The typical analysis of the nuclear Orion external pulse propulsion rocket is to use constant charges (bombs) every 1.1 seconds to launch with people inside who experience 4Gs or less. Nuclear Orion can achieve launch costs of less than $1/kg and perhaps a tiny fraction of that. This is 1000 to 20,000 times cheaper than …
Charlie Stross has a 21st Century FAQ which tells people to forget about space colonization and the Singularity. 99.999% of the human species who will never get off the planet are concerned. There’ll probably be a Mars expedition too. But barring fundamental biomedical breakthroughs, or physics/engineering breakthroughs that play hell with the laws of physics …
Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) is based on a design from Berkeley Bionics of California, but Lockheed says they have enhanced the basic HULC. Raytheon’s rival XOS mechwarrior suit, which at last report still trails an inconvenient power cable to the nearest wall socket. * Soldiers will be able to carry loads up to 200 …
The explosions for Orion that occur in the magnetosphere where the magnetic field lines lead back to earth is where fallout will come back down and be a problem. We have already studied that reducing the fission component of any bomb and getting to higher fusion purity greatly reduces fallout and also a north pole …
Denise Gray is GM’s director of advanced batteries and is principally involved in development of the Volt’s batteries. Denise spoke of General motors relationship with EEStor. EEStor is one of those suppliers who often sends us information. We’re willing to evaluate what they have and provide information on what our portfolio of higher batteries needs …
University of Missouri scientist and his team have identified the location of the genetic material responsible for a molecular compound that is vital to curing the Muscular dystrophy (MD). The new advance will improve gene therapy strategies and they have turned muscle in mice with muscular dystrophy into regular muscle again. Even if there is …
Researchers at Northeastern created a network of nanowires that can be scaled up more efficiently and cost-effectively to create displays such as the NASDAQ sign in New York City’s Times Square. The seven-story NASDAQ sign is at the NASDAQ MarketSite at 4 Times Square on 43rd Street. The Nasdaq sign was unveiled in January 2000 …
Hobby space and and Transterrestrial (Rand Simberg) are indicating that A. because the current market for space payloads is small then no big dumb rockets should be built. B. Some commenters say we can just leverage in space resources (ISRU – in space resource utilization) and make do with small payloads. C. Another commenter said, …
Stem cells on threads 1. Weaving stem cells into synthetic universal tissue (UK) Embryonic stem cells can survive being spun into polymer threads – a technique that could be used to weave flexible synthetic tissues able to adapt to any transplant environment, say UK biophysicists. The approach could be a step towards the production of …
J Storrs Hall has another excellent article, this one on validity of the molecular manufacturing vision and the usefulness of futurists in tough economic times. Josh states that the job of a futurist is to turn on the lights, to show what paths could actually lead to prosperity. I would say it is necessary to …
Hi, everybody this is Joseph Friedlander, in a guest article series on Nextbigfuture. In this series I hope to discuss first some of the largest systems proposed to reach orbit with big payloads, and then why it’s a lot better (for equal cheapness) to have one big payload than say a million 30 kg payloads …