Lifeboat Foundation

SpaceX is already planning the next big test flight of its future Starship rocket out of southern Texas. As early as mid-March, the company is hoping to fly a test version of the vehicle to a super high altitude and then land it upright on solid ground, proving the rocket can be reused and potentially touch down on other worlds.

The upcoming test is detailed in new paperwork SpaceX filed with the Federal Communications Commission, which provides licensing to aerospace companies that are hoping to fly their vehicles to space. Specifically, the FCC allocates which radio frequencies companies can use to communicate with their vehicles during flight.

Continue reading “SpaceX requests permission to fly new Starship rocket on 12-mile-high test flight” »

3D printed catalysts and new propellant types are making rockets more environmentally-friendly.

The moon’s water could serve as a precious resource for deep space exploration, but how do we actually turn it into rocket fuel?
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To be a space miner, there are a few things you might need: the sun, some lunar soil, a pretty powerful mirror, and the perfect angle.

Continue reading “Inside the Lab That’s Turning Moon Water Into Rocket Fuel” »

Tushna Commissariat reviews The Space Race: the Journey to the Moon and Beyond by Sarah Cruddas.

There’s no two-ways about it, the Universe is an extremely big place! And thanks to the limitations placed upon us by Special Relativity, traveling to even the closest star systems could take millennia. As we addressed in a previous article, the estimated travel time to the nearest star system (Alpha Centauri) could take anywhere from 19,000 to 81,000 years using conventional methods.

For this reason, many theorists have recommended that humanity should rely on generation ships to spread the seed of humanity among the stars. Naturally, such a project presents many challenges, not the least of which is how large a spacecraft would need to be to sustain a multi-generational crew. In a new study, a team of international scientists addressed this very question and determined that a lot of interior space would be needed!

During their yearlong mission in 2012, NASA’s twin GRAIL spacecraft made the most detailed gravitational map of the moon ever created.

Scientists imagined some innovative technologies that could enhance a future mission to Uranus or Neptune.

Talks center around quickly erecting a SpaceX plant across the channel from what will be San Pedro’s new waterfront development opening in 2021.

The company is building a massive centrifuge to accelerate rockets and send them screaming into space.