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Circa2016 photonic propulsion.

There’s no argument in the astronomical community—rocket-propelled spacecraft can take us only so far. The SLS will likely take us to Mars, and future rockets might be able to help us reach even more distant points in the solar system. But Voyager 1 only just left the solar system, and it was launched in 1977. The problem is clear: we cannot reach other stars with rocket fuel. We need something new.

“We will never reach even the nearest stars with our current propulsion technology in even 10 millennium,” writes Physics Professor Philip Lubin of the University of California Santa Barbara in a research paper titled A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight. “We have to radically rethink our strategy or give up our dreams of reaching the stars, or wait for technology that does not exist.”

Continue reading “Lasers Could Send a Spacecraft to Mars in As Little As 3 Days” | >

An international team of astronomers has investigated a nearby emission nebula and star-forming region dubbed the Cat’s Paw Nebula as part of the B-field In STar-forming Region Observations (BISTRO) survey. Results of this study, presented in a paper published December 24 on arXiv.org, provide essential information about the structure of the object’s complex magnetic field.

At a distance of some 4240 light years away, the Cat’s Paw Nebula (other designations: NGC 6334, Gum 64) is a high-mass star-forming complex that lies within the galactic plane. The nebula has a form of a filamentary cloud structure spanning 1000 light years and hosts several star-forming regions.

Observations show that NGC 6334 is dominated by both a dense ridge threaded by sub-filaments, and by two hub-like structures towards its Northeast end. Astronomers have found that this ridge itself is in the process of active high-mass star formation and ultra-compact HII regions, maser sources, and molecular outflows have been identified along or next to its crest. However, although column density and velocity structures of the nebula’s both filaments and hubs have been thoroughly studied, still very little is known about its (B-field).

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Switzerland’s Manta Aircraft is working on a flexible hybrid-electric canard aircraft design that will be capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) or efficient short take-off and landing (STOL) operations. A one-third scale model has been built, and the team is preparing for its first flight tests.

The ANN1 and ANN2 aircraft are single-and tandem double-seat versions of the same airframe – a carbon composite-bodied plane shape with a small V tail, a large reverse wing at the rear and a smaller canard wing at the front. Forward propulsion is provided by four ducted electric fans hanging under the front edge of the rear wing, and for VTOL operations these can tilt to face upwards.

Balancing the pitch of the aircraft in a VTOL lift or hover are four more ducted fans in the nose and tail sections, bringing the total to eight props – a decent number for redundancy. On the prototype, these are exposed; if the ANN platform makes it to production, little covers can close over these props to reduce drag in forward flight.

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Just say no to cat murder.

One of the first times quantum mechanics entered popular culture, “Schrödinger’s Cat” remains a puzzling thought experiment in which a poor cat’s fate remains unknown inside a box. But scientists now say that the paradox at the heart of the puzzle could be determined ahead of time, or even reversed.

First, a recap of Schrodinger’s Cat. Created by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935, it looks at a theory of quantum mechanics known as the Copenhagen interpretation. According to the Copenhagen interpretation, a quantum system will exist in superposition up until the moment it interacts with the real observable world in any way. When discussing quantum theory, the Institute of Physics says that a superposition is the idea that a particle can be in two places at once.

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The world is far from perfect, and 2020 did throw the proverbial spanner is the works, but the improvements we have made are not to be ignored!!

We are winning…

I will review the lesser shared news the world is not as bad as you might have been led to believe, even if it is not yet perfect.

Continue reading “The Sustainable Development Goals Explained Clean Water And Sanitation” | >