Lifeboat Foundation

All hopes are on Mars to be the next big adventure for mankind, with groups like NASA working hard to make a manned mission to the Red Planet a reality and companies like SpaceX betting big on Earth-to-Mars travel.

SpaceX boss Elon Musk has long promised that living on Mars will be a reality within our lifetimes, even suggesting that he himself might move there at some point in the not-too-distant future. But once all the kinks are ironed out, how much is it going to cost to leave Earth behind and become a full-fledged Martian? Musk thinks he has the answer.

“Very dependent on volume, but I’m confident moving to Mars (return ticket is free) will one day cost less than $500k & maybe even below $100k,” he wrote. “Low enough that most people in advanced economies could sell their home on Earth & move to Mars if they want.”

The extraordinary ambition of Musk’s prediction wasn’t lost on some Twitter users. “Fyre Festival Part Deux,” one replied.

Maybe that skepticism is why, in a follow –up reply, Musk seemed to hedge his bets.

Continue reading “Elon Musk: A Round-Trip Ticket to Mars Will Cost Just $100,000” »

As we look to explore our nearest celestial neighbor, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tells OZY how we’ll partner with U.S. companies to design and develop landers to send astronauts to the lunar surface. Read Bridenstine’s op-ed: https://go.nasa.gov/2SKGQS2

British billionaire plans to make a suborbital flight on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Sir Richard Branson stands beside the Virgin Galactic spacecraft at the Farnborough International Airshow on Nov. 7, 2012 in Hampshire, England. Steve Parsons / PA Images via Getty Images file.

Nuclear power has powered rockets for decades, but reaching deep space will require a big leap.

In January, the deputy head of the CNSA Wu Yanhua explained that Chang’e 5 and 6 would serve as missions to return samples from the moon while Chang’e 7 will survey the South Pole, this lunar area is of great interest for human colonies since holds water ice. Yanhua added that they hope Chang’e 8 will be able to test out some technologies and explore the moon to determine how to build a joint lunar base that multiple countries can share.

Once again, China is not the only one who wants to send humans back to the Moon. Both NASA and the ESA have plans in the works. The ESA’s new director-general, Jan Woerner introduced plans for a permanent Moon base in 2016. His ideal ‘Moon village’ would be home to a diverse set of people such as scientists and artists, as well as public and private organizations. The lunar base would serve many purposes such as astronomical research, tourism, or mining minerals.

Ariel Ekblaw, the founder of the MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative, is also looking to “democratize space.” Thus, he has formed multi-disciplinary research groups studying everything from robotics and synthetic neurobiology to architecture, art, space, and even design.

Continue reading “Living on the Moon Could Happen Sooner than We Think” »

He and Neil Armstrong were the first men to set foot on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission. Fifty years ago, Buzz planted the American Flag on the face of the moon. He has written 9 books, is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, and is a tireless advocate for space exploration and discovery.

Longevity Vision Fund has exited stealth with plans to invest $100 million in startups with aspirations to extend healthy lifespans. The fund, which is linked to the founder of XPrize, will pump the money into biotechs and other longevity startups based around the world in seed to series B rounds.

Sergey Young, the founder of Longevity Vision, unveiled the fund at an event in London this week. Young is the cofounder of Peak State Ventures and an innovation board member at XPrize Foundation, a nonprofit known for running competitions to incentivize advances in fields including suborbital space flight.

At Peak State, Young and his colleagues invest in fields well outside of longevity, including property and education. But Young has established a foothold in the longevity space, leading to him becoming development sponsor of Longevity XPrize and a longevity partner at Bold Capital Partners.

Continue reading “XPrize board member raises $100M fund to tackle aging” »

For better or worse, robots with humanoid features are often compared to humans—we want to know if they’re anywhere close to doing the same kinds of things that we do, and with a few exceptions, the answer is “probably not.” Humanoid robots are difficult to build and program, but we keep doing it because it makes some amount of sense to have robots that look and function like we do operating in the same environments that we operate in. However, one of the great things about robots is that they don’t have to be constrained by the same boring humanoid-ness that we are, and we can do all kinds of things to them to make them more capable than we’ll ever be.

Leonardo augments humanoid legs with thrusters to help it run and jump.

Continue reading “Caltech Building Agile Humanoid Robot” »