Space – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Inside Swamp Works, the NASA Lab Learning to Mine the Moon

May 20
2019

NASA’s Swamp Works may be humans’ best hope for figuring out how to live and work on other planets.

Billion-Dollar Gamble: How A ‘Singular Hero’ Helped Start A New Field In Physics

Posted by Genevieve Klien in physics, space

May 19
2019

This unlikely story begins back in the 1960s, when Isaacson was a doctoral student and got interested in one of Albert Einstein’s predictions.

In 1916, Einstein theorized that any time two massive objects crash together, shock waves should move through the very fabric of the universe. These gravitational waves through space and time are like the ripples you see in water when you toss in a pebble.

“For my thesis, I showed how gravitational waves behave like other kinds of waves, like light and radar, X-rays,” Isaacson says.

Initial results from the New Horizons exploration of 2014 MU69, a small Kuiper Belt object

Posted by Michael Lance in space

May 19
2019

After flying past Pluto in 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft shifted course to encounter (486958) 2014 MU₆₉, a much smaller body about 30 kilometers in diameter. MU₆₉ is part of the Kuiper Belt, a collection of small icy bodies orbiting in the outer Solar System. Stern et al. present the initial results from the New Horizons flyby of MU₆₉ on 1 January 2019. MU₆₉ consists of two lobes that appear to have merged at low speed, producing a contact binary. This type of Kuiper Belt object is mostly undisturbed since the formation of the Solar System and so will preserve clues about that process.

Science, this issue p. eaaw9771.

Apollo 10 Gave NASA The Chutzpah To Meet JFK’s Lunar Challenge

Posted by Bruce Dorminey in space

May 19
2019

Despite nearly crashing its lander into the lunar surface, NASA’s Apollo 10 mission paved the way for Apollo 11’s historic landing.

O’Neill colonies: A decades-long dream for settling space

Posted by Genevieve Klien in futurism, space

May 18
2019

To that end, Bezos instead suggested people consider taking up residence in O’Neill colonies, a futuristic concept for space settlements first dreamed up decades ago. “These are very large structures, miles on end, and they hold a million people or more each.”

How a year in space affected Scott Kelly’s health

Posted by Genevieve Klien in health, neuroscience, space

May 18
2019

Nearly a year in space changed Scott Kelly’s genes, brain function and more, NASA’s Twin Study shows.

Teen astronomer finds a planet with two suns

Posted by Genevieve Klien in space

May 18
2019

Brian Wu, a teen researcher from New York City, has discovered a handful of distant planets, including a massive world that orbits two suns.

NASA photographed the crash site of Israel’s failed moon lander, and it’s not pretty

Posted by Alberto Lao in space

May 17
2019

NASA found the Beresheet moon lander’s crash site via its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The agency posted images of the area on Wednesday.

NASA designed space fabric to make space suits more flexible

Posted by Quinn Sena in 3D printing, space

May 17
2019

Raul Polit Casillas at NASA’s JPL created a 3D-printed “space fabric” that’s flexible, easy to create, and a thermal regulator.

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Robert Zubrin Makes a Strong Case for Space Development

Posted by Klaus Baldauf in biotech/medical, economics, engineering, space

May 17
2019

Greg Autry reviews Robert Zubrin’s new book, The Case for Space. The good doctor knows a lot more than just Mars. The book envisions a bright future for humanity in the solar system and beyond, backed by scientific, engineering and economic analysis from the expert who brought us the Case for Mars.