Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 434
Jul 7, 2017
Demand for Space Travel Is Out of This World
Posted by Brett Gallie II in category: space travel
Jul 6, 2017
A Plasma Rocket Engine May Get Us To Mars In 40 Days (Elon Musk, Are You Listening?)
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: Elon Musk, space travel
Jun 29, 2017
MSNW’s plasma thruster just might fire up Congress at hearing on space propulsion
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: government, space travel
How will we send humans to the moon, Mars and other destinations in space? The chances are good that electric propulsion will play a role, and a company called MSNW is at the cutting edge of that technology.
The director of propulsion research for Redmond, Wash.-based MSNW, Anthony Pancotti, will take a share of Capitol Hill’s spotlight on Thursday during a hearing organized by the House Subcommittee on Space. And he expects to learn as much from his encounter with lawmakers as they’ll learn from him.
Jun 28, 2017
The first commercial astronaut training center will be built in the UK
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: government, space travel
The government’s mission to put the UK at the forefront of commercial spaceflight has been given a big boost after plans were announced to build the world’s first private space research centre in Bedfordshire. The £120 million Blue Abyss facility will be constructed at RAF Henlow, providing domestic and international companies with access to the world’s biggest 50 metre deep pool, a 120 room hotel, an astronaut training centre and a “human performance centre” that will help divers, astronauts and athletes train at the very top level.
The base, which is set to fully close in 2020, already houses some of the facilities that paid-for astronauts need to acclimatise to the rigours of space. Its centrifuge base, for example, will expose space-goers to extreme G forces as part of their commercial astronaut training programme. The idea is to provide the necessary services needed by private spaceflight providers to get their passengers launch ready.
Continue reading “The first commercial astronaut training center will be built in the UK” »
Jun 27, 2017
If EMdrive is real and scales with Q factor then we get almost Star Trek level Technology
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: quantum physics, space travel
Adam Crowl considers spaceships if EM-Drive is verified as a real thing.
If the NASA emdrive performance of 1.2 millinewtons per kilowatt.
8.3 TeraWatts of power would be needed to provide 10 million newtons of thrust to accelerate a 1000 ton space-craft at 1 gee of acceleration. We have no power source that could generate 8.3 TeraWatts for a 1000 ton spacecraft.
Jun 26, 2017
Lunar Laser Link: Virtual Reality from the Moon
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: robotics/AI, space travel, virtual reality
The world’s first laser communication link … from the Moon!
A laser communications terminal on a private firm’s upcoming mission to the Moon has been announced during this week’s Paris Air Show.
Astrobotic of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and ATLAS Space Operations Inc. of Traverse City, Michigan are now linked at the laser – offering up to one gigabit per second of data to its customers.
Continue reading “Lunar Laser Link: Virtual Reality from the Moon” »
Jun 24, 2017
Private Enterprise Is Making Sci-Fi Technology A Reality
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in category: space travel
Jun 23, 2017
SpaceX successfully launches and lands used rocket
Posted by Dan Kummer in category: space travel
Jun 21, 2017
NASA Wants to Collect Solar Power Directly From Space
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: military, solar power, space travel, sustainability
Space-based solar power has had a slow start, but the technology may finally take off in the next few decades. Since its inception, solar power has had a severe limitation as a renewable energy: it only works when the Sun is shining. This has restricted the areas where solar panels can be effectively used to sunnier, drier regions, such as California and Arizona. And even on cloudless days, the atmosphere itself absorbs some of the energy emitted by the Sun, cutting back the efficiency of solar energy. And let’s not forget that, even in the best of circumstances, Earth-bound solar panels are pointed away from the Sun half of the time, during the night.
So, for over half a decade, researchers from NASA and the Pentagon have dreamed of ways for solar panels to rise above these difficulties, and have come up with some plausible solutions. There have been several proposals for making extra-atmospheric solar panels a reality, many of which call for a spacecraft equipped with an array of mirrors to reflect sunlight into a power-conversion device. The collected energy could be beamed to Earth via a laser or microwave emitter. There are even ways to modulate the waves’ energy to protect any birds or planes that might wander into the beam’s path.
The energy from these space-based solar panels would not be limited by clouds, the atmosphere, or our night cycle. Additionally, because solar energy would be continuously absorbed, there would be no reason to store the energy for later use, a process which can cost up to 50 percent of the energy stored.
Continue reading “NASA Wants to Collect Solar Power Directly From Space” »
