knowledge is power. They could be keeping it from us. Or they could be keeping it from other nations.
Yeah, I've looked at all angles. I still don't beleive it's right. But then the conspiracy world consensus seems to be a lot of this stuff was taken out of government power and taken into the private sector, so no one is under any obligation to tell us anything anyway. Just more money for the richest of the rich. But anyway, apologies for taking the science thread off topic.
This is incredible, it's been around for a while, and scientists still don't understand why this thing works: " NASA CONFIRMS THAT THE ‘IMPOSSIBLE’ EMDRIVE THRUSTER REALLY WORKS, AFTER NEW TESTS By Rick Stella — November 3, 2015 66 Subscribe on YouTube Engineer Roger Shawyer’s controversial EmDrive thruster jets back into relevancy this week, as a team of researchers at NASA’s Eagleworks Laboratories recently completed yet another round of testing on the seemingly impossible tech. Though no official peer-reviewed lab paper has been published yet, and NASA institutes strict press release restrictions on the Eagleworks lab these days, engineer Paul March took to the NASA Spaceflight forum to explain the group’s findings. In essence, by utilizing an improved experimental procedure, the team managed to mitigate some of the errors from prior tests — yet still found signals of unexplained thrust. Isaac Newton should be sweating. Flying in the face of traditional laws of physics, the EmDrive makes use of a magnetron and microwaves to create a propellant-less propulsion system. By pushing microwaves into a closed, truncated cone and back towards the small end of said cone, the drive creates the momentum and force necessary to propel a craft forward. Because the system is a reaction-less drive, it goes against humankind’s fundamental comprehension of physics, hence its controversial nature. On the NASA spaceflight forums, March revealed as much as he could about the advancements that have been made with EmDrive and its relative technology. After apologizing for not having the ability to share pictures or the supporting data from a peer-reviewed lab paper, he starts by explaining (as straightforward as rocket science can get) that the Eagleworks lab successfully built and installed a 2nd generation magnetic damper which helps reduce stray magnetic fields in a vacuum chamber. The addition reduced magnetic fields by an order of magnitude inside the chamber, and also decreased Lorentz force interactions. However, despite ruling out Lorentz forces almost entirely, March still reported a contamination caused by thermal expansion. Unfortunately, this reported contamination proves even worse in a vacuum (i.e. outer space) due in large part to its inherently high level of insulation. To combat this, March acknowledged the team is now developing an advanced analytics tool to assist in the separation of the contamination, as well as an integrated test which aims to alleviate thermally induced errors altogether. Related: Explaining EmDrive, the ‘physics-defying’ thruster even NASA is puzzled over While these advancements and additions are no doubt a boon for continued research of the EmDrive, the fact that the machine still produced what March calls “anomalous thrust signals” is by far the test’s single biggest discovery. The reason why this thrust exists still confounds even the brightest rocket scientists in the world, but the recurring phenomenon of direction-based momentum does make the EmDrive appear less a combination of errors and more like a legitimate answer to interstellar travel. Eagleworks Laboratories’ recent successful testing is the latest in a long line of scientific research allowing EmDrive to slowly shed its “ridiculous” title. Though Shawyer unveiled the device in 2003, it wasn’t until 2009 that a group of Chinese scientists confirmed what he initially asserted to be true — that is, that filling a closed, conical container with resonating microwaves does, in fact, generate a modest amount of thrust towards the wide end of the container. Although extremely cautious about the test, the team in China found the theoretical basis to be correct and that net thrust is plausible. The thing is, the initial reaction on this theory (especially from the west) was met with polite skepticism. Though the published work showed the calculations to be consistent with theoretical calculations, the test was conducted at such low power that the results were widely deemed to be useless. Luckily, this didn’t stop the good folks over at NASA from giving the EmDrive a spin, resulting in an official study that was conducted in August of 2013. After deliberating on the findings, the space agency officially published its judgment in June of the following year before presenting it at the 50th Joint Propulsion Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. NASA concluded the RF resonant cavity thruster design does produce thrust “not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon.” In other words, NASA confirmed Shawyer’s initial prognosis (much like the team of Chinese scientists), but couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation as to why the thing works outside of, “it just does.” Related: NASA confirms ‘impossible’ thruster actually works, could revolutionize space travel Moving forward, NASA’s short term objective is to conduct a diverse array of tests on a quantum vacuum plasma thruster (a similar propellantless engine flatter in shape than the EmDrive), in hopes of gaining independent verification and validation of the thruster. Initial IV&V testing will be supported by the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, making use of a stainless steel vacuum chamber which has the capacity to detect force at a single-digit micronewton level, called a low-thrust torsion pendulum. After that, a similar round of low-thrust torsion pendulum tests will then be conducted at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory before comparing the findings. It’s also reported that the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has contacted the lab about conducting Cavendish Balance-type testing of the IV&V shipset. Ideally, this test would allow Johns Hopkins to measure the amount of gravitational force exerted in propellantless engines. At this time, it’s unknown when Eagleworks Laboratories intends to officially publish its peer-reviewed paper, but even so, just hearing of the EmDrive’s advancements from one of its top engineers bodes well for the future of this fascinating tech." So to put it plainly, this might be the discovery that allows us to travel space like we've always imagined in science fiction. It doesn't even matter if we can't figure out how to generate enough thrust with the EmDrive to escape the Earth's atmosphere, once in space, it doesn't need any fuel, so it can theoretically propel any spacecraft an infinite distance (as long as the parts don't break down) because there is no resistance in space to slow the craft down the way there is in an atmosphere. This might be the most important discovery ever, for the future of space travel.
" Transparent Aluminum Now A Reality By Edwin Kee on 11/03/2015 The way mankind has progressed is impressive to say the least, and what was once in the realm of science fiction has once again, become reality. What am I referring to? Well, I remember transparent aluminum in Star Trek: The Voyage Home? Well, it seems that transparent aluminum is as real as it gets today, thanks to US Naval Research Laboratory scientist Dr. Jas Sanghera who described it as “actually a mineral, it’s magnesium aluminate. The advantage is it’s so much tougher, stronger, harder than glass. It provides better protection in more hostile environments—so it can withstand sand and rain erosion.” Being a more durable material, it will boast of a thinner layer of spinel which is touted to deliver a better level of performance as opposed to glass. When one takes weight-sensitive platforms such as UAVs (unmanned autonomous vehicles), and head-mounted face shields, you can be sure that this is a technology that will change the way we see the world work. Sanghera further describes the manufacturing process, so to speak, “You put the powder in [a hot press], you press it under vacuum, squash this powder together—and if you can do that right, then you can get rid of all the entrapped air, and all of a sudden it comes out of there clear-looking.” When the sheet is fresh off the press, it will be ground and polished before being refined further into other uses like bulletproof glass. Should the cost come down in due time, then consumer applications will also benefit, including smartphones and watches. " http://www.ubergizmo.com/2015/11/transparent-aluminum/?hash=e1df7c3c-6923-4bec-bf9e-995ad2b3c3aa
"NASA just saw something come out of a black hole for the first time ever Trent Moore Wed, Nov 04, 2015 12:03pm 444KSHARES You don’t have to know a whole lot about science to know that black holes typically suck things in, not spew things out. But NASA just spotted something mighty strange at the supermassive black hole Markarian 335. Two of NASA’s space telescopes, including the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), miraculously observed a black hole’s corona “launched” away from the supermassive black hole. Then a massive pulse of X-ray energy spewed out. So, what exactly happened? That’s what scientists are trying to figure out now. “This is the first time we have been able to link the launching of the corona to a flare,” Dan Wilkins, of Saint Mary’s University, said. “This will help us understand how supermassive black holes power some of the brightest objects in the universe.” NuSTAR’s principal investigator, Fiona Harrison, noted that the nature of the energetic source is “mysterious,” but added that the ability to actually record the event should provide some clues about the black hole's size and structure, along with (hopefully) some fresh intel on how black holes function. Luckily for us, this black hole is still 324 million light-years away. So, no matter what strange things it’s doing, it shouldn’t have any effect on our corner of the universe." http://www.blastr.com/2015-11-4/nasa-just-saw-something-come-out-black-hole-first-time-ever
Lots of weird and interesting things happening in science right now, hummm...... "Scientists may have just found proof of a parallel universe leaking into our own Trent Moore Thu, Nov 05, 2015 3:44pm 5.4KSHARES The concept of a parallel universe is well-trodden territory in science fiction (See: The CW’s Flash for a recent example), but scientists might’ve just spotted some legitimate proof of the multiverse — and it looks like it’s leaking into ours. As Inverse reports, the Planck telescope has been mapping the cosmic microwave background (CMB) leftover from the early days of the universe. Turns out, it might’ve found something of cosmic importance. Caltech cosmologist Ranga-Ram Chary compared the CMB map with a shot of the night sky captured by the Planck telescope. The effort spotted a patch of light 4,500 times brighter than it should be. His paper posits it could be proof of another universe literally “bumping” into our own, as this collision would look very different than anything we’ve seen before. Something 4,500 times brighter in CMB than it should be? Yeah, that seems to fit the bill. If true, it would mean this universe bumped into ours just a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang. It’s also possible that insane brightness could be bleeding over from a universe packed with electrons and protons, which could account for some of the energy. Of course, a caveat: This is just one theory to explain the findings, and it’s obviously on the long shot side of the spectrum. But, the discovery is fascinating regardless — and the multiverse explanation makes as much (if not more) sense than any other theory out there. Don't start assembling your team of Sliders just yet, but it's interesting nonetheless. Just to be safe, someone better call The Illuminati — we could have an incursion on our hands from the Ultimate Universe (Sorry, Marvel Comics joke, there -Ed). Or, you know, maybe it’s just Jay Garrick trying to bust through from Earth-2 for a quick visit. " http://www.blastr.com/2015-11-5/sci...found-proof-parallel-universe-leaking-our-own
Regarding that new propulsion system, see my posts on the last page. We had the SR-71 Blackbird in '64-'66, and the government wants to tell me that in 50 years the technology we have hasn't gotten much better in that area, while it's increased in every other area to kind or ridiculous levels? Not buying it. They might disclose stuff to us slowly, but they've had stuff way beyond what we know. All you have to do is look at Ben Rich saying years ago we now have the technology to take ET home, a statement that seems to get ignored. Regarding the black hole thing, science constantly acts like they know how everything in space works, how it should work, how it must work, and I find that as laughable as people hundreds of years ago thinking they knew everything about science. The geniuses at the top of their field who laughed at the guy who suggested germs might be a thing and hands should be washed between surgeries and baby deliveries. Anyway, I ramble, it's nice to see stuff like that black hole discovery reported, and some stuffy scientist not standing up and saying it must be a mistake, because we know everything and that couldn't happen. Seems the "laws" of physics and such keep getting broken all the time the more we learn about the universe. I should add I really enjoy reading these. I probably sound like a downer, but I love scientific discoveries, at least those that are allowed to be reveled to us.
Trick Your Brain While Watching This Black And White Image Turn To Color http://www.littlethings.com/trick-y...e=LTcom&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=misc
" Scientists have figured out what we need to achieve secure quantum teleportation We've got this. FIONA MACDONALD 11 DEC 2015 researchers have demonstrated the precise requirements for secure quantum teleportation – and it involves a phenomenon known 'quantum steering', first proposed by Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger. Before you get too excited, no, this doesn't mean we can now teleport humans like they do on Star Trek (sorry). Instead, this research will allow people to use quantum entanglement to send information across large distances without anyone else being able to eavesdrop. Which is almost as cool, because this is how we'll form the un-hackable communication networks of the future. Quantum teleportation isn't new in itself. Researchers have already had a lot of success quantum teleporting information over 100 km of fibre. But there's a slight issue – the quantum message was getting to the other end kinda incoherent, and scientists haven't exactly known what to do to prevent that from happening, until now. "Teleportation works like a sophisticated fax machine, where a quantum state is transported from one location to another," said one of the researchers, Margaret Reid, from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia. "Let’s say 'Alice' begins the process by performing operations on the quantum state – something that encodes the state of a system – at her station. Based on the outcomes of her operations, she communicates (by telephone or public Internet) to 'Bob' at a distant location, who is then able to create a replica of the quantum state," she explains. "The problem is that unless special requirements are satisfied, quantum mechanics demands that the state at Bob’s end will be 'fuzzed up'." The researchers have now shown that to avoid this, Alice and Bob (or anyone else who wants to send an entangled message) need to use a special form of quantum entanglement known as 'Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering'. "Only then can the quality of the transported state be perfect," said Reid. "The beauty is that quantum mechanics guarantees that a perfect state can only be transported to one receiver. Any second 'eavesdropper' will get a fuzzy version." Basically, in this quantum steering state, the measurement of one entangled particle can have an immediate 'steering' effect on the state of another distant particle. The researchers will continue to investigate this phenomenon to figure out how it can be used to more reliably communicate using quantum entanglement. This research has been published in Physical Review Letters. " http://www.sciencealert.com/scienti...-need-to-achieve-secure-quantum-teleportation
NASA has known for years that Mars had water. The question was more along the lines of how much? I believe they also never had actual concrete evidence until now so it was a breakthrough in the sense that they finally had concrete proof of water. I believe they chose Gale Crater as the landing site because that's where they speculated had a high chance of water, and as a result, potential evidence of life.
While Mars has water, we're 99% certain there's no life there. It's a dead planet. I think the most interesting place in our solar system currently uninvestigated is Europa. Under the frozen layer, there's an ocean covering the entire moon. There are plans to send a prob there to drill through the frozen layer and drop a prob in the ocean to investigate but who knows when this will happen.
I saw this and it's funny, but some people are trying to recreate this in a little space game called "Kerbal Space Program" where you manage a NASA like program. Unfortunately the games limitations make it so that mods are necessary to keep everything loaded. Still a fun project.
" The Case of the So-Called Alien Megastructure Just Got Weirder Maddie Stone Today 5:45pm Filed to: ALIENS! 90.2K 33125 It’s probably not aliens. Seriously guys, it’s very, very unlikely that it’s aliens. But the weird, flickering star known as KIC 8462852 still isn’t sitting right with astronomers. In fact, it just got a lot weirder. Ever since KIC 84628532 was spotted in the Kepler Space Telescope’s dataset, astronomers have puzzled over what the heck could be responsible for the star’s logic-defying light curve. Over four years of observational data, KIC 8462852 flickered erratically, its light output sometimes dropping by as much as 20%. That’s highly unusual stellar behavior, and it can’t be explained by a transiting planet. Some astronomers proposed that KIC 8462852 might be occluded by a swarm of comets. Others suggested aliens. Specifically, astronomer Jason Wright tossed out the idea that the star’s weird distortion might be the result of a giant alien construction project—you know, like a Dyson sphere. The idea electrified the citizens of Earth and mobilized a worldwide SETI search for hard evidence of our celestial neighbors. Sadly, two independent searches, for radio signals and laser beams—both of which could indicate a technological society—didn’t pan out. (And remember, we’ve confused inexplicable observations for aliensmany, many times before.) But according to a study just released arXiv, the comet hypothesis is now falling flat, too, and the mystery of KIC 8462852 has deepened considerably. While Kepler only has a few years of data on the star, astronomer Bradley Schaefer of Louisiana State University decided to look at photographic plates of the sky dating back to the late 19th century. To his amazement, he learned that over the last hundred years, KIC 8462852's light output has steadily faded by about 19%, something that’s “completely unprecedented for any F-type main sequence star.” “This presents some trouble for the comet hypothesis,” Tabetha Boyajian, a lead researcher on the team that originally discovered the star, told New Scientist. “We need more data through continuous monitoring to figure out what is going on.” Indeed, it’s hard to imagine either aliens or natural celestial bodies dampening a star’s light output that much over such a short period of time. It’ll be a while yet before we’ve solved the mystery of KIC 8462852. But this is what’s great about scientific discovery. Literally all possible explanations are on the table at this point—and the truth about this tantalizing star could be more fascinating than we ever imagined." http://gizmodo.com/the-case-of-the-...utm_source=io9_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
