62 Mile Club

Source: Gizmodo

NASA has kicked off a competition among university engineers to design an inflatable habitat that is “light-weight, safe, and reliable” to house future astronauts “in space and on other planetary bodies.” On the line is $58,000.

The eXploration Habitat (or X-Hab) “lofts,” as NASA is chicly terming them, must be designed to sit as an expansion atop the agency’s existing hard shell prototype, which will include (cramped) spaces for activities like suit maintenance and geological research. The challenge, open to all university seniors and graduate students, is intended to spur interest and research in math, science, and engineering, and will honor each of three winning teams with $48,000 and a shot to field test their prototype for a final ten grand.

Full article here.

Dr. Madhu Thangavelu*, an architect and engineer who is a professor at U.S.C.   sent me a document on his or a lunar humanity center and retirement complex. The paper was first presented in 1998 at ASCE Space Conference, Alburquerque, New Mexico and has undergone several edits over the years.

CONCEPT FOR A LUNAR HUMANITY CENTER AND RETIREMENT COMPLEX_July_2010

* Madhu is also a 62MileClub Face of Space.

Since Science-Fiction  is still an  inspiration for many space enthusiasts, I thought the pics on the Sci Fi Air Show website might be worth sharing.

Space in the mainstream:

• Buzz Aldrin interview in Vanity Fair.
• Mining as a model for the Commercial Space Industry (from my friend, Eva-Jane Lark).
• Models in space suits close Paris menswear shows.
• Internation Space Station Bans Sex.

Sci-Trek: Resources on the Moon Video at YourDiscovery.com.