Revolutionary Space Technologies and Innovations
just 62 miles above our heads Earth's atmosphere ends and outer space begins when you think about it it's not really that far but as close as it is we've only started to explore it in the last 60 years thanks to some revolutionary technological developments and with that said how exactly do we take pictures of galaxies more than 146 quadrillion miles away how do we plan to live on Mars and will we soon be able to take weekend trips Among the Stars so it's time to discover some game-changing space Tech and future Innovations [Music] Astro B Bots out in space menial tasks can take up a lot of time which is why NASA has invented the perfect human helper that can also work in zero gravity Astro bees these 12 and a half inch wide 22 pound Cube Bots assist astronauts in space with tasks such as transporting cargo documenting experiments and finding lost items they can even identify when something's wrong like a carbon dioxide leak and let the whole crew know before disaster unfolds each Astro bee uses electric fans to fly through the air in microgravity using cameras and sensors to help them navigate their way without bumping into anything their design also includes perching arms to grasp and carry objects Andy currently each one is controlled manually but scientists are working on making them autonomous so that stations can soon be left entirely under the care of robots and that day might not be too far away as of April 2022 the aptly named Bumble honey and queen bee Bots have completed over 100 activities and are beginning to take on more complicated tasks Bumble for example has managed to create 3D maps of the Space Station's interior on its own which has huge implications for the autonomous robotic mapping missions into deep space in the future once Astro bees are capable of monitoring and keeping systems operating smoothly without crew spacecraft will be able to undertake deep space missions for much longer so soon these little robots will be essential for Missions like returning to the moon or heading to Mars I don't know about you but I'm buzzing telescopic insights chances are you've seen a mind-blowing picture like this or this or even this before well but as out of world as these are these aren't photoshopped they were all taken by the Hubble telescope a huge telescope currently in space that's as long as a school bus and weighs as much as two adult elephants so far this incredible telescope has captured images of galaxies 13.4 billion light years away that's more than 78 sextillion miles but how does it see that far well the Hubble relies on the use of two massive mirrors a hyperbolic primary mirror that's 7.8 feet in diameter and a secondary mirror only 12 inches in diameter when light enters the telescope it bounces off the primary mirror and into the secondary mirror allowing it to focus and capture 40 000 times more light than the human eye and if you thought that was impressive it captured these images whilst traveling around Earth at about 5 miles per second why then aren't these pictures blurry well Hubble's trusty sensors help control the telescope's pointing whilst it moves and locks onto an object at this speed so it can take crystal clear images of space and it's thanks to these revolutionary images that scientists can now estimate the size and age of the universe with it being some 14 billion years old however Hubble was launched into orbit more than 32 years ago making it something of a space Tech dinosaur and since then scientists have been developing something even bigger and better the web while Hubble helped scientists understand the Scale of the Universe NASA's James Webb Space Telescope was created to help scientists uncover the origins of the universe taking on Hubble's Legacy with 100 times the power the Web launched in 2021 can take pictures in less than a day while Hubble needs weeks of exposure to gather enough light for viable images and how does it manage this with a primary mirror that's nearly triple the size of hubbles at 21 feet in diameter well now that's a recipe for one seriously insane funhouse mirror and this is made up of 18 hexagonal beryllium segments which are all aligned to one ten thousandth the thickness of a human hair so that they collectively Focus the light perfectly onto the secondary mirror and into the camera that's an insane level of accuracy one so precise that engineers and scientists had to invent a way to make it viable all this size gives it a scope 15 times larger than that of the Hubble's camera making it so perceptive that it can detect a single bumblebee on Earth from as far away as the Moon with this power the web has detected some of the earliest galaxies ever seen which existed just 200 million years after the big bang wow now I'm starting to see what all the fuss is about honestly I'm a sucker for Nostalgia so I love the Hubble's pictures but you can't deny the webs are utterly spectacular which do you think are best for Hubble hit that like button for web hit subscribe all done amazing what game-changing space Tech have we got next foreign hotels have you ever dreamed of traveling to space and holidaying Among the Stars well you could be living this reality very soon the first commercial space Hotel the Voyager station aims to be open by 2027 and will be able to host up to 280 guests and 112 crew members this revolutionary space station design would have a docking Hub at its center with space elevators to take you to your room lifeboats containing 44 return Vehicles would be attached to the outer shell of the hotel like a giant Intergalactic ferris wheel special ports would allow suited up patrons to sit on the very rim of the wheel and to live views from Earth and space would play on the walls while you eat freeze-dried ice cream at the restaurant The Station hopes to simulate a mere sixth of Earth's gravity so that visitors don't get dizzy floating around the place this simulated gravity would work by rotating the main wheel of the structure generating a steady but light G-Force just powerful enough to keep everything upright that said the hotel is also considering basketball courts where visitors can experience weightlessness and jump as high as the hoops the extraordinary project also advertises other amenities housing a cinema concert venues health spa and gyms for entertainment obviously all this won't be cheap to build or launch with estimates coming in at tens of billions of dollars currently and while costs haven't been published yet it's estimated that a round trip covering physical training before boarding and a three and a half day trip aboard the space station itself would be somewhere in the region of 5 million dollars per person jeez for that price I hope it's all inclusive the real Laser Quest don't you hate it when you're streaming a TV show and you click play and nothing it keeps struggling to load loses connection and then drops out completely ugh so frustrating and wouldn't it be great to have an internet connection wherever you go whether you were up a mountain or out at Sea well minarik are trying to make that dream a reality this Tech would revolutionize the way we acquire internet and Broadband by using lasers don't worry they're not the kind that blows stuff up these infrared lasers can be used in space to beam down stable and fast connections now currently we rely on fiber optic cables to increase network capacity and keep all new devices data connected this allows radio frequency bands to connect devices providing internet access in the form of one two three four and five G but if your infrastructure doesn't have access to these cables like in remote areas then it's back to DVDs for you however laser communication can transmit large amounts of data wirelessly and over great distances it's already used to connect planes drones and satellites and now minaric is expanding that to deliver internet via satellites to anywhere on Earth in 2011 successful laser connection was made between an airplane and the ground for the first time overcoming great distances and speeds these information Laden lasers are so precise they can detect a coin falling out of your pocket from half a mile away currently only 70 percent of information sent through space from structures like space stations and satellites makes it back to Earth due to interference but with laser Broadband we'd be able to transmit huge amounts of data precisely giving us more accurate data about things like weather patterns and greenhouse gases on top of that laser communication is over 320 times faster than traditional radio frequency communique station to put that into perspective it would only take 3.2 seconds to stream an entire HD quality movie using laser communication man the only thing buffering now is my brain trying to comprehend this the ISS the International Space Station is a groundbreaking operation that has truly revolutionized our knowledge of space and not just space but living in it astronauts all work sleep and play on Earth's 462-ton laboratory the biggest object ever to be flown up into space no rocket or craft was big enough to transport it whole so the station was taken into space piece by piece and gradually built in orbit approximately 250 miles above the Earth's surface this assembly required more than 40 missions and it's bigger than an entire American football field to top it off one segment houses a remote controlled space crane essentially a robotic arm that can move equipment around and even capture other spacecraft for docking and boarding though all this space age Tech doesn't come cheap costing around 150 billion all up so what was all that Moolah for well experiments conducted at the station are dedicated to learning how the human body works when in space and how it affects our biology this technology includes developing vaccines for bone and joint health due to changes in gravity experiments to help visual impairment issues from radiation and even crystallizing human proteins to discover more about potential diseases these are all essential discoveries we must understand if we're ever going to live outside Earth's orbit so who knows thanks to the iss's Innovative research soon we might all be living among the Stars SpaceX no matter what you think of Elon Musk his company SpaceX is one of the most Innovative space tech companies on Earth their main ambition is to take humans all the way to the moon and Mars in record time and to achieve this SpaceX has already built plenty of prototype spaceships but it's their starship that's ultimately being designed to travel to Mars in under six months that's pretty impressive when you consider Mars is on average 140 million miles away from Earth meaning it'll need to travel around 32 000 miles an hour to get there in six months give or take that doesn't sound feasible but at a gigantic 394 feet tall this rocket aims to be the biggest and most powerful ever made by mankind it's specifically designed to carry both crew and cargo on long duration interplanetary flights what's more the spaceship is aiming to be the very first fully reusable launch vehicle able to withstand atmospheric burn up and land itself upright ready to relaunch now when a rocket enters an atmosphere at high speed often at some four miles per second particles in the atmosphere compress quickly around the craft causing friction and raising the air temperature as high as 3 000 degrees Fahrenheit that's hotter than volcanic lava SpaceX plans on preventing this breaking down the Starship by installing heat shield hex tiles the hexagonal shape of these specialized ceramic plates means there's no straight path for hot gas to accelerate through the gaps protecting the craft itself from erosion this should help ensure that the Starship will be ready to fly immediately after landing no fixes or refurbishment required further to this to land the Starship executes a complicated Landing flip maneuver where two of the Rockets three Raptor engines reignite and reorient the rocket vertically ahead of a soft touchdown I'm sorry did we just watch something the size of a 36 story building launch six miles into the air do a flip then Park itself back down on the ground okay that's impressive but only half as impressive as what they managed to do with their Falcon 9 launch where they landed the craft at sea this sort of precision is the future of reusable space transport but for all Falcon 9s and Starships impressiveness it's spacex's dragon that leads the pack being the only private spacecraft that has taken humans to the International Space Station more than 30 times so far compared to the Apollo Rockets which only completed 17 missions from 1961 to 72.
that is one big step for Elon and a giant leap for Elon kind Genesis systems if we did achieve interplanetary colonization or find ourselves staying on a space station indefinitely then what would we eat freeze-dried rations would only last for so long and we haven't found plants growing on any Planet we've explored so far so it's taken some ingenious and complicated science to figure out a solution which has led to the birth of Genesis a conceptual ecological life support system that can grow food independently from Earth Bart Womack CEO of Eden Grove systems laid the foundation of this technology back in the 1970s by recycling human waste into food and oxygen for astronauts on missions Genesis is developing this idea by using energy from sunlight wind and biogas in an enclosed habitat that can provide comfortably for a family of four so far eat and grow systems have designed a six foot tall towers which can grow crops and breed fish using Hydroponic and aquaponic methods they can do this by growing plants in nutrient-rich liquids to replace soil and along with some water and LED lights to support the plant's photosynthesis edible foods are harvested by perfecting this environment the systems also maximize the nutritional value of the crop while using as little energy as possible Womack also hopes that Genesis could be used for remote outposts on Earth too including areas subject to disaster and famine let's hope these crops taste as good as the technology behind them it's a Sierra way of life when you think about what human habitats in space look like most of us imagine cylindrical metal tubes and cramped spaces most of us don't imagine a big white beach ball looking thing and yet that's exactly what the Sierra life habitat is serving it's a large inflatable structure designed as a human habitation module in the vacuum of space this could make interplanetary living a lot simpler logistically as it's designed to expand after it's gone into orbit making it easier to launch and transport than something that requires Construction from afar it may look like a giant ball of wool but it's actually deceptively strong Sierra's outer shell is made of a tightly woven fabric called Vectren a multi-filament yarn spun from liquid Crystal polymer which is a staggering five times stronger than steel and at three stories tall and 27 feet in diameter the Sierra habitat can withstand considerable internal force and pressure just take a look at scientists conducting a burst pressure test on this prototype this test is allowing the pressure inside the habitat to exceed its maximum volume to check its safety and stability the buildup of pressure inside finally tears the fabric at 192 PSI or pounds of pressure per square inch which is more than five times the pressure used to inflate a car tire so the Sierra can definitely handle the pressure these experiments are vital to ensuring everything remains safe inside while in orbit when fully operational it'll also possess the technology to recycle air and water keeping our Footprints green and eco-friendly in space speaking of green inside it'll also have its own Astro Garden where everyone can grow food amongst its three floors it'll contain science labs robotic workstations medical Bays kitchens and sleeping quarters to maintain a normal human lifestyle well space exploration never looked so uh buoyant foreign Mission to Mars because Mars is relatively similar to Earth in terms of atmosphere and composition the little red planet is often thought of as Humanity's future home which is why space agencies have dedicated so much time and money to scoping it out one of the most important products of this effort is the Mars reconnaissance Orbiter launched in 2005 the Orbiter has been exploring the Martian atmosphere surface and water for more than 17 years in the hopes of understanding more about the planet its climate Sounder technology which was designed specifically for the Orbiter uses infrared light to detect how the weather and seasons change on Mars it's been the first spacecraft to discover evidence of carbon dioxide snow falling from the Martian Sky using this Tech and has many other Advanced features to boot its Imaging spectrometer which takes in light and converts it to digitized wavelengths has managed to uncover material evidence of water on the planet's surface using this spectrometer the Orbiter can identify minerals in bodies of water as small as a swimming pool while simultaneously covering the whole planet at a resolution of 650 feet now that's what you call multitasking this technology was the first to be used in a Mars mission and the images it returned were over 20 times sharper than the previous text sent there it's still being put to good use helping to find traces of life and ancient Seas underneath the red planet's surface and like that wasn't impressive enough the Orbiter relies on ground-breaking interplanetary internet and advanced telecommunications system which links back to Earth using significantly less power than other models it's Tech like this that'll provide a blueprint for telecommunication capabilities of future marscraft one thing's for sure the Mars Orbiter flew so that future spacecraft could soar space-based solar power more and more humans are finding increasingly Innovative and inventive ways of using natural resources to create sustainable power but there's one project that's looking for the ultimate sustainable energy solution in space specifically space-based solar power this would be achieved using giant satellite mirrors to reflect solar rays into smaller solar collectors this solar radiation would then be wirelessly beamed to Earth as either a microwave or laser beam creating a highway providing an ultimate source of solar energy these solar panels would produce 400 watts of electricity per square meter on Earth receivers two to three times the amount received from normal solar panels and because there's no clouds atmosphere or nighttime in space these highways would be able to harvest this solar radiation and beam it back to Earth 24 7. but for this to work the microwave transmitting satellites will need to be massive the solar reflectors on their own are predicted to span nearly two miles in diameter weighing in at over 80 000 metric tons at this gargantuan size each satellite would be capable of generating multiple gigawatts of power that'd be enough to power a major U.S city multiple different designs for what these could look like have been proposed with some designs supporting the panels on wings with the solar collector at its Center while the others are arranged in massive conical structures that direct everything straight to earth like a funnel regardless of the most efficient design China's pulling ahead in this sustainable Space Race they're expecting to launch a satellite by 2028 as a test and are hoping to receive as much energy as a nuclear plant generates by 2050.
the U.S Air Force intends to run their own tests by 2024 too seems like space-based solar panels are in high demand especially since this power would decarbonize economies keeping the price of energy at Bay well I'm in favor of any solution that works to keep my soaring energy bills down Life on Mars David Bowie once famously asked is there life on Mars classic tune aside it turns out that in the future there could be with advancing Technologies now being created faster than ever scientists have begun designing long-term homes with the ability to withstand the harsh environments of other planets NASA is currently ambitiously developing a large-scale 3D printer that can literally print out infrastructure in the hopes of putting habitants on the moon or Mars by the end of the decade on Mars itself the process would begin with testing Martian soil with various printing Technologies space agencies plan to send machines in advance of humans to harvest raw Martian materials and process them into forms that can be assembled into homes with our current understanding of the planet these habitats would be made from a mixture of Basalt fiber extracted from Martian Rock and renewable by bioplastic processed from plants grown on the red planet these non-toxic recyclable materials outperformed Concrete in NASA's strength durability and Crush testing so we would have ultimate protection from the elements one particular design of building called the Marsha is built in a beacon shape allowing it to contain multiple floors and rooms while the egg shape of the structure minimizes environmental stresses at the smaller base and top now temperatures in Mars can reach a freezing minus 81 degrees Fahrenheit but the Marsha would utilize a dual shell design isolating the interior Chamber from Mars's extreme temperature swings and with plenty of room as well well the floor plans of this place looks more spacious than my current apartment I think it's time I look at moving to Mars space elevator since space exploration began back in the 1960s Rockets have been the only way to send people and objects up into space but that's about to change with the development of the world's first space elevators extending from Earth's surface to a staggering altitude of 62 000 miles space elevators could extend almost a quarter of the way to the moon but that's insane right how would that even work well space agencies want to build motorized elevator pods that are powered up to space by a one long tether stretching up from a Spaceport at the Equator the elevator would lead to a space station in orbit overhead and the centrifugal forces of the Earth's rotation and a series of counterbalances would keep the entire structure Aloft the structure itself would need to be made of an ultra dense but ultra light material in order to make launching something of this size and scale into space feasible at the moment hopes are pinned onto the development of carbon nanotubes or graphene which can be manufactured to a thickness 80 000 times thinner than a single human hair while thin the molecular honeycomb structure of this material makes it 200 times stronger than steel at a fraction of the weight perfect for constructing a would-be space elevator with however it's incredibly difficult to manufacture meaning it can't currently be used but at a future date when it can be estimates assume that the structure alone would cost a mind-blowing 10 billion dollars to build but even at that outrageous price tag NASA claims it would be less risky and cheaper to fund than a lot of pre-existing space programs specialized tracks would allow the Pod to travel at speeds reaching thousands of miles per hour at much lower the cost than launching by spacecraft researchers figured that a 12 000 kilogram space shuttle payload would cost no more than seventeen thousand seven hundred dollars for an elevator trip to orbit a passenger with baggage at 150 kilograms might cost only 222 dollars so for the price of an airline ticket you too could travel up the intergalactic tube to space now it might seem like a future Innovation we won't be alive to witness but both China and Japan have started pre-construction work on Space elevators claiming they'll be complete as early as 2045. suddenly the future doesn't seem so far away which of these revolutionary Space Age Innovations would you most like to see in your lifetime and which ones do you think we'll see in action first let me know down in the comments below and thanks for watching [Music] foreign
2023-01-07 18:02
