MAROKO133 Update ai: Chinese Astronauts Alarmed After Finding Cracks In Their Spacecraft’s

📌 MAROKO133 Hot ai: Chinese Astronauts Alarmed After Finding Cracks In Their Space

Earlier this month, China was forced to delay the November 5 return of three astronauts from its Tiangong space station after concerns that their ride home — a Shenzhou-20 spacecraft parked at the orbital outpost since April — had sustained damage from an impact.

And as it turns out, their suspicions were correct. In a statement to state-run news outlet Xinhua, the China Manned Space Agency revealed that crews had found “tiny cracks” in the “return capsule’s viewport window, which are most probably caused by external impact from space debris.”

As a result, the “Shenzhou-20 spacecraft does not meet the requirements for the astronauts’ safe return and will remain in orbit to continue relevant experiments.”

The incident highlights how much of a risk space junk, which can be errant parts of rockets or dead satellites and range from mere millimeters across to much larger, has become for prolonged human activity in our planet’s orbit. At speeds of tens of thousands of miles per hour, even the tiniest pieces can carry the energy as a bullet.

Fortunately, the three astronauts have now made it back down to Earth in one piece.

The Shenzhou-21 spacecraft, which launched to the Tiangong space station on October 31 with the next three astronauts on board, allowed the existing team to make their safe return in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region early Thursday morning.

The CMSA has since stated that the next mission, Shenzhou-22, “will be launched at an appropriate time in the future,” per Xinhua.

We’ve only begun to explore various ways to clean up our planet’s orbit. In the meantime, spacecraft, including the International Space Station, have to frequently fire their thrusters to ensure they don’t suffer the same fate as the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft.

As we send more and more satellites into orbit, experts are worried that the problem will get much worse before it gets better.

Worse yet, a burgeoning space arms race is greatly exacerbating the issue.

“It’s somewhat ironic that China’s spacecraft took a hit from space junk,” Georgia Institute of Technology assistant professor of international affairs Lincoln Hines wrote in a piece for The Conversation about the latest incident.

“The country is responsible for creating the majority of space debris,” he added. “In 2007, China blew up a defunct Fengyun-1c weather satellite to test an anti-satellite weapon,” he wrote. “It generated the most space debris in history — over 3,000 pieces are still orbiting today.”

More on the incident: Chinese Astronauts Stuck in Space After Suspected Damage to Return Craft

The post Chinese Astronauts Alarmed After Finding Cracks In Their Spacecraft’s Window appeared first on Futurism.

🔗 Sumber: futurism.com

📌 MAROKO133 Hot ai: Microneedle patch shows promise for repairing damaged heart mu

A new microneedle patch developed by Texas A&M University may revolutionize the treatment of damaged heart muscle after a heart attack.

The device delivers a targeted dose of interleukin-4, or IL-4, directly into injured tissue.

Early results suggest the approach helps the heart repair itself while avoiding the systemic side effects that plagued earlier drug delivery methods.

How the patch works

Dr. Ke Huang and his team designed the biodegradable patch to dissolve after it reaches the surface of the heart. Each tiny needle carries microscopic particles packed with IL-4.

“This patch acts like a bridge,” said Huang, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

“The microneedles penetrate the outer layer of the heart and allow the drug to reach the damaged muscle underneath, which is normally very hard to access.”

Heart attacks starve muscle cells of oxygen and nutrients. The body responds with scar tissue that stabilizes the organ but cannot contract.

Healthy muscle must then compensate, raising the risk of long-term failure. Huang’s group wanted to interrupt that decline by shifting how immune cells behave in the damaged region.

Macrophages sit at the center of this strategy. These cells can inflame tissue or help it heal. “Macrophages are the key,” Huang explained.

“They can either make inflammation worse or help the heart heal. IL-4 helps turn them into helpers.”

Earlier efforts to use IL-4 relied on injections into the bloodstream. That approach spread the drug throughout the body and triggered unwanted reactions.

Huang said that motivated a local delivery method.

“Systemic delivery affects the whole body,” he said. “We wanted to target just the heart.”

The patch achieved that goal in early experiments. The team saw fewer inflammatory signals in the surrounding tissue and a reduction in scarring.

They also saw something unexpected. Heart muscle cells appeared more responsive to cues from other nearby cells, especially endothelial cells that line blood vessels.

“The cardiomyocytes weren’t just surviving, they were interacting with other cells in ways that support recovery,” Huang said.

This increased cross talk may prove important for long-term function.

The team also saw stronger activity in the NPR1 pathway, which supports blood vessel health and reduces harmful inflammation.

What comes next

Huang acknowledges the current patch requires open-chest surgery. The team plans to refine the design and reduce the invasiveness of the procedure.

He hopes to one day deliver the patch through a small tube. “This is just the beginning,” he said. “We’ve proven the concept. Now we want to optimize the design and delivery.”

The findings appear in Cell Biomaterials. The project received support from the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.

Huang is now working with Xiaoqing (Jade) Wang, assistant professor of statistics, on an AI model that maps immune behavior in damaged tissue.

The researchers hope this system will guide new immunomodulatory therapies for future heart attack patients.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com