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Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 280

Dec 9, 2019

How 3D-printing robots will get Mars home-ready for our arrival

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, bioengineering, habitats, robotics/AI, space travel

NASA has tentative plans for a manned mission to Mars sometime in the 2030s. Between now and then, there’s still much that needs to be sorted. To start, massive dust storms, high levels of radiation, low temperatures and a lack of water make the Martian surface an unfriendly place for long-term visits. Taming it for human life will likely prove one of the most demanding and complex engineering puzzles in human history. With those extraordinary obstacles in mind, in 2015 NASA announced the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge: an open call asking designers and architects outside the traditional aerospace industry to create plans for Martian living centred around 3D printing. One of 10 finalists announced in 2019, this plan from the design practices HASSELL and Eckersley O’Callaghan envisions teams of 3D-printing robots building a protective shield on the Martian surface several months in advance of a human landing. Upon arrival, astronauts would then work alongside the autonomous robots to piece together an inflatable, modular habitat.

Video by LightField London.

Dec 7, 2019

How does time dilation affect aging during high-speed space travel?

Posted by in categories: life extension, space travel

Your space questions, answered.

Dec 6, 2019

Gamma-ray laser moves a step closer to reality

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, quantum physics, space travel

O.o.


A physicist at the University of California, Riverside, has performed calculations showing hollow spherical bubbles filled with a gas of positronium atoms are stable in liquid helium.

The calculations take scientists a step closer to realizing a , which may have applications in , spacecraft propulsion, and .

Continue reading “Gamma-ray laser moves a step closer to reality” »

Dec 6, 2019

Congratulations to the NASA and SpaceX teams on another successful resupply launch!

Posted by in category: space travel

Learn more about what’s on board the Dragon spacecraft headed to the International Space Station: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/spx19-research

Dec 2, 2019

Are there multiple universes?

Posted by in categories: cosmology, quantum physics, space travel

What – one vast, ancient and mysterious universe isn’t enough for you? Well, as it happens, there are others. Among physicists, it’s not controversial. Our universe is but one in an unimaginably massive ocean of universes called the multiverse.

If that concept isn’t enough to get your head around, physics describes different kinds of multiverse. The easiest one to comprehend is called the cosmological multiverse. The idea here is that the universe expanded at a mind-boggling speed in the fraction of a second after the big bang. During this period of inflation, there were quantum fluctuations which caused separate bubble universes to pop into existence and themselves start inflating and blowing bubbles. Russian physicist Andrei Linde came up with this concept, which suggests an infinity of universes no longer in any causal connection with one another – so free to develop in different ways.

Cosmic space is big – perhaps infinitely so. Travel far enough and some theories suggest you’d meet your cosmic twin – a copy of you living in a copy of our world, but in a different part of the multiverse. String theory, which is a notoriously theoretical explanation of reality, predicts a frankly meaninglessly large number of universes, maybe 10 to the 500 or more, all with slightly different physical parameters.

Dec 2, 2019

SpaceX, Maxar, and Nanoracks to Demo Orbital Space Station Construction in 2020 @themotleyfool #stocks $MAXR

Posted by in category: space travel

Space stations are expensive, but can we fix that? Yes, we can! (If this mission goes right.)

Nov 30, 2019

Stephen Hawking’s Final Research Paper Predicted the End of the Universe

Posted by in categories: cosmology, space travel

Before his death, Stephen Hawking submitted a research paper that predicts the end of the world.


Just two weeks before his death, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking submitted a research paper that suggests parallel universes and predicts the end of this one.

Hawking and his co-author Thomas Hertog published their research in “A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation,” detailing how scientists may also be able to detect other universes using a spaceship. According to Hertog, Hawking finished writing the paper from his deathbed, leaving behind a final legacy that is worthy of the Nobel Prize.

Continue reading “Stephen Hawking’s Final Research Paper Predicted the End of the Universe” »

Nov 29, 2019

Ralph Merkle on Space Cryonics & Nanotechnology

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cryonics, nanotechnology, space travel

Alcor calls them “patients”, and right now, over 150 of these frozen souls are waiting for the future in vats of liquid nitrogen stored in Scottsdale, Arizona. We interview Dr. Ralph Merkle, a director at the Alcor Foundation and a respected pioneer in nanotechnology, to learn how recent advances in cryonics just may enable long-haul interstellar spaceflight sooner than you’d guess…

Nov 27, 2019

Space travel can make the gut leaky

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, space travel

Bacteria, fungi, and viruses can enter our gut through the food we eat. Fortunately, the epithelial cells that line our intestines serve as a robust barrier to prevent these microorganisms from invading the rest of our bodies.

A research team led by a biomedical scientist at the University of California, Riverside, has found that simulated microgravity, such as that encountered in spaceflight, disrupts the functioning of the epithelial barrier even after removal from the .

“Our findings have implications for our understanding of the effects of space travel on intestinal function of astronauts in space, as well as their capability to withstand the effects of agents that compromise intestinal epithelial barrier function following their return to Earth,” said Declan McCole, a professor of biomedical sciences at the UC Riverside School of Medicine, who led the study published today in Scientific Reports.

Nov 26, 2019

ESA studies impact of hibernating astronauts on space missions

Posted by in categories: entertainment, space travel

Looking forward to the first manned Mars mission, ESA is delving into how astronaut hibernation would affect space missions. Based on sending six humans on a five-year mission to the Red Planet, the study suggests that using hibernation would allow the mass of the spacecraft to be reduced by a third, and the amount of consumables cut by roughly the same amount.

The idea of astronauts sleeping their way through a deep-space mission lasting months or years has been a staple plot device of science fiction since at least the 1930s and has featured in many movies as a way to speed up the story. Despite the chance of waking up to find one’s self on a planet run by apes, it’s an idea that is very attractive to real-life mission planners as a way to both reduce the supplies needed for lengthy missions and to keep the crew from going crazy.

The technology to actually make humans hibernate like bears or other mammals is still in its infancy, but that hasn’t stopped ESA from looking at how hibernation could impact spacecraft designs and missions in general. Originally, studied as part of the space agency’s Basic Activities research, hibernation is regarded as a key enabling technology and now ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility (CDF), along with scientists from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the University of Goethe, Frankfurt, are looking at the advantages that sleeping astronauts might bring to a Mars mission.