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Archive for the ‘space travel’ category: Page 498

Feb 11, 2015

Off-World 3-D Printing Is How Humans Will Colonize Space

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, space, space travel

By — Newsweek
Team-micro_gravity_test_2013

The impact that 3-D printing is having on our world is impossible to ignore. It’s not new technology, but its 30-year history has been characterized by deceptively slow growth —until now. 3-D printing has recently emerged as a force poised to disrupt a significant portion of the $10 trillion global manufacturing industry.

Already, the printing of standard consumer products—bowls, plates, smartphone cases, bottle openers, jewelry and purses (made from mesh)—has gone from a hobby to a nascent industry. Dozens of websites now sell goods made with 3-D printers, and retailers are starting to get in on the action.

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Jan 23, 2015

A 3D Printed Moon Base: Science Fiction or Science Fact?

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, space travel

By Jason Dunn — Singularity Hub

http://cdn.singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/14052995866_fdc6531cb2_k-1000x400.jpg

One day everything in space will be made in space, and this will radically increase the potential for human space exploration.

I recently read a novella that explores this very idea (see below for an excerpt). Cory Doctorow’s “The Man Who Sold The Moon” appears in Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future, an anthology of hopeful, ambitious, technically-grounded science fiction stories set in the near future. In the story, a small team takes on the daunting mission of launching a machine to the Moon that collects lunar regolith (moon dirt) and 3D prints structural housing panels for a future settlement.

Continue reading “A 3D Printed Moon Base: Science Fiction or Science Fact?” »

Jan 12, 2015

2014’s launch tally highest in two decades

Posted by in category: space travel

by Stephen Clark — Spaceflight Now

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket flew nine times in 2014, more than any other U.S. launcher. Credit: ULA

There were more successful space launches in 2014 than in any year since 1992, with Russia, the United States and China responsible for more than 80 percent of global launch activity.

Russia had the most liftoffs with 36 orbital launch attempts — 34 were deemed complete successes — and the United States came in second with 23 space launches, with all but one reaching its intended target.

Continue reading “2014’s launch tally highest in two decades” »

Jan 4, 2015

New Book: An Irreverent Singularity Funcyclopedia, by Mondo 2000’s R.U. Sirius.

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, alien life, automation, big data, bionic, bioprinting, biotech/medical, complex systems, computing, cosmology, cryptocurrencies, cybercrime/malcode, cyborgs, defense, disruptive technology, DNA, driverless cars, drones, economics, electronics, encryption, energy, engineering, entertainment, environmental, ethics, existential risks, exoskeleton, finance, first contact, food, fun, futurism, general relativity, genetics, hacking, hardware, human trajectories, information science, innovation, internet, life extension, media & arts, military, mobile phones, nanotechnology, neuroscience, nuclear weapons, posthumanism, privacy, quantum physics, robotics/AI, science, security, singularity, software, solar power, space, space travel, supercomputing, time travel, transhumanism

Quoted: “Legendary cyberculture icon (and iconoclast) R.U. Sirius and Jay Cornell have written a delicious funcyclopedia of the Singularity, transhumanism, and radical futurism, just published on January 1.” And: “The book, “Transcendence – The Disinformation Encyclopedia of Transhumanism and the Singularity,” is a collection of alphabetically-ordered short chapters about artificial intelligence, cognitive science, genomics, information technology, nanotechnology, neuroscience, space exploration, synthetic biology, robotics, and virtual worlds. Entries range from Cloning and Cyborg Feminism to Designer Babies and Memory-Editing Drugs.” And: “If you are young and don’t remember the 1980s you should know that, before Wired magazine, the cyberculture magazine Mondo 2000 edited by R.U. Sirius covered dangerous hacking, new media and cyberpunk topics such as virtual reality and smart drugs, with an anarchic and subversive slant. As it often happens the more sedate Wired, a watered-down later version of Mondo 2000, was much more successful and went mainstream.”


Read the article here >https://hacked.com/irreverent-singularity-funcyclopedia-mondo-2000s-r-u-sirius/

Jan 1, 2015

Wanderers

Posted by in categories: human trajectories, space, space travel

from

Wanderers — a short film by Erik Wernquist from Erik Wernquist on Vimeo.

Dec 17, 2014

Elon Musk named Lifeboat Foundation 2014 Guardian Award winner

Posted by in categories: existential risks, lifeboat, robotics/AI, solar power, space travel, sustainability

elon.musk

The Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award is annually bestowed upon a respected scientist or public figure who has warned of a future fraught with dangers and encouraged measures to prevent them.

The 2014 Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award has been given to Elon Musk in recognition of his warnings about artificial intelligence, his promotion of space exploration including the creation of self-sustaining space colonies, and his efforts to improve our environment with electric cars and to expand solar energy generation.

Elon is often likened to a real-life Tony Stark from Marvel’s Iron Man comics for his role in cutting-edge companies including SpaceX, a private space exploration company that holds the first private contracts from NASA for resupply of the International Space Station, and the electric car company Tesla Motors. Watch Elon in Iron Man 2!

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Dec 14, 2014

Elon Musk Is Right: Colonizing the Solar System Is Humankind’s Insurance Policy Against Extinction

Posted by in categories: existential risks, human trajectories, space, space travel

Written By: — Singularity Hub

http://cdn.singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/space-exploration-extinction-insurance-1.jpg

Why blow billions of dollars on space exploration when billions of people are living in poverty here on Earth?

You’ve likely heard the justifications. The space program brings us useful innovations and inventions. Space exploration delivers perspective, inspiration, and understanding. Because it’s the final frontier. Because it’s there.

Continue reading “Elon Musk Is Right: Colonizing the Solar System Is Humankind’s Insurance Policy Against Extinction” »

Oct 25, 2014

Nasa approves ‘impossible’ space engine design that apparently violates the laws of physics and could revolutionise space travel

Posted by in category: space travel

James Vincent — The Independent

In a quiet announcement that has sent shockwaves through the scientific world, Nasa has cautiously given its seal of approval to a new type of “impossible” engine that could revolutionize space travel.

In a paper published by the agency’s experimental Eagleworks Laboratories, Nasa engineers confirmed that they had produced tiny amounts of thrust from an engine without propellant – an apparent violation of the conservation of momentum; the law of physics that states that every action must have an equal and opposite reaction.

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Sep 5, 2014

What Boeing’s space taxi could mean for the future of commercial space travel

Posted by in category: space travel

By Robin Burks — TechTimes

http://images.techtimes.com/data/images/full/15679/illustration-of-boeings-cst-100.jpg

Not only is Boeing looking to replace the space shuttle with its new Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) program, but it’s also hoping that this new “space taxi” will someday carry commercial passengers to space.

When NASA’s space shuttle program retired in 2011, American astronauts were left with no way of transport to and from the International Space Station, except by Russian spacecraft. Considering tensions are now high between the two countries, thanks to Russia’s takeover of the Crimea region of Ukraine, NASA is looking for new options.

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Aug 29, 2014

EmDrive Is an Engine That Breaks the Laws of Physics and Could Take Us to Mars

Posted by in category: space travel

By Jason Abbruzzese

Mars

An experimental engine is gaining acceptance among scientists, and could introduce a new era of space travel — it only had to break a law of physics to do so.

The picture, below, is of the EmDrive. It uses electricity to generate microwaves, which then bounce around in a closed space and generate thrust. The drive does not need propellant, an important part of current space-travel mechanics.

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