data has a relay. The data from a rover is communicated through orbiters which relay using X band radio waves,  then that information is passed on to the Deep Space Network (DSN) on Earth, which uses antennas to capture the messages. Raw data has to be then translated. The Lunar article shows how data in RP is relayed in space, “Previous testing has shown that a rover can be teleoperated manually with a short round trip delay of up to ten seconds, though even at that delay operators preferred waypoint driving. Delays in the tens of seconds make direct teleoperation driving unsafe, as the rover may crash before the operator sees the crater it is falling into.”, this makes it dangerous to drive using teleop mode, therefore the robot has to use both teleop and autonomous modes in order to travel safely. An advantage of RP, is that it has no sleep times or distance limitations. RP has to find feasible material, gather it, then process in situ. 

In prospecting, RP has to use pre planned navigation, using “ relatively fixed predetermined paths (rails) between the science stations, with adjustments made in near real-time for rover safety.”(page 4), because of this, rover data relays take longer to receive to the Deep Space Network. This is because distance signals take longer to travel in space, rover control takes fatal delays to react to the surrounding environment. In order to complete “real time science”, it requires tactical planning, pre programming in autonomous mode because of the time delay. Developing AI autonomous mode would reduce natural time delay. In autonomous mode, operators must preprogram to avoid collision. For decisions to be made at the moment, the rover must be able to stop when finding the material and wait for the operator to respond. As the voyages become more successful, the rover should be able to drive for itself.  Real time science is better than the alternatives because we waste less time and resources, explore more, and optimize the lifespan of our rovers, making voyages more flexible. As explained in the lunar article “the real-time scientist would have the option to call for a halt and further investigation if they see the rover is driving over a spot that is significantly higher in water concentration than previous areas.” (page 4) From there, the RP creates a known path, more success in RP’s travels will result in RP to meet a closer goal of driving with “real time.”

 Stated in Ionic Liquid Facilitated Recovery of Metals and Oxygen from Regolith, “An Ionic liquid-based process to recover metals and oxygen from regolith has been developed and demonstrated that could make resupply of chemical reagents negligible.” What is the closed-loop ionic liquid (IL) reprotonization process, and what are the benefits of this process to future space exploration?

In oxygen reduction, extreme heat is used to separate materials. In regolith, in order to keep oxygen from reacting, a constant amount of heat is necessary. The oxygen would have to be oxidized, while the metals would get reduced. The benefits of doing this process would be attaining these elements and reusing them on site. When exposed to oxygen, metals will oxidize in the state of metal oxide. The ionic liquid can be liquidized (except for sand) using oxidation reduction, allowing it to retain back to high pure metal by itself. Closed loop refers to recycling the purity of the substance, so that way you can constantly reuse the chemicals. 

Closed-loop ionic liquid (IL) reprotonization is useful for mining and refining tasks in space where either satellites or installations can use a compact system to harvest and refine precious materials. Reducing waste material to optimize space and weight within small satellites and installations, they make the process of  gathering valuable material like platinum, for either furthering the lifespan of an installation or bringing valuable materials back to Earth.

Regolith mentioned in the article, includes sources for solar energy, cement applications for infracture, and life support. Metals are critical for building trusses to support livable structures, resupplying deep space expeditions for maintenance/repair, and oxygen is incredibly useful for sustaining human life far from Earth. Common metal refining processes use heat or fire which is incredibly dangerous in closed ships and pose an expensive refining cost for ship crew. The benefits of this process to help future space exploration, by potentially supplying a limitless and autonomous method of preparing raw material for 3D printers in space. The initial investment of rover engineering durable parts and shipping supplies from Earth can be extremely expensive so having the capacity to manufacture parts outside of Earth can be incredibly lucrative. We can completely recycle the metal-like materials. An important step toward von neumann probes, is self replicating probes. Manufacturing spare parts out of metals found from regolith can extend life span rovers and missions. An alternative to using ISRU resources is sending elements that can be recycled and harder to find in space, elements like Nickel Chromium Alloy, which can be completely recycled. A one time send is required if it's reusable.  In order to make waste material viable again, we can build refinery facilities using RP and situ manufacturing to gather and build recycling systems respectively. Rovers are ideal for resource gathering being deployed in large numbers and with simple autonomous control, they can scour the expanse of space or aboard the same ship for resources. Then these rovers can deliver these materials to CNC machines either to 3D print, mill, assemble, and so forth. These raw materials can be reused back into viable material for use once again.  Waste material can be used to also generate fertilizer, refine vitamin supplements for bone mass supplement. Rovers are ideal in terraforming oxygen, making robots handle the preparation of ready in use oxygen on Mars or the Moon, a tremendous contribution for life support in space. This is also the basic principle behind von neuman probes or self replicating probes which are economical in reducing waste material. ISRU is a step forward toward sustainability goals, benefiting resource utilization here on Earth.

Sources:

  NCAS Subject Matter Lecture Susan Martinez, Additive Manufacturing Engineer NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL (2020).

Advancing in situ resource utilization capabilities to achieve a new paradigm in space exploration.Sanders (2018).

 Lunar Prospecting: Searching for Volatiles at the South Pole Trimble & Carvalho (2016).

 Ionic liquid facilitated recovery of metals and oxygen from regolith. Karr, Curreri, Thornton, Depew, Vankeuren, Regelman, Fox, Marone, Donovan & Paley (2018).

System Architecture Design and Development for a Reusable Lunar Lander.Batten, Bergin, Crigger, & McGlothin (2019).

[tenaciouschildengineer]

About the blog:

As a high school sophomore, I volunteered as a mentor for an all girls, rookie, middle school robotics team. My goal was to learn how to manage, engage, and expand the robotics program. I met the town trustee through one of my student’s parents and, while discussing our common interest in funding robotics programs, we concluded that we would work toward our goal of offering an affordable and accessible robotics education for public schools. This inspired me to stay at community college and create LCRC (the Lake County Robotics Competition), as I felt that I could continue contributing to my community through the sciences. Working along unions, the Lake County Treasurer's office, the engineering department at the College of Lake County, I learned the value of government funding for STEM education. My desire to lift up communities through technology and education has led me to this blog. This blog is not only about robotics, but also about community, innovative social trends, and education.