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NASA Announces New Partnerships to Develop Space Exploration Technologies
NASA is partnering with six U.S. companies to develop 10 "tipping point" technologies that have the potential to significantly benefit the commercial space economy and future NASA missions, including lunar lander and deep space rocket engine technologies.
Selections are based on the agency's third competitive Tipping Point solicitation, and have a combined total award value of approximately $44 million – a significant investment in the U.S. space industry.
A technology is considered at a "tipping point" if investment in a ground or flight demonstration will result in significantly maturing the technology and improving the company's ability to bring it to market.
The companies are Blue Origin, Space Systems/Loral, United Launch Alliance, Frontier Aerospace Corporation, Paragon Space Development Corporation, and Astrobotic Technology, Inc.
Also at Engadget.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 11 2018, @02:48AM (2 children)
Mars's gravity is 1/3 that of Earth's.
The Moon's gravity is 1/6 that of Earth's.
Nobody ever talks about these facts.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Saturday August 11 2018, @03:02AM
Rotating stations can simulate 1g. Humans have been able to live in microgravity for a while, so we should try sending them to experience lunar and Mars gravity (which is about 0.376g, a whopping 12.8% more than "0.333g"). Mercury has 0.38g and ice in permanently shadowed craters at the poles. Venus has 0.904g, the most Earth-like of all, and could support a floating habitat in the upper atmosphere.
And plenty of people talk about these facts.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 11 2018, @01:41PM
Nobody? Odd - I've read it, and read it, and read it again, and again, throughout my life. Well - to be fair, starting at about age 11 or 12. I'm not sure that I was aware of those facts before about 5th grade.
Most people with any sort of a STEM background - not even a degree, just a background in it - is well aware that gravity is different on different celestial bodies.
Few people are willing to stick their necks out to predict how varying gravity wells might affect the health and development of people living there. At this point in time, we can make some reasonably well educated guesses, but no one is willing to say that .3 G will shorten life spans by fifteen years, or anything like that.
What do YOU want to say about microgravites? Or, would you prefer to talk about macrogravities? How much gravity do you think would be "too much"?
Your turn. Start talking about those facts!