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Archive for the ‘habitats’ category: Page 113

Mar 21, 2017

The cislunar gateway with no gate, revisited

Posted by in categories: habitats, space travel

More than four years ago, I covered the issue of cislunar planning here (see “The cislunar gateway with no gate”, The Space Review, October 1, 2012). Now the same “gateless” base concept has returned, but this time, it is not the only concept on the table. Currently there seem to be a plethora of achievable cislunar and lunar concepts, but few people seem to understand what makes any of them practical and affordable. Multiple reusable launchers, in-space vehicles, and components are being developed or have recently been announced, including the New Glenn, the Blue Moon lunar lander, SpaceX’s gigantic Interplanetary Transport System with its still unnamed booster. In addition, there are various lunar orbit combination habitats and depots proposed by Bigelow and the previously announced vehicles and concepts such as the Falcon Heavy, the XEUS lander, and the Cryote depot concept.

Operational plans that only include cislunar bases are being proposed, as well as plans which call for only lunar surface bases to be supplied directly from the Earth, in addition to the more modern, cislunar resource-supported lunar base scenarios. These plans and designs are all like pieces of a very important jigsaw puzzle, but one that, due to the current circumstances, forces us to start with the individual pieces, instead of a whole original image. Our mission, if we can manage it (politically, fiscally and technically), is to try to create a functional whole—a cislunar transportation system —out of some or most of these pieces.

As the obvious and practical location for a gateway to the Moon, Mars, and the asteroids, a cislunar logistics base is the first component we need in place. I am not as concerned about which orbit any cislunar station is placed in compared to the base components, but it is still clear that the Earth Moon L1 point has an advantage since it is always in the same general area, and can be reached from any location on the moon in about 12 hours at any time without waiting for an orbital position to match. A station placed in the “near-rectilinear (lunar) halo orbit” (NRHO) proposed recently would actually be in a high, elliptical, lunar polar orbit (HELPO) that takes more propellant and time to reach from or to than most other options. The best orbits to support lunar operations have a short and relatively unchanging transit time from or to the lunar surface, a lower delta-V per trip, and which can be reached from most places on the surface at almost any time.

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Mar 20, 2017

The World’s First Personal Robot

Posted by in categories: habitats, media & arts, robotics/AI

https://youtube.com/watch?v=YwPUcG3eiFc

TechCrunch: “You’ll soon be coming home and a robot will greet you at the door.”

VentureBeat: “Read to kids, host video chats, take pictures, recognize faces and objects, connect to smart home devices, and secure the home by roaming around and video taping everything.”

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Mar 18, 2017

House of Wonders

Posted by in category: habitats

Studio aisslinger — berlin and singapore interior design, productdesign, industrial design.

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Mar 17, 2017

How Artificial Intelligence and the robotic revolution will change the workplace of tomorrow

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, economics, education, employment, finance, habitats, law, robotics/AI

The workplace is going to look drastically different ten years from now. The coming of the Second Machine Age is quickly bringing massive changes along with it. Manual jobs, such as lorry driving or house building are being replaced by robotic automation, and accountants, lawyers, doctors and financial advisers are being supplemented and replaced by high level artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

So what do we need to learn today about the jobs of tomorrow? Two things are clear. The robots and computers of the future will be based on a degree of complexity that will be impossible to teach to the general population in a few short years of compulsory education. And some of the most important skills people will need to work with robots will not be the things they learn in computing class.

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Mar 15, 2017

This robot bricklayer could build your future home

Posted by in categories: habitats, robotics/AI

Robotic bricklayer builds houses 3x faster than humans.

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Mar 14, 2017

Solar Experiment Lets Neighbors Trade Energy Among Themselves

Posted by in categories: business, energy, habitats

Dozens of homes and businesses in Brooklyn have been wired into a microgrid, which allows members to exchange excess-electricity credits.

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Mar 8, 2017

Martian habitats: molehills or glass houses?

Posted by in categories: habitats, space travel

Article by Richard Heidmann, Association Planète Mars vice president – English translation by Etienne Martinache.

After having analyzed the targets assigned by SpaceX to its project of an Earth-Mars transportation system which is supposed to set up and serve a Martian settlement (see “l’étude MCT” on the site www.planete-mars.com), we decided to address the issue of an essential aspect of the feasibility of the project, the design of the living areas (pressurized enclosures).

This aspect was subject to many proposals, even though most of previous documented studies applied to upstream phases of human presence, those of exploration from a temporary base or from a permanent base with few residents and limited self-sufficiency. The consequences of the specific constraints related to a mass production of these enclosures, essentially from local resources, have seldom been considered.

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Mar 5, 2017

Bigelow Aerospace offers plan for an expandable space station orbiting the moon by 2020

Posted by in categories: habitats, space travel

Bigelow Aerospace founder Robert Bigelow‘s company makes in-space habitats. One (the BEAM adds 16 cubic meters of living area to the ISS) is now attached to the International Space Station and he and his company are developing permanent, stand-alone habitats to serve as private space stations in orbit around the Earth, ready to house private astronauts.

Bigelow has talked with United Launch Alliance Chief Executive Tory Bruno about using the company’s Atlas V 552 rocket, which has an extra-wide payload fairing, to deliver the B330 into orbit.

United Launch Alliance is developing an advanced upper-stage vehicle, ACES, to provide in-space propulsion.

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Mar 4, 2017

Stellaris: Utopia “Path to Ascension” Release Date Reveal Trailer

Posted by in categories: biological, habitats, space

Would you like to know more? http://pdxint.at/2mvFVSx

Stellaris: Utopia brings even greater depth and variety to a game already celebrated for its story-telling power and near endless possibilities. Are you ready for perfection?

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Mar 2, 2017

Apis Cor 3D Prints a Fully Livable House

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, habitats

We have seen 3D printed buildings before but most of them were prototypes, built off-site or not used afterwords, but nothing compares to this house built by Apis Cor.

Apis Cor used a unique house 3D printing machine they developed and made an on-site house in 24 hours for the cost of some 10000 USD. It has surface of 38 square meters (409 square foot) and has been built in Stupino town, Moscow region, Russia.

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