Lifeboat Foundation

(Bloomberg) — China is speeding up efforts to design and build a manned deep-sea platform to help it hunt for minerals in the South China Sea, one that may also serve a military purpose in the disputed waters.

Such an oceanic “space station” would be located as much as 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) below the surface, according to a recent Science Ministry presentation viewed by Bloomberg. The project was mentioned in China’s current five-year economic plan released in March and ranked number two on a list of the top 100 science and technology priorities.

Authorities recently examined the implementation of the project and decided to accelerate the process, according to the presentation.

Mass of water vapor that is at least 140 trillion times that of all water in the world’s oceans combined, and 100,000 times more massive than the sun.

A team of astronomers have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe.

The researchers found a mass of water vapor that is at least 140 trillion times that of all water in the world’s oceans combined, and 100,000 times more massive than the sun.

Space is not the soundless vacuum movies would have us believe. In fact, judging by these eerie recordings of the music being thrown off by the oldest stars in the Milky Way, space actually sounds like a bit of a party.

The recordings were created by a team of scientists led by Andrea Miglio of the University of Birmingham, using data from NASA’s Kepler missions. After measuring the acoustic oscillations of some of the furthest known distant stars in the Milky Way’s M4 star cluster, the researchers were able to use that data to recreate the sounds and get an idea of just what noises the stars are throwing off. It’s a cacophony, for sure—but a surprisingly musical one that could slide pretty seamlessly into an ambient house track of your choice. (Free idea, DJs.)

Besides being excellent listening, the sounds are also scientifically useful. Measuring the tones from each star let the researchers derive a formula, which they’ve published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, to get more precise measurements of star masses and ages. Since the stars are so old, in some cases up to 13 billion years, researchers hope to use the sounds to get even more information about what the universe was like way back then.

Continue reading “Astronomers Recorded This Eerie Music From a 13-Billion-Year-Old Star” »

Trailer for The Space Between Us, starring Asa Butterfield and Britt Robertson.

In this interplanetary adventure, a space shuttle embarks on the first mission to colonize Mars, only to discover after takeoff that one of the astronauts is pregnant. Shortly after landing, she dies from complications while giving birth to the first human born on the red planet – never revealing who the father is. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Gardner Elliot – an inquisitive, highly intelligent boy who reaches the age of 16 having only met 14 people in his very unconventional upbringing. While searching for clues about his father, and the home planet he’s never known, Gardner begins an online friendship with a street smart girl in Colorado named Tulsa. When he finally gets a chance to go to Earth, he’s eager to experience all of the wonders he could only read about on Mars – from the most simple to the extraordinary. But once his explorations begin, scientists discover that Gardner’s organs can’t withstand Earth’s atmosphere.

You’ve seen that tensegrity sphere toy. I own one. This is like Bigelow modules but a step beyond.

NASA NIAC has funded a proposal that seeks to design a rotating habitat with a robotic system that constructs the structure and provides a habitat growth capability.

The tensegrity technology allows minimum mass of both the habitat and the robotic system. This proposal solves three unsolved space travel problems:

Continue reading “Tensegrity Approaches to In-Space Construction of a 1g Growable Habitat” »

China’s SciFi Awards — I can see the red carpet and the outfits too. Wonder if China could do their own SciFi Walk of Fame?.

This is pretty interesting: during the latest national congress of the China Association for Science and Technology, chairman Han Qide announced that the country would be setting up a program to promote science fiction and fantasy, including the creation of a new major award.

Throughout much of its genre’s history, China’s science fiction has had a legacy of usefulness, often promoted to educate readers in concepts relating to science and technology. This new award will be accompanied by an “international sci-fi festival” and other initiatives to promote the creation of new stories.

Continue reading “The Chinese Government is Setting Up Its Own Major Science Fiction Award” »

I still believe we need some sort of Environmental Protection Oversight in Space with the space junk already much less with mining.

One of Europe’s smallest states, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, cast its eyes to the cosmos on Friday, announcing it would draw up a law to facilitate mining on asteroids.

Extracting precious metals, rare minerals and other valuable commodities on passing asteroids is a staple of science fiction, but Luxembourg says incentives are urgently needed to turn this dream into fact.

Continue reading “Luxembourg says law legalizing mining asteroids will be completed” »

“We are reaching the limits of how precisely we can test quantum theory on Earth,” says Daniel Oi at the University of Strathclyde. Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the University of Strathclyde, UK, have become the first to test in orbit technology for satellite-based quantum network nodes. With a network that carries information in the quantum properties of single particles, you can create secure keys for secret messaging and potentially connect powerful quantum computers in the future. But scientists think you will need equipment in space to get global reach.

Another reliable article on the Quantum Internet work.

You can’t sign up for the quantum internet just yet, but researchers have reported a major experimental milestone towards building a global quantum network — and it’s happening in space.

With a network that carries information in the quantum properties of single particles, you can create secure keys for secret messaging and potentially connect powerful quantum computers in the future. But scientists think you will need equipment in space to get global reach.

Continue reading “Quantum satellite device tests technology for global quantum network” »