Lifeboat Foundation

CHINA’S NEW THORIUM-BASED NUCLEAR REACTOR is well situated for being adopted for Space applications.

China is slowly but steadily positioning itself to leap ahead of the US Space program. It is doing this without pomp and fanfare, and without the idea of a “space race,” simply based upon what it requires for its future.

1) Recent noteworthy progress on molten salt thorium reactors could be a key component of future Chinese space-worthiness. Originally designed by the USA’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1960’s, they were planned to be used for nuclear powered strategic bomber planes, before the nuclear submarine concept became adopted as more feasible. They were chosen because they can be miniaturized to the size of an aircraft. By the same token, they could conceivably be used in advanced atmospheric or space propulsion.

Continue reading “China unveils design for first waterless nuclear reactor” »

Blue Origin is set to host its first crewed flight next Tuesday, and the firm has finally revealed its full passenger lineup.

Former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is headed to space on July 20 aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. Here’s how to watch the launch online.

The CASC announced its plans to build a reusable space transport system last year, which would involve building a series of spacecraft that take off and land like regular planes, but can reach any corner of the earth within an hour by flying at least five times the speed of sound at a suborbital altitude.

Friday’s test of an experimental vessel is a step towards the development of a hypersonic vehicle that could reach any corner of the Earth within an hour.

China is playing the long game. It plans to become the leading power in space sometime in the 2040s, through a mixture of its own perseverance and America’s decline.

The eagle and the rabbitHalf a century on, the race back to the Moon looks markedly different from the first.

Jeff Bezos is going to space. Here’s how you can watch along, and what you need to know.

The Juno Waves instrument “listened” to the radio emissions from Jupiter’s immense magnetic field to find their precise locations.

By listening to the rain of electrons flowing onto Jupiter from its intensely volcanic moon Io, researchers using NASA’s Juno spacecraft have found what triggers the powerful radio emissions within the monster planet’s gigantic magnetic field. The new result sheds light on the behavior of the enormous magnetic fields generated by gas-giant planets like Jupiter.

Continue reading “Juno tunes into radio noise triggered by Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io” »

Former NASA astronaut Leland Melvin is tackling a smell that’s out of this world.

Universe Today.

Space may be pretty, but it’s dangerous. Astronauts face a much higher dose of ionizing radiation than us Earth-bound folks, and a new report says that NASA’s current guidelines and risk assessment methods are in serious need of an update.

On the surface of the Earth, protected by our extensive magnetic field and layers of thick atmosphere, we experience about 2–3 milliSieverts (mSv) of radiation exposure every year. Even that background level is enough to trigger the occasional cancer growth.

Continue reading “Report Suggests That Astronauts Shouldn’t get More Than 600 Millisieverts of Radiation Exposure During Their Career. We get 2-3 a Year Down Here on Earth” »