Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 454
Nov 3, 2016
International Space Station project partners are inching ever closer toward an agreement to begin the development of a new human outpost in the vicinity of the Moon
Posted by Andreas Matt in category: space travel
If successful, the cis-lunar space station (a space station in the vicinity of the Moon) will be the largest international space project to date, influencing the direction of human space flight for decades to come.
Oct 30, 2016
Inside the Quest for a Real ‘Star Trek’ Warp Drive
Posted by Andreas Matt in categories: physics, space travel
It may be a while before starship captains can race across the galaxy, but engineers and physicists have a few ideas for making it so.
Oct 29, 2016
Where does Jeff Bezos foresee putting space colonists? Inside O’Neill cylinders
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: Elon Musk, habitats, space travel
SpaceX’s Elon Musk wants to put millions on Mars, but fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos envisions having them in rotating space habitats.
Oct 29, 2016
California Startup Made In Space to Make Optical Fiber in Orbit
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: 3D printing, internet, space travel
Society is about to take another big step into the age of space-based manufacturing.
Early next year, California-based startup Made In Space plans to launch a machine to the International Space Station (ISS) that will produce ZBLAN optical fiber.
ZBLAN has the potential to be much more efficient than the silica-based fiber currently used in the internet and telecommunications industries, but it’s tough to make here on Earth because the planet’s strong gravitational pull induces imperfections in the ZBLAN crystal lattice, Made In Space representatives said. [3D Printing: 10 Ways It Could Transform Space Travel].
Oct 29, 2016
Mars Medical Challenge Asks Students to Design 3D Printable Items to Keep Astronauts Healthy on Mars
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical, education, engineering, space travel
The team of NASA, the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME), and online educational platform Future Engineers has been a lot of fun to follow over the last year. Their collaborative 3D Printing in Space Challenges have resulted in some amazing, ingenious inventions from children as young as five years old, all aimed at improving the daily lives of astronauts now and in the future, on the International Space Station and, one day, on Mars.
Oct 29, 2016
George Lucas Presents Two New Designs For His Beleaguered Museum — By Mark Wilson | Fast Company
Posted by Odette Bohr Dienel in categories: media & arts, space, space travel
“After being spurned in Chicago, Lucas’s Museum of Narrative Art is looking for a West Coast home.”
Oct 26, 2016
Play the PC game Elon Musk wrote as a pre-teen
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: alien life, Elon Musk, internet, military, space travel, sustainability
Elon Musk is obsessed with space. At age 30, he founded SpaceX. At age 41, he oversaw the first cargo mission to the International Space Station by a private company. And at age 12, as a kid living in South Africa, he made a space-themed PC game called Blastar. Now, thanks to the power of the internet, you can play that game.
Musk sold the code for Blastar for $500 to the magazine PC and Office Technology, and a reproduction of the page it appeared on was published in Ashlee Vance’s biography Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. From there, Tomas Lloret Llinares — a software engineer at Google — took the code and rebuilt the game to work in HTML5.
Your mission, as the game’s lonely space pilot, is to “destroy [the] alien freighter carrying deadly hydrogen bombs and status beam machines.” Blastar is mostly a mix of Space Invaders and Asteroid, though it’s much more basic. There is never more than two ships on the screen, there are few sound effects, and — like many games of its time — it really has no ending. It’s almost unimpressive; that is, until you remember that it was made by a 12-year-old in 1984.
Continue reading “Play the PC game Elon Musk wrote as a pre-teen” »
Oct 26, 2016
Elon Musk just shared his 4-step plan for Mars — colonists should be “prepared to die”
Posted by Scott Davis in categories: Elon Musk, space travel
Elon Musk wants to launch a million people to Mars in the event some apocalyptic disaster eventually ruins Earth. And he wants it to be somewhat affordable — US $200,000 or less per person.
To that end the SpaceX CEO outlined his plan to colonise Mars on September 27, including how his Interplanetary Transport System (ITS) of rockets, spaceships, fuel pods, and other crucial components would get the job done.
Still, the full presentation at the International Astronomical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, barely scratched the surface.
Oct 25, 2016
The exciting new age of quantum computing
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: biotech/medical, computing, encryption, military, quantum physics, security, space travel
What does the future hold for computing? Experts at the Networked Quantum Information Technologies Hub (NQIT), based at Oxford University, believe our next great technological leap lies in the development of quantum computing.
Quantum computers could solve problems it takes a conventional computer longer than the lifetime of the universe to solve. This could bring new possibilities, such as advanced drug development, superior military intelligence, greater opportunities for space exploration and enhanced encryption security.
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