Lifeboat Foundation

SpaceX has publicly revealed the sleek, minimalist design of the access arm that NASA astronauts will soon use to board Crew Dragon spacecraft, bringing to an end more than half a decade of U.S. dependency upon non-native rockets and space agencies to transport crew to the International Space Station.

After several months of concerted effort in a tent located on Pad 39A property, SpaceX engineers, welders, and technicians have nearly completed the most critical portion of the launch facility modifications and upgrades necessary to return the pad’s human spaceflight capabilities. Known as a Crew Access Arm (CAA), SpaceX will likely complete installation of the Arm by the end of August, wrapping up what is by far the most visible step yet towards returning astronauts to the ISS on American rockets and spacecraft.

What happens when a nation built on the concept of individual property ownership starts to give that up?

A study from Associated Press suggests that users are still tracked even if they turn off location history.

Agree?

Trump shouldn’t be ridiculed for looking to the heavens, but a more urgent threat looms.

This is epic.

Sediment samples from Lake Chichancanab in Mexico show that annual rainfall decreased by more than 50 percent at the end of Mayan civilization.

Apple has crossed over into the four-comma club – what would it take for a person to do the same?

Lasers are widely used as high power sources of light operating at a specific frequency. But how does this frequency get selected when a laser is turned on, and how quickly?

Pioneering engineers working with terahertz frequency technology have been researching how individual frequencies are selected when a laser is turned on, and how quickly the selection is made.

The development of specific terahertz equipment has allowed them to investigate this process for the first time. Their results, published in Nature Communications, will underpin the future development of semiconductor lasers, including those used in public and private sector-owned telecommunications systems.

Continue reading “Terahertz technology creates new insight into how semiconductor lasers work” »

A researcher from the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography and five other scientists have discovered an active volcanic heat source beneath the Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica.

The discovery and other findings, which are critical to understanding the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, of which the Pine Island Glacier is a part, are published in the paper, “Evidence of an active volcanic heat source beneath the Pine Island Glacier,” in the latest edition of Nature Communications.

Assistant Professor Brice Loose of Newport, a chemical oceanographer at GSO and the lead author, said the paper is based on research conducted during a major expedition in 2014 to Antarctica led by scientists from the United Kingdom. They worked aboard an icebreaker, the RRS James Clark Ross, from January to March, Antarctica’s summer.

Continue reading “Researchers discover volcanic heat source under major Antarctic glacier” »