Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists see cislunar outpost as critical to advancing future Mars missions.

NASA researchers based in Colorado are devising efforts to build a human outpost in cislunar space — the region around the moon. Unfortunately for fans of space tourism, these outposts are not designed to be the Airbnb of tomorrow. Rather, the habitats are to be used as in-between points to facilitate travel to near-Earth asteroids or Mars.

Scientists and engineers at NASA’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) Projects are researching life-support needs, updating astronaut radiation protection, and rethinking communication systems, to enhance the habitability of orbital communities parked in cislunar space.

Continue reading “Vacation Rentals on the Moon? NASA Plans Human Outpost in Space” »

Google Fiber is heading close to home for its next location: San Francisco. Google announced this morning that it intends to bring its fast gigabit internet to “a portion of San Francisco,” specifically to apartments, condos, and affordable housing units. Details on exactly where and when are nonexistent for now, and Google suggests that we may be waiting a while to hear more.

What Google Fiber does say is that it won’t be building out its own network in San Francisco, as it’s done in many other cities. Instead, it’ll rely on existing fiber networks to provide its service. That may limit what Google can do and where it can go, but it also means a much faster path to launch. “To date, we’ve focused mostly on building fiber-optic networks from scratch,” Michael Slinger, Google Fiber’s business operations director, writes in a blog post. “Now, as Google Fiber grows, we’re looking for more ways to serve cities of different shapes and sizes.” Google Fiber is already taking this approach in a couple other markets, including Huntsville, Alabama, where earlier this week it announced plans to launch using the city’s municipal network.

As it’s done elsewhere, Google Fiber plans to provide free gigabit internet service to “some public and affordable housing properties” in San Francisco. It’s also working with a nonprofit to teach people basic internet skills, like setting up an email account and applying for jobs.

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Audience viewing “Seeking Home: Life Inside the Calais Migrant Camp,” a VR experience placing viewers at the center of the migrant camp via Samsung Gear VR. (AP Photo)

I am not an astronomer or astrophysicist. I have never worked for NASA or JPL. But, during my graduate year at Cornell University, I was short on cross-discipline credits, and so I signed up for Carl Sagan’s popular introductory course, Astronomy 101. I was also an amateur photographer, occasionally freelancing for local media—and so the photos shown here, are my own.

Carl Sagan is aware of my camera as he talks to a student in the front row of Uris Hall

By the end of the 70’s, Sagan’s star was high and continuing to rise. He was a staple on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, producer and host of the PBS TV series, Cosmos, and he had just written Dragons of Eden, which won him a Pulitzer Prize. He also wrote Contact, which became a blockbuster movie, starring Jodie Foster.

Sagan died in 1996, after three bone marrow transplants to compensate for an inability to produce blood cells. Two years earlier, Sagan wrote a book and narrated a film based on a photo taken from space.

Continue reading “What has changed since ‘Pale Blue Dot’?” »

The first home battery system you simply plug in to install.

GOLDEN, Colo. — Researchers are mapping out how to build a human outpost in cislunar space — the region around Earth’s moon.

The ongoing work is expected to help plot out other deep-space trips, such as the journey to a near-Earth asteroid and the larger leap to distant Mars.

Under NASA’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) Projects, scientists and engineers are examining how best to utilize NASA’s Orion deep-space crew capsule and future human habitats to set up a cislunar outpost. [Visions of Deep-Space Stations (Gallery)].

Living on a houseboat may seem very romantic, but the day-to-day misery of hauling water from shore and listening to the thump of the generator can soon take the icing off the cupcake. As a glimpse into what could be the future of aquatic living, two Fraunhofer Institutes and their partners are working on a self-sufficient floating home that creates its own water, electricity, and heat without looking like a works barge.

Housing shortages are a recurring problem in many parts of Europe and the canals of Amsterdam and London show that floating homes are hardly a new idea. But such residences must either be situated in the few places where power and water hook-ups are practical or find tenants who don’t mind living off the grid.

To make it feasible to live comfortably without being tied up to a pier, Fraunhofer and its associates have initiated the Lusation autartec project, which is aimed at a Germany that is looking more toward floating homes for both recreation and residency.

Continue reading “Self-sufficient floating home to create its own water and energy” »

“No offense; but your robots are ugly”

Robots today (especially for home and care giver usage) will need to improve drastically. We’re still designing robots like the are a CPU for homes which frankly freaks some kids out, scares some of the elderly population that it’s too fragile to operate, and my own cat will not come near one. If robotics for home use is ever going to be adopted by the large mass of the population they will need to look less like they are a robot part of a manufacturers’s assembly line, will need a softer/ low noise sound with volume controls for those with hard of hearing, will need modifications for the deaf and blind, will all need to be a multi purpose robot that can do 2 or more types of work inside the home vacumn/ dust/ cook/ wash dishes/ wash clothes, etc., not complicated to set up and operate, reliable (not needing repairs all the time & not over heat), less bulky, better sensors to determine stairs and can climb stairs, etc.

From mowing the lawn to cooking dinner, experts say automatons are set to take over some of our most tedious tasks.

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Unfortunately, much of this (teaching morals, developing a defense plan in case of a preemptive strike, etc,) is not going to work and key reason is simple. Robots are and will always be a machine at it’s core foundation. And, as a result, criminals and terrorists will be able to pay enough money to someone to over ride the technology; therefore, enabling criminals and others to do whatever they wish with the technology.

Instead of trying to promote book reading as a means to preventing an up rising; let’s be a little more realistic in this by stating we’re teaching the machine to have more of an interpersonal approach in its communications and interactions with people. Also, I highly encourage robotic companies need to include a well diverse engineering team especially where robotics is being developed for domestic usage and caregiver usage; otherwise, you will be only as good as the next competitor’s product that did include a right mix of engineers and deliver a better product that meets both male and female needs as well as cultural needs.

In other words, it will be hard for a robot designed & created with a dominate male (20 to 30 something year olds) minded to relate how a female 50 yr old thinks about her house. Again, I would love to see more females get into this space especially female owned companies because they could truly own this market.
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