I recently mentioned the 3o day simulation of life in a space habitat underway by three grad students at the Univ. of North Dakota Department of Space Studies. Here are a couple of updates via the NDX Space Suit Projects blog:
On Day 8 there was an EVA:
I recently listed some relatively low cost, near(er) term nuclear fusion power projects, most of which originated at government labs or from government funded research at universities but are now being pursued by private ventures:
Brian Wang lists these and two that I left out – General Fusion (backed by Jeff Bezos and others) and Tri-Alpha Energy (back by Paul Allen and others) : Updated Prospects for Commercial Nuclear Fusion – NextBigFuture.com.
Here’s a discussion about the L-M Compact Fusion scheme : Video: Podcast: Could The Fusion Age Be Upon Us? – Aviation Week.
In this PBS News Hour segment, Miles O’Brien reports on efforts to find and track asteroids and comets that could impact earth:
The latest show from TMRO (formerly Spacevidcast) is now online: Chasing Atlantis – TMRO.
They interview Paul Muzzin and Matthew Cimone about their in-work documentary, Chasing Atlantis.
The comet Siding Spring is just about to reach its closest approach to Mars. Below are links to various sites with info and imagery:
* Latest NASA news and images:
On Sunday, Oct. 19, Comet C/2013 A1, also known as comet Siding Spring, will pass within about 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of the Red Planet — less than half the distance between Earth and our moon and less than one-tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of Earth. Siding Spring’s nucleus will come closest to Mars around 11:27 a.m. PDT (2:27 p.m. EDT), hurtling at about 126,000 mph (56 kilometers per second).
* ESA live webcast: European Space Agency – live streaming video powered by Livestream
* Live webcast from the SLOOH online observatory: live.slooh.com – Comet Siding Spring Swings by on a Close Approach to Mars
* Display of the current position of the comet in the sky: Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) Live Position and Finder Chart – TheSkyLive
* An animation of NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter maneuvering to image Comet Siding Spring:
Path of the comet:
Brought to you by the Near-Earth Object (NEO) office
at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.