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Archive for the ‘habitats’ category: Page 103

Aug 13, 2017

NASA ‘Cribs’: Tour an Astronaut Habitat for Mock Space Missions (Video)

Posted by in categories: food, habitats, space

Ever wonder how astronauts will live on other worlds? Welcome to the Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA, a habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston built to simulate the isolation of missions to deep space. You can take a tour of the HERA habitat with NASA interns in this new video in the style of the MTV series “Cribs.”

“HERA is a unique three-story habitat designed to serve as an analog for isolation, confinement, and remote conditions in exploration scenarios,” NASA officials explained in a video description. “This video gives a tour of where crew members live, work, sleep, and eat during the analog missions.”

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Aug 9, 2017

Comparing Reactions of different Groups to Nuclear Thermal Rocket enabled space colonization

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, habitats, health, space travel

Nextbigfuture wrote about the designs for an improved nuclear thermal rocket by John Bucknell. John has worked as a senior engineer on the SpaceX Raptor rocket. John provides high quality qualified work to his rocket designs and to his proposed space habitat.

Nextbigfuture comments had some technical observations about Project Timberwind and a comment from John himself that his design improves on flaws in the last major nuclear thermal rocket experiments. There were also comments and discussion about Star Trek and communism and O’Neill space stations.

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Aug 8, 2017

Constructing full earth like conditions in Space with technology proven in the sixties

Posted by in categories: government, habitats, nuclear energy, space travel

John Bucknell presented at the Starship Congress 2017 his Nuclear Thermal Turbo Rocket and applied for a single stage to orbit mission of placing a space habitat. John Bucknell worked on the SpaceX Raptor rocket as a senior engineer so he is very qualified to understand current rocket technology and rockets in general.

Nextbigfuture has noted that NASA has funded $18.8 million on advancing nuclear thermal rocket propulsion by studying low enriched uranium for the fuel. Nuclear-powered rocket concepts are not new. The United States conducted studies and significant ground tests from 1955 to 1972 to determine the viability of such systems, but ceased testing when plans for a crewed Mars mission were deferred.

The NERVA NRX (Nuclear Rocket Experimental) program started testing in September 1964. The final engine in this series was the XE, designed with flight design hardware and fired in a downward position into a low-pressure chamber to simulate a vacuum. SNPO fired NERVA NRX/XE twenty-eight times in March 1968. The series all generated 1100 MW, and many of the tests concluded only when the test-stand ran out of hydrogen propellant. NERVA NRX/XE produced the baseline 75,000 lbf (334 kN) thrust that Marshall required in Mars mission plans.

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Jul 31, 2017

Space Exploration Masters

Posted by in categories: business, habitats, robotics/AI, space travel

Space exploration contains large potential for the creation of innovative applications, products and services, also benefitting Earth. With new topics and application areas arise countless possibilities for technology transfer and novel ideas for space-based technologies and their application in non-space industries, as well as new targets and opportunities for business.

This year AZO has launched the Space Exploration Masters on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) and in line with the goals of the ESA Space Exploration Strategy, in cooperation with strong world-class partners. The Space Exploration Masters is an international competition to identify best technology transfer business successes, as well as to empower and foster business innovation around space exploration activities in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), on Moon, Mars, or beyond – for the benefit of society and Earth.

The two different prize categories “Technology Transfer Success “ and “New Business Innovation “ look for exciting submissions in the fields of Human Space and Robotic Missions, Space Resources & Industry, Discovery & Space Observation, Spacecraft, Rockets, Propulsion, Space Tourism, Deep Space Communication & Navigation, Space Habitats, and Life Sciences – just to name a few.

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Jul 17, 2017

This solar paint will turn your house into a power station

Posted by in categories: energy, habitats

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Jul 17, 2017

This eco-friendly apartment building is designed to absorb carbon

Posted by in category: habitats

Click on photo to start video.

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Jul 16, 2017

Kalpana One: My New Vision Of Space Settlement

Posted by in categories: habitats, space

As an artist and science/tech enthusiast who has spent most of his life imagining the future of public spaces, homes, cities, and the effect of technological innovations on each, I’ve always tried to project a logical but optimistic path for human progress. Not just where we may go, but why we would go and what it would be like once we got there.

To me, space is a logical step in our collective path. Humans have always wanted to climb the next hill or sail uncharted waters to see what awaited us over the horizon. We have spread to all ‘corners’ of this earth, at times to the detriment of the life that was already there. In space, we fulfill an entirely different role. When we build a space station and bring life to it, we are actually “planting” a beautiful habitat is where once there was none. This is what inspired me to imagine these spaces.

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Jul 14, 2017

Earth is on its way to the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs, scientists warn

Posted by in categories: biological, existential risks, habitats

Three scientists who have studied extinctions of thousands of species of vertebrates believe so, though others are skeptical of the doomsday-like findings.


“This is the case of a biological annihilation occurring globally, even if the species these populations belong to are still present somewhere on Earth,” Rodolfo Dirzo, the study’s co-author and a Stanford University biology professor, said in a news release.

The researchers analyzed 27,600 species of birds, amphibians, mammals and reptiles — about half of all known vertebrate species — and found that 8,851 (about 32 percent) have seen declining populations and shrinking areas of habitat. A more detailed analysis on 177 mammal species found that more than 40 percent have experienced significant drops in population. The findings, the study says, mean that billions of animal populations that once roamed the Earth are now gone.

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Jul 10, 2017

NASA announces winners for latest round of 3D Printed Habitat challenge, over $200k prize money awarded

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, economics, habitats, space

Phase 1, which was the Design part of the competition, was completed back in 2015. Phase 2 is the Structural Member Competition, and the most recent level challenged competitors to 3D print a beam for bend testing. Scores were calculated based on the final material composition of the 3D printed beam and the maximum load that could be held before it failed.

Seoul-based Moon X Construction were not eligible for prize money, but $67,465 was awarded to Form Forge of Oregon State University for the second place entry. Foster and Partners with Branch Technology of Chattanooga, Tennessee came in third, earning $63,783, after getting $85,930 for getting first place in the first round of Phase 2. Fairbanks University of Alaska and CTL Group Mars of Illinois came in fourth and fifth respectively, with Singaporean team ROBOCON finishing in sixth place.

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Jul 10, 2017

Poland is about to launch a fake Mars colony on a hilltop

Posted by in categories: habitats, space travel

  • A group affiliated with the United Nations is launching a fake Mars and moon colony.
  • Called M.A.R.S., the faux habitat is located in the remote countryside of southern Poland.
  • Six volunteer astronauts will work and live inside M.A.R.S. for two weeks, starting on July 31.
  • Organizers hope to use the data and lessons they learn to support real missions to the moon and Mars.

Atop a forested ridge in southern Poland, a mission on the surfaces of both Mars and the moon is about to launch.

The two-week mission is just a simulation, of course, since no entity on Earth is prepared to inhabit deep space. But the experiment — called the Poland Mars Analogue Simulation 2017 — will study a group of six volunteer “analogue” astronauts as they work through a realistic schedule of space exploration, then provide those findings to anyone who’s drawing up crewed missions beyond Earth.

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