Lifeboat Foundation

The jet’s apparent (but not actual) superluminal velocity provide new constraints on the merger and its aftermath.

• By Mike Wall, SPACE.com on September 7, 2018

SpaceX’s CEO shrugs off 20 years of NASA research.

SORRY, ELON. To be ready for human occupants, Elon Musk has long called Mars a “fixer-upper of a planet.” But according to a new NASA-sponsored study, a better description might be a “tear-down.” The scientists behind that project say it’s simply not possible to terraform Mars — that is, change its environment so that humans can live there without life support systems — using today’s technology.

BUILDING AN ATMOSPHERE. Mars has a super thin atmosphere; a human unprotected on the surface of Mars would quickly die, mostly because there’s not enough atmospheric pressure to prevent all your organs from rupturing out of your body (if you survived a little longer, you could also suffocate from lack of oxygen, freeze from low temperatures, or get fried from too much ultraviolet radiation).

Continue reading “Scientists Say We Can’t Terraform Mars. Elon Musk Says We Can” »

A $1 billion NASA mission that will use a laser to track changing ice levels on Earth soared into space early Saturday (Sept. 15), launching into a predawn California sky on a mission that also marked the final flight of a record-setting rocket.

A NASA satellite designed to precisely measure changes in Earth’s ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice and vegetation was launched into polar orbit from California early Saturday.

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A Delta 2 rocket carrying ICESat-2 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 6:02 a.m. and headed over the Pacific Ocean.

Continue reading “NASA satellite launched to measure Earth’s ice changes” »

For decades, astronomers weren’t able to find all of the atomic matter in the universe. A series of recent papers has revealed where it’s been hiding.

Playlist Electronic Fusion #158, broadcast on 15 September 2018:

01. Plike — Holmesburg 02. Plike — The Monster Study 03. Plike — Subproject 68 04. Plike — Bluebird 05. Plike — Laboratory 12 (Feat. Digibilly) 06. Alpha Wave Movement — Herzschlag Des Universums 07. Alpha Wave Movement — Other Worlds 08. Chris Gate — This Is Syndae 09. Moonbooter — Syndae’s Theme (Boot From Moon Mix) 10. Stefan Erbe — GP 11. Arend Westra — Under The Milky Way 12. Broekhuis, Keller & Schönwälder — Frozen Nights 13. AndAWan — Time To Remember (Ft. Irene Makri) 14. Thought Guild — Tetrahedral Anomalies 15. Erik Seifert — ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) 16. Wolfgang Roth (Wolfproject) & Jens-H. Kruhl (Wiesenberg) — The Light Belongs To You.

Continue reading “Brainvoyager ‘Electronic Fusion’ #158 – 15 September 2018” »

Someday, people across the world will look back on September 2018, much like we look back on the terror attacks of 9/11 or the safe return of Apollo 13 in 1970. They are touchstone moments in world history. For Americans, they are as indelible as Pearl Harbor, the assassination of John F. Kennedy or the first moon landing.

So, what happened just now? The month isn’t even half over, and the only events we hear about on the news are related to Hurricane Florence and Paul Manafort. (In case you live under a rock or are reading this many years hence, the hurricane made landfall on the coast of the Carolinas, and the lobbyist / political consultant / lawyer / Trump campaign chairman pled guilty to charges and has agreed to cooperate in the continuing Mueller investigation).

No—I am not referring to either event on the USA east coast. I am referring to a saga unfolding 254 miles above the Earth—specifically a Whodunit mystery aboard the International Space Station (ISS). NASA hasn’t seen this level of tawdry intrigue since astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak attacked a rival for another astronaut’s affection—driving across the country in a diaper to confront her love interest.

So What is the Big Deal This Week?!

Continue reading “ISS hole: We will look back on Sept 2018” »

Godspeed, Delta II.

NASA’s last Delta II rocket blasted into the atmosphere from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Saturday carrying the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), Space.com reported, in the rocket’s 155th and final mission.

First entering service in 1989, the Delta II was NASA’s workhorse rocket, with Saturday’s launch capping off 100 successful launches in a row. (The last failure was in 1997, when a Delta II carrying a GPS satellite exploded seconds after leaving the pad.) As noted by the Verge, prior payloads have included the Spitzer and Kepler space telescopes, the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, and the original ICESat.

Continue reading “Watch the Last Delta II Rocket Carry ICESat-2 Into Space” »

Japan’s government is facing serious fiscal challenges, but its main science ministry appears hopeful that the nation is ready to once again back basic research in a big way. The Ministry of Education (MEXT) on 31 August announced an ambitious budget request that would allow Japan to compete for the world’s fastest supercomputer, build a replacement x-ray space observatory, and push ahead with a massive new particle detector.

Proposed successor to Super-Kamiokande, exascale computer and x-ray satellite win backing.