Lifeboat Foundation

To make long-term presence on the Moon viable, we need abundant electrical power. We can make power systems on the Moon directly from materials that exist everywhere on the surface, without special substances brought from Earth. We have pioneered the technology and demonstrated all the steps. Our approach, Blue Alchemist, can scale indefinitely, eliminating power as a constraint anywhere on the Moon.

We start by making regolith simulants that are chemically and mineralogically equivalent to lunar regolith, accounting for representative lunar variability in grain size and bulk chemistry. This ensures our starting material is as realistic as possible, and not just a mixture of lunar-relevant oxides. We have developed and qualified an efficient, scalable, and contactless process for melting and moving molten regolith that is robust to natural variations in regolith properties on the Moon.

Using regolith simulants, our reactor produces iron, silicon, and aluminum through molten regolith electrolysis, in which an electrical current separates those elements from the oxygen to which they are bound. Oxygen for propulsion and life support is a byproduct.

The light from the distant Sparkler galaxy was spotted in the James Webb Telescope’s First Deep Field and could teach us how our own Milky Way devoured other galaxies to grow.

The European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft captured a stunning new view of the Red Planet’s complex surface geology.

The new image, taken using the orbiter’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), focuses on the flanks of a vast volcanic plateau called Thaumasia Planum. Deep surface fractures and water-carved valleys stream down the side of this volcanic region, offering clues about Mars’ ancient past.

Some of the hottest spots in the Sun’s atmosphere appear in the telescope’s X-ray view.

Researchers are studying hibernating Arctic ground squirrels with the goal of harnessing the benefits of this odd natural state to protect astronauts’ health on long-duration space missions.

Hibernation is not just sleep. In fact, it’s quite different from sleep. While we sleep, our brains fire up and become highly active; in hibernation, on the contrary, brain activity completely slows down. The body temperature of hibernating animals also drops, in some cases close to the freezing point, cells stop dividing and heart rate decreases to two beats per minute.

A promo ad for Google’s unreleased artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot made an embarrassing mistake.

Space “cubically” with shapes that act like spheres? A proof at the intersection of geometry and theoretical computer science says yes.

The Earth’s core may have stopped spinning, or may even now be spinning backwards, according to a new study.

The core of our planet is made up of an outer layer of liquid metal, and an inner core of solid metal that is about 70 per cent the size of the Moon.

It is generally believed that the core rotates counter-clockwise when viewed from the North Pole, like the rest of planet Earth.

The sun is growing more active in its regular 11-year-cycle and has a huge sunspot serving as a hotbed of flares and other activity.