Lifeboat Foundation

Most materials—from rubber bands to steel beams—thin out as they are stretched, but engineers can use origami’s interlocking ridges and precise folds to reverse this tendency and build devices that grow wider as they are pulled apart.

Researchers increasingly use this kind of technique, drawn from the ancient art of origami, to design spacecraft components, medical robots and antenna arrays. However, much of the work has progressed via instinct and trial and error. Now, researchers from Princeton Engineering and Georgia Tech have developed a general formula that analyzes how structures can be configured to thin, remain unaffected, or thicken as they are stretched, pushed or bent.

Continue reading “Researchers unfold elegant equations to explain the enigma of expanding origami” »

The Artemis 1 mission will use a Space Launch System megarocket to launch an Orion spacecraft to the moon.

From health concerns to funding, there’s no shortage of obstacles preventing humans from traveling beyond our solar system. But the main obstacle is propulsion: Our spacecraft…

NASA will take Amazon’s Alexa to the moon, along with a video-conferencing tablet, on its first Artemis mission. If the experiment is successful, astronauts could one day be talking to a spaceship computer, just like on Star Trek.

The TARDIS is the iconic time machine and spacecraft from the popular sci-fi series Doctor Who. The TARDIS functions by folding space using technology that taps into higher dimensions. But is there any scientific basis for this?

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF5F2zbc6NhJVyEiZGNyePQ/join.

Continue reading “How Does the TARDIS Work?” »

The start of the Moon base begins with the Lunar Space Station going online. This is where Elon Musk’s SpaceX Lunar Starship, the HLS (Human Landing System) docks — picking up astronauts to take to the Lunar surface.

It only takes 3 days to reach the Moon. So technological development happens rapidly. From Lunar dust shields, a crater telescope, and a Boring Company tunnel digger digging out lava tubes for Lunar habitats, to a Lunar railroad using levitating cargo robots.

Continue reading “MOON BASE — THE FIRST 10,000 DAYS (Timelapse)” »

2023 annual Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge asks university students to design a metal production pipeline on the Moon — from extracting metal from lunar minerals to creating structures and tools. The ability to extract metal and build needed infrastructure on the Moon advances the Artemis Program goal of a sustained human presence on the lunar surface.

Its strength and resistance to corrosion make metal key to building structures, pipes, cables and more, but the metal materials for infrastructure are heavy, making them very expensive to transport. Student teams participating in the BIG Idea Challenge, a university-level competition sponsored by NASA and managed by the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), will develop innovative ways to extract and convert metals from minerals found on the Moon, such as ilmenite and anorthite, to enable metal manufacturing on the Moon.

The BIG Idea Challenge, now in its eighth year, invites university students to tackle some of the most critical needs facing space exploration and help create the mission capabilities that could make new discoveries possible. The challenge provides undergraduate and graduate students working with faculty advisors the opportunity to design, develop, and demonstrate their technology in a project-based program over the course of a year and a half. This NASA-funded challenge provides development awards of up to $180,000 to up to eight selected teams to build and demonstrate their concept designs and share the results of their research and testing at the culminating forum in November 2023.

The launch of Artemis I is within touching distance.

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) is almost ready for launch. The U.S. space agency’s big new rocket reached Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at approximately 07:30 am EDT after a 10-hour journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).

NASA recently announced an August 29 launch date for its Artemis I mission, which will see SLS launch the agency’s Orion capsule on a trip to the moon and back. This came after the space agency successfully completed a much-delayed wet dress rehearsal in June, during which it filled SLS with fuel and performed a simulated countdown that stopped just short of launch.

Continue reading “Artemis I Moon Rocket Arrives at Launch Pad Ahead of Historic Mission” »

It’s happening.

Historically, Launch Complex B has been used to launch missions to the Moon, including Apollo 10, which involved an orbital flight around the Moon.

When will Artemis I launch?

Continue reading “Behold! NASA’s Artemis I is on the launch pad, ready for the Moon” »