Lifeboat Foundation

The crusts of the Moon, Mercury, and many meteorite parent bodies are magnetized. Although the magnetizing field is commonly attributed to that of an ancient core dynamo, a longstanding hypothesized alternative is amplification of the interplanetary magnetic field and induced crustal field by plasmas generated by meteoroid impacts. Here, we use magnetohydrodynamic and impact simulations and analytic relationships to demonstrate that although impact plasmas can transiently enhance the field inside the Moon, the resulting fields are at least three orders of magnitude too weak to explain lunar crustal magnetic anomalies. This leaves a core dynamo as the only plausible source of most magnetization on the Moon.

The Moon presently lacks a core dynamo magnetic field. However, it has been known since the Apollo era that the lunar crust contains remanent magnetization, with localized surface fields reaching up to hundreds of nanoteslas or higher and spanning up to hundreds of kilometers (1). Magnetic studies of Apollo samples and the lunar crust indicate that the magnetizing field likely reached tens of microteslas before 3.56 billion years (Ga) ago (1, 2). The origin of the strongest lunar crustal anomalies and the source of the field that magnetized them have been longstanding mysteries.

Although magnetic fields in rocky bodies are commonly explained by convective dynamos in their metallic cores, a convective dynamo on the Moon may not have had sufficient energy to produce the strongest implied surface paleofields (3, 4). This may imply that a fundamentally different nonconvective dynamo mechanism operated in the Moon or that a process other than a core dynamo produced such magnetization.

See how technology built for @Space_Station could advance humanity’s access to nutrition. #SpaceStation20th

The U.S. #military, like many others around the world, is investing significant time and resources into expanding its electronic #warfare capabilities across the board, for offensive and defensive purposes, in the air, at sea, on land, and even in space. Now, advances in #machinelearning and #artificialintelligence mean that electronic warfare systems, no matter what their specific function, may all benefit from a new underlying concept known as advanced “Cognitive Electronic Warfare,” or #Cognitive EW. The main goal is to be able to increasingly automate and otherwise speed up critical processes, from analyzing electronic intelligence to developing new electronic warfare measures and countermeasures, potentially in real-time and across large swathes of networked platforms.

The holy grail of this concept is electronic warfare systems that can spot new or otherwise unexpected threats and immediately begin adapting to them.

China is pushing ahead with developing a giant Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation competing with SpaceX, Amazon and OneWeb, according to the Washington DC-based analyst Bhavya Lal and California State University’s Professor Larry Press.

Press, professor of information systems at the California State University, mentioned a recent Chinese spectrum filing in a blog of the CircleID website. China “has filed a spectrum application with the International Telecommunication Union for two constellations with the cryptic names GW-A59 and GW-2″ for a total of 12,992 satellites, Press said.

“We heard about an announcement of a constellation with nearly 13,000 satellites,” Bhavya Lal said in SpaceWatchGlobal’s Space Café webtalk last week. Lal is a senior space policy analyst at the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute in Washington DC and was in the lead for IDA’s recently published report “Evaluation of China’s Commercial Space Sector”.

Continue reading “China pushes ahead with giant 13,000 satellite LEO constellation” »

They say if you spread out all the gold ever mined from the Earth in all of history, it would only cover a football field 18 inches deep.

Now when you wrap you mind around that image, it doesn’t seem like very much, especially when you digest the fact that the solar system is literally brimming with gold but scientists can’t quite figure out where all this hard-to-make metal is being created.

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.