Flying on Mars

Flying on roter planet Flying on Mars Flying on MarsA helicopter that could fly in Mars thin atmosphere99 percent less dense than Earthsseems an impossible dream. Yet NASAs Jet Propulsion Lab has developed a lightweight, autonomous, helicopter that does just thatwhile surviving night temperatures down to -160F.Such mobility would open vast horizons to scientists trying to understand the profil of Mars to support life. Starting with Pathfinder in 1997, the United States has landed four robotic rovers on Mars. Yet the most successful of them, Curiosity, traversed only 13 miles since landing in 2011.Greater exploration will require more mobility. The small helicopter developed by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory promises to do just that. The 2.1-kg helicopter consists of a fuselage with power and control systems, dual counter-rotating rotors, solar cells for recharging the battery, and landing gear. Members of the JPL Mars Helicopter team mount the unit to a test system that will simulate the red planets low gravity and thin atmosphere. emPhoto Jet Propulsion Laboratory/emThe concept dates back to the late 1990s, when models showed that a fast-spinning ultralight helicopter could fly on Mars. It has taken 20 years to develop small and powerful enough batteries, computers, flight control systems, and solar cells that make this possible, said MiMi Aung. She is the helicopters project manager at JPLs Solar System Exploration Directorate.Still, it is a lot to fit into one package.You May Also Like Apollo 500 Years AfterWhen we began the project, I told everyone that they had to be good at their disciplinebut they also had to be a systems engineer, Aung said. Everything you do individually touches everything else, especially when were making something so small and so light. So you cant just design the best control system or rotor for you. It has to balance mass, volume, power, and energy for the mission.That led to many unique designs, starting with th e rotor. In order to achieve lift in the thin Martian atmosphere, the rotors needed to be large (1.2 meters) and rotate rapidly (40-45 revolutions per second). Yet the designers could not afford the mass and volume of a tail rotor to cancel the torque of the main blades. So they opted for a pair of counter-rotating rotors whose torques cancelled out one another.JPL worked with NASA Langley Research Center and AeroVironment to build a custom motor that could achieve those speeds. Using advanced algorithms developed at JPL, AeroVironment built a 23-pole-pair brushless d.c. motor. It included square wires to squeeze out every possible gain in efficiency. The first prototype took 100 hours to hand wind.The fuselage consisted of a central battery surrounded by five circuit boards, which formed a cube that opens on top to connect with the drive. Aungs team modeled everything, even the insulating air gap between the circuit boards and the fuselage skin, then wrapped the skin with a DuPont Kapton polyimide film spray-coated with four different metals to modulate the amount of heat that entered and escaped.The heart of the fuselage also contained temperature sensors and a resistance strip for heating.The rotors, solar cells, and landing gear were designed to survive the Martian night without heating, Aung said. We needed to keep the fuselages battery, computer, and sensors thermisch enough to function.The system also needed a sophisticated degree of autonomy. On one hand, it needed to translate general commands from flight controllers on Earthphotograph these spots, sleep and recharge at this point, wake up at this timeinto operational commands.Yet it needed to navigate flying conditions on Mars. Because the atmosphere is so thin, it provides less of a blanket. As a result, the helicopter must respond faster than any human could to changing air dynamics.Testing a prototype also posed a challenge. We had to invent how to test a flying helicopter in thin air, Aung said.T o do that, they filled a large, hermetically sealed room with carbon dioxide (95 percent of Mars atmosphere), then dropped the pressure to Mars levels. Working with Caltech, they built a bank of fans that, despite the low pressure, simulated winds in a thin atmosphere. Then they attached a robotic arm to the helicopter, giving it additional lift to emulate Mars low gravity.After instrumenting the helicopter, they flew it through a series of maneuvers, some in simulated wind storms, to see if its flight behavior matched their models predictions. It did well enough to earn a place on the upcoming Mars 2020 mission.Recommended for You Iron Man LivesOn Mars, its primary mission is to prove it can fly, take photos, recharge, and follow commands autonomously. Aung estimates that the helicopter is capable of flying nearly 1 kilometer at 9-10 meters/second for 90 seconds before recharging.For Mars 2020, however, NASA will throttle it back. It will move 2-3 meters per second for 300 meters w hile flying no higher than 5 meters.That will change in the future. She envisions helicopter scouting ahead for rovers and eventually humans. But helicopters are unlikely to every carry humans on Mars.The dynamics get sloppy because you need much larger rotors, and the blades get sloppytheres a resonance problemwhen you get that big, she said. But we think a future helicopter with a 3-to-3.5-meter rotor could carry a 10-to-15-kilogram payload at up to 20 meters per second and fly five to eight minutes before it has to recharge. Thats a large enough payload to do significant science.Alan Brown is senior editor.

Changing Careers How to Look For a New Job

Changing Careers How to Look For a New JobChanging Careers How to Look For a New JobAre you tired of your current career? Whatever the reason behind your dissatisfaction, youre not alone. Numbers on career changes can be difficult to pin down, because different people define a career change in different ways. Employee tenure, though, is easy to measure, and the median length of time that American employees have been with their current employer is 4.6 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Its clear that we no longer live in an age where people remain with their first company untilretirement.Changing careers can be scary. It can mean competing against people with far more experience than you have, and trying for positions that may not pay as much as youre used to.Perhaps the most intimidating part of the process is finding those new jobs.Here are a few tips for finding that new dream careerLinkedInLinkedIn can be one of the single greatest resources for anyone looking to m ake connections in a new industry or land a newjob.LinkedIn is built to help recruiters find candidates, to help candidates find opportunities, and to help professionals in almost every industry find each other. This makes it a powerful tool for anyone interested in changing careers.Join groupsLinkedIn groups are extremely useful for anyone wanting to connect with professionals in their field of choice and gain a better understanding of the challenges and rewards of that industry. Groups are also a great way to network, learn how to prepare for interviews, and more.Use the job search featureLinkedIn also has a built-in job search feature where users can apply to jobs with a single click. LinkedIns jobs section is a great place to find job deutsche post dhlings, and highlights positions that match your qualifications. Obviously, though, these suggested positions may be less relevant to career changers. This is where thefilters can come in handy- they allow you to filter out industrie s you arent interested in.Once you have found a job of interest, you can apply directly from LinkedIns site using your own profile. This enables you to skip past much of the typical data entry common to submitting job applications online.Premium servicesLinkedIn has a number of premium servicesto make it easier for users to achieve their goals. For example, Job Seeker is a premium service that enables direct messaging to recruiters makes you a featured applicant so you are more easily discovered and gives you insight into who has viewed your profile.If you are actively seeking employment in a new industry, a premium account with LinkedIn is one way to help you stand out.Establish a list of transferable skillsThis is a key step for all job seekers considering changing careers. A lot of work-related skills can be applied tomultiple career paths.A teachers experience managing a classroom of students and tailoring how they relay information to people comes in handy for someone seeking a career in management.A web developer can learn a lot about system administration and networking on the job that would be an asset if they later sought to work in an IT department. A background in graphic design would provide the perfect foundation for a branding-focused marketing role.Once you have created your list of transferable skills, refine it for use on both your resume and your LinkedIn profile.Build your personal brandThis sounds like a lot of work, but it is really pretty straightforward. If you want to up your chances at finding a job in a field you dont have work experience in, you can put in some work during your off hours.Set up a blog, or publish posts on Facebook or LinkedIn that relate to the industry youre moving into. Share knowledge youve gained from your research into that career, and establish yourself as someone who knows a thing or two about it. Better yet, because youre changing careers, you might be able to bring a fresh perspective to topics. Sometimes it pays to be an outsider.Connect with leaders in the industryOften, who you know is just as important as what you know. If you want to get started in a new industry, consider reaching out to established figures. Learn as much as you can from the material theyve published, network at local industry events, and even- once youve established a rapport- ask for advice to help you get started on your new path.Want to know where to find people in your area? Meetups are a great place to start. Meetup.com is one site commonly used to organize meetups for professionals, free seminars, etc.You might be surprised at how easy it is to meet the movers and shakers in a given industry by attending a few meetups. These meetings often create networkingopportunities for attendees, especially during the times before and after the guest speaker, when everyone is crowded around the snack table. Dont forget your networking resumeGain experience by doing it on your ownIf you want to get into a career in rad io or television, figure out how to put together a production using what you have on hand at home and get to work. One idea would be to start a podcast.If your dream is to work as a graphic artist, there is nothing stopping you from sitting down at your computer and coming up with designs. You could start an on-demand t-shirt company using one of the many free services that print shirts to order. Once you comeup with some witty designs, post them online. Share them on your website and/or social media pages, and dont be afraid to include them in your portfolio.Often, it isnt what youve done for a paycheck that makes up a hiring managers mind. Its what you do when no one is paying you. This establishes passion, willingness to learn, and gives you something to put in your portfolio related to your desired field.In short Just do it

A strategic approach to using personalized marketing messages

A strategic approach to using personalized marketing messagesA strategic approach to using personalized marketing messagesMost businesses whether theyre large or small want to bring their messages to larger audiences. But carpet-bombing the general population isnt a good use of a companys time or money. Instead, the more strategic approach for many firms is to micro-target their marketing messages to therightaudiences.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreBeverage brand Sparkling Ice recently launched amarketing campaign aimed at specific consumer segments, while ansprechbar grocer Peapod says ituses customer data and geographic targetingto better tailor its messages to the right audiences. Restaurant chains likeCKE Restaurants HoldingsandTaco Bellhave also released marketing programs targeted at specific consumer segments.The benefits of such programs are vast, says Denise Indovina , vice president of new business development withUltimate Data. When a consumer receives any marketing message, they first ask themselves, Does this pertain to me?Does it resonate? Is it relevant?If so, they are more likely to engage with that message.Targeted marketing requires a multipronged approachCreating a tailored, customized marketing program requires several layers, Indovina says. First, the right individuals must be targeted - meaning those consumers who are most likely to need that product. Second, ensuring that the message, offer and creative are well-suited to that consumer.In the case of a quick service restaurant, this means finding their best customers and top prospects that reside within close proximity to the location and offering them a promotion they would be excited to receive, she says. For a CPG brand, it might mean working with a grocery retailer on a shopper marketing initiative to bring known users of a specific brand into that retailers local store to buy, rather than having them buy it from the retailer where they traditionally shop for it.For a grocery retailer, this may mean using data from a trusted third party to more quickly personalize offers sent tonew loyalty program participants for which a robust purchase history is not yet available in the retailers CRM database.Pinpoint where to find the audienceWhen evaluating how to find an audience for a targeted marketing campaign, ensure that both existing customers and potential new ones are included in the program, Indovina says. In both cases, data mining, profiling and selects (demographic, etc.) are the basic ways to find the audience, she advises. Predictive analytics, machine learning, and AI are the newest generation. For current customers, tools can be applied internally on customer relationship management/house files, either with internal resources or outside help.When aiming the marketing at prospective customers, using tools from trusted, external third-party partners ca n be key to finding the right audience, she advises.Set measurement criteria earlyCompanies that create targeted marketing campaigns must put measurement tactics in place so they can compare the effectiveness of the programs against their other strategies, Indovina says.Applying the most sophisticated advanced targeting and personalization tactics can deliver a significant lift.Weve had clients achieve a lift of 360 percent vs. benchmark and a five to one return on ad spending (ROAS) in the same campaign.Not everyone can get there, but thats certainly something to aim toward.Campaign ROI can vary depending upon the objective of the campaign, the offer and media channel chosen, she reminds businesses.While wed always like to see a campaign payout in and of itself, often times brands will use a 12-month payout hurdle.This is especially true when working to acquire a new high-value consumer who will visit their restaurant, or buy their brand frequently, once they try it.This article fi rst appeared on Smartbrief.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will ersatzdarsteller your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people