Lifeboat Foundation

A fireball that lit up the sky over the United Kingdom and Northern Europe on February 28 was an extremely rare type of meteorite. Fragments of the space rock discovered on a driveway in the Cotswolds could provide answers to questions about the early history of the solar system and life on Earth. Almost 300 grams (10.6 ounces) of the meteorite have been collected from the small Gloucestershire town of Winchcombe by scientists, who said the rock was formed of carbonaceous chondrite. The substance is some of the most primitive and pristine material in the solar system and has been known to contain organic material and amino acids — the ingredients for life.

The Natural History Museum in London said the fragments were retrieved in such good condition and so quickly after the meteorite’s fall that they are comparable to rock samples returned from space missions, both in quality and quantity. “I was in shock when I saw it and immediately knew it was a rare meteorite and a totally unique event. It’s emotional being the first one to confirm to the people standing in front of you that the thud they heard on their driveway overnight is in fact the real thing,” said Richard Greenwood, a research fellow in planetary sciences at The Open University, in a statement from the museum. He was the first scientist to identify the meteorite.

There are approximately 65000 known meteorites on Earth, the museum said. Only 1206 have been witnessed to fall, and of these, only 51 are carbonaceous chondrites. The fireball was seen by thousands of eyewitnesses across the UK and Northern Europe and was captured on home surveillance and other cameras when it fell to Earth at 9:54 p.m. GMT on February 28. The original space rock was traveling at nearly 14 kilometers per second before hitting the Earth’s atmosphere and ultimately landing on a driveway in Winchcombe. Other pieces of the meteorite have been recovered in the local area. Footage of the fireball shot by members of the public and the UK Fireball Alliance camera networks helped locate the meteorite and determine exactly where it came from in the solar system, the museum said.

But it’s not otaku homes the developer is hoping for these to appear in.

This is the Hadrian X by FBR, a pioneering and autonomous bricklaying robot that can build a standard 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom house every 2 days on average.

The colorful community was built in just 13 weeks!

A colorful village of 40 tiny homes opened up in Los Angeles earlier this month. While each 64-foot square unit can only hold one to two people, the project as a whole is a huge step forward when it comes to solving one of the city’s biggest crises: homelessness.

Continue reading “Los Angeles Just Opened a Tiny Home Village for the Homeless” »

A unique training program has teams of astronauts spending time inside caves doing experiments and learning to work together in a challenging environment.

We’re accustomed to astronauts pulling off their missions without a hitch. They head up to the International Space Station for months at a time and do what they do, then come home. But upcoming missions to the surface of the Moon, and maybe Mars, present a whole new set of challenges.

One way astronauts are preparing for those challenges is by exploring the extreme environment inside caves.

Continue reading “Astronauts Explore Caves on Earth, Learning the Skills They’ll Need for the Moon and Mars” »

A New York homebuilder has put a 3D-printed home on the market for the first time in the United States, and he is getting a lot of offers.

Spot the robot.

Yesterday, the NYPD used a Boston Dynamics robot — Spot — to investigate a home invasion in the Bronx. A spokesperson for the NYPD said the robot is in a test phase.

What would a habitat on Mars look like? Kind of like this.

Berlin –Berlin-based HPS Home Power Solutions is pleased to announce it has received the 2021 Handelsblatt Energy Award in the category of “Smart City” for its picea system, the first marketable independent, solar-hydrogen powered CO₂ free home energy system worldwide. The award was given by a top-class jury.

Based on a combination of solar energy and innovative hydrogen technology, the picea system is the first year-round, CO₂ free, independent power supply for one-and two-family houses. The picea system is highly effective with about 90% utilization rate and offers more than 100 times the storage capacity of standard household-storage batteries.

“We are extremely pleased to receive this award recognizing the development of our picea system into a marketable clean energy solution,” said Zeyad Abul-Ella, co-founder and managing director of HPS Home Power Solutions.” HPS has made hydrogen technology more widely available to household consumers for the first time. Our product will be indispensable in the smart cities of the future. The Handelsblatt award is a recognition of the considerable reduction of CO₂ emissions picea offers and the value of German innovation in the field of climate protection technology,“he added.