Brazil said the government’s Libra field may hold “gigantic” reserves of as much as 15 billion barrels, almost twice initial estimates, which would make it the biggest discovery in the Americas in more than three decades. A deposit of 15 billion barrels would be almost twice the size of state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s nearby Tupi …
Parabolic Arc and Hobbyspace coverage Greg Baiden, Laurentian University, Penguin Automated Systems “Lunar Mining: Taking the Best of Terrestrial Mining and Fitting it on the Moon” – 3 years ago, CSA came to him asking how to put a mine on the moon – Canadians (and Scandinavians) are really really good at mining stuff – …
Transterrestrial Musings and Parabolic Arc has coverage as does Hobbyspace. – Biggest problem is market demand – Near term markets – ISS resupply, propellant depots, debris cleanup, tourism can help create markets… – long-term solution: space settlement – Changes required: * no major technical breakthroughs necessary; * breakthroughs that reduce risk and cost; * end …
Parabolic Arc coverage of space prospecting NEO (near earth objects) Mining Options * bag and boil for volatile extraction * magnetic rake for high grade ore * take small asteroid pieces home * new moon — Earth orbit * hot knife — cut up comet core with nuclear heat – Asteroid Itakowa is close to …
Transterrestrial Musings covered the Craig Venter talk His team has synthesized a megabyte chromosome. Everything in the cell was derived from the chromosome and the natural traces were all deleted. They are digitizing biology. There is 1-3% difference between unrelated humans, which is ten times more than previously thought. Had hoped for first synthetic species …
The British pavillion had large fiber optic elements that made an otherworldly look at a distance. There were 72 million attendees of the Shanghai 2010 world expo. The vast majority of the attendees were from across China – visited pavilions staged by more than 240 countries and organisations. I went to the expo two weeks …
The 25th Carnival of Nuclear energy is up at Yes Vermont ankee I provide my article that looked at nuclear reactor build in China and the need for experience for more success with large construction projects A study of past nuclear plant construction for lessons on future plants Follow-on replica stations are cheaper than first-of-a-kind …
Scientists have managed to produce a small-scale version of a human liver in the laboratory using stem cells. They are the first to use human liver cells to successfully engineer miniature livers that function – at least in a laboratory setting – like human livers. The next step is to see if the livers will …
Metal-Insulator-Metal Diodes For Solar Energy Conversion – 228 page PHD thesis that explains how solar energy could be collected more efficiently based on the recent advance described in this article If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator, or Reddit, or StumbleUpon. Thanks Featured articles Ocean Floor Gold and Copper …
the Pelican quadrocopter is a prototype for a new generation of mini-drones designed for military use. The Pelican was powered by a Laser Motive system for 12 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. Laser Motive won $900,000 last year in the NASA-backed Beam Power Challenge (Space Elevator Games). Nugent said that LaserMotive will be “going …
Researchers at Oregon State University have created for the first time a high-performance “metal-insulator-metal” diode. High speed computers and electronics that don’t depend on transistors are possibilities. Also on the horizon are “energy harvesting” technologies such as the nighttime capture of re-radiated solar energy, a way to produce energy from the Earth as it cools …