Carnival of Space 245

Carnival of Space 245 is up at Vintage Space

Discovery Space news – Search for Sun’s Sibling Could Find Life’s Cousin Discusses recent work in regards to Panspermia.

“The idea is if a planet has life, like Earth, and if you hit it with an asteroid, it will create debris, some of which will escape into space,” astronomer Mauri Valtonen, of the University of Turku, told SPACE.com. “And if the debris is big enough, like 1 meter across, it can shield life inside from radiation, and that life can survive inside for millions of years until that debris lands somewhere. If it happens to land on a planet with suitable conditions, life can start there.”

Valtonen is describing “panspermia” in its most basic form — life, as bacteria or even just some strands of DNA, hopping from planet to planet after meteorite impacts.

Space.com – Sun’s Sibling Stars Could Host Cousins of Earth Life

Arxiv – Transfer of Life-Bearing Meteorites from Earth to Other Planets

The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago (10 km in diameter, mass greater than 1 trillion tons) must have ejected billions of tons of life-bearing meteorites into space. Now Kyoto Sangyo University physicists have calculated this could have seeded life in the solar system and even as far as Gliese 581

Nextbigfuture – Space-based Solar Power: Possible Defense Applications and Opportunities for Navy Research Lab Contributions study looks at the details for powering a forward operating base and other applications

Nextbigfuture – Artemis Innovation Management Solutions was selected for a NASA NIAC award to dive into the details of what Mankins labels “the first practical solar-power satellite concept.” A preliminary draft of an estimated schedule would target getting a 1.2 gigawatt system up by 2024.

Nextbigfuture – Proposal for a Concept Assessment of a Fission Fragment Rocket Engine (FFRE) Propelled Spacecraft (15 page presentation from the NASA NIAC Spring Symposium. 10s To 100’s Lbs Of Continuous Thrust (Years) with Specific Impulse Above 500,000sec. They examine an afterburner design that would generate 490 newtons of thrust and 59000 ISP.

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