Tag: Technology

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Perseverance landing

Here are a couple of “Wow!” shots of Perseverance.
The first is the rover under parachute, captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Think of the timing (and luck) that went into this shot. Wow!

The second is Perseverance hanging beneath the sky crane, a literal jetpack that brought the rover within meters of the surface then gently lowered it to touchdown. Seriously: Wow!
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Rust as radiation shielding

About that radiation… what about rust as a shield?
 
The research focused on shielding for electronics, but could this scale? Imagine our Mars transit ships being the same color as the planet itself, coated in a layer of rust for protection.
Researchers Develop Smaller, Lighter Radiation Shielding
Researchers Develop Smaller, Lighter Radiation Shielding

Researchers have developed a new technique for shielding electronics in military and space exploration technology from ionizing radiation.
NC State News NC State News
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Crew Dragon abort test tomorrow

SpaceX will conduct an inflight abort test of Crew Dragon tomorrow morning. As the Falcon 9 reaches max-Q, it will shut off its engines to simulate a worst case failure. This should trigger the Crew Dragon to separate from the rocket and fire its own Super Draco engines to get away from the failing rocket. Once clear, Crew Dragon will pop its parachutes and land gently in the Atlantic. This should be quite a show and is the last major milestone before an actual crewed launch.

SpaceX poised to take large step toward human space flight
SpaceX poised to take large step toward human space flight

SpaceX is ready to check off another box on the list of requirements that need to be completed before the company can send crewed missions to the International Space Station.
SpaceFlight Insider SpaceFlight Insider
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Interview with Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson, commenting on a bunch of stuff.

Neal Stephenson Wants To Tell Big Stories 
Neal Stephenson Wants To Tell Big Stories 

An economist and a science fiction author discuss cryogenics, mythology, philanthropy, fragmentation, and simulation.
Reason.com Reason.com

His comments regarding personal freedom in a Martian colony don’t gel with mine. The social system that I imagine in Generation Mars has a great respect for personal freedom.

However, that is tempered by a level of social responsibility that we would likely find unrecognizable here on Earth.

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Outgrowing the planet is not a bad thing

Dr. Phil Metzger posted an epic 48 tweet thread on Twitter explaining why megaconstellations (e.g. SpaceX’s Starlink) are inevitable, as is their eventual demise as better tech comes online.

Looking at the evolution of life, from single celled organisms to bipedal apes rapidly outgrowing the planet, as the exponential growth of information is a novel (to me at least) approach and provides an interesting perspective.

“I would bet that if we find alien civilizations somewhere else in the galaxy, or in a galaxy far, far away, we will discover that they ALL developed megaconstellations right before they got industry off their planets & divorced their information systems from their biosphere.”

This is wild stuff and well worth a full read.