Lifeboat Foundation

As humanity continues its exploration of the universe, the low-gravity environment of space presents unusual challenges for scientists and engineers.

Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the Florida State University-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory have developed a new tool to help meet that challenge—a novel design for a low-gravity simulator that promises to break new ground for future space research and habitation.

Their new design for a magnetic levitation-based low-gravity simulator can create an area of low gravity with a volume about 1,000 times larger than existing simulators of the same type. The work was published in the journal npj Microgravity.

Starship matters.

Weird flex, but OK.

I was the lucky one to get the round number.

A German astronaut is set to become the 600th person to enter space and he will do so flying with a U.S. astronaut who once came close to being number 500.

Matthias Maurer with the European Space Agency (ESA) will gain the distinction of being the sexcentenarian space traveler when he launches to the International Space Station as a member of SpaceX’s Crew-3 mission, currently scheduled for early Sunday morning (Oct. 31). Maurer is one of three first-time fliers on the four-person crew, including NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Kayla Barron, but he was identified by NASA as the designated milestone maker.

Missions on Mars are something you got kind of used to by now. From time to time, some rocket headed to Mars is launched, and this gets in the news for a brief time. At least that’s how most of the people see this. The ones who are more into the field and more curious about the topic know that this is not something we humans casually do. And we don’t do it just for the sake of it. A mission to Mars with the whole package, a rover, and everything, costs about 3 billion dollars. So when we send something to Mars, it’d better bring back something significant.

The mission in preparation right now is called ExoMars, and its rover is planned for launch in 2022.

We might be witnessing the start of the private space station race.

Dare we say that a new type of space race is heating up? Blue Origin, the space tourism firm founded by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced a partnership with Sierra Space and Boeing to build and launch a commercial space station called Orbital Reef by the end of the decade, a press statement reveals.

Continue reading “Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Will Launch an Orbital ‘Space Business Park’” »

They’ll launch to the International Space Station on Halloween (Oct. 31).

Blue Origin and Sierra Space have revealed plans for Orbital Reef, a commercial space station to be built in low Earth orbit. Check out animation of what it will look like here.

The two commercial space taxis share a mission but differ in operations.

NASA’s two chosen commercial space taxis for taking crew and cargo to the ISS share a mission but differ in operations.