Category: Articles

Nuclear-powered spacecraft have the potential to significantly reduce travel times to Mars and beyond.

Last year, NASA and DARPA awarded Lockheed Martin a $499 million contract to develop the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO). This project employs several innovations to navigate regulations related to nuclear testing and aims to help the US maintain its lead over China’s rapidly advancing space sector.

The DRACO rocket, designed to be approximately 49 feet long and 17.7 feet in diameter, will be launched using the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket, which had its maiden flight in January this year.

Nuclear rockets could drastically cut travel times to Mars, potentially reducing the journey from six or seven months to around three months. Shorter travel times would benefit astronaut health by reducing exposure to harmful cosmic radiation and enabling quicker return trips, aligning with the optimal Mars-Earth windows.

A New Fuel
The concept of nuclear thermal rockets dates back to the US Air Force’s Rover program in the mid-1950s, which remained experimental.

Instead of weapons-grade uranium, which poses significant risks in the event of a launch failure, DRACO will utilize high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). HALEU, enriched to less than 20 percent, meets stringent security requirements for on-ground testing, as reported by Ars Technica.

If successful, NASA and DARPA could soon have a nuclear rocket, vastly expanding humanity’s capacity to explore the Solar System.

In a recent study, scientists from Sydney and Liverpool discovered that a commonly available blood thinner can also act as an antidote to cobra venom. The research utilized CRISPR gene-editing technology to identify cells immune to snake venom and determine a mechanism to prevent necrosis from snake bites.

The authors describe snake bites as “the deadliest neglected tropical disease,” noting that approximately 140,000 people die and 400,000 suffer permanent injuries annually due to snake bites. Cobra venom, in particular, causes necrosis and can affect the nervous system, heart, and brain.

Antivenom is often prohibitively expensive, costing about seven times the average daily wage in countries where cobra bites are prevalent. This has led some pharmaceutical companies to discontinue production.

The study, led by Professor Greg Heely and Ph.D. student Tian Du at the University of Sydney, found that cobra venom targets the “heparan/heparin sulfate biosynthesis pathway” in human cells. This pathway produces heparan and heparin, the latter being a blood thinner. The venom binds to these molecules, attacking the cells.

The researchers used this information to repurpose heparin as an antidote. By introducing exogenous heparin, they were able to prevent necrosis in human cells and mice by diverting the venom away from endogenous heparin. Cobras, part of the Elapidae family, are responsible for more bite deaths and amputations in parts of Asia and Africa than any other snake group.

The team also suggested that their method could be used to develop antivenoms for other venomous species. Professor Neely noted that the three-finger toxins found in cobra venom are also present in the blue bottle jellyfish, a subject for future research.

A Norwegian company is developing an innovative wind energy concept called the “Windcatcher,” an offshore floating facility. Instead of using a few giant turbines, the Windcatcher will comprise hundreds of small turbines packed together. This visionary project is spearheaded by Wind Catching Systems (WCS).

The Windcatcher has reached a significant milestone by receiving certification from DNV, a leading global classification agency. This certification confirms the technical feasibility of the design, allowing the project to advance to the next stage.

The Windcatcher concept involves a floating offshore wind farm that uses multiple small 1MW turbines instead of traditional large turbines. These innovative turbines can capture 2.5 times more energy per square meter of wind flow compared to standard three-blade turbine designs. The unique design, resembling a “floating wall of wind,” aims to double energy output.

The company plans for the Windcatcher to generate 40MW of power in the future. In the long term, WCS aims to add units with a capacity of up to 126 MW.

The Windcatcher is designed to withstand the harsh conditions of the open sea. It is a modular system that can be scaled up or down based on energy needs. Each unit connects to a central substation, which transmits the electricity to the grid.

This is a very interesting concept. One of the issues surrounding wind turbines is there tendency to kill large amounts of birds. Hopefully these are big enough for flocks of birds to recognize that they need to go around it.