by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
As my bare feet sank into the soft white sand, I realized the park ranger at the gate had been right — for the most part.
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A Lack of Tact(ile): What Future Martians Will Miss
Tag: space colonization
From the Grand Canyon to Mars
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
If the Grand Canyon were an animal, it would probably be a mountain lion that waits patiently for its prey to arrive before ambushing it with overwhelming force.
That’s what it feels to visit the South Rim. There’s a long drive from Flagstaff through high plains and lightly forested areas as mountains tower in the distance. The scenery isn’t much different from most of Northern Arizona. After paying the fee at the entrance gate, you drive threw a forest where deer are quietly feeding. Find a parking space, walk down the trail, and…
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NASA Funds Research into Using Fungi to Grow Off-planet Structures
NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts 2021 Phase II Award
Amount: $500,000
Lynn Rothschild
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, Calif.
A turtle carries its own habitat. While reliable, it costs energy in transporting mass. NASA makes the same trade-off when it transports habitats and other structures needed for human and other applications on lunar and planetary surfaces “on the back” of its missions. During Phase 1, we identified a novel biology-based solution to in situ production of usable components for space exploration: using fungal mycelial composites to grow structures off-planet, from habitats to furniture.
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New Space Tech Research Institutes to Advance Electric Propulsion, Entry Systems
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — Technology drives exploration, and as NASA eyes deep-space human exploration, technology is at the forefront of its plans. Preparing for these missions requires technology development within the agency and research by external experts in various fields.
As part of this effort, NASA will establish two new university-led Space Technology Research Institutes (STRIs), which will join four already active institutes. The new STRIs will bring together researchers from different disciplines and organizations to tackle challenges associated with electric propulsion ground testing and atmospheric entry systems modeling. The new STRIs aim to advance these game-changing technologies for exploring the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
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Could Future Homes on the Moon and Mars Be Made of Fungi?
by Frank Tavares
NASA’s Ames Research Center
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — Science fiction often imagines our future on Mars and other planets as run by machines, with metallic cities and flying cars rising above dunes of red sand. But the reality may be even stranger – and “greener.” Instead of habitats made of metal and glass, NASA is exploring technologies that could grow structures out of fungi to become our future homes in the stars, and perhaps lead to more sustainable ways of living on Earth as well.
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Jeff Bezos Talks About Importance of Moving Out into Space
Video Caption: Blue Origin founder and CEO Jeff Bezos talks about the inspiration of NASA’s Apollo missions and how humanity has a choice of capping population and energy usage or “moving out into space.”
New NASA Competition Aims to Convert Carbon Dioxide into Exploration Sweet Success
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (NASA PR) — When astronauts begin exploring Mars, they’ll need to use local resources, freeing up launch cargo space for other mission-critical supplies. Carbon dioxide is one resource readily abundant within the Martian atmosphere.
NASA’s new CO2 Conversion Challenge, conducted under the Centennial Challenges program, is a public competition seeking novel ways to convert carbon dioxide into useful compounds. Such technologies will allow us to manufacture products using local, indigenous resources on Mars, and can also be implemented on Earth by using both waste and atmospheric carbon dioxide as a resource.
Video Update on SpaceX’s Mars Plans
Paul Wooster, Principal Mars Development Engineer, SpaceX
SpaceX’s plans for Mars
Paul is also a founding member of the Mars Society and an attendee at our early conferences!
From the 21st Annual International Mars Society Convention, held at the Pasadena Convention Center in Southern California from Aug 23-26, 2018.
The four-day International Mars Society Convention brings together leading scientists, engineers, aerospace industry representatives, government policymakers and journalists to talk about the latest scientific discoveries, technological advances and political-economic developments that could help pave the way for a human mission to the planet Mars.
With Dragon 2 Still Unfinished, Musk Rolls Out an Even More Ambitious Plan
When on May 29, 2014, Elon Musk unveiled the Dragon 2 spacecraft at a gala ceremony at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., the future of American human spaceflight seemed assured and tantalizingly close.
By 2017, the new spacecraft would begin making crewed flights to the International Space Station, restoring a capability that had ended with the last space shuttle mission in 2011. NASA’s dependence on Russian Soyuz spacecraft would come to an end.
Four years after its unveiling, Dragon 2 is still months away from making an automated flight test to the space station. A test flight with astronauts aboard might not occur until next year. The Government Accountability Office believes additional delays could push certification of the spacecraft to carry NASA astronauts on a commercial basis to December 2019. (Certification of Boeing’s crew vehicle might not occur until February 2020).
It’s good to keep all this in mind as Musk prepares to unveil his latest transportation plan this evening. At 7 p.m. PDT, Musk will hold a town-hall style meeting in Los Angeles to discuss plans by The Boring Company for tunneling under the city. The event will be webcast at https://www.boringcompany.com/.
Musk might have given a preview of the session on Twitter this week when he made a connection between his tunneling work and the mega rocket/spaceship that he is designing to render Dragon 2 and its Falcon 9 booster obsolete.
Boring Company Hyperloop will take you from city center under ground & ocean to spaceport in 10 to 15 mins https://t.co/VhpfhgdXSd
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2018
The spaceport in question is apparently the offshore platform where passengers will board the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), which Musk says will be capable of going anywhere in the world in about 30 minutes. The rocket is also being designed to launch satellites and transport people and cargo to the moon and Mars.
It sounds as ambitious as anything Musk has attempted to date. If the past is any guide, his estimates on cost and schedules will be extremely optimistic.
Video: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Talks About Commercial Space, Orbital Debris
Video Caption: U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross speaks with CNBC’s Morgan Brennan about the new space race and growing trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
Elon Unbound: Musk’s Giant Leap to Mars
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
Since Elon Musk unveiled his Big [Expletive] Rocket (BFR) in Adelaide last month, there has been a lot of analysis of the engineering aspects. Musk’s Ask Me Anything session on Reddit was an engineer’s dream, with the billionaire providing detailed answers about the Raptor engines, thrust to weight ratios and a host of other technical issues.
Amid all the technical talk, there has been little attention paid to what a giant leap this venture is for Musk, SpaceX and possibly the entire human race. Not only will BFR be larger and more powerful than any other rocket ever built, the audacious things Musk wants to do with it – ranging from point to point transportation on Earth to satellite delivery to sending colonists to the moon and Mars – are on a scale never before attempted. They are certainly beyond anything contemplated by the world’s space agencies.
Great Overview of the Technical Aspects of Elon Musk’s BFR
Video Caption: Elon Musk presented the latest updates on SpaceX’s long term plans for their ‘BFR’ at the IAC in Adelaide. I now have an inbox of messages asking for my take on it all so – let’s talk about the plans that he presented.
The main points are the BFR (Big Rocket) is now a lot smaller than the original design, it still uses 2 stages and refuels in orbit enabling it to go to Mars, but now it’ll also be setup as a satellite launch vehicle, cargo ship able to visit ISS and the surface of the moon. But most surprisingly, and perhaps least realistically, he pitched a new passenger design intended to carry people halfway around the Earth at hypersonic speeds.
Meet the Son of Shuttle: Elon Musk’s BFR Will Do It All
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk introduced a renamed version of his Martian colonial transport vehicle on Friday that was simultaneously shrunken somewhat in size but much larger in its ambition.
The big change in the newly renamed BFR — for big effing rocket — involved reducing the number of first stage engines from 42 to 31 engines. Despite the reduction, the second stage booster/spacecraft would still be capable of carrying up to 100 people to the Red Planet.
The biggest change involves BFR’s scope. Not only would it the basis for building a Mars colony and moon base, it would completely disrupt terrestrial transportation by taking passengers between any two spots on Earth in less than an hour.
Schedule of Elon Musk’s Talk in Adelaide
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will give a presentation about his Mars plans at the IAC in Adelaide on Friday at 2 p.m. ACST (Friday 12:30 a.m. EDT/Thursday 9:30 p.m. PDT/Friday 04:30 UTC/).
The one-hour talk will be webcast at www.spacex.com and https://www.australiascience.tv/theme/iac-2017/
Musk: Moon In, Red Dragon & Propulsive Landings Out
During an appearance at the International Space Station Research & Development Conference on Wednesday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said plans for propulsive crew Dragon landings and Red Dragon missions to Mars had been scrapped, downplayed the probability that the first Falcon Heavy launch will succeed, and even had a good word to say about the moon.
Here are notes from the talk.
State of Space Exploration
- Entering a new era of space exploration
- SpaceX and other companies developing new systems
- NASA approaching things in new ways
- Space station resupply program should be adapted across the government
- Key to opening up space is “rapid and complete reusability”, but it is very difficult