Mars or bust: a private mission to the red planet can take risks Nasa can't
“Impossible it isn’t, but the Inspiration Mars Foundation’s proposed mission would run the risk of catastrophic failure”
Will humans continue to evolve during multigenerational space missions?
“Nanotechnology expert Robert Freitas has outlined a plan for the elimination of lungs, making breathable air unnecessary. Ray Kurzweil has speculated that future humans won’t require food, equipped instead with nanobots that can energize our cells. And even Craig Venter has chimed in, putting out the call to develop an advanced inner ear that can allow people to escape motion sickness, genes for bone regeneration, and DNA repair for radiation He’s also suggested that we develop a small stature, higher energy utilization, hairlessness, and slower skin turnover. And yet others have speculated about transforming humans into gangly octopus-like creatures who would be far more adapted to slithering around in zero gravity environments.”
Source: io9.com
Excited to announce that I am a member of a congressionally-requested study on the future of human spaceflight!
Thought I’d also share my exciting news on here since it is future-related! Do check out the link to the study’s site, it’ll elaborate on the exact future it’s looking at.
I’m totally over the moon about this: I’m featured in a TV spot airing on SyFy as part of their Let’s Imagine Greater campaign! You can catch it “live” on the SyFy channel this weekend: Saturday @ 6:13pm EST & Sunday @ 5:33pm EST. Or just check it out above!
SyFy’s tagline is “Let’s Imagine Greater” and this is part of a campaign to get everyone to imagine amazing things – and hopefully create them! This is very much in line with my work: Spacehack.org is about anyone being able to explore space and make scientific discoveries, and Science Hack Day is all about getting excited and making things with science. You can hear more about my story and some of my miscellaneous thoughts at my page on the Let’s Imagine Greater site.
The shoot was so much fun – I was acting out a lot of things on green screen, so it’s great to see how it all comes together in the end. I really loved filming on a set – I hope it’ll be the first of many.
photo by David Chun
photo by David Chun
Me & creative director Chris Dooley, photo by David ChunMore photos from the shoot are at http://flic.kr/s/aHsjz5pTM4.
Want to chat with me about imagining amazing-awesome-weird science-y things or how you can get involved as a spacehacker? Save the date: March 28, 4-5pm EST. I’ll be hosting a live TweetChat – follow @letsimaginegrtr and join the discussion at http://tweetchat.com/room/letsimaginegreater or by watching #letsimaginegreater.
(via itsfullofstars)
Source: arielwaldman.com
“Boeing says two of its own employees will crew the first manned mission of its new astronaut capsule. The US company has confirmed it will use the Atlas 5 rocket to test its CST-100 ship on three flights in 2015. An unmanned capsule will be used on the first and second launches. On the third, Boeing test pilots will take the vessel to the space station.”
Source: BBC
SpaceX CEO talks about mission to Mars.
SpaceX is currently focusing efforts on a mission to the International Space Station, with current test flights leading up to a planned docking with the ISS in December this year.
During the AIAA Propulsion conference this week, CEO Elon Musk spoke about his plans for other places like the Moon or Mars. “Ultimately, the thing that is super important in the grand scale of history is—are we on a path to becoming a multi-planet species or not? If we’re not, that’s not a very bright future. We’ll just be hanging out on Earth until some eventual calamity claims us,” Musk said.
First on the list would be a vehicle that’s capable of delivering substantial mass to Mars and then returning to Earth. The company’s planned Falcon Heavy rocket, the plans for which were unveiled in April, could conceivably carry 12 to 15 metric tons, but “I think you’ll probably want a vehicle that can deliver something on the order of 50 metric tons … in a fully reusable manner,” Musk said.
The Falcon Heavy, which will be the world’s largest rocket, will have its inaugural flight in late 2012.
(via 8bitfuture)
Open Source Space Flight Attempt Today
“The project is both open source and non-profit in order to inspire as many people as possible, and to involve relevant partners and their expertise. We intend to share all our technical information as much as possible, within the laws of EU-export control.”
International Lunar Research Park
Effort to begin planning around building a lunar settlement.
“The International Lunar Research Park Exploratory Workshop was held Tuesday 5 April 2011 at the NASA Ames Conference Center. The purpose of the workshop was to gather experts and pioneering thinkers from across the United States to explore innovative opportunities to enhance multinational collaboration in the exploration and development of space.”
As the group says, “this is not about the Moon, this is about the Future”
Blogging From Mars? Log On to the Interplanetary Internet
“This isn’t a new development, however. Cerf has been working closely with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the last few years, testing systems that may be used to expand an Internet-like system into interplanetary space, finding a standardized Internet protocol that every satellite, lander, rover and astronaut can hook up to (the blogging Mars astronaut scenario imagined above would come much later).”
Space geekery going mainstream! Citi made a commercial about launching weather balloon payloads into near-space!
