Celebrity Life

The Hotel Lobby – 5 design ideas to make a great one

The hotel lobby was already seen as an underrated place where its only function was to make people wait and nothing more, making it more like a passageway in the all hotel. Today that image is different, with the years passing hotel owners started to realize that this division was the key one to the visitor’s perspective and the one that would cause the biggest impact.

Continue reading The Hotel Lobby – 5 design ideas to make a great one at Luxxu Blog.

Living in space just got a lot more appealing, because the moon is getting 4G connectivity.

With competition among Earth's telecoms providers as fierce as ever, equipment maker Nokia announced its expansion into a new market on Monday, winning a deal to install the first cellular network on the Moon.

The Finnish equipment manufacturer said it was selected by NASA to deploy an "ultra-compact, low-power, space-hardened" wireless 4G network on the lunar surface, as part of the US space agency's plan to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon by 2030.

The US$14.1 million contract, awarded to Nokia's US subsidiary, is part of NASA's Artemis programme which aims to send the first woman, and next man, to the moon by 2024. The astronauts will begin carrying out detailed experiments and explorations which the agency hopes will help it develop its first human mission to Mars.

[caption id="attachment_211420" align="alignnone" width="1024"] NASA's Artemis programme aims to send the first woman, and next man, to the moon by 2024. (Image: Gaston De Cardenas/ AFP)[/caption]

Nokia's network equipment will be installed remotely on the moon's surface using a lunar hopper built by Intuitive Machines in late 2022, Nokia said.

"The network will self-configure upon deployment," the firm said in a statement, adding that the wireless technology will allow for "vital command and control functions, remote control of lunar rovers, real-time navigation and streaming of high definition video."

The 4G equipment can be updated to a super-fast 5G network in the future, Nokia said.

[caption id="attachment_211421" align="aligncenter" width="737"] Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969, in a photograph taken by Neil Armstrong. (Image: History in HD/ Unsplash)[/caption]

In all, NASA announced last week it would distribute US$370 million to 14 companies to supply "Tipping Point" technologies for its mission, which include robotics and new methods of harvesting the resources required for living on the moon, such as oxygen and energy sources. The bulk of the funding went to companies researching cryogenic propellants, freezing liquids used to fuel spacecraft.

Among them, Elon Musk's SpaceX received US$53.2 million for a demonstration of the transferring of ten metric tons of liquid oxygen between tanks on a starship vehicle, NASA said.

(Main image: Gaston De Cardenas/ AFP; Featured image: History in HD/ Unsplash)

The post The Moon Will Soon Get 4G Connectivity, Courtesy of NASA and Nokia appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

No brand has ever gone this far for a post on their socials.

The post Estee Lauder X NASA: A collab that’s out of this world appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

No brand has ever gone this far for a post on their socials.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

Can a small American aerospace company make its way to Venus before NASA's return?

That's what Peter Beck, the CEO of Rocket Lab, is hoping as he sets his sights on launching a low-cost probe to our superheated planetary neighbour in 2023.

Over the past decade his company has become very good at putting satellites into orbit — and his dream of taking the next step, an interplanetary mission, has received a shot of adrenaline recently with the surprising discovery of a gas linked to living organisms in Venus's corrosive, sulphuric atmosphere.

"What we're looking for on Mars is signs of previous life," Beck explains. "Whereas Venus, it's signs of potential life now."

[caption id="attachment_210861" align="alignnone" width="768"] The recent discovery by Earth-based radio telescopes of a gas called phosphine in Venus' atmosphere sparked a new wave of enthusiasm among scientists, who had for years defended the hypothesis that tiny organisms could live in the planet's clouds. (Image: NASA/ JPL-CALTECH/ AFP)
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With its hellish landscape, Venus has been largely neglected by the major space agencies since the 1980s in favour of the Solar System's more distant bodies.

Dozens of missions have notably been sent to Mars seeking signs of ancient microbes. But the discovery by Earth-based radio telescopes of a gas called phosphine in Venus' atmosphere, reported on September 14, sparked a new wave of enthusiasm among scientists who had for years defended the hypothesis that tiny organisms could live in the planet's clouds.

Phosphine isn't definitive proof of life. But it is possible its presence is linked to living organisms, as it is on our planet. The finding led NASA to declare it was time to once more prioritise Venus.

Beck, however, has always been in the pro-Venus camp, and for two years has been contemplating sending an entirely privately-funded probe there, he said.

[caption id="attachment_210865" align="alignnone" width="768"] An artist's rendering of the Photon spacecraft, developed by Rocket Lab. (Image: Handout - Rocket Lab/ AFP)[/caption]

He calculated, with the help of a PhD student, that a small satellite called "Photon" that Rocket Lab developed in-house could be adapted into a spacecraft for an interplanetary voyage. Such bids have historically been the domain of national space agencies, given the enormous costs involved -- but Beck thinks he has developed a budget solution.

"I would expect a mission to Venus to be sort of US$30 million," he told AFP by video from Auckland, New Zealand.

"When you can measure interplanetary missions in tens of millions of dollars instead of billions, and months instead of decades, the opportunity for discovery is just incredible," he said.

[inline_related_article article_id="153217,63884"]

Free-falling

Rocket Lab's specialty is sending small satellites into Earth orbit with its small 18-metre high rocket — a highly lucrative market in recent years as demand for microsatellites has exploded.

The company's Venus probe will be very small, weighing around 80 pounds (37 kilograms) and just a foot (30 centimetres) in diameter. The trip from Earth will take 160 days, then Photon will launch the probe into Venus' clouds, where it will take readings as it falls, without a parachute, at almost 25,000 miles per hour (11 kilometres per second).

The probe will have between just 270 and 300 seconds to analyse an atmosphere that is almost a hundred times denser than Earth's before it disintegrates or crashes on the planet's fiery surface, where temperatures are hot enough to melt lead (900 degrees Fahrenheit, or 480 degrees Celsius). The hardest part is deciding on the scientific instrument: What molecules should it look for?

Miniaturisation is another problem. The probe will need to weigh seven pounds (three kilograms), which some experts doubt is possible, but Beck disagrees.

[caption id="attachment_210862" align="alignnone" width="768"] Rocket Lab's CEO Peter Beck expects his company's mission to Venus to cost around US$30 million. (Image: Kimberly White/ Getty Images North America/ AFP/ File)[/caption]

Rocket Lab will need help from leading scientists, and has already recruited MIT astronomer and planetary scientist Sara Seager.

The adventure is the latest chapter in a new era of space exploration fuelled not by governments but by individual curiosity and ambition, one that so far has been best symbolised by Elon Musk, the iconoclastic founder of SpaceX. SpaceX revolutionised the sector through its reusable rockets that have now sent astronauts to the International Space Station, and has its sights set on colonising Mars.

NASA is no longer afraid to subcontract missions to privateers, and Rocket Lab will be paid US$10 million to send a microsatellite into lunar orbit in 2021.

As for Venus, Beck would like to offer his services to NASA. The space agency is considering returning to Venus, but not until 2026 at the earliest. Its last Venus orbiter was Magellan, which arrived in 1990, but other vessels have made fly-bys since then.

"We want to do many, many missions a year," said the young CEO.

(Main image: NASA/ JPL-CALTECH/ AFP; Featured image: Handout - Rocket Lab/ AFP)

The post Could There be Life on Venus? A US Aerospace Company Plans to Find Out appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Luxury means different things to different people. And while it can mean “expensive,” it doesn’t have to be that way. Transforming a room – or an entire house – can be done on a tight budget with a little creativity and know-how. Here are a few tips for getting the unique, luxurious space that you […]

The post 7 Tips for Making Your Interior Design Unique and Luxurious appeared first on Upscale Living Magazine.

As people stay home, Nasa's content will bring people virtually together on April 22 to explore Nasa tech, space discoveries, and space-flight experiences.

The post Nasa to mark Earth Day with exciting online shows and social media videos appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

As people stay home, Nasa's content will bring people virtually together on April 22 to explore Nasa tech, space discoveries, and space-flight experiences.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

Come late 2021, four seats aboard Space X’s Crew Dragon capsule will be sold to aspiring cosmonauts for somewhere shy of US$52 million.

The post Space Adventures joins forces with Space X for its latest foray into the stars appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

Come late 2021, four seats aboard Space X’s Crew Dragon capsule will be sold to aspiring cosmonauts for somewhere shy of US$52 million.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.