Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 365
Feb 18, 2019
Russia’s Private Space Tourism Industry Could Take Off in Five Years
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in category: space travel
Begak told Sputnik news agency the first flights could begin as soon as 2024 and tickets can be purchased for approximately $200,000 to $300,000 a person.
As per Begak, several private companies are presently working on the uncrewed spacecraft known as Selena Space Yacht. The work is being performed with help from the National Technology Initiative (NTI) AeroNet and SpaceNet working groups.
Begak added that the craft lands like a regular aeroplane giving them a chance to land on any airfield. So now they are calculating the best time for space travel and which flight paths would be most comfortable since it’s known that people shouldn’t be in zero-gravity condition for more than 10 minutes. They began working on Selena Space Yacht in 2017.
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Feb 17, 2019
Elon Musk says SpaceX is developing a ‘bleeding’ heavy-metal rocket ship. Making it work may be 100 times as hard as NASA’s most difficult Mars mission, one expert says
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: biotech/medical, Elon Musk, space travel
SpaceX is building a steel launch system called Starship for the moon and Mars, but some aerospace experts say Elon Musk’s new design won’t be easy.
Feb 16, 2019
The company that promised a one-way ticket to Mars is bankrupt
Posted by Michael Lance in category: space travel
The company claimed it was going to send hundreds of people to live on Mars.
What a shocker.
Feb 15, 2019
NASA heading back to Moon soon, and this time to stay
Posted by Quinn Sena in category: space travel
NASA is accelerating plans to return Americans to the Moon, and this time, the US space agency says it will be there to stay.
Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator, told reporters Thursday that the agency plans to speed up plans backed by President Donald Trump to return to the moon, using private companies.
“It’s important that we get back to the moon as fast as possible,” said Bridenstine in a meeting at NASA’s Washington headquarters, adding he hoped to have astronauts back there by 2028.
Feb 15, 2019
3D-printed Mars habitat could be a perfect fit for early SpaceX Starship colonies
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: 3D printing, habitats, robotics/AI, space travel, sustainability
Space architecture startup AI SpaceFactory achieved second place in the latest phase of a NASA-led competition, pitting several groups against each other in pursuit of designing a 3D-printed Mars habitat and physically demonstrating some of the technologies needed to build them.
With a focus on ease of scalable 3D-printing and inhabitants’ quality of life, as well as the use of modular imported goods like windows and airlocks, MARSHA lends itself impeccably well to SpaceX’s goal of developing a sustainable human presence on Mars as quickly, safely, and affordably as possible with the support of its Starship/Super Heavy launch vehicle.
Feb 15, 2019
Environmental noise found to enhance the transport of energy across a line of ions
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: information science, quantum physics, space travel
A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in Austria and Germany has shown that introducing environmental noise to a line of ions can lead to enhanced transport of energy across them. In their paper published in Physical Review Letters, the researchers describe their experiments and why they believe their findings will be helpful to other researchers.
Prior research has shown that when electrons move through conductive material, the means by which they do so can be described by quantum mechanics equations. But in the real world, such movement can be hindered by interference due to noise in the environment, leading to suppression of the transport energy. Prior research has also shown that electricity moving through a material can be described as a wave—if such waves remain in step, they are described as being coherent. But such waves can be disturbed by noise or defects in an atomic lattice, leading to suppression of flow. Such suppression at a given location is known as an Anderson localization. In this new effort, the researchers have shown that Anderson localizations can be overcome through the use of environmental noise.
The work consisted of isolating 10 calcium ions and holding them in space as a joined line—a one-dimensional crystal. Lasers were used to switch the ions between states, and energy was introduced to the ion line using laser pulses. This setup allowed them to watch as energy moved along the line of ions from one end to the other. Anderson localizations were introduced by firing individual lasers at each of the ions—the energy from the lasers resulted in ions with different intensities. With a degree of disorder in place, the team then created noise by randomly changing the intensity of the beams fired at the individual ions. This resulted in frequency wobble. And it was that wobble that the team found allowed the movement of energy between the ions to overcome the Anderson localizations.
Feb 15, 2019
Superinsulating aerogel resists mechanical and thermal shocks
Posted by Quinn Sena in categories: materials, space travel
New ultralight hexagonal boron nitride material could be used in extreme-temperature applications such as spacecraft.
Feb 14, 2019
NASA to Advance Unique 3D Printed Sensor Technology
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: 3D printing, robotics/AI, space travel
A NASA technologist is taking miniaturization to the extreme.
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Feb 13, 2019
The “Impossible” Tech Behind SpaceX’s New Engine
Posted by Caycee Dee Neely in categories: innovation, space travel
The recent SpaceX Raptor engine was actually a real breakthrough. It was a holy grail desired by NASA and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union almost had it, but when we landed on the Moon they stopped development. The engine is a “full-flow staged combustion” engine.
“Full-flow staged combustion (FFSC) is a twin-shaft staged combustion cycle that uses both oxidizer-rich and fuel-rich preburners. The cycle allows full flow of both propellants through the turbines; hence the name The fuel turbopump is driven by the fuel-rich preburner, and the oxidizer turbopump is driven by the oxidizer-rich preburner”
Followers of the Church of Elon will no doubt already be aware of SpaceX’s latest technical triumph: the test firing of the first full-scale Raptor engine. Of course, it was hardly a secret. As he often does, Elon has been “leaking” behind the scenes information, pictures, and even video of the event on his Twitter account. Combined with the relative transparency of SpaceX to begin with, this gives us an exceptionally clear look at how literal rocket science is performed at the Hawthorne, California based company.
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