LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST: By Andrew Follett The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected Boeing to conduct design and build the military’s next hypersonic spaceplane, according to an announcement Wednesday. The unmanned Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) can lift a payload into orbit and return to Earth to land on a runway. DARPA hopes…
LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST: By Andrew Follett Several entities are developing orbiting “garbage trucks” to remove growing amounts of debris from space, experts told Bloomberg Wednesday. Orbiting debris poses a serious risk to orbiting spacecraft, so several governments are building “garbage trucks” to make space safe again. Even the U.S. Department of Defense worries that debris could make…
LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST: By Michael Bastasch The New York Times is out with a three-part series on how scientists are racing “against time” to better understand Antarctica’s “unstoppable disintegration” due to man-made global warming. Antarctica “may have entered the early stages of an unstoppable disintegration,” writes NYT reporter Justin Gillis. NYT sent a…
LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST: By Andrew Follett The Earth-like planet, “Proxima b,” could have conditions favorable for the development of life, according to a new study by scientists from the University of Exeter. The study found “Proxima b” could have liquid water, meaning the odds of life developing are “quite favorable.” The planet could…
LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST: By Andrew Follett NASA recently announced plans to build a space station orbiting the moon to help send astronauts to Mars, but one of the scientists who designed the space agency’s plans to send humans to the Red Planet thinks it’s an awful idea. “No one needs a lunar orbit space station for any purpose,”…
LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST: By Andrew Follett NASA plans to build a “deep space gateway” around the moon as part of plans to send astronauts to Mars, the space agency’s director of human exploration announced this week. NASA will launch four manned flights between 2018 and 2026 to the space around the moon in order to build…
LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST: By Andrew Follett The National Space Council (NSC) will be reinstated to supervise the U.S. space program sometime in the next few weeks, a former adviser confirmed Wednesday. Robert Walker, a former Trump campaign adviser for space policy adviser, said the NSC would be reinstated in a matter of weeks….
LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST: By Andrew Follett Purdue University revealed a device Wednesday capable of feeding astronauts on Mars, but it could also be used on Earth to improve nutrition in several African countries. NASA commissioned Purdue to develop a device capable of processing plants grown on Mars, like soybeans, into puffed cereals and pastas. The device,…
LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST: By Andrew Follett A large asteroid will pass uncomfortably close to Earth Wednesday, and there’s not much NASA could have done to stop it had it been on a collision course. Humanity’s best option to stop the asteroid would have been a “Hail Mary pass” with a massive nuclear weapon,…
LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST: By Andrew Follet The Cassini space probe detected hydrogen coming from Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, which suggests alien life could develop there, according to NASA. NASA said Enceladus has “almost all of the ingredients needed to support life as we know it on Earth,” but admitted they found no living organisms….