Lifeboat Foundation

In this episode of the 5th Industrial Revolution VODcast we sit down with Dr. Jordan Okie of Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration to discuss a key relevancy to the next industrial revolution, sustainability, through the lens of Dr. Okie’s area of expertise: Ecology and Biology. Our key takeaways: We are in a race against time and extinction. We will need to find a way to evolve through technology to survive, be it here on Earth or in our exploration of Space.

For the last seven decades, astrophysicists have theorized the existence of “kugelblitze,” black holes caused by extremely high concentrations of light.

These special black holes, they speculated, might be linked to astronomical phenomena such as dark matter, and have even been suggested as the power source of hypothetical spaceship engines in the far future.

However, new theoretical physics research by a team of researchers at the University of Waterloo and Universidad Complutense de Madrid demonstrates that kugelblitze are impossible in our current universe. Their research, titled “No black holes from light,” is published on the arXiv preprint server and is forthcoming in Physical Review Letters.

The lunar material touched down in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region early Tuesday morning (June 25).

Expensive, risky and elite — that’s space travel in a nutshell ever since Yuri Gagarin became the first human to be sent to space 63 years ago. Till now, less than 700 astronauts have reached space altitude and a majority among them have been from just three countries. Even commercial space flights remain exclusive to the few who can afford them.

But not anymore. Giving regular folks from around the world a chance to become astronauts and participate in space science, US-based Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA) has partnered with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to develop what they call “a human spaceflight programme for citizens of all nations”. The cost will be borne by SERA, and co-founders Sam Hutchison and Joshua Skurla say they might even be tapping talent from India for their programme.

In line with this mission to make space accessible, SERA has just signed an agreement to send the first Nigerian to space. In June 2022, Victor Hespanha, a 28-year-old civil engineer from Brazil, was selected to travel to space onboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard Rocket (NS-22). He was only the second Brazilian astronaut, and soon became a national hero.

Public voting will decide who gets to fly to space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital vehicle.

SpaceX’s Starship is a revolutionary rocket that aims to achieve full reusability and enable multi-planetary life, with the potential to launch a new ship every couple of hours, dramatically revolutionizing space travel Questions to inspire discussion What is SpaceX’s Starship? —SpaceX’s Starship is a revolutionary roc.

Will future humans use warp drives to explore the cosmos? We’re in no position to eliminate the possibility. But if our distant descendants ever do, it won’t involve dilithium crystals, and Scottish accents will have evaporated into history by then.

“The Cosmosphere is grateful to receive a flown Merlin engine from SpaceX,” said Jim Remar, Cosmosphere president and CEO. “The inclusion of the engine in our museum reaffirms the fact that the Cosmosphere houses one of the greatest collections of space exploration hardware.”

The Cosmosphere has been undergoing renovations since January. The Merlin engine will go on display in the new rocket gallery, which is expected to open in late 2024.

For more about the renovations underway at the Cosmosphere or to see upcoming events and programs, click here.

As part of the SERA-Blue Origin collaboration, Brazilian civil engineer Victor Hespanha flew on a New Shepard, in June 2022.