Lifeboat Foundation

By watching for a special kind of flare, astronomers have identified the fingerprints of an Earth-size planet orbiting a distant star.

Astronomers are rediscovering how calculations made by the ‘human computer’ Elizabeth Williams contributed to the first observations of Pluto 90 years ago.

30 years ago, scientist Carl Sagan asked NASA’s Voyager 1 to capture an iconic portrait of our world. This humbling view of Earth from 6.4 billion km away is known as the “Pale Blue Dot.”
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Continue reading “Pale Blue Dot – 30th Anniversary | National Geographic” »

A dark web ties the universe together. Now, we can see it.

VICE gained exclusive access to a small fleet of US Army bomb disposal robots—the same platforms the military has weaponized—and to a pair of DARPA’s six-foot-tall bipedal humanoid robots. We also meet Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams, renowned physicist Max Tegmark, and others who grapple with the specter of artificial intelligence, killer robots, and a technological precedent forged in the atomic age. It’s a story about the evolving relationship between humans and robots, and what AI in machines bodes for the future of war and the human race.

About VICE:
The Definitive Guide To Enlightening Information. From every corner of the planet, our immersive, caustic, ground-breaking and often bizarre stories have changed the way people think about culture, crime, art, parties, fashion, protest, the internet and other subjects that don’t even have names yet. Browse the growing library and discover corners of the world you never knew existed. Welcome to VICE.

Continue reading “The Killer Robot Takeover is Inevitable” »

Compared to existing shields, rust gives much better protection per unit weight.

***Update: Launch is now scheduled for 3:21 p.m. EST on Saturday, Feb. 15. Live coverage begins at 2:45.

Watch a cargo spacecraft lift off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on a resupply mission to the International Space Station! 🚀

Launch is targeted at 3:43 p.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 14 for Northrop Grumman’s 13th commercial resupply services mission. A previous launch attempt on Feb. 9 was scrubbed after off-nominal readings from a ground support sensor. The Cygnus cargo spacecraft, loaded with approximately 7,500 pounds of research, supplies and hardware, will launch atop an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. This Cygnus spacecraft is named the S.S. Robert H. Lawrence, in honor of the first African American to be selected as an astronaut.

Scientists took a second look at a recently discovered asteroid and realized it was in fact two space rocks orbiting together.

Next week, the European Space Agency is going to jettison a cubesat called Qarman from the International Space Station and watch it burst into a fireball as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere—all on purpose.

What’s the mission: Qarman (short for “QubeSat for Aerothermodynamic Research and Measurements on Ablation”) is a shoebox-sized experiment meant to help researchers better understand the physics at play when objects plummet into the planet’s atmosphere and burn up. Qarman was brought up to the ISS in December during a cargo resupply mission. On February 17, it will be cast back out into space and begin slowly drifting toward Earth before entering the atmosphere and burning up in about six months.

Tell me more: Qarman has four solar-cell-covered panels that are designed to increase atmospheric drag and hasten reentry. Its nose is made from a special kind of cork that’s typically used in thermal protection systems on spacecraft. Ground testing shows that when the cork heats up, it chars and flakes away a bit at a time. The Qarman team is interested in learning how this process works during reentry.

Continue reading “The ESA is about to turn one of its spacecraft into a fireball” »