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Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 370

Feb 9, 2019

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson sets date of first trip into space

Posted by in category: space travel

British billionaire plans to make a suborbital flight on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Sir Richard Branson stands beside the Virgin Galactic spacecraft at the Farnborough International Airshow on Nov. 7, 2012 in Hampshire, England. Steve Parsons / PA Images via Getty Images file.

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Feb 8, 2019

We need more powerful nuclear engines to explore farther and faster into space

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, space travel

Nuclear power has powered rockets for decades, but reaching deep space will require a big leap.

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Feb 8, 2019

Living on the Moon Could Happen Sooner than We Think

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space travel

In January, the deputy head of the CNSA Wu Yanhua explained that Chang’e 5 and 6 would serve as missions to return samples from the moon while Chang’e 7 will survey the South Pole, this lunar area is of great interest for human colonies since holds water ice. Yanhua added that they hope Chang’e 8 will be able to test out some technologies and explore the moon to determine how to build a joint lunar base that multiple countries can share.

Once again, China is not the only one who wants to send humans back to the Moon. Both NASA and the ESA have plans in the works. The ESA’s new director-general, Jan Woerner introduced plans for a permanent Moon base in 2016. His ideal ‘Moon village’ would be home to a diverse set of people such as scientists and artists, as well as public and private organizations. The lunar base would serve many purposes such as astronomical research, tourism, or mining minerals.

Ariel Ekblaw, the founder of the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative, is also looking to “democratize space.” Thus, he has formed multi-disciplinary research groups studying everything from robotics and synthetic neurobiology to architecture, art, space, and even design.

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Feb 7, 2019

Buzz Aldrin is one of the most famous astronauts in history

Posted by in category: space travel

He and Neil Armstrong were the first men to set foot on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission. Fifty years ago, Buzz planted the American Flag on the face of the moon. He has written 9 books, is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, and is a tireless advocate for space exploration and discovery.

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Feb 6, 2019

XPrize board member raises $100M fund to tackle aging

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, education, life extension, space travel

Longevity Vision Fund has exited stealth with plans to invest $100 million in startups with aspirations to extend healthy lifespans. The fund, which is linked to the founder of XPrize, will pump the money into biotechs and other longevity startups based around the world in seed to series B rounds.

Sergey Young, the founder of Longevity Vision, unveiled the fund at an event in London this week. Young is the cofounder of Peak State Ventures and an innovation board member at XPrize Foundation, a nonprofit known for running competitions to incentivize advances in fields including suborbital space flight.

At Peak State, Young and his colleagues invest in fields well outside of longevity, including property and education. But Young has established a foothold in the longevity space, leading to him becoming development sponsor of Longevity XPrize and a longevity partner at Bold Capital Partners.

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Feb 6, 2019

Caltech Building Agile Humanoid Robot

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space travel

For better or worse, robots with humanoid features are often compared to humans—we want to know if they’re anywhere close to doing the same kinds of things that we do, and with a few exceptions, the answer is “probably not.” Humanoid robots are difficult to build and program, but we keep doing it because it makes some amount of sense to have robots that look and function like we do operating in the same environments that we operate in. However, one of the great things about robots is that they don’t have to be constrained by the same boring humanoid-ness that we are, and we can do all kinds of things to them to make them more capable than we’ll ever be.


Leonardo augments humanoid legs with thrusters to help it run and jump.

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Feb 6, 2019

This Birdlike Robot Uses Thrusters to Float on Two Legs

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space travel

Leonardo the lanky robot can sort of hover-walk on two legs—and that could land it on Mars one day.

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Feb 5, 2019

So long, MarCO, and thanks for the radio transmissions

Posted by in category: space travel

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory says it does not expect to receive any more transmissions from the MarCO CubeSats that accompanied the Insight lander to Mars last year. The two tiny spacecraft, which relayed Insight’s descent signal back to Earth in real time, have not been heard from in more than a month.

Mars approach from MarCO-B

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Feb 4, 2019

Scientists Prepare for Mission to Jupiter’s Icy Moon Europa

Posted by in category: space travel

NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is on track to launch as soon as 2023, but the team has a lot to do before then.

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Feb 3, 2019

Houston We Have a Podcast returns with the final part of the Apollo 8 series

Posted by in categories: futurism, space travel

Vanessa Wyche, deputy director of the Johnson Space Center, leads a panel discussion with key players of the Apollo program to learn critical lessons that can be applied to NASA’s future human spaceflight missions to the Moon and Mars. https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP/apollo-8-part-2

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