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Category: space travel – Page 408

Why it is dangerous to build ever larger big bang machines

CERN has revealed plans for a gigantic successor of the giant atom smasher LHC, the biggest machine ever built. Particle physicists will never stop to ask for ever larger big bang machines. But where are the limits for the ordinary society concerning costs and existential risks?

CERN boffins are already conducting a mega experiment at the LHC, a 27km circular particle collider, at the cost of several billion Euros to study conditions of matter as it existed fractions of a second after the big bang and to find the smallest particle possible – but the question is how could they ever know? Now, they pretend to be a little bit upset because they could not find any particles beyond the standard model, which means something they would not expect. To achieve that, particle physicists would like to build an even larger “Future Circular Collider” (FCC) near Geneva, where CERN enjoys extraterritorial status, with a ring of 100km – for about 24 billion Euros.

Experts point out that this research could be as limitless as the universe itself. The UK’s former Chief Scientific Advisor, Prof Sir David King told BBC: “We have to draw a line somewhere otherwise we end up with a collider that is so large that it goes around the equator. And if it doesn’t end there perhaps there will be a request for one that goes to the Moon and back.”

“There

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This Photo of Earth and the Moon Was Shot from 71 Million Miles Away

Here’s a new photo that shows Earth and the Moon from a whopping 71 million miles away. It was captured by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, which is currently on a mission to obtain a sample from a near-Earth asteroid and return it to Earth.

The photo was captured on December 19th, 2018, using the spacecraft’s NavCam 1 camera. Earth and the moon can be seen on the bottom-left side of the photo. The much larger white object in the upper-right side is asteroid Bennu.

Earth is 71 million miles (114M km) away in the photo, while Bennu is just 27 miles (43 km).

A Bengaluru startup’s small step to Mars could be a big leap for nanomaterials

Ever since he was a young boy growing up in Bengaluru, the city home to India’s space research organisation, he dreamt of going to space one day. Now he wants to be the first human on Mars.

One would expect him to train to be an astronaut or dismiss the idea altogether. But that’s not how he plans to get to the red planet.

Meet Gadhadar Reddy, a nano-technologist from Bengaluru, who might just get to live his dream someday in the near future thanks to a new material his company is manufacturing.

The International Space Station will release its SpaceX cargo ship this weekend

Both SpaceX and NASA are eager to get the Dragon cargo spacecraft back to Earth now that it has fulfilled its duties in bringing much-needed supplies to the crew aboard the International Space Station. The ship was originally expected to be released from the ISS earlier this week but plans have since changed, and NASA now expects the space station to bid farewell to the Dragon on Sunday afternoon instead.

Prior to this latest change, the most recent schedule would have seen the ISS release the Dragon on Sunday morning, but now NASA says it wants to release it later due to some weather quirks back on Earth.

Steam-Powered Asteroid Hoppers Developed through UCF Collaboration

Using steam to propel a spacecraft from asteroid to asteroid is now possible, thanks to a collaboration between a private space company and the University of Central Florida.

UCF planetary research scientist Phil Metzger worked with Honeybee Robotics of Pasadena, California, which developed the World Is Not Enough spacecraft prototype that extracts water from asteroids or other planetary bodies to generate steam and propel itself to its next mining target.

UCF provided the simulated asteroid material and Metzger did the computer modeling and simulation necessary before Honeybee created the prototype and tried out the idea in its facility Dec. 31. The team also partnered with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, to develop initial prototypes of steam-based rocket thrusters.