Mars Lake | Skating Robot | Magnetic Mercury - The Convo Kit #17

Monday’s Facebook outage + this tweet = self reflection. I feel better without Facebook, horrified without Google…and surprised about Morning Brew.

Update on last week’s intro: This issue was typed by both hands! Tune in next week to see if the growth rate continues.

-Steve

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Martian Lake

New images from NASA's Perseverance rover provide evidence of a large lake on Mars. Pictures from the surface support beliefs that Jezero crater was once a lake fed by a small river.

• Estimated existence: 3.7 billion yrs. ago

• Perseverance’s Mars landing: 2/18/21

• Rover cameras: 19

Perseverance will add Jezero samples to its growing rock collection destined for Earth in the 2030s. Scientists hope to of find signs of ancient Martian life and/or at least one really really good skipping rock for the lake.

See what a dry Martian lake looks like.

Leonardo da Robot

Caltech's LEONARDO robot/drone can fly, walk, and shred. The skateboarding bipedal robot uses drone propellers like bird’s wings to balance and, of course, fly.

• LEONARDO = LEgs ONboARD drOne 🙄

• 2.5 ft. tall

• Katanas & blue bandana sold separately

LEO’s ability to fly and jump opens the door for robots to explore more diverse terrains, like space. Fingers crossed for an extraterrestrial skateboard ride soon!

Watch LEO send it on a skateboard.

Magnetic Mercury

BepiColombo space probe sent us Mercury’s glamour shots. The European Space Agency/Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (ESA/JAXA) joint-project made its first of 6 total flybys past our sun's neighbor.

• Goal: Observe Mercury's magnetic field

• Time since launch: 3 years

• How close? 123 miles

When it reaches Mercury's orbit in 2025, BepiColombo will have completed several slingshot maneuvers including two around Earth and Venus. The roundabout journey is necessary to avoid missing the tiny planet and falling into the sun.

Take a look at Mercury on Space.com.

Sleek eBike

Ares Design's Leggera ebike provides assisted riding without the assisted look. Even with the battery and motor it weights less than 20 lbs.

• Only 24 bikes available

• Power: 200 watts

• Price: $22k

If the classically sleek appearance and clever "bottle" battery don't catch your eye, the price will. After personally spending last summer designing a 17 lb. bare-bones bike, I’m humbly impressed and debating duct taping some AAs to the frame.

Check out Leggera here.

Turkey Drones

Turkey will use freight drones to deliver cargo between cities over 200 miles apart. Drones will be restricted to a specified altitude air highway.

• Weight capacity: 8.8 lbs.

• Certified Turkish drone pilots: 600,000

• Registered Turkish drones: 50,000

Drone delivery is proving its value around the world. From Covid vaccines to cups of coffee (covered in Best of TCK), drones provide a quick and flexible solution regardless of the actual urgency involved.

More details over on Interesting Engineering.

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