Important Innovations

  D A ILY INNOVATION BRIEF               By Journalists Edward Kane & Maryanne Kane RACE TO BUILD NEW COMMERCIAL SPACE STATION                                                                 Source:  Voyager Space & Airbus France-based aerospace and aviation giant Airbus has officially partnered in a JV with Denver-based Voyager Space to develop, build and operate a commercial international space station to replace the soon-to-retire ISS (International Space Station) Here are some pertinent facts: Voyager's space station under development is called Spacelab Spacelab has received significant funding from NASA and has cleared most spaceflight and operational requirements Airbus just became the co-owner of Spacelab The goal is to become ISS' permanent...

   D AILY INNOVATION BRIEF                                                                                                          By Journalists Edward Kane & Maryanne Kane ELON MUSK TEASES 2 NEW TESLA EVs                                                  Source:  Tesla At his annual Tesla Shareholders Meeting, CEO Elon Musk teased two more upcoming Tesla EVs Musk said the design of the vehicles and the manufacturing technologies to produce them are way beyond anything currently on the global EV market During his speech, a te...

New Robotic Spacecraft Source:  NASA  Big Scientific Missions NASA has just patented a cheaper and faster new trajectory for sending smaller, robotic spacecraft to the Moon.  And, NASA has a new spacecraft that it's developing called the "Dark Ages Polarimeter Pathfinder" or Dapper that's the size of a microwave.  Using the new patented route, Dapper will make the journey to the Moon, go into orbit and repeatedly fly through the "cone of silence", a lunar spot that is totally radio-silent on the far side of the moon.  Dapper is designed to detect the faintest signals from the first stars, galaxies and black holes.  Experts say discoveries from the new NASA technology, particularly in the "Cone of Silence" could be Nobel Prize winning. Patented Moon Trajectory NASA has specifically patented the trajectory and route to the Moon that it invented.  Going to the Moon has been tremendously expensive.  NASA's new route will save time, money, fuel and ...

2 NASA Astronauts Safely Return to Earth Source:  NASA - Crew Dragon onboard SpaceX Rescue Ship SpaceX Founder Elon Musk's Magnificent Accomplishment For the 2 brave astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, who took the ride of their lives on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and hurtled into space onboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the ISS in May, it is now mission accomplished. They made it safely back to Earth today, having accomplished the first private space mission with US astronauts launched from the US into space for NASA.  They've made history. Perhaps NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine put it best calling the mission "the next era in human spaceflight", as NASA will be purchasing space rides from SpaceX.  For SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, this is a huge accomplishment that he says he wasn't sure he could do when he founded SpaceX in 2002.  He kept on perfecting his rocket science technology and he did it with a great victory today. SpaceX Victories For E...

Launch of  Perseverance Rover on July 30, 2020 Source:  NASA Artist Rendering Nuclear Powered Robotic Rover NASA is going back to Mars on Thursday, July 30, 2020.  The Mars 2020 Perseverance Mission includes the rover Perseverance, a $2.7 billion piece of highly advanced robotic technology.  The rover, along with a small helicopter and instruments that it's carrying, will launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, FL. 7 Months Long Journey to Mars The trip to the Red Planet will take 7 months.  And then the rover will make a dramatic sky-crane landing onto Mars' Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. For two years, the nuclear powered Perseverance will explore Jezero.  The crater is 28 miles wide and in the ancient past it contained a lake and river delta.  The rover will search for signs of ancient life, scoop up surface samples and study the crater's geology.  In a joint NASA-European Space Agency (ESA) project,...

Caltech's Orbiting Flying Carpets Scientists from California Institute of Technology and NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab are wishing on Aladdin's Lamp for a magic carpet ride.  Their solar energy research project involves launching 2500 "magic carpets" tightly side by side into space orbit to absorb the sun's energy.  The carpet system would beam the energy back to earth ground-stations to generate electricity. Orbiting Carpets to Light the World The carpets will fly over an area the size of 1,670 football fields or 3.5 square miles. The carpets are only one inch thick.  They're designed to precisely beam energy back to earth to targeted locations.  Primary targets would be global areas in need of energy, particularly in the third world.  It would be the largest space structure ever built.  And the targeted beam precision is provided by technology called "phased array" and is currently used in radar systems.  The principle is controlling th...

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction.  But it's a fact.  NASA is developing autonomous tiny drones, the size of bees.  NASA's Marsbees  will explore the planet Mars for any signs of Martian  life. The drones are cutting edge robotic innovation.  NASA views them as potentially leading the way for the eventual colonization of Mars. Swarming Marsbees Marsbees is an extraordinary, artificial intelligence (AI), drone development NASA project.  The tiny drones are shaped and sized like bees with one exception.  Their wingspan is much larger.  The wings are the size of cicada's.wings  They're designed to fly through Mars' thin atmosphere with speed, distance, agility and duration.  They handily outpace NASA's cumbersome rovers.  Rover Curiosity landed in 2012 and has only travelled 12 miles. Wireless Transmissions The drones are steered by artificial intelligence.  Like satellites, they transmit data to scien...