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Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 270

Feb 29, 2020

Boeing Is Losing The New Space Race To SpaceX

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space travel

Boeing, an important player in the US space program for decades, hopes that its Starliner manned spacecraft will deliver astronauts to the International Space Station and the moon.

A software issue that prevented an unmanned test capsule from docking with the space station caused NASA to launch a review; preliminary results highlight serious safety concerns.

Boeing may have to attempt another test launch to meet the requirements of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Program, which would cost it $410 million.

Feb 28, 2020

Going to Mars with Moriba Jah

Posted by in category: space travel

Un-edited Zoom video of Seeking Delphi episode #42. Host Mark Sackler interviews former NASA Mars navigator Moriba Jah.

Feb 27, 2020

On the far side of the Moon, China’s lunar lander makes a game-changing discovery

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space travel

“Chang’e 4’s landing was no mean feat in itself. The reason why it is so difficult to send anything, robot or man, to the far side of the Moon, is because it is difficult to maintain communications with ground control on Earth with a giant rock in between (the Moon!).”


Chang’e-4 is the first spacecraft ever to land on the Moon’s far side.

Feb 27, 2020

Dragon Launch Set for March 6, Station Bone Research Benefits Earth

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, space travel

SpaceX has announced March 6 for the launch of its 20th contracted cargo mission to the International Space Station. Its Dragon resupply ship will arrive March 9 with over 5,600 pounds of science hardware, research samples and supplies to the Expedition 62 crew.

Meanwhile, NASA Flight Engineers Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan are tending to a new experiment, which was delivered early last week aboard Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo craft. The astronauts are exploring the differences between bone cells exposed to microgravity versus samples magnetically levitated on Earth.

Doctors will use the comparisons to gain a deeper understanding of bone diseases. Space-caused bone loss is similar to the symptoms of Earth-bound conditions such as osteoporosis. Astronauts exercise daily keeping track of their diet to counteract the effects of microgravity and maintain healthy bones and muscles.

Feb 26, 2020

Katherine Johnson, famed NASA mathematician and inspiration for the film ‘Hidden Figures,’ is dead at 101

Posted by in categories: computing, mathematics, space travel

NASA announced Johnson’s death on Monday.

Johnson was part of NASA’s “Computer Pool,” a group of mathematicians whose data powered NASA’s first successful space missions. The group’s success largely hinged on the accomplishments of its black women members.


Johnson was among a group of black women mathematicians who helped power NASA’s space travel in the early 1960s when the agency was still segregated.

Feb 25, 2020

Virgin Galactic will begin accepting $1,000 deposits toward space flight tickets for tourists

Posted by in category: space travel

Prospective space tourists on Wednesday will be able to put an $1,000 deposit down to save a spot in line for Virgin Galactic tickets.

Feb 25, 2020

Musk Reads: Why SpaceX’s Mars city could become a beacon of innovation

Posted by in categories: innovation, space travel

Starship could host entertainment and SpaceX is worth more than you think. What happened to last week’s Falcon 9? It’s Musk Reads: SpaceX Edition #145.

A version of this article appeared in the “Musk Reads” newsletter. Sign up for free here.

Feb 25, 2020

Computer modeling brings simple, efficient rocket engine closer to reality

Posted by in categories: computing, mathematics, space travel

Engineers at the University of Washington are working on a new type of rocket engine that holds the promise of being lighter, more efficient, and simpler to make than conventional liquid-fuel rockets. Called a Rotational Detonation Engine (RDE), one of the biggest hurdles to making it practical is to develop mathematical models that can describe how the very unpredictable engine design works in order to make it more stable.

An RDE is a rocket engine that is similar to the pulse jet engines that powered the infamous German V1 cruise missile of the Second World War, which used a simple combustion chamber with an exhaust pipe at one end and spring-mounted slats on the front face. In operation, air would come in through the slats, mix with fuel, which was then detonated, producing a pulse of thrust. An RDE takes this idea one step further.

Continue reading “Computer modeling brings simple, efficient rocket engine closer to reality” »

Feb 25, 2020

Huge loss for mankind 😞

Posted by in categories: innovation, space travel

Great woman.


Her impeccable calculations had already helped plot the successful flight of Alan B. Shepard Jr., who became the first American in space when his Mercury spacecraft went aloft in 1961. • • Johnson’s work over 33 years propelled many of America’s breakthroughs in space exploration, including Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind” on the Moon. • • Rest in Peace Ma’am 😓.

Feb 25, 2020

The Atmosphere as Global Sensor

Posted by in categories: climatology, space travel

Sensors are usually thought of in terms of physical devices that receive and respond to electromagnetic signals – from everyday sensors in our smartphones and connected home appliances to more advanced sensors in buildings, cars, airplanes and spacecraft. No physical sensor or aggregation of electronic sensors, however, can continuously and globally detect disturbances that take place on or above the earth’s surface. But the physical atmosphere itself may offer such a sensing capability, if it can be understood and tapped into.

To that end, DARPA recently announced its Atmosphere as a Sensor (AtmoSense) program, whose goal is to understand the fundamentals of energy propagation from the ground to the ionosphere to determine if the atmosphere can be used as a sensor. A Proposers Day is scheduled for February 14, 2020, in Arlington, Virginia.

It’s well known that energy propagates from the Earth’s surface to the ionosphere, but the specifics of how that happens is not currently known enough to use the atmosphere as a sensor. Scientific literature has clearly documented that events like thunderstorms, tornadoes, volcanos, and tsunamis make big “three-dimensional wakes” that propagate to the upper reaches of the ionosphere and leave a mark there. Since that energy traverses several other layers of atmosphere – the troposphere, stratosphere, and mesosphere – on its way up to the ionosphere, the idea is to try and identify the disturbances the “wake” is making along its way to see if researchers can capture information to indicate what type of event caused it.