The scientists who support Project Blue are already thinking about how future explorers could get to the planets around Alpha Centauri.
Category: space – Page 1,087
Vision of a Asteroid Belt Astronomical Telescope and hypertelescopes
Physics Today has a speculative article that proposes that laser light be used to shape and polish an asteroid to high optical standards. This could create an Asteroid Belt Astronomical Telescope (ABAT).
The Asteroid Belt Astronomical Telescope (ABAT) focuses light from laser-polished asteroids onto dual imaging arrays above and below the solar system; other intense laser pulses maneuver the arrays to different locations, thus allowing ABAT to point at multiple celestial targets. Asteroid ablation residue corralled into a pair of Devil’s Footprints shields the focal regions from solar illumination. (Courtesy of Laura Kim.)
Imagined 10 meter resolution imaging of exoplanet.
Space Warp Dynamics: The startup that’s working on sending humans to Proxima Centauri
Space Warp Dynamics’s mission is fundamentally an audacious endeavor in terms of what we deem as the status quo of spacecraft propulsion and in terms of where humanity will be able to reach in the galaxy (other stars) within the next 15–20 years (and not only within the next 200+ years from now). In other words, if this challenge can be addressed with the appropriate resources and the right people’s support, then for example you and your family will potentially be able to travel to Earth 2.0 (presumably in the Proxima Centauri star system).
Space Warp Dynamics can already currently demonstrate (prove) that their invention can manipulate (warp or bend) space-time in a controlled micro-environment. This could mean that we finally know how gravity works and also how to control gravity and this in itself is a monumental accomplishment.
As their technology is now (granted after the necessary safety tests), they can sell/licence their current development level of technology to NASA to use as artificial gravity generation technology on the International Space Station (as you probably know, the long-term lack of gravity on the ISS is really bad for astronauts’ bodies).
Why is warp drive R&D so important for the future of mankind?
–> Primarily, because without “warp bubble” (warp drive) technology any random object that is “drifting” in space will easily be able to decommission/neutralize even the most robust spacecraft.
–> Without mankind first developing warp drive (“warp bubble”) technology, we will never reach places like Earth 2.0 (presumably in the Proxima Centauri star system).
This is simply because the speeds at which a spacecraft will need to move to get people to another life bearing planet within at least less than half the time of 1 human lifetime’s amount of years, will be way too fast [the relative speed will be way too fast] to allow our spacecraft’s detection systems to anticipate a potential collision with space junk/dust or small meteors. As you know, space junk/dust and small meteors can move at incredibly high relative speeds and at these incredibly high relative speeds even a very small object becomes a serious threat to a spacecraft.
Therefore, any spacecraft traveling at such high relative speeds in space without making use of the protection of a “warp bubble” will be effectively leaving the spaceship vulnerable to these random objects in space to crash into the spaceship. Because, practically it would be virtually impossible for a spaceship to beforehand identify/track and then out-maneuver all of the random objects in space that are going to crash into it while it is traveling between the Solar system and the Proxima Centauri star system – especially if an object is small and traveling at an incredibly high speed.
I trust everyone sees the fundamental need for this technology in order to enable true interstellar (star-to-star) human space exploration.
For details how to get involved send them a Facebook message at:
https://www.facebook.com/SWarpDynamics
https://www.facebook.com/SWarpDynamics
Cannae will try to prove propellentless propulsion in space in 2017 and has ambitious space probe designs with 33 years of constant acceleration to reach 3% of lightspeed
Despite having a setup that has been pretty much operating for years, how many data points are in the paper? Eighteen. Now, if this were a really time-consuming experiment, I wouldn’t let that bother me. Hell, some synchrotron experiments have only a single data point. But this is clearly not a time-limited experiment.
The Dawn of AI: Congress Is Discussing What We’ll Do in a World Run by Robots
In Brief
- Last week’s US Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness focused on the impact AI has in various sectors of US society.
- Scientists predict that investments in AI will increase by more than 300 percent over the next few years, meaning AI will have a more prominent role in society.
Senator Ted Cruz opened up last Wednesday’s hearing by the US Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness with a description of the changing landscape of technology: “Whether we recognize it or not, artificial intelligence is already seeping into our daily lives.”
Senator Cruz explained that scientists are predicting how investments in AI will increase by more than 300 percent in the next few years, which means AI will have a more prominent role in society. With that in mind, the subcommittee’s hearing focused on the impact AI has in various sectors of US society, and how to best ensure US leadership in AI development.
Scientists have finally figured out why astronauts lose their vision while in space
Radiologists have finally figured out why astronauts who spend a lot of time in space get impaired vision.
The problem, called visual impairment intracranial pressure (VIIP) syndrome, has been reported in two-thirds of astronauts who go up to the International Space Station.
And according to a new study from researchers at the University of Miami — reported Monday at the Radiological Society of North America’s annual conference — those changes to the eye have everything to do with changes in the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord.
We Just Got the First Real Evidence of a Strange Quantum Distortion in Empty Space
For the first time, astronomers have observed a strange quantum phenomenon in action, where a neutron star is surrounded by a magnetic field so intense, it’s given rise to a region in empty space where matter spontaneously pops in and out of existence.
Called vacuum birefringence, this bizarre phenomenon was first predicted back in the 1930s, but had only ever been observed on the atomic scale. Now scientists have finally seen it occur in nature, and it goes against everything that Newton and Einstein had mapped out.
“This is a macroscopic manifestation of quantum field,” Jeremy Heyl from the University of British Columbia in Canada, who was not involved in the research, told Science. “It’s manifest on the scale of a neutron star.”
NASA unveils a skill for Amazon’s Alexa that lets you ask questions about Mars
NASA announces their first voice skill for Amazon’s Alexa at the AWS re: invent conference tonight. You’ll be able to ask Alexa questions about Mars.