Many times, it’s better to flesh out technologies fully on Earth’s surface before they’re used in space. That is doubly true if that technology is part of the critical infrastructure keeping astronauts alive on the Moon. Since that infrastructure will undoubtedly use in-situ resources – known as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) – developing test beds here on Earth for those ISRU processes is critical to derisking the technologies before they’re used on a mission. That’s the plan with a test bed designed by researchers at the German Aerospace Center in Bremen – they designed it to improve how well we gather water and oxygen from lunar regolith. Unfortunately, as their work described in a recent paper demonstrates, it will be a challenge to do so. Water and oxygen are two critical components of any long-term lunar exploration plan. One of the best sources for that on the Moon, other than water ice that might only be available at specific locations, is a mineral called ilmenite. Ilmenite is a combination of iron, titanium, and oxygen—FeTiO3. It’s also the most accessible material to split into its parts using a relatively low-energy chemical reaction with elemental hydrogen as a feedstock.  After reducing ilmenite with hydrogen, the resulting elements are iron (useful for building materials), titanium dioxide (useful for optical coatings), and water (useful for plenty of things). A further step could reduce the water to oxygen (again, useful for many things, including breathing) and hydrogen, which can be recycled back into the feedstock system for the following processing round. So, in the end, if you have ilmenite, you have access to cheap building materials, rocket fuel, and gas for breathing. Ilmenite is also mined here on Earth – here’s a model beneficiation plant.Credit – Christian George Unfortunately, ilmenite is not particularly common on the lunar surface. While it is somewhat plentiful in the mare regions, it is much less so in the highlands where the first permanent lunar outposts are planned. So, explorers will need a technological solution to find more ilmenite – or at least concentrate it to levels where subjecting it to the reduction process would be energy efficient. That’s where beneficiation comes in. It is the process of separating valuable materials, such as ilmenite, from the “chaff” that makes up most of the lunar regolith – the most easily accessible resource on the Moon. Given a lack of readily available lunar regolith, the researchers used a regolith simulant when putting their test bed through its paces. That testbed consists of three machines for three main processes: gravitational, magnetic, and electrostatic beneficiation, and the paper goes into detail about each of them. Before any testing, the regolith simulants were dried for upwards of 48 hours at a temperature of 80 C. Afterwards, they were stored in a sealed container to prevent any additional moisture from entering the system. Fraser talks about in-situ resource utilization – mining and beneficiating ilmenite is one way of doing so The gravitational process uses a feeder, which is fed 300g of dried simulant for every test run, and a sieve, which separates particles that are more than 200 micrometers in size. Studies from samples collected by Apollo astronauts showed that most ilmenite grains ranged from about 45-75 micrometers, so most of the ilmenite should make it past this stage. At the same time, larger particles that could hinder the performance of the rest of the system are weeded out. Next up is the magnetic separator – ilmenite is weakly magnetic due to its iron content and, as such, can be separated from non-magnetic material of a similar density by subjecting it to a magnetic field. The magnetic field is directed such that it would push the particles of ilmenite out of a straight line when falling, directing them into a different hopper. Non-magnetic materials of a similar size would fall directly down and be filtered out by the system. Finally, the remaining magnetic particles are subjected to massive electric fields using an electrostatic parallel plate separator. Typically used in the oil and gas industry, these devices introduce a gigantic electric field that suspends some particles, slowing their descent and making it possible to sort out materials with specific electrical properties. Characterizing the most effective way to utilize this step was a major focal point of the study. Isaac Arthur discusses how to mine and refine lunar resources.Credit – Isaac Arthur YouTube Channel After all that sifting and sorting, ideally, the users would end up with all the ilmenite in the sample and nothing else, but that doesn’t happen in practice. Realistically, some of the ilmenite present in the sample would be lost as part of the filtering process, and some non-ilmenite particles make their way to the final collection point despite all the various methods to get rid of them.  In this experiment, the final mixture was about 12% ilmenite by weight, compared to 2.55% before it was beneficiated. The system also recovered around 32% of the total ilmenite available in the sample, and it took about half an hour to run a full 300g sample through the test bed. Further iterations could improve all those numbers – that is what test beds are for. This is only one of numerous steps that have to happen to finally make use of some of the more valuable resources on the Moon. The quicker we’re able to, the better. Learn More:Kulkarni et al. – Optimizing lunar regolith beneficiation for ilmenite enrichmentUT – Mysterious Swirls on the Moon Could Be Explained by Underground MagmaUT – Want to Build Structures on the Moon? Just Blast the Regolith With MicrowavesUT – It Should be Possible to Farm on the Moon Lead Image:Image of the test bed machine.Credit – Kulkarni et al. The post Researchers Developed a Test Bed For Separating Valuable Material on the Moon appeared first on Universe Today.

Little Girl Uses Baseball Bat To Help Fend Off Robber In Minnesota [VIDEO]

The aggressive gulls are brazen in swooping in for a bite of grilled cheese.

The following article, Harris/Walz Campaign: Unethical, Manipulative, Deceptive Lies, was first published on Conservative Firing Line. The Harris/Walz campaign is a train wreck, but because the mainstream media is energized to help them, only those who actually pay attention to such things will notice. The uninformed will go on their merry way being deceived into thinking the Harris/Walz campaign is all perfect and “joyful.” We’ve examined the Walz side before with … Continue reading Harris/Walz Campaign: Unethical, Manipulative, Deceptive Lies ...

Gordon Ramsay is not exactly known for being nice.Or patient.Or nurturing.On his competition show "Hell's Kitchen," he belittles cooks who can't keep up. If people come to him with their problems, he berates them. If someone is struggling to get something right in the kitchen, he curses them out.His whole TV persona is based on being the world's worst boss.Ramsay went on Reddit and allowed users to ask him any question they wanted.So when a fellow cook asked him a sincere, deeply personal question about what to do when you've hit a roadblock in your career, you could probably guess what was coming.Indeed, I thought the guy was making a terrible mistake pouring his heart out to a chef as notoriously tough as Ramsay:"My hopes and dreams are nowhere to be found as I scale and portion salmon after salmon, shelling pods after pods of broad beans....Sometimes I look out the tiny window and I can see people walking around the streets, enjoying the sunlight, while I'm here, questioning my dedication to this art as I rotate stock in the cool room, getting frost bitten, but the fear of the chef stops me from stepping outside to warm up....The closest thing to feeling any kind of joy I get is those rare moments when I walk through the dining room near the end of service to get some coffee for everyone, and there will be a few diners left, idly sampling those little petite fours that we've painstakingly ensured are all perfectly round, identical, and just plain delicious. Then, one of them will stop the conversation they're having with their company, look up from their food and say, 'Thank you, chef. This is delicious,' and making the previous 14-hours of sweat and tears kind of worthwhile.My question is, how did you deal with it? How the fuck did you deal with all the bullshit, Gordon?”But the way Ramsay responded? Totally amazing. And completely unexpected.Turns out, real-life Gordon Ramsay? He actually can be a really kind, big-hearted dude.He's sympathetic to the guy. Not just because he's a good person. But because he's been there.Working in restaurants is a tough, tough business. As of 2012, the average salary for cooks was less than $23,000/year. And those who are just starting out often have to work unglamorous, tedious jobs that no one else wants to do. Ramsay didn't have fancy culinary school training. He rose up through the ranks putting in long hours for low pay in kitchens all over the world. That's why he gets it.Which brings up another point.Diet Dieting GIF by Bobbi DeCarlo - Find & Share on GIPHYWhen we go out to eat, we, as a culture, tend to behave ... how should I put this?Let's go with "not like perfect angels."Of course, no one likes getting the wrong order. Or waiting a really long time for a meal. Or eating something that doesn't taste the way you expect it to.But it's important to remember that the people behind the food, like Ramsay's anonymous letter-writer, might be working 14-hour days. Or might be a recent immigrant who speaks limited English, trying to support a family thousands of miles away. And possibly making very little money. And sure, they screw up sometimes. But we all screw up at our jobs sometimes.Because they, like the rest of us, are human beings.Which is why saying..."Thank you, chef. This is delicious."Could mean everything to someone.This article originally appeared on 04.22.15

I first saw a psychiatrist for my anxiety and depression as a junior in high school.During her evaluation, she asked about my coursework. I told her that I had a 4.0 GPA and had filled my schedule with pre-AP and AP classes. A puzzled look crossed her face. She asked about my involvement in extracurricular activities. As I rattled off the long list of groups and organizations I was a part of, her frown creased further.Finally, she set down her pen and looked at me, saying something along the lines of "You seem to be pretty high-functioning, but your anxiety and depression seem pretty severe. Actually, it's teens like you who scare me a lot."Now I was confused. What was scary about my condition? From the outside, I was functioning like a perfectly "normal" teenager. In fact, I was somewhat of an overachiever.I was working through my mental illnesses and I was succeeding, so what was the problem?I left that appointment with a prescription for Lexapro and a question that I would continue to think about for years. The answer didn't hit me all at once.Instead, it came to me every time I heard a suicide story on the news saying, "By all accounts, they were living the perfect life."It came to me as I crumbled under pressure over and over again, doing the bare minimum I could to still meet my definition of success.It came to me as I began to share my story and my illness with others, and I was met with reactions of "I had no idea" and "I never would have known." It's easy to put depression into a box of symptoms.Even though we're often told that mental illness comes in all shapes and sizes, I think we're still stuck with certain "stock images" of mental health in our heads.When we see depression and anxiety in adolescents, we see teens struggling to get by in their day-to-day lives. We see grades dropping, and we see involvement replaced by isolation. But it doesn't always look like this.And when we limit our idea of mental illness, at-risk people slip through the cracks.We don't see the student with the 4.0 GPA or the student who's active in choir and theater or a member of the National Honor Society or the ambitious teen who takes on leadership roles in a religious youth group.No matter how many times we are reminded that mental illness doesn't discriminate, we revert back to a narrow idea of how it should manifest, and that is dangerous.Recognizing this danger is what helped me find the answer to my question.Watching person after person — myself included — slip under the radar of the "depression detector" made me realize where that fear comes from. My psychiatrist knew the list of symptoms, and she knew I didn't necessarily fit them. She understood it was the reason that, though my struggles with mental illness began at age 12, I didn't come to see her until I was 16.If we keep allowing our perception of what mental illness looks like to dictate how we go about recognizing and treating it, we will continue to overlook people who don't fit the mold.We cannot keep forgetting that there are people out there who, though they may not be able to check off every symptom on the list, are heavily and negatively affected by their mental illness. If we forget, we allow their struggle to continue unnoticed, and that is pretty scary.This article was written by Amanda Leventhal and originally appeared on 06.03.16