Real-life space-mining could be a reality next year.
Category: space – Page 1,163
Neil deGrasse Tyson thinks there’s a ‘very high’ chance the universe is just a simulation
I suppose that us being in a simulation would answer Fermi’s Paradox very (disturbingly) neatly…
(Business Insider)
We trust the scientists around us to have the best grasp on how the world actually works.
So at this year’s 2016 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate at the American Museum of Natural History, which addressed the question of whether or not the universe is a simulation, the answers from some panelists may be more comforting than the responses of others.
NASA seeks industry ideas for an advanced Mars satellite | Phys.org
“NASA is soliciting ideas from U.S. industry for designs of a Mars orbiter for potential launch in the 2020s. The satellite would provide advanced communications and imaging, as well as robotic science exploration, in support of NASA’s Journey to Mars.”
Breathtaking Visualization of the Universe Will Make You Feel Like an Ant
Ever notice how maps of the large structures of the Universe look like maps of the brain or a Pollock painting?
On the grandest scale, our universe is a network of galaxies tied together by the force of gravity. Cosmic Web, a new effort led by cosmologists and designers at Northeastern’s Center for Complex Network Research, offers a roadmap toward understanding how all of those tremendous clusters of stars connect—and the visualizations are stunning.
The images below show us several hypothetical architectures for our universe, built from data on 24,000 galaxies. By varying the construction algorithm, the researchers have designed cosmic webs that link up in a number of different ways; based on the size, proximity, and relative velocities of individual galaxies. I call it God View.
“Before, the cosmic web was more like a metaphor,” Kim Albrecht, the designer behind the new visualizations told Gizmodo. “This is the first time somebody has made these calculations and thought about it as an actual network.”
Who Will Protect Us From Space Pirates?
It may sound like sci-fi. But millions and millions of dollars are pouring into projects to mine asteroids and the moon. And with a space gold rush comes space pirates.
With trillions of dollars worth of minerals lying just under the moon’s surface or spinning around the solar system inside asteroids, space mining is big business.
Well, big potential business. No one has dug nickel out of an asteroid or scooped any tantalum from the lunar dust—at least not for profit. Before space miners can get drilling, they need to invent specialized industrial robots, set up orbital outposts and—arguably most importantly—convince investors, workers, and prospective buyers that space minerals are worth the cost and effort of mining them.
An Earth-like Planet Only 16 Light Years Away?
A new paper concludes that a super-Earth size planet may reside in the habitable zone of a star only 16 light years away.
Our Sun May Have Eaten A Super Earth For Breakfast
That’s fine with me…
As long as it doesn’t plan on having us for desert. (not until it turns red, gets fat, and burns our planet alive, at least)
A Super-Earth may have formed in our Solar System’s earlier days, and then been destroyed by the Sun.
Playing VR Game ‘Mars 2030’, Which Uses NASA Data to Explore the Red Planet
Playing the new experience from Fusion, NASA and MIT.
DJI unveils its new M600 hexacopter, with 6 separate ‘smart’ batteries
DJI unveils its new Matrice 600 drone, capable of handling the insane Red Epic camera in the air.
By: Anthony Garreffa | Science, Space & Robotics News | Posted: 1 hour, 19 mins ago.
New study shows mammals can be developed in space
The latest experiment results from China’s SJ-10 recoverable satellite have been sent back with some groundbreaking news. For the first time in human history, it has been proven that the early stages of embryos in mammals can be developed completely in a space environment.
China launched the country’s first microgravity satellite, the SJ-10, on April 6. The return capsule on the satellite will stay in orbit for several days before heading back to Earth. An orbital module will continue to conduct experiments for a few more days.
High-resolution photographs sent back by SJ-10 show that the mouse embryos carried by the return capsule completed the entire developing process within 96 hours from the launch, the first reported successful development of mammalian embryos in space.