Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
The lunar regolith is composed of about forty five percent oxygen. However, that oxygen is tightly bound into the minerals mentioned above. In order to break those bonds, a great deal of energy must be applied.
Part 1 of 2 Parts
Vast Space is a space startup based in Long Beach, California. They just signed a contract with SpaceX to launch the first commercial space station as soon as 2025. They intend to crew it immediately after it attains a stable Earth orbit. Joseph McCaleb is the founder of Vast. He said, “It’s a super aggressive schedule. But we have a clear path for how we’re going to get there.”
MIT engineers have designed a levitating space rover. This new vehicle could enable the exploration of parts of the Moon that are too treacherous for today’s rolling rovers. Rovers are hugely important for space exploration. They give us a way to study the surface of the Moon, Mars and asteroids up close without sending astronauts.
NASA has sent a series of exploratory vehicles to other celestial bodies. With a few exceptions, these were wheeled robot vehicles. Soon, there will be another robot explorer launched but it will not be a wheeled vehicle. It is built to look a lot like a snake. It is called the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS) and it will impress the world with some fascinating science.
NASA is constructing a blueprint for human exploration throughout the solar system for the benefit of humanity. Last Tuesday, the agency released the results from its first Architecture Concept Review (ACR). The ACR is a robust analysis process designed to align NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration strategy and codify the support architecture.
Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
Part 1 of 2 Parts
The beautiful northern and southern auroral lights are a result of what is called space weather. The solar wind generated by the Sun is guided by the Earth’s magnetic fields to the North Pole and the South poles. This is usually a relatively harmless phenomena unlike the more powerful solar storms that can knock out satellites.
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program nurtures visionary ideas that could transform future NASA missions with the creation of breakthroughs— radically better or entirely new aerospace concepts — while engaging America's innovators and entrepreneurs as partners in the journey. NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) nurtures new ideas in space technology.
In my last post, I discussed plans to use native materials and additives from Earth to create bricks that could be used to construct habitats on the Moon and Mars. There are a number of different ideas for the construction of habitats on the Moon.
