Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 491
Sep 11, 2015
5 Reasons Why The International Space Station (ISS) Should Really Orbit The Moon
Posted by Bruce Dorminey in categories: space, space travel
If the $100 billion International Space Station (ISS) had been constructed to orbit our Moon instead of Earth, prospects for the U.S.’ human spaceflight program would arguably be much brighter than today.
Here are a few reasons why:
An International Lunar Space Station (ILSS) would have guaranteed the U.S. maintained its Apollo-era global dominance in terms of crewed interplanetary transport.
Sep 10, 2015
Scale of the Universe revisits “Powers of Ten”
Posted by Philip Raymond in categories: astronomy, cosmology, physics, space travel
As a follow-up to Shailesh Prasad’s thought provoking video (just below this article), I offer two equally impressive visualizations of the scope and magnificence of our universe. These videos are the epitome of a teachable moment. And it’s fun, too!
Check out this simple, one-button interactive Scale of the Universe by Cary Huang. Simply pull a slider left or right to zoom in or out. It covers the Universe from 1027 meters down to 10-35 meters (from the entire universe to the Plank length and quantum foam).
Unlike the classic film by Charles & Ray Eames (more about that later), the zoom doesn’t really take viewers closer or further away. Rather, it compares relative size by allowing users navigate by magnitudes (a circle indicates each power-of-ten).
Continue reading “Scale of the Universe revisits ‘Powers of Ten’” »
Sep 7, 2015
After delays, SpaceX’s massive Falcon Heavy rocket set to launch in spring 2016
Posted by Matthew Holt in category: space travel
SpaceX’s super sized Falcon Heavy rocket has a new launch date: spring 2016. That’s according to remarks given by Lee Rosen, SpaceX’s vice president of mission and launch operations, at a conference in Pasadena this week. Space News reports the executive as saying, “It’s going to be a great day when we launch [the Falcon Heavy], some time in the late April – early May timeframe.”
We’ve been hearing about the Falcon Heavy for some time, but it has seen its share of delays. It will be the world’s most powerful operational rocket, capable of launching 115,000 pounds (53,000 kg) into low-Earth orbit. In history, it only comes short of the Saturn V rocket, which powered NASA’s Apollo missions to the moon. SpaceX originally promised to launch the rocket for the first time in 2013. It was then pushed back to this year, but the project was put on ice following the failure of a Falcon 9 rocket on June 28th.
Sep 2, 2015
NASA And The Politics Of Going Back To The Moon
Posted by Bruce Dorminey in category: space travel
A year ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, it’s amazing at how small a role the American space program has played during this tempestuous summer of early primary campaigning.
It’s certain that NASA will live long and prosper no matter who’s ultimately elected as our 45th president; the American space agency has done so for 50-plus years. But even in this burgeoning age of commercial space development, political catchphrases such as “Back to the Moon and on to Mars;” “Capture an asteroid and on to Mars;” or even bypass the Moon and “Go directly to Mars” somehow still ring hollow.
On the morning of the recent booster test launch of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), I watched NASA Administrator Charles Bolden enthusiastically describe the new launch system. He noted NASA’s goal of using the new system to capture a large boulder from a near Earth asteroid and bring it back to a stable lunar orbit. This planned Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) as it’s now called would happen by the middle of the next decade. Then by the 2030s, NASA would re-purpose SLS for a manned mission to Mars. But such massive undertakings still need political will and the funding that goes with it.
Aug 30, 2015
Becoming an Interstellar Species
Posted by Benjamin T. Solomon in categories: anti-gravity, defense, disruptive technology, physics, space travel
Our interstellar challenge is, how do we as a planet confined humans, become an interstellar species? This encompasses all human endeavors, and is vitally dependent upon interstellar propulsion physics to realize our coming of age as an interstellar species.
There are so many competing ideas on how to realize interstellar propulsion. These include chemical rockets, ion propulsion, nuclear engines, solar sails, atomic bomb pulse detonation, antimatter drives, small black holes, warp drives and much more.
How do we sift through all these competing ideas?
For his objectivity and courage in stating that mathematics has become so sophisticated that it can now be used to prove anything, I have named the approach to solving this interstellar challenge the Kline Directive, in honor of the late Prof. Morris Kline.
Aug 29, 2015
MAKS: Germany’s hypersonic SpaceLiner concept solidifies — 8/28/2015 — Flight Global
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: space travel
Ten years after the project was conceived, the German Aerospace Centre’s SpaceLiner could soon enter a new design phase with a “mission definition review” planned for 2016.
The idea is to produce a two-stage, reusable hypersonic space vehicle that could transport 50 passengers from Europe to Australia in 90 minutes.
Leonid Bussler of the German Aerospace Centre’s Space Launch Systems Analysis (SART) group says the project is currently in “Phase Zero,” where the range of vehicle concepts are narrowed down to a single, baseline configuration through wind tunnel testing and performance trade-offs.
Aug 28, 2015
Physics-Astronomy: NASA’s Warp-Drive Solution for Faster-Than-Light Space Travel
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: materials, space travel, time travel
Agreeing to state-of-the art theory, a warp drive might cut the travel time between stars from tens of thousands of years to only weeks or months. Harold G. White, a physicist and innovative propulsion engineer at NASA and other NASA engineers are working to regulate whether faster-than-light travel — warp drive — might soon be possible. The group is trying to some extent warp the course of a photon, altering the distance it travels in a definite area, and then detecting the change with a device called an interferometer.
In 1994, a Mexican physicist, Miguel Alcubierre, speculated that faster-than-light speeds were conceivable in a technique that did not deny Einstein by binding the growth and reduction of space itself. Under Dr. Alcubierre’s theory, a ship still couldn’t surpass light speed in a native region of space. But a theoretical thrust system he sketched out operated space-time by producing a so-called “warp bubble” that would inflate space on one side of a spacecraft and contract it on another.
Image source: With thanks to Shutterstock.com.
Aug 25, 2015
Dune, 50 years on: how a science fiction novel changed the world — By Hari Kunzru | The Guardian
Posted by Odette Bohr Dienel in categories: astronomy, media & arts, philosophy, science, space travel, sustainability, water
“It has sold millions of copies, is perhaps the greatest novel in the science-fiction canon and Star Wars wouldn’t have existed without it. Frank Herbert’s Dune should endure as a politically relevant fantasy from the Age of Aquarius.”
Tags: Science Fiction, Star Wars