Tagspace

DARPA and NASA Funding Space Colonization Program

Microwave thermal propulsion

NASA Ames Director Simon “Pete” Worden revealed Saturday that NASA Ames has “just started a project with DARPA called the Hundred Year Starship,” with $1 million funding from DARPA and $100K from NASA. […]

“The human space program is now really aimed at settling other worlds,” he explained. “Twenty years ago you had to whisper that in dark bars and get fired.” (Worden was in fact fired by President George W. Bush, he also revealed.) […]

Wordon also thinks we should go to the moons of Mars first, where we can do extensive telerobotics exploration of the planet. “I think we’ll be on the moons of Mars by 2030 or so. Larry [Page] asked me a couple weeks ago how much it would cost to send people one way to Mars and I told him $10 billion, and his response was, ‘Can you get it down to 1 or 2 billion?’ So now we’re starting to get a little argument over the price.”

KurzweilAI: NASA Ames’ Worden reveals DARPA-funded ‘Hundred Year Starship’ program

(via Richard Yonck)

See also:

Charlie Stross on why space colonisation is impractical

Alan Moore Message Projected Into Space

Alan Moore

Alan Moore’s message for the beings of space:

Yeah, Hello? Uh, if you’re there pick up, okay listen it’s Alan calling, Alan from Earth. You probably don’t remember, it’s over in the western spiral of the Milky Way although obviously you might have named it after a completely different brand of chocolate. Basically just find the Oort Cloud and ask for directions from there. Anyway just calling to catch up. We’re doing alright with the carbon base lifeform thing. Kids are diversifying nicely, going through a bit of a fad for spines and brains at the minute but it’s probably the same where you are. Well, that’s about it really, we just hadn’t heard from you in a while, like when we killed Michael Rennee or Klaatu a you knew him in The Day The Earth Stood Still. So if you received this, get in touch, but actually thinking about it, don’t bother calling after about, what, 2150, because I’m not expecting anyone to be in. Oh and I’m sending this song along it’s called God Song by Robert Wyatt. I hope you like it. And that you don’t communicate through perfume or minor variatrions in your sense of balance or something. Okay, you take care and I’ll talk to you soon. Love you, Bye.

Explanation (sort of) at Bleeding Cool

Bacteria Survives in Space, Without Oxygen, for a Year and a Half

space-bacteria

The bugs were put on the exterior of the space station to see how they would cope in the hostile conditions that exist above the Earth’s atmosphere.

And when scientists inspected the microbes a year and a half later, they found many were still alive.

These survivors are now thriving in a laboratory at the Open University (OU) in Milton Keynes.

The experiment is part of a quest to find microbes that could be useful to future astronauts who venture beyond low-Earth orbit to explore the rest of the Solar System. […]

This type of research also plays into the popular theory that micro-organisms can somehow be transported between the planets in rocks – in meteorites – to seed life where it does not yet exist.

BBC: Beer microbes live 553 days outside ISS

Interestingly, the bacteria selected weren’t known extremophiles, they were selected apparently at random.

NASA Says There Could be Life on Titan

Titan

The Telegraph reports that NASA has discovered a dense atmosphere surrounding Titan, a moon of Saturn. “They suggest that life forms may have been breathing in the planet’s atmosphere and also feeding on its surface’s fuel.” Titan is too cold to support liquid water.

Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at Nasa Ames Research Centre, at Moffett Field, California who led the research, said: “We suggested hydrogen consumption because it’s the obvious gas for life to consume on Titan, similar to the way we consume oxygen on Earth.

“If these signs do turn out to be a sign of life, it would be doubly exciting because it would represent a second form of life independent from water-based life on Earth.”

Telegraph: Titan: Nasa scientists discover evidence ‘that alien life exists on Saturn’s moon’

Shhh, no one tell Stephen Hawking.

Why should you care about the dwarf planet Ceres?

The New Solar System

As far as we know, life needs water to survive — and lots of it to thrive. Ceres is the closest large celestial body to Earth which is thought to have an abundance of fresh water. It is also closest to the sun of any large icy body, which along with possible interior heat might warm it enough for subsurface liquid water to exist.

Important criteria for a human outpost in space are available resources. Dozens of probes have been tasked with finding water deposits on the Moon and Mars. Ceres may in fact have more water than we would ever need.

Thus, Ceres would not only be a great place to search for life, but a possible future destination for manned missions and outposts as well.

Ceres is also interesting historically. First it was a Planet, then it was an Asteroid, and now it is a Dwarf Planet. The one mission to Ceres, NASA’s Dawn Mission, was cancelled, reinstated, told to “Stand Down”, “Indefinitely Postponed”, publicly cancelled, placed under review, and finally reinstated and given a go for launch in June 2007. While Ceres may be one of the gems of our solar system, its nomenclature and single planned mission have had a turbulent past.

Ceres: The Dwarf Planet

(via Fadereu)

Did a coronal mass ejection cause the Chile earthquake?

Coronal mass ejection

Above: image of the coronal mass ejection on February 26th, 2010 from NASA

Van’s Hardware Journal points out that the 2010 Chile earthquake was preceded by a Coronal mass ejection.

(via Fadereu)

Space.com’s FAQ states “The question of a solar disturbance/magnetic field change related to earthquakes has been thoroughly investigated and found to be unproven,” and cites the conclusions of a 1996 conference on the subject.

However, Russian and Chinese scientists continue to study the possibility of a connection.

As you’ve probably already heard, this earthquake altered the axis of the earth. So, if it IS true that this earthquake was caused by the sun (and I’m not saying that it was), that means that the sun actually caused a change in the earth’s axis.

See also: Reza Negarestani work such as Cyclonopedia.

(My noise art piece “Thirst for Annihilation” from my album Return to the Wasteland was created using NASA’s recording of radio interference caused by sunspots, inspired by Negarestani’s work and named after a book, which I have not read, by his collaborator Nick Land)

Meteorite that crashed into Earth 40 years ago contains organic molecules

Murchison

Scientists say that a meteorite that crashed into Earth 40 years ago contains millions of different carbon-containing, or organic, molecules.

Although they are not a sign of life, such organic compounds are life’s building blocks, and are a sign of conditions in the early Solar System.

It is thought the Murchison meteorite could even be older than the Sun.

The results of the meteorite study are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Read More – BBC: Space rock contains organic molecular feast

See also: Professor claims life on earth came from space

(via Disinfo)

Professor claims life on earth came from space

chandra wickramasinge

New evidence from astrobiology “overwhelmingly” supports the view that life was seeded from outside Earth, a scientist has claimed.

Prof Chandra Wickramasinghe of Cardiff University says the first microbes were deposited on Earth 3,800m years ago.

The astrobiologist has helped developed the panspermia theory which suggests an extra-terrestrial origin for life.

He argues for a cycle of life as microbes find their way into comets and “multiply and seed other planets”.
In the article, published in the International Journal of Astrobiology, Monday, he argues humans and indeed all life on Earth is of alien origin, brought onto the planet by comets hitting the planet.

BBC: Professor’s alien life ‘seed’ theory claimed

(via HipGnosis)

Strange photographs of the surface of Mars

photograph of mars surface that looks like it has trees on it

This image looks remarkably like groves of trees growing among Martian dunes. But, the trees are an optical illusion. They are actually dark streaks of sediment on the downwind side of the dunes. They were created by escaping gas from the evaporating carbon dioxide ice below. The bottom of the ice melts into vapor and moves toward holes in the ice, carrying dark sediment along with it that is then deposited when the gas escapes.

photograph from the surface of Mars

Wired Science: Strange Places on Mars: What Do You Want to See Next?

Federal Aviation Administration: in the event of a UFO, call Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies

According to the last order by Federal Aviation Administration—issued on December 10—BAASS is now the organization to contact if you are a pilot or an air traffic controller who gets close to an Unidentified Flying Object:

“Persons wanting to report UFO/unexplained phenomena activity should contact a UFO/ unex­ plained phenomena reporting data collection center, such as Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) (voice: 1-877-979-7444 or e-mail: Reporting@baass.org)”

Gizmodo: Federal Aviation Administration Officially Says Who to Call After UFO Contact

(via Brainsturbator)

© 2024 Technoccult

Theme by Anders NorénUp ↑