Space Flight – Page 16

Aviation, new technology, Science & Technology News, Space Flight, Travel

This ‘Spaceplane’ could get you from Sydney to London in four hours

October 1, 2019

There are plans to start running test flights of the ‘hypersonic’ jet in the mid-2020s.

Developers are working on a “hypersonic” jet engine that could see commuters flying from Sydney to London in four hours, and London to New York in one. It’s called a SABRE—that is, Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine—and it allows planes to hit speeds of Mach 5.4 (6400 kilometres per hour). Hence the “hypersonic” moniker: whereas “supersonic” refers to a rate of travel that simply exceeds the speed of sound, “hypersonic” speeds typically exceed it five or six times over.

The hybrid hydrogen-oxygen engine is also way greener and cheaper than current air travel, The Telegraph reports, and will give aircraft the potential to fly in space.

Continue reading… “This ‘Spaceplane’ could get you from Sydney to London in four hours”

Future, Ideas, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

Scientists are starting to take warp drives seriously, Especially one specific concept

September 30, 2019

It’s hard living in a relativistic Universe, where even the nearest stars are so far away and the speed of light is absolute. It is little wonder then why science fiction franchises routinely employ FTL (Faster-than-Light) as a plot device.

Push a button, press a petal, and that fancy drive system – whose workings no one can explain – will send us to another location in space-time.

However, in recent years, the scientific community has become understandably excited and skeptical about claims that a particular concept – the Alcubierre Warp Drive – might actually be feasible.

Continue reading… “Scientists are starting to take warp drives seriously, Especially one specific concept”

Engineering, NASA, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

Astronauts make cement in space for the first time

September 20, 2019

European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst works on an experiment aboard the International Space Station looking into how cement reacts in space.

Concrete could provide humans in space with better protection from radiation and extreme temperatures than many other materials.

In the future, when humans live in and visit space, they’re going to need places to stay and work. That calls for durable infrastructure such as concrete. For the first time, astronauts made cement in space as part of a project looking into the effects of microgravity, NASA said last week.

Continue reading… “Astronauts make cement in space for the first time”

Engineering, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

These researchers want to run cable from the Earth to the Moon

September 9, 2019

It’s a space elevator concept that could actually work.

It would be much easier to escape Earth’s gravity if you could skip the energy-intensive rockets.

That’s the idea behind the Spaceline, a newly-proposed type of space elevator that would link the Earth and the Moon in a bid drastically cut the cost of space travel.

Described in research published to the preprint server ArXiv by researchers at Columbia University and Cambridge University, the Spaceline would be tethered to the surface of the Moon and dangle down into geostationary orbit around the Earth like a plumb bob, waiting for astronauts to latch on and ride into the cosmos. The proof-of-concept paper found that the Spaceline could be constructed out of materials that exist today, raising the possibility of easier space travel and perhaps even orbital settlements.

Continue reading… “These researchers want to run cable from the Earth to the Moon”

government, military drones, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News, Space Flight

The U.S. Air Force’s shadowy X-37B space plane has broken a space flight record

September 3, 2019

At 6:43 am US eastern time today, the Air Force’s mysterious X-37B space plane broke a new spaceflight record, surpassing the 717 days, 20 hours and 42 minutes its predecessor spent in orbit just a couple years prior.

The X-37B, explained: The Air Force is notoriously tightlipped about the X-37B program. The space plane itself, built by Boeing, is 29 feet long and 9.6 feet tall, boasting a wingspan of nearly 15 feet. It’s launched vertically aboard a rocket and lands horizontally on a runway. The current X-37B mission is the fifth of its kind (Orbital Test Vehicle 5 – OTV-5) and was launched in September 2017 by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Continue reading… “The U.S. Air Force’s shadowy X-37B space plane has broken a space flight record”

NASA, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight, SpaceX

Everyone’s going back to the moon. But why?

July 22, 2019

The Deep Space Gateway, seen here in an artist’s rendering, would be a spaceport in lunar orbit. Boeing

As the 50th anniversary of the first Apollo landing approaches, a host of countries are undertaking lunar missions. What’s behind the new space race?

At 2.51am on Monday 15 July, engineers at India’s national spaceport at Sriharikota will blast their Chandrayaan-2 probe into orbit around the Earth. It will be the most ambitious space mission the nation has attempted. For several days, the four-tonne spacecraft will be manoeuvred above our planet before a final injection burn of its engines will send it hurtling towards its destination: the moon.

Exactly 50 years after the astronauts of Apollo 11 made their historic voyage to the Sea of Tranquillity, Chandrayaan-2 will repeat that journey – though on a slightly different trajectory. After the robot craft enters lunar orbit, it will gently drop a lander, named Vikram, on to the moon’s surface near its south pole. A robot rover, Pragyan, will then be dispatched and, for the next two weeks, trundle across the local terrain, analysing the chemical composition of soil and rocks.

Continue reading… “Everyone’s going back to the moon. But why?”

3D Printer, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

A BFF in Space! Bioprinter Will 3D-Print Human Tissue on the Space Station

July 18, 2019

A new 3D printer will launch to the space station in July with the goal of manufacturing human tissue in space.A new 3D printer will launch to the space station in July with the goal of manufacturing human tissue in space.(Image: © Techshot Inc.)

The futuristic gizmo will launch this month.

Continue reading… “A BFF in Space! Bioprinter Will 3D-Print Human Tissue on the Space Station”

Elon Musk, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight, SpaceX

LightSail 2 gets ready to make its debut in space

June 26, 2019

Artist’s concept of LightSail 2 above Earth. Image: The Planetary Society

Yesterday, a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket successfully launched NASA’s STP-2 mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying with it a whole raft of technology demonstrations that will one day aid in smarter spacecraft design and help the agency’s efforts in getting to Mars.

Some of the more high profile projects included a Deep Space Atomic Clock that could change the way deep-space navigation is conducted, and a new propulsion system that runs on a high-performance and non-toxic spacecraft fuel called the Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM).

However, also stashed amongst NASA’s payloads was a small satellite built by Georgia Tech students, called Prox-1 and packed safely within that like a Russian nesting doll, is a citizen-funded project that originally sprang from the mind of Carl Sagan.

Continue reading… “LightSail 2 gets ready to make its debut in space”

3D Printer, NASA, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

Relativity is building a 3D-printing rocket manufacturing hub in Mississippi

June 26, 2019

The future of rocket manufacturing has touched down in Mississippi.

At NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center, nestled in Hancock County, Miss., right on the border of Louisiana, the Los Angeles-based 3D-printed spacecraft manufacturer, Relativity Space, is planning a massive $59 million expansion to make a permanent manufacturing hub in this bucolic corner of the southeast.

Continue reading… “Relativity is building a 3D-printing rocket manufacturing hub in Mississippi”

China, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

China is now assembling its 2020 Mars Rover

June 9, 2019

Chinese space scientists are currently outfitting their Mars Rover with scientific instruments in preparation for a launch next year.

The “Mars 2020 mission spacecraft is undergoing integration,” Wang Chi, director of China’s National Space Science Center, told Space News.

Continue reading… “China is now assembling its 2020 Mars Rover”

Health & Fitness, NASA, Science & Technology News, Space Flight

Mars colonists ‘will become super-mutants with cancer-immune skin’ – but could die ‘if they mate with Earthlings’, scientist warns

June 3, 2019

One of the winning teams of a NASA competition to make a full-scale Mars habitat using
modeling software, Team SEArch+/Apis Cor, designed this Martian abode, which is built
from the upper part of a Hercules Single-Stage Reusable Vehicle.

The first humans on Mars will quickly become too fragile to have sex with.

That’s according to one scientist, who reckons colonists will warp into super-mutants who’ll keel over the moment they sleep with an Earthling.

NASA is keen to land humans on Mars in the 2030s with an eye on setting up a permanent Martian colony.

Continue reading… “Mars colonists ‘will become super-mutants with cancer-immune skin’ – but could die ‘if they mate with Earthlings’, scientist warns”

NASA, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

New video details NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon

May 29, 2019

We Are Going There

NASA is confident it’s going back to the Moon — and this time, it plans to stay there.

On Tuesday, the agency released “We Are Going,” a new video narrated by Star Trek actor William Shatner.

In the clip, NASA details precisely how it plans to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2024 — touching on everything from the development of brand-new spacecraft to the hunt for mission-supporting water beneath the Moon’s surface.

Category: Space Flight