July 25, 2017 |
brian wang |
Laboratory analyses of lunar samples provide a direct means to identify indigenous volatiles and have been used to argue for the presence of Earth-like water content in the lunar interior. Some volatile elements, however, have been interpreted as evidence for …
July 18, 2017 |
brian wang |
An analysis by John Bucknell (x-Spacex senior engineer) describes an 11 meter diameter robotic vehicle with a 6,000-megawatt nuclear thermal rocket in a NTTR arrangement. The rocket would be single stage to orbit and would be immediately be able to …
June 26, 2017 |
brian wang |
As noted in a Nextbigfuture article in April, the Earth is an unusually dry for a habitable planet. David Brin points out that this is the safest and best “soft landing” to the Fermi Paradox. That the universe is filled …
June 8, 2017 |
brian wang |
Japanese and German researchers have found evidence that suggests the middle of Earth’s mantle holds as much water as the planet’s oceans. If scientists can prove without doubt that the middle mantle is filled with water, it calls into question …
April 26, 2017 |
brian wang |
A paper suggests that habitable zone waterworlds like Earth would usually have no land or very little land. This would be another factor that would make technological civilizations more rare. On a purely statistical basis, one naïvely expects to find …
April 19, 2017 |
brian wang |
A new device can produce nearly 3 liters of water per day for every kilogram of spongelike absorber it contains, and researchers say future versions will be even better. That means homes in the driest parts of the world could …
April 13, 2017 |
brian wang |
Two veteran NASA missions are providing new details about icy, ocean-bearing moons of Jupiter and Saturn, further heightening the scientific interest of these and other “ocean worlds” in our solar system and beyond. The findings are presented in papers published …
