Lifeboat Foundation

Early probes are one thing, but can we build a continuing presence among the stars, human or robotic? An evolutionary treatment of starflight sees it growing from a steadily expanding presence right here in our Solar System, the kind of infrastructure Alex Tolley examines in the essay below. How we get to a system-wide infrastructure is the challenge, one analyzed by a paper that sees artificial intelligence and 3D printing as key drivers leading to a rapidly expanding space economy. The subject is a natural for Tolley, who is co-author (with Brian McConnell) of A Design for a Reusable Water-Based Spacecraft Known as the Spacecoach (Springer, 2016). An ingenious solution to cheap transportation among the planets, the Spacecoach could readily be part of the equation as we bring assets available off-planet into our economy and deploy them for even deeper explorations. Alex is a lecturer in biology at the University of California, and has been a Centauri Dreams regular for as long as I can remember, one whose insights are often a touchstone for my own thinking.

By Alex Tolley

Such research could lead to methods of controlling advance-scouting rovers on asteroids, moons, or planets from nearby orbit. All this and more in a recap of science on the Space Station. Details: http://go.nasa.gov/2lBDZrq

Small, versatile, and autonomous, Astrobee will be getting to work on the ISS.

Engineers are using origami to design drugs, micro-robots, and future space missions.

Don’t miss “The Origami Revolution,” airing February 15, 2017 at 9 pm on PBS: http://to.pbs.org/2lp78cv

Top teams will compete in a simulated Mars mission.

Feb. 7 (UPI) — Astronomers at the University of Warwick have located a white dwarf pulsar — the first of its kind.

Until now, pulsars have been the domain of neutron stars. First discovered by astronomers in the 1960s, the binary stay systems are characterized by rhythmic blasts of electromagnetic radiation.

The newly identified white dwarf pulsar is called AR Scorpii, or AR Sco. It’s located in the constellation Scorpius, 380 light-years from our solar system.

Continue reading “Astronomers find first white dwarf pulsar” »

Feb. 3 (UPI) — A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope displays the beauty of a stellar death — in this case, the death of a low-mass star, similar to our sun in size.

Once a red giant, the star is currently in a transitionary phase: It’s on its way to becoming a planetary nebula. The Hubble image reveals the star’s layers of gas and dust being shed and thrown outward. The expelled material, now forming clouds, could eventually form new stars and planets.

Astronomers rarely catch dying red giants in their transitionary phase. It will only be a few thousand years before the star is a pure planetary nebula — a blip in space time.

NASA has accepted a plan from a private venture called NanoRacks to provide the International Space Station with an air lock that would serve as its first commercial portal.

The plan could serve as the model for the eventual development of entire space stations backed by the private sector.

Continue reading “NASA gives its nod to NanoRacks for space station’s first commercial portal” »

In Brief

• From colonies on Mars to massive pods under the sea, architects and urban planners have come up with some wildly imaginative designs for the future of city living.
• Given current population trends and our ever-worsening environment, we need to start thinking now about how humanity will live in the future.

When you imagine what the cities of the future will look like, it’s hard to think that we can do more than what some nations have already achieved. For instance, Dubai, Japan, and Singapore feature some of the world’s most impressive modern architectural marvels; Helsinki is pioneering a future in data transparency; Brazil is setting the standard for efficient and sustainable mass transportation and eco-consciousness; and Korea is defining an urban landscape anchored on digital connectivity.

But architects and urban planners are letting their imaginations run wild — after all, where else can we go but toward our most outlandish, exciting, and sometimes even dystopian imaginings of the future?

Continue reading “Architects Reveal What They Think ‘The City of the Future’ Will Look Like” »