Science 2020: 5 events that could change the future of technology

Issued on: 31/12/2020 – 13:24

1. Bringing lunar rocks, asteroid mud to Earth

The Japanese Hayabusa 2 mission, launched in  2014, succeeded in bringing to Earth soil samples from an asteroid 300 million kilometers away. A capsule containing 0.1 grams of the mud from the asteroid Ryugu landed in Australia on December 5.  

The evaluation of this materials, believed to have remained unchanged for greater than Four billion years, is anticipated to disclose a wealth of knowledge on not simply the asteroids but in addition on the formation of our photo voltaic system. The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft will proceed its journey to 2 different asteroids which it can {photograph}.

In mid December, the Chinese language Chang’e 5 mission introduced two kilograms of lunar rock and soil samples to the Earth. It was the primary time in 44 years that samples from the Moon have been delivered to the Earth. In contrast to the previous missions of the US and the Soviet Union, Chang’e 5 collected samples from a distinct area of the Moon. Frédéric Moynier of the Institut Physique du Globe de Paris advised RFI that the samples come from a area with much less craters.  

“This might imply that there might need been an occasion corresponding to a magmatic eruption that coated the older craters and created a youthful, recent floor,” he mentioned. Moynier mentioned the mission may even be a demonstrator for extra bold initiatives corresponding to amassing samples from the far aspect of the Moon and a mission to Mars.

2. SpaceX creates historical past

The yr additionally noticed SpaceX create historical past because it delivered a crew of 4 astronauts to the Worldwide House Station in November.  NASA is hoping that missions corresponding to it will turn out to be routine, ending US reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets.

In August, SpaceX accomplished an indication mission displaying it might take astronauts to the ISS and produce them again safely. The Elon Musk-owned firm additionally examined a prototype rocket in December that would energy missions to Mars. 

3. Quantum leap

In Could, scientists from the Kastler Brossel Laboratory at Sorbonne College reached an vital milestone within the growth of heterogeneous quantum networks. In a landmark experiment, they demonstrated ‘hybrid quantum entanglement which entails linking networks which are constructed utilizing two completely different strategies of encoding quantum info.

Quantum networks are fabricated from quantum programs that may simply outperform classical computational programs due to the distinctive quantum property of superposition that enables for extra processing energy and entanglement that ensures safer communications.

4. Decreasing plane emissions

This yr, plane manufacturing large Airbus continued its checks of a brand new system that goals to scale back gas consumption of plane. Referred to as fello’fly the system consists of two passenger plane flying in formation in such a means that the follower plane consumes 10 p.c much less gas throughout a visit.

Airbus examined the system in July over the French airspace with two plane flying three kilometers aside for 4 hours. The corporate, which hopes to introduce the system in 2025, signed agreements with two airways, Frenchbee and SAS Scandinavian Airways, in addition to three Air Navigation Service Suppliers to display its operational feasibility.

5. A measurement marvel

A staff of physicists from the Kastler Brossel laboratory at Sorbonne University have made the most accurate measurement of one of many elementary constants known as fine-structure by enhancing the precision from the earlier measurement taken in 2018 by an element of three. The positive construction fixed is a vital part in calculating the magnetic second of an electron, a property that gives a superb check of the Normal Mannequin, a theoretical mannequin that explains all forces of nature aside from gravity.

Whereas the electron’s magnetic second has been measured experimentally to a excessive stage of accuracy, the brand new worth of the positive construction fixed has allowed physicists to make an correct prediction of its theoretical worth too. With the theoretical and experimental values in settlement at higher than one half per billion, it supplies for a robust validation of the electron sector of the Normal Mannequin.