Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 413
Jun 29, 2018
Global Moon Village concept
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: 3D printing, space travel
For: Moon Village Association Location: EU, initiated on workshop at ISU in Strasbourg, then created in Prague, Lund, Terracina, London Year of Completion: 2018 Team: space architects Tomas Rousek, Katarina Eriksson, Vittorio Rossetti.
It was very inspiring to see a presentation of Prof. Jan Woerner, ESA director general, at the MVA workshop at ISU in Starsbourg. When we have seen the range of all elements that are encompassed in the vision, it was clear to us that it would be good to illustrate it with more than just one 3D-printed module. With colleagues space architects Katarina Eriksson and Vittorio Rossetti we offered our help to MVA organizers to illustrate the new vision of Global Moon Village. We created 3D concept including more the components of lunar exploration and infrastructure that were mentioned, i.e. modules of ESA, NASA and international and commercial partners, Google Lunar X-Prize rovers and cis-lunar station.
We also proposed facelift concept of logo for MVA, with half moon over O circle.
Jun 28, 2018
Is ‘Oumuamua an Interstellar Asteroid or Comet?
Posted by Michael Lance in category: space travel
Scientists have confirmed ′Oumuamua, the first known interstellar object to travel through our solar system, got an unexpected boost in speed and shift in trajectory as it passed through the inner solar system last year. Examine what scientists found: https://go.nasa.gov/2Mwospx
Jun 28, 2018
Building Bones: Testing a New Osteoporosis Therapy in Microgravity
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: biotech/medical, space travel
Every three seconds, a person somewhere in the world breaks a bone due to osteoporosis—a progressive disease that decreases bone density, making bones weak and fragile. Osteoporotic fractures greatly reduce quality of life, and immobilization following a fracture can lead to further bone loss which puts these patients at risk for breaking another bone.
When SpaceX CRS-11 launched to the space station last June, it carried 40 mice to the ISS National Lab for a mission aimed at improving treatment for the millions of people with osteoporosis back on Earth. The Rodent Research (RR)-5 mission successfully proved the robustness of a new potential osteoporosis therapy based on a naturally produced protein, NELL-1, and also led to significant improvements in the delivery of the therapy.
Jun 28, 2018
Two New Papers Offers Clues to Mars’ Weird History
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: space travel
Jun 28, 2018
Astronomers capture moment of interstellar conception
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: space travel
IT’S a moment of conception on an interstellar scale. Australian astronomers have watched the death — and rebirth — of a distant solar system. Now they’re watching its embryonic nebula form.
Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith of the CSIRO has told the annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of Australia hosted at Swinburne University this week that the opportunity to observe the climactic phase in the life cycle of a star was extraordinary.
Continue reading “Astronomers capture moment of interstellar conception” »
Jun 27, 2018
Hell Yes, Japan’s Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Has Officially Entered Orbit Around the Ryugu Asteroid
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: space travel
After nearly four years of traveling through space, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft has successfully rendezvoused with the Ryugu asteroid, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency confirmed Wednesday. Let the next stage of this historic sampling-and-return mission begin!
Earlier today, mission controllers at JAXA triggered Hayabusa2’s chemical propulsion thrusters, bringing the spacecraft into orbit around Ryugu, an asteroid that’s just shy of one kilometer (0.6 miles) wide. Confirmation of the rendezvous was made at 9:35 am Japan Standard Time (JST). JAXA says Hayabusa2’s thrusters worked normally, and that the spacecraft is maintaining a constant distance from Ryugu.
Jun 26, 2018
Buzz Aldrin shares his latest space vision even as questions swirl about his state of mind
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: space travel
Buzz Aldrin wants people to know that he has some cool new ideas about how to get to the moon — not just because they’re cool, but also because they show his mind is working.
“That’s not an inactive, incapacitated, dependent mind,” the 88-year-old Aldrin, who became one of the first humans to walk on the moon during 1969’s Apollo 11 mission, told me today during a wide-ranging telephone interview.
Jun 26, 2018
The Right Chemistry, Fast: Employing AI and Automation to Map Out and Make Molecules
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, military, robotics/AI, space travel
Chemical innovation plays a key role in developing cutting-edge technologies for the military. Research chemists design and synthesize new molecules that could enable a slew of next-generation military products, such as novel propellants for spacecraft engines; new pharmaceuticals and medicines for troops in the field; lighter and longer-lasting batteries and fuel cells; advanced adhesives, coatings and paints; and less expensive explosives that are safer to handle. The problem, however, is that existing molecule design and production methods rely primarily on experts’ intuition in a laborious, trial-and-error research process.
DARPA’s Make-It program, currently in year three of a four-year effort, is developing software tools based on machine learning and expert-encoded rules to recommend synthetic routes (i.e., the “recipe” to make a particular molecule) optimized for factors such as cost, time, safety, or waste reduction. The program seeks to free chemists so that they may focus their energy on chemical innovation, rather than testing various molecular synthesis pathways. The program also is developing automated devices that uniformly and reproducibly create the desired chemical based on the software-generated recipe – this one-device, many-molecules concept is a departure from the traditional dedicated reactors in chemical production. Make-It research teams have recently demonstrated significant progress toward fully automated rapid molecule production, which could speed the pace of chemical discovery for a range of defense products and applications.
“A seasoned research chemist may spend dozens of hours designing synthetic routes to a new molecule and months implementing and optimizing the synthesis in a lab,” said Anne Fischer, program manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office. “Make-It is not only freeing chemists to expend brain power in other areas such as molecular discovery and innovation, it is opening chemical synthesis and discovery to a much broader community of scientific researchers who will benefit from faster development of new molecules.”
