Lifeboat Foundation

Year 2020 face_with_colon_three Propellant free thruster.

I usually approach papers on the subject of alternative thrusters with a certain degree of cynicism. But we’ve finally been given a study on microwave thrusters that doesn’t rely on impossible physics. Instead, it used a plain old plasma thruster.

Plasma thrusters have generally been thought of as a means of propulsion in space, but now one has been designed to operate under atmospheric conditions. According to the researchers involved, it’s an air plasma thruster that has the potential to produce the same thrust as a commercial jet engine.

Continue reading “Microwave thruster makes for clean-burning jet” »

Dongfeng Landing Site, Inner Mongolia, north China — Recent (CCTV — No access Chinese mainland) 10. Various of workers in preparation for Shenzhou-14 crew’s return 11. Fast motion of ground radar equipment; vehicles.

In Space — Recent (China Manned Space Agency — No access Chinese mainland) 12. Space station view taken by Tianhe panoramic camera c 13. Fast motion of space station.

The Shenzhou-14 crew, after staying at China’s space station for half a year and performing rotation with their Shenzhou-15 colleagues, is scheduled to return to Earth on Sunday.

That meteor, now known as 2022 WJ1, was first noticed by the Catalina Sky Survey at around midnight Eastern on that date (the time zone in which it ended up landing). Catalina is one of the most prolific discoverers of asteroids and is a crucial link in the planetary defense chain. A NASA press release details the steps that come afterward that result in a successful landing prediction.

The 2022 WJ1 was pretty small, only about one meter wide, and posed no actual threat to anyone or anything on the ground. But the planetary defense network is designed to catch much bigger potential threats. The fact that it reacted with such speed shows that it is becoming more and more capable and will be much more likely to find any potentially devastating events, such as the Chelyabinsk meteor in 2013, which caused 1,400 injuries and around $33 million in property damage.

It leads to improved muscular endurance for the muscles of the lower legs while reducing the burden on our joints.

Walking doesn’t require any special equipment or gym memberships, and best of all, it’s completely free. For most of us, walking is something we do automatically. It doesn’t require conscious effort, so many of us fail to remember the benefits of walking for health. But what happens if we stop walking on auto-pilot and start challenging our brains and bodies by walking backwards? Not only does this change of direction demand more of our attention, but it may also bring additional health benefits.

Physical activity doesn’t need to be complicated.

Continue reading “Human reverse gear? Here are the hidden health benefits of walking backwards” »

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii have taken images revealing clouds floating across the skies of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. These images will help researchers understand weather patterns on Titan, the only world other than Earth known to have liquid oceans on its surface.

The left image was taken by JWST on 4 November. Near the top of the image is Kraken Mare, Titan’s largest known sea, flanked by two fluffy white clouds. It is currently summertime in Titan’s northern hemisphere, the time when clouds were expected to form most easily because of the increased sunshine on the surface. These observations confirm the presence of those seasonal clouds.

In an effort to find out whether the clouds were moving or changing shape, the JWST team reached out to researchers at the Keck Observatory and asked them to take follow-up observations. The image from Keck, taken on 6 November, is on the right.

After the successful completion of India’s first space mission, homegrown firms are now looking to set up manufacturing facilities for satellites etc. Homegrown space startups, Pixxel and Dhruva Space, are eyeing new assembly facilities for satellite manufacturing in the country, following successful satellite launch missions on November 26.

Satellite manufacturing is an integral part of India’s plans for the space sector. The government’s liberalized space policy, which is said to be in the final stages of completion, is expected to allow the country’s firms to take a larger share of the global space market. At present, India accounts for only 2% of the global space economy, according to data shared by Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (MoS) for science, technology and earth sciences, in the Lok Sabha in August.

The two companies are also part of a growing crop of homegrown private space startups that are launching the final trial phase of their products and services. On November 18, Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace became India’s first private firm to launch its own rocket. Pixxel and Dhruva’s satellites were successfully deployed in their intended low-earth orbits (LEOs) on November 26. India’s upcoming space policy is expected to invite more participation from such startups, taking some of the load off ISRO and its coffers.

Earlier this year, astronomers found an absolute monster of a galaxy.

Lurking some 3 billion light-years away, Alcyoneus is a giant radio galaxy reaching 5 megaparsecs into space. That’s 16.3 million light-years long, and it constitutes the largest known structure of galactic origin.

The discovery highlights our poor understanding of these colossi, and what drives their incredible growth.

Saturn’s moon Titan is one of the weirdest and most intriguing worlds in our solar system. It is the only place we know of in the universe for sure beyond Earth that has rivers, lakes and larger bodies of liquid, but on Titan these features are filled with flammable hydrocarbons like methane and ethane.

Studying Titan in depth has been difficult due to a thick atmosphere of clouds and haze, but NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is giving scientists their first detailed glimpse of those clouds, and by extension, the weather patterns at work on this unique world.

“We had waited for years to use Webb’s infrared vision to study Titan’s atmosphere,” said JWST Principal Investigator Conor Nixon. “Detecting clouds is exciting because it validates long-held predictions from computer models about Titan’s climate, that clouds would form readily in the mid-northern hemisphere during its late summertime when the surface is warmed by the Sun.”

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii have together captured Saturn’s largest moon Titan in near-infrared.

The new images reveal clouds in the northern hemisphere near Kraken Mare, the largest known methane sea on the giant moon’s surface. Titan is the only other body in the solar system that has rivers, lakes and seas, though instead of water they flow with liquid methane and ethane. These hydrocarbons—as well as water and ammonia—also produce clouds and rain on the giant moon.

Continue reading “In Photos: Webb Telescope’s First Look At Titan, Saturn’s Giant Moon That May Once Have Have Hosted Life” »