The end of the space shuttle program concluded an era that began almost a half century earlier with the first free flight of a wingless lifting body.
Category: space travel – Page 286
Are We Going to Colonize the Moon?
In the coming years, NASA’s Project Artemis will send astronauts to the Moon for the first time in fifty years. In the years that follow, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) also hope to build a spiritual successor to the ISS – the international lunar village around the Moon’s southern pole.
With multiple space agencies looking to build bases and private aerospace companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin hoping to make lunar tourism a reality, the message is clear: We’re going back to the Moon. And this time, we plan on staying!
But what about the long-term? What about a lunar colony where us regular folk can live, work, and become the first “Selenians” (or “Lunites”, “Lunarians”, “Loonies”, etc.). It’s been explored extensively in science fiction, but how about for real? Could it be done?
Starship SN9 speeds toward Static Fire and test flight
With Starship SN8’s test flight still fresh in the memory, SN9 is set to complete an accelerated pad flow with a Static Fire test and launch this coming week. A triple Raptor Static Fire test is tracking early this week. Pending acceptable test results, the launch of SN9 could take place just a few days later.
Meanwhile, Starship SN10 is now an integrated stack inside the High Bay, ready to roll to the launch site as soon as SN9 departs. SN11 and SN12 are undergoing their own buildup operations inside the Mid Bay, with the former only lacking a nosecone.
This Japanese Spaceport Concept Brings Space Travel to the City
Space travel will be here soon, and when we’ll need transportation hubs, and Noiz has envisioned a Spaceport City that will serve multiple functions.
Space travel is just around the corner with private sector companies vying for the right to be the first to offer interstellar trips to the masses. When space travel does become a reality, we’ll need a transportation hub that meets the needs, much like an airport is the centre of air travel. Noiz has designed the Spaceport City to act as the centre of space travel. The project was initiated and released by Space Port Japan Association, Dentsu, and Canaria.
Episode 31 — Interstellar Propulsion — What We Need to Make Star Trek Real
Will humanity ever travel to the stars? This is a question for the ages and it remains as open as a deserted stretch of interstate highway. To answer this question, we need an international scientifically-based effort that can chip away at the physics needed to make Star Trek real. Please have a listen to this episode with Guest Marc Millis. Well worth your time.
Propulsion physicist Marc Millis talks about the prospects for fast, efficient interstellar travel. Millis was head of NASA’s Breakthrough Propulsion Program at Glenn Research Center outside Cleveland for years beginning in the mid-1990s. We discuss why the problem of traveling to the stars is so difficult and what would need to happen to help such dreams become a reality. It’s a lively and irreverent discussion!
Why the Future Will Be Weird with Isaac Arthur
Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur is a YouTube channel which focuses on exploring the depths of concepts in science and futurism. Since its first episode in 2014, SFIA has considered topics ranging from the seemingly mundane, to the extremely exotic, featuring episodes on megastructure engineering, interstellar travel, the future of earth, and the Fermi paradox, among others. Yet regardless of how strange a subject may seem, Isaac always tries to ensure that the discussion is grounded in the known science of today.
Isaac Arthur joins John Michael Godlier on today’s Event Horizon to discuss these subjects, the future past 2020. Thoughts on life extension. Nanotechnology. Artificial intelligence. The Fermi paradox.
What is the most obvious answer to the Fermi paradox?
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Astronaut Anne McClain on designing and piloting the next generation of spacecraft
NASA recently announced the astronauts who will be taking part in the Artemis missions, and among them is Anne McClain, who has spent 203 days in orbit and conducted two spacewalks on the ISS. With the space industry looking nothing like it did 10 years ago and new spacecraft and technologies on the rise, McClain share her thoughts about how she and other astronauts would be embracing the future.
Lt. Col. McClain’s time aboard the ISS spanned from December 2018 to June of 2019, meaning her ascent and descent were both aboard Russia’s Soyuz capsules, as astronauts have gotten to and from space since the Shuttle days. The Artemis missions, however, will use a variety of new launch vehicles and spacecraft. And while she didn’t get to fly a Dragon capsule, she did get to check one out while it was docked at the station.
“I was so happy to have flown the Soyuz, because it is such a reliable, basic spacecraft — it’s almost like flying a piece of history — knowing I was going to be able to compare that to other vehicles to in the future,” she said. “I had the opportunity when I was on Space Station when DM-1 flew. And so, being able to float into that and look at their screens, their monitors, you notice right away that the technology has advanced to where it looks like the inside of a commercial airliner.”