Reaction Engines Ltd To demonstrate the application of SABRE engines to space access, REL has designed SKYLON, the first vehicle designed to be powered by SABRE engines. SKYLON is an unpiloted, reusable spaceplane intended to provide reliable, responsive and cost effective access to space. Currently in early development phase, the vehicle will be capable of transporting 15 tonnes of cargo into space. It is the use of SABRE's combined air-breathing and rocket cycles that enables a vehicle that can take off from a runway, fly direct to earth orbit and return for a runway landing, just like an aircraft. SKYLON will provide aircraft-like access to space to enable: Operation from runway to orbit and back Order of magnitude reduction in cost vs. existing technology 400 x improved reliability Responsive access to space The European Space Agency assessment concluded that: "...the SKYLON vehicle can be realised given today's current technology and successful engine development." European Space Agency Report, 2011
NASA's Warp Drive Project: "Speeds" That Could Take a Spacecraft to Alpha Centauri in Two Weeks Even Though the System is 4.3 Light-Years Away | Space (Before It's News) NASA’s Warp Drive Project: “Speeds” that Could Take a Spacecraft to Alpha Centauri in Two Weeks — Even Though the System is 4.3 Light-Years Away. A few months ago, physicist Harold White stunned the aeronautics world when he announced that he and his team at NASA had begun work on the development of a faster-than-light warp drive. His proposed design, an ingenious re-imagining of an Alcubierre Drive, may eventually result in an engine that can transport a spacecraft to the nearest star in a matter of weeks — and all without violating Einstein’s law of relativity. The above image of a Vulcan command ship features a warp engine similar to an Alcubierre Drive. Image courtesy CBS. The Alcubierre Drive The idea came to White while he was considering a rather remarkable equation formulated by physicist Miguel Alcubierre. Alcubierre suggested a mechanism by which space-time could be “warped” both in front of and behind a spacecraft. A new design io9.com Top image: CBS Studios Inc.
Wind Map An invisible, ancient source of energy surrounds us—energy that powered the first explorations of the world, and that may be a key to the future. This map shows you the delicate tracery of wind flowing over the US. The wind map is a personal art project, not associated with any company. We've done our best to make this as accurate as possible, but can't make any guarantees about the correctness of the data or our software. Please do not use the map or its data to fly a plane, sail a boat, or fight wildfires :-) If the map is missing or seems slow, we recommend the latest Chrome browser. Surface wind data comes from the National Digital Forecast Database. If you're looking for a weather map, or just want more detail on the weather today, see these more traditional maps of temperature and wind.
Warp Drive May Be More Feasible Than Thought, Scientists Say HOUSTON — A warp drive to achieve faster-than-light travel — a concept popularized in television's Star Trek — may not be as unrealistic as once thought, scientists say. A warp drive would manipulate space-time itself to move a starship, taking advantage of a loophole in the laws of physics that prevent anything from moving faster than light. A concept for a real-life warp drive was suggested in 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre, however subsequent calculations found that such a device would require prohibitive amounts of energy. Now physicists say that adjustments can be made to the proposed warp drive that would enable it to run on significantly less energy, potentially brining the idea back from the realm of science fiction into science. "There is hope," Harold "Sonny" White of NASA's Johnson Space Center said here Friday (Sept. 14) at the 100 Year Starship Symposium, a meeting to discuss the challenges of interstellar spaceflight. Warping space-time Laboratory tests
gov News Transcript: DoD News Briefing: Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen Cohen's keynote address at the Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and U.S. Strategy at the Georgia Center, Mahler Auditorium, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. The event is part of the Sam Nunn Policy Forum being hosted by the University of Georgia. Secretary Cohen is joined by Sen. Sam Nunn and Sen. Richard G. Secretary Cohen: Senator Nunn, thank you very much. I'll comment on that later during the course of the morning, but I've had occasion to meet with a number of Russian counterparts, and as we go through various translations of the communications that we're having, the two words they are able to articulate very clearly, they say 'Nunn/Lugar, Nunn/Lugar. It was Nunn/Lugar I that dealt with the reduction of nuclear weapons between the United States and the Soviet Union in terms of trying to come to grips with how we helped the Russians dismantle hundreds of their nuclear weapons, and also helped them with their destruction of chemical weapons.
8 math talks to blow your mind Mathematics gets down to work in these talks, breathing life and logic into everyday problems. Prepare for math puzzlers both solved and unsolvable, and even some still waiting for solutions. Ron Eglash: The fractals at the heart of African designs When Ron Eglash first saw an aerial photo of an African village, he couldn’t rest until he knew — were the fractals in the layout of the village a coincidence, or were the forces of mathematics and culture colliding in unexpected ways? How big is infinity? Arthur Benjamin does “Mathemagic” A whole team of calculators is no match for Arthur Benjamin, as he does astounding mental math in the blink of an eye. Scott Rickard: The beautiful math behind the ugliest music What makes a piece of music beautiful? Margaret Wertheim: The beautiful math of coralThe intricate forms of a coral reef can only be expressed through hyperbolic geometry — and the only way humans can model it is by crocheting!
UK pledges fresh support for revolutionary space engine Sen— A revolutionary engine that can turn an aircraft into an orbiting spaceplane has won fresh backing from the British Government. The UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, singled out the SABRE project that will power Skylon into space in his 2013 spending review delivered to Parliament. The hybrid engine - its name stands for Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine - is currently being developed by Reaction Engines, based at Abingdon, near Oxford. Last year, the engineers developing it, led by Alan Bond, mastered a key factor in its design that was described as the biggest breakthrough in flight technology since the invention of the jet engine. Praising UK inventiveness and historic successes, Mr Osborne said: “Britain was once the place where the future was invented. The Chancellor’s report pledged to commit to funding high-priority projects, including SABRE, though further details of the investments were not given. It works like this.
'Frozen waves' of blue ice photographed by Tony Travouillon Dramatic images appear to show a frozen wave but the phenomenon is actually caused by compressed iceThe ice appears blue because it absorbs light from the 'red end' of the spectrum and throws out the blue light By Rik Sharma Published: 13:18 GMT, 26 November 2012 | Updated: 19:07 GMT, 26 November 2012 At first glance these beautiful images from the Antarctic appear to show 50-ft tall waves that have been instantly frozen as they break. Some people have posted the pictures online, taken by scientist Tony Travouillon at Dumont D'Urville, with a description claiming they are a tsunami wave which was frozen. But although email chains and internet forums back this claim up, what is really pictured is the natural phenomenon of blue ice. Imposing: Although this is not, as widely rumoured, a wave frozen while breaking, it is still an incredible phenomenon Frozen towers: This blue ice is created because ice bubbles are compressed and light at the red end of the spectrum is absorbed
Math and Physics: The Math and Physics Help Home Page Copyright© 1996-2013 by Gary and Kenny Felder This is a collection of papers that we have written to explain various concepts in math and physics. But first, the obligatory list of links... Math What you will find below are essays explaining various topics, more or less arranged from the most basic to the most advanced. In addition to these essays, Kenny has also written a complete textbook for Advanced Algebra II. Gary and Kenny are also working on a college-level textbook called Math Methods for Engineering and Physics. Math and the Obvious (Kenny) For consistency, I probably should have called this "Think Like a Mathematician." Negative Times Negative is What? Mike, a ninth grader in Westbrook, Maine, emailed me the question: "Why is it when you multiply two negative numbers you get a positive number?" Base Eight And other math for people who are missing fingers (Kenny) Before you read this, you should know how to count. Triangles, Circles, and Waves (oh my!) Physics/Science
Orbital Begins Antares Rocket Operations - Commercial Space Watch Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), one of the world's leading space technology companies, today announced that has it has commenced Antares launch vehicle operations at the liquid-fuel launch complex at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS). Following a four-year design, development, construction, test and inspection process, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA), which oversees MARS, has authorized Orbital to begin on-pad operations leading up to flight demonstrations of its Antares medium-class launch vehicle and Cygnus cargo logistics spacecraft, the vehicles Orbital will use to fulfill a $1.9 billion NASA contract to deliver essential cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). The MARS launch complex is located at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia and is owned and operated by MARS, under the auspices of the VCSFA, which receives its funding from the Commonwealth of Virginia. About Orbital