All posts by TopSpacer

Solar Sci-Fi, Space films and videos, Space TV

Videos: “The Expanse” is saved + Sean Penn heads to Mars + First trailer for “First Man”

Solar Sci-Fi (i.e. hard science fiction involving near-term scenarios within our solar system) has gone big time in the past few years with the major financial successes of the films Gravity and The Martian. The TV series The Expanse, which depicts conflicts among settlers of Mars, the Asteroid Belt, and Earth, has lasted 3 seasons on the SyFy Channel and will now continue on Amazon Prime:

Sean Penn will headline a new TV series on Hulu called “The First” about humans going to Mars : The First (Hulu): Sean Penn’s Mars TV Series Debuts First Plot Details | IndieWire

Set in the 2030s, the eight-episode first season is mainly set on Earth as the astronauts prepare for the journey to the red planet and NASA forms a partnership with a private company to support the trip.

And on the Solar Sci-Reality front, the film First Man with Ryan Gosling looks to be an epic re-telling of how Neil Armstrong came to take that first step onto the lunar surface:

The film is to be released in the fall.

====

General

Carnival of Space #565 – Urban Astronomer

Urban Astronomer hosts the latest Carnival of Space.

Sputnik Planitia on Pluto as seen by the New Horizons probe. See Universe Today about dunes of methane ice on Pluto’s surface.
Contests and Games, Education, Rockets

Base11 Space Challenge: $1M prize for a student team whose liquid-fueled rocket reaches 100km

The non-profit organization Base 11 led by Landon Taylor has organized a rocketry competition for university students that is offering a $1M cash prize:

The Base11 Space Challenge is a $1 million+ prize for a student-led university team to design, build, and launch a liquid-propelled, single-stage rocket to an altitude of 100 kilometers (the Karman Line) by December 30, 2021. Annual competitions and prizes mark milestone achievements in the process including design of the liquid-fuel rocket, static testing of the engine, and smaller pop-up innovation challenges to be announced. The biggest purse, which is fully funded, is the $1 million prize for launching the rocket to the edge of space.

The mission behind the Base 11 Space Challenge is to dramatically increase the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent in the United States with greater representation and inclusion of women and minorities, while empowering the future workforce with the education and skill-training necessary for jobs in the aerospace and related industries.

This video gives an overview of the program:

And a video of the debut event held for the program last week:

====

Activism, Space Policy, SpaceCasts

The Space Show this week – June.11.2018

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

1. Monday, June11, 2018; 2-3:30 pm PDT (4-5:30 pm CDT, 5-6:30 pm EDT): Barry DiGregorio returns as our gust regarding more on Mars and astrobiology.

2. Tuesday, June 12, 2018: 7-8:30 pm PDT; 9-10:30 pm CDT; 10-11:30 pm EDT: We welcome back George Lordos of the award winning MIT Mars design project previously discussed on a Hotel Mars program.

3. Wednesday, June 13, 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, June 15 2018; 9:30 am – 11 am PDT, (12:30 -2 pm EDT; 11:30 am -1 pm CDT): We welcome David Hook back to the program to discuss drone flight rules and NASA’s tech development of viable supersonic transports.

5. Sunday, June 17, 2018: 12-1:30 pm PDT; 2-3:30 pm CDT; 3-4:30 pm EDT. No show today due to Father’s Day.

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
Activism, Future space, SpaceCasts

Videos: TMRO Orbit 11.12 – “Humanity amongst the starts with Isaac Arthur” + TMRO Science: Bionic Future

Here is the latest episode of the TMRO.tv weekly Space program: Humanity amongst the stars with Isaac Arthur – Orbit 11.12 – TMRO:

Futurist Isaac Arthur joins the cast of TMRO to talk about humanities future amongst the stars as well as living in a simulation, faster than light communication and galactic intelligence.

Updates on launches and space news:

Launches:

Falcon 9 Launches SES-12
Long March 3A Launches Fengyun -2H
Soyuz Launches new Space Station Crew

Space News:

Curiosity Confirms Complex Organics on Mars
Northrop Grumman completes Orbital ATK acquisition
Pluto Has Sand Dunes, But They’re Made of Methane

TMRO is viewer supported:

TMRO shows are crowd funded. If you like this episode consider contributing to help us to continue to improve. Head over to http://www.patreon.com/tmro for funding levels, goals and all of our different rewards!

====

And here is the latest TMRO.tv Science program: Our bionic future – Discovery 1.06 – TMRO

Lisa, Jade and Athena discuss the past and future of prosthetic enhancements to the human body. How advanced have they become? Should we be upgrading ourselves past normal human limits? Leave your comments below and continue the conversation!

News:

Bubble curtains saving the world!?
New link between fat, energy and diabetes
Living longer lives with bacteria in our gut?!
Green tea could prevent strokes and heart attacks

====