Andy Weir wrote the Martian. His new book is about a lunar colony of 2000 people late in the 21st century. He looked at the science and economics of a lunar colony. Eighty-five percent of the rocks on the surface of the lunar highlands are anorthite, which contains aluminum as well as a massive supply …
Planetary Resources is planning to mine the asteroids in the 2020s. Planetary Resources delivered the Arkyd-6 spacecraft, their second technology demonstrator. The spacecraft has officially begun its journey to the launch pad. In the weeks leading up to launch day, they’ll be sharing with you information on the Arkyd-6. It was moved like rollon luggage …
Optical Mining technology is a breakthrough approach to harvesting materials from asteroids, boulders, and regolith in microgravity. In Optical Mining, excavating and processing asteroid materials is accomplished by highly concentrated sunlight which we have shown can be used to drill holes, excavate, disrupt, and shape an asteroid while the asteroid is enclosed in a containment …
The 150 ton payload fully reusable Spacex Big F*ing Rocket (BFR) will make it easy to begin a true space age. Each Spacex BFR launch would enable the placement of 2 to 4 times larger space stations than the International Space Station which took dozens of Shuttle launches. The BFR will be able refuel in …
A couple of days ago Elon Musk announced that Spacex will be putting all of its development into a 150 ton payload fully reusable rocket. This will be ready around 2020-2022. Bigelow BA 2100, or Olympus, is a conceptual design for a larger, heavier, and more capable expandable space station module, or interplanetary human transport …
NASA is currently looking for a Planetary Protection Officer. This person will have secret security clearance to ensure alien life, or “organic-constituent and biological contamination” does npt make it’s way back in a space ship. This person will be responsible for the leadership of NASA’s planetary protection capability, maintenance of planetary protection policies, and oversight …
NASA scientists are excited about the upcoming close flyby of a small asteroid and plan to use its upcoming October close approach to Earth as an opportunity not only for science, but to test NASA’s network of observatories and scientists who work with planetary defense. The target of all this attention is asteroid 2012 TC4 …
There is a CBS TV show called Salvation about a 7000 meter wide asteroid that will hit the Earth within 6 months. The show chooses to try to use an EMdrive, a propellantless propulsion system to deliver a gravity deflection mission to divert the asteroid. EMdrive is under some experimental study and there is some …
NASA approved the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) which will fly a spacecraft into an asteroid and measure the deflection. NASA is also developing a first-ever robotic mission to visit a large near-Earth asteroid, collect a multi-ton boulder from its surface, and use it in an enhanced gravity tractor asteroid deflection demonstration. The spacecraft will …
An unknown, unseen “planetary mass object” may lurk in the outer reaches of our solar system, according to new research on the orbits of minor planets to be published in the Astronomical Journal. This object would be different from — and much closer than — the so-called Planet Nine, a planet whose existence yet awaits …
Al Globus and Joe Strout have an analysis that space settlements in low (~500 km) Earth equatorial orbits may not require any radiation shielding at all. This is based on a careful analysis of requirements and extensive simulation of radiation effects. This radically reduces system mass and has profound implications for space settlement, as extraterrestrial …