Lifeboat Foundation

A revolutionary new concept for a fusion powered rocket could not only deliver an orbiter to Pluto but a lander too!

This video represents a research study with…in the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. NIAC is a visionary and far-reaching aerospace program, one that has the potential to create breakthrough technologies for possible future space missions. However, such early stage technology development may never become actual NASA missions. For more information about NIAC, visit: www.nasa.gov/niac.

Let’s just go ahead and address the question on everyone’s mind: will AI kill us? What is the negative potential of transhuman superintelligence? Once its cognitive power surpasses our own, will it give us a leg-up in ‘the singularity’, or will it look at our collective track record of harming our own species, other species, the world that gave us life, etc., and exterminate us like pests? AI expert Ben Goertzel believes we’ve been at this point of uncertainty many times before in our evolution. When we stepped out of our caves, it was a risk – no one knew it would lead to cities and space flight. When we spoke the first word, took up agriculture, invented the printing press, flicked the internet on-switch – all of these things could have led to our demise, and in some sense, our eventual demise can be traced all the way back to the day that ancient human learnt how to make fire. Progress helps us, until the day it kills us. That said, fear of negative potential cannot stop us from attempting forward motion – and by now, says Goertzel, it’s too late anyway. Even if the U.S. decided to pull the plug on superhuman intelligence research, China would keep at it. Even if China pulled out, Russia, Australia, Brazil, Nigeria would march on. We know there are massive benefits – both humanitarian and corporate – and we have latched to the idea. “The way we got to this point as a species and a culture has been to keep doing amazing new things that we didn’t fully understand,” says Goertzel, and for better or worse, “that’s what we’re going to keep on doing.” Ben Goertzel’s most recent book is AGI Revolution: An Inside View of the Rise of Artificial General Intelligence.

Ben Goertzel’s most recent book is AGI Revolution: An Inside View of the Rise of Artificial General Intelligence.

Young Bae of Advanced Space and Energy Technologies in Tustin, California, has improved his photonic laser thruster. was developed with NASA funding. His thruster works because light exerts pressure when it hits something. In theory, it is possible to move an object like a CubeSat by nudging it with a laser beam. In practice, however, the pressure which light exerts is so small that a device able to do a useful amount of nudging would require a laser of unfeasibly large power.

Dr Bae has overcome this limitation by bouncing light repeatedly between the source laser and the satellite, to multiply the thrust. In his latest experiments, Dr Bae has managed to amplify the thrust imparted by a single nudge of the laser by a factor of 1,500, which is big enough to manoeuvre a CubeSat as well as a conventional thruster would. This brings two advantages. First, since no on-board propellant is required, there is more room for instruments. Second, there being no fuel to run out, a CubeSat’s orbit can be boosted as many times as is desired, and its working life prolonged indefinitely.

Continue reading “YK Bae can now amplify photonic laser thrust” »

While it’s far too early to speculate on who will be the first humans to travel to Mars, we may have an idea of what they will wear: An Israeli-designed space suit.

Together with the Israel Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center, Israeli startup StemRad is suiting up to launch a trial of its new protective suit against cosmic gamma rays on the next flight of NASA’s Orion satellite.

Continue reading “Israeli-designed Cosmic Ray Vest Approved For Mars Trial” »

The plan could dramatically shift the mission of the space agency, prioritizing low-Earth orbit activity over distant exploration.

The leading projects for developing a hypersonic spaceplane are Reaction Engines of the UK and Hypermach.

Reaction Engines Skylon

Reaction Engines of the UK is a leader in developing a hypersonic vehicle and hypersonic components. The British government finalized a £60 million to the project: this investment will provide support at a “crucial stage” to allow a full-scale prototype of the SABRE engine to be built. If all goes to plan, the first ground-based engine tests could happen in 2019, and Skylon could be performing unmanned test flights by 2025. In November 2015, BAE Systems invested £20.6 million in Reaction Engines to acquire 20 per cent of its share capital and agreed to provide industrial, technology development and project management expertise to support Reaction Engines during its development phase. It could carry 15 tonnes of cargo to a 300 km equatorial orbit on each trip, and up to 11 tonnes to the International Space Station, almost 45% more than the capacity of the European Space Agency’s ATV vehicle.

Continue reading “Leading development of hypersonic engines and spaceplanes” »

Surprised it took this long for this article to surface.

Quantum and travel.

Continue reading “Quantum Entanglement May Be Key To Long Distance Space Travel – Ex Lockheed Exec Said It’s Already Happening” »

I have been slowly trying to evolve everyone’s thinking and knosledge about what Quantum is and its significant impact it is bringing to all industries as it relates to technology and health/ bio sciences.

My interest in Quantum Biology began when I was 12 years old although Quantum Bio then wasn’t even considered a reality. I had to at my age out of necessity as in my own father’s family had a Neuro and electrode defect impacting their hearts and muscle movements. So, being by nature, a person who dives deep into an interest I study thoroughly the neuro sensory pathways, the heart, the entire sensory pathways where the body continuously sends electro charges.

After many decades of my own research and studying on the side, I knew how much the impact quantum brings to the biological environment.

Continue reading “Can Space Travel Reverse Ageing? The Curious Case Of Astronaut Scott Kelly” »

Graphene is known as the world’s thinnest material due to its 2-D structure, in which each sheet is only one carbon atom thick, allowing each atom to engage in a chemical reaction from two sides. Graphene flakes can have a very large proportion of edge atoms, all of which have a particular chemical reactivity. In addition, chemically active voids created by missing atoms are a surface defect of graphene sheets. These structural defects and edges play a vital role in carbon chemistry and physics, as they alter the chemical reactivity of graphene. In fact, chemical reactions have repeatedly been shown to be favoured at these defect sites.

Interstellar molecular clouds are predominantly composed of hydrogen in molecular form (H2), but also contain a small percentage of dust particles mostly in the form of carbon nanostructures, called polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). These clouds are often referred to as ‘star nurseries’ as their low temperature and high density allows gravity to locally condense matter in such a way that it initiates H fusion, the nuclear reaction at the heart of each star. Graphene-based materials, prepared from the exfoliation of graphite oxide, are used as a model of interstellar carbon dust as they contain a relatively large amount of atomic defects, either at their edges or on their surface. These defects are thought to sustain the Eley-Rideal chemical reaction, which recombines two H atoms into one H2 molecule.

The observation of interstellar clouds in inhospitable regions of space, including in the direct proximity of giant stars, poses the question of the origin of the stability of hydrogen in the molecular form (H2). This question stands because the clouds are constantly being washed out by intense radiation, hence cracking the hydrogen molecules into atoms. Astrochemists suggest that the chemical mechanism responsible for the recombination of atomic H into molecular H2 is catalysed by carbon flakes in interstellar clouds. Their theories are challenged by the need for a very efficient surface chemistry scenario to explain the observed equilibrium between dissociation and recombination. They had to introduce highly reactive sites into their models so that the capture of an atomic H nearby occurs without fail.

Continue reading “Neutrons reveal ‘quantum tunnelling’ on graphene enables the birth of stars” »