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Spacecraft and mission hardware designed by an artificial intelligence may resemble bones left by some alien species, but they weigh less, tolerate higher structural loads, and require a fraction of the time parts designed by humans take to develop.
3 minutes read
In this episode, we talk about how a group of researchers at the University of Michigan have gained a thrust output 10x greater than what was thought to be possible by challenging preconceived limitations and how their breakthrough could hold the key for deep space travel.
It was believed that running more propellant through a Hall thruster would wreck its efficiency, but new experiments suggest they might power a crewed mission to Mars.
4 minutes read
Ever since the first close-up picture of Mars captured in 1965, the hazy and pink world has revealed its mysterious veil. The pace of human exploration of the unknown universe has never stopped. Over the past decades, we have discovered that today’s Martian wasteland hints at a once active world where volcanoes raged, and flash floods rushed over the land.
2 minutes read
In January 2023, the Caltech Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) is poised to launch into orbit a prototype, dubbed the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD), which will test several key components of an ambitious plan to harvest solar power in space and beam the energy back to Earth.
6 minutes read
In this episode, we talk about a microsatellite from MIT that is testing autonomous flight while in Earth's orbit. This technology could help improve the agility and robustness of future satellite missions.
Springs, squeegees and soda straws function with a common property — they are rigid in one direction and flexible in another. Structures like these, with properties that vary across dimensions, have played critical roles in human technology from the longbow to the booster rocket.
In this episode, we talk about NASA plans to crash land payloads on Mars to advance our understanding of the red planet.
Like a car’s crumple zone, the experimental SHIELD lander is designed to absorb a hard impact.
4 minutes read
In this episode, we follow up on MIT + JPL’s experiment to make oxygen on Mars - MOXIE - that we first discussed in episode 5.
When you ask people to name a few cutting-edge technologies, they’ll probably mention artificial intelligence, quantum computing, autonomous vehicles, perhaps synthetic biology… but probably not welding.
3 minutes read
The docuseries that is exposing the incredible innovations which new space companies are developing.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has now successfully tested high temperature structures, advanced measurement techniques and design tools for the re-entry phase with the STORT (Schlüsseltechnologien für hochenergetische Rückkehrflüge von Trägerstufen) flight experiment.
3 minutes read
The agency’s mission to explore Jupiter’s icy moon takes a big step forward as engineers deliver a major component of the spacecraft.
4 minutes read
The European Space Agency (ESA) has given the green light to build the flight models of the spacecraft and science payload for the PLATO mission to search for extrasolar planets.
4 minutes read
