Space – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Jan 28
2020

NASA selects Axiom Space to build commercial space station segment

NASA has announced that they have selected Axiom Space, an American company headquartered in Houston, Texas, to design, build and launch three large pressurized modules and a large Earth observation window to the International Space Station (ISS).

This partnership between NASA and Axiom is issued under Appendix I of NASA Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships 2 (NextSTEP-2) public-private partnership program witch the agency hopes will help stimulate commercial development of deep space exploration capabilities.

Appendix I of NextSTEP-2 was originally issued on June 7th 2019 and called for private companies to bid to develop habitable commercial modules, to be built and launched to the International Space Station, and then attached to the forward end of the station as part of NASA’s long term plan to open up the ISS to large amounts of commercial opportunities.

Jan 27
2020

We’re All Going to Live in Mushroom Houses on Mars

NASA is sharing information about its myco-architecture program, in which experimental fungus-based building technologies could be the feasible future of Mars habitats. “Science fiction often imagines our future on Mars and other planets as run by machines, with metallic cities and flying cars rising above dunes of red sand,” NASA says. “But the reality may be even stranger.”

The myco-architecture (myco is the prefix meaning “fungus”) NASA is excited about isn’t only a new way to make furniture, although it can do that, the agency says. Mushroom House—not its real name—is an integrated habitat with layers. The tough, complex fibers made by fungal mycelia are building blocks of furniture, interior walls, and the innermost layer of the outer shell.

Jan 26
2020

Happy Lunar New Year from Hubble

Hubble welcomes the Year of the Rat with a view of its own favorite rodents, NGC 4676A and B, and highlights the planetary origins of the Chinese zodiac’s 12-year timetable.

For more information, visit https://nasa.gov/hubble.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Bradley A Hague (GSFC intern): Producer / Editor.

Jan 26
2020

Photos: Solar Orbiter encapsulated inside launch shroud

The Airbus-built Solar Orbiter spacecraft has been closed up inside the payload fairing of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket in preparation for liftoff from Cape Canaveral in February on a joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA.

Technicians inside the Astrotech payload processing facility encapsulated the Solar Orbiter spacecraft — designed with thermal shielding to protect against the heat of the sun — inside the Atlas 5’s payload fairing Jan. 20. The spacecraft inside the Atlas 5 rocket’s 4-meter-diameter (13.1-foot) aerodynamic nose shroud will soon travel to ULA’s Vertical Integration Facility, where crane will hoist the payload package atop the launcher.

Valued at nearly $1.7 billion, the Solar Orbiter mission will travel closer to the sun than Mercury, where it will join NASA’s Parker Solar Probe for tandem observations of the solar wind and giant solar eruptions that can affect communications and electrical grids on Earth, plus satellite operations.

Jan 26
2020

How Satellite Data from Outer Space is Stored

To map Earth’s atmosphere, satellite data must be carefully collected, processed, and archived. We cover its journey from outer space to the ground.

Jan 25
2020

Japan Is Launching Its Own Space Defense Unit

The U.S. isn’t the only nation preparing for space warfare.

Jan 25
2020

You can watch two astronauts take a spacewalk to fix a $2 billion space experiment today. Here’s how

NASA is sending a pair of astronauts on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station today (Jan. 25) to finish fixing a complicated science experiment. Here’s how to watch it live.

NASA TV began streaming the spacewalk around 5:30 a.m. EST (1030 GMT) as European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan complete their final spacewalk preparations. You can watch it live here on Space.com. The spacewalk is expected to start around 6:50 a.m. EST (1150 GMT), when the astronauts will switch their spacesuits over to battery power before heading out of the airlock.

Jan 25
2020

Here’s How You Design for Living and Working in Outer Space

The interior design of the International Space Station takes a back seat to technology—the opposite of the majestic and immaculate spacecraft you see in sci-fi blockbusters.

Jan 24
2020

Astronomers Spot Loads Of Oxygen In Ancient ‘Nearby’ Star

Oxygen is surprisingly the third most abundant element in the cosmos and likely just as important to life elsewhere as here on Earth. New observations of an oxygen-rich ancient star provide clues to its distribution in the early universe.

Jan 22
2020

Chris Roberts on using infinite computing power to create a universe of endless possibilities

Circa 2017

Chris Roberts built worlds for games such as Wing Commander at Electronic Arts’ Origin at the dawn of 3D games a couple of decades ago.

Those games were technologically limited, but they still inspired the imagination. Now Roberts is now head of his own company, Roberts Space Industries, and he’s contemplating how to use much more computing power to run the upcoming Star Citizen and other games of the future. He spoke about this challenge with Rich Hilleman, director of PMT at Amazon Game Studios and former chief creative director at EA.