Pooooossstts .... iiinnn .... Spaaaaacceee!

[unixronin]

Two tidbits here.

First, zaitcev passes on a report from Spaceflight Now in the failure iof SpaceX's Falcon 1 launch from Kwajalein at 2230Z today.  The Falcon 1 was lost about 70 seconds into the stage 1 burn; it appears the cause may have been a malfunction or failure of the main engine turbopump.  The last video from the onboard camera shows the booster apparently beginning an uncontrolled roll, after which the video signal was lost abruptly.

In more abstract, but at the same time more potentially earthshaking, news, james_nicoll came up with this article about the discovery by ESA-sponsored researchers of a gravitomagnetic field induced by a spinning superconductive flywheel.  (To non-physicists, at a first approximation that's "artificial gravity".)  No gravitomagnetic field has ever previously been detected; the field generated in this experiment, while only 100 μG in strength, is 10²⁰ times larger than predicted by general relativity.  (Look what we're saying here, though:  100 μG generated by what appears in this larger photo to be pretty much a bench-top experiment.)

The result can be explained by assuming that gravitons gain mass, in a manner analogous to the mass gain of photons by which quantum theory explains the electromagnetic properties of superconductors.  If the observed result can be independently reproduced and verified, it could help develop a quantum theory of gravity, and might someday lead to a gravitomagnetic spacedrive or to artificial gravity for spacecraft.