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The steady stream of news continues. Where we had unexpected explosive things to dive into last week, this week a much more positive, planned and progressive run of testing at SpaceX’s Starbase. SpaceX Starship Pressure Builds, Starbase 2 also screaming forward. Starlink Breaks Record with Starlink with an almost relentless cadence of Falcon 9 hurling launch after launch into orbit. Loads more to talk about with the wonders coming from the JWST, a bunch of news with Relativity Space Terran 1 and much more. Welcome to yet another incredible week.

Continue reading “SpaceX Starship Pressure Builds, Starlink Breaks Record, JWST, Relativity Space Terran 1 and more” »

Circa 2021

Astrophysicist at Göttingen University discovers new theoretical hyper-fast soliton solutions.

If travel to distant stars within an individual’s lifetime is going to be possible, a means of faster-than-light propulsion will have to be found. To date, even recent research about superluminal (faster-than-light) transport based on Einstein’s theory of general relativity would require vast amounts of hypothetical particles and states of matter that have “exotic” physical properties such as negative energy density. This type of matter either cannot currently be found or cannot be manufactured in viable quantities. In contrast, new research carried out at the University of Göttingen gets around this problem by constructing a new class of hyper-fast ‘solitons’ using sources with only positive energies that can enable travel at any speed. This reignites debate about the possibility of faster-than-light travel based on conventional physics. The research is published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.

Continue reading “Breaking the Warp Barrier for Faster-Than-Light Travel: New Theoretical Hyper-Fast Solitons Discovered” »

The major remaining task? Arming the rocket’s flight termination system.”

Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin is giving space enthusiasts an opportunity to own a piece of American history.

The NASA legend’s most personal and cherished possessions will be up for auction through July 26.

The ‘Buzz Aldrin: American Icon’ sale, orchestrated by Sotheby’s Auction House, features the coverall jacket Aldrin wore in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission, the first successful mission to the Moon and back.

Scientists, designers and engineers across the space industry are working tirelessly to form innovative solutions for traveling to, living on and further understanding Mars.

Mars has long occupied our imagination as a site of wonder and possibility in film — from the high-tech invasion portrayed in The War of the Worlds to Andy Weir’s perhaps more accurate depiction The Martian.

Today, reality is closer than ever to the dreams of science fiction. As early as the 2030s, humans will be able to visit Earth’s planetary neighbor in the most ambitious aerospace mission yet.

Continue reading “The Advanced Materials That Can Help Take Us to Mars” »

What is the Roman Space Telescope? A colleague for Webb, Roman will launch in 2026 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

A space elevator, a technology connecting the Earth’s surface to a space station, would allow for the cost-efficient transport of people and materials. However, a very light yet strong material is essential to making such a technology a reality.

The carbon nanotube is a material that is 100 times stronger, yet four times lighter, than steel, with copper-like high electrical conductivity and diamond-like thermal conductivity. However, previous carbon nanotube fibers were not ideal for extensive use, owing to the small contact area with adjacent carbon nanotubes and limited length they possessed.

Figure 1. Schematic of the structural changes of carbon nanotubes at different annealing temperatures. (Image: Korea Institute of Science and Technology)

The planets are similar in size to Jupiter.