Eight years ago, the NASA space probe Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was fitted with the largest and most powerful camera (more commonly known as the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or ); return…
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Alois Kronschlaeger a imaginé dans le Mammal Hall du « Grand Rapids Public Museum » cette installation appelée Habitat. Reprenant ainsi 27 dioramas, ce dernier propose de donner une profondeur à ces œuvres grâce à des interventions architecturales contemporaines de toute beauté. A découvrir dans la suite.
Cherchant à explorer l’environnement urbain et le rapport de l’homme face à ces cités de béton, la photographe basée à Chicago Clarissa Bonet nous offre des clichés d’une grande beauté, jouant avec talent sur les jeux d’ombres. Une série toujours en cours à découvrir en images dans la suite.
by Gavin Lucas For the last 30 years, if you wanted to know about space, the universe and its many wonders, Professor Stephen Hawking has pretty much been the go-to guy. However that’s about to change because there’s a new space brainiac with…
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Your Book est le nom du livre de Michael Heimann et Claudia Baulesch s’inspirant du projet architectural d’Olafur Eliasson à Copenhague. Composé de 908 pages, cette création magnifique représente chaque espace pensé en négatif sur la feuille. Un travail d’orfèvre à découvrir en images dans la suite.
News: more than 200,000 people from 140 countries have applied for a one-way ticket to join a human settlement on Mars (+ slideshow).
On Monday non-profit organisation Mars One closed their first call for volunteer astronauts wanting to travel to the red planet.
The £4 billion project, founded by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp in 2012, plans to establish the first permanent human settlement on Mars in 2023 and has proposed that humans will live in a modular environment made up of multiple inflatable units.
The settlement would comprise of 1000 m3 of living space – a total of 250 m3 per person for a team of four. The colony would live inside ‘lander’ living units that each feature an inflatable living section. The landers would be installed by roaming rovers and be filled with breathable air from a life support unit before the humans arrive.
“As the habitat will be modular, and constructed using fully redundant systems, even if one inflatable unit is damaged beyond repair, the habitat will still be secure and fully functional,” said the organisation.
There will be solar panels outside of the living quarters and an indoor farm for growing and harvesting foods.
In April, Mars One launched an application website to search for the volunteer astronauts and asked people to submit videos to pitch why they should be selected for the colony. In five months the organisation received 202,586 application videos from people across the world.
Three further application rounds will take place over the next two years. Mars One will then select up to ten teams of four individuals for a seven year training programme – and in 2023 just one team of four people will travel to Mars and settle permanently on the planet, according to the organisation.
“The first footprint on Mars and lives of the crew thereon will captivate and inspire generations; it is this public interest that will help finance this human mission to Mars,” said Mars One.
Other space features to appear on Dezeen recently include a proposal for the colonisation of Mars with caves built by robots and an orbiting factory that will use 3D printing and robots to fabricate giant structures in space.
Here’s the full announcement from Mars One:
Over 200,000 apply to first ever recruitment for Mars settlement
The first round of the Mars One Astronaut Selection Program has now closed for applications. In the 5 month application period, Mars One received interest from 202,586 people from around the world, wanting to be amongst the first human settlers on Mars.
Mars One applicants come from over 140 countries; the largest numbers are from the United States (24%), India (10%), China (6%), Brazil (5%), Great Britain (4%), Canada (4%), Russia (4%), Mexico (4%), Philippines (2%), Spain (2%), Colombia (2%), Argentina (2%), Australia (1%), France (1%), Turkey (1%), Chile (1%), Ukraine (1%), Peru (1%), Germany (1%), Italy (1%) and Poland (1%).
From this applicant pool, the Mars One Selection Committee will select prospective Martian settlers in three additional rounds spread across two years. By 2015, six-ten teams of four individuals will be selected for seven years of full-time training. In 2023, one of these teams will become the first humans ever to land on Mars and live there for the rest of their lives.
Each Round 1 applicant is now being screened by the Selection Committee, which is expected to take several months. Candidates selected to pass to the next round will be notified by the end of 2013. The second round of selection will start in early 2014, where the candidates will be interviewed in person by the Mars One Selection Committee.
Aspiring martians who have missed Round 1 or could not meet the age restriction can join subsequent Astronaut Selection Programs. Mars One will commence regular recruitment programs as the search for follow-up crews continues.
The post Over 200,000 people apply
to live on Mars appeared first on Dezeen.
Inspiré de sa passion pour l’exploration spatiale, la série d’illustration de Doug Pedersen est très réussie. Il mixe les sondes de la NASA avec des icônes culturelles à l’image de la Challenger qui est à la fois une navette spatiale américaine et une voiture Dodge. Un beau projet à découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.
Robots could be sent to Mars to build caves for later habitation by humans, according to a proposal for the colonisation of the planet by German firm ZA Architects (+ slideshow).
The Mars Colonisation project by ZA Architects suggests that humans could colonise the red planet by living in underground dwellings dug out of the planet’s bedrock by an advance party of solar-powered machines.
“Curiosity sooner or later will bring human to Mars and wouldn’t it be nice to have permanent station to explore it?” said Arina Ageeva of ZA Architects. “It seems pretty logical to use caves as the main protective structure of the colony.”
Robots would be flown to Mars to carve out large voids in the basalt bedrock, choosing areas where the rock has formed into distinctive hexagonal columns, which can be removed to create cathedral-like interior spaces. The distinctive, tightly packed stone hexagonal columns, which are also found on earth, are formed where basaltic lava has cooled rapidly.
The robots would then weave web-like structures from basalt fibres to create floors within the caves. Basalt fibres, made by extruding molten basalt, are cheaper and more versatile then carbon fibres, and could replace traditional construction materials on Mars, according to Ageeva.
“We can weave minimal surfaces that will be used as floors on different levels in the cave,” she told Dezeen. “This material is already in use in the aerospace and automotive industries. It is stronger and lighter than steel, easier to operate, fireproof and it does not corrode,” she added.
The Mars colonisation project was undertaken by Dmitry Zhuikov, Arina Ageeva, Krassimir Krastev of ZA Architects as part of a research project at Dessau Institute of Architecture (DIA), HS Anhalt, in Germany.
Ageeva believes humans will be sent to live on Mars within a decade, and cited the Mars One project that plans to send volunteers to establish a colony on Mars by 2023. “Right now it is may not be possible, because such robotics do not exist, but generally we don’t see anything unrealistic in this proposition,” she said.
We’ve featured a number of space-related projects recently, including an orbiting factory that will use 3D printing and robots to fabricate giant structures in space and a concept for 3D printing buildings on the moon using lunar soil.
See more features about space »
See more robots on Dezeen »
Here’s more from the architects:
Mars Colonisation
The purpose of the project is in research of the possibility to build permanent settlements on Mars, using robotics and local materials, thus reduce the price and risks. At the moment there are several crucial restrictions, first of all unreliability, high cost and size limitation of cargoes that can be delivered there.
Further, building works that can be performed on the Mars are highly restricted due to severe conditions. Idea of this project is to split construction works on two general steps: First – creation of overall big shell that will be equipped with residential, technical and other units, which is the second.
First part is to be done by the robots using only local materials. Martian surface is primarily composed of the basalt – igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of basaltic lava. During the cooling it forms topology of the tightly packed hexagonal in section columns. Idea to use the digging robots that can hew cave system, using benefits of this topology is inspired by the Fingal’s Cave. This solution allows to avoid supply from the Earth, only robots are needed.
After cave is done, astronaut mission is sent to the Mars. Using ready-assembled compact facilities they must arrange water and oxygen supply from the soil glacier and mount basalt processing plant. Robot supply plant with the crushed rock, output – basalt wool, with which the same robots insulate the walls of the cave, and basalt roving, from which another weaving robots can make the spatial spider-like web that will be used as spaces and constructions to hold the domestic and technical facilities.
According to NASA, some martian soil appropriate for growing certain agricultures. When construction is finished and contour of the cave is enclosed it is possible to arrange agricultural processes and supply base with food.
Colonisation stages:
1. Rocket with digging robots and solar power supply units are sent to the Mars
2. Robots drop-off on the surface
3. Robots analyze basalt columns on strength value, then each chooses a weakest pillar that equidistant from the others – it is a start position
4. Robots drill basalt, moving down and increasing diameter of withdrawn rock with each step, until it reaches strong pillars that remain as columns
5. Crushed rock set aside to form network of the ramps, in order to protect skylight holes from the wind and dust
6. After caves are ready human expedition travel to Mars
7. Astronauts finish the construction and arrange technical facilities as water, oxygen, basalt processing line, etc.
8. Using generated basalt roving, robots weave spatial spider-like web, that will be used as spaces and construction to hold domestic and technical facilities
name: mars colonization
status: concept
location: Mars
function: industrial, public, residential
architects: Dmitry Zhuikov, Arina Agieieva
curator: Krassimir Krastev
year: 2013
The post Mars Colonisation
by ZA Architects appeared first on Dezeen.
News: NASA is developing an orbiting factory that will use 3D printing and robots to fabricate giant structures such as antennas and solar arrays of up to a kilometre in length, as part of its ongoing search for extra-terrestrial life.
The US space agency this week announced it was awarding technology firm Tethers Unlimited Inc (TUI) a $500,000 contract to develop the facility.
The NASA funding – a second-phase contract that follows an initial contract issued earlier this year – will allow TUI to continue work on its SpiderFab technology, which allows large-scale spacecraft components to be built in space, avoiding the expense of building the components on earth and transporting them into space using rockets.
“On-orbit fabrication allows the material for these critical components to be launched in a very compact and durable form, such as spools of fiber or blocks of polymer, so they can fit into a smaller, less expensive launch vehicle.” Said TUI CEO and chief scientist Dr Rob Hoyt. “Once on-orbit, the SpiderFab robotic fabrication systems will process the material to create extremely large structures that are optimized for the space environment.
Currently spacecraft components are designed to be built on the ground and folded up to fit inside a rocket shroud. The process is complicated, expensive and limited by the availability and size of existing rockets.
Hoyt added: “This radically different approach to building space systems will enable us to create antennas and arrays that are tens-to-hundreds of times larger than are possible now, providing higher power, higher bandwidth, higher resolution, and higher sensitivity for a wide range of space missions.”
The technology would allow NASA to use far smaller rockets to deliver components to the orbiting factory, which could be used to manufacture trusses to hold solar arrays and solar sails, antennas and masts of almost unlimited size. TUI’s website suggests that kilometre-long trusses or football-field sized sails could be produced.
Space factories would also significantly reduce the risk involved in launching delicate equipment on rockets, where the chance of failure is high. Instead, relatively inexpensive raw materials would be launched into orbit.
TUI will now develop a “Trusselator” capable of using additive manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing to fabricate truss structures in space. TUI’s website describes the Trusselator as a system “for on-orbit fabrication and integration of solar arrays using a combination of 3D printing and automated composite layup techniques”.
“The Trusselator is the key first step in implementing the SpiderFab architecture,” said Hoyt. “Once we’ve demonstrated that it works, we will be well on our way towards creating football-field sized antennas and telescopes to help search for Earth-like exoplanets and evidence of extraterrestrial life.”
The announcement is the latest in a string of projects exploring how additive manufacturing could be used in space. Last month NASA certified the first 3D printer for use on space stations, while at the start of the year architects Foster + Partners revealed that it was working on techniques to print habitable structures on the moon.
Via GigaOm.
Here’s a press release from TUI:
Spacecraft that Build Themselves… in Space! – Tethers Unlimited Wins NIAC Phase II Contract to Develop “Self-Fabricating” Spacecraft
Bothell, WA, 29 August 2013 – NASA announced today that the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program has selected Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (TUI) for award of a $500,000 Phase II contract to continue development of its “SpiderFab™ technologies for in-space fabrication of spacecraft components.
The SpiderFab architecture adapts additive manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing and robotic assembly technologies to enable space systems to fabricate and integrate large components such as antennas, solar arrays, sensor masts, and shrouds on-orbit. Currently, large spacecraft components are built on the ground, and are designed to fold up to fit within a rocket shroud and then deploy on orbit.
This approach is very expensive, and the size of these components is limited by the volume of available shrouds. “On-orbit fabrication allows the material for these critical components to be launched in a very compact and durable form, such as spools of fiber or blocks of polymer, so they can fit into a smaller, less expensive launch vehicle.” Said Dr. Rob Hoyt, TUI’s CEO and Chief Scientist. “Once on-orbit, the SpiderFab robotic fabrication systems will process the material to create extremely large structures that are optimized for the space environment. This radically different approach to building space systems will enable us to create antennas and arrays that are tens-to-hundreds of times larger than are possible now, providing higher power, higher bandwidth, higher resolution, and higher sensitivity for a wide range of space missions.”
In the Phase II effort, TUI will develop and demonstrate methods to enable additive manufacturing of high-performance support structures and integration of functional elements such as reflectors and antennas. In parallel with the NIAC effort, TUI is working under a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop a “Trusselator” device that will fabricate truss structures to enable in-space construction of large solar arrays.
“The Trusselator is the key first step in implementing the SpiderFab architecture, said Dr. Hoyt. “Once we’ve demonstrated that it works, we will be well on our way towards creating football-field sized antennas and telescopes to help search for Earth-like exoplanets and evidence of extraterrestrial life.”
About Tethers Unlimited, Inc.
Tethers Unlimited, Inc. develops innovative technologies to enable transformative capabilities and dramatic cost savings for missions in Space, Sea, Earth, and Air. Its technology portfolio includes advanced space propulsion systems, high-performance radios for small satellites, and methods for additive manufacturing of multifunctional spacecraft structures. To learn more about TUI and its products, please visit www.tethers.com.
The post NASA develops 3D printing
factory in space appeared first on Dezeen.
1. Gary Card’s Abandoned Amusement Park Renowned set designer Gary Card has created larger-than-life, fantastical works for everyone from Lady Gaga and the New York Times’ T Magazine, to the London concept store LN-CC. In his first solo exhibition, “Abandoned Amusement Park Attraction,”…
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