Lifeboat Foundation

In a study published in Nature Astronomy, an international team of researchers has presented a new, detailed look inside the “central engine” of a large solar flare accompanied by a powerful eruption first captured on Sept. 10, 2017 by the Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA)—a solar radio telescope facility operated by New Jersey Institute of Technology’s (NJIT) Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR).

The new findings, based on EOVSA’s observations of the event at microwave wavelengths, offer the first measurements characterizing the magnetic fields and particles at the heart of the explosion. The results have revealed an enormous electric current “sheet” stretching more than 40,000 kilometers through the core flaring region where opposing magnetic field lines approach each other, break and reconnect, generating the intense energy powering the flare.

Notably, the team’s measurements also indicate a magnetic bottle-like structure located at the top of the flare’s loop-shaped base (known as the flare arcade) at a height of nearly 20,000 kilometers above the Sun’s surface. The structure, the team suggests, is likely the primary site where the flare’s highly energetic electrons are trapped and accelerated to nearly the speed of light.

The first recruiting ad for the U.S. Space Force floats the idea that “maybe your purpose on this planet isn’t on this planet.”

Could this purpose include the otherworldly mission of firing laser beams while galloping through the cosmos on the back of Secretariat?

Horses? Where we’re going, we don’t need horses.

Continue reading “Saddle up for a ride through the cosmos, partner — Space Force has horses” »

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. wants to build nuclear power plants that will work on the moon and Mars, and on Friday put out a request for ideas from the private sector on how to do that.

The U.S. Department of Energy put out the formal request to build what it calls a fission surface power system that could allow humans to live for long periods in harsh space environments.

The Idaho National Laboratory, a nuclear research facility in eastern Idaho, the Energy Department and NASA will evaluate the ideas for developing the reactor.

Continue reading “U.S. eyes building nuclear power plants for moon and Mars” »

🔎 Part of NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover mission is to survey Mars’ geology for signs of ancient life, but what does that entail? Where will she search?

Find out in this episode of #EZScience with Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen of NASA and Dr. Ellen Stofan of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution: https://youtu.be/McqMigM_YG8

#CountdownToMars

Interviewed by mika curtis, for the space renaissance academy mentorship programme.

We are honored and proud to publish this interview with Prof. Paul Ziolo, Psychohistorian, Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool, who kindly accepted to reply to some questions about his role as a Mentor of the Space Renaissance Academy. https://youtu.be/1UDJB7DS1Lo

Continue reading “Paul Ziolo — interview” »

Launching with the Perseverance rover, this technology demonstration could lead to revolutionary new capabilities in interplanetary exploration.

What’s the big deal about little Phobos and tinier Deimos?

A close-up view of Phobos, the larger of Mars’s two moons. It is 17 miles across. Credit… NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

A radiation-absorbing fungus found at the destroyed Chernobyl nuclear reactor has been shown to absorb harmful cosmic rays on the International Space Station, and could potentially be used to protect future Mars colonies.

Exposure to cosmic rays poses a major health risk to astronauts leaving Earth’s protective atmosphere. Shields can be made out of stainless steel and other materials, but they must be shipped from Earth, which is difficult and costly.

The ASTHROS mission will be carried on a big balloon that will be about 150 meters wide — or roughly the size of a football stadium — and will be inflated with helium. A carrier below the balloon will hold the instruments and the telescope. During its flight, it will allow scientists to control the direction of the telescope with precision and download the data in real-time using satellite links.

The ASTHROS team expects that stratospheric winds will help the balloon complete two to three loops around the South Pole in approximately 21 to 28 days. Once complete, the parachute will return the carrier to the ground and the telescope will be recovered and refurbished for future missions.

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Continue reading “ASTHROS: NASA to release football field-size stratospheric balloon to study cosmos — check details” »