This week:
đ A milestone for NASAâs Orion Spacecraft đ A commercial lunar payload update đ©đŸâđ« More honors for a historic icon.
These are a few of the stories to tell you about on the latest episode of This Week at NASA:
Starhopper awaits its first truly flightworthy Raptor as CEO Elon Musk says SpaceX may have solved the technical bug delaying hop tests. (NASASpaceflight â bocachicagal, SpaceX)
Last week, the LightSail 2 officially made its first contact with Earth. The solar-powered spacecraft will be sailing around Earthâs orbit for the next year, all part of a mission to prove that solar sailing is a viable mode of space exploration.
If successful, the hope is that solar sailing could be used in other spacecraft going forward, something that could allow us to explore further in space at a lower cost than is currently possible.
There are other reasons to return to the moon, however. For many space enthusiasts, its exploration and exploitation is necessary if we are to make the next giant step in space: sending people to Mars. âThat is the real goal for humanity,â says Parker. âHowever, getting humans there safely is going to be an incredibly difficult undertaking. We will have to learn first how to conquer the moon.â
As the 50th anniversary of the first Apollo landing approaches, a host of countries are undertaking lunar missions. Whatâs behind the new space race?
SpaceXâs Starship, the launch system designed to carry colonists to Mars, will likely have its maiden voyage in 2021, a company executive said.
A new golden age of space exploration is upon us, with growing numbers of countries and private enterprises eager to establish themselves in space for the sake of scientific inquiry, national prestige, adventurous tourism, billionairesâ bragging rights, mineral riches, and even as a hedge against any future calamity that might devastate our home planet.
Our motivations for exploration may vary, but the spaceward rush raises questions about how we will govern ourselves beyond the bonds of Earth. Cold War-era space treaties, vague notions of how legal frameworks on Earth might migrate to settlements in space, and cautionary tales from both history and science fiction offer some guidance, but we could benefit from a larger conversation about how we want to govern them.
You know that spherical ship from 2001: A Space Odyssey that generated its own gravity by spinning around in the cosmic void? Weâre not there yet, but weâre getting closer.
Microgravity can be detrimental for the human body, because our species just wasnât made to survive in space without high-tech help. Now aerospace engineer Torin Clark and his team from CU Boulder are turning the artificial gravity tech from movies like 2001 and The Martian into a reality. While an entire ship that makes its own gravity is still light-years away, the team has managed to design a revolving contraption that could save astronauts from too much zero-G exposure.
Continue reading “This artificial gravity machine is right out of 2001: A Space Odyssey” »
When they arenât investing in space shuttles and sprawling tech campuses, the super-rich are looking at mind-blowing methods to increase their lifespan.
Analysis by commercial finance experts ABC Finance has revealed some of the strangest and most extravagant approaches billionaires have turned to in their quest for immortality.
Credit where credit is due: Evolution has invented a galaxy of clever adaptations, from fish that swim up sea cucumber butts and eat their gonads, to parasites that mind-control their hosts in wildly complex ways. But itâs never dreamed up ion propulsion, a fantastical new way to power robots by accelerating ions instead of burning fuel or spinning rotors. The technology is in very early development, but it could lead to machines that fly like nothing thatâs come before them.
You may have heard of ion propulsion in the context of spacecraft, but this application is a bit different. Most solar-powered ion spacecraft bombard xenon atoms with electrons, producing positively charged xenon ions that then rush toward a negatively charged grid, which accelerates the ions into space. The resulting thrust is piddling compared to traditional engines, and thatâs OKâthe spacecraft is floating through the vacuum of space, so the shower of ions accelerate the aircraft bit by bit.
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When they arenât investing in space shuttles and sprawling tech campuses, the super-rich are looking at mind-blowing methods to increase their lifespan.
