vantablack

British researchers at Surrey NanoSystems created an extremely black material out of woven strands of extremely thin carbon nanotubes (10,000 times thinner than human hair) on aluminium foil. Although Surrey NanoSystems has been tight-lipped about their methods, the material's name gives us clues: Vanta in Vantablack is an acronym for "vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays."

The carbon nanotubes are packed together into a dense forest. The nanotubes allow photons (light) in but stop them from bouncing back out. This is because carbon nanotubes are very effective in absorbing many forms of radiation.

Because light doesn't reflect off the Vantablack, we aren't able to see the texture of the material. In fact, the Vantablack is so black that we can only perceive it by seeing the space around it. Scientists described this experience as looking into the black hole.

Surrey NanoSystems is selling or planning to sell this material to military and aerospace sectors, where it could be used to make stealthcraft, stealth weapons, and more sensitive telescopes.

space elevator

the benefits

for years scientists and engineers toyed with the idea of a space elevator that would allow people to transport cargo from earth to the moon at fraction of the cost (as well environmental cost) of launching rockets. whoever to build the space elevator first would reap vast economical benefits. 

1. companies would clamour to use the space elevator to send satellites and other cargo into space at low prices. it would be cheaper to send, maintain, and repair satellites.

2. colonizing the moon, planets, and satellites in a cheaper and more wide-scale way.

3. companies would like to build large-scale manufacturing facilities in zero-g at affordable prices. 

4. space tourism at more affordable prices.

5. able to send materials into space that would harness solar power.

these benefits would transform the global economy, much like (or even surpassing) the effects of the industrial revolution.

the structure

material: the discovery of carbon naotubes in 1991 finally made the space elevator seem possible.  carbon nanotubes can be up to 100 times stronger than steel and as flexible as plastic.

                         

 

every space elevator design so far has these basic components:

a really heavy counterweight (asteroid?)
strong, light, flexible carbon nanotube cable (so far, we can make carbon nanotubes that are only 30 cm long)

so far, japan's obayashi corporation plans to make a space elevator by 2050, but these plans are tentative.

jpl open house 2015

"i'll be there in fifteen," i told my friend suyu, cheerfully unaware of the bumper-to-bumper traffic that would await me on the 210 freeway. "it's, like, five minutes away."

thirty minutes later i found myself stuck between gould and oak grove with my phone ringing angrily beside me. out of the eleven of my friends who promised to carpool with me, only two remained. the threat of getting stuck in california traffic and standing in lines under 100 degrees heat overruled the desire to see exploration rovers, and i didn't blame them.

the traffic would probably thin out past the rose bowl, i thought naively. i vaguely remembered hearing about a game. it was strange that people were coming so early to see a game, because surely they weren't all trying to get to jpl. science was important but since when did it draw out such large crowds?
 
but it apparently did. once i met with my friends, we realized we had to call an Uber driver to pick us up and drop us off about a mile away from jpl. we were the lucky ones; floods of people walked from even further away. once we arrived there, sweating and out of breath from art center-induced lack of exercise, we waited in line at the entrance. we laughed nervously about feeling out of place between hardcore space nerds (characterized by their "occupy mars" and "nasa" t-shirts) and science aficianados (noted by their long and science-y words.) we were suddenly struck by how much we didn't know about all those science-y things, even though we realized how important it was to know about them.

despite the sweltering heat and long lines, we came away satisfied and a little more thoughtful about the science we'd encountered. we listened to lectures from friendly, passionate jpl scientists and stuffed our bags with neat stickers, holographic badges, and pamphlets with pretty (albeit threatening) infographics about climate change.

one thing that really took us aback was the apparent simplicity of jpl's machines. for some reason (because of hollywood, probably,) we expected to see complicated, arcane tools and materials. there was probably a lot more to those tools than we could see with our laymen eyes, but it made us realize that science wasn't just this thing that very smart people did with their million-dollar materials and equipment in lab coats. it wasn't necessarily unreachable, and it was incredible what they achieved with these machines and materials.

(Up to down: 1. "The Search For Another World"  The Habitable Zone, Confirmed, Candidates, 2. Rover running over some kids, 3. Spacecraft assembly, 4. Mars Science Laboratory, 5. Mars exploration rover)