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Inflatables Moving Closer to Use

Bigelow’s already demonstrated that inflatables can be deployed and operated in space. Now they’re moving closer to demonstrating an inflatable habitat with actual people in it: On the BEAM: Headed for the Space Station.

In its packed configuration tucked aboard SpaceX’s Dragon resupply spacecraft, BEAM will measure approximately 8 feet in diameter.

Once BEAM is […]

Martian Cube-Copters

This is the Drone Helicopter NASA Scientists Want to Send to Mars

Amusing. If lift is the limiting factor rather than volume or mass, that suggests to me that a bunch of these things could be sent on a single entry vehicle. Not unlike a certain NIAC proposal we put in last year, as it […]

Test Stand to Nowhere

NASA’s $349 million monument to its drift

Ugh.

And naturally, because the article mentioned the Tea Party, it’s somehow the Tea Party’s fault. Sure, Republican officials appear to hold much of the blame in this, but WaPo appears to have guessed correctly that its loyal readership/cult would snap up the bait and blame it all […]

EFT-1 Launches

EFT-1 is in orbit. Splashdown will be around 11:29ET.

Here’s the launch video up to booster sep.

ETA: walked into the office lobby just now, just in time for the splashdown. “Stable 1”. Nice.

Congratulations to everyone on the team who made this happen.

ETA: Looks like it might have lost an uprighting bag […]

EFT-1’s Big Day

Livestream of EFT-1 launch here.

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

I hope my old teammates are wearing lucky ray-gun-girl bowling shirts for the occasion. (Haven’t asked, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some sort of memo came down about that in the past two weeks.)

Looks like there will be Predator drone video of […]

You Had Me at “Plug-Nozzle Aerospike”

Want: Firefly Space Systems charges full-speed toward low Earth orbit.

There seem to be quite a few entrants in the ALASA-class lately. Which is interesting on the one hand given DARPA’s work in this area 12-13 years ago, and amusing given SpaceX’s exit in favor of EELV-class launchers.

The Space Applications are Obvious

New Nanomaterial Takes the Stink Out of Submarine Air

Unlike amine, which is a liquid, the new material looks like sand. In fact, it is sand, except it is covered with tiny pores, each filled with molecules that selectively pull CO2 out of the airstream. Together, sand grain and molecule are called Self Assembled Monolayers […]

NRL Invents CubeSat Release Mechanism

I like the simplicity of this, and the inventor mindset the exercise represents: NRL Invents CubeSat Release Mechanism To Deploy Solar Panels, Tethers

It’s a good motivation to me to do more monkeying around with ideas like this.

Humans may only survive 68 days on Mars

Humans may only survive 68 days on Mars.

Tl;dr: Mars One has ten years to come up with Mars-workable versions of common industrial processes and improve the capabilities of 3D printing and desktop machining.

Speaking of the latter – I went to the Maker Faire in Loveland last weekend, and ran into these guys, who […]

ExoTerra Wins Asteroid Redirect Mission Study Contract

Yep, we got selected under the “Adapt Commercial Spacecraft for the Asteroid Redirect Vehicle” category: NASA Selects Studies for the Asteroid Redirect Mission

ExoTerra Resource in Littleton, Colorado: The “Multipurpose SEP Module for ARM and Beyond” study will define concepts for an extensible multipurpose Solar Electric Propulsion module designed for launch on Falcon 9.

Congratulations […]

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