Lifeboat Foundation

A full-scale demonstrator of the thrust chamber for an upper-stage rocket engine incorporating the newest propulsion technologies is being prepared for its first hot firing.

The Expander-cycle Technology Integrated Demonstrator, or ETID, has arrived at the DLR German Aerospace Center test facility in Lampoldshausen for tests. It will help to prove new technologies, materials and manufacturing techniques that offer higher performance at lower cost for Europe’s future launchers.

ETID is a precursor of the next generation of 10-tonne rocket engines. Some of the technologies could also be used on upgrades to the existing Vinci, which powers the upper stage of Ariane 6.

Continue reading “ESA proves new technologies to power future launchers” »

The U.S. and Russia each sent astronauts to the International Space Station with a Wednesday, March 21 launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

NASA sent two astronauts to the space station while Russian space agency Roscosmos sent one. The three crew members were launched aboard the Soyuz spacecraft, and are expected to dock with the space station’s module sometime Friday afternoon. NASA will have a stream of this docking starting 3 p.m. Friday on NASA TV and its website.

A collision in an obscure galaxy, recorded last year, has revealed its violent birth.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have discovered a potential target for therapies that may prevent or delay heart failure from pressure overload of the heart. It could also be a biomarker to warn physicians that a patient is at risk of this happening.

Early macrophage infiltration is a step in heart failure

In a new study, Dr. Sumanth Prabhu and his team showed that preventing the early infiltration of CCR2+ macrophages into the heart, in a mouse model of heart failure, significantly reduced enlargement of the heart and the decline of the pumping ability that leads to heart failure [1]. This means that the infiltration of macrophages is a critical step in heart failure.

Gravitational waves have opened up new ways to test the properties of black holes — and Einstein’s theory of gravity along with them.

Neutral-particle beams, a concept first tried in the 1980s, may get a fresh look under Michael Griffin.

“Directed energy is more than just big lasers, Griffin said. ”That’s important. High-powered microwave approaches can effect an electronics kill. The same with the neutral particle beam systems we explored briefly in the 1990s” for use in space-based anti-missile systems. Such weapons can be ”useful in a variety of environments” and have the ”advantage of being non-attributable,” meaning that it can be hard to pin an attack with a particle weapon on any particular culprit since it leaves no evidence behind of who or even what did the damage.

Like lasers, neutral-particle beams focus beams of energy that travel in straight lines, unaffected by electromagnetic fields. But instead of light, neutral-particle beams use composed of accelerated subatomic particles traveling at near-light speed, making them easier to work with (though the folks that run CERNs hadron collider may disagree). When its particles touche the surface of a target, they takes on a charge that allows them to penetrate the target’s shell or exterior more deeply.

Continue reading “Pentagon’s New Arms-Research Chief Eyes Space-Based Ray Guns” »

This will be an annual conference series to promote awareness of age-related diseases and the ongoing scientific breakthroughs in rejuvenation biotechnology.

More info: https://www.undoing-aging.org/news/undoing-aging-to-return-in-2019

Millenials grew up under the technological halo of Moore’s law, enjoying booming exponential growth of computation power that ushered in the information age. It should come as no surprise that transhumanism has earned a degree of mainstream acceptance—from Hollywood movies to magazine covers and the latest sci-fi TV. Transhumanist beliefs will continue to permeate culture as long as the promise of technological progress holds its end of the bargain.

For transhumanist faiths, technology becomes a way of cashing checks religion helped write.

For instance, Silicon Valley engineer Anthony Levandowski—whom you may know from the Uber-Waymo lawsuit over self-driving car technology—recently launched the Way of the Future Church, a new religious organization based on developing godlike artificial intelligence. On its website, the Way of the Future states, “We believe the creation of ‘super intelligence’ is inevitable,” and according to IRS documents detailed by Wired, this new religion seeks “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.” This exuberance departs from the cautious stance toward A.I. taken by Hawking, Musk, and others who warn that artificial superintelligence could pose an existential threat. However, regardless of whether artificial superintelligence is seen as an angel or a demon, Hawking, Musk, and A.I. evangelists alike share the common belief that this technology should be taken seriously.

Continue reading “Transhumanism Is Complicating the Sometimes Antagonistic Faith vs. Science Dynamic” »

A young startup called Relativity is pushing space technology forward by pushing 3D printing technology to its limits, building the largest metal 3D printer in the world. And other major companies anxious to try these new ways of manufacturing, too. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien looks at some of the amazing advances that’s launching the technology into a new era.