communications

Robotic in orbit assembly of massive sails and laser propulsion elements for fast travel anywhere in the solar system and beginner interstellar capability

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Robotic in orbit assembly and laser propulsion could enable vast increases in space capability while not significantly changing the world civilization energy budget. Robotic and additive manufacturing could enable massive frames and massive solar power arrays Tethers Unlimited is currently developing a revolutionary suite of technologies called “SpiderFab” to enable on-orbit fabrication of large spacecraft …

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Carnival of Space 436 – Ceres white spots are salt deposits and Closeups of Pluto

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Planetaria – Mystery solved? odd bright spots on Ceres explained as salt deposits False color view of Occator crater on Ceres, showing the unusual bright spots. The image was taken by the framing camera on NASA’s Dawn spacecraft from a distance of about 4,400 kilometres (2,700 miles). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Planetaria – Stunning new images …

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Walmart is selling a $10 Android smartphone but locked to pre-paid mobile carrier TracFone

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Walmart has two $10 smartphones. They are the LG Sunrise L15G and LG Lucky LG16, though the LG16 is currently out of stock. The L15G is a 3.8-inch display device running Android KitKat, with a 1.2GHz processor, 512 MB RAM, a three-megapixel main camera, and a 4GB microSD included. The prices of the two LG …

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Lunar Fuel and refueling greatly reduce cost of a Mars Mission

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A MIT group has found that taking a detour to the moon to refuel would reduce the mass of a Mars mission upon launch by 68 percent. The most mass-efficient path involves launching a crew from Earth with just enough fuel to get into orbit around the Earth. A fuel-producing plant on the surface of …

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SolarCity Unveils World’s Most Efficient Rooftop Solar Panel with 22% efficiency and lower manufacturing cost

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SolarCity has built the world’s most efficient rooftop solar panel, with a module efficiency exceeding 22 percent. The new SolarCity panel generates more power per square foot and harvests more energy over a year than any other rooftop panel in production, and will be the highest volume solar panel manufactured in the Western Hemisphere. SolarCity …

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SCEPS in Space – Non-Radioisotope Power Systems for Sunless Solar System Exploration Missions

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Stored Chemical Energy Power Systems (SCEPS) have been used in U.S. Navy torpedoes for decades. NASA has given Michael Paul of Pennsylvania State University a phase 2 NIAC funding. SCEPS works by combustion, just like when you burn natural gas, says Michael Paul, except in this case the fuel is lithium. The technology is not …

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Carnival of Space 390 – Milky Way may have a huge stable wormhole

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The Carnival of Space 390 is up at Photostospace Universe Today – The Entire Milky Way Might Be a Huge Wormhole That’s Stable and Navigable According to the team, a collaboration between Indian, Italian, and North American researchers at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Italy, the central halo of our galaxy may …

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Antiaging Rapamycin used to boost immune response in humans

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Mannick and her colleagues decided to investigate whether a rapamycin-like drug could reverse the natural decline that elderly people experience in their ability to fight off infections. In the clinical trial, more than 200 people age 65 and older randomly received either the experimental drug or a placebo for several weeks, followed by a dose …

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DARPA GXV-T seeks to develop revolutionary technologies to make future armored fighting vehicles more mobile, effective and affordable

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[DARPA] For the past 100 years of mechanized warfare, protection for ground-based armored fighting vehicles and their occupants has boiled down almost exclusively to a simple equation: More armor equals more protection. Weapons’ ability to penetrate armor, however, has advanced faster than armor’s ability to withstand penetration. As a result, achieving even incremental improvements in …

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Genetically Modified mosquito swarms will be used on a commercial scale to hopefully prevent 50 million incidents of dengue fever per year

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Genetically modified mosquitoes will be raised on a commercial scale for the first time, in a bid to stem outbreaks of dengue fever in Brazil. But it is unclear how well it will work. Next week biotech company Oxitec of Abingdon, UK, will open a factory in Campinas, Brazil, to raise millions of modified mosquitoes. …

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