Lifeboat Foundation

Something different.

“The real task with dealing with extraterrestrials is to know when you’ve got one.

Continue reading “Earth Is Outside Our Delivery Zone” »

In a video uploaded to YouTube on August 3rd (below), engineers from the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, proposed an orbiter and lander mission to Ganymede. The video suggests a launch could come in the next decade. Although the commentary is in Russian, the video appears to suggest that Ganymede may be as good a candidate or better for life than Europa.

The U.S. space agency has contracted with six private companies to develope systems needed for a Mars mission.

NASA is designing a submarine that will one day be deployed to Saturn’s moon Titan, and explore it’s largest hydrocarbon ocean Kraken Mare. The project is just in the conceptional phase with the mission beginning in 2038, at the earliest.

Despite being a moon, Saturn’s natural satellite Titan is remarkably planet-like. More notably, it has striking similarities to Earth such as clouds and a dense atmosphere.

It does, however, have oceans of liquid methane instead of water, since its temperature is far too cold for liquid water to exist. This would make is most uncomfortable for much of life on Earth. Still, scientists have reasons to believe that life could emerge under these harsh circumstances, since its thick atmosphere is rich in methane and other organic compounds—signs indicative of life from an Earthling’s perspective.

Continue reading “NASA is Designing A Submarine To Explore Titan’s Largest Ocean” »

I HIGHLY recommend reading this novel, as well as it sequels! It’s a beautiful, smart, and occasionally frightening exploration of what our civilization will look like post singularity, what WE will look like as posthumans, and where we might go from there.

The Golden Age is Grand Space Opera, a large-scale SF adventure novel in the tradition of A. E. Van vogt and Roger Zelazny, with perhaps a bit of Cordwainer Smith enriching the style. It is an astounding story of super science, a thrilling wonder story that recaptures the excitements of SF’s golden age writers.

The Golden Age takes place 10,000 years in the future in our solar system, an interplanetary utopian society filled with immortal humans. Within the frame of a traditional tale-the one rebel who is unhappy in utopia-Wright spins an elaborate plot web filled with suspense and passion.

Continue reading “The Golden Age” »

Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are building a “star in a jar” — a miniature version of the how our Sun creates energy through fusion. It could provide humankind with near limitless energy, ending dependence on fossil fuels for generating electricity — without contributing greenhouse gases that warm the Earth, and with no long-term radioactive waste.

But that requires a “jar” that can contain superhot plasma — and is low-cost enough to be built around the world. A model for such a “jar,” or fusion device, already exists in experimental form: the tokamak, or fusion reactor. Invented in the 1950s by Soviet physicists, it’s a device that uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma (superhot charged gas) in the shape of a torus.

Continue reading “‘Star in a jar’ could lead to limitless fusion energy” »

Singularity University Grand Challenge in space end goal is Safe and Equitable use and stweardship of space resources and technologies for the benefit of humanity and our future as a multi-planetary species

Made in Space has won the Singularity University Grand Challenge in space.

Continue reading “Made in Space wins the Singularity University Grand Challenge in space #gsummit” »

There could be a giant planet lurking in the frozen depths of the outer solar system, and more evidence suggests it’s out there.

These people just finished a year-long experiment emulating Martian living conditions.