Most Recent Articles
Bigelow Aerospace To Make The ISS Irrelevant
It looks like China won’t be the only entity making the $100 billion International Space Station worthless over the next decade.
After successfully launching 2 inflatable space stations, Bigelow Aerospace is now adding international governments to its client list, which might seal the fate of the ISS.
Space entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, chief of Bigelow Aerospace, has been busy marketing his private space modules, an outreach effort leading to six deals being signed with clients this year.
The deals, in the form of memorandums of understanding, involve Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom. [...]
“That is what this new leasing guide is going to expose,” Bigelow said. “It’s encouraging to see the enthusiasm. They all have different reasons, different ways in which they see using our facilities — what I call ‘dynamic assets’ in the new leasing guide — to benefit them. It can change the face of a nation.” (Space.com)
Despite being built by Russia and NASA, the ISS overall has been a failure as very few nations can access its facilities and (more importantly) there isn’t much science that can be performed outside of a few notable experiments.
Renting an entire station from Bigelow will not only give countries guaranteed access to a heavenly way station, but also allow them to perform experiments that can benefit each countries respective interests (as opposed sharing everything with the rest of humanity).
Bigelow may also extend its services lunar side, which could help nations with smaller budgets to establish outposts upon the lunar surface without having to create their own facilities from scratch.
Either way the ISS is looking more and more irrelevant, and once Bigelow space stations start becoming a common sight throughout the heavens, it won’t be surprising to see the ISS abandoned to a fiery death through the atmosphere below.
(Image Credit: Bigelow Aerospace)
Read MoreSilver Discovered On The Moon?
Despite finding an abundance of water upon Earth’s nearest neighbor, NASA has unveiled that the Moon also contains trace amounts of silver as well.
Another intriguing result was the variety and amount of other substances inside Cabeus.
LCROSS and a sister probe, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), found evidence of all kinds of compounds, including elemental hydrogen, carbon monoxide, ammonia, methane, mercury, calcium, magnesium and silver. And these materials made up a surprisingly large chunk of the crater floor.
“Where we impacted, up to 20 percent was something other than dirt,” Colaprete said. “It was ices, volatiles, light metals. That was a surprise, that you had so much of this material in there.” (Space.com)
While Cabeus’s true wealth lies in the fact that the crater contains an abundance of water, the fact that silver exists on the lunar surface is good news as it gives future settlers a potential means to form their own monetary system apart from Earth.
Although it’s doubtful that we will see a “silver rush” to the Moon (as settling the off white world will cost billions), the valuable metal could aid lunar colonists in the electronics arena as silver is an excellent conductor of electricity.
(Image Credit: Wikipedia)
Read More
Could Solar Wind Power Martian And Lunar Colonies?
When it comes to settling our nearest neighbors, both Mars and Luna (aka the Moon) present unique challenges as far as energy goes.
Although one could always import numerous mini-nuclear reactors upon each respective world from Earth (controversy aside), it may make more sense to rely upon the fiery breathe from our Sol star.
Instead of physically rotating a blade attached to a turbine, the proposed satellite would use a charged copper wire to capture electrons zooming away from the sun at several hundred kilometers per second.
According to the team’s calculations, 300 meters (984 feet) of copper wire, attached to a two-meter-wide (6.6-foot-wide) receiver and a 10-meter (32.8-foot) sail, would generate enough power for 1,000 homes.
A satellite with a 1,000-meter (3,280-foot) cable and a sail 8,400 kilometers (5,220 miles) across, placed at roughly the same orbit, would generate one billion billion gigawatts of power.
That’s approximately 100 billion times the power Earth currently uses. (Discovery News)
Although this idea is being proposed for usage upon our home world, it might be easier (not to mention wiser) to adapt it to power future colonies upon the Moon as well as for Mars.
Even though the first explorers of Mars and Luna will use solar power to help keep the lights on, using our Sun’s solar wind could allow us to power cities without having to rely upon nuclear fuel imports from Earth.
Perfecting this technology would allow Lunar settlements to operate during the 2 weeks of darkness while Martian outposts might be able to transform one of their asteroid moons (preferably Deimos) into a gigantic power station that could help power Martian cities every few days.
While it’s skeptical that something like this would be allowed near Earth (due to the environmental consciousness of our global governments), it would make more sense when used for off world colonies upon Luna, Mars and beyond.
(via MSNBC, Image Credit: NASA and the Journal of Geophysical Research – Space Physics)
Read MoreFingernails And Space Gloves Just Don’t Mix
Despite developing innovative ways of combating radiation, micro gravity and how to go to the bathroom in space, we still have yet to solve the space glove dilemma which can cause an unlucky astronaut to lose their fingernails.
Fortunately researchers are working on a solution, although it looks like Dava Newman (who is a professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems) may actually have a solution for us.
As part of her ongoing research on EVA performance, Newman is exploring how robotic technology can work in parallel with gas-pressurized suits, including ways to use actuators to help hand muscles fight against pressurized gloves.
She has also spent several years developing technology for the MIT BioSuit, a spacesuit that relies on mechanical counterpressure to enhance astronaut performance. Instead of pressurizing the air inside a bulky spacesuit, the BioSuit applies pressure directly to the skin through tightly wrapped layers of flexible material that function like a “second skin” and enable enhanced mobility and flexibility. Using mechanical counterpressure would get around the hand problem that results from traditional spacesuits, Newman said. (MIT News)
This is great news to hear as it means future explorers will be able to comfortably explore the final frontier in person instead of using robots to perform the most basic tasks such as picking up rocks, digging small holes, etc.
It will also help encourage people to explore off world themselves as fears of damaged nails could severely deter the masses from wearing space gloves (let alone space suits).
While Newman’s approach has yet to provide a solution to the nail drama, it hopefully is a step in the right direction.
(via Physorg.com, Image Credit: Patrick Gillooly)
Read MoreServer Migrations… Update: Migration Complete!
I’m in the process of migrating my sites off of HostMonster and upon ________ (will reveal all later).
While Hostmonster has been an excellent host, I’ve worn out my welcome (more or less) and I need a host who loves WordPress more than I do. 
Since I’m tired of my sites going down, creating errors anytime I create a post, tweak the site, etc., I’m switching away.
Update: Migration of Colony Worlds complete! Now I can finally blog again without fear of the site going down! 
So the site will appear weird for awhile, but no need to fear! Everything should return to normal in 24-96 hours. :-/
–Posted from my iPhone
Read MoreArtificial Kidneys For Off World Settlers
Unlike Earth with its vast population of kidney donors (that is if one is lucky), future space settlers will likely be on their own if any of them experience kidney failure.
While future scientists on Mars, Callisto, Ganymede, etc. could always grow organs from pigs, off world inhabitants may prefer an artificial solution instead.
The device, which would include thousands of microscopic filters as well as a bioreactor to mimic the metabolic and water-balancing roles of a real kidney, is being developed in a collaborative effort by engineers, biologists and physicians nationwide, led by Shuvo Roy, PhD, in the UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences.
The treatment has been proven to work for the sickest patients using a room-sized external model developed by a team member in Michigan. Roy’s goal is to apply silicon fabrication technology, along with specially engineered compartments for live kidney cells, to shrink that large-scale technology into a device the size of a coffee cup. The device would then be implanted in the body without the need for immune suppressant medications, allowing the patient to live a more normal life. (Science Daily)
While one would hope in the future that kidney failure would become an issue of the past, having one’s kidney’s fail hundreds a millions of kilometers from the nearest donor does not bring too many pleasant thoughts to mind.
By using artificial kidney’s, doctors can focus more on the replacing the dead kidney rather than on finding a suitable donor (not to mention the dialysis which would take an astronaut out of commission).
Although this technology was developed for the intention of serving residents upon the home world, it can potentially benefit hundreds (if not millions) of off world settlers in the future by giving them one less problem to worry about just in case something goes wrong.
(via Gizmodo)
Read MoreIf VASIMR Is Vapor Ware, Is A Martian Mission Doomed?
(Image: A concept of a VASIMR-powered space craft. Credit: Ad Astra Rocket Company)
Seen by many to be the “great red hope,” VASIMR has the potential to shorten a six month journey to the red planet to about 40 days.
Unfortunately it looks like brighter minds have weighed in on the realities of VASIMR, and have concluded that the technology has more in common with Star Trek than reality.
Another concern is that for a Mars mission, VASIMR would have to use a nuclear power system that doesn’t exist yet. Mars Society president Robert Zubrin warned that mission designs that used VASIMR had unrealistic expectations about the mass of such reactors. The largest space nuclear power systems, the Topaz nuclear reactors developed by the former Soviet Union, generated 10 kilowatts and had a specific power, or alpha, of 100 kilograms per kilowatt. NASA had hoped to get alpha down to 65 kg/kW with its now-cancelled Prometheus program, and Zubrin said that if one is “quite optimistic” an alpha of 20 kg/kW was possible. The VASIMR-based Mars mission concepts, he said, assume an alpha of 1 kg/kW. “That’s like steel with the weight of Styrofoam,” Zubrin said. “It has no relationship with reality.”
Assuming an alpha of 20 kg/kW, Zubrin said, means that a reactor that generates 200 megawatts would weigh 4,000 tons. (By contrast, the VASIMR mission architectures with the 39-day travel times had assumed an overall mission mass of approximately 600 tons.) Moreover, the best travel time you could get with this much more massive system is six to eight months, comparable with conventional chemical propulsion systems, Zubrin claimed. “The numbers don’t add up,” he said. (The Space Review)
If humanity can not find a way to shorten the trip to Mars, then future explorers face the risk of being too weak to walk the crimson soil due to the effects of micro gravity.
Worse, a long journey can expose astronauts to excessive amounts of radiation which can not only damage equipment, but our fragile brains as well.
While humanity could always resort to portable magnetic fields, heavy shielding and a steady diet of fish (as omega-3 can keep bones strong in micro gravity), finding ways to shorten the trip is probably wiser if we want to see Mars colonized within our life times.
Hopefully someone else can come up with a reasonable solution that doesn’t include our grandkids earning their grey hairs wondering why we never set foot on Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor (after Venus that is).
Read MoreVideo: Inflatable "Tents" For Off World Settlers?
(Image Credit: Bigelow Aerospace)
For those of you who envisioned outposts made out of metal, plastic and off world dirt, you may soon be disappointed that NASA and ESA have a different vision for conquering the final frontier, one filled with lots of hot air.
Gary Spexarth, manager of lunar surface systems design at NASA, believes that, despite their appearance, current inflatable habitats are far better suited than metal structures to the harsh environments of space. ’You could think of these inflatable modules as a big spacesuit,’ he said. ’The fabric is extremely tough and durable, but also designed to be as lightweight as possible. Unlike rigid metallic structures that can shatter or bend if hit by a micrometeorite, flexible material is able to recover to a certain extent.’ [...]
A promising candidate is US company Bigelow Aerospace, which was founded by real-estate tycoon Bob Bigelow to develop inflatable extensions for the ISS. In 2004, Bigelow acquired the licences to NASA’s Transhab programme and has since successfully launched the Genesis I and II inflatable test craft. It now hopes to launch an 180m3 spacecraft called the Sundancer while looking at the possibilities of creating an inflatable Moon base. Bigelow’s work has far exceeded what others have been able to achieve in the field, largely thanks to the massive amounts of private funding. The company also recently announced that it is working with Boeing on the development of a commercial space-station system. (The Engineer)
Although inflatable structures have their own challenges (mainly dealing with the issue of folding them properly), deploying them upon the surface of the Moon, Mars, etc. is wiser than attempting to build settlements directly from extraterrestrial soil.
NASA has previously announced their intentions on using inflatable outposts for space as well as on the Moon, although they have yet to materialize thanks to the political makeup of Congress.
Currently Bigelow Aerospace is leading the front with its inflatable space stations, and with NASA stuck in budget limbo (due to Congress’s opposition to Obama’s first vision for space) we may have to rely upon Bigelow to establish beachheads upon the Moon.
(via Spaceports)
Read MoreIndia Giving Lunar Data Away For Free?
After helping humanity rediscover over 600 million metric tons of lunar water, India has decided to “open source” its data by releasing it to the public.
“People will have free access to the huge data obtained from our first moon mission on a web portal that will be launched by this year-end,” a senior scientist of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said here.
“The data has been split into two seasons, with the first dealing from November 2008 to February 2009 and the second from March to August 2009. The first season data will be archived by year-end and the second by mid-2011,” said ISRO’s space application centre director B Gopala Krishna. (Moon Daily)
This data will be invaluable to researchers, who will be able to not only pour over ISRO’s findings, but hopefully construct detailed maps of the lunar surface.
India’s generosity will hopefully encourage other nations (like China) to also share their data, which could help foster a spirit of cooperation (instead of competition) in our attempts to conquer the final frontier.
(Image Credit: ISRO)
Read MoreVideo: Humanity Vs Space Radiation
(Image Credit: NASA (assumed), via ITECS Insider)
Aside from government politics, space radiation is one of the biggest threats to humans seeking to leave our home world.
Unless we find a way to protect ourselves, humanity will only be able to settle upon only a few worlds within our star system.
As shown in the video below, scientists are attempting to find innovative ways to counteract radiation’s effects, as failure to do so can result in a few dead astronauts.
Scientists are currently working on ways to deal with radiation via medicine, nano particles and portable magnetic fields, as well as mapping out “safe havens” (i.e. off world caves on the Moon and Mars).
Thus far our closest neighbor has some temporary protection thanks to Earth’s magnetic field, although hopefully we can come up with a more permanent solution aside from just settling Jupiter’s Callisto and Saturn’s Titan.
(Hat Tip: Spaceports)
Read MoreCarnival Of The Space Geeks (The Twitterverse Edition)
This weeks Carnival of Space was hosted by Daniel Sims upon the Space Tweep Society.
Interesting articles ranged from nanomissles (scary!) to astronomy lovin’ animals to how Nixon starved off our grandparents space program (NASA tried!!).
Interesting articles within our star system included:
- Bruce Leeeowe from Weird Sciences explains why colonizing the star system won’t save humanity (hint: space can’t save us from ourselves)
- Stephanie Barr of Rocket Scientist makes the case for manned and unmanned space exploration (a must read).
- Chris Dann of Weird Warp discusses the possibilities of colonizing Europa (without getting killed).
- Brian Wang from Next Big Future enlightens us about those massive SpaceX rockets that could help us leave our home world
Be sure to read the rest of the articles from the Carnival of Space, and if you want to partake in the next round contact Universe Today on details on how to join!
(Image Credit: NASARobonaut via Flickr)
Read MoreConfirmed: Micro Gravity Turns Martian Astronauts Into Girly Men
Despite the blessings of weighing less than a feather while treking through the final frontier, scientists have confirmed the side effects of micro gravity which can do more damage than weakening ones immune system.
Fitts, Chair and Professor of Biological Sciences at Marquette, believes if astronauts were to travel to Mars today their ability to perform work would be compromised and, with the most affected muscles such as the calf, the decline could approach 50%. Crew members would fatigue more rapidly and have difficulty performing even routine work in a space suit. Even more dangerous would be their return to Earth, where they’d be physically incapable of evacuating quickly in case of an emergency landing.
The study – the first cellular analysis of the effects of long duration space flighton human muscle – took calf biopsies of nine astronauts and cosmonauts before and immediately following 180 days on the International Space Station (ISS). The findings show substantial loss of fibre mass, force and power in this muscle group. Unfortunately starting the journey in better physical condition did not help. Ironically, one of the study’s findings was that crew members who began with the biggest muscles also showed the greatest decline. (Physorg.com)
Muscles are not the only thing that deteriorates, as bones also weaken, in spite of the intense and vigorous exercise by astronauts.
While scientists could resort to special dieting to counter bone loss, humanity will need to come up with more innovative ways at preserver our muscle mass (outside of electrical shocks that is).
Despite our best laid plans, Mars is currently too far away to be reached safely by conventional rockets.
We may have to wait until VASIMR engines become a reality before we can dream of creating crimson foot prints in the near future.
(Image Credit: ADAM via MedlinePlus)
Read MoreDo You Digg Colony Worlds?
No, this is not a rethorical question, but rather a necessary post in my quest to import my site into the new Digg.
So unless you are fascinated with raising pigs on Mars, growing bamboo off world or wondering which worlds are safe to live upon, this post is not meant for you. 
But if you decided to stop by and visit, feel free to explore about, and if you feel like chatting feel free to contact me at your leisure.
Remember, space is not just a place full of radiation, rocks and retro geek scientists. Space (or rather the worlds that occupy within it) is our inheritance, one that your kids (current or future) will tread upon and view with their own eyes.
After all, “The Earth is the cradle of mankind, but one cannot remain in the cradle forever!” ~Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
PS
For those of you looking for an invite to the new Digg, I still have a few left (although you better contact me before I run out of invites to hand out!
Read MoreChinese Space Station: One Step Down, A Few More To Go
After announcing plans of creating their own space station, the Asian giant has completed its the first step (of many) in creating their own habitat beyond the sky.
China has completed assembling its Tiangong-1 space module, the Chinese Defense Ministry said on Tuesday. [...]
Tiangong, or the Heavenly Palace, will later be transformed into a manned space lab after experimental dockings with three Shenzhou spacecraft due to be launched into space within two years after the module is put into space, the Chinese Space Daily said earlier. (RIA Novosti)
Although the overall craft isn’t as glorious as Bigelow Aerospaces stations or the International Space Station (which China is currently banned from), it is impressive that China is planning on launching this by 2011.
While China’s solo approach may not have been their preferred path, it’s ending up being a blessing in disguise as it could help the nation conquer the final frontier sooner (despite the global recession).
(via Space Fellowship, Image Credit: Xinhua)
Read MoreCreating Gas On Mars
While we often envision future Martian colonies powered by solar, steam or nuclear power, one aspect we often neglect is the human rated rovers that will be criss crossing the planet.
Fortunately it looks like technology developed on Earth may aid rover ranging explorers on Mars.
The idea is to use the sun to power chemical plants able to split carbon dioxide. Combine the resulting carbon monoxide with hydrogen and you have the beginnings of a solar fuel that could one day replace oil. [...] Now, Konstandopoulos and colleagues have successfully used the same reactor technology and process to split carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide in the lab. Two reactors running simultaneously could generate hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which could be combined into synthetic fuel using one of two established chemical processes, says Konstandopoulos. In the Sabatier process the two gases are heated at high pressure in the presence of a nickel catalyst to produce methane or methanol, while in theFischer-Tropsch process an iron-based catalyst is used to generate liquid hydrocarbon fuels. (New Scientist)
Although scientists have already explored technology that could turn Martian air into fuel, it’s good to see others pursuing this idea on our home planet.
While the first Martian rovers carrying humans will probably be fully electric, over time we may see settlers transition to fuel based rovers (provided the economics converting Martian air support it).
Even though this technology would probably not replace fossil fuels on Earth (due to the cost and “ease” of extracting oil), it may help our fuel our descendants travels on our neighboring planet. (via Gizmodo)
Read More