Lifeboat Foundation

The company’s head, Slyusar, also touted the aircraft’s features on Russian state TV, describing the planes as “unique in their class” and adding that they have “a combat radius of 1500 kilometers, the largest thrust-to-weight ratio, shortened takeoff and landing, more than seven tons of combat load, which is an absolute record for aircraft of this class.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin got a sneak peek of a new fifth-generation lightweight single-engine fighter jet at an air show just outside of Moscow on Tuesday.

Russian aircraft makers unveiled a prototype of the stealth fighter dubbed “Checkmate” for the 68-year-old leader at the MAKS-2021 International Aviation and Space Salon in Zhukovsky, ahead of its official unveiling later in the day, according to a statement from Rostec, the state-owned military giant which is responsible for exporting Russian technology.

Continue reading “Russia unveils new ‘Checkmate’ fighter jet” »

This is the first time an amateur astronomer has discovered a moon around Jupiter.

An amateur astronomer has discovered a previously unknown moon around Jupiter after poring over old telescope images, a major first.

Magnetic shields could help earth if we lost out outer shielding from atmosphere and stuff.

The space agency is considering an artificial magnetic field around the planet to defend against harmful radiation from the sun.

Continue reading “NASA has a bold plan to make Mars safe to live on” »

Thermoelectric cooling helmets for motorcycles can finally lead to spacesuits becoming electrically cooled.

530361 views • Aug 4, 2018 • The Feher ACH-1 is the world’s first and only self-contained air-conditioned motorcycle helmet. By utilizing thermoelectric technology, the patented full-face ACH-1 evenly distributes filtered, cooled air freely throughout the entire interior of the helmet. Integrating Feher’s patented Tubular Space Fabric with the helmets comfort liner allows the helmet to provide consistent, optimal temperature.

Continue reading “Feher Helmets 2018 ACH 1 Overview” »

Following the success in 2019 of Bill Nye and the Planetary Society’s solar sail craft LightSail 2, NASA plans to launch its own solar sail project to investigate near-Earth asteroids.

The Near-Earth Asteroid Scout (NEA Scout) is a small satellite around the size of a shoebox that will sail through space powered by sunlight. The hardware will consist of a stainless steel boom structure across which a thin, aluminum-coated plastic sail will be stretched. The total area covered by the sail is around that of a racquetball court, and as photons from the sun bounce off the shiny surface, they will propel the craft forward.

As wacky as this idea sounds — it was made famous by, among others, science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke — it has been shown to work in low-Earth orbit by the LightSail project. Now NASA will take this one step further by deploying a solar sail in deep space.

For the first time, astronomers have mapped the surface of a pulsar in detail. And the result challenges our textbook picture of a pulsar’s appearance.

Hubble is back!

The Hubble Space Telescope has powered on once again! NASA was able to successfully switch to a backup computer on the observatory on Friday (July 16) following weeks of computer problems.

On June 13, Hubble shut down after a payload computer from the 1980s that handles the telescope’s science instruments suffered a glitch. Now, over a month since Hubble ran into issues, which the Hubble team thinks were caused by the spacecraft’s Power Control Unit (PCU), NASA switched to backup hardware and was able to switch the scope back on.

Continue reading “NASA revives ailing Hubble Space Telescope with switch to backup computer” »

For the first time, space weather disruptions triggered by the Sun were measured using pulsars with the help of the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) in Pune.

Usually weighing 1.5 times more than the sun, pulsars are massive stars which rotate at a very high speed (up to 600 rotations per minute) and emit periodic radio flashes. Pulsars are considered the most accurate clocks in the universe and scientists accurately predict their flashes.

Using uGMRT, astronomers record pulsar radio flashes once every 14 days and it was during one such observation in February 2019 that they chanced upon Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). One such disruption, resultant CME, was confirmed based on the abnormally-delayed radio signals received from PSRJ2145 – 0750, the pulsar source under uGMRT observation, on February 23, 2019.

Continue reading “Pulsars help detect space weather disruptions triggered by Sun” »

Circa 2020

A new electrolysis system that makes use of briny water could provide astronauts on Mars with life-supporting oxygen and fuel for the ride home, according to engineers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, who developed the system.