There must be something important in GAIA’s near future! We’ve learned that GAIA director, William Brighton, recently turned down a speaking engagement with the New London Science Fellowship for next week. Either the director has some urgent GAIA business to attend to or a holiday in cooler climes is just too much for him to resist this time of year. He was recently sighted boarding a private jet at the GAIA airfield. We’ll keep our ears to the ground!

The neutral buoyancy tanks were in full use today as some of our astronauts tried on their space legs.  The buoyance of the water is a perfect way to simulate EVA (extra-vehicular activity).  Here in our picture you see astronauts Macon Cook and Mark Dickinson in our largest tank with a mockup of an as yet unnamed space vehicle.  This tank holds 22.7 million gallons of water along with whatever gear needs to be mounted for training sessions.  It looks like these two astronauts are passing with flying colors!

Talk about the perfect holiday gift!  The new Hewitt Hyper-Plasma Engine prototype that Dr. Hewitt and her team have been working so diligently on for the last four years has had it’s very first successful test run!

The new test engine was designed by Dr. Elizabeth Hewitt and built by her team at Guanajuato.  Based on existing Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rockets (VASIMR), Hewitt’s design increases the efficiency and maximum output of existing designs ten-fold.  Utilizing an off-the-shelf fusion power source, the Hewitt Hyper-Plasma Engine (HHPE) ionizes hydrogen into plasma then supercharges the resulting plasma into hyper-plasma which is directed out of each engine’s magnetic nozzle and harnessed as thrust.  Superconducting magnets powered by the fusion reactor excite and contain the plasma and hyper-plasma.  Hewitt’s design is expected to have a long list of applications in space travel but may not become an important source of power on Earth since it must operate within a vacuum.

Cheers to the team for reaching this important milestone!

The GAIA team got into the holiday spirit this year in spite of the relentless heat here in Guanajuato, NM.  The AC was cranked and the team members broke out their jackets and gloves.  A wonderful time was had by all.  Happy holidays!