![]() ![]() President Obama has already allocated $15 million of NASA’s annual allowance for Europa exploration, and this historic mission could begin as soon as 2022. However, such a project might be closer to fruition than you might think. Probing these depths is an unprecedented task even on Earth, so imagine the mathematical gymnastics necessary to achieve this half a billion miles from home. ![]() Yet it’s stubbornly protected by a 30-kilometer-thick (20 mi) shell of ice. The ball will get around more easily than anything with wheels, rolling over sand, rocks, and other unfriendly terrain.Īs a premier destination in the search for aliens, the saltwater ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa has astronomers salivating uncontrollably. The tensegrity cocoon will cushion vehicles. NASA will use this as a shell to augment the rovers and landers of the future. However, this flimsy contraption is actually quite stable and could serve as transport on Titan-picture an army of rolling metallic tumbleweeds. It looks like a jumbled mess of tent poles. Its unmatched squishiness acts as a damper, replacing the need for landing gear. It’s so durable that NASA plans to drop these balls directly onto Saturn’s moon Titan without a parachute. The ball’s configuration allows efficient mobility and great shock-absorbing qualities because it transfers force evenly throughout the structure, much like the human body. “Tensegrity” might sound like an ’80s prog-rock band, but it actually stands for “tensional integrity.” Using this concept, NASA has developed a flexible, physically durable, segmented ball dubbed the Super Ball Bot. But if they’re deemed safe for consumption after a battery of tests, crops of all sorts could be cultivated in microgravity, seriously diversifying food choices. The mature plants will be flash-frozen and shipped back to Earth aboard a Dragon capsule. The lettuce unit holds six packets (“pillows”) containing seeds, fertilizer, and clay. An array of LED lights incubate the baby lettuce, with red romaine so far the only thing on the menu. That’s what NASA wants to find out, and ingredients for the first astroponic vegetables were delivered to the ISS in April 2014. But restocking is out of the question on the extended spacefaring adventures of the future. Then to attain supersonic velocity, it shoots to higher altitudes and rotates 90 degrees, producing the sleekest profile possible to slice through air.įeeding current astronauts is no problem because it’s easy to restock the ISS’s powdered enchilada reserves on routine visits. It uses a broad physique to easily get airborne. This dichotomy of aerodynamic efficiency is never fully satisfied, but NASA hopes to skirt the issue with the bidirectional design, awarding $100,000 to further realize this crazy concept. But once the craft is comfortably up in the air, the increased surface area produces extra drag and therefore deceleration. And it’s piqued NASA’s interest because Za’s concept allows the craft to excel at an unprecedented range of altitudes and speeds.įor aircraft in general, the initial phase of flight requires a large surface area to produce lift. ![]() It’s the creation of Gacheng Za, a professor at the University of Miami. The impressively named Supersonic Bidirectional Flying Wing is a ridiculously suave aircraft that looks like it would cut you for looking at it wrong. ![]() Plus, they’ll have extra time to dabble in space science. So long as Dextre performs its duties without trouble, astronauts won’t have to risk their lives to fix a loose screw or frayed wire. The robot can be controlled remotely by the astronauts aboard the station, but current protocols dictate that Dextre’s commands are fed from Earth, with joint control from NASA and the CSA. It stands 3.5 meters (12 ft) tall, has prehensile arms that are nearly as long, and weighs 1,700 kilograms (3,700 lb)-though that shouldn’t unbalance the ISS too much, as the station weighs 410 metric tons (450 tons). Originally designed by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Dextre is quite large. The dexterous manipulator (as it’s officially termed) is now permanently affixed to the ISS to perform maintenance and keep the humans safe. This risk should soon be totally eliminated by the lankiest robot NASA ever built: Dextre the mechanical handyman. We’ve all seen footage of spacewalks-astronauts dangling precariously off the side of the International Space Station, just begging to be hit by supersonic space debris. Sometimes fantastical but always backed by concrete science, these projects leave us excited for the unveiling of the time machine NASA is no doubt working on. NASA is pursuing future cosmic exploration with unexpected whimsy. ![]()
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