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Category: space – Page 399

How Vacuum Decay Would Destroy The Universe

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The universe is going to end. But of all the possible ends of the universe vacuum decay would have to be the most thorough — because it could totally rewrite the laws of physics. Today I hope to help you understand exactly how terrified you should be.

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Hosted by Matt O’Dowd.
Written by Matt O’Dowd.
Graphics by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, Pedro Osinski, Adriano Leal & Stephanie Faria.
GFX Visualizations: Ajay Manuel.
Directed by Andrew Kornhaber.
Assistant Producer: Setare Gholipour.
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber.

End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: https://www.youtube.com/user/MultiDroideka.

Continue reading “How Vacuum Decay Would Destroy The Universe” | >

NASA awards Texas company to develop structures on the Moon

The partnership aims at building infrastructures, such as landing pads, habitats, and roads on the lunar surface.

In a quest to find practical solutions to build sustainable structures on the moon, NASA has furthered its partnership with ICON, a construction technologies company based in Austin, Texas. The firm is known for building the first-ever habitable 3D-printed home in the United States in 2018.

The space agency has now awarded a $57.2 million contract to ICON to devise solutions that “could help build infrastructure such as landing pads, habitats, and roads on the lunar surface,” according to the press release.

Sci-fi-like space elevators could become a reality in the “next 2 or 3 decades”

The space elevator — a structure that reaches into the sky — might feel like a distant, farfetched concept, but it could be closer than we think. In an op-ed for Scientific American.

Wikimedia.

In an op-ed for Scientific American, Physics professor Stephen Cohen at Vanier College in Montreal, Quebec, said he believes the sci-fi-like technology could be a reality within “the next two or three decades.”

Meteorite found in Somalia turns out to contain two minerals that are not found on Earth

Further studies of the meteorite are in peril, though.

A meteorite that fell in Somalia in 2020 is home to at least two minerals that are not found on our planet. The two minerals were identified by researchers at the University of Alberta, a press release said.

Large meteorites are rare but do occur, such as the one that fell near the town of El Ali in Somalia a couple of years ago. The celestial piece of rock weighs a massive 16.

University of Alberta.

Tons of space material enters the Earth’s atmosphere every day and burn up instantly. Very few actually survive the journey through the atmosphere and hit the ground, after which these space rocks are referred to as meteorites.

Air Force Research Lab awards $76 million for lunar experimentation

“Our primary goals for the program are to advance techniques to detect previously unknown objects through search and discovery, to detect small or distant objects and to study spacecraft positioning and navigation in the [beyond GEO] realm,” Oracle’s principal investigator James Frith said in a Nov. 10 statement.

The contract for Oracle, which was previously named the Cislunar Highway Patrol System, comes amid a growing interest in the cislunar environment and increasing concerns about potential deep-space threats from adversaries like China. In response, AFRL and other stakeholders are crafting a classified roadmap that lays out the cislunar capabilities various space agencies are pursuing.

AFRL expects Oracle to launch in 2025 and have a two-year mission life. Along with tracking and detecting new objects, the satellite will inform a separate AFRL effort to develop a green propellant to power space vehicles. The satellite will carry a refueling port for the Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-Toxic program.