Space – Page 20 – Impact Lab

Elon Musk, Employment, Science & Technology News, Space

Will your next job be on Mars?

July 11, 2019

NASA Mars recruitment poster NASA/KSC

Look around the space where you are sitting. How many of the things you see were not available to you as a child? Perhaps you note a laptop, smart phone or Wi-Fi connection? Now imagine these things vanished. What would your life be like? Think back to when you were a child. Could you have imagined the items you now can’t live without?

This same dynamic may soon be on the horizon for jobs on Mars—we may one day wonder how we ever confined our human activities to Earth.

Advancing technology continues to create more unique and interesting jobs—for now, all of them based on planet Earth. But change may be upon us.

Continue reading… “Will your next job be on Mars?”

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”

Energy, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News, Space

The Crab Nebula just blasted Earth with the highest-energy photons ever recorded

June 26, 2019

One measured photon has roughly the energy of a falling ping-pong ball.

The Tibetan Plateau is a vast elevated plain almost five kilometers above sea level, sometimes called the Roof of the World. It is bordered to the south by the world’s highest mountain range and to the north by desert lands. It is one of the most isolated places on Earth.

But the extreme altitude makes it a useful place for scientists. In 1990, they built an observatory here to study the showers of subatomic particles that rain down from the upper atmosphere whenever it is hit by a high-energy cosmic ray. This work is better done at high altitude because there is less atmosphere to absorb the particles.

Continue reading… “The Crab Nebula just blasted Earth with the highest-energy photons ever recorded”

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”

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

Space X launches 60 satellites for Elon Musk’s Starlink Internet Constellation

June 4, 2019

The 60 satellites packed tightly into a fairing.

With one launch in the books and potentially dozens still to go, SpaceX has begun its build-out of the ambitious Starlink internet constellation—a series of interconnected satellites designed to deliver high-speed internet to paying customers around the globe.

The 60 Starlink satellites, each weighing 500 pounds (227 kg), were released to low Earth orbit (LEO) yesterday at around 11:32 pm ET, SpaceX confirmed in a series of tweets. Together, the tightly packed satellites weighed 13.6 metric tons, “making this launch the heaviest mission for SpaceX to date,” according to SpaceNews.

Continue reading… “Space X launches 60 satellites for Elon Musk’s Starlink Internet Constellation”

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.

Continue reading… “New video details NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon”

Amazon.com, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

Jeff Bezos unveils a giant lunar lander that he says is ‘going to the moon’ and will help Blue Origin populate space

May 15, 2019

Jeff Bezos shows off Blue Origin’s lunar lander concept, called Blue Moon, in Washington, DC, on May 9, 2019.
Dave Mosher/Business Insider

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, unveiled on Thursday a giant lunar lander concept by his spaceflight company, Blue Origin.

Called “Blue Moon,” the vehicle is designed to deliver a variety of types of payloads to the moon’s surface — including people at some point.

NASA said in April that it wants to fund a large, private lunar lander to get its astronauts to and from the moon, ideally as soon as 2024.

Continue reading… “Jeff Bezos unveils a giant lunar lander that he says is ‘going to the moon’ and will help Blue Origin populate space”

Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

Water found in samples from the surface of an asteroid

May 10, 2019

The Japanese space probe Hayabusa completed a sample return mission from the asteroid Itokawa.

(CNN) — Scientists have made the first measurements of water in samples collected from the surface of an asteroid, according to a new study.

The Japanese space probe Hayabusa completed a sample return mission from the asteroid Itokawa, retrieving 1,500 particles. Another mission, Hayabusa2, is conducting a sample return mission on the asteroid Ryugu.

A study detailing the analysis of five of the particles from the asteroid samples was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. The samples were collected from an area on Itokawa known as the Muses Sea, which is smooth and dusty.

“We found the samples we examined were enriched in water compared to the average for inner solar system objects,” said Ziliang Jin, lead study author and postdoctoral scholar in Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, in a statement.

Continue reading… “Water found in samples from the surface of an asteroid”

Current Events, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

Japanese spacecraft ‘bombs’ asteroid in scientific mission

April 21, 2019

Artist’s impression of Hayabusa2

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is working to confirm that its experiment to bomb the asteroid Ryugu was successful. Today at 11:36 am Japan time, JAXA’s unmanned Hayabusa2 deep space probe deployed the SCI (Small Carry-on Impactor), which is designed to blow a hole in the surface of Ryugu to allow for deep sampling, but safety issues prevented the spacecraft from witnessing the detonation directly.

Shooting explosives at an asteroid may seem like a great way to break the monotony of a dull afternoon, but it has a very serious purpose. Aside from pure science, the world’s space agencies are very interested in gaining as much information as possible about the structure and composition of asteroids because it may one day be necessary to deflect or destroy one that is on a collision course with Earth.

Continue reading… “Japanese spacecraft ‘bombs’ asteroid in scientific mission”

Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

Japan just bombed an asteroid in our solar system, for science

April 13, 2019

Japan’s space agency said it successfully dropped a small bomb on an asteroid on Friday as part of its mission to better understand the history of the Solar System.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said its Hayabusa2 spacecraft detonated the copper explosive, also known as the Small Carry-on Inspector (SCI), on the Ryugu asteroid on Friday.

The SCI weighs about 2 kg (4.4 lbs) and is the size of a baseball, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

Hayabusa2 released the SCI about 500 meters (1,640 feet) above Ryugu’s surface around 11:13 am Japanese time (02:13 UTC) on Friday, JAXA tweeted.

Continue reading… “Japan just bombed an asteroid in our solar system, for science”

Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight, Tourism, Travel

Would you want to stay in a space hotel?

March 15, 2019

Aurora Station plans to become the first hotel in space. But how likely is it we’ll be able to holiday in orbit around the Earth?

It was intended to set the travel world on fire: Aurora Station, the world’s first in-orbit hotel. The official announcement took place last April during the Space 2.0 Conference in San Jose, California. Housed aboard a structure about the size of a large private jet, guests would soar 200 miles above the Earth’s surface, enjoying epic views of the planet and the northern and southern lights.

A jaunt won’t be cheap: the 12-day-journey aboard Aurora Station, scheduled to be in orbit by 2022, starts at a cool $9.5m (£7.3m) per person. Nevertheless, the company says the waiting list is booked nearly seven months ahead.

“Part of our experience is to give people the taste of the life of a professional astronaut,” says Frank Bunger, founder and chief executive officer of Orion Span, the firm which is behind Aurora Station. “But we expect most guests will be looking out the window, calling everyone they know, and should guests get bored, we have what we call the ‘holodeck,’ a virtual reality experience. In it you can do anything you want; you can float in space, you can walk on the Moon, you can play golf.”

Continue reading… “Would you want to stay in a space hotel?”