Wonder if the streaks of light you saw in the night sky at around 9pm PST in the Pacific Northwest were UFOs? Unfortunately (or fortunately), it was just debris cause by the breakup of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage, left over from the Mar 4 Starlink launch that took place weeks ago. Just moments after the debris started burning up, countless video clips of the event found its way to social media platforms worldwide.
Architecture firm Abiboo reveals Nüwa, a sustainable city on Mars, which is a design concept that ranked as a finalist among 175 projects submitted from around the world for the 2020 Mars Socity competition. The Red Planet does not have the surface conditions of Earth, so to address that issue, the city boasts vertical structures built into the side of a cliff. There are a total of five cities, each accommodating between 200,000 and 250,000 inhabitants.
We have seen the future of tourism, and it includes going into space, thanks to the Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC). Called Voyager Station, it’s slated to be the first commercial space station hotel, complete with artificial gravity. The team is comprised of NASA veterans, pilots, engineers and architects, with their goal being to construct a low Earth orbit hotel that rotates fast enough to generate artificial gravity for anyone interested in off-Earth living.
You’ve probably seen the SpaceX Starship in some form or another and wondered what the interior looked like? Well, since it’s intended to function both as a second stage to reach orbital velocity on launches from Earth, the upper stage could be used in outer space as an on-orbit long-duration spacecraft. Think of it as a high-tech space station designed for beyond Earth orbit (BEO) launches to Mars.
Photo credit: Astrobotic via The Verge
NASA is seeking to purchase lunar soil samples from private companies. These companies are not limited to just those in the United States, but from around the world, and the lunar samples requested range from 1.8 ounces to 18 ounces by 2024. The space agency will pay between $15,000 to $25,000 for them, but with one catch, you’ll get the 80% remainder of the money once the soil is delivered. Companies only get 10% after signing the contract and another 10% once the spacecraft launches.