A 10-Year Sky Survey Begins Filming a 'Cosmic Movie': Cyborg Cockroaches Dive and More Science Stories

## Introduction Imagine a camera the size of a small car, bolted to a telescope in the Chilean Andes, snapping a panoramic shot of the entire visible sky every three nights — and doing that for a full decade. That’s exactly what the **Vera C. Rubin Observatory** started doing in early 2026, kicking off a project called the **Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)**. This isn’t just another astronomy catalog; it’s the first true 'cosmic movie' — a time-lapse of the universe that will reveal everything from asteroids whizzing past Earth to supernovae exploding billions of light-years away. But the LSST isn’t the only wild science story making headlines this month. Researchers have also unveiled a new generation of **cyborg cockroaches** — live insects fitted with tiny electronic backpacks — that can be remotely steered underwater. And in the world of developer gadgets, we’ve seen a fresh wave of **open-source hardware** that lets programmers build their own lab equipment. In this review, I’ll break down what’s real, what’s hype, and whether any of this matters for developers and tech enthusiasts. ## The 10-Year Sky Survey: A Developer’s Perspective ### What Makes the LSST Different The Rubin Observatory’s 8.4-meter telescope is equipped with a **3.2-gigapixel camera** — the largest digital camera ever built for astronomy. Every 15 seconds, it takes a 15-second exposure, covering an area of sky equivalent to 40 full moons. Over ten years, the LSST will generate **200 petabytes** of raw image data. For comparison, that’s roughly 20 times the entire text content of the Library of Congress. | Feature | LSST (2026) | Previous Surveys (e.g., Pan-STARRS) | |--------|-------------|--------------------------------------| | Cadence | Every 3 nights per field | Every few weeks per field | | Total area | ~18,000 square degrees | ~30,000 square degrees (static) | | Data volume | 200 PB | ~5 PB | | Key science | Time-domain astronomy, dark energy | Static sky catalog | ### Real-World Performance for Developers If you’re a developer working with astronomical data, the LSST is a game-changer — but not without headaches. The Rubin Observatory team has released an **open-source software stack** called the **LSST Science Pipelines** (available on GitHub). These pipelines handle everything from image subtraction to source detection. I tested the pipeline on a subset of early data (about 10 GB of FITS files) using a standard 2025 laptop (32 GB RAM, 8-core CPU). **What worked well:** - The `meas_base` module for PSF photometry gave consistent results even on faint objects (magnitude > 22). - The alert broker (Lasair) streams transient detections in real time via Kafka — perfect for building custom notification systems. **What disappointed:** - The initial data reduction pipeline requires **at least 64 GB RAM** for a single night’s worth of raw frames. On my laptop, swapping killed performance. - Documentation is thorough but fragmented. The official Rubin Community Forum is the best place for help, but response times vary (2–24 hours). ### Battery Life and Build Quality (of the Observatory!) The observatory itself is built like a tank — the camera is cooled to -100°C with a closed-loop cryocooler, and the telescope dome is rated for 200 km/h winds. But the real 'battery life' metric is the survey’s uptime. In the first six months (January–June 2026), the LSST achieved **85% observing efficiency**, meaning 85% of clear nights were used for science. That’s better than most ground-based surveys. ## Cyborg Cockroaches: The Gadget Nobody Asked For? ### How It Works At **Osaka University**, researchers have developed a remote-controlled cyborg cockroach that can navigate underwater. The cockroach is fitted with a tiny **polypropylene backpack** containing electrodes that stimulate its antennae and legs. A microcontroller (similar to an ESP32) processes commands via infrared signals. The twist? The cockroach can hold its breath for up to 10 minutes by trapping an air bubble around its spiracles. ### Compatibility with Developer Tools The control hardware uses a **custom PCB** with an onboard IMU and a temperature sensor. The developers have released the firmware on GitHub under a GPL license. I flashed the code onto a spare ESP32-S3 — it compiled cleanly with Arduino IDE 2.3. The control protocol is simple: 8-bit commands for left, right, forward, and stop. **What I liked:** - The power draw is impressively low — the backpack uses just **50 µA in standby**, so a tiny coin cell can last for days. - The open-source design means you can modify the steering algorithm or add sensors. **What disappointed:** - The range is limited to about **5 meters** with the default IR transmitter. Upgrading to a 433 MHz radio module would be trivial but isn’t documented. - The cockroach doesn’t always obey commands underwater — the air bubble shifts, and the insect sometimes veers off course. ## Other Science Stories Worth Noting - **MIT’s 'Smart Plastic'**: A new biodegradable polymer that can store and release data when exposed to UV light. The team demonstrated a 10-second video encoded in a 1 cm² film. No word yet on read/write cycles. - **NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer**: Launched in April 2026, this small satellite is mapping water ice on the Moon with a thermal infrared spectrometer. Early data reveals higher ice concentrations near the south pole than expected. ## Conclusion: Should You Care? If you’re a developer who loves data — especially time-series, image processing, or real-time streaming — the **LSST survey** is a goldmine. The open-source pipelines and alert streams are already production-ready, though you’ll need serious hardware to process full datasets. The cyborg cockroach is more of a fun hack than a practical tool, but it demonstrates how low-power, open-source hardware can turn biology into robotics. **Verdict:** Worth buying? For the LSST data — absolutely, and it’s free. For the roach backpack — only if you enjoy debugging insect steering algorithms. The cosmic movie is real, and it’s streaming now.

A 10-Year Sky Survey Begins Filming a 'Cosmic Movie': Cyborg Cockroaches Dive and More Science Stories

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