Houston, Texas-based Venus Aerospace, a hypersonics pioneer aimed at developing reusable hypersonic flight platforms, recently achieved one of the longest sustained tests of a rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) in collaboration with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. A rotating detonation rocket engine combusts its fuel and oxidizer in a circular motion inside a ring-shaped channel. The shockwaves from the detonation of fuel and oxidizer create a self-sustaining combustion reaction, making this form of propulsion more efficient than conventional combustion engines. Venus Aerospace’s recent RDRE demonstration sustained the longest engine run…
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We’ve been ‘close’ to achieving fusion power for 50 years. When will it actually happen?
Nuclear fusion power was supposed to be a dream come true. As soon as we discovered that you could smash little atoms together to make bigger atoms and release a small amount of energy in the process, scientists around the world realized the implications of this new bit of physics knowledge. Some wanted to turn it into weapons, but others wanted to develop it into a clean, efficient, inexhaustible supply of electrical energy. But it turns out that fusion power is … hard. Really hard. Really complicated. Full of unexpected…
Read MoreNASA funds Venus sample-return, interstellar probes and other far-out space tech
NASA has awarded funding to 13 innovative space technology concepts that could shape future missions to Venus, Mars and worlds beyond our solar system. The space agency’s NIAC (NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts) program supports the development of early-stage technology ideas from America’s innovators and entrepreneurs. Each Phase 1 award is worth up to $175,000, according to a statement from NASA. “The daring missions NASA undertakes for the benefit of humanity all begin as just an idea, and NIAC is responsible for inspiring many of those ideas,” NASA Associate Administrator Jim…
Read More‘Cooling glass’ could fight climate change by reflecting solar radiation back into space
As the world continues to experience a worsening climate crisis with record-breaking temperatures, scientists have developed a new, highly reflective glass coating that may help cool a rapidly warming Earth. In theory, the coating — a slurry-like mixture of inexpensive glass and aluminum oxide particles — could reflect high amounts of sunlight off of the surfaces on which it is painted, such as roofs of buildings and roads. Laboratory tests have shown it to reflect up to 99 percent of solar radiation back into space. If it pans out, the…
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