Nature, red in tooth and claw, is rife with organisms that eat their neighbors to get ahead. But in the systems studied by the theoretical ecologist Holly Moeller, an assistant professor of ecology, evolution and marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the consumed become part of the consumer in surprising ways.
Moeller primarily studies protists, a broad category of unicellular microorganisms like amoebas and paramecia that don’t fit within the familiar macroscopic categories of animals, plants and fungi. What most fascinates her is the ability of some protists to co-opt parts of the cells they prey upon. Armed with these still-functioning pieces of their prey, the protists can expand into new habitats and survive where they couldn’t before.
That’s because a team of scientists from the University of Rochester published, what they call, a “wildly theoretical paper” outlining how we could one day use asteroids as massive city-sized space habitats.
Amid rising mortgage rates and surging housing prices, one company is betting that 3D printing homes is a solution to the affordable housing crisis. Nancy Chen takes a look.
#3Dprinting #News.
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40 SpaceX Starships are terraforming Mars. Slowly transforming the Martian atmosphere, water begins to flow on the surface. Building the foundation for long term Mars colonization.
Going beyond the ‘First 10,000 Days on Mars’ and 2050, this is a timelapse look into the future.
Humans are surviving on Mars underground, in a crater habitat. A deep crater is enclosed, creating a mini Earth that is open and breathable. Tunnel diggers dig into the sides of the crater, creating more space and connecting other craters, landing pads, and lava tubes to form an underground Mars colony network… In part, inspired by: Mars garden quote: The Expanse — Chrisjen Avasarala Living on Mars — TED Talk by Stephen Petranek • https://youtu.be/t9c7aheZxls Andy Weir (The Martian) — Conversations With Joe • https://youtu.be/4dgwnhFf_6Y — Building on Mars — Articles Join the newsletter to read my new articles about “Building on Mars.” Or you can view them at my website: www.vx-c.com. • From Dust to Structures: How to Create Concrete and Metal on Mars • The (Not So) Simple Act of Building on Mars: The Engineering Challenges of Constructing on the Red Planet — A terraforming sci-fi documentary, and a timelapse look into the future of Mars colonization. — Book recommendations from Elon Musk on artificial intelligence, Mars, future technology and innovations, and sci-fi stories (affiliate links): • Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies https://amzn.to/3j28WkP • Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence https://amzn.to/3790bU1 • Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era https://amzn.to/351t9Ta • The Foundation: https://amzn.to/3i753dU • The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: https://amzn.to/3kNFSyW — Other videos to watch: • TIMELAPSE OF FUTURE SPACECRAFT: 2025 — 3000+ https://youtu.be/RL74Jb4OU9U • NASA 1958 — 2100 (Timelapse of past & future technology) https://youtu.be/2qaDEt7PCMI • MOON BASE — THE FIRST 10,000 DAYS (Timelapse) https://youtu.be/XOhz7ZBZ_1U …
In part, inspired by: Mars garden quote: The Expanse — Chrisjen Avasarala.
Austin, Texas-based 3D printing construction company ICON has gotten some pretty significant projects off the ground in recent years, from a 50-home development in Mexico to a 100-home neighborhood in Texas. This week the company won a NASA contract that will help it get an even bigger project much further off the ground—all the way to the moon, in fact.
The $57.2 million contract is intended to help ICON develop technologies for building infrastructure on the moon, like landing pads, houses, and roads. The goal is for ICON to build these lunar structures using local material—that is, moon houses built out of moon dust and moon rocks.
Orbital Reef is one of NASA’s in-development successors for the ISS.
Sierra Space, the company developing a new space station called Orbital Reef alongside Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, just blew up a small prototype for an inflatable astronaut habitat, a recent press statement (Dec .13) reveals.
The company conducted what it calls the “ultimate burst pressure test” (UBP) as part of the development of Orbital Reef, which is one of several privately-developed successors to the International Space Station that have been funded by NASA.
Blue Origin.
Worry not, space habitat enthusiasts, as the explosion was intentional and it was carried out to make Orbital Reef as safe as possible.
