Lifeboat Foundation

The sky is no longer the limit—but taking flight is dangerous. In leaving the Earth’s surface, we lose many of the cues we need to orient ourselves, and that spatial disorientation can be deadly. Astronauts normally need intensive training to protect against it. But scientists have now found that wearable devices which vibrate to give orientation cues may boost the efficacy of this training significantly, making spaceflight slightly safer.

“Long-duration spaceflight will cause many physiological and psychological stressors, which will make astronauts very susceptible to spatial disorientation,” said Dr. Vivekanand P. Vimal of Brandeis University in the United States, lead author of an article in Frontiers in Physiology on this topic. “When disoriented, an astronaut will no longer be able to rely on their own internal sensors, which they have depended on for their whole lives.”

The researchers used sensory deprivation and a multi-axis rotation device to test their vibrotactors in simulated spaceflight, so the senses participants would normally rely on were useless. Could the vibrotactors correct the misleading cues the participants would receive from their vestibular systems, and could participants be trained to trust them?

The company aims to launch a larger and more powerful reusable rocket in 2025.

A Chinese company has made significant progress in developing its reusable rocket after successfully testing the first stage of its Hyperbola-2 launch vehicle in a desert. iSpace, a Beijing-based firm, conducted a “hop test” at the Jiuquan satellite launch center on Thursday, which lasted for about a minute and demonstrated the rocket’s ability to take off and land vertically. The company said the test was an essential step towards flying its larger and more powerful Hyperbola-3 reusable rocket in 2025.

As per SCMP.

Continue reading “SpaceX rival, China’s iSpace claims success in vertical landing rocket test” »

On pace with its once-a-month flight goal, Virgin Galactic is about to embark on its fifth commercial mission, and its final flight of 2023.

Galactic 5 is scheduled to lift off this Thursday (Nov. 2) and will carry three passengers on a brief trip to suborbital space. The trio will fly aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo space plane, named VSS Unity, and experience several minutes of weightlessness while they perform a quick round of research experiments and gaze at the wonders of Earth from a vantage point few have reached.

Instead of flying directly to the moon, NASA and Blue Origin plan for the spacecraft to be refueled in transit — an innovation that could transform the way humans explore the cosmos.

An interstellar exploration company wants to build a space vessel that takes the uberwealthy cruising high up in the earth’s atmosphere — and Mercedes-Maybach is lending its luxury brand name to make it happen.

Space Perspective hopes to take travelers up in the air by the end of 2024 in a craft known as Spaceship Neptune, a pressurized capsule with panoramic views.

A space balloon will lift Neptune 100,000 feet into the upper stratosphere, where guests can witness the earth’s curvature.

SpaceX has released footage showing a unique view of its latest Starship rocket test ahead of its second launch atop the mighty Super Heavy rocket.

Desert-dwelling bacteria that feed on sunlight, slurp up carbon dioxide, and emit oxygen could be incorporated into paint that supplements the air in a habitat on Mars.

It’s called Chroococcidiopsis cubana, and scientists have developed a biocoating that emits measurable amounts of oxygen on a daily basis while reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air around it. This has implications, not just for space travel but here at home on Earth, too, according to a team led by microbiologist Simone Krings of the University of Surrey in the UK.

“With the increase in greenhouse gasses, particularly CO₂, in the atmosphere and concerns about water shortages due to rising global temperatures, we need innovative, environmentally friendly, and sustainable materials,” says bacteriologist Suzie Hingley-Wilson of the University of Surrey.

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While humans have long thought of gods living in the sky, the idea of space travel or humans living in space dates to at least 1,610 after the invention of the telescope when German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote to Italian astronomer Galileo: “Let us create vessels and sails adjusted to the heavenly ether, and there will be plenty of people unafraid of the empty wastes. In the meantime, we shall prepare, for the brave sky-travellers, maps of the celestial bodies.” [1]

In popular culture, space travel dates back to at least the mid-1600s when Cyrano de Bergerac first wrote of traveling to space in a rocket. Space fantasies flourished after Jules Verne’s “From Earth to the Moon” was published in 1,865, and again when RKO Pictures released a film adaptation, A Trip to the Moon, in 1902. Dreams of space settlement hit a zenith in the 1950s with Walt Disney productions such as “Man and the Moon,” and science fiction novels including Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950). [2] [3] [4].

NASA recently built and tested an additively-manufactured – or 3D printed – rocket engine nozzle made of aluminum, making it lighter than conventional nozzles and setting the course for deep space flights that can carry more payloads.