Video: Water Ice Plus Aluminum Equals Rocket Fuel. Huh?
(Hat Tip: Hobby Space)
When it comes to space travel, choosing the right fuel could mean life or death for those watching the rocket blast off into glory.
While the hydrogen/oxygen mix has been popular with governments and corporations alike, scientists from Purdue and Pennsylvania State are trying to come up with safer alternatives such as aluminum and water ice.
(Defense News) In August, the Air Force, NASA and scientists from Purdue and Pennsylvania State universities launched a 9-foot rocket 1,300 feet into the air during an initial test flight of the propellant ALICE – so named for its ingredients, aluminum and ice.
The rocket accelerated to 200 miles per hour in 0.8 seconds, said Timothee Pourpoint, an aeronautics and astronautics professor at Purdue.
That’s a promising start, but not better than current propellants, he said. ALICE developers are convinced they can do better. “We have a lot of ideas on how to improve performance,” Pourpoint said.
While its doubtful that NASA would replace the hydrogen/oxygen mix that they have come to know and love, it may be worth looking into for the space agency as it would enable astronauts to refuel from the moon (since there is plenty of aluminum within its soil).
If NASA is able to confirm the presence of water within the lunar surface, then humanity may have the means to power rockets to and from LEO from lunar orbit.
Read More
A New Martian Hope? Inflatable Heat Shield Could Help Land Men On Mars
Image: NASA engineers check out the Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE) in the lab. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith
Despite their track record with deploying rovers and a lander upon the red planet, NASA admitted a few years ago that they lacked the technology to land humans on Mars.
Now it looks as if some new technology could enable humans to visit that crimson world without smashing into the surface.
(NASA & NASA IRVE) A successful NASA flight test has shown that a spacecraft returning to Earth can use an inflatable heat shield to slow and protect itself as it enters the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. This was the first time anyone has successfully flown an inflatable reentry capsule, according to engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center.
The Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment, or IRVE, was vacuum-packed into a 15-inch diameter payload “shroud” and launched on a small sounding rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. Nitrogen inflated the 10-foot (3 m) diameter heat shield, made of several layers of silicone-coated industrial fabric, to a mushroom shape in space several minutes after liftoff.
“This was a huge success,” said Mary Beth Wusk, IRVE project manager, based at Langley. “IRVE was a small-scale demonstrator. Now that we’ve proven the concept, we’d like to build more advanced aeroshells capable of handling higher heat rates.”
Since Mars has approximately 1% atmo (or Earth atmospheres in space geek), landing anything over a ton can be extremely difficult (at least for those seeking to avoiding the way of the Kamikaze).
NASA’s IRVE (or Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment) could seriously change all of that by helping to reduce the speed of the craft as it descends through the Martian atmosphere.
While Mars is still probably a few decades out (at best), its good to know that we can at least land people there safely.
Read MoreDid Somebody Say Anti-Germ Space Paint?
Aside from radiation, micro gravity and cabin fever, keeping a space ship clean can easily spell the difference between life and death.
Since micro gravity has a way of encouraging the growth of deadly organisms, future explorers will probably have to spend a lot of time keeping their “space trailer” squeaky clean–especially the walls.
While cleaning up the space ship may appeal to those in love with Mr. Clean, it may be better for space agencies to coat their space craft walls with anti-germ paint instead.
(Fox News) Scientists at the University of South Dakota have invented a new germ-killing molecule that can be added to commercial brands of paint to give the paint long-lasting antimicrobial properties.
The molecule includes a bleach-like substance called an N-halamine. N-halamines are already used widely, but the South Dakota researchers were able to develop a new type known as Cl-TMPM. [...]
In tests, Staphylococcus aureus organisms were killed with 10 minutes of contact, and E coli organisms were killed with 5 minutes of contact. Paint treated with Cl-TMPM was even effective against the superbug MRSA and other drug-resistant bacteria.
Unfortunately the new paint is only effective against a small selection of organisms, although hopefully scientists will be able to expand it to a variety of organisms known to infest human habitats (whether on our homeworld, off world or even in space).
If perfected, this paint would not only save future explorers countless hours in “de-germing” their extra terrestrial habitats, but make living on another world a lot safer as well.
(Image Credit: eHow)
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Are Traditional Space Elevators The Wrong Way Up?
After being first envisioned by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, then perfected by Yuri Artsutanov, Jerome Pearson and Brad Edwards, the space elevator has captured the imaginations of thousands of individuals who believe it’s humanities best hope for colonizing the solar system en masse.
This radical space concept led to the creation of two startups (LiftPort and Blackline Ascension), as well as support from NASA who (despite their skepticism) is offering $4 million in prize money towards successful teams/companies (thanks in part to their Centennial Challenge).
Despite the momentum that the space elevator community has built up over the years, their dreams of a 100,000 km “beanstalk” stretching into the heavens may not come to pass as the earliest plans for a structure coming into being hover around 2030.
Rather than spend decades perfecting carbon nanotubes and power climbers (key ingredients if a traditional space elevator is to become a reality), it may be better to focus on Skyhooks (aka orbital space elevators) instead.
Instead of grasping the Earth’s surface from either a seaport or a mountain top, a Skyhook would hover 150 km above our home world, giving it several advantages over its earth bound cousins.
While a traditional space elevator would require a massive counterweight at the end (i.e. an asteroid or a large space station), a Skyhook would only need a light counterweight at the top of the structure, which might be feasible with today’s technology (not to mention this economy as well).
A Skyhook would also be much shorter than their traditional brethren, spanning a length of no more than 4,000 km compared to 100,000 km for a traditional space elevator. Even if a Skyhook’s cable had to be fashioned from carbon nanotubes (which may not be needed as Kevlar and/or Spectra might be sufficient), it would be much easier to fashion due to its shorter length.
Last but not least, Skyhooks would probably not need to beam power to their transport climbers from below, a feat that may be extremely difficult for traditional space elevators (especially 100,000 km away!). Instead, climbers transporting cargo on a Skyhook could be powered by miniature nuclear reactors or via solar power from the rays of the sun.
Although Skyhook’s have a significant advantage over their earth bound friends, their Achilles heal lies in the fact one would need to construct a rocket/jet hybrid capable of “breathing air” when flying through our atmosphere, and later on switching to rocket engines when they reach the edge of space.
Fortunately the British are in the process of developing a new craft called Skylon (by Reaction Engines Limited) which may help remove that hurdle, making the construction of a Skyhook possible.
While space elevator enthusiasts may still opt to construct their terrestrial beanstalk in an attempt to link heaven and earth, it may be wiser to focus their efforts on Skyhooks instead–especially now that companies like Lockheed Martin may seriously pursue building a Skyhook which in the end could help open the final frontier to the masses.
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Japanese Space Androids To Conquer Lunar Frontier
(Hat Tip: Engadget)
What does an country with moon aspirations do when its rival outnumbers it 10 to 1? Send in the robots of course! It looks as if the Japanese are seriously considering leveraging their silicon friends in order to make lunar life more habitable.
(Times Online) But by 2020, Japan predicts, humanoid robots will be ready to colonise the Moon. [...]
The group’s remit was to draft a five-year plan on the development and exploitation of space – a programme for action that was initially to have included the goal of putting a human Japanese astronaut on the Moon within the next 20 years. In the latest plans, though, robots have inherited the prime position in Japan’s first – and still unconstructed – lunar lander. Experts have been arguing for years that the country’s aim should be to develop humanoid robots to the point where they are capable of everything people can do, and more.
Unless Japan desires to create Cylons (or worse, Terminators) they may want to refocus their efforts on beefing up their own citizens for the lunar stroll.
Although robots would give the land of the rising sun an early advantage against China, it may also devalue their claims of ownership over certain lunar real estate (as a country would have to have a very good reason for injuring a human as opposed to destroying a machine).
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Another Blue Collar Space Job: Firefighters
(Image Credit: NASA, Hat Tip: Gizmodo)
If one were to list which blue collar space jobs would be needed for the future, Firefighters would be right at the top of the list (or at least up there with pig farmers).
Since fires can spread a lot faster in micro gravity than on our home world, NASA is preparing future explorers by equipping them with new ways to douse the space flames.
(MSNBC) “In space, fires are like spheres. They’re not shaped like what we have on Earth,” said James Butz, vice president of operations for Colorado-based ADA Technologies, which last week announced it had received a grant worth nearly $100,000 from NASA to continue work on an extinguisher that coats fires in a fine mist. [...]
The key to getting the droplets small enough is to use compressed gas. The system uses water and nitrogen so it is environmentally non-toxic and has an unlimited shelf life. Also, because oxygen and nitrogen will be aboard the spacecraft, the extinguisher can be refilled if needed.
This technology will not only be critical for future colonists traveling between the worlds, but also to settlers living upon dwarf worlds (like Ceres and Pluto) where the gravity is not as strong.
Even though NASA is preparing future explorers on how to deal with fires on a smaller scale, they may one day need a more specialized force (especially if humanity begins to thickly populate the spheres that dance around our Sun).
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Can A New Spaceship Save Russia?
It looks as if the nation that helped bring us to the stars (via Sputnik) is now seeking to build a spaceship that can not only take them beyond our terrestrial sky, but towards the Moon as well.
(MSNBC) The Russian space agency on Tuesday ordered design work to start for a next-generation spaceship capable of flying missions to the moon, setting the ground for a potential new space race with the United States.
The space agency granted the state-controlled RKK Energiya company the $23 million contract for the initial work on a new, reusable craft to replace the 40-year-old Soyuz spacecraft.
With the world wide recession leaving none unscathed (even the NewSpace industry), it may be difficult for Russia to compete against NASA, although an alliance with China may help them close the gap.
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Video: Could Skylon Jets Open Up The Final Frontier?
(Hat Tip: Skymania News)
Finding an inexpensive and effective way to travel beyond the heavens above has been the quest of humanity since the days of the Wright Brothers.
While some see space elevators as the key, it looks as if the British are placing their faith in air breathing Skylon jets.
(New Scientist) Unlike scramjets, Skylon is designed to run in air-breathing mode directly from launch up to a speed of Mach 5.5. At an altitude of 26 kilometres, the engine would switch to conventional rocket power and use onboard oxygen to propel the plane into space.
“It’s a pretty unique concept,” says Mark Hempsell, director of future programmes at Reaction Engines. “I think at the moment it’s the only realistic way to make aircraft vehicles that go into space.”
The design should be sufficient to power a 43-tonne plane that can loft 12 tonnes of payload into low-Earth orbit, about half what the space shuttle can carry, the firm says.
If successful, Skylon jets could not only help England leap frog ahead of the competition but also make space affordable for all.
While the Skylon alone will not help humanity become a space faring species, it may reduce the overall cost of traveling beyond the sky, making it easier for our species to construct orbital space stations (and perhaps even a modified space elevator, LockHeed style!).
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Nitrogen Powered Rockets (For Titan, Triton And Pluto?)
Out “in the black” where the suns rays are much dimmer, future explorers will have to come up with innovative ways to travel to and from the gas giants, dwarf planets and the various moons that dance around their parent worlds.
While solar sails, magnetic sails and nuclear rockets could provide some measure of transport, they will probably be too expensive for the average star ship.
Since mining hydrogen directly from gas giants is suicidal due to their deep gravity wells and very fierce winds (with the only exception being Uranus), colonists beyond Jupiter may look towards nitrogen to solve their space transport needs.
(Space Travel) Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers say their new rocket — called the Mini-Helicon Plasma Thruster — is much smaller than other rockets of its kind and could consume just one-tenth the fuel used by conventional systems. [...]
The scientists said the Mini-Helicon is the first rocket to run on nitrogen, the most abundant gas in Earth’s atmosphere. Batishchev noted, however, it could be years before the technology can be used commercially.
While this technology will have some value on our home world, these nitrogen powered rockets may prove invaluable to worlds like Titan, Triton and Pluto who seem to be blessed with an abundance of nitrogen, respectively.
If future settlers could find ways to harvest this element from these worlds, then humanity may discover a means to travel not only throughout the outer planets, but perhaps beyond the Kuiper belt as well.
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Rechargable Batteries (For Off World Settlers)
Regardless of how humanity decides to power its off world settlements (whether by solar power, geothermal, solar steam, or even algae), they are going to need an efficient and quick way to transfer the energy to not only space habitats, but future rovers as well.
While NASA and Germany have come up with innovative ways at storing energy, respectively, it looks as if researchers from Massachusetts may have developed a way to recharge electrical batteries at lightening speeds.
(Times Online) Scientists in the United States have invented a battery that can charge in seconds, promising a revolution in power storage that could also help green cars and renewable energy.
The advance allows lithium-ion batteries, the standard variety used in consumer electronics and cells for electric or hybrid vehicles, both to charge and discharge stored energy more quickly than at present. [...]
“If you can charge your phone in 30 seconds, that becomes a life changer,” said Gerbrand Ceder, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who led the research. “It could change the way we think about technology like this: you would literally be able to charge up while you stand and wait.”
This technology could enable future colonists to create fleets of rovers to travel across the surfaces of the Moon, Mars, as well as Jupiter’s lunar children (Ganymede and Callisto to be exact).
Settlers could construct electric charging stations to supply rovers en route to distant destinations, thereby enabling explorers to travel their world without fear of running out of energy.
While this technology has yet to be perfected (not to mention tested on Earth), it may help humanity expand across the various worlds that orbit around our golden star Sol.
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Video: In Space, No One Will See You Stitched
Although microgravity is not exactly the greatest place to sustain an injury (unless you are a dangerous microbe), many scientists are exploring new ways of conducting surgery in a weightless environment.
While a space doctor will be needed to help mend the wounds of astronauts, they may choose to use lasers to seal the wound instead of medical stitches.
Since regular earthly stitches are composed of synthetic material and catgut, scientists may prefer using lasers as it would translate into one less item to pack (as well as one less requirement for a future space doctor).
(Hat Tip: Gizmodo)
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
How To Lose Lunar Dust (Without Losing Your Health)
(Hat Tip: Space Transport News)
As any space faring lunar loving citizen will inform you, living on the Moon will not be easy. Not only will one have to deal with radiation and micrometeorites, but also lunar dust (which is not exactly healthy).
Fortunately it looks as if scientists have figured out an innovative way of removing these pesky particles–without have to resort to “air showers.”
(New Scientist) To solve the problem, Clark’s team is working on SPARCLE, a “lunar dust buster” that astronauts could utilise in the airlock to a moon base. The device consists of a positively charged metallic nozzle fitted to an electron gun, similar to those used in electron microscopes, which fires a focused beam of electrons from a hot filament.
Following a moonwalk, astronauts would scan the beam across the surface of their dirty equipment, showering it with electrons until all the dust particles and the surface become negatively charged and start to repel one another. This would loosen the particles’ grip, allowing them to fly to the positively charged nozzle where they are captured.
If NASA found a way to build this within their lunar outposts, they would probably not need to develop fancy human rated rovers, allowing the astronauts to simply explore the Moon’s surface without fear of tracking the white powder to the annoyance of all their lunar crew members.
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Video: Hope Or Hype? Travel To Mars In Just 3 Days?
(Hat Tip: Spaceports)
Although our species has mastered the art of landing rovers upon the Martian surface, we have yet to develop a fast way to transport astronauts from Earth to Mars (assuming we can figure out how to safely land humans upon the crimson soil).
While some “feasible” technology may be able to shorten the overall trip to under 40 days, Moacir L. Ferreira Jr. is proposing that a rocket could potentially do it within 72 hours with the help of his CrossFire Fusor reactor.
(CrossFire Fusor) The CrossFire Fusor relies on magnetic fields for confining radially charged particles and relies on electric fields for trapping longitudinally them. It also relies on electric fields for accelerating the charged particles for reaching great kinetic energy of about 600KeV (7 billion°C) at inexpressive energy consumption.
The CrossFire Fusor is the first nuclear fusion reactor designed for achieving a true three-dimensional confinement plus a three-dimensional charged particles injection, and for having an adequate escape mechanism for the charged products of nuclear fusion thrusting a spacecraft. It also is the first, among the non-neutral plasma reactors, that can confine a plasma in a quasi-neutral state solving the saturation problem.
The CrossFire Fusor also is the first designed for having great flexibility for confining and fusing charged particles comprising positive and negative ions from neutronic and aneutronic fuels. The nuclear fusion fuel can be composed of several light atomic nuclei like hydrogen, deuterium, tritium, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, in special boron hydrides and helium-3.
The CrossFire Fusor also is the first providing a method for converting energy of charged products from aneutronic nuclear fusion directly to electricity by neutralization process, that can reach an efficiency exceeding 95%, and it is the first to present a power supply system with a concept of multidirectional energy flow.
While the technology itself looks promising, we may not see this type of rocket available until 2020 (as nuclear fusion has yet to be perfected).
Either way, if Ferreira’s reactor is not used for interplanetary travel to Mars, it may have a future in keeping the lights on for future settlers of Ganymede, Callisto and beyond.
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Video: Off Road "Tweeling?" (For The Moon And Mars)
(Hat Tip: Potentia Tenebras Repellendi)
The one thing that may separate a thriving lunar outpost (or on any world) from a dying one is transportation. While scientists and engineers may be able to figure out how to create lunar roads using the Moon’s soil, they will need to reinvent the wheel (note: pun intended) when it comes to tires.
Fortunately it looks as if Michelin has already designed a tweel (which is a cross between a tire and a spoke wheel) for lunar rovers, which will enable rovers to travel the lunar terrain at fairly high speeds.
(Moon Today) Based on the award-winning MICHELIN TWEEL assembly, the MICHELIN Lunar Wheel maintains flexibility and constant ground contact pressure that enables moon rovers to traverse loose soil and lunar craters. The MICHELIN Lunar Wheel has a low mass yet maintains a high load capacity that is 3.3 times more efficient than the original Apollo Lunar Rover wheels.
The wheel structure, developed by Michelin, employs Michelin-patented composite materials. Its textile tread, developed in conjunction with Clemson University and Milliken and Company, enables moon rovers to maintain traction at very low temperatures.
“This new technology not only applies to lunar missions, but may also be directly leveraged into other mobility applications requiring light-weight and low rolling resistance,” said Stafford. “It’s an exciting advance for mobility in space and here on Earth.”
Although Michelin’s goal is to aid lunar rovers, this technology would also appeal towards future Martian rovers (and settlers) as it would reduce the need for extra spares (in case one of their tires is damaged beyond repair).
Unless future settlers of other airless worlds (such as Callisto, Ganymede and Triton) develop hovercrafts, Michelin’s invention could easily become the standard space wheel for our solar system.
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
NASA: Oxygen Drilling Rovers, Please!
Even though the Moon may lack an abundance of water on (or even under) its surface, Earth’s little sibling does have one element critical to our survival off world–oxygen.
Since most of this oxygen is locked away in lunar rock, NASA is planning on using moon rovers to not only drill into the moon rock, but to produce oxygen from its surface as well.
(NASA) NASA’s lunar exploration plan currently projects that on-site lunar resources could generate one to two metric tons of oxygen annually. This is roughly the amount of oxygen that four to six people living at a lunar outpost might breathe in a year. The field demonstrations in Hawaii showed how lunar materials might be extracted. It also showcased the hydrogen reduction system used to manufacture oxygen from those materials and how the oxygen would be stored. These experiments help engineers and scientists spot complications that might not be obvious in laboratories.
A prototype system combines a polar prospecting rover and a drill specifically designed to penetrate the harsh lunar soil. The rover’s system demonstrates small-scale oxygen production from regolith. A similar rover could search for water ice and volatile gases such as hydrogen, helium, and nitrogen, in the permanently shadowed craters of the moon’s poles. Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburgh built the rover, which carries equipment known as the Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction.
While developing rovers to convert oxygen from moon rock (even in small amounts) is great, NASA may want to rethink the whole drilling approach, as it may be cheaper to use a lunar vacuum (as replacing bits may become expensive after awhile).
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Solar Shades For Mercury Outposts?
Of all the worlds humanity world humanity has yet to conquer, Mercury will probably be one of the toughest to conquer.
With surface temperatures reaching as high as 427 degrees Celsius (or about 800 degrees Fahrenheit), the future of any Mercury outpost looks to be either underground and/or nocturnal (which would probably make this planet an attractive place for penal colonies).
Since living underground (or even inside an outpost) may not attract the masses towards the planet, scientists may need to “revamp” solar shades from space telescopes in order to allow residents to explore the world during the Mercurian day (which is about 29 Earth days long).
(ESA Space Science) Imagine sunglasses that can withstand the severe cold and heat of space, a barrage of radiation and high-speed impacts from small space debris. They don’t exist, but the sunshield for the James Webb Space Telescope, JWST, has been designed for just that. [...]
Any satellite that flies in the depths of space has to be able to withstand the rigors of space, from the icy cold to the intense heat and radiation of a solar flare. Temperatures in space can range from a hot 400 K (127°C) to a frigid 30 K (-243°C). In addition, the telescope’s sunshield will be bombarded with tiny meteorites (sand-like grains) and radiation in space, so it has to be tough. It has to stand up against those things, as well as tension and aging under the extreme space environments.
Hopefully scientists can find a way to adapt this technology for “space windows” and helmet visors, as it will will enable colonists to view and roam the surface of Mercury without being blinded by the suns rays.
Even though Mercury may not be as colorful or attractive as some of the other worlds in our star system, the first rock from the sun may could easily replace Mars as humanities “next step” (after the Moon) due to the amount of potential resources that may be located there.
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Mars: Locating Ice Water In All The Right Places (Technology)
When it comes to water, Mars probably holds more than any other terrestrial body (at least as far as safely retrieving goes).
While the red planet does hold an abundance of water beneath its surface (not to mention the north and south poles), locating the ice rich regions may determine how successful a future outpost will be on the crimson world.
Fortunately it looks as if scientists may have found a way to locate areas wealthy in ice water simply by “bouncing” neutrons off of the Martian soil.
(Astrobiology Magazine) Detecting water underground does not require a magical stick. Neutrons reflecting out of the soil can indicate the presence of water or ice. A novel instrument that can detect those neutrons is planned for NASA’s next rover mission to Mars. [...]
“It is like striking a billiard ball with the cue ball,” Boynton said. “If you hit it directly on center, all of the energy of the cue ball (the neutron in this case) will be transferred to the billiard ball (the hydrogen atom).”
The net result is that a neutron is stopped or slowed when colliding with hydrogen. Presumably, most of the hydrogen atoms on a planet surface will be part of a water molecule.
“Water will both thermalize (slow down) and absorb neutrons, so the reflected neutron signal will be higher in thermal (low-energy) neutrons and lower in epithermal (high-energy) neutrons,” Boynton explained.
Dry soil, by contrast, will reflect more high-energy neutrons. This is because it will contain predominantly heavier atoms, which act like bowling balls that barely budge when a cue ball hits them. Neutrons striking iron or silicon atoms, rather than hydrogen atoms, will ricochet with practically the same energy that they started with.
Even though we can use satellites to locate ice water from space, their results are not as accurate (as according to the article their signal can only penetrate one meter below the surface).
If promising regions can be located, NASA (and others) could then send robotic landers to drill through the surface, which will make it easier for future colonists to simply collect and filter the Martian water once they arrive.
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Saturn's Titan: Where Rovers Fail, Hot Air Balloons May Prevail
(Hat Tip: Centauri Dreams, Image Credit: NASA)
To say one could easily explore the surface of Titan without descending below the clouds would be as silly as trying to fathom Earth’s oceanic depths without using machines to probe the deep.
If Titan is destined to be a future home for humanity, then we are going to have to find a way to accurately explore its surface.
Since exploring its surface via satellite may be useless due to the methane moon’s “jelly insides,” we may have to explore it via hot air balloon in order to map out this orange hazy moon.
(Titan and Saturn Future Exploration) We are now in the phase of describing our study of the past year for a return to Titan and the Saturnian System in extensive reports that will allow the science committees appointed by the agencies to evaluate the interest and feasibility of the mission. The JSDT, and the NASA, JPL and ESA engineers have been working hard on putting together these reports and on defining the science, as well as the measurement requirements related to our ambitious mission, which comprises a dedicated Titan orbiter, and two in situ elements : a hot-air (Montgolfière) balloon and a lander. The balloon is to fly over Titan’s mid latitudes at 10 km altitude for about 6 months, while a short-lived probe will land in a north-polar lake. The CNES French Agency has committed to supplying a large part of the balloon, and is actively studying the Montgolfière. For the lander, the flourishing heritage from Huygens is putting us in a strong, comfortable position.
Although some may suggest that we simply deploy another rover (as that will give us a ground view of things), and future machine with wheels my find itself getting stuck due to the chemical nature of Titan’s sand grains.
A hot air balloon would probably be a better alternative, as it would not only give us a birds eye view of the region, but enable us to measure what Titan weather is like in the sky (as future colonists will probably construct “nitrogen planes” in order to transport goods across the surface).
Update: Corrected random link color error in blockquote.
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Finally! Magnetic Shields For Space Ships (And Colonies Too)
(Hat Tip: Potentia Tenebras Repellendi, Image Credit: Edited by ProjectRHO.com, Original art work by Winchell Chung)
People often say that space is the final frontier. While our future may lie among the stars that shine from above, humanity will forever will be pondering the distant celestial lights if our species can not find a way to deal with the deadly radiation that drifts throughout our star system.
Fortunately it looks as if scientists from the United Kingdom may be on the edge of creating artificial magnetic bubbles after announcing their plans of developing this technology last year.
(Telegraph) The idea of a “mini-magnetosphere” has been around since the 1960s but it was thought impractical because it was believed that only a very large – more than 100km wide – magnetic bubble could possibly work. This would involve enormous amounts of energy and massive machinery.
But the British team, which published its results in the journal Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, has come up with a system that would be about the size of a playground roundabout and use the same energy as a kettle.
They envisage two “mini-magnetospheres” being housed in two outrider satellites in front of the space craft that when a storm approaches would switch on the shield and deflect the deadly rays.
While this would tremendously benefit future astronauts traveling throughout our star system, it would also enable us to safely establish large outposts on the Moon, Mars and Ganymede (as Callisto, Titan, Earth and a few Saturan moons are the only radiation safe worlds within our star system).
It may also enable us to bring along all of our animal and insect friends (like bees), instead of having to rely upon creatures who may not need Earth’s magnetic influence in order to carry out critical functions (one example being ants).
Note: Since creating these mini magnetic fields will probably require a lot of energy, we will probably have to use a miniature nuclear reactor to provide enough power to keep the radiation out (and the life support on).
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
NASA's New Rovers: The Future In Off World Safari's?
After previously teasing the space community with concepts of their future lunar rover, NASA has finally revealed a prototype to the public.
What sets this rover apart from its giant robotic cousins is the fact that this rover will enable future colonists to explore the lunar surface for weeks at a time.
(New Scientist Space) The new prototype has a pressurised cab and is fitted out with leather seats and bunks. It would allow a crew of two astronauts to take extended exploration trips for up to two weeks at a time, covering distances of up to 1000 km, Craig said. [...]
The crew would not wear spacesuits while in the vehicle, which is fitted with large windows offering extensive views of the terrain. But to step outside, they would slip into spacesuits mounted on the outside of the vehicle through special hatches in the rover, officials said.
“You are only in a spacesuit when you need to be on the surface picking up rocks,” said astronaut Mike Gernhardt, a veteran of four space shuttle missions and a pioneering spacewalk, as he took reporters for a spin in the rover.
While it would be wise for NASA to consider taking along a few new spacesuits, these mobile rovers may become the standard for off world traveling as it would enable future settlements to send scouting parties in order to locate valuable resources.
It would also reduce the risk of astronauts inhaling moon dust, allowing them to remain in their “cozy” lunar trailer.
Even thought NASA has a long ways to go before they begin establishing the first lunar base on the Moon, its good to see the agency develop innovative ways at roaming the lunar surface (instead of repeating what they did during the glory days of Apollo).
Content Copyright 2006-2009 of Colony Worlds. All Rights Reserved.
Violators (and hosts) can be prosecuted under national and international laws.
Establish First Contact (& Subscribe)
Love of Lunar
Martian Delights
Interplanetary Essays
