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Category: space travel – Page 177

SpaceX has won a potential five-year, $102 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to demonstrate technologies under a program that seeks to determine the viability of using large rockets to support the Department of Defense’s global logistics missions, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.

Under the Rocket Cargo program, the Air Force Research Laboratory will gather data on performance and environments signatures by having access to SpaceX’s orbital launches and booster landings.

The company will present cargo bay designs that are compatible with intermodal containers of U.S. Transportation Command under the contract, which includes an option for SpaceX to conduct a full-up demonstration of capabilities for heavy cargo transport and landing operations.

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One critical difference? Unlike a Mars mission’s “seven minutes of terror,” during which the entry, descent, and landing occur too fast for human operators to interfere, gene therapy delivery is completely blind. Once inside the body, the entire flight sequence rests solely on the design of the carrier “spaceship.”

In other words, for gene therapy to work efficiently, smarter carriers are imperative.

This month, a team at Harvard led by Dr. David Liu launched a new generation of molecular carriers inspired by viruses. Dubbed engineered virus-like particles (eVLPs), these bubble-like carriers can deliver CRISPR and base editing components to a myriad of organs with minimal side effects.

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Excellent news.

More than five years after its founding, Renton, Wash.-based Radian Aerospace is emerging from stealth mode and reporting a $27.5 million seed funding round to support its plans to build an orbital space plane.

The round was led by Boston-based Fine Structure Ventures, with additional funding from EXOR, The Venture Collective, Helios Capital, SpaceFund, Gaingels, The Private Shares Fund, Explorer 1 Fund, Type One Ventures and other investors.

Radian has previously brought in pre-seed investments, but the newly announced funding should accelerate its progress.

Continue reading “Radian Aerospace comes out of stealth and raises .5M for orbital space plane development” | >

Parallel Systems bursts out of stealth mode with a SpaceX pedigree and a plan for launching the nation’s railways into the space age with autonomous electric railcars.

Electric trains have been much in the news lately. Adding to all the hoopla today is the US startup Parallel Systems, which has just busted out of stealth mode with a recipe for replacing thousands of trucks on the highways with zero emission short-haul autonomous electric railcars. The company sports a leading lineup of three former SpaceX electronics and battery experts, so let’s see what all the fuss is about.

Autonomous Electric Railcars

The idea of electric locomotives is beginning to catch on, but Parallel Systems is calling its version a “rail vehicle” because it has no resemblance to a locomotive. Think of it as a train without locomotives, and the picture comes into sharper focus.

Continue reading “Do Electric Trains Dream Of Autonomous Mobility? Yes, They Do” | >

About the Bioprint FirstAid Handheld Bioprinter capabilities.

Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are testing 3D bioprinted bandages made of their own cells that could be used to better heal flesh wounds in space.

The German Space Agency (DLR) is leading the experiment which was launched to the ISS at the end of December 2021 on SpaceX’s 24th commercial resupply mission. The payload contained the BioPrint FirstAid Handheld Bioprinter, which is designed to hold cells from astronauts within a bioink that can be used to apply bandages to wounds when needed.

While the experiment offers a promising tool for wound healing in space environments, it could also provide significant benefits back on earth, too.

Continue reading “Astronauts test 3D bioprinted skin bandages in space” | >