Lifeboat Foundation

The Parker Solar Probe is an engineering marvel, designed by NASA to “touch the sun” and reveal some of the star’s most closely guarded secrets. The scorch-proof craft, launched by NASA in August 2,018 has been slowly sidling up to our solar system’s blazing inferno for the past three years, studying its magnetic fields and particle physics along the way. It’s been a successful journey, and the probe has been racking up speed records. In 2,020 it became the fastest human-made object ever built.

But Parker is learning a lesson about the consequences of its great speed: constant bombardment by space dust.

Unlock the biggest mysteries of our planet and beyond with the CNET Science newsletter. Delivered Mondays.

If you traveled 10,000 years into the future, what would planet Earth look like? Would most of its surface be covered in volcanoes? Or would it be frozen in ice? What if you traveled even further, to one million years in the future? Would all of the oceans have evaporated? Or would it have become one giant water world? Now, what about one billion years? Would there be any humans left? Or would they have settled in other parts of the galaxy?

Transcript and sources: https://whatifshow.com/what-if-you-traveled-one-billion-years-into-the-future/

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A US$500 billion accelerator of human progress — mansoor hanif, executive director, emerging technologies, NEOM.

Mansoor Hanif is the Executive Director of Emerging Technologies at NEOM (https://www.neom.com/en-us), a fascinating $500 billion planned cognitive city” & tourist destination, located in north west Saudi Arabia, where he is responsible for all R&D activities for the Technology & Digital sector, including space technologies, advanced robotics, human-machine interfaces, sustainable infrastructure, digital master plans, digital experience platforms and mixed reality. He also leads NEOM’s collaborative research activities with local and global universities and research institutions, as well as manages the team developing world-leading Regulations for Communications and Connectivity.

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Mon, Nov 15 at 12 PM PST.

Interested.

Gold is one of the world’s most popular metals. Malleable, conductive and non-corrosive, it’s used in jewelry, electronics, and even space exploration. But traditional gold production typically involves a famous toxin, cyanide, which has been banned for industrial use in several countries.

The wait for a scalable non-toxic alternative may now be over as a research team from Aalto University in Finland has successfully replaced cyanide in a key part of gold extraction from ore. The results are published in Chemical Engineering.

Study shows new chloride-based process recovers 84% of gold compared to the 64% recovered with traditional methods.

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch which was scheduled for October 9 pushed to early next year. It’s finally happening, after 3 years of no activity, SpaceX schedules more than 4 launches to happen next year involving the SpaceX falcon heavy.
SpaceX’s next Falcon Heavy launching and dual-booster touchdown looks to be just around the corner for the first time in more than two years. After additional delays caused by its U.S. military cargo, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket’s next mission, which was previously intended for October, has been moved forward to early 2022. The Space Force’s USSF-44 mission was supposed to launch on Oct. 9 but it has been postponed.

In today’s video we look at how it all started, the developments made to date and we’re also going to take a peek into the future and see how glorious it is.

Continue reading “SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch FINALLY SCHEDULED!” »

Just over 400 light-years away, a baby exoplanet is making its way into the Universe.

This, in itself, is not so unusual. We’ve detected thousands of exoplanets – planets outside the Solar System. Presumably they all had to be newborn at some point too. What makes this exoplanet special is that astronomers obtained a direct image of it – an almost vanishingly rare feat.

It’s named 2M0437b, and it’s one of the youngest exoplanets for which we have ever obtained a direct image. This could give us a new window into the planet formation process, which in turn could help us understand how the Solar System was born and evolved.

How many bits does the universe contain? A lot.

A trippy new estimate calculates the total number of bits in the visible universe.

Gallium arsenide (GaAs) has long been touted as the best material for making high-efficiency solar cells because of its extraordinary light absorption and electrical characteristics. It has most notably been put to use in space solar panels.

These GaAs solar cells, however, are extremely pricey to produce resulting in a demand for methods that cut down on the material usage. That’s where nanowire structures come in. These elements can potentially enhance solar cell efficiency compared to standard planar solar cells while utilizing less material.

By using GaAs in the nanowire structures, the team of researchers has found a new way to make an ultrahigh power-per-weight ratio solar cell that is more than 10 times more efficient than any other solar cell.