Lifeboat Foundation

The 2nd part of my interview with Breitbart on transhumanism, the future, and robots is out.

A major concerned for Lockheed is the long passage of time between the crew’s training and the moment a serious issue does come up during a mission—which could be a few years later. “They may not remember the training. Having the right kind of on-board documentation and flight computer to be able to provide the astronauts the information they need when they need it, is important,” Pratt said. “Not just having the alarm go off but having the alarm go off and the PDF file of the manual come up at the same time. That’s really useful in helping the crew understand how to operate their own vehicle.”

Even though Lockheed Martin’s early habitat concept will service exploration missions near the Moon, the company is always thinking about the manned mission to Mars, which will require a far more advanced successor to their current designs. Engineers will need to go through a few iterations of the concept after the health effects of long-duration human spaceflight are known and as new technology is developed. This is the basis that NASA created NextSTEP on.

The federal space agency is looking for a modular habitat that can grow, evolve and be added to. “New modules are built upon the lessons of the previous modules,” Hopkins said.

Continue reading “With Mars in Mind, Lockheed Martin Designs Human Habitat to Orbit Moon” »

SpaceX has made good on a high-priority delivery: the world’s first inflatable room for astronauts.

A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, two days after launching from Cape Canaveral. Station astronauts used a robot arm to capture the Dragon, orbiting 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth.

The Dragon holds 7,000 pounds (3,175 kilograms) of freight, including the soft-sided compartment built by Bigelow Aerospace. The pioneering pod—packed tightly for launch—should swell to the size of a small bedroom once filled with air next month.

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Space shuttle launches are expensive and inefficient, but for now they’re the only way we have of getting into space. For now. But it’s possible that we’ll soon have an elevator. Here’s how.

Full story at In a Nutshell.

MIT printed this fully functional robot right out of a 3D printer.

MIT printed this robot this fully functional robot right out of a 3D printer. http://voc.tv/14JQHoo

London to New York…

…in 11 minutes. MINUTES.

Strange light in space could prove to be earth-shattering.

The Japanese government is considering giving away money ‘vouchers’ to poor young people to boost consumption, according to reports.

Following the examples of Finland, Canada and the Netherlands, Japan is considering the introduction of basic income, a tax-free income, after recent surveys showed that under-34s in Japan have cut spending by 11.7 per cent year on year.

Proponents of basic income say that not only does it reduce financial poverty but it has a number of other benefits, such as rewarding unpaid activities not recognised as economic contributions (parenting, for instance).

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Global warming is shifting the way the Earth wobbles on its polar axis, a new NASA study finds.

Melting ice sheets — especially in Greenland — are changing the distribution of weight on Earth.

And that has caused both the North Pole and the wobble, which is called polar motion, to change course, according to a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances.

Continue reading “Global warming is changing the way the Earth spins on its axis” »