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Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 406

May 3, 2018

NASA successfully tested KRUSTY, a nuclear reactor that works in space and could power missions to the Moon or Mars

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

If space is an ocean, the International Space Station is a raft tethered to the shore. The moon is a nearby island that we’ve visited briefly. To go any further or stay any longer, humanity needs more power.

Now, NASA may have the source: A tiny nuclear reactor called KRUSTY, for Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology. (If you’re wondering if this is may be a reference to a popular animated series, its predecessor was known as DUFF).

The reactor uses nuclear fission—the energy released by splitting uranium-235 in a reactor core about the size of a paper towel— to produce 10 kilowatts of power for about ten years, which NASA says is enough energy to power several houses. Four of the reactors could power an outpost on the lunar surface.

Continue reading “NASA successfully tested KRUSTY, a nuclear reactor that works in space and could power missions to the Moon or Mars” »

May 3, 2018

Launch: Did you know?

Posted by in category: space travel

I’ll be the 1st spacecraft to travel from the West Coast of the U.S. to another planet. My rocket can do that—we’ve got the power. 🚀 More on launch:

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May 1, 2018

8 men and women once sealed themselves inside this enormous fake Mars colony for 2 years — here’s what it’s like today

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, habitats, space travel

A decade before Elon Musk founded his fast-rising rocket company, SpaceX, or spoke publicly about colonizing Mars, a different billionaire captivated the world with Biosphere 2.

Ed Bass, an oil tycoon, spent about $250 million to build and operate that facility as a proof-of-concept for a permanent, self-sustaining habitat on Mars. Four men and four women sealed themselves inside the airtight space in September 1991 and emerged two years later.

The experimental space-age facility served as the stage for a spectacular and controversial story of human endurance.

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Apr 30, 2018

Blue Origin Is Testing Reusable Rockets. Here’s Why You Rarely See Them

Posted by in categories: innovation, space travel

Rough translation: Blue Origin doesn’t give a damn about SpaceX’s media circus. It’s not trying to outdo competitors with each subsequent project — the company is working on just two rockets (New Shepard and New Glenn) with hopes to launch a manned flight before the end of 2018. Blue Origin is worrying about Blue Origin. That’s it.

It’s a bit too early to tell whether Blue Origin’s strategy is any better than SpaceX’s, or vice versa. Competition is a powerful force for innovation. But with the commercial space industry quickly growing (and SpaceX threatening to monopolize it), it’s easy enough to keep innovating in an effort to one-up the competition, losing sight of the main goal in the process.

One way to judge who wins? Whoever sends humans farther than they’ve ever gone. In that sense, the companies are striving for the same goal in the long term, and those that keep their eyes on the prize might fare best. In her interview with Engadget, Blue Origin’s Dietrich said that the company’s vision of millions of people living and working in space meant that they “are applauding all launch operators that are building new and more capable systems.”

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Apr 29, 2018

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin starts its year off right with beautiful rocket launch

Posted by in category: space travel

Blue Origin just launched its first rocket of 2018. The New Shepard system soared into the sky on Sunday.

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Apr 29, 2018

Jeff Bezos reveals what it’s like to build an empire and become the richest man in the world — and why he’s willing to spend $1 billion a year to fund the most important mission of his life

Posted by in category: space travel

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos interviewed by Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner about Amazon, Trump, Blue Origin, his family, and the advice he’d give entrepreneurs.

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Apr 28, 2018

Dream About the Future of Big Telescopes; Monster Space Telescopes That Could Fly by the 2030s

Posted by in categories: cosmology, space travel

With the recent launch of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) – which took place on Wednesday, April 18th, 2018 – a lot of attention has been focused on the next-generation space telescopes that will be taking to space in the coming years. These include not only the James Webb Space Telescope, which is currently scheduled for launch in 2020, but some other advanced spacecraft that will be deployed by the 2030s.

Such was the subject of the recent 2020 Decadal Survey for Astrophysics, which included four flagship mission concepts that are currently being studied. When these missions take to space, they will pick up where missions like Hubble, Kepler, Spitzer and Chandra left off, but will have greater sensitivity and capability. As such, they are expected to reveal a great deal more about our Universe and the secrets it holds.

As expected, the mission concepts submitted to the 2020 Decadal Survey cover a wide range of scientific goals – from observing distant black holes and the early Universe to investigating exoplanets around nearby stars and studying the bodies of the Solar System. These ideas were thoroughly vetted by the scientific community, and four have been selected as being worthy of pursuit.

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Apr 27, 2018

Entrepreneur seeks to boldly go where no one has gone before: 3D printing nearly an entire rocket

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, robotics/AI, space travel

The CEO of Inglewood space start-up Relativity is trying to automate aerospace production by using robotics and 3D printing to make satellite-launching rockets. The company plans its first test flight in 2020.

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Apr 26, 2018

Gaia maps the Milky Way to the tune of 1.7 billion stars

Posted by in category: space travel

The European Space Agency (ESA) has taken a “galactic census” of the Milky Way, unveiling the second major data release from the Gaia mission. Along with some stars further afield, the data release provides the most detailed map of our home galaxy, which includes position, distance and motion data of nearly 1.7 billion stars, as well as the orbits and positions of thousands of asteroids.

The Gaia spacecraft began scanning the sky in 2014, and in September 2016 the first data release was published based on 14 months of observations. It contained position and brightness data of 1.1 billion stars, as well as the distance and motion data of two million of those stars.

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Apr 23, 2018

China plans hypersonic engine factoryChina’s hypersonic engine means new frontiers for travel, space exploration

Posted by in categories: business, space travel

China is drawing up plans for an aerospace engine plant that would pave the way for the mass production of “hypersonic” planes or spacecraft capable of travelling at more than five times the speed of sound, boosting the country’s competitiveness in defence, space, business and other sectors, according to scientists familiar with the project.

The plant that would be built in Hefei, in China’s eastern Anhui province, could give the country an edge over the United States and Russia in the race to achieve large-scale applications of hypersonic technology, the scientists said.

Hefei deputy mayor Wang Wensong led a delegation to the Institute of Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing last month to discuss the project’s roll-out, according to a statement on the institute’s website.

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