“This platform can be for manufacturing, human habitation, military applications, and whatnot.”
In-space manufacturing will form a massive part of the future of space exploration as it massively reduces the cost of launching otherwise fully-built structures to orbit and beyond.
Not only that, one of its co-founders says it could be compatible with SpaceX’s in-development fully reusable Starship rocket, which could eventually take humans to Mars.
ThinkOrbital.
ThinkOrbital is developing an orbital platform that could eventually be used to manufacture products in space and also tackle the growing space debris problem, as per a report from SpaceNews.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect a schedule change for the launch.
A rocket scheduled to lift off in Virginia — that could be visible above at least a portion of New Jersey — has been rescheduled.
Rocket Lab USA’s first Electron rocket’s launch has now been moved, and will not happen earlier than Sunday, Dec. 18, officials announced Thursday night. A specific date and time was not announced.
An alloy made of almost equal amounts of chromium, cobalt and nickel resists fracturing even at incredibly cold temperatures, which could make it useful for building spacecraft.
The Orion spacecraft will host a trio of astronaut-like payloads that will help NASA learn how best to protect real astronauts during future crewed Artemis missions to the Moon.
A gel made of a protein found in human cells can capture particles travelling at supersonic speeds without destroying them on impact, suggesting the material could be used in body armour or for collecting space debris.
The mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) is the peaceful exploration and use of space for the benefit of everyone. We watch over Earth, develop and launch inspiring and unique space projects, train astronauts and push the boundaries of science and technology, seeking answers to the big science questions about the Universe.
We are a community of scientists, engineers and business professionals from all over Europe working together in a diverse and multinational environment.
This page addresses some of the most frequently asked questions about becoming an ESA astronaut. If your question is not answered below, it may be answered in the Astronaut Applicant Handbook or vacancy notices.
Orbital Reef is one of NASA’s in-development successors for the ISS.
Sierra Space, the company developing a new space station called Orbital Reef alongside Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, just blew up a small prototype for an inflatable astronaut habitat, a recent press statement (Dec .13) reveals.
The company conducted what it calls the “ultimate burst pressure test” (UBP) as part of the development of Orbital Reef, which is one of several privately-developed successors to the International Space Station that have been funded by NASA.
Blue Origin.
Worry not, space habitat enthusiasts, as the explosion was intentional and it was carried out to make Orbital Reef as safe as possible.
How could we one day travel between the stars with real physics? Perhaps the greatest challenge to interstellar flight is energetics — it takes vast amounts of energy to accelerate even small ships to 20% the speed of light. But what if we could steal that energy from where? Perhaps even a black hole. Enter the “halo drive”, a video by Prof David Kipping based on his new peer-reviewed research paper on the subject.
This video is based on research conducted at the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia University, New York. You can now support our research program directly here: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support.
There’s an error in the video at around 8:30, 2 trillion joules is the cumulative energy output of a typical nuclear power station after 2000 seconds, not 20 days.
