Lifeboat Foundation

The Xodus One Foundation will be conducting workshops on Gravity Modification, based on Ben Solomon’s 12-year study titled “An Introduction to Gravity Modification” and other later peer reviewed papers. And has been vetted by the Foundation’s Chief Science Office, Dr. Andrew Beckwith.

This thought provoking & bleeding edge physics/technology workshop will assists attendees to understand how the future of propulsion technology is changing. And therefore, adjust their corporate programs to expect these future technologies and research programs.

Continue reading “Gravity Modification Workshop Schedule (Final)” »

Mike Wall — Space.com

NASA researchers have reported fresh evidence that an “impossible” space propulsion technology might actually work.

A study from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston says a microwave thruster system that requires no propellant appears to generate a tiny amount of thrust. If the technology pans out, it could make spaceflight far cheaper and speedier, advocates say. They argue that the thruster harnesses subatomic particles that pop into and out of existence in accordance with quantum physics — a hypothesis that’s mentioned in the study.

Read more

by Eric Mack — c/net

One of the persistent challenges of manned space exploration is that pesky lack of oxygen throughout much of the universe. Here on Earth, trees and other plant life do us a real solid by taking in our bad breath and changing it back to clean, sweet O₂.

So what if we could take those biological oxygen factories into space with us, but without all the land, sun, water, soil, and gravity that forests tend to require? This is the point where NASA and Elon Musk should probably start paying attention.

Read more

By Sebastian Anthony — ExtremeTech

Two of Europe’s largest companies, Airbus and Safran, are joining forces to fight SpaceX’s attempts to steal away their majority share of the lucrative commercial space launch business. This is one of the first times that one of the larger, entrenched, government-backed aerospace consortia has deigned to raise a quizzical eyebrow in acknowledgement at the presence of SpaceX — but it certainly won’t be the last. SpaceX, after a series of cheap, successful space launches, is now starting to make waves: After decades of expensive, monopolistic control of space travel, companies like Boeing, Lockheed, and Airbus are finally going to have to slash their costs to stay competitive. This is how the era of cheap space travel begins.

Read more

By Rich McCormick — The Verge

In 1950, a small New Mexican town in a patch of nondescript desert decided to make itself famous. The host of Truth or Consequences, a popular radio gameshow at the time, offered to air his program from the first town that named itself after the show. And so, the town of Hot Springs, New Mexico, became the town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

More than 60 years later, Truth or Consequences has kept its distinctive name, and gained something similarly rare: the world’s first commercial spaceport. Truth or Consequences is the closest town to Spaceport America, a facility that commercial spaceflight companies such as Virgin Galactic and SpaceX plan to use to fire paying passengers past our atmosphere.

Read more

By Abby Phillip — The Washington Post

NASA engineer and physicist Harold White announced a few years ago that he was working on a potentially groundbreaking idea that could allow space travel faster than the speed of light. Yes, like in “Star Trek.”

And now, to boldly go where no designer has gone before, Mark Rademaker — who is collaborating with White — has created a CGI design concept for the “warp ship.” They’re calling it the IXS Enterprise.

“We wanted to have a decent image of a theory conforming Warp ship to motivate young people to pursue a STEM career,” Rademaker said in an e-mail interview. “It does have some Sci-Fi features that might never transfer to a possible final design, unless we really want to.”

Read more

Wall Street OTC

An Arizona start-up company says it has successfully completed its first small-scale test flight of a stratospheric balloon and capsule being developed to show tourists a space like view of the Earth from 19 miles (30 km) above ground.

Privately owned by World View, an offshoot of Paragon Space Development Corp, aims to start taking passengers to the edge of space in the Voyager vehicle by 2016, according to a company statement.

“We couldn’t be any more excited about the results from this test flight,” said Jane Poynter, chief executive officer of World View. “It represents a foundational achievement that moves us one step closer to offering a life-changing experience of our Voyagers.”

Read more

Elizabeth Kreft — The Blaze

Billionaire Elon Musk has a passion for advancing technology; he recently announced plans to create the world’s single largest solar production and told CNBC he wants to put humans on Mars by the end of the 2020s.

But it appears there’s one area of technology he isn’t ready to push: artificial intelligence.

Read More

By Jordan England-Nelson, Los Angeles Daily News

The long-awaited presentation by Elon Musk, SpaceX’s billionaire CEO and founder of Tesla Motors, showcased the 12-year-old company’s engineering prowess with the flair of an Apple product release party.

Starry-eyed engineers cheered and flashed their smartphone cameras inside SpaceX’s Hawthorne factory as Musk took the stage in a crushed velvet blazer and a boy-band mic strapped to his ear.

After a 10-second countdown, a curtain dropped behind Musk to reveal the gumdrop-shaped Dragon V2, a seven-passenger capsule that could begin shuttling astronauts to the ISS as early as 2017.

Read More