Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 250
Apr 18, 2019
Organs on a Chip Experiments Will Investigate the High Rate of Infections in Astronauts
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: biotech/medical, computing, space travel
On April 25, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch cargo to the space station and two organs-on-a-chip experiments designed by University of Pennsylvania scientists. They want to understand why so many astronauts get infections while in space. NASA has reported that 15 of the 29 Apollo astronauts had bacterial or viral infections. Between 1989 and 1999, more than 26 space shuttle astronauts had infections.
Huh and his team have created two separate experiments for this first launch. The first essentially mimics an infection inside a human airway, to see what happens to the bacteria, and the surrounding cells, in orbit. Huh’s BIOLines lab created the actual chips.
A lung chip is made of a polymer, and a permeable membrane is the platform for the human cells. For the lung-on-a-chip, one side of the membrane is coated with lung cells, to process the air, and capillary cells on the other, to provide the blood flow. The membrane is stretched and released to provide the bellows-like effect of real lungs.
Apr 15, 2019
Travel through wormholes is possible, but slow
Posted by Xavier Rosseel in categories: cosmology, physics, space travel
A Harvard physicist has shown that wormholes can exist: tunnels in curved space-time, connecting two distant places, through which travel is possible.
But don’t pack your bags for a trip to other side of the galaxy yet; although it’s theoretically possible, it’s not useful for humans to travel through, said the author of the study, Daniel Jafferis, from Harvard University, written in collaboration with Ping Gao, also from Harvard and Aron Wall from Stanford University.
“It takes longer to get through these wormholes than to go directly, so they are not very useful for space travel,” Jafferis said. He will present his findings at the 2019 American Physical Society April Meeting in Denver.
Continue reading “Travel through wormholes is possible, but slow” »
Apr 13, 2019
SpaceX will launch NASA’s mission to crash spacecraft into an asteroid
Posted by Carse Peel in category: space travel
SpaceX will launch NASA’s $69 million mission to crash a spacecraft into an ASTEROID in 2021 to test methods that could save Earth from deadly impacts…
The groundbreaking mission will be the first demonstrated attempt to deflect an asteroid by purposely crashing an object into it at high speed.
After launching from California’s Vandenberg Air Force base atop a Falcon 9 rocket in 2021, the DART craft is expected to reach the object Didymos in October 2022, when it’s 11 million kilometers (6.8 million miles) from Earth.
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Apr 13, 2019
NASA Looks Into Rechargeable Venus Lander; Powered By Microwave-Beaming Atmospheric Balloon
Posted by Bruce Dorminey in categories: robotics/AI, space travel
Thanks to way cool new tech, Venus may no longer be such a longshot for robotic landers. Let’s hope that Brandon gets his additional Phase Two study out of NIAC and NASA will finally send a lander to Venus.
Thanks to innovative new technology, Venus may no longer be such a longshot for robotic landers.
Apr 12, 2019
NASA Asks SpaceX to Help It Save Earth From Incoming Asteroids
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: space travel
Yay earth saved :DDDDDD.
Add another project to the list of collaborations between NASA and SpaceX.
Apr 12, 2019
Video Captures How Mice React to Zero Gravity Aboard Space Station
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: habitats, space travel
The behavior of 20 mice on the International Space Station is helping shed some light on how humans might adapt to living in space.
The female mice were flown out on the International Space Station aboard an uncrewed SpaceX Dragon capsule and spent up to 37 days floating in NASA’s Rodent Habitat. Video footage show that the mice immediately began their usual grooming, feeding, huddling and socializing, but within 10 days of leaving Earth, younger mice began to run in circles around their cage.
Continue reading “Video Captures How Mice React to Zero Gravity Aboard Space Station” »
Apr 12, 2019
SpaceX Lands All 3 Boosters of the World’s Most Powerful Rocket
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: drones, space travel
The first commercial flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy ended with two boosters touching down on land while a third alighted on its drone ship out at sea.
Apr 12, 2019
Today in Science History: The third manned lunar landing mission, Apollo 13, kicked off with the launch of the Odyssey spacecraft
Posted by Michael Lance in categories: science, space travel
On April 13, the crew had already traveled 200,000 miles away from Earth when one of the oxygen tanks exploded, forcing them to abort the mission and head back, fighting for their own survival.
You may be familiar with the immortal line “Houston, we have a problem,” which was supposedly uttered by Lovell in the 1995 film “Apollo 13.” Actually, the real quote was “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” and it was Swigert who said it.
Apr 11, 2019
Falcon Heavy, SpaceX’s Giant Rocket, Launches Into Orbit, and Sticks Its Landings
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: space travel
It was only the second flight for what is the most powerful rocket now available on Earth, improving on its spectacular test launch in 2018.