Lifeboat Foundation

Over the past few months, I was part of a study funded by the United Launch Alliance and supported by a large group of technologists to determine if we can mine water on the Moon and turn it into rocket fuel, and to do it economically. The final report can be downloaded here.

Why Mine Water on the Moon?

The lunar water would be launched off the Moon and delivered to a “gas station” in Earth orbit. This propellant depot will use solar energy to turn the water into rocket fuel. Then, space tugs can refill their tanks so they can repeatedly boost spacecraft from Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) (where the launch rocket throws them) into Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) where they can begin operating.

The news we had finally found ripples in space-time reverberated around the world in 2015. Now it seems they might have been an illusion.

LIGO’s detectorsEnrico Sacchetti

THERE was never much doubt that we would observe gravitational waves sooner or later. This rhythmic squeezing and stretching of space and time is a natural consequence of one of science’s most well-established theories, Einstein’s general relativity. So when we built a machine capable of observing the waves, it seemed that it would be only a matter of time before a detection.

Continue reading “Exclusive: Grave doubts over LIGO’s discovery of gravitational waves” »

Searching for newborn stars, the high-powered telescope spotted a very happy-looking galaxy.

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• Bonnie Burton

So does our Milky Way galaxy—although these bubbles might be a little bigger than what you’re used to. Two bubbles, each 25,000 light-years tall, are extending above and below the disk of the galaxy like the two halves of an hourglass. Discover possible explanations for these bubbles:

NASA discovered a planet using artificial intelligence for the first time.

Can you find the smiling face in this patch of space, captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope? The unprecedented resolution of Hubble’s camera is high enough to locate and study regions of star formation — and see galaxies in all shapes, colors and sizes. Zoom in: https://go.nasa.gov/2QgtQzp

European industry hands over a key piece of hardware for America’s next-generation astronaut capsule.

Scientists have created the coldest spot in the universe, giving them the opportunity to study the universe’s rare fifth form of matter.

The Kepler Mission introduced us to a dazzling array of solar systems.

• By Michael D. Lemonick on November 2, 2018