Lifeboat Foundation

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) and Boeing have entered into a partnership to develop a scalable 100 kW to 250 kW-class High Energy Laser (HEL) weapon system for air and missile defenses.

Laser weapons have been high on the wish lists of major military powers ever since the first laser was invented by Theodore Maiman at the Hughes Research Lab, Malibu, California in 1960. With enough concentrated power to burn through steel, enough range to cover literally astronomical distances, an operating cost of a dollar a shot, and an unlimited number of shots so long as there’s power available, the laser looked like the so-called ultimate weapon – if it could be made practical.

Of the problems that have hampered laser weapon development over the past six decades, one of the biggest is how to properly cool a laser generator. This is important because weapon-grade lasers have an efficiency between 50 and 70 percent, with the leftover percentages being lost as heat that could shut down or damage the device.

NASA reports that it’s got a robust sample from the surface of the asteroid Bennu. There is one snafu; gaps in the collecting lid is causing some loss of the pristine material.

“We’re not moving heat from the surface to the atmosphere. We’re just dumping it all out into the universe, which is an infinite heat sink,” said Xiangyu Li, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who worked on this project as a Ph.D. student in Ruan’s lab.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — What if paint could cool off a building enough to not need air conditioning?

Continue reading “This white paint could reduce the need for air conditioning” »

This could be a problem if you want to live in a space station. 😃

Space is not the place to put waste, as it turns pretty much anything into a high-velocity projectile capable of causing incredible damage.

Astronomers observing Earth’s sun caught the moon photobombing their footage. The moon passed between NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and the giant ball of gas during its lunar transit.

On Wednesday NASA released incredible video and images showing the moment OSIRIS-REx touched down on the asteroid Bennu, more than 200 million miles away from Earth, Tuesday night.

Nasa has provoked excitement across the world with the promise that it will reveal a “new discovery about the Moon” in a major announcement.

The space agency gave no details on what the announcement might be, apart from indicating that it “contributes to NASA’s efforts to learn about the Moon in support of deep space exploration” and had been made with Sofia, a converted Boeing 747 that works as a flying observatory.

Continue reading “Clues emerge about NASA’s ‘exciting’ Moon announcement” »

Photos of touching down on an asteroid.

On Tuesday, October 20th, NASA made history when the OSIRIS-REx mission successfully completed a “touch-and-go” sample collection maneuver with asteroid 101955 Bennu over 200 million miles away from Earth. And now, we have the timelapse to prove it.

Continue reading “NASA Shares Photos from ‘Touch-and-Go’ with Asteroid Bennu 200 Million Miles Away” »

Thanks to the tea bag! 😃

Also: Starlinks soar but GPS stays grounded, NASA names first Virgin Galactic flier.