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The International Space Station has been orbiting above us for the last 20 years. It’s been home to astronauts from more than a dozen different countries — but mostly Americans and Russians. The two former “Space Race” countries control the main parts of the station. The science done there has required close collaboration and so it’s been largely insulated from politics on Earth.
But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may change that. The two countries have agreed to cooperate through 2024… but after that, the future of the space station is uncertain.
Spaceship Neptune will start carrying customers to the stratosphere in 2024, if all goes according to plan.
Space Perspective wants its passengers to fly in style.
The Florida-based company is working to send paying customers (as well as research payloads) to the stratosphere aboard its “Spaceship Neptune,” a pressurized capsule that will cruise high above Earth beneath an enormous balloon.
WASHINGTON – As Maxar Technologies’ satellites continue to collect images of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the company is working with customers so it can allocate more capacity to meet U.S. government needs, said Maxar’s CEO Daniel Jablonsky.
With four satellites in orbit, “a lot of times we don’t have a lot of spare capacity,” Jablonsky said in an interview last week at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.
“But we made accommodations with some of our other customers to be able to surge capacity for the U.S. and allies,” he said. The company also gets about 200 requests a day for imagery from news media organizations.
After restarting work on the project a few months ago, SpaceX appears to have gotten back up to speed and begun to make rapid progress on the construction of Starship’s first Florida launch pad and tower.
Located at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Launch Complex 39A facilities, SpaceX has intended to construct a Starship launch site there for several years. A serious attempt was made in late 2019 but SpaceX soon abandoned the effort and redirected its energy towards Starship prototyping and a much different launch pad design. Two years later, SpaceX’s second attempt shares only a little in common with the first. Both are to be located within the eastern half of Pad 39A’s shield-like footprint, although the specific location of the tower and launch mount has been modified. If this attempt comes to fruition, Starship’s first East Coast launch facilities will still sit just a few hundred feet away from the only SpaceX pad capable of launching Crew Dragon, Cargo Dragon, or Falcon Heavy.
Beyond those two characteristics, SpaceX’s second attempt is almost entirely different.
In the future, smart clothing might monitor our posture, communicate with smartphones and manage our body temperature. But first, scientists need to find a way to cost-effectively print intricate, flexible and durable circuits onto a variety of fabrics. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have developed a conductive 3D printing ink made of liquid metal droplets coated with alginate, a polymer derived from algae.
Conventional electronics are rigid and unable to withstand the twisting and stretching motions that clothing undergoes during typical daily activities. Because of their fluid nature and excellent conductivity, gallium-based liquid metals (LMs) are promising materials for flexible electronics. However, LMs don’t stick well to fabrics, and their large surface tension causes them to ball up during 3D printing, rather than form continuous circuits. Yong He and colleagues wanted to develop a new type of conductive ink that could be 3D printed directly onto clothing in complex patterns.
To make their ink, the researchers mixed LM and alginate. Stirring the solution and removing the excess liquid resulted in LM microdroplets coated with an alginate microgel shell. The ink was very thick until it was squeezed through a nozzle for 3D printing, which broke hydrogen bonds in the microgel and made it more fluid. Once the ink reached the fabric surface, the hydrogen bonds reformed, causing the printed pattern to maintain its shape. The team 3D printed the new ink onto a variety of surfaces, including paper, polyester fabrics, nonwoven fabrics and acrylic-based tape. Although the printed patterns were not initially conductive, the researchers activated them by stretching, pressing or freezing, which ruptured the dried alginate networks to connect the LM microdroplets.
The Interventions Testing Program is the gold standard for testing longevity drugs. What do the results say about which ones extend lifespan in mice? Rapamycin is a big winner!
New podcast w/ Richard Miller on the data on several longevity supplements including Acarbose, NR, Resveratrol, Fisetin, MCT Oil, Curcumin, Fish Oil + more!
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Airbus has completed wind-tunnel testing of its eXtra Performance Wing demonstrator in its quest to quickly test and accelerate advanced innovative technologies that will decarbonize the aviation industry. The demonstrator model was tested in the Filton wind tunnel near Bristol, England.
Launched last September, the eXtra Performance Wing project takes inspiration from nature to improve wing aerodynamics and performance. It is intended to be compatible with any future aircraft configuration and propulsion system to reduce CO2 emissions.
To make a more efficient aircraft with lower carbon footprints, Airbus is testing wing technologies that are based on the behavior of bird flight with wings. Initially, the technology was introduced at a smaller scale through another Airbus project, AlbatrossONE, which tested semi-aeroelastic hinged wings that – like the seabird – unlocked during the flight when experiencing wind gusts or turbulence. Now, the eXtra Performance Wing will also examine new technologies, including gust sensors, pop-up spoilers, and multifunctional trailing edges to enable active control of the wing.
A simple colour change could indicate the presence of potentially hazardous hydrogen gas thanks to a new sensor developed by researchers in Germany. The micron-scale device, which uses so-called “supraparticles” that turn from purple to pink in the presence of hydrogen, could help prevent explosions by making it easier to detect and localize leaks at fuel stations, generators and pipelines.
