The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Building the infrastructure that can sustain life is the first step to living outside of Earth's atmosphere. Seeing as it is currently impractical to launch hundreds of rockets laden with all the equipment and supplies needed for a space colony, the European Space Agency is testing extraterrestrial additive manufacturing with the first metal 3D printer delivered to the International Space Station. Although several 3D printers already exist on board the ISS, the first of which...
Arguments against the expense and impracticality of space exploration have been ongoing since before the Apollo missions ever got off the ground. In fact, NASA's budget has hovered between a minute 1% and 0.4% of the total federal budget since the 1970s. Missions fail, lose funding, or fall out of favor between presidencies. But there is one assurance that private investors can take to the bank-innovation in the face of space exploration always pays. "You have to innovate, an...
Specializing in customization and tailor-made 3D printers, AMCM GmbH utilizes its expertise in additive manufacturing to bring cutting-edge technologies to industries that seek to push their own boundaries in innovation – this time with its latest M 8K model 3D printer. Headquartered out of Bavaria, Germany, AMCM (Additive Manufacturing Customized Machines) was started based on two main objectives: to provide solutions for clients whose needs were not being met by s...
As the cracks in the wall continue to chill the bones of an ill-prepared American clean-energy economy, attention has been paid to nearly every facet imaginable to obtain the minerals critical to fuel a zero-carbon future; however, all has seemingly been quiet on the unconventional front. Repeated time and time again during the ongoing transition, U.S. policymakers are becoming increasingly concerned about the overreliance on China for the minerals and metals essential to...
Martian geologist takes a page from Earth prospectors; collects sample of a conglomerate of rocks that washed down a Mars river. When a geologist must ship rock samples 217 million miles for analysis, only the best specimens will do. This is why Perseverance, and the team of earthbound scientists supporting the Mars rover, were thrilled with the latest sample collected by the six-wheeled robo-geologist. On Sol 832 – the 832nd Martian day of the Perseverance mission, or June 23...
Like flying cars and jet packs, space travel, colonization and resource mining are all lagging behind the imaginations of Hollywood, scientists, and billionaire CEOs. This is partly because NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (and any other nation's government-supported agencies) have a problem – the project ambitions of the U.S. Congress-funded space agency is hedged by the variable length of a presidential term and the resulting appointments. Therefore, it is up to the p...
Following a competition launched by the European Space Agency, it has selected Thales Alenia Space to design and build the first experimental payload to mine oxygen from the surface of the Moon. Tasked with producing a small piece of equipment that will evaluate the prospect of building larger lunar plants to extract propellant for spacecraft and breathable air for astronauts – as well as metallic raw materials for equipment – the Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer, was...
A research team at the University of Arizona recently received $500,000 in NASA funding for a project to advance space mining methods through the use of autonomous robots, swarms of them. "It's really exciting to be at the forefront of a new field," said interim head of the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering, as well as the David & Edith Lowell Chair in Mining and Geological Engineering Moe Momayez. "I remember watching TV shows as a kid, like 'Space: 1999,'...
University researchers working in tandem with the European Space Agency, have tested the use of a new, smokeless, carbon-free energy by burning iron powder. And what better way to assess the potential of this new type of fuel than by brewing beer with all the flavor and less carbon emissions than traditional brews? First tested in microgravity aboard European Space Agency sounding rockets, a team at McGill University in Canada and Eindhoven University of Technology in the...
NASA wants to buy Moon rocks from a private space miner able to fly up and grab an up to 1.1-pound lunar sample and deliver it to the space agency by 2024. The space administration is not particular about where the moon rocks are collected, or the content of the samples, as long as the mission is well documented, and the dirt is delivered to NASA on the Moon for payment. This lunar sampling is meant to set the stage for NASA's Artemis program, which aims to "land the first...
On Feb. 22, 2022, Teck Resources Ltd.'s Red Dog Mine in Northwest Alaska became the largest critical minerals operation in the United States, both in terms of quantity and value of the materials produced at this world-class base, precious, and critical minerals operation. Being catapulted to America's top dog when it comes to critical minerals production is not due to the germanium produced, though this semiconductor metal vital to ultrafast computing and communications is...