The Space Thread!

Being a not-micro-biologist, I can't say I understand the majority of that article. Being a scientist, though, I understand a strong conclusion when I read one.

We conclude therefore that the identification of fossilised diatoms in the Polonnaruwa meteorite is firmly established and unimpeachable. Since this meteorite is considered to be an extinct cometary fragment, the idea of microbial life carried within comets and the theory of cometary panspermia is thus vindicated

That is quite big. I just wish I could understand how they got to that conclusion.
 
I can't find any mainstream media coverage for it. :dunno:
 
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Well, shoot. Good to see proper science being applied and pseudo-science debunked, but I wanted it to be true, at least partially. :(
 
Well, shoot. Good to see proper science being applied and pseudo-science debunked, but I wanted it to be true, at least partially. :(

:comfort: Didn't we all. It was just too perfect to be true.
 
Damn, fooled me.
 
Oooh, we have a space thread? Fucking sweet. I love space. Such an amazing place...I would give anything for even a suborbital flight.


On that note, does anyone in here play Kerbal Space Program?
 
So yeah, 3D printed space stations.


http://www.newscientist.com/article...-crush-asteroids-and-3d-print-satellites.html
Deep Space Industries hopes to eventually help build, fuel and operate satellites in orbit, without ever bringing the components back to Earth.

As a first step, DSI plans to launch three laptop-sized satellites called FireFlies in 2015 to observe near-Earth asteroids and identify which ones would be the best targets for mining. In 2016, it plans to launch DragonFly spacecraft to bring samples weighing between 23 and 45 kilograms back to Earth.

Then in 2020, the company hopes to start harvesting asteroids for useful goods, particularly the raw products of fuel. DSI expects its first clients to be the owners of the communications satellites that require propellant to stay in their designated orbits.

DSI is also developing a space-based 3D printer called the MicroGravity Foundry, which would grind up asteroids, separate out the useful bits and fuse them into manufactured goods. The firm also wants to build orbiting platforms that can beam high-speed internet and cheap solar energy to anywhere on Earth.
 
3D Printer is apparently now code word for "Magic".

I'll have to see a spaceship on earth (or anything larger than a desktop item) printed before I can conceive of their plan happening. Oh, they have to find the billions of dollars in funding too.
 
The gas generator from the F-1 Engines that powered the first stage of the Saturn V makes 31,000 lbs of thrust to power a turbine that makes 55,000 bhp to run the fuel pumps for the full F-1 engine.

NASA is building new components of the F-1 to study their design using modern instruments. Eventually they will build an entire powerpack of a F-1 engine for full scale. Basically they will build a new F-1 engine front end but not the final components that generate the 1.5 million lbs of thrust.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013...t-engine-firing-again-after-40-years-sort-of/
 
But, then again, the fuel pump IS the engine..
 
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