| Congratulations to SpaceX on their successful launch of a commercial satellitea few days ago. One small step for access to space for all, not just government bureaucrats.
I just watched a TED Talk by Bill Stone from 2007, who vowed to lead a prospecting expedition to the Shackleton crater on the south pole of the moon, which definitely contains millions of tons of hydrogen, possibly in easy-to-access ice deposits. Without any return fuel. That’s my kind of space mission. |
Gratuloj je SpaceX, kiu sukcese lanĉis komercan sateliton antaÅ kelkaj tagoj. Unu malgrana paÅo cele al ĉies kosma aliro, ne nur registaraj burokratoj.
Mis ĵus rigardis TED Talk de Bill Stone de 2007, kiu votis estri esploran ekspedicion al la kratero Shackleton je la suda poluso de la luno. Sen iom da karburaĵo por reveni. Tian kosmomision mi Åatus. |
Category: Space & Science
Sleep Apnea and Atrial Fibrillation
Saw an article today that confirms a correlation between sleep apnea and atrial fibrillation. We have sort of suspected this for a while, since I have not had any noticeable episodes of atrial fibrillation since I started using a CPAP over three years ago.
Bussard Fusion One Step Closer
The team working to duplicate Dr. Bussard’s fusion technique has had some results (emphasis added):
The team has turned in its final report, and it’s been double-checked by a peer-review panel, [team leader Richard] Nebel told me today. Although he couldn’t go into the details, he said the verdict was positive.
“There’s nothing in there that suggests this will not work,” Nebel said. “That’s a very different statement from saying that it will work.”
By and large, the EMC2 results fit Bussard’s theoretical predictions, Nebel said. That could mean Polywell fusion would actually lead to a power-generating reaction. But based on the 10-month, shoestring-budget experiment, the team can’t rule out the possibility that a different phenomenon is causing the observed effects.
“If you want to say something absolutely, you have to say there’s no other explanation,” Nebel said. The review board agreed with that conservative assessment, he said.
The good news, from Nebel’s standpoint, is that the WB-7 experiment hasn’t ruled out the possibility that Polywell fusion could actually serve as a low-cost, long-term energy solution. “If this thing was absolutely dead in the water, we would have found out,” he said.
Private Enterprise
So now that it seems that Nasa’s new spacecraft designs are in such bad shape as to be unsuitable for their stated purpose of returning to the moon, it seems more and more likely that private companies like SpaceX are the future of space travel.
SpaceX has just announced a long-duration uncrewed version of its Dragon capsule that can be used as a little mini space station. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they were working on designs for getting to the moon and beyond.
Of course this all depends on the Falcon 9 being proven as a reliable launch vehicle. The Falcon 1 is one for four at the moment, so there’s still a ways to go.