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POPSWill NASA Test a Plasma Drive on the ISS? A plasma engine such as the VASIMR uses radio waves to ionize a propellant, and magnetic fields to accelerate or decelerate the resulting plasma to generate thrust. The VASIMR injects a gas such as hydrogen in to an engine that turns it in to plasma. The radio waves are now used to energize the plasma further as it moves through the engine. The plasma, now accelerated and heated, is focused and directed as exhaust using a magnetic nozzle.
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POPSLet us found the lost city So, the Stargate Atlantis is another spin-off of the sci-fi series Stargate SG-1. It followed 4 explorers who travel through an interplanetary portal, the Stargate.
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POPSFive questions for a galactic visitor The simple fact is that certain people have always opposed progress while other, better people have driven it. "Experts" decried boiled water as unhealthy compared the vital stuff straight from the river, cursed antibiotics as a temporary placebo, and confidently declared that computers were nothing but expensive toys. As an intelligent species we must make every effort to contact anyone or thing we can - and if you don't like it, there are some lovely caves you can move back to. what are your questions?
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POPSHow Interplanetary Internet Will Work Wiring the Solar System Take a look at the the 1997 Mars Pathfinder rover mission and you will understand space explorers need an interplanetary Internet for deep space communications. Data from the Pathfinder trickled back at an average rate of about 300 bits per second during its mission. Most likely, your computer can transfer data at least 200 times faster than that. An Internet between Mars and Earth would likely yield a data transfer rate of 11,000 bits per second. That is still much slower than your computer's transfer rate, but it would be enough to send back more detailed images of the Mars surface. Mars Network researchers think that the transfer rate could eventually go to about 1 Megabyte (8,288,608 bits) per second and allow anyone to take a virtual trip to Mars.
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POPSLife on the edge That throws up a tricky problem for engineers sending space craft to explore these alien worlds. What if the craft were to carry its own cargo of Earth microbes which set up home there?One major problem for any accidental interplanetary microbe would be how to survive the punishing radiation bombardment in space. Most would be rapidly frazzled en route. Most, but not all. Deinococcus radiodurans, nicknamed "Conan the Bacterium", is listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the "world's toughest bacterium". By rapidly replacing its DNA, it can survive cold, dehydration, vacuum, acid and a hefty radiation dose. Its Latin name means "terrifying berry that withstands radiation".
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POPSSpace debris Our message to outer space: Hey, we're done with polluting Earth, now its your turn!
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POPSSpace debris: evolution in pictures Between the launch of Sputnik on 4 October 1957 and 1 January 2008, approximately 4600 launches have placed some 6000 satellites into orbit, of which about 400 are travelling beyond geostationary orbit or on interplanetary trajectories. Today, it is estimated that only 800 satellites are operational - roughly 45 percent of these are both in LEO and GEO. Space debris comprise the ever-increasing amount of inactive space hardware in orbit around the Earth as well as fragments of spacecraft that have broken up, exploded or otherwise become abandoned. About 50 percent of all trackable objects are due to in-orbit explosion events (about 200) or collision events (less than 10).
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POPSClipXploration - From Stargazers to Starships 3 Peripheral Subjects related to section S-7 above: LS-7A The Discovery of Atoms and Nuclei (A very quick overview of the relevant history.) S-7A The Black Hole at the Center of our Galaxy S-8. Nuclear Power S-9. Nuclear Weapons
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POPSSupply Chains in Space! Leave it to the brainiacs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to think about the provisioning of interplanetary fixed based stations. Engineers at MIT, Olivier de Weck and David Simchi-Levi have created a tool called SpaceNet, which models movement of freight between Earth and stations on the moon. With transit times of up to 9 months on a mission to Mars, supply chain execution in space would be difficult. Perhaps the moon will serve as a staging area for the future! Now how long until FedEx or DHL start advertising interplanetary Express services? When it absolutely positively has to get there...in 10 months!
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