The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 37
Fleet Space is developing seismic sensors to map resources and hazards on the Moon and Mars. With backing from the Australian government, Fleet Space Technologies is adapting the satellite-enhanced and AI-enabled platform it has developed for discovering critical minerals on Earth to exploring the Moon, Mars, and beyond. "Leveraging Fleet Space's terrestrial end-to-end mineral exploration platform, ExoSphere, as a blueprint – we have created a model for a hyper-scalable, o...
Company to develop autonomous spacecraft for resource extraction. With $20 million in new funding propelling its vision forward, the pursuit of asteroid mining takes a significant step toward reality as Karman+ prepares to launch its first mission to a near-Earth asteroid, advancing its goal of developing autonomous spacecraft capable of extracting resources that could one day sustain long-term operations beyond Earth. Founded by serial entrepreneur Teun van den Dries and...
Jet Propulsion Lab rovers will conduct autonomous experiments to test viability of mostly independent robotic work in space. After years of research and development, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that its CADRE mini-rovers will soon arrive on the Moon aboard a lunar lander to test the viability of cooperative robotics in future exploration of celestial bodies. Developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, the Cooperat...
Small but mighty Odin spacecraft aims for a metallic-class asteroid flyby. Asteroid mining, for most investors, remains on the same pie-in-the-sky menu as tech billionaire space tourism-dismissed as an expensive dream with insurmountable challenges. However, California-based mining startup AstroForge is on its way to turning fantasy into reality, and fast. Its ambition: mine asteroids for minerals like platinum group metals in space at a lower cost than current terrestrial...
In the spirit of exploration, space mining startups push forward through adversity. President John F. Kennedy's address of the United States' race to the Moon back in 1962 has stood the test of time over decades and remains salient today. Adversity and mishaps are nothing new to the United States in its push to conquer space, from uncovering the secrets and resources of our nearest celestial neighbor to proliferating the void itself, between sky and stars. Mining startups,... Full story
Automated on-site resource utilization will likely be first wave of lucrative off-world industry. NASA's multibillion-dollar Artemis program isn't just about America returning to the Moon or even extended visits – it's also paving the way for lunar resource mining operations, with a lunar economy expected to include mining metals like aluminum, iron, manganese, rare earths, and titanium. But surprisingly, its first product will most likely be mundane by Earth standards – water...
Interlune will use TechFlights to advance its proprietary technology for recovering helium-3 and other resources from the Moon. Interlune, a Seattle-based space mining tech startup led by a team of seasoned space exploration executives, has been awarded a $348,000 grant from NASA to advance a proprietary technology designed to recover helium-3 and other minerals from the Moon. "This award is one more step toward our goal of rebuilding the entire U.S. industrial base for lunar... Full story
Space miners develop Earth-friendly tech products as the first step to a future extraterrestrial economy. Plenty of space mining companies have boomed and gone bust in the last decade. In spite of this, "the field has exploded in interest," said Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines. The costs of space travel and exploration have been reduced dramatically due to the privatization of transport. With deep-sea mining still...
Showcasing the incredible learning environment of the developing protoplex at Missouri University of Science and Technology, a multidisciplinary team of students from the school was selected as one of seven finalists in NASA's 2023 BIG Idea Challenge, and their efforts have opened the doors for many seeking to contribute toward future habitation among the stars. In the fall of 2022, NASA announced its eighth annual Breakthrough, Innovation, and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea...
Under the lead of a doctoral aerospace engineering student at Missouri University of Science and Technology, a team of 12 undergraduates have come together to continue research on a project that is out of this world. In the fall of 2022, NASA announced its eighth annual Breakthrough, Innovation, and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge. You can read about the initial announcement of NASA's challenge at Latest NASA challenge tackles Moon forging in the August 17, 2022 edition of... Full story
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... Full story
London-based Asteroid Mining Corp. has developed the Space Capable Asteroid Robotic Explorer (SCAR-E) as a ruggedly built, adaptable, and low-cost walking and climbing robot available initially for commercial use across a range of destinations on Earth ahead of its primary task of exploring the solar system. The company developed the SCAR-E six-legged robot to outperform Spot, Boston Dynamic's robot dog. "We are coming for you Boston Dynamics," proclaimed Asteroid Mining CEO... Full story
At T-minus 25 days until the launch of the Psyche, the technicians behind this first mission to a metal-rich asteroid beyond the orbit of Mars can barely contain their excitement. "It's getting increasingly real," said Henry Stone, Psyche's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "We are counting the days. The team is more than ready to send this spacecraft off on its journey, and it's very exciting." No stranger to playing the long game,... Full story
NASA has selected the geology team for the Artemis III moon flight, the first crewed lunar landing mission since the Apollo missions over 50 years ago. The astrogeology team will help plan geological investigations for the Artemis crew, which includes the first woman, first man of color, and first Canadian on a moon mission. Led by Brett Denevi of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Maryland, the Artemis III geology team is working with NASA to determine the...
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... Full story
Epiroc, a leading Swedish equipment and tech innovator for the mining and infrastructure industries, has partnered up with Japanese automation and AI startup iSpace and its Luxembourg-based subsidiary iSpace EU in a long-term collaboration agreement for developing commercial Moon missions. International space agencies' attentions have been focused on the principal chemical elements of the lunar surface that would provide for self-sustaining lunar habitation and the mining of...
Foreseeing the importance of a presence in space, the Minister for Industry and Science, Australian parliament member Ed Husic, along with dignitaries from the Australian Space Agency and NASA, announced the EPE and Lunar Outpost Oceania consortium as one of two successful groups to receive stage-one funding under Australia's Moon to Mars Trailblazer Initiative. The Trailblazer program was launched in late 2021 as part of the Moon to Mars Initiative, which seeks to progress... Full story
Psyche mission to $10 quintillion metal asteroid is slated for 2023. NASA and the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are psyched about a recent decision to put their planned mission to a metal-rich asteroid beyond Mars back on the docket. The space agency had originally planned to send a probe to 16 Psyche, a roughly 140-mile-wide asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, earlier this year. This mission, named after the destination asteroid, however, had to be scrubbed... Full story
Colorado School of Mines, Lunar Outpost work on NASA project The Center for Space Resources at Colorado School of Mines and Lunar Outpost has been selected to carry out the Autonomous Site Preparation: Excavation, Compaction and Testing (ASPECT) project; part of NASA's larger Lunar Surface Technology Research (LuSTR) program that is preparing for the eventuality that Man will be living, working, and traveling frequently to and from the Moon. As one of only three...
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...
Missouri University of Science and Technology has been selected as part of a NASA project to develop lunar infrastructure technologies, with researchers from the school developing mineral extraction techniques that may one day make it possible for people to live and work on the Moon. Announced in February, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration selected three U.S. universities as part of its LuSTR Space Technology Research Grants program. In the hopes to supplement...
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,'...
As NASA prepares for Artemis, which will establish an outpost on the Moon in preparation to send humans to Mars, at least some of the next generation of astronauts will need to have a discerning eye for lunar geology. The European Space Agency's Pangaea training campaign is equipping some of the top candidates for future lunar missions with a basic course in Moon geology. Pangaea, designed to provide astronauts with the fundamental knowledge and practical skills to be...
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Aug. 18 announced the winners of its Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, which is incentivizing new approaches for excavating resources on the Moon and beyond. As NASA prepares to go to the Moon with the Artemis program, in-situ resource utilization is of paramount importance, as current methods of rocketing Earth resources into space are too costly. As one of the barest of commodities for human survival, water is the goal for 13...
