NASA Innovative Advanced concepts has a phase 2 study of a mission to the regions outside our solar system, with the objective of conducting direct high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy of a habitable exoplanet by exploiting optical properties of the solar gravitational lens (SGL). A mission to the focal area of the SGL (which lies beyond …
Chinese space station Tiangong-1 should be crashing from orbit within the next 12 hours. It is predicted to crash at 8:10 EDT plus or minus 2.5 hours. It is 11:13 AM EDT. So the crash is about 6.5 to 11.5 hours away. Sent into orbit on September 30, 2011, Tiangong-1, or “Heavenly Palace 1,” is …
A Kilometer Space Telescope (KST) will provide over three times the diameter and ten times the collecting area of the Arecibo groundbased radio telescope with diffraction-limited performance at optical, infrared, and millimeter wavelengths. This capability is orders of magnitude improvement over the Hubble (HST) and James Webb (JWST) instruments. Above – Kilometer Space Telescope. A …
Current state of the art in-space propulsion systems based on chemical or ion propellants fail to meet requirements of 21st century space missions. Antimatter is a candidate mechanism for a propulsion system that could transport humans and/or robotic systems with drastically reduced transit times, providing quicker scientific results, increasing the payload mass to allow more …
The breakthrough architecture uses a kilometer-scale, multi-hundred-megawatt phased-array laser to beam power to a vehicle that converts it to electrical power for a multi-megawatt electric propulsion system that produces a specific impulse of 58,000 seconds. Such a system would enable missions with characteristic velocities of 100 to 200 km/s, and would enable a mission to …
The pulsed fission fusion propulsion (PuFF) system envisions using a pulsed z-pinch to compress a fission-fusion target. The resulting deflagration expands against a magnetic nozzle to produce thrust and generate recharge energy for the next pulse. A z-Pinch is a device that is commonly used to compress laboratory plasmas to high pressures (~1 Mbar) for …
James Woodward and the Space Studies Institute has a Phase 2 NASA Innovative Advanced funded study. They are looking at the implementation of an innovative thrust producing technology for use in NASA missions involving in space main propulsion. Mach Effect Gravity Assist (MEGA) drive propulsion is based on peer-reviewed, technically credible physics. Mach effects are …
Researchers claim they are on the cusp of a CO2-recycling revolution, which would capture CO2 from power plants—and maybe even directly from the atmosphere—and convert it into these fuels at scale, they report today in Joule. The scale-up and the advancements that have been happening in the last couple of years are really quite incredible. …