Space Travel – Lifeboat News: The Blog

SpaceX Might Launch Humans to Space Next Year

Posted by Andreas Matt in space travel

Jul 27
2016

When it happens, it will be a game-changer for space travel as we know it.

Can a Brain Scan Tell What You’re Thinking? — Pacific Standard

Posted by Karen Hurst in mathematics, neuroscience, space travel

Jul 26
2016

Ever really wanted to know what folks truly are thinking about?

A new experiment advances the idea that brain scans can teach us something about how the human mind works.

By Nathan Collins

Mind reading stands as one of science fiction’s most enduring improbabilities, alongside light-speed space travel and laser guns. But unlike those latter two, mind reading actually has a whiff of reality: In a new demonstration, psychologists have shown they can figure out how far along someone’s brain is in the process of solving a sophisticated math problem—a result that, more than anything else, indicates the promise of new brain-scanning techniques for understanding the human mind.

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Let’s all move to Mars! The space architects shaping our future

Posted by Klaus Baldauf in food, habitats, space travel, sustainability

Jul 22
2016

We’ve had starchitects. Now we’ve got space architects. Oliver Wainwright meets the people measuring up the red planet for inflatable homes and farms made of moondust concrete.

Huge sail will power JAXA mission to Trojan asteroids and back

Posted by Montie Adkins in robotics/AI, solar power, space travel, sustainability

Jul 21
2016

I wonder, if NASA and/or SpaceX goes to Mars in the 2030’s as planned, by the time the 2050’s roll around a manned attempt to Ceres or Jupiter trojans might be attempted or perhaps an unmanned vehicle made on Mars beats this sail.

Japan’s space agency has its sights on unexplored asteroids as far away as Jupiter, a project that at one level draws on centuries of sail science.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency this month unveiled a huge prototype solar sail designed to power a JAXA probe as it explores asteroids that circle the sun on roughly the same orbit as Jupiter. The sail measures 2,500 sq. meters and is made up of thousands of ultraslim solar panels.

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The US and Russia are making plans to return to the Moon together

Posted by Shailesh Prasad in space travel

Jul 21
2016

It was 47 years ago that NASA won the space race against the Soviet Union, and Apollo 11 astronauts first walked on the Moon.

And now American companies have pitched a series of new plans that would see the country finally return to the lunar surface… this time, alongside the Russians.

The collaboration between the two countries isn’t entirely surprising — Russia and America have been working together in space since their association on the International Space Station (ISS) first began in 1993.

Physicists Say They’ve Figured out How Spacecraft Could Make It Through a Wormhole

Posted by Andreas Matt in climatology, cosmology, physics, space travel, sustainability

Jul 20
2016

A new paper asserts that a physical body might be able to pass through a wormhole in spite of the extreme tidal forces that are at play.

A physical object, such as a person or a spacecraft, could theoretically make it through a wormhole in the centre of a black hole, and maybe even access another universe on the other side, physicists have suggested.

In what looks like the logical extension of the plot of Interstellar – where astronauts try to hunt down another universe after the catastrophic effects of climate change destroy Earth – physicists have modelled what would happen to a chair, a scientist, and a spacecraft, if each one ended up inside the spherical wormhole of a black hole.

Payload designed to show that useful, high value goods can economically be produced in low earth orbit, opening the space frontier for Earth-focused manufacturing

Posted by Klaus Baldauf in materials, space travel

Jul 20
2016

MOFFETT FIELD, CA. Made In Space, Inc. (Made In Space) and Thorlabs, Inc. (Thorlabs) will send a microgravity-optimized, miniature fiber drawing system to the International Space Station (ISS) to manufacture high-value-to-mass ZBLAN optical fiber via a cooperative agreement with The Center for Advancement of Science In Space (CASIS). The payload, called the “Made In Space Optical Fiber Production in Microgravity Experiment” (Fiber Payload) is currently scheduled to be launched to the ISS in the first quarter of 2017. The Fiber Payload will produce test quantities of ZBLAN optical fiber in the persistent microgravity environment ISS provides, and be returned to the Earth shortly thereafter. Once returned to the Earth, the fiber will be tested and utilized. Based on the results from this initial experiment and market demand, Made In Space plans to develop and operate larger scale microgravity production facilities for ZBLAN and other microgravity enabled materials.