These NASA-designed grippers can lift massive rocks.
Category: space – Page 1,035
High-Altitude Balloon Company Wants to Open a New Market at the Edge of Space
World View Enterprises, a private company that plans to sell balloon rides to the edge of space, has announced the grand opening of its new headquarters and a conjoined spaceport in Tucson, Arizona.
The new facility will soon be launching World View’s non-crewed high altitude balloons, which could provide a low-cost alternative to launching payloads into space, according to company representatives. The balloons can carry instruments and equipment that could, for example, be used to consistently observe severe weather events or natural disasters. The balloon could also carry equipment for scientific investigations, communications, remote sensing and wealth of other potential applications.
The newly completed Spaceport Tucson was built specifically to launch high-altitude balloons, and includes a 700-foot-wide (200 meters) launchpad. The spaceport is owned by Pima County (where it is located) but is operated by World View Enterprises, which now has its headquarters attached to the spaceport. World View employees have already started working out of the new digs, and the first uncrewed launches from Spaceport Tucson are expected to take place in the next few months, company representatives told Space.com. [World View’s Near-Space Balloon Rides in Pictures].
What will the James Webb Space Telescope reveal about the newly discovered exoplanets?
The discovery of seven habitable planets just 40 light years away is certainly impressive, but the fact is, they are still 40 light years away. Unless we’re willing and able to spend thousands of years traveling through space, we won’t be rolling into the TRAPPIST-1 system anytime soon. This means that over the coming decades, advanced scientific instruments closer to home will play very important roles in exploring these distant worlds – perhaps none more so than the James Webb Space Telescope. So what can we expect when it is fired into orbit next year? We checked in with some of the scientists behind yesterday’s hugely exciting discovery to learn how astronomers will use NASA’s next-generation space telescope to probe the secrets of the TRAPPIST-1 system.
VP tasks Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre to lead Mars 2117 project
UAE will be a major player in technology innovation of the future as they like Israel, Africa, Eastern Europe, and various parts of Asia such as the current ones of China and India as well as Australia and Vietnam will be the new emerging leaders in tech innovation. We’re entering a period of radical change and a complete overhaul of science (including medical) and technology thanks to the realities and opportunities of Quantum. The following announcement shows US UAE’s own commitment to being a leader and I promise you there is much more to come from these amazing hotspots of innovation and invention.
Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, issued directives to Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre, MBRSC, to lead the Mars 2117 project and prepare a 100-year plan for its implementation.
As per his directives, the centre’s plan will focus on preparing specialised national cadres and developing their capabilities in the fields of space science, research, artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced space technologies.
The centre will also put in place a detailed plan for the next five years that will deal with all technological, logistical and technical aspects of the project. This five-year plan will be carried out alongside a media plan that will keep pace with the project’s implementation programme. The media plan will ensure coverage at local, regional and international levels, taking into consideration how well the project was received when it was announced during the World Government Summit 2017.
A NASA-funded engineer’s plan to colonize Mars
Forget the moon. The next giant leap for mankind could be building a habitat on Mars.
The fourth planet from the sun may be cold — Martian winters can reach -190 degrees Fahrenheit (−87 degrees Celsius) — full of deserts and lacking in oxygen, but for Behrokh Khoshnevis it’s humans’ next destination.
The pioneering professor in engineering at the University of Southern California has been working with NASA on the possibility of building a colony on Mars since 2011.