EricFromOuterSpace

EricFromOuterSpace OP t1_j7q14c5 wrote

Reply to Imagine a future in space where pellet-beam propulsion systems speed up travel to other worlds, pipelines on the Moon transport oxygen between settlements and Martian bricks grow on their own before being assembled into homes. Researchers will delve into these ideas and more using NASA grant funding by EricFromOuterSpace

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From the article:

The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program fosters innovation by funding early-stage studies to evaluate technologies that could support future missions. The latest round of awards will provide $175,000 grants to 14 visionaries from nine states. Ten of the selected researchers are first-time NIAC recipients.
“NASA dares to make the impossible possible. That’s only achievable because of the innovators, thinkers, and doers who are helping us imagine and prepare for the future of space exploration,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The NIAC program helps give these forward-thinking scientists and engineers the tools and support they need to spur technology that will enable future NASA missions.”

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EricFromOuterSpace OP t1_j6nc9hk wrote

Reply to comment by wanderlustcub in A spaceflight disaster was narrowly avoided in 1972. A series of intense solar flares exploded in August, just months before the launch of Apollo 17. Any astronauts on the moon at that time would have died from radiation. As NASA's new lunar missions progress, the threat of radiation still looms. by EricFromOuterSpace

Gotcha — yea you are probably right that space weather is chaotic and something is happening all the time, but this one seems to have been particularly intense:

A series of intense solar flares exploded intermittently for more than a week. A solar flare is an outburst of charged particles from the Sun’s turbulent surface. There are five classes: A, B, C, M, and X, ranging in size from the smallest to the most dangerous. The intense solar storm of 1972, which was an X-class flare, originated from a sunspot named MR 11976.

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EricFromOuterSpace OP t1_j6n9oq9 wrote

Reply to comment by wanderlustcub in A spaceflight disaster was narrowly avoided in 1972. A series of intense solar flares exploded in August, just months before the launch of Apollo 17. Any astronauts on the moon at that time would have died from radiation. As NASA's new lunar missions progress, the threat of radiation still looms. by EricFromOuterSpace

I read it as narrow, like, in cosmic time.

If you're talking about getting unlucky with the sun, 4 months is pretty narrow.

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EricFromOuterSpace OP t1_j2x00w9 wrote

Reply to In December SpaceX launched the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite for NASA and CNES. It will survey nearly all the water on Earth. by EricFromOuterSpace

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(from the article.)

“For freshwater, this will be a quantum leap in terms of our knowledge,” said Daniel Esteban-Fernandez, KaRIn instrument manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "Researchers currently have good data on only a few thousand lakes around the world; SWOT will increase that number to at least a million."
According to JPL, KaRIn will measure the height of water in the ocean, “seeing” features like currents and eddies that are less than 13 miles (20 kilometers) across – up to 10 times smaller than those detectable with other sea-level satellites. It will also collect data on lakes and reservoirs larger than 15 acres (62,500 square meters) and rivers wider than 330 feet (100 meters) across.

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EricFromOuterSpace OP t1_j24rhxt wrote

Reply to Luxurious space hotels are a classic Sci-Fi trope. But American hospitality giant Hilton recently signed a deal with Lockheed Martin and Voyager Space to build the solar system’s first space hotel onboard Starlab — a space station with NASA funding — which is currently under development. by EricFromOuterSpace

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American hospitality giant Hilton recently signed a deal with Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin to build the solar system’s first space hotel onboard Starlab, a space station currently under development. The deal, which came together during the International Astronautical Congress in Paris, will see Hilton designing the hospitality suits and sleeping arrangements for Starlab.
Voyager Space and its operating company Nanoracks are developing the Starlab space station in collaboration with Lockheed Martin. Aiming to be operational as early as 2027, Starlab is one of three private space station projects which received funding from NASA as a part of the Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) project. Nanoracks received $160 million from the program — the largest individual award — while the other recipients were Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus-based space station. The three CLD awards follow an existing $140 million contract with Axiom Space, but the partnership with Hilton is the first of its kind among the other stations in development.

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