Lifeboat Foundation

Uganda is preparing to launch its first satellite by August 2022. The satellite, PearlAfricaSat-1, is the latest mission from the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite project. The initiative began in October 2019 as part of a directive by Uganda’s President to develop a National Space Agency and Institute.

Uganda signed the collaborative research agreement with the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech), Japan. The agreement involved enrolling and upskilling three graduate engineers to design, build, test, and launch the first satellite for Uganda. Consequently, Japan registered three Ugandan graduate engineers, including; Bonny Omara, Edgar Mujunu, and Derrick Tebuseke.

The core missions for PearlAfricaSat-1 are a multispectral camera payload. The Multispectral Camera mission will provide about 20-metre resolution images for Uganda to facilitate water quality, soil fertility, and land use and cover analysis. The satellite will play a vital role in the oil and gas operation by monitoring the East African crude oil pipeline. This will enable accurate weather forecasts by gathering remote sensor data for predicting landslides and drought. Once the satellite reaches orbit, an Uganda ground station will monitor its health status for a few days before it starts executing its mission.

Scientists from the Division of Mechanical Science and Engineering at Kanazawa University developed a prototype pipe maintenance robot that can unclog and repair pipes with a wide range of diameters. Using a cutting tool with multiple degrees of freedom, the machine is capable of manipulating and dissecting objects for removal. This work may be a significant step forward for the field of sewerage maintenance robots.

Various sewer pipes that are essential to the services of buildings require regular inspection, repair, and maintenance. Current robots that move inside pipes are primarily designed only for visual surveying or inspection. Some robots were developed for maintenance, but they couldn’t execute complicated tasks. In–pipe robots that can also clear blockages or perform complex maintenance tasks are highly desirable, especially for pipes that are too narrow for humans to traverse. Now, a team of researchers at Kanazawa University have developed and tested a prototype with these capabilities. “Our robot can help civic and industrial workers by making their job much safer. It can operate in small pipes that humans either cannot access or are dangerous,” explains first author Thaelasutt Tugeumwolachot.

One of the main challenges with designing a robot of this kind is how to achieve a snug fit inside pipes of different sizes. Previous models can expand or contract their width by only about 60 percent. Here, the researchers used six foldable “crawler” arms around the body of the robot. This adjustable locomotion mechanism allowed it to work in pipes with sizes between 15 to 31 cm, a range of over 100 percent. Another design challenge is how to crowd complex and tough arm mechanism into small space. This robot equipped a compact arm which enables complicated cutting movements by being driven via gear train from several motors inside the robot body.

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California-headquartered SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWR) announced today that it’s launched SunPower Financial, which means that customers working with SunPower to buy rooftop solar and storage no longer need a third-party lender to obtain and manage financing.

SunPower claims that it’s now the first and only solar provider to give US homeowners a one-stop shop for the purchase of solar and storage, including design, sales, installation, financing, and warranty.

A key aim of the launch of its financial arm is to expand access to residential solar for lower-income customers.

Their answers have been edited and condensed.

This article is part of a series called Turning Points, in which writers explore what critical moments from this year might mean for the year ahead. You can read more by visiting the Turning Points series page.

During the life-changing Covid-19 pandemic, millions of people were fortunate enough to work from home during lockdowns, while others were called upon to put themselves at physical risk to keep cities and economies from collapsing. As the world re-emerges from Covid, we are seeing renewed attention in the workplace to issues of social injustice, economic inequality, corporate social responsibility, and diversity and inclusion.

Continue reading “The Big Question: Is the World of Work Forever Changed?” »

By Stina Andersson and Ellinor Wanzambi

Researchers have been working on quantum algorithms since physicists first proposed using principles of quantum physics to simulate nature decades. One important component in many quantum algorithms is quantum walks, which are the quantum equivalent of the classical Markov chain, i.e., a random walk without memory. Quantum walks are used in algorithms in areas such as searching, node ranking in networks, and element distinctness.

Consider the graph in Figure 1 and imagine that we randomly want to move between nodes A, B, C, and D in the graph. We can only move between nodes that are connected by an edge, and each edge has an associated probability that decides how likely we are to move to the connected node. This is a random walk. In this article, we are working only with Markov chains, also called the memory-less random walks, meaning that the probabilities are independent of the previous steps. For example, the probabilities of arriving at node A are the same no matter if we got there from node B or node D.

There’s nothing easy about searching for evidence of life on Mars. Here’s why pseudo-fossils and other structures could make things resembling life.