Category Archives: Transhuman News

Space Station Alpha #002 - Manche laufen Amok - Lets Play Space Station Alpha | German
Kanal : http://www.youtube.com/user/BanausenLP Twitter : https://twitter.com/BanausenLP Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/banausenlp Webseite des Spiels : http://www.nuclearfirecracker.com/...

By: BanausenLP

Originally posted here:
Space Station Alpha #002 - Manche laufen Amok - Lets Play Space Station Alpha | German - Video

It took 200 astronauts and cosmonauts some 13 years to create the International Space Station. Now, just under 4,500 people may be able to achieve the same in less than 50 days.

Sort of.

A fan-designed LEGO version of the International Space Station has passed the halfway mark towards the 10,000 votes required for the toy company to consider producing the orbiting outpost as a commercial kit. But, the station model needs to recruit 4,500 more supporters in less than two months or the project will expire.

"This space station is out of this world!" LEGO told the model's creator, Christoph Ruge, in a comment posted to the LEGO Ideas website on Thursday (March 12). "Now it is time to ignite those thrusters... and make that final push to 10,000 supporters!" [LEGO and Space Travel: A Photo Gallery]

Ruge, who goes by the username XCLD on LEGO Ideas, first submitted his toy brick-version of the orbital complex in March 2014. As LEGO noted, "in last few months, there has been a huge upswing in support," in part due to social media mentions by both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

"A space station design is up for LEGO community fans to vote on," NASA wrote on Twitter in November.

"The International Space Station built with LEGO. But you have to vote to turn it into reality," ESA then wrote on Facebook the following month.

Ruge's model recreates the International Space Station in its current configuration, including all of its U.S., Russian, Japanese and European modules. Built from slightly more than 1,000 LEGO bricks, it features solar array wings that rotate, an articulated robotic arm and visiting vehicles that can dock to the outpost (Ruge includes Russian Soyuz and Progress craft but has also modeled SpaceX's Dragon and Orbital ATK's Cygnus resupply ships, as well as the European Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV.)

And like the real space station, which is about to undergo a few module relocations and additions, Ruge's LEGO ISS is modular in design.

"You can freely reconfigurate (sic) the station to your own ideas," Ruge wrote on his project's page, adding that his idea for the final set "might come with additional pieces to cover upcoming upgrades of the original station."

Read the original post:
Fan's LEGO International Space Station on Mission for ...

NASA launched a new space-weather mission, scientists found evidence of a hydrothermal system on Saturn's ocean-bearing moon Enceladus and three astronauts returned safely to Earth after nearly six months aboard the International Space Station. Here's a look at Space.com's top stories of the week:

NASA space weather mission takes flight

NASA launched its Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, which consists of four satellites that will study energy eruptions in Earths magnetic field caused by space weather. MMS blasted off Thursday night (March 12) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. [Full Story: Spectacular Night Launch Sends NASA Satellites on Hunt for Magnetic Collisions]

A hydrothermal system on Enceladus

Scientists have found evidence of active hydrothermal vents on Saturn's ice-covered moon Enceladus. Conditions deep in Enceladus' subsurface ocean may therefore be similar to those that gave rise to the first life on Earth. [Full Story: Hot Springs on Saturn's Moon Enceladus Powered by Hydrothermal Vents]

Spaceflyers come home

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft touched down on the steppes of Kazakhstan Wednesday night (March 11), wrapping up a nearly six-month stint aboard the International Space Station for NASA astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore and cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova. [Full Story: US-Russian Space Crew Returns to Earth After 167 Days in Orbit]

Happy birthday, Kepler!

NASA's prolific Kepler space telescope, which has discovered more than half of all known planets beyond our solar system, just celebrated six years in space. The prolific planet hunter blasted off on March 6, 2009. [Full Story: Happy Birthday, Kepler! NASA Planet Hunter Marks 6 Years in Space]

NASA test-fires booster for Space Launch System megarocket

Here is the original post:
Best Space Stories of the Week March 15, 2015