Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers find a simple way to make analogue dust samples could shed light on early solar system history.

The ESA probe BepiColombo flew past Earth on the way to Mercury. The probe launched in 2018 and made the last visit of our home before continuing onward to the final destination. The spacecraft needs to shed velocity to arrive at Mercury in 2025 at a velocity to enter orbit. The spacecraft will make multiple additional planetary flybys of Venus and Mercury to slow down to enter orbit.

In space travel, mission planners need to balance mission resources. The amount of fuel required to either speed up or slow down a spacecraft greatly impacts the cost of the mission. Using a longer flight path can reduce the propellent requirements for a mission but the mission will take longer. Gravity assists can, therefore, allow a spacecraft to be launched on a cheaper, less powerful rocket.

Gravity assist flyby?

A Gravity assist flyby has other names including a gravitational slingshot, gravity assist maneuver, or swing-by. Gravity assistance maneuvers increase or decrease its speed or redirect the orbital path. The spacecraft slingshots around another object with a gravitational field and transfers some of the energy during that slingshot. In the case of BepiColombo, the spacecraft needs to slow down to be captured by Mercury…

With data from NASA’s LRO mission, researchers have recreated what the Apollo 13 astronauts saw on their trip around the moon.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, a panoramic high-definition image of astronaut Fred Haise napping in the “lifeboat” Lunar Module has been produced.

It is contemplated that solving the problem of anxiety in finding an alternativeergy for coping with finite resources and exhaustion of fossil fuel resources would require a great deal of time even when mankind launches full-scale efforts and continues all-out efforts. The of an infinite power capable of supplying a clean, safe, infinite kineticergy for the and prosperity of human society with no need of consumable raw materials would improve the and wouldhance andrich the functionality thereof, would contribute to thehanced prosperity of human society, and wouldable city construction on not only the earth but also other planets.

A lunar crater on the farside of the Moon could be turned into a new radio telescope resembling the Death Star from Star Wars, under new plans from NASA.

Funding for the project has come from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Programme, designed to support potentially game changing projects.

Continue reading “NASA reveals plans for a radio telescope on the farside of the Moon” »

You know the scene in “Akira” where Tetsuo rips a satellite space weapon out of orbit?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxh-IjxG2KY

Now the U.S. military wants to try something similar, according to Defense One. The Pentagon is requesting hundreds of millions of dollars to ramp up space-based weaponry including particle beams and space lasers that’ll fire downward at Earthly targets — a dark vision of the militarization of space.

Albert Einstein first discovered the phenomenon in 1936.

Circa 2017

NASA is beginning to design its next big astrophysics mission, a space telescope that will provide the largest picture of the universe ever seen with the same depth and clarity as the Hubble Space Telescope.

Scheduled to launch in the mid-2020s, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will function as Hubble’s wide-eyed cousin. While just as sensitive as Hubble’s cameras, WFIRST’s 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument will image a sky area 100 times larger. This means a single WFIRST image will hold the equivalent detail of 100 pictures from Hubble.

Continue reading “NASA’s Next Major Telescope to See the Big Picture of the Universe” »