Videos: Leading edge space technologies presented at the 2018 NIAC Symposium

Check out the latest leading edge technology ideas presented this week by winners of NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program grants at the 2018 NIAC Symposium underway in Boston till Thursday. The agenda (pdf) lists the talks and you can watch the presentations at the NIAC 2018 Livestream.

Below are videos of three of the sessions on Tuesday. The presenters included, for example, Ryan Weed of Positron Dynamics on antimatter catalyzed fusion propulsion, Stephanie Thomas of Princeton Satellite Systems on a plasma magnetic fusion propulsion design, and James Woodward of the Space Studies Institute on a Mach Effect drive.

This video from Princeton Satellite Systems describes their fusion propulsion design:

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Video: TMRO Orbit 11.37 – ” Why send artists to the moon on BFR? #dearMoon”

The latest episode of TMRO.tv looked at the SpaceX announcement of a private passenger flight around the Moon: Why send artists to the moon on BFR? #dearMoon – TMRO.tv

This week we have an epic panel to talk about the recent #dearMoon announcement including Tim Dodd the Everyday Astronaut, Emory “VaxHeadroom” Stagmer, Dr. Niamh Shaw and Astronaut Nicole Stott. We focus on the impact of the recent announcement by using a trip around the moon and art to inspire humanity in a totally new way.

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Galaxy Girls: 50 Amazing Stories of Women in Space.

The Space Show this week – Sept.24.2018

The guests and topics of discussion on The Space Show this week:

1. Monday, Sept. 24, 2018; 2-3:30 PM PDT (4-5:30 PM CDT, 5-6:30 PM EDT): We welcomed Dr. Susan Jewell, CEO, The Mars Academy USA.

2. Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018: 7-8:30 PM PDT; 9-10:30 PM CDT; 10-11:30 PM EDT: Welcome to OPEN LINES. Talk about the topics you want to discuss. First time callers welcome. All science, space, STEM, and STEAM subject welcome. Give us a call.

3. Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018: Hotel Mars. See Upcoming Show Menu and the website newsletter for details. Hotel Mars is pre-recorded by John Batchelor. It is archived on The Space Show site after John posts it on his website.

4. Friday, Sept. 28 2018; 9:30 AM-11 AM PDT, (12:30 -2 PM EDT; 11:30 AM-1 PM CDT): We welcome back Elizabeth Kennick for important news and updates with Teachers In Space.

5. The Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018 program from 12-1:30 PM PDT, (3-4:30 PM EDT, 2-3:30 PM CDT): We welcome back Dan Adamo to discuss his ideas around Exploring The Solar System Through Low-Latency Telepresence (LLT). Please review his PDF (ExpTelepresenceTSS.pdf) before the live program. You can find it on our blog for this show.

See also:
* The Space Show on Vimeo – webinar videos
* The Space Show’s Blog – summaries of interviews.
* The Space Show Classroom Blog – tutorial programs

The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation.

The Space Show - David Livingston
David Livingston

 

The Japanese Hayabusa-2 spacecraft deployed two rovers onto the asteroid Ryugu

On Friday the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2 has successfully placed two mini-rovers named MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B onto the near earth asteroid Ryugu, which is about 1 kilometer (0.6 mi) in diameter:  They Made It! Japan’s Two Hopping Rovers Successfully Land on Asteroid Ryugu.

Hayabusa-2 came within 55 meters of the surface of the asteroid to release the rovers. The spacecraft then moved back about 20 km from the surface. The rovers will explore the surface by short jumps or hops from one spot to another.

Here is a sampling of postings on Tweeter as the spacecraft approached the asteroid and then deployed the rovers: Tweets  by HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) | Twitter:

 

 

The ambitious mission is really just getting started:

  • The larger rover MASCOT will be deployed to the surface in October.
  • The mini-hopper MINERVA-II2 will be deployed in 2019.
  • Samples of the asteroid will be returned to earth in 2020.

Find more images from the spacecraft at Navigation Images from the MINERVA-Ⅱ1 deployment operation | Galleries | JAXA HAYABUSA2 PROJECT.

Animations of the mission events and technologies:

A press conference on the event:

 

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Videos: “Landing Model Rockets” – Barnard Propulsion Systems

I’ve posted a couple of times about Joe Barnard‘s development of model rockets that can land vertically like a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage. (See posts here and here.) This article is about Barnard and his rockets: Meet the Amateur Rocketeer Building Self-Landing Replicas of SpaceX Rockets – Motherboard.

Here is the first entry in an upcoming series of tutorial videos explaining the model rocket landing techniques:

In this video, Barnard goes into some detail about a recent test of a model of a Falcon Heavy upper stage:

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