Tag Archives: space

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Quids – the new spaceproof currency

October 18, 2007 Tomas Martin 3 Comments

With Virgin planning its first space tourists over the next few years and industry wanting to branch outside of the atmosphere, a little thought of problem has been solved by the industrialisation of space: money. Coins have sharp, metal edges that can cause great damage in zero-g and credit cards would be completely wiped by cosmic radiation.

Currency exchange company Travelex has come up with a new form of currency that is completely spaceproof. Made of a similar material to non-stick frying pans, the QUID is heatproof at a high temperatures, has no sharp edges or toxic materials that could cause problems for the astronauts using them. Maybe in the future we’ll all be walking round space malls spending our tubes of QUIDS.

[image from the QUIDS press release]

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US military proposes space-based solar power station

October 17, 2007 Jeremy Eades 6 Comments

A few weeks ago, Tobias posted about the US military and eco-technology. In it, he jokingly suggested an eco-DARPA. As it turns out, the military seems headed in that direction, specifically with a space-based solar power station that would beam energy down to the surface.

The idea is that the Pentagon has decided that energy independence is now a national security issue, and as such falls under their purview. In addition, this orbiting power station would negate the need for long fuel supply lines. Units could have needed energy beamed down directly from orbit. Another benefit of having the military act as the early adopter is that prices should begin to decrease almost immediately, making it more affordable for commercial enterprises to license the technology for civilian consumption.

As with all things governmental, we’ll have to wait and see. This may just be pie-in-the-sky, it may be an enormous financial boondoggle for no-bid contracts, it may work spectacularly, or more probably something in between. But keep your eyes peeled on this one over at its very own blog.

(via DailyTech)) (image from NSSO/Pentagon pdf)

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Space colonisation – Ceres first, Mars second?

October 11, 2007 Paul Raven 6 Comments

An interesting post over at Colony Worlds suggests that the dwarf planet of Ceres would be a better bet for early human colonisation than Mars – it has supplies of water ice and valuable minerals, but a far shallower gravity well, making it a more viable proposition from logistical and economic perspectives. Personally, I think getting a few working orbital colonies around our home planet would be a sound first move … but after that, why not? [Image from Wikipedia]

[tags]space, Mars, Ceres, colonisation, economics[/tags]

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Space video about near earth asteroid missions

October 10, 2007 Tomas Martin

Last week here on Futurismic there were some great comments over the future of space seen from a resource rather than an expedition point of view. I mentioned in my post my hope that asteroids may in future be a good source of precious metals such as platinum. Today I stumbled across an example of how that may be done. Aside from the cheesy music and voiceover, this video from Space.Com shows Nasa planning of how to utilise the new Orion Moon landers to travel to Asteroids passing near to Earth’s orbit. By combining this style of approach with a few unmanned surveys of the composition of the NEO (near earth object), it may be possible to start harvesting precious metals that even a few tons would greatly increase current levels.