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This post is brought to you by Eleven Magazine. In 1969, the Space Race peaked with the success of the Apollo 11 mission bringing the first man to walk on the Moon. Today, nearly half a century later, new technological advances and a renewed interest in space are igniting a new race. This time... View full entry
This post is brought to you by Eleven Magazine. In 1969, the Space Race peaked with the successful Apollo 11 mission, which allowed the first man to walk on the moon.Between 1969 and 1972, there have been six successful manned missions to the moon, all from the USA. In total, 12 people (all male)... View full entry
Last week we witnessed the loss of Dame Zaha Hadid, one of architecture's most formidable and prolific talents. We'll be devoting a later podcast episode to remembering her and honoring her work. Until then, we'll continue catching you up with the most significant architecture news from the past... View full entry
NASA is hoping a new expandable habitat might one day give astronauts a little more alone time. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, will be ferried to the ISS later this spring for a series of tests expected to last several years...experiments will help determine the viability of expandable habitats, which weigh less and occupy less space on a rocket, as laboratories and living quarters for future deep-space missions. — Slate
More on Archinect: How to turn Martian soil into concrete The Mars Ice House envisions the day Earthlings can live with ease atop the Martian surface Newly patented space elevator could take astronauts 12 miles up into the stratosphere View full entry
Sixty years after the Wright Brothers put man in the air, scientists and engineers were grappling with the next major challenge: putting a man in space - and keeping him alive there. As an engineering challenge, it was the most extreme imaginable. Their solution was a rocket and the most complicated piece of personal protection equipment man has ever known: the space suit. — AlJazeera
Al Jazeera's Caroline Radnofsky set out to explore the legacy of her grandfather, the man behind the iconic Apollo 11 space suits.I felt like I knew Grandpa best not through the glowing endorsements, but through the anecdotes that were sometimes least flattering: how he'd get so excited about... View full entry
Living off the land is different when the land is 140 million miles away, so NASA is looking for innovative ideas to use in situ (in place) Martian resources to help establish a human presence on the Red Planet. — NASA
After NASA announced strong evidence of the presence of liquid water on Mars, efforts to bring Earthlings to the red planet seems to be picking up steam. Elon Musk is talking about nuking its poles and design competitions, like the 3-D Printed Habitat Challenge, are increasingly looking at... View full entry
So continues the space-age fantasy of humankind someday living successfully on the Red Planet, or undertaking expeditions to the far ends of the universe. In this spirit, NASA and America Makes' launched their 3D Printed Habitat Challenge late last year, wherein multi-disciplinary teams proposed... View full entry
Architect-founded technology firm Arx Pax, who brought you the Hendo Hoverboard, and NASA, who recently brought you photos of Pluto, announced today that they've teamed up in a Space Act Agreement to create micro-satellite capture devices that create magnetic tethers between satellites.The... View full entry
NASA has released new images that show an acceleration in global sea level rise, from about 1 millimeter per year at the beginning of the last century to 3 millimeters per year today.“NASA’s been looking down at the oceans from space for about the last 23 years,” explains Josh Willis, a NASA... View full entry
Despite recent successes in water conservancy and summer rainfall in the state, the California drought is still “probably worse than most people recognize,” according to Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and juror on Archinect’s Dry Futures... View full entry
"I propose a Moon village on the far side of the Moon.” –Professor Johann-Dietrich Woerner, Director General of the European Space Agency — BBC.com
The Director General of the European Space Agency Johann-Dietrich Woerner has proposed creating an international village on the moon, partly as an apolitical way to bring more countries into the space program, and partly as a way to realistically pursue new frontiers in cosmic... View full entry
Verizon, the US’s largest wireless telecom company, is developing technology with Nasa to direct and monitor America’s growing fleet of civilian and commercial drones from its network of phone towers.
According to documents obtained by the Guardian, Verizon signed an agreement last year with Nasa “to jointly explore whether cell towers … could support communications and surveillance of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) at low altitudes”.
— The Guardian
Currently, the Federal Aviation Authority doesn't have recourse to adequate resources or personnel to monitor rapidly-increasing drone traffic. Nasa's new unmanned aircraft traffic management system hopes to be able to enable "safe low-altitude drone flights" soon. By partnering with Verizon, they... View full entry
Remember the memorable double sunset on the desert planet Tatooine in the original Star Wars? As it turns out, such a vista isn't unimaginable – if you can get to Kepler-16b, an exoplanet about 196 light years away. Of course, if you did get there, you might be disappointed to find that the... View full entry
Instead of specially engineering spacecraft components to fit into a rocket, NASA could densely pack materials like fiber and polymer into existing spacecraft and create the components while orbiting the planet. This cuts down on cost and opens up the possibility for larger spacecraft. — gigaom.com
A new partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration brings an out-of-this-world opportunity for Cal Poly Pomona architecture students. Over the past months, students have been constructing a massive 30 foot structure in the parking lot of the Interim Design Center. [...]
The scenario given by NASA was to build a vertical habitat facility for four astronauts that can go into deep space for 60 days.
— thepolypost.com
