Lifeboat Foundation

The Block 5 is the only Falcon 9 the company will fly from now on.

Early Sunday morning, SpaceX is slated to launch its second Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket — the final and most powerful version of the vehicle the company plans to make. After launch, SpaceX will attempt to land the vehicle on one of its autonomous drone ships in the Atlantic. And landings should become fairly routine now, as all of SpaceX’s missions will utilize the Block 5 from now on.

Continue reading “Starting this weekend, SpaceX is about to land a whole lot more rockets” »

Up to 79 moons now.

Ten more moons have been confirmed to orbit around Jupiter, bringing the planet’s total known satellite count to 79. That’s the highest number of moons of any planet in the Solar System. And these newly discovered space rocks are giving astronomers insight as to why the Jupiter system looks like it does today.

Astronomers at Carnegie Institution for Science first found these moons in March 2017, along with two others that were already confirmed in June of last year. The team initially found all 12 moons using the Blanco 4-meter telescope in Chile, though finding these objects wasn’t their main goal. Instead, they were searching for incredibly distant small objects — or even planets — that might be lurking in our Solar System beyond Pluto. But as they searched for these fringe space rocks, they decided to take a peek at what might be lurking around Jupiter at the same time. Now, the moons they found have been observed multiple times, and their exact orbits have been submitted for approval from the International Astronomical Union, which officially recognizes celestial bodies.

Continue reading “Astronomers have found a new crop of moons around Jupiter, and one of them is a weirdo” »

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft will soon end its 11-year mission.

What do the Gallic Wars and online shopping have in common? The answer, believe it or not, is cryptography. Cryptography is the cement of the digital world, but it also has a long history that predates the digital era.

Most people do not realize that cryptography is a foundational element to our modern society. At it’s heart cryptography is about access to data, and controlling who can see and use it.

Continue reading “How cryptography enables online shopping, cloud tech, and the blockchain” »

Everything you wanted to know about black holes, supernova, and quasars but were afraid to ask.

Serious problems and issues that can be solved using AI — artificial intelligence. AI is something that can help all of us, if we use it correctly.

Starting July 22, SpaceX will have the chance to further cement itself as the best wide receiver in the aerospace game. Elon Musk’s rocket company is scheduled to make a total of five recoveries in less than two weeks, including three Falcon 9 autonomous spaceport done ships recoveries, a rocket fairing recovery, and a Dragon capsule retrieval.

This will require SpaceX’s fleet of recovery vessels to kick into overdrive. Both of its drone ships — Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean and Just Read The Instructions in the Pacific — will be serving as a landing platform for two separate Falcon 9 rockets. While two boats, including the newly upgraded Mr. Steven and NRC Quest will be tasked with bringing back a Falcon 9 fairing and the Dragon Capsule, respectively.

SpaceX prides itself on pioneering the use of reusable rocket parts and space vessels to make space travel more affordable than it has ever been. These five recoveries will put the company’s most iconic retrieval systems to the test.

Continue reading “SpaceX Is About to Tackle One of Its Biggest Recovery Challenges Yet” »

Along with Aubrey de Grey, Stephen L. Sorgner, Rob van Genderen, Paul Nemitz of the European Commission, William Echikson of Center for European Studies, Professor Emeritus Chapel Hill U. Woodrow Barfield, and Anne Zeiter of Ebay, I’ve joined the Editorial board of a new interdisciplinary technology journal called Delphi, published by Lexxion Publisher. They’re looking for papers and abstracts. Give it a read and submit if you like. Here’s the link: http://www.lexxion.de/pdf/delphi/Call_for_Papers_Delphi.pdf

Delft Hyperloop is back, and it claims it’s about to break the speed record for hyperloop. As 20 teams gather in Hawthorne, California, for SpaceX’s third pod racing competition on Sunday, the Netherlands-based group could be one of the key drivers in a transportation revolution.

“Our objective is to go faster than the current record,” Clément Hienen, the team’s design engineer, tells Inverse. “For sure, we designed to break the record.”

It’s a bold claim, especially considering the wider industry. When Elon Musk first released his white paper for a vacuum-sealed-tube-based transportation system in 2013, he claimed pods could fly through at a theoretical maximum speed of 700 mph — cutting a six-hour drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco down to just 30 minutes. Musk’s own firms set a public speed record of 220 mph in August 2017, only for Richard Branson-backed Virgin Hyperloop One to beat the record with 240 mph in December 2017. Delft plans to beat both of these.

Continue reading “How These University Students Plan to Break the Hyperloop Speed Record” »