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Category: space – Page 353

Anticipates mind uploading.

This week, we bring you a Tale by one of the lesser known greats of 1950s science fiction, Frederik Pohl. “The Tunnel Under the World” first appeared in Galaxy magazine in 1955, which Pohl himself would go on to edit from 1959 to 1969. His career spanned nearly 75 years and saw him win many awards for his writing, including novels and, shortly before his death, his blog. He won four Hugo awards and three Nebula awards, winning both for his seminal 1977 novel “Gateway”.
In this short story, Guy Burckhardt awakes after a horrible dream to find not everything in his small town is how he remembered it…

If you’d like to support The Well Told Tale, please visit us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thewelltoldtale.

Continue reading “The Tunnel under the World” | >

Webb can image the entire planet at once in high resolution at a short exposure time, allowing for the study of dust storms, weather patterns and seasonal changes.

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured its first images and spectra of Mars, revealing atmospheric data that previous instruments couldn’t detect.

Captured with its Near InfraRed Camera, or NIRCam instrument from JWST’s position around a million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Mars, on September 5, along with data from its Near InfraRed Spectrometer (NIRSpec), the images were released on Monday, September 19, at the Europlanet Science Congress 2022.

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They say lonsdaleite could be used to fortify industrial tools like drill bits and saw blades — AND teach us about the evolution of earth.

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

Move over, diamonds. There’s stronger bling in town. Meet lonsdaleite — for years just a theory. Now CNN reports that scientists have confirmed its existence on Earth. While diamonds and lonsdaleite are both made of carbon — get ready for this — the former has a cubic atomic structure, and the latter has a hexagonal structure. So what’s the big difference? That hexagonal structure makes the stone 58% stronger than regular diamonds. Lonsdaleite was found in a meteorite that scientists say came from a dwarf planet that was billions of years old. An asteroid crashed into that planet, releasing pressure that caused the stone to form. The hardness of lonsdaleite could be useful in making super durable tools for industrial sites. But scientists also say this discovery can teach us about the interactions of the universe and ultimately how Earth evolved as a planet.

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An instrument designed to detect seismic activity on Mars has just revealed an incredibly cool new ability, detecting faint tremors from meteorites impacting the red planet.

By combining data collected from the NASA’s Mars InSight lander with information from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter researchers have successfully linked those ground-shaking booms with freshly formed craters.

Not only does this help us understand the impact processes that continue to shape Martian geology, it demonstrates how collecting seismic data can reveal information beyond expected mission parameters. This may help inform future exploration of other worlds.

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Just like more than a half-century ago, the same company will work with NASA again.

Goodyear rolled up its sleeves to produce lunar vehicle tires in collaboration with Lockheed Martin and General Motors. The project is expected to be ready in 2025.

The companies hope to be the first to establish long-term commercial vehicle operations on the Moon. Goodyear offers its vast expertise in tires, a mission-critical component for traversing the lunar surface.

Goodyear.

Continue reading “Goodyear to produce airless tires for Moon rovers of Artemis program” | >

The much-delayed engine could help reduce the U.S.’s reliance on Russian models.

Blue Origin’s much-delayed BE-4 engine may be close to hitting the launch pad. As Bloomberg points out in a report, the U.S. Space Force recently announced in a statement that “Vulcan launch system development activities continue to make progress” towards a first test launch in December.

That’s because “ULA and Blue Origin have completed originally planned BE-4 development testing, and have successfully demonstrated full engine performance.”

Blue Origin could help reduce U.S.’s reliance on Russian engines.

Continue reading “Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin nears certification for its BE-4 engine” | >

Can you believe that we have a state-of-the-art laboratory in space?

The International Space Station has been in low Earth orbit since 1998. Astronauts started to use the station in November 2000, when a module that provided a long-term life support and control system was added to the first two modules.

Since then, the International Space Station has hosted more than 250 astronauts from 20 countries, most of which have been from Russia and the US.

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“All the effort that went into making this image a success was worth it.”

The Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year winners have been announced. The top spot goes to an image that’s so impressive it almost doesn’t look real. Austrian photographer Gerald Rhemann captured the image of Comet Leonard and its glowing tail on Christmas Day, 2021, from Namibia, a report from LiveScience.

Rhemann’s image provides an ethereal view of the gas cloud surrounding the comet being swept away by solar wind as the space rock was making its way through the central Solar System. Gerald Rhemann / Royal Museums Greenwich, Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2022.

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NASA’s Perseverance rover is exploring a long-dry river delta on Mars, and it has seen signs that indicate that the region is full of organics – molecules containing carbon that are widely considered to be the building blocks of life.

The rover has taken measurements and samples in an area called Skinner Ridge made of layered sedimentary rocks, some of which contain materials that were most likely transported from hundreds of kilometres away by running water billions of years ago.

“With the samples we’re taking now in this more sedimentary area, we’re of course right at the heart of what we wanted to do to start with,” said NASA science lead Thomas Zurbuchen during a press conference on 15 September. The goal was to look at areas similar to those on Earth that harbour signs of ancient life, he said.

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