ASTEROID 2012 DA14 / ASTEROID TO PASS CLOSE BY EARTH TODAY

On Friday evening asteroid 2012 DA14 skims closer to our planet than any other known asteroid. Although invisible to the naked eye, binoculars can bring the space rock into focus.  Space rock 2012 DA14 is only 50 metres across. It will pass the Earth on Friday evening (UK time) just 17,100 miles above our heads. Allegedly there is no danger of a collision, even though Russia was hit by a meteor shower earlier today- Meteor strike injures hundreds in central Russia

Asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass closer to the Earth than many artificial satellites. It will pass from the southern to northern hemisphere and set the record for the closest pass of any known asteroid since systematic surveys of the sky began in the mid-1990s.

A METEORITE SHOWER HITS RUSSIA   /  INJURING  HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE..

More than 900 people have been injured after a meteor strike in central Russia, the country’s interior ministry said. Fragments of at least one meteorite - the weight of a double-decker bus  -were seen falling from the sky in the Chelyabinsk region at around 9am local time, around 1,500km east of Moscow.

A regional governor said 950 people have been injured. Russia’s Ministry of Emergencies said at least 82 children were hurt and 34 adults and 12 children were being treated in hospital. Two people are in intensive care.

THE TRASH DISC BY NASA   /  RECYCLING FOR CHEAPER SPACE TRAVEL.....

It seems now that space debris considerations have entered the daily agenda of most space agencies worldwide, other environmental issues are slowly following. As noticed appreciatively by many “green” writers in the past weeks, NASA has embarked on a project that should develop a way to utilize garbage produced by astronauts in space.

Researchers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center are currently testing special tiles made from garbage such as plastic bottles, old clothes, duct tape, and foil drink pouches that might be used in the future to add, for example, radiation shielding.  Nowadays, most of the trash produced at the International Space Station is simply loaded into automated transfer vehicles and left to burn during re-entry. Such a strategy would be impossible once a long-haul mission, such as to Mars or an asteroid, is considered.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/exploration/researchtech/trashdiscs.html

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION RECYCLING / TURNING URINE INTO WATER 

Astronauts on the International Space Station have to recapture every possible drop. That includes water evaporated from showers, shaving, tooth brushing and hand washing, plus perspiration and water vapour that collects within the astronauts' space suits. They even transfer water from the fuel cells that provide electric power to the space shuttle. NASA, until recently had not attempted to tap one major potential source of water: urine. The deployment of the new Water Recovery System on Friday, Nov. 14 2008, made it possible to double to six the number of crew members who can live aboard the International Space Station. Michigan Tech researchers helped optimise the design, increasing its efficiency by 30 percent.

DEEP SPACE INDUSTRIES / MINING THE UNIVERSE FOR THE FUTURE

Deep Space Industries believes the human race is ready to begin harvesting the resources of space both for their use in space and to increase the wealth and prosperity of the people of planet Earth.  DSI will build on the incredible heritage of the first age of space exploration and harness the power of a new age of information to locate, explore, harvest and utilize the vast numbers of asteroids in Earth’s community. We will do so by being creative and practical – taking small steps to begin with, and giant leaps when we can – to supply our customers and provide a new and hopeful future for humanity.  http://deepspaceindustries.com/ 

PLANETARY RESOURCES / HARNESSING OUR RESOURCE-RICH ASTEROIDS

A newly unveiled company with some high-profile backers (including filmmaker James Cameron and Google co-founder Larry Page) is set to announce plans to mine near-Earth asteroids for resources such as precious metals and water.  

Planetary Resources, intends to sell these materials, generating a healthy profit for itself. But it also aims to advance humanity's exploration and exploitation of space, with resource extraction serving as an anchor industry that helps our species spread throughout the solar system.

http://www.planetaryresources.com

EUROPE'S 3D PRINTED MOON BASE VISION / BY FOSTER + PARTNERS

Foster + Partners are exploring the possibilities of 3D printing buildings on the moon using lunar soil.  The London architecture firm is working with the European Space Agency to investigate methods for constructing lunar homes and has designed a four-person residence that would shelter its inhabitants from dramatically changing temperatures, meteorites and gamma radiation.

http://www.dezeen.com/2013/01/31/foster-partners-to-3d-print-buildings-on-the-moon/

THE RINGS OF PERSEPHONE  / A NEW SOCIETY / A NEW WAY TO PLAY.....

Persephone is in fact one big automated machine.  It has sensors in all technical belts to track the progress of agriculture, energy gathering, production, distribution and the like.

So if we could start from scratch, what would such a society look like?  Well I've attempted to envision such a future through the design of Persephone.  Persephone is a worldship that'll be constructed in orbit in a hundred years time.  Designed to accommodate 1000 inhabitants, Persephone is comprised of 7 Belts that interlock together to form the worldship's structure.  Each belt represents essential parts of a thriving society (Food, Production, Residential, Power, Recreation, Social and Education).  No society goes without change, and so Persephone has been designed to be malleable allowing for change in future colonies.  Additional Belts can be added, or existing ones repurposed as the values and ideals of future societies change.

PERSEPHONE  / IF WE COULD BUILD A NEW SOCIETY FROM SCRATCH......

With our vast technological insight and exceptional cognitive abilities, our potential as a species could be extraordinary.  However, many of us are fast becoming lifeless machines, caught up in dead end draining repetitious jobs, where we are deemed as nothing more than a cog in the system.  A system that is flawed by design.  A system that is not driven by the ascension of man, but rather by the lust and hunger for money and profit regardless of the costs to both you, I or our planet.  My design proposes a society no longer shackled by the chains of this system.  A society that is multiracial and monocultural, where it's inhabitants worship the stars, planets, body and mind as opposed to money.  A place where man can rejoice, laugh and have fun.  A society that better allows us to find our higher purpose as man.

DESIGNING PERSEPHONE _THE FIRST WORLDSHIP

Persephone is a design module of the DARPA funded 100YSS (one hundred year star ship) project with Icarus Interstellar. Its aim is to assess the requirements and design living environments for worldships.  Persephone is a real project. It is unusual as its deliverable is the design and development of a living interior for a worldship constructed in orbit in a hundred years time.

NEW CITY _A NEW VIRTUAL WORLD

Greg Lynn, Peter Frankfurt, Alex McDowell and Imaginary Forces collaborated to bring New City to MoMA's Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition. New City featured an architecturally-scaled immersive media environment that served as the trailer to the concept of a living virtual world that is parallel and simultaneous to ours.

Greg Lynn takes into context the planets, stars and outer space as part of our built environment. His New City project explores how colonies in space would work through 3-D prints and computer renderings.

DESIGNING PERSEPHONE _THE FIRST WORLDSHIP

M.KAKU _WILL MANKIND DESTROY ITSELF?

PETER DIAMANDIS _ABUNDANCE IS OUR FUTURE

Peter Diamandis runs the X Prize Foundation, which offers large cash incentive prizes to inventors who can solve grand challenges like space flight, low-cost mobile medical diagnostics and oil spill cleanup. He is the chair of Singularity University, which teaches executives and grad students about exponentially growing technologies.

SCIENCE CASTS _INSPIRING FACTS

SCIENCE FICTION _INSPIRING VIDEO ART WORKS

    POSTPANIC [MADE FOR OFFF] _

    MAXIM ZHESTKOV _

    AARON TAM _

THE FOUNTAIN _A BEAUTIFULLY INSPIRING (ROMANCE/SCI-FI) FILM

Drama Romance Sci-Fi]

Overview:

Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world.

Directed by Darren Aronofsky. Starring Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Sean Patrick Thomas.

SCIENCE CASTS _INSPIRING FACTS RELATED TO PROJECT PERSEPHONE

TOMORROWLAND _THESIS DIAGRAM

PLANET DLR _SPACE-TIME ANALYSIS CHRONOGRAM

SCIENCE FICTION LAND _THE UNTOLD SAGA BEHIND BEN AFFLECK'S ARGO

In the winter of 1979, after more than a year's preliminary development and over $500,000 in pre-production fund-raising, spanning potential sites from Reno, Nevada, to Toronto, Canada, then Mirabel, Quebec -- 1000 acres were finally leased for a Theme Park called ScienceFictionLand, set to be built in Aurora Country just outside of Denver, Colorado. The Park's buildings were to be based upon the production designs and sets of the film, Lord of Light, designed by Jack Kirby and Barry Ira Geller, brilliantly drawn by Jack Kirby.

The Producer's vision (in 1979) was to bring together the greatest scientific minds, artists, and businessmen of his generation. This vision was to include computer-controlled rides, magneticaly levitating cars operated by voice command, billboard-sized Holography, a bullet-train from Japan, and many other venues for children to envision the future. The park was heralded in the press as the first theme park ever to become a center for new technologies invented, developed, and presented to the public solely on an entertainment basis. Commercial applications of new technologies would further act as continuing revenue for scientific, educational, and research foundations set up by the parent company. The creation of the Theme Park ScienceFictionLand was also the Producer's plan for the funding of the film, Lord of Light.

Fortune 500 companies around the world had been contacted to act as sponsors. Internationally acclaimed scientists, architects, and engineers were intrigued and several had begun work on Research and Development. Future Technologists like Buckminster Fuller, Paolo Soleri, and Ray Bradbury were enlisted to come in as consultants. Even 3M had already expressed interest in building a 1/2 mile high Floating Heated Dome (based upon Buckminster Fuller's original designs for air-conditioning NYC during its 1960s World Fair) over the entire park. The film's financing was contingent upon the development of the theme park.

PLANET DLR ANIMATIC _SPACE-TIME ANALYSIS 

PLANET DLR _UNLEASH YOUR CHILD WITHIN

Down below is the revised space-time analysis animatic I will be presenting at crit tomorrow.  Planet DLR depicts the current DLR system as an adventure theme park that unleashes the child within all of us.  As an automated service the DLR doesn't have a driver, meaning one can sit in the first row of the first carriage and experience a journey resemblant to that of a roller coaster; making the notion of the DLR as an adventure theme park not too far fetched.  Planet DLR is made from an assemblage of footage and images I felt best related to the journey I would like one to experience whilst on the DLR. My apologies for there being no sound on the animatic- I am currently in the process of creating sound effects for it.