X's Reusable 'Grasshopper' Rocket Makes 1st Test Flight It's one small hop for a rocket, but one giant leap for reusable rocket ships: A private rocket prototype has sailed through a 6-foot hop that, while short, marked a major test for a novel reusable launch system being developed by commercial spaceflight company SpaceX. Called "Grasshopper," the rocket lifted off briefly then set back down on four spidery legs during the recent test at SpaceX's proving ground in McGregor, Texas. "The short hop of approximately 6 feet is the first major milestone for Grasshopper, and a critical step toward a reusable first stage for SpaceX’s proven Falcon 9 rocket," SpaceX officials said of the Sept. 21 test. The Grasshopper rocket uses the first stage of SpaceX's successful Falcon 9 rocket, a two-stage booster that stands nearly 227 feet tall (70 meters) and is used to launch the company's Dragon space capsules and other payloads into low-Earth orbit. The Sept. 21 test hop is just the first in a series of flight demonstrations, SpaceX officials said.
NASA Reveals Latest Warp-Drive Ship Designs | IFLScience Look at the picture above. Nope, it’s not a snapshot of a Star Wars scene, or any other sci-fi movie. It’s what you get if you combine a NASA physicist working on achieving faster-than-light travel with a 3D artist, and the result is freaking AWESOME. And yes, you heard correctly, there are scientists working on faster-than-light travel, and this is what the ship could look like in the future. You might be thinking to yourself right now “Faster-than-light travel? If a spaceship could be designed in such a way that it created a warp bubble, then the space in front of the ship would be compressed and the space behind would expand. “Remember, nothing locally exceeds the speed of light, but space can expand and contract at any speed,” White told io9. So of course, White’s new design incorporates these ideas and involves “a sleek ship nestled at the center of two enormous rings, which create the warp bubble,” 3D artist Mark Rademaker explained to io9.
What would a warp-drive ship actually look like? Artist Mark Rademaker has unveiled a set of concept images imagining what a spaceship capable of traveling to other stars in a matter of months would really look like. Although it may look like something from the next science fiction epic and is unlikely to lift off anytime soon, his IXS Enterprise design is actually based on some hard science. View all Interstellar travel is one of the most frustrating buzzkills of the space age. Since launched in 1977, the Voyager 1 spacecraft has traveled about 116 astronomical units (1.08 x 1010 mi, 1.7 x 1010 km). Science fiction is filled with stories where this annoying limit is avoided by equipping spaceships with warp drives, hyperdrives, and infinite improbability drives. The idea comes from the work published by Miguel Alcubierre in 1994. The Alcubierre warp drive works by recreating this ancient expansion in the form of a localized bubble around a spaceship. Rademaker’s renderings reflect White’s new calculations.
Canada Unveils Next-Generation Robotic Arms for Spaceships The Canadian-built robotic arms built for NASA's space shuttle fleet and the International Space Station are about to get two new siblings. Last week, the Canadian Space Agency showed off the Next-Generation Canadarm (NGC) prototypes, which were unveiled after three years of development at Canadian company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates. The mechanical limbs are the successors to the shuttle fleet's Canadarm and station's Canadarm2, which played pivotal rolls in the station's construction for more than a decade. The CSA and MDA plan to use this technology to position Canada for newer space business opportunities in areas such as in-orbit refuelling of satellites, said Gilles Leclerc, the agency's director-general of space exploration. "We prepared all these new systems so that we will be well-positioned for the next thing in space," Leclerc said. Fuelling competition One of the prototype arms spans 49 feet (15 meters), the same length as the space station's Canadarm2. Canadarm's legacy
'Impossible' Space Engine May Actually Work, NASA Test Suggests It's really starting to look as if an "impossible" space propulsion technology actually works. Researchers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston have found that a microwave thruster system that requires no propellant does indeed generate a small amount of thrust, Wired UK reported Thursday (July 31). If the technology pans out, it could make spaceflight far cheaper and speedier, potentially opening up much of the cosmos to exploration, advocates say. "Test results indicate that the RF [radio frequency] resonant cavity thruster design, which is unique as an electric propulsion device, is producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon and, therefore, is potentially demonstrating an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma," the NASA team wrote in their study, which they presented Wednesday (July 30) at the 50th Joint Propulsion Conference in Cleveland.
Quantum Switches Controlled By Single Photons Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize computing by exponentially increasing speed, computing power, and security as single atoms would be capable of performing tasks. Though quantum computing is probably overkill for the typical person, it holds a great deal of promise for researchers and others who need ramped up computing. A team of researchers led by Mikhail Lukin of Harvard University have demonstrated an ability to use single atoms as gates that can block the flow of electrons and can be operated with one photon. “Conceptually, the idea is very simple,” Lukin told the Harvard Gazette. Lukin is currently eyeing the possibility of putting this technology into fiber-optic cables, which would offer maximum security through encryption. The researchers developed a system that combined the photon switches with traditional vacuum tubes. [The main image is credited to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and has been used in accordance with CC BY 2.0]
Sailing by solar winds The electric solar wind sail will not use sunlight, but hydrogen nuclei and electrons that blast away from the Sun. (Illustration: Alexandre Szames, Antigravite, Paris) A new type of spacecraft could use long extremely thin and delicate metal threads to exploit the power of solar winds. It could become a viable way of exploring the solar system. What’s more, an initial trial will be made in 2013 when a Finnish satellite is launched. Until now sun sail proposals have involved gigantic, ultrathin foils that reflect solar light. A photon sail was tested on the Japanese Ikaros space probe that orbited Venus. But Pekka Janhunen of the Finnish Kumpula Space Centre has another approach. At the recent meeting of the International Astronautical Congress in Naples he explained his plan: A spaceship that sails by means of the solar wind. The solar wind consists of hydrogen nuclei and electrons that blast away from the Sun. A sail of threads How do you make a sail of threads? Electrical field Reference:
New Propulsion System could Revolutionize Space Travel NASA has announced that an experimental propulsion system that needs only energy from sunlight appears to produce sufficient thrust to power spacecraft. This means that, once a spacecraft is in orbit, it will be able to accelerate away from the earth to the edges of the solar system, without fuel. This means that travel throughout the solar system is going to become much more possible and far cheaper. Researchers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston have determined that a microwave thruster system that requires no propellant generates a small but useful amount of thrust. In a paper published by the Eagleworks Laboratories, Nasa engineers confirmed that they had produced tiny amounts of thrust from an engine without fuel. The engine has been named the ‘Cannae Drive’ by engineer Guido Fetta. This is not the only such engine. So it appears that the laws of physics are being demonstrably violated--which means only one thing: they aren't complete.
Scientists Managed to Teleport Data over Three Meters with 100% Accuracy Dutch scientists achieved accurate teleportation of quantum information over a distance of three meters. This is a great achievement, but is still far from the famous phrase “Beam me up, Scotty!” from Star Trek where people were teleported into space. However, it is another step in this direction. Many scientists now believe that once teleportation of people from one place to another will be possible. The evolution of this research will contribute to the creation of quantum Internet, which will interconnect lightning-fast quantum computers. The study was conducted by researchers led by Professor Ronald Hanson of the Institute of Nanoscience Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. In the experiment, the entangled electrons were trapped within the diamond crystal at very low temperature. Hanson argues that the laws of physics do not prohibit teleporting large objects, and therefore human beings. The following two tabs change content below.
NASA Is Building A Mocked-Up Deep-Space Habitat In Texas Testing the technology that might bring humans to Mars Deep Space Habitat Concept NASA When it's done, the concept for a ship that'll take astronauts to deep space won't look like much. Actually, it kind of sounds like a mess: the "Deep Space Habitat" is being cobbled together from scrap parts of the International Space Station, and even a museum mockup. Obviously, it's not going to send anyone to deep space. Engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center and experts Johnson Space Center in Houston (led by astronaut Alvin Drew) are tinkering with the spaceship mockup, deciding the right size, necessary equipment, and everything else that's going to make a mission to Mars, a near-by asteroid, or the second Earth-Moon Lagrangian point (277,000 miles away from Earth) as pleasant as possible. Multi Purpose Logistics Module Mockup: NASA The team's also planning what kind of toys will be sent along and built in. Now we just have to wait for the mission. [ Aviation Week via Yahoo!
NASA gives the go-ahead to the world's most powerful rocket It's not a Saturn V but it will make a big noise and be a cool sight to see. It will make a bigger noise because it's more powerful than a Saturn V. The Block I crew carrier they are launching first has 4 main engines and is just a little bit smaller but the Block II has 5 engines and is the real beast that beats it. That one will be well worth the trip to see it
Top 10 Thinking Traps Exposed Our minds set up many traps for us. Unless we’re aware of them, these traps can seriously hinder our ability to think rationally, leading us to bad reasoning and making stupid decisions. Features of our minds that are meant to help us may, eventually, get us into trouble. Here are the first 5 of the most harmful of these traps and how to avoid each one of them. 1. “Is the population of Turkey greater than 35 million? Lesson: Your starting point can heavily bias your thinking: initial impressions, ideas, estimates or data “anchor” subsequent thoughts. This trap is particularly dangerous as it’s deliberately used in many occasions, such as by experienced salesmen, who will show you a higher-priced item first, “anchoring” that price in your mind, for example. What can you do about it? Always view a problem from different perspectives. 2. In one experiment a group of people were randomly given one of two gifts — half received a decorated mug, the other half a large Swiss chocolate bar. 3. 4.
NASA heli-capsule could let astronauts land anywhere Space exploration once captured the world's imagination. In the 1960s and 1970s, children dreamed of satellites, lunar rovers, and walking on the moon. Today – decades after Sputnik, Neil Armstrong, and the Apollo missions – many children may not even know what a space capsule is. Some of those children from the Space Race years, though, grew up to work at NASA. Public indifference be damned, those engineers are still dreaming of new ways of improving the wondrous technologies of yesteryear. If they have their way, one of the iconic symbols of that era – the space capsule – may have an upgrade on the horizon. Rekindling an old idea This model may help the researchers figure out how to use wind-powered propellors (Photo: NASA) Researchers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida are testing a rotor system that would let space capsules fly like helicopters. A heli-capsule could land gently, and nearly anywhere. The helicopter-like design wouldn't, however, be powered by an engine.