Lifeboat Foundation

At 5:32 a.m. EDT today Chris Cassidy captured Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo craft as Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos monitored monitored the approach and rendezvous. Read more… go.nasa.gov/3nibn6m.

Mars, our second closest cosmic cousin, has been in our collective imagination for decades. Between fantasies of martian visits and the promise of water under its icy surface, Mars doesn’t need to do much to be in our collective good books.

But very soon, Mars is not just going to be close to our hearts, but also nearest to our actual planet — a mere 62.1 million kilometres (38.6 million miles) away from Earth.

Continue reading “This Week, Mars Is The Closest to Earth It’ll Be For Another 15 Years” »

Even the most optimistic estimates of neutron star collision frequency can’t account for the sheer abundance of gold and other elements in the Universe. This was a surprise. It looks like spinning supernovae with strong magnetic fields could be the real source of the majority of these elements.” ates of neutron star collision frequency can’t account for the sheer abundance of gold and other elements in the Universe. This was a surprise. It looks like spinning supernovae with strong magnetic fields could be the real source of the majority of these elements.” ates of neutron star collision frequency simply can’t account for the sheer abundance of gold and other elements in the Universe.

Science typically begins with a question. It may be: “How will astronauts maintain a nutritious diet on long-duration missions?” Or “How can the way metals are made be improved by studying them in space?” These are just two of the questions researchers seek to answer with the upcoming launch of new research, technology demonstrations, and commercial products headed to our unique microgravity laboratory orbiting Earth.

NASA uses the spaceflight environment to further our understanding of how to successfully live and work in space. These space experiments help us understand the effects of radiation, microgravity and other factors on life and physical systems. It is also an important aspect in understanding how to sustain life on the Moon and eventually Mars.

On Friday, October 2, 2020, at 9:16 p.m. EDT, new space experiments and a new space toilet launched on Northrop Grumman’s 14^th commercial resupply mission for the agency to the International Space Station.

Fourteen podcast episodes with great guests talking about a wide range of fascinating aerospace and astronomy topics, with more to come! Thanks to all my listeners and for your loyal support. Stay tuned! And follow the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts or directly at brucedorminey.podbean.com.

Two DARPA-developed technologies – a novel decision aid for mission commanders and a rapid software integration tool – played a critical role in the recent Air Force demonstration of the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS).

The Adapting Cross-domain Kill-webs (ACK) program and the System-of-systems Technology Integration Tool Chain for Heterogeneous Electronic Systems (STITCHES) were among a number of technologies employed in the Aug. 31 – Sep. 4 ABMS on-ramp demonstration, which involved attacks using live aircraft, ships, air defense batteries, and other assets.

ACK is developing a decision aid for mission commanders to assist them with rapidly identifying and selecting options for tasking – and re-tasking – assets within and across organizational boundaries. Specifically, ACK assists users with selecting sensors, effectors, and support elements across military domains (space, air, land, surface, subsurface, and cyber) that span the different military services to deliver desired effects on targets. Instead of limited, monolithic, pre-defined kill chains, these more disaggregated forces can be used to formulate adaptive “kill webs” based on all of the options available.

I didn’t realize there was a moon-landing Bible verse until my pastor mentioned it a few weeks ago.

It seems that while returning from the historic first landing on the moon 50 years ago, astronaut Buzz Aldrin took part in a TV broadcast the night before splashing down. During the broadcast, the second man to set foot on the moon’s surface read Psalms 8:3–4: “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou has ordained; What is man that thou art mindful of him? And the Son of Man, that thou visitest him?”

It turns out Aldrin’s religious faith is not an anomaly. In fact, the 29 astronauts who visited the moon during the Apollo program were a generally religious cohort. According to NASA, 23 were Protestant and six Catholic, with a high proportion of them serving as church leaders in their congregations.

The bad news is that this space rock is between 38 and 86 metres across, according to NASA — that’s about the size of three double-decker buses.

The good news is that it should swing past our home planet (Earth) with no chance of a direct hit.

It will be travelling at a mind-blowing 10.88 kilometers per second which is around 40,000 kilometres per hour.