The New Capsule That Could Transport Astronauts To Space

How Much Would It Cost To Live On Mars? [Infographic]

Mars Lander Concept Wikimedia Commons

 

PopSci - Somebody--no one remembers exactly who--once said that there are three things that matter in real estate: location, location, location. And so it seems: a cramped, roach-ridden studio apartment in Manhattan's West Village will run you $36,000 a year; a cramped little lander with inflatable rooms on Mars will cost something in the neighborhood of $200 million.

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Airships Offer Alternative Stairway to Space

Discovery News - In the 2009 Pixar animated cartoon “Up” a widower affixes hundreds of balloons to his house and floats high above the clouds and between continents.

An idea that may sound equally preposterous is to float a very large ballooned vehicle right up to the edge of space — and then give it a boost into orbit.

SCIENCE CHANNEL: Shocking Balloon Ride

On Oct. 22, the altitude record for lighter-than-air craft was broken when an airship launched from Nevada’s Black Rock desert ascended to 95,085 feet. After one of two tandem balloons affixed to a 30-foot long carbon airframe burst, a command was sent to release the other balloon and the vehicle parachuted back home.

It’s designers, the California-based company JP Aerospace that builds military balloons, say this is just the beginning of a plan to loft a manned station to 200,000 ft. It would serve as a gateway to low Earth orbit.

Talk about up, up and away, as the rock group The Fifth Dimension crooned in 1967.

BIG PIC: Flying Saucer-Shaped Airship Could Carry Cargo

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