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Category: space travel – Page 383

Inside the Lab That’s Turning Moon Water Into Rocket Fuel

The moon’s water could serve as a precious resource for deep space exploration, but how do we actually turn it into rocket fuel?
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To be a space miner, there are a few things you might need: the sun, some lunar soil, a pretty powerful mirror, and the perfect angle.

Mining for resources on the Moon is no longer the subject of science fiction, instead it is becoming a central focus for the space industry today. In order to explore further in space, it is pertinent we find ways to extract and utilize space resources.

In a recently revealed exploration manifest for the Artemis program, NASA laid out a prospective timeline to establish a sustainable lunar outpost by 2028. And a key technique that’ll help make this whole vision possible is ISRU, or in situ resource utilization.

ISRU means taking and using the resources or the building blocks that already exist in space instead of launching resources on a rocket from Earth.

The roadmap to a future propellant depot starts with testing out robotic sampling and drilling systems. And that’s where Honeybee Robotics, a team of space engineers, comes in.

Continue reading “Inside the Lab That’s Turning Moon Water Into Rocket Fuel” | >

How Big Would a Generation Ship Need to be to Keep a Crew of 500 Alive for the Journey to Another Star?

There’s no two-ways about it, the Universe is an extremely big place! And thanks to the limitations placed upon us by Special Relativity, traveling to even the closest star systems could take millennia. As we addressed in a previous article, the estimated travel time to the nearest star system (Alpha Centauri) could take anywhere from 19,000 to 81,000 years using conventional methods.

For this reason, many theorists have recommended that humanity should rely on generation ships to spread the seed of humanity among the stars. Naturally, such a project presents many challenges, not the least of which is how large a spacecraft would need to be to sustain a multi-generational crew. In a new study, a team of international scientists addressed this very question and determined that a lot of interior space would be needed!

‘Curious and curiouser!’ Meteorite chunk contains unexpected evidence of presolar grains

An unusual chunk in a meteorite may contain a surprising bit of space history, based on new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Presolar —tiny bits of solid interstellar material formed before the sun was born—are sometimes found in primitive meteorites. But a new analysis reveals evidence of presolar grains in part of a where they are not expected to be found.

“What is surprising is the fact that presolar grains are present,” said Olga Pravdivtseva, research associate professor of physics in Arts & Sciences and lead author of a new paper in Nature Astronomy. “Following our current understanding of solar system formation, presolar grains could not survive in the environment where these inclusions are formed.”