Lifeboat Foundation

How close are we really to space travel? Our featured contributor Lola Akinmade Åkerström talks to Space Nation, a company that’s researching both space tourism and how space technology can help us on Earth.

Thanks to Google, it can often feel like there are no mysterious places left on earth to explore—and finding new places to call the ‘final’ frontier seems increasingly difficult. Even the Pacific Ocean’s Marianna Trench, at over 36,000 feet deep and arguably the most legit final frontier on earth, has been explored by Hollywood director James Cameron in a submersible. As a result, the past few decades have seen us looking upwards to the most mysterious of places: Our own galaxy.

Blockbuster movies set in space and fictional alien encounters continue to intrigue us. Space discovery programs on TV science channels continually pique our curiosity. Even kids’ cartoons such as the 1960s American series The Jetsons brought the concept of commercial space travel closer to us, thanks to its flying space cars, pod-like apartments, and a robot maid called Rosie.

This week and next, I’ll be visiting the Sonos stores in New York City (4÷12) and London (4÷17) for a free listening party celebrating the Voyager Golden Record, the iconic message for extraterrestrials launched into space 40 years ago. I’ll do a short multimedia presentation about this inspiring artifact and we’ll play the first ever vinyl release of the Voyager Golden Record that I co-produced with my friends Tim Daly and Lawrence Azerrad. Admission is free. No tickets remain for the New York City event but depending on the number of “no shows,” there may be availability at the door. And if you’re in London, please do RSVP right here! I hope to see you!

Tiangong 1, China’s fallen space station, is now in pieces somewhere on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, but it’s hardly the last spacecraft that will plunge to earth. In fact, by the end of the week, three more are expected to re-enter the atmosphere.

Two pieces of space junk from Kazakhstan and one from India are headed home, part of the surprisingly regular amount of cosmic debris that falls to earth each year. The first could occur as early as tomorrow evening, according to Satview.org.

PSLV R/B, an Indian spacecraft that was launched Nov. 4, 2013, is expected to reenter the atmosphere at approximately 6:30 p.m. ET Tuesday. That will be followed Wednesday at 7:30 p, m, ET by FLOCK 2E-3, a Kazakh spacecraft that has been orbiting earth since Nov. 19, 1998. Finally, Friday morning at approximately 10:24 a.m. ET, FLOCK 2E’-6, another Kazakh orbital will fall to earth.

Tabby’s Star has dimmed by 5% – the lowest dip seen since it was first observed in 2013.

Space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zr2_XrOX6E

Continue reading “Bioquark Inc. — Evolution of the New SuperHuman — Ira Pastor” »

Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places, a three-part TV series that made its debut in January, has been made available to watch online for free in honor of Hawking’s life, according to tech and science video streaming site CuriosityStream. The renowned astrophysicist passed away today in Cambridge, England. He was 76.

The final episode, which had still not been released, was also published today for free.

In the show, Hawking takes trips in a digital spaceship called the S.S. Hawking to the sun and planets in our solar system and beyond. In the first episode, Hawking ponders how AI can impact a civilization over time, not on Earth, but on an alien planet where its inhabitants appear to have left or gone extinct.

Continue reading “Stephen Hawking’s TV show is now free to watch online” »

When you’re trying to figure out what alien life might look like, it makes sense to be looking in the most extreme environments Earth has available.

One such place where life has been found to thrive is three kilometres (1.86 miles) beneath the ground, the home of one of the strangest lifeforms we know: the bacterium Desulforudis audaxviator.

It lives in complete dark, in groundwater up to 60 degrees Celsius (140 Fahrenheit) — an environment devoid of sunlight, oxygen or organic compounds.

Continue reading “This Strange Species That Lives Off Nuclear Energy Is Like Alien Life on Earth” »

Since its discovery in 2016, the exoplanet Proxima b has been one of our most promising candidates for extraterrestrial life. Recent news that a powerful solar flare blasted the planet with radiation in March 2017 may have dashed those hopes of habitability.

In 2016, when scientists confirmed the discovery of Proxima b, a potentially habitable, Earth-sized planet orbiting the star Proxima Centauri, it was cause for astrobiological celebration. Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to our solar system — just 4.24 light-years away — so, in the search for extraterrestrial life, we’d found a promising candidate in our cosmic backyard.