Forget about the noisy, showy rocket-to-the-moon events in the 1960s and ’70s. A small band of Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists thinks the next giant leap for mankind is to build an elevator that reaches 62,000 miles into the sky. “The first country that owns the space elevator will own space,” said Bryan Laubscher, a lab scientist. “I believe that, and I think Los Alamos should be involved in making that happen.”
October 13th, 2003
MTI and Harris Further Develop Micro Fuel Cells for Military
MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc., a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology Inc. and Harris Corporation announced Friday an agreement that builds on work completed under an earlier project and advances their joint development of micro fuel cell systems for portable military communications equipment.
October 2nd, 2003
Going up? Space elevator could slash launch costs The Christian Science Monitor
Since the dawn of the Space Age, people and hardware have thundered into orbit, shoved skyward by barely controlled explosions. Now, a loosely connected group of scientists and engineers hopes to make a launch as easy – and nearly as gentle – as pushing the “penthouse” button on an elevator. To proponents, space elevators promise to slash the cost of sending cargo and people into space. And, they say, elevators would eliminate the costly need to overengineer satellites and other payloads to survive the rigors of a launch.
September 24th, 2003
Boeing Selects Leader for Nuclear Space Systems Program Boeing
Boeing has selected Dr. Joe Mills to lead the company
September 24th, 2003
Webcasts To Feature Scientists On A ‘Mars Mission’
NASA and Spanish scientists, who are developing ways to drill into Mars in search of underground life, will take part in eight worldwide, educational webcasts from their project site near Spain’s Rio Tinto River from Sept. 29 to Oct. 15. NASA Ames Research Center scientist Carol Stoker will kick off the webcast series on Sept. 29 at 10 a.m. EDT with a talk about the Mars Analog Research and Technology Experiment (MARTE). According to Stoker, mineral deposits like the ones the MARTE project is drilling into may also be found in the Martian subsurface.
September 22nd, 2003
Research And Development Sources Sought For Potential Development Of A Drilling System For A Mars Mission
NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) is hereby soliciting information from industry to determine the existence of sources with the capability to develop a working prototype of a drilling system for a Mars mission that would be ready for integrated field testing at a field site in Oklahoma for 14 days in March 2005, and at a field site in southwestern Spain for 30 days in June of 2005. Participation of the source in weekly team meetings and project reviews, to be held approximately semi-annually, would also be required. This prototype drilling system would be used in a NASA field experiment in a Mars analog environment to demonstrate technology for drilling on Mars.
September 20th, 2003
Tie me to the moon The Sydney Morning Herald
Seeing the Earth as a blue and white ball hanging in the velvet black of space sounds like fun. What a pity getting out there is so dangerous. Space-shuttle astronauts are riding a 3000-tonne bomb undergoing a controlled explosion. The loss of the Challenger crew in 1986, and the Columbia accident early this year confirmed how risky that can be. How much more pleasant to step inside a lift and rise gently into space. Reaching orbit would be no more frightening than riding to the top of a city building. A “space elevator” is exactly what American researchers say we could be using in 15 years.
September 19th, 2003
Magnets attracting wireless attention cnet
Magnets are beginning to gain the attention of home-electronics manufacturers and government agencies as an alternative to Bluetooth and other short-range wireless techniques. This week, Troy, Mich.-based manufacturer Fonegear began selling cordless cell phone headsets that use the properties of a magnetic field. The headsets, which cost between $60 and $80 each, are the first wave of mass-market electronic devices that use a new generation of magnet-powered wireless technology.
September 17th, 2003
Space Elevator: High Hopes, Lofty Goals
No matter how you view it, a space elevator is a stretch
September 15th, 2003
Plasma rocket technology Houston News Channel
Going where no man has gone before is not as much of a fantasy as you may think. Technology is advancing at the speed of light, with rocket breakthroughs right on the horizon. “In the case of the plasma rocket, we’re talking about millions of degrees, and what that means is that the hotter the plasma, the faster the particles move within it,” said NASA astronaut Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz.