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Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 474

Dec 1, 2015

SpaceX Will Attempt Next Rocket Landing At Cape Canaveral Instead Of In The Ocean

Posted by in category: space travel

Next time a SpaceX rocket touches down, it will be on solid ground.

Florida Today broke the news today that SpaceX was hoping to land its next Falcon 9 rocket on the ground at NASA’s Cape Canaveral facility in Florida.

SpaceX has attempted to land a rocket gently before, but those attempts were made on giant floating platforms in the ocean (which just missed). Then, last week, competitor Blue Origin managed to land it’s own reusable rocket safely on the ground, amping up the public pressure on SpaceX to successfully land their own rocket.

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Nov 25, 2015

Russia and Europe Want a Moon Colony—Why Is NASA So Focused on Mars?

Posted by in category: space travel

Only 12 people—all Americans—have put their boots on the Moon. Today, however, NASA has no plans to send humans back to our pockmarked satellite. Instead, its space pioneers will shoot straight to Mars (and wave to the Moon as they pass it by).

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Nov 24, 2015

Jeff Bezos launched and landed the world’s first reusable rocket

Posted by in category: space travel

Sub-orbital only, but still very nice.


A big milestone.

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Nov 24, 2015

NASA gives MIT a humanoid robot to develop software for future space missions

Posted by in categories: information science, robotics/AI, space travel

A team led by MIT Professor Russ Tedrake has been selected by NASA to develop algorithms for the 6-foot-tall “Valkyrie” robot in support of future space travel to Mars and beyond.

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Nov 23, 2015

Will NASA Ever Send Astronauts To Pluto?

Posted by in category: space travel

With its nitrogen-dominated atmosphere and water-rich icy surface, Pluto seems much more hospitable than even the most sanguine planetary scientists would have wagered a decade ago. But could it ever play host to an Antarctic-styled research station?

That is, as a base to routinely house researcher/astronauts out to give humans a foothold in the outer reaches of our solar system?

“The notion of a Pluto base figures prominently in the anime ‘Star Blazers’ from my childhood, so it’d be wonderful if there were a good reason for it,” said Gerard van Belle, a research astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Az., where Clyde Tombaugh discovered the diminutive dwarf planet some 85 years ago.

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Nov 23, 2015

Gyroscopic gas thrusters tested for future spacewalks on asteroids

Posted by in categories: futurism, space travel

Massachusetts-based space company Draper has trialled a gyroscopic jet-packthat could help give astronauts new freedom when working in orbit or exploring asteroids in the future.

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Nov 22, 2015

Just a couple of days ago, SpaceX has officially received the green light from NASA to launch manned space missions to the ISS by 2017

Posted by in category: space travel

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Nov 11, 2015

David Eagleman: Can a Computer Simulate Consciousness?

Posted by in categories: computing, information science, neuroscience, space travel

Yes, conceivably. And if/when we achieve the levels of technology necessary for simulation, the universe will become our playground. Eagleman’s latest book is “The Brain: The Story of You” (http://goo.gl/2IgDRb).

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Nov 9, 2015

‘Electric Sails’ Could Propel Superfast Spacecraft

Posted by in categories: particle physics, robotics/AI, space travel

SANTA CLARA, California — Robotic spacecraft may ride the solar wind toward interstellar space at unprecedented speeds a decade or so from now.

Researchers are developing an “electric sail” (e-sail) propulsion system that would harness the solar wind, the stream of protons, electrons and other charged particles that flows outward from the sun at more than 1 million mph (1.6 million kilometers per hour).

“It looks really, really promising for ultra-deep-space exploration,” Les Johnson, of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said of the e-sail concept here at the 100-Year Starship Symposium on Oct. 30. [Superfast Spacecraft Propulsion Concepts (Images)].

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Nov 8, 2015

Theory of a Mach Effect Thruster II

Posted by in categories: energy, information science, quantum physics, space travel

ABSTRACT

According to Einstein, General Relativity contains the essence of Mach’s ideas. Mach’s principle can be summarized by stating that the inertia of a body is determined by the rest of the mass-energy content of the universe. Inertia here arises from mass-energy there. The latter, was a statement made by John Wheeler in his 1995 book, Gravitation and Inertia, coauthored by Ciufolini. Einstein believed that to be fully Machian, gravity would need a radiative component, an action-at-a-dis- tance character, so that gravitational influences on a body from far away could be felt immediately. In 1960’s, Hoyle and Narlikar (HN) developed such a theory which was a gravitational version of the Absorber theory derived by Wheeler-Feynman for classical electrodynamics and later expanded upon by Davies and Narlikar for quantum electrodynamics. The HN-field equation has the same type of mass fluctuation terms as in the Woodward Mach effect thruster theory. The force equation, used to predict the thrust in our device, can be derived from the mass fluctuation. We outline a new method for deriving the force equation. We present new experimental tests of the thruster to show that the thrust seen in our device is not due to either heating or Dean Drive effects. Successful replications have been performed by groups in Austria and Canada, but their work is still pending in the peer review literature.

Keywords:

Mach Effect Drive, Transient Mass Fluctuations, Mach’s Principle, Action at a Distance, Advanced Waves, Event Horizon.

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