autoevolution 20 Apr 2021, 15:44 UTC ·
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If there is one thing we can say about space exploration, it is that this field of human enterprise sure is packed with crazy ideas. We’ve explored a bunch of them this April during autoevolution’s Space Month and in part thanks to NASA’s recently-announced Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. And we’re not nearly done. 1 photo
Coming today from the NIAC world is something called APPLE. That’s not the Apple you think, but short for Atomic Planar Power for Lightweight Exploration. We know, that doesn’t explain much, but read on.
The concept, created by Joseph Nemanick from the Aerospace Corporation, is described as
autoevolution 16 Apr 2021, 14:21 UTC ·
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Back in 2017, a University of Hawaii telescope discovered a strangely-shaped object we ended up calling Oumuamua. Some claimed it was an alien spaceship, others just a piece of interstellar rock that just happened to wander into our solar system, but the sad reality is we’ll never know. 1 photo
That’s because the damn thing was too far away to see properly. When first detected, it was at a distance of 21 million miles (33 million km), but it was already on its way towards the Sun and fast. We presently have no spacecraft capable of chasing it and taking close-ups.
autoevolution 14 Apr 2021, 15:27 UTC ·
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Ever since we began taking a closer look at the projects included by NASA in the Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program as part of our Space Month coverage, we’ve seen some incredible, at times mind-twisting, concepts. None of them is, however, as extreme as this one here. 1 photo
In fact, the idea is so out of this world that it’s not even properly explained yet, and doesn’t even have a name. All its creator, Glenn Research Center s Steven Oleson, has to say about it is that the endeavor is
“an order of magnitude more difficult [.] than other sample return missions.” Yet NASA found it appealing enough to back it in the early stages of the NIAC program.
How A Young Outsider Turned Failing Vimeo Into A Billion-Dollar Company
Jamel Toppin for Forbes
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Seven
years ago, Vimeo had Hollywood dreams. The internet video outfit owned by Barry Diller’s IAC had found a niche hosting flicks for artsy filmmakers who didn’t want their works to be tossed into YouTube’s unruly, ad-driven stew. But it was a tiny, money-losing business with annual revenue under $40 million. Vimeo was pinning its hopes on the booming streaming business, betting it could leverage its relationship with creatives to build a subscription service to rival Netflix, Amazon Prime and HBO. It hired studio execs from Paramount and Hulu and signed distribution deals with Lionsgate, CBS Interactive and Spike Lee for content to stock the new service.
Having telescopes up in space has dramatically improved our understanding of the Universe. Freed from the noise, both visual and otherwise, caused by humans and their activities here on Earth, these machines gave us a new dimension of how things work out there in the great void.