Collaborate Disseminate
Warp drives are among the more plausible of science fiction concepts, at least from a mathematical perspective. Now, Applied Physics, a multidisciplinary group of international scientists and engineers, has launched Warp Factory, open-source software t… Continue reading Free software lets you design and test warp drives with real physics
In order to survive long trips to other planets, astronauts are going to have to eat more than just easily-stored TV dinners and ramen noodles. With that fact in mind, scientists recently created what they determined could be the ideal fresh-food meal … Continue reading Scientifically formulated salad may be served on tomorrow’s spaceships
What’s the most thrilling part of rocketry? Well, the liftoff, naturally. But what about the sweet anticipation in those tense moments leading up to liftoff? In other words, the countdown. …read more Continue reading Liftoff! The Origin of the Countdown
Space startup Vast has announced that it intends to launch what it calls the world’s first commercial space station, Haven-1, sometime after August 2025 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as the first element of a 100-m (330 ft) rotating station.Continue Re… Continue reading Startup Vast plans first commercial space station for launch in 2025
Space travel places great stress on the mind and body. With an eye on its implications for future space travel, a new study out of Belgium is the first to examine how flight that involves exposure to significant changes in g-forces impacts the function… Continue reading New study uses fighter pilots to learn how space travel affects the brain
In 2014, no less an authority than NASA proclaimed in peer-reviewed papers that it was getting mysterious thrust from the EmDrive, a strange, brassy trumpet of a thing that its creators claimed could produce thrust with no propellant. NASA’s findings r… Continue reading Scientists pinpoint source of “impossible” EmDrive’s thrust
Faster-than-light (FTL) travel is a staple of sci-fi, hand-waving away multi-millennia journeys between stars. Such a technology would of course be incredibly handy to us in the real world, and while these “warp drives” have been considered theoretical… Continue reading New theoretical warp drive design clears “negative energy” barrier
Radiation is one of the main dangers of space travel, and with renewed focus on sending human crews back to the Moon it’s important to understand the risks they face. Now we have the clearest data on that to date, thanks to a dedicated instrument onboa… Continue reading First Moon radiation measurements reveal risk to astronaut health
ESA engineers are looking at using the world’s thinnest known material to build lighter, more efficient solar sails. By making sails out of one-atom-thick graphene sheets, the space agency aims to make sails capable of propelling unmanned interstellar … Continue reading Graphene shows promise as solar sail material in ESA tests
If you read science fiction, you are probably familiar with the idea of a light or solar sail. A very large and lightweight sail catches solar “wind” that accelerates a payload connected to the sail. Some schemes replace the sun with a laser. Like most things, sails have pros and …read more