Using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the “habitable zone” — the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone …
Evidence is growing that Alzheimer’s could actually be a late stage of type 2 diabetes – if it is, we all have another big reason to live healthier lives. About 35 million people have Alzheimer’s; most of them require expensive, exhausting care. By 2050 that number is expected to triple. We still don’t really know …
Tethers Unlimited is currently developing a revolutionary suite of technologies called “SpiderFab” to enable on-orbit fabrication ofof large spacecraft components such as antennas, solar panels, trusses, and other multifunctional structures. SpiderFab provides order-of-magnitude packing- and mass- efficiency improvements over current deployable structures and enables construction of kilometer-scale apertures within current launch vehicle capabilities, providing higher-resolution …
Needed: A Way To Plot Design Space of Space Launch Systems A guest post by Joseph Friedlander on Next Big Future I have long admired the Pournelle Axes of political analysis which reduce the entire political map to a single graph– Links about Pournelle Axes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pournelle_chart http://www.baen.com/chapters/axes.htm And it occurred to me we need something …
The CAT plasma thruster will propel a 5kg satellite into deep space, far beyond Earth orbit, at 1/1000th the cost of previous missions. CubeSat Ambipolar Thruster (CAT) engine development: $200,000 Kickstarter. Has raised $42000 with 13 days to go Funding from Kickstarter will be used to create a complete flight-qualified CubeSat with integrated CAT engine …
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) on July 14 test fired the core stage of the Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket that will be used to launch Canada’s Cassiope space weather satellite this September, a company spokeswoman confirmed. “The recently tested booster is the first stage for SpaceX’s upcoming next-generation Falcon 9 demonstration flight for MDA and …
China 202 story Sky City will soar to 838 metres to dominate the skyline in Changsha, China, by March 2014. Work will start at the end of August 2013 as reported by the Pars Herald. China Broad Group will need four months to prefabricate the sections – and three months more to bolt them together …
Famed investor and co-founder of the Quantum Fund, Jim Rogers said in Shanghai that he expects renminbi, China’s currency, to appreciate 300, 400 or even 500 percent in the next 20 to 30 years. Jim Rogers was a partner of George Soros. Jim has a net worth of over $300 million. He wrote books predicting …
The Carnival of Space 306 is up at Urban Astronomer Chardra Telescope Blog – Black Hole Bonanza Turns Up In Galaxy Next Door The Meridiani Journal – Scientists confirm Curiosity rover’s discovery of ancient Martian streambed Nextbigfuture – The theory underlying Mach effects – fluctuations of the restmasses of accelerating objects in which internal energy …
ESTCube-1, launched earlier early May 2013, is proving out the electric solar sail. Even though it uses but a single 10-meter wire, its rotation rate should change once the tether is fully extended and powered up. Bear in mind that ESTCube-1 is deep within the Earth’s magnetosphere, so the charged particles it will be interacting …