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Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland (by mbphotograph)

Refueling at the Moon May Be the Best Option for a Piloted Mission to Mars

Launching humans to Mars may not require a full tank of gas: A new MIT study suggests that a Martian mission may lighten its launch load considerably by refueling on the moon.

Previous studies have suggested that lunar soil and water ice in certain craters of the moon may be mined and converted to fuel. Assuming that such technologies are established at the time of a mission to Mars, the MIT group has found that taking a detour to the moon to refuel would reduce the mass of a mission upon launch by 68 percent.

The group developed a model to determine the best route to Mars, assuming the availability of resources and fuel-generating infrastructure on the moon. Based on their calculations, they determined the optimal route to Mars, in order to minimize the mass that would have to be launched from Earth — often a major cost driver in space exploration missions.

They found the most mass-efficient path involves launching a crew from Earth with just enough fuel to get into orbit around the Earth. A fuel-producing plant on the surface of the moon would then launch tankers of fuel into space, where they would enter gravitational orbit. The tankers would eventually be picked up by the Mars-bound crew, which would then head to a nearby fueling station to gas up before ultimately heading to Mars.

Read more ~ SciTechDaily

Filling That Hole in Your Heart

Repairing defects and ruptures deep inside the body may have just gotten a whole lot less invasive. Up until now, fixing damaged cardiac tissue, ulcers, hernias and holes in other places within patients has meant serious surgery and sutures to bring tissue together so it can repair itself.

But researchers have unveiled a new, much less invasive procedure that harnesses a catheter equipped with inflatable balloons and ultraviolet-light-activated, biodegradable adhesive patches.

A team from Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital catheter has successfully used the device in animals to repair holes in organs without needing to resort to risky major surgery and stitches that can erode tissue over time. Learn more and see the device deployed on actual ruptured heart tissue below.