Artemis II Crew Revealed

On this week's news update…

DribbleBot

A soccer playing robot…

Snailfish

Snailfish filmed at a record depth…

Artemis II Crew

And the Artemis II crew is revealed.

First up…

Soccer players need coordination and balance to play. So Scientists at MIT are using soccer to teach better balance to DribbleBot, their new four-legged robot.

DribbleBot

Just like soccer players, DribbleBot can kick a ball, even in sand. To track and kick a ball, the robot uses two camera lenses and an onboard computer that can follow the ball over uneven surfaces. To help the robot stay upright, it has sensors that judge how well its feet grip the ground.

Playing soccer helps the robot learn how to cope with sudden changes in direction and increases its chances of falling over. DribbleBot learns from its mistakes, and so every time it tumbles, it learns more about how to get up and stay on its feet.

Scientists hope that, by learning these skills, DribbleBot will one day be able to help rescue teams by moving over uneven and dangerous ground to reach survivors.

Up next…

The ocean is a large and exciting place filled with unusual animals.

Some animals, like penguins, swim near the surface of the water and live on land. Other animals live in the middle of the ocean, such as skipjack tuna, which can be found 250 meters below the surface. But deep-sea animals live even deeper.

snailfish

The bigfin squid is just one deep-sea animal that can live up to depths of over 4,000 meters. Now scientists from Australia and Japan have found an unknown type of snailfish swimming at over double the depth of the bigfin squid.

Using an unmanned submarine and some bait, scientists were able to capture these animals on camera. The deepest snailfish they filmed was this baby one, at over 8,000 meters below the waves.

And finally…

Artemis II

Artemis II is NASA's next lunar mission, scheduled for launch in November 2024. Now NASA has revealed the four astronauts who will go on the mission.

Christina Hammock Koch

Christina Hammock Koch is a mission specialist and holds the record for the longest single female spaceflight at 328 days.

Victor Glover

Victor Glover is the mission’s pilot and spent 168 days on the International Space Station, where he completed four spacewalks.

Reid Wiseman

Reid Wiseman is a commander and helped to select some of the astronauts who went into space on other missions.

Jeremy Hansen

Jeremy Hansen is a mission specialist but this is his first space mission.

The crew will spend 10 days in space traveling around the Moon and back before returning home. NASA hopes that this mission will pave the way for the next lunar landing.

That's all for this week. We'll see you next time!