HackingTheUniverse

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On Sunday, August 1, 2010, the side of the Sun facing the Earth erupted with a “coronal mass ejection” and a lot of other activity. This is a when a huge bubble of gas throws a large blob of plasma out into space and in this case it’s streaming toward Earth at a very high [...]

Astronomers have detected the spectrum signature of ice on an asteroid called 24 Themis in the main belt. They believe the thin coating of frost on the 200 kilometer wide rock is constantly being evaporated by the Sun and then replenished from an interior supply deep inside the rock. Astronomers Find Water On Asteroid’s Surface [...]

Governments are organized for the purpose of common defense and the well being of the group. In a nomadic tribe, there is little to defend in the way of territory, structures or possessions, so the form of government is usually minimal and often casual. The tribe can simply pick up and move on to escape [...]

Commerce in space will be driven by the demands of exchange and the economic factors involved. Raw Materials: Air and water are likely to be in high demand and even if they become somewhat abundant, will always remain treasured for their inherent importance. Food will be mostly manufactured locally, assuming you have the raw materials [...]

Space vehicles that are designed primarily for space travel alone will be unlike craft that are designed for navigating in an atmosphere. There is no need to consider aerodynamics in space or stress related to strong gravitational fields. Instead, they need to have strong hull integrity and if they are designed to rotate to create [...]

Before attempting to predict how commerce will occur in space or how government will be designed to regulate it, it is important to understand how the basic economic factors will be changed. Comparison of Economic Elements On Earth ELEMENT In Space free AIR expensive cheap WATER expensive moderate FOOD moderate expensive ENERGY cheap expensive TERRITORY [...]

In space, the dividing line between what is considered to be a habitat and what is considered to be a vehicle will become hazy. Large habitat-like structures can be put into orbits that offer transport from one place to another and from one orbit to another. A habitat placed in an orbit that goes from [...]