Category Archives: Space Settlement

Mars, Space films and videos, Space Settlement

“The Mars Generation” – Documentary debuts at Sundance

Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker Michael Barnett has a new : Teen rocket scientists star at Sundance’s SLC opening | The Salt Lake Tribune

Space exploration offers humans the chance to survive as a species.

That’s the unifying message offered by Michael Barnett’s “The Mars Generation,” which focuses on the funny, smart teenage wannabe rocket scientists attending the U.S. Space and Rocket Center’s Space Camp. Along the way, the documentary offers an inspiring call to action as it details America’s past and future space dreams.

The Friday night screening marked the Salt Lake City opening of the Sundance Film Festival. The “Mars Generation” premiere on Inauguration Day seemed significant, the director said, because he hopes it will jump-start a conversation about space exploration.

“Now is not the time to become nearsighted about the big idea of becoming interplanetary,” Barnett said. “This film is about the generation who is going to take us to Mars — if they are empowered to do so.”

More at

 

Activism, Space Settlement, SpaceCasts

Video: TMRO 9.41 – 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge

A new episode of TMRO.tv has been posted in the archive: 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge – 9.41

For our last show of 2017 we are joined by Eric Reiners of Caterpillar Inc and Dr. Pelin Gultekin-Bicer with Bradley University, Peoria, IL talking about the NASA Centennial 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge. When we start to colonize the solar system we likely won’t bring our homes with us. 3D-Printed habs are likely the way we will live both out in space and here at home.

Eric Reiners is a Program Manager within the Innovation & Technology Development Division of Caterpillar Inc. He is responsible for program definition and funding for Caterpillar’s research focus in Automation & IoT Site Solutions.

Dr. Pelin Gultekin-Bicer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Construction at Bradley University, Peoria, IL. She joined Bradley University in Fall 2015 after receiving her Ph.D. degree from Penn State, Architectural Engineering Department with her dissertation on design of a decision support system for energy efficient retrofit projects.

http://bradley.edu/challenge/
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spa…

Space news topics covered:

* Launches
* Rocket Lab ready for Electron test flights
* ALMA Finds Evidence for Forming Pair of Planets
* SpaceX first crewed flight shifts to 2018
* Martian Minerals Point Towards Past Habitability

 

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Here is a recent TMRO Space Pod short report: 7 ways space can change your life – Space Pod 12/14/16 – TMRO

NASA has just released their Spinoff 2017 report listing how space technology can help people HERE on Earth. Lisa Stojanovski walks you through her top 7 space spinoffs making the world a better place.

TMRO is viewer supported:

TMRO:Space is a crowd funded show. If you like this episode consider contributing to help us to continue to improve. Head over to http://www.patreon.com/tmro for information, goals and reward levels. Don’t forget to check out our SpacePod campaign as well over at http://www.patreon.com/spacepod

 

Mars, Space Science, Space Settlement

Video: “The history of the Martian South Polar Cap”

UC Santa Cruz grad student Carver Bierson gives an interesting SETI Institute talk about how the southern polar cap of Mars came to consist of multiple alternating layers of water ice and frozen CO2. He also addresses the question of whether the storehouse of earth’s nuclear weapons could be used to melt the ice cap and provide a dense atmosphere for terraformers living there.

Mars, Space Settlement, Space TV

More about Nat Geo’s ‘Mission to Mars’ documentary + Video: Elon Musk lays out the SpaceX Mars plan

Here are more details about the upcoming docudrama series from National Geographic and Ron Howard about the first missions to start the settlement of Mars: Inside Nat Geo’s Incredible Documentary Mission to Mars | WIRED. 

(See also the earlier posting here with the first two trailers.)

In this video, Andy Weir (author of The Martian) and others talk about the challenges of just getting to Mars:

The mission architecture as described in the TV program shares many aspects of the architecture for Mars settlement laid out recently by Elon Musk of SpaceX:

Solar Sci-Fi, Space books, Space Settlement

Stephen Hawking on why humans should go to space + Arthur C. Clarke reads an excerpt from 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stephen Hawking wrote an afterword to the new book How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight and it is reprinted here: I think the human race has no future if it doesn’t go to space – The Guardian. He talks about his experience of weightlessness aboard the ZERO G parabolic flight aircraft and about why he believes space development and settlement is so important.

I believe in the possibility of commercial space travel – for exploration and for the preservation of humanity. I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as a sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn’t go to space. We need to inspire the next generation to become engaged in space and in science in general, to ask questions: What will we find when we go to space? Is there alien life, or are we alone? What will a sunset on Mars look like?

My wheels are here on Earth, but I will keep dreaming. It is my belief, and it is the message of Julian Guthrie’s book, for which I have written the afterword, that there is no boundary of human endeavour. Raise your sights. Be courageous and kind. Remember to look up at the stars and not at your feet. Space, here I come!

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Here is a reading by Arthur C. Clarke from a section of his book 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is his version of the story told in the movie: Hear Arthur C. Clarke Read 2001: A Space Odyssey: A Vintage 1976 Vinyl Recording | Open Culture