/ News
Virgin Galactic successfully tests re-entry, prepares for space tourism in 2014
Virgin Galactic is one of the firms pushing ahead with plans to bring space tourism down to affordable levels. The latest tests of VSS Enterprise, originally known as SpaceShipTwo, have successfully tested the craft’s deceleration mechanisms at higher speeds and altitude than had previously been evaluated. The Enterprise and her sister ship, Voyager, are larger, more powerful versions of the SpaceShipOne craft that won the Ansari X Prize in 2004.
Both Enterprise and Voyager are flown up to a height of about 50,000 feet (46,000 in this test). The advantage of launching from higher in the atmosphere isn’t gravity, but in air resistance and inherited delta-v. Launching from a standstill at ground level, into much thicker atmosphere, requires a great deal more propellant. In this test, the Enterprise fired her rockets in a 20 second burn — considerably less than the 70 seconds required for a full space flight, but longer and higher than she’s been before.
The purpose of this test was to check the performance of the aircraft’s feathering mechanism. The official chart below is a bit hard to make out — someone needs to talk to Virgin Galactic’s graphics designer about that — but the full version is a bit clearer if you click on it. The ship’s wings launch in one position for the rocket boost, but then rise to help the craft brake for orbital reentry. This was the first time we’d seen the mechanism in action at this speed, but by all accounts it worked flawlessly.
The stage is now set for the two spacecraft to begin flying starting in 2014. As of last month, some 640 people had signed up, at a price of $250,000 per person, to experience some six minutes of orbital weightlessness. Virgin Galactic’s current goal is to hit 1,000 customers for the experience, with the entire plane ride (including the launch) coming in at about 2.5 hours. The SpaceShipTwo craft are both short-range vessels, and return to land near their starting locations.
It’s hardly trips to the Moon, but with a maximum altitude of 110km, such trips will deliver on the promise of reaching space. Here’s hoping the price continues coming down. Virgin Galactic is expected to be the first company to offer commercial space flights but is, of course, just one of multiple companies working to bring down the cost of moving cargo and people into space.
SpaceX plans continue to move ahead as well, though Congress remains sold more on space exploration in theory than in fact. While the Space Launch System and Orion continue moving through the pipeline, there is yet no mandate or funding to send the craft anywhere — and no promise that the ISS will remain in orbit past 2020.
Source: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/165943-virgin-galactic-successfully-tests-re-entry-prepares-for-space-tourism-in-2014
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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