MAROKO133 Eksklusif ai: NASA Veterans Disgusted by Plans to Shut Down Its Largest Library

📌 MAROKO133 Eksklusif ai: NASA Veterans Disgusted by Plans to Shut Down Its Larges

Last week, news emerged that NASA’s largest library at its iconic Goddard Space Flight Center (GFSC) in Maryland was being shut down.

The optics — especially considering the wider context of the Trump administration’s nakedly anti-science vision for the future of the agency and the shuttering of over a dozen buildings at the center — were bad, to say the least.

At least 13 buildings at Goddard, as well as more than 100 labs, are set to have been shut by March of this year, a major downscaling effort that highlights the Trump administration’s desire to slash NASA’s science budget by more than half in its proposed 2026 fiscal year budget. (The exact budget is still being actively debated, despite already being three months into NASA’s fiscal year.)

NASA insiders are dismayed at the situation playing out at GSFC, arguing that the library was an extremely important resource that’s being unjustifiably wiped out.

“I have a hard time imagining a research center of the high quality that Goddard is, or any center at NASA, how they will operate without a library, without a central collection,” planetary scientist David Williams, who has curated space mission data for NASA’s archives, told NBC News.

“It’s not like we’re so much smarter now than we were in the past,” he told the NYT. “It’s the same people, and they make the same kind of human errors. If you lose that history, you are going to make the same mistakes again.”

In some ways, others have pointed out, it’s business as usual for a large government bureaucracy.

“NASA has been closing its libraries for a long time,” Keith Cowing, a former NASA astrobiologist who now blogs about the agency at NASA Watch, wrote in a recent post. “Budgetary and building issues are usually the prime reason. Usually, stuff gets moved around and put in storage for years until the storage costs mount and then a portion ends up in someone’s library — somewhere — and the rest gets shipped to some generic [General Services Administration] warehouse — or thrown.”

But the process is agonizing, and important records can be lost through carelessness or error.

“Now it is GSFC’s turn to go through this painful process,” he added.

Officials have cried foul, arguing that plans for shutting the GSFC library existed long before Trump took office last year.

Recently sworn-in NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, for instance, insisted on a thread on X-formerly-Twitter that the move was “part of a long-planned facilities consolidation approved in 2022 under the previous administration.” And NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens described it as a “consolidation, not a closure.”

Isaacman also took issue with the New York Times‘ framing of the story, accusing the newspaper that its reporting on the matter did not “fully reflect the context NASA shared,” arguing that “at no point is NASA ‘tossing out’ important scientific or historical materials, and that framing has led to several other misleading headlines.”

He also pointed out that “NASA researchers will continue to have access to the scientific information and resources they need to do their work.”

However, as a NASA spokesperson claimed in a statement to the NYT — which Isaacman quoted himself on X — “some material would be stored in a government warehouse while the rest would be tossed away” following a careful 60-day review.

Isaacman later admitted that he doesn’t “dispute that, after a deliberate review, some materials with no historical or technical value may not be retained” following an “evaluation by an on-site NASA team over a 60-day period.”

In short, there’s clearly some nuance to NASA’s plans — but given the broader political context, the shocked reactions by current and former NASA staffers shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The Trump administration has indicated that it’s looking to shut down dozens of important science missions as part of its planned 2026 budget, the agency’s biggest budget cut in its 66-year history, if it were to pass.

The administration has also slashed budgets for other important and lifesaving scientific research as part of what’s being characterized as a broader “war on science.”

The Trump administration’s motivations for shutting down over a dozen buildings at the GSFC are a little murky. The 2022 master plan Isaacman was referring to lists “meet affordability goals” as one of its three top long-term priorities, while maintaining “mission capability” and creating a “vision” for “GSFC campuses of the future.”

Futurism has reached out to NASA for a more detailed budget breakdown and how much the agency is hoping to save through its “consolidation” efforts.

Isaacman argued that the public discourse surrounding the plans was “unfortunate at a time when the world should be energized by a plan to send NASA astronauts farther into space than ever before, return us to the lunar environment with a commitment to stay, alongside historic investments in an orbital economy and a renewed pursuit of science and discovery.”

But insiders aren’t nearly as optimistic, arguing that shutting the GSFC library would be an immense loss and could make the lives of researchers needlessly difficult.

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🔗 Sumber: futurism.com

📌 MAROKO133 Update ai: Video: China’s six-foot humanoid robot knocks down sandbags

Another Chinese robotics player, Unitree, is pushing the limits of humanoid robotics.

On January 4, the company released a daily training video of its H2 robot, showcasing remarkable agility with moves like flying kicks, backflips, and sandbag strikes.

The footage showcases rapid advances in robot mobility and martial skills, amid competing firms also releasing videos claiming similar breakthroughs.

In a recent showcase of H2 uploaded in December, the 6-foot humanoid demonstrated its powerful actuation, performing dynamic moves such as punches, kicks, and knee strikes.

Robotics gets fierce

The showcase highlighted H2’s impressive agility as it performs flying kicks, executes backflips, and delivers powerful sandbag strikes, demonstrating advanced balance, coordination, and high-performance actuation in dynamic combat-style movements.

The YouTube video description read, “Have you exercised today? How about training together with a robot? Please use robots in a friendly and safe manner, and keep a safe distance.”

The H2 is Unitree Robotics’ tallest and most advanced humanoid to date, measuring nearly 6 feet (180 cm) and weighing about 154 pounds (70 kg). Visually, it marks a clear departure from earlier designs, featuring a stylized, silver, human-like face with defined eyes, lips, and a nose, giving it a more expressive, lifelike appearance.

The H2 follows the widely recognized H1 humanoid, which gained attention for its speed and agility during China’s 2024 Spring Festival Gala. While recent demonstrations have focused on the H2’s striking power and aggressive movements, the robot’s most significant innovations lie beneath the surface.

At its core, the H2 is driven by 31 degrees of freedom and exceptionally high joint output, delivering up to 360 Nm of torque. These capabilities are coordinated by advanced motion control algorithms that allow the robot to reproduce complex, dynamic actions with balance and precision accurately. This combination of hardware strength and software intelligence enables the fluid execution of demanding movements.

Dexterity meets control

Beyond its striking physical demonstrations, the H2 introduces a significant functional upgrade with newly designed, dexterous hands.

The humanoid’s arms now offer a full seven degrees of freedom, up from the four DOF seen in earlier models. This human-like articulation marks a shift in focus from basic locomotion toward complex manipulation, positioning the H2 as a true working robot rather than a simple moving platform.

With improved gripping and handling abilities, the humanoid is designed for practical roles in factories and logistics environments, with long-term potential for use in domestic settings.

Another notable detail emerging from recent footage is a glimpse into Unitree’s teleoperation system. While full autonomy remains the ultimate objective, remote control through human operators is increasingly viewed as a critical transitional technology. Teleoperation allows robots to perform useful tasks in real-world environments before fully autonomous systems are mature.

Unitree has been developing platforms that enable operators to control the robot in real time using wearable control rigs or mixed-reality devices such as the Apple Vision Pro. This approach allows human judgment and dexterity to be directly translated into robotic motion, improving task reliability and safety.

The broader humanoid robotics sector is advancing quickly. Recent demonstrations from other companies, including footage of Figure’s humanoid robot jogging at near-human speeds, highlight rapid progress in both locomotion and control.

Such videos show smooth acceleration, precise directional changes, and controlled braking in complex environments, underscoring how quickly humanoid capabilities are approaching human-like performance.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com