Lifeboat Foundation

SpaceX and Elon Musk are hoping to avoid another explosive testing disaster.

To go where no man has gone before (and to get back) will require quite a bit of oomph. All that energy must come from somewhere. Traditional chemical rocket fuels could work for some missions, but nuclear-based propulsion systems have several advantages.

Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) rockets use a nuclear reaction to heat liquid hydrogen. When the hydrogen is heated, it expands and is forced through a nozzle to produce thrust. This is similar to how air can stream out of the stem of a balloon and cause it to fly across the room. With rockets, this happens with much greater speed and force.

These hydrogen propelled rockets are designed for space exploration, not for use on Earth, and subsequently would not be turned on (i.e. brought critical) until after they left Earth. Although the specific type of fuel for these applications has not been formally selected, the fuel envisioned for use in an NTP environment is uranium fuel.

They’ll return to the Gateway and board Orion once again to go home to Earth. Astronaut Randy Bresnik explains: https://go.nasa.gov/2qu3Bx8

The team can now begin building the spacecraft. Lucy will be the first-ever mission to visit the swarms of Trojan asteroids — “fossils of planet formation” — that orbit in tandem with Jupiter. Details: https://go.nasa.gov/2qyeHRW

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A new space race is upon us. But unlike the cold war-driven days of the 1960’s and early 1970’s, it is now a multi-player competition to dominate and exploit the final frontier. The U.S. and Russia have been joined by the European Union, China, India and Japan, as well as numerous commercial space ventures, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Where does NASA sit in all of this, in the rapidly changing world of the second space race. In Seeking Delphi episode #35, host Mark Sackler gets an overview of where the agency is headed, from former NASA program director for launch systems, Dan Dumbacher. There’s also a very special announcement of the upcoming ASCEND** space conference, slated for Las Vegas in November of 2020.

** Accelerating Space Commerce, Exploration, and New Discovery.

WASHINGTON — Blue Origin is joining forces with three other major aerospace firms in a “national team” to develop a human lunar lander for NASA.

The company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, announced Oct. 22 his intent to work with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper on the unnamed lunar lander, the proposal for which they will submit to NASA for its Human Landing Services competition.

“I am excited to announce that we have put together a national team to go back to the moon,” he said during an onstage interview at the 70th International Astronautical Congress here, where he received an Excellence in Industry award. “We could not ask for better partners.”

Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company, Blue Origin, no longer plans to build its giant lunar lander for NASA by itself. The company announced today that it is teaming up with three other legacy space companies — Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper — to develop a lunar landing system for the space agency that is fully capable of taking humans to and from the Moon’s surface.

Most species in Star Trek utilise Warp as their faster than light travel, but not all.
Some have created impressive alternatives to warp drive, such as catapults arrays and even sail ships.
This video looks at the practicality for Starfleet to adopt any of these methods of travel, their potential pros and cons.

If you liked this, maybe:
Transwarp: https://youtu.be/5N45D5TE9Oc
Borg Transwarp: https://youtu.be/FXJPzOEnnEE
Coaxial Warp: https://youtu.be/tU9VDK6Nrqk

Continue reading “Warp Speeds with NO Warp Drives” »