The latest TMRO live program reviewed space developments in the past year: A look back at 2014 – TMRO
Space Art: Exhibition of Rauschenberg’s Apollo art + Nina Waisman joins SETI Institute art program
The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University is presenting an exhibition of artist Robert Rauschenberg‘s works that he created in a NASA sponsored art program during the Apollo era:
Cantor Exhibition Presents Rarely Seen Art by Robert Rauschenberg Documenting First Manned Flight to the Moon: Loose in Some Real Tropics: Robert Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” Projects, 1969–70
December 20, 2014–March 16, 2015
Here is a review of the show: Art review: Robert Rauschenberg views the moon mission – SFGate.
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“Hot Shot” – Lithograph by Robert Rauschenberg. This work was created to share and express the artist’s belief in the spiritual and physical improvement of life and the mind through curiosity.
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Artist Nina Waisman will join the SETI Institute’s Artist in Residence Program along with five other artists: Nina Waisman named artist-in-residence with SETI Institute – UTSanDiego.com –
I’m expecting that the research I engage in at SETI will blow my mind, and then re-settle it over time along paths and materials that will add up to provocative art experiences, based on what I’ve learned by dialoguing and/or collaborating with these esteemed scientists.”
SETI started the artist-in-residence program in 2011 with artist Charles Lindsay, a Guggenheim Fellow who remains with SETI as the artist-in-residence program leader. The effort has also involved artists Martin Wilner, Danny Bazo, Karl Yerkes and Marko Peljhan.
“SETI Institute’s research is motivated by our primal interest in other life and other beings,” said senior astronomer Seth Shostak. “It’s a very human endeavor. And so is art, after all it’s one of the things that distinguishes us from every other life form on this planet. Art is the one thing that’s unique about our world. The one thing that ET doesn’t already have. Well, she may have art, but not our kind of art! There’s a natural synchrony here.”
Sci-Tech: Hyperloop fast transit system – latest update
Elon Musk introduced his Hyperloop super-fast mass transit concept in August of 2013. He has too much on his plate (i.e. SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and Solar City) to pursue the idea himself and instead has encouraged others to try to make it happen.
In September of 2013 came word that a Hyperloop company had been formed to try to develop a hyperloop system. The company is a virtual one based at the JumpStartFund with over 100 engineers who work part time on developing real-world build-able design. Here are a couple of reports on their progress so far:
- These Dreamers Are Actually Making Progress Building Elon’s Hyperloop – WIRED
- Hyperloop is coming ‘within a decade,’ says CEO – Mashable
A student team at UCLA has contributed a lot of work on the concept as well. The 25 students work at SUPRASTUDIO under Prof. Craig Hodgetts. Here’s a video about their work:
And here’s an article about their project: Hyperloop: UCLA graduate students explore feasibility of high-speed tube transportation system – Daily Breeze.
Most of the 25 students are from China, where large urban populations make the Hyperloop and other high-speed rail attractive alternatives to cars and planes. Only two Americans are enrolled in the program.
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Exploring Venus with an air ship
Over the years there have been those who have argued that Venus, not Mars, is the best place for humans to explore and even settle. They are not proposing that people go down into the poisonous atmosphere and onto the hellishly hot surface but instead to use habitats that float upon the dense atmosphere. The proverbial cloud cities of innumerable science fiction books and movies could eventually become feasible. Last summer I posted some links to such proposals: Colonies on the clouds of Venus.
A NASA group has released a study outlining an exploration program of Venus that is based on airships: NASA Study Proposes Airships, Cloud Cities for Venus Exploration: Should crewed exploration of Venus come before we try to go to Mars? – IEEE Spectrum.
This video shows the architecture of such an exploration program:
NASA Langley researchers want to get a better idea about conditions on our nearest planetary neighbor, Venus, so they have come up with HAVOC or a High Altitude Venus Operational Concept – a lighter-than-air rocket ship that would help send two astronauts on a 30-day mission to explore the planet’s atmosphere. Exploration of Venus is a challenge not only because its smog-like sulfuric acid-laced atmosphere, but also its extremely hot surface temperature and extremely high air pressure on the surface.
Video: ‘Space to Ground’ update on ISS – Dec.19.14
The latest NASA report on activities on the International Space Station: