Lifeboat Foundation

We celebrate NASA’s first 60 years of achievement.

News Brief: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency today launched a robotic cargo ship to the International Space Station, filled with more than five tons of supplies, equipment and experiments. Liftoff of Japan’s H-IIB rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center came at 2:52 a.m. JST Sept. 23 (10:52 a.m. PT Sept. 22). Minutes later, the HTV-7 cargo carrier (also known as Kounotori-7) separated from the rocket, heading for a Thursday rendezvous with the space station. Among the cylindrical craft’s payloads are new hardware to upgrade the station’s electrical power system, an experiment to study protein crystal growth at low temperatures, a life-sciences glovebox and an experimental sample return capsule.

JAXA announced Saturday (Sept. 22) that two tiny hoppers had made it safely onto the surface of the asteroid Ryugu.

Coverage of the launch of NASA ICE’s #ICESat2, set for liftoff no earlier than Saturday, September 15 at 8:46 a.m. EDT! Join us as we embark on a mission to use lasers to measure the changing height of Earth’s ice:

Join us at 1 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sept. 19, as our experts discuss humanity’s farthest planetary flyby that is coming up on Jan. 1, 2019 of the mysterious object nicknamed “Ultima Thule”. The encounter will occur approximately 4 billion miles from Earth complementing the discoveries still coming from the mission’s epic July 2015 flight through the Pluto system.

The United States uses more energy for HVAC than Africa uses for all of their energy needs.

The starry night sky seems remarkably distant from the topic of air conditioning, but it’s revolutionizing the field in quite an unexpected way. In this episode of “The Spark,” watch how scientists from across the globe are harnessing natural phenomena to drastically redesign this century-old technology.

Continue reading “This New Space Tech Could Someday Replace A/C” »

Is this good as space food?

The latest entree to join the Army’s roster of M.R.E. field rations is a Sicilian-style slice that stays fresh for years and took decades to develop.

Do you think NASA needs a new logo?

Michael D. Shaw is a biochemist and freelance writer. A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, and a protégé of the late Willard Libby, winner of the 1960 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Shaw also did postgraduate work at MIT. Based in Virginia, he covers technology, health care and entrepreneurship, among other issues.

Continue reading “Why NASA Needs a New Logo” »

A planet has been found right where the creator of “Star Trek” and three astronomers thought Vulcan would be.

(CNN)Maybe the final frontier isn’t so far out of reach. Astronomers have found an exoplanet reminiscent of the planet Vulcan from “Star Trek,” orbiting a star in a system only 16 light-years from Earth.