Jeff Bezos' former housekeeper is suing the Amazon founder for workplace discrimination that she says forced her to literally climb out out the window of his house to use the bathroom.

In the suit, filed this week in a Washington state court, the former housekeeper claimed that she and Bezos' other household staff were not provided with legally-mandated eating or restroom breaks, and that because there was no "readily accessible bathroom" for them to use, they had to clamber out a laundry room window to get to one.

In the complaint, lawyers for the ex-housekeeper, who is described as having worked for wealthy families for nearly 20 years, wrote that household staff were initially allowed to use a small bathroom in the security room of Bezos' main house, but "this soon stopped... because it was decided that housekeepers using the bathroom was a breach of security protocol."

The suit also alleges that housekeepers in the billionaire's employ "frequently developed Urinary Tract Infections" that they believed was related to not being able to use the bathroom when they needed to at work.

"There was no breakroom for the housekeepers," the complaint adds. "Even though Plaintiff worked 10, 12, and sometimes 14 hours a day, there was no designated area for her to sit down and rest."

The housekeeper — who, like almost all of her coworkers, is Latino — was allegedly not aware that she was entitled to breaks for lunch or rest, and was only able to have a lunch break when Bezos or his family were not on the premises, the lawsuit alleges.

The Washington Post owner has denied his former housekeeper's claims of discrimination through an attorney.

"We have investigated the claims, and they lack merit," Harry Korrell, a Bezos attorney, told Insider of the suit. "[The former employee] made over six figures annually and was the lead housekeeper."

He added that the former housekeeper "was responsible for her own break and meal times, and there were several bathrooms and breakrooms available to her and other staff."

"The evidence will show that [the former housekeeper] was terminated for performance reasons," he continued. "She initially demanded over $9M, and when the company refused, she decided to file this suit."

As the suit was just filed and may well end in a settlement, it'll likely be a long time, if ever, before we find out what really happened at Bezos' house — but if we do, it'll be a fascinating peek behind the curtain at the home life of one of the world's most powerful and wealthy men.

More on billionaires: Tesla Morale Low As Workers Still Don't Have Desks, Face Increased Attendance Surveillance

The post Jeff Bezos' Housekeeper Says She Had to Climb Out the Window to Use the Bathroom appeared first on Futurism.

Read more here:

Jeff Bezos' Housekeeper Says She Had to Climb Out the Window to Use the Bathroom

Observatory Offline

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory in Chile has been hit with a cyberattack that has taken its website offline and forced it to suspend all observations, authorities there said.

Even email services were limited in the aftermath, illustrating the broad impact of the hack.

Nested high up on a plateau in the Chilean Andes at over 16,000 feet above sea level, ALMA is one of the most powerful and advanced radio telescopes in the world. Notably, ALMA helped take the first image of a black hole in 2019, in a collaborative effort that linked radio observatories worldwide into forming the Event Horizon Telescope.

Thankfully, ALMA's impressive arsenal of 66 high-precision antennas, each nearly 40 feet in diameter, was not compromised, the observatory said, nor was any of the scientific data those instruments collected.

In High Places

What makes ALMA so invaluable is its specialty in observing the light of the cooler substances of the cosmos, namely gas and dust. That makes ALMA a prime candidate for documenting the fascinating formations of planets and stars when they first emerge amidst clouds of gas.

Since going fully operational in 2013, it's become the largest ground-based astronomical project in the world, according to the European Southern Observatory, ALMA's primary operators.

So ALMA going offline is a distressing development, especially to the thousands of astronomers worldwide that rely on its observations and the some 300 experts working onsite. Getting it up and running is obviously a top priority, but the observatory said in a followup tweet that "it is not yet possible to estimate a date for a return to regular activities."

As of now, there's no information available on who the hackers were, or exactly how they conducted the attack. Their motivations, too, remain a mystery.

More on ALMA: Astronomers Think They Found the Youngest Planet in the Galaxy

The post Hackers Just Took Down One of the World's Most Advanced Telescopes appeared first on Futurism.

Read this article:

Hackers Just Took Down One of the World's Most Advanced Telescopes

You know that "research" going around saying humans are going to evolve to have hunchbacks and claws because of the way we use our smartphones? Though our posture could certainly use some work, you'll be glad to know that it's just lazy spam intended to juice search engine results.

Let's back up. Today the Daily Mail published a viral story about "how humans may look in the year 3000." Among its predictions: hunched backs, clawed hands, a second eyelid, a thicker skull and a smaller brain.

Sure, that's fascinating! The only problem? The Mail's only source is a post published a year ago by the renowned scientists at... uh... TollFreeForwarding.com, a site that sells, as its name suggests, virtual phone numbers.

If the idea that phone salespeople are purporting to be making predictions about human evolution didn't tip you off, this "research" doesn't seem very scientific at all. Instead, it more closely resembles what it actually is — a blog post written by some poor grunt, intended to get backlinks from sites like the Mail that'll juice TollFreeForwarding's position in search engine results.

To get those delicious backlinks, the top minds at TollFreeForwarding leveraged renders of a "future human" by a 3D model artist. The result of these efforts is "Mindy," a creepy-looking hunchback in black skinny jeans (which is how you can tell she's from a different era).

Grotesque model reveals what humans could look like in the year 3000 due to our reliance on technology

Full story: https://t.co/vQzyMZPNBv pic.twitter.com/vqBuYOBrcg

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) November 3, 2022

"To fully realize the impact everyday tech has on us, we sourced scientific research and expert opinion on the subject," the TollFreeForwarding post reads, "before working with a 3D designer to create a future human whose body has physically changed due to consistent use of smartphones, laptops, and other tech."

Its sources, though, are dubious. Its authority on spinal development, for instance, is a "health and wellness expert" at a site that sells massage lotion. His highest academic achievement? A business degree.

We could go on and on about TollFreeForwarding's dismal sourcing — some of which looks suspiciously like even more SEO spam for entirely different clients — but you get the idea.

It's probably not surprising that the this gambit for clicks took off among dingbats on Twitter. What is somewhat disappointing is that it ended up on StudyFinds, a generally reliable blog about academic research. This time, though, for inscrutable reasons it treated this egregious SEO spam as a legitimate scientific study.

The site's readers, though, were quick to call it out, leading to a comically enormous editor's note appended to the story.

"Our content is intended to stir debate and conversation, and we always encourage our readers to discuss why or why not they agree with the findings," it reads in part. "If you heavily disagree with a report — please debunk to your delight in the comments below."

You heard them! Get debunking, people.

More conspiracy theories: If You Think Joe Rogan Is Credible, This Bizarre Clip of Him Yelling at a Scientist Will Probably Change Your Mind

The post That "Research" About How Smartphones Are Causing Deformed Human Bodies Is SEO Spam, You Idiots appeared first on Futurism.

Follow this link:

That "Research" About How Smartphones Are Causing Deformed Human Bodies Is SEO Spam, You Idiots

Spaceplane Buddy

After launching into orbit roughly three months ago, China's top-secret spaceplane has released a mysterious object, which is now circling the Earth behind it, SpaceNews reports.

There's very little we know about China's "reusable experimental spacecraft," except that it launched atop a Long March 2F rocket back in August. We don't know its purpose, what it looks like, or what cargo it was carrying during launch — but it's an intriguing development, nonetheless, for China's reusable launch platform.

Mysterious Object

The object was released between October 24 and October 31, according to tracking data being analyzed by the US Space Force's 18th pace Defense Squadron.

We can only hazard a guess as to what the mysterious object's purpose is. According to Harvard astronomer and space tracker Jonathan McDowell, it "may be a service module, possibly indicating an upcoming deorbit burn."

Based on the size and weight of payloads Long March rockets usually carry, China's mysterious spaceplane is likely similar to the Air Force's X-37B spaceplane, which is similarly shrouded in mystery and currently on its sixth mission.

We also don't know when the Chinese model will make its return back to Earth, but given recent activity at the Lop Nur base in Xinjiang suggests, it may land there in the near future, according to the report.

It's a puzzling new development for China's secretive spacecraft — but it does raise the possibility of a renewed interest in spaceplanes, a potentially affordable and reusable way to launch payloads into orbit.

More on the spaceplane: China Launches Mysterious "Reusable Test" Spacecraft

The post Chinese Spaceplane Releases Mystery Object Into Orbit appeared first on Futurism.

Read more here:

Chinese Spaceplane Releases Mystery Object Into Orbit

The first orbital test flight of SpaceX's Starship vehicle won't get off the ground in August.

SpaceX is targeting a six-month window that opens on Sept. 1 for the highly anticipated mission, according to a radio-spectrum license application (opens in new tab) that the company filed with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

That license was granted on Wednesday (Aug. 10), according to the Twitter account FCC Space Licenses (opens in new tab), which keeps tabs on such things. But this approval is not the final regulatory hurdle that Starship must clear on the way to the launch pad.

Photos: SpaceX lifts huge Super Heavy rocket onto launch stand

"Reminder, this is not the same as a launch license. It is a specific radio license for the test vehicles and does not indicate a change in status. Please do not make a YouTube video or write a 20,000 [word article] about this," FCC Space Licenses, which is not a U.S. government account, wrote in another Wednesday tweet (opens in new tab). (This article is only about 400 words long, so hopefully it's still in bounds.)

SpaceX apparently still hasn't received a launch license for the Starship orbital test flight, which will lift off from the company's Starbase facility in South Texas. Launch licenses are the purview of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which recently wrapped up a lengthy environmental assessment of Starship activities at the site.

Starship consists of a giant first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship. Both elements are designed to be fully reusable, and both will be powered by SpaceX's next-generation Raptor engines 33 for Super Heavy and six for Starship.

The duo that will fly the coming orbital mission are Booster 7 and Ship 24. SpaceX has begun prepping both prototypes for the task; for example, the company conducted "static fire" engine tests with both vehicles on Tuesday (Aug. 9) at Starbase.

Booster 7 lit just one of its 33 engines on Tuesday, and Ship 24 fired up two of its six Raptors. So a lot of work remains before SpaceX clears the duo for an orbital flight meaning it was never likely that the mission would lift off in August, even if all the paperwork were already in order.

There is a high-profile launch scheduled for this month, however: NASA is currently targeting Aug. 29 for the liftoff of Artemis 1, the first mission in its Artemis program of moon exploration. Artemis 1 will use a Space Launch System rocket to send an uncrewed Orion capsule on a roughly six-week mission to lunar orbit and back.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There (opens in new tab)" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).

See more here:

SpaceX's Starship won't make 1st orbital launch this month | Space

Akiko and Dennis Tito at SpaceXs Starbase facility in South Texas. Credit: SpaceX

Dennis Tito, an 82-year-old aerospace engineer-turned-financial analyst who paid Russia $20 million for a trip to the International Space Station in 2001, is working with SpaceX on plans to take his wife on what amounts to a belated honeymoon voyage to the moon.

In an interview with CBS Mornings, Tito said he and his wife of two years want to fly on Elon Musks futuristic Starship for the sheer adventure of it. They also want to inspire senior citizens who might think their horizons are increasingly limited.

And they want to play a part in humanitys initial steps out into the solar system.

Ive been thinking about flying to the moon for the last 20 years, since my space flight, Tito said. And here we were at SpaceX (recently) and they were interested in talking about a space flight. And I brought it up. And within a few minutes, we both were on board.

In a television interview Monday at SpaceXs sprawling Starship development complex near Brownsville, Texas, Tito and his Tokyo-born wife Akiko, 57, said they hope to blast off with 10 other yet-to-be-named passengers, booked by SpaceX, within the next five years or so, after the rocket completes a series of test flights.

We will be able to watch the Earth get smaller, and smaller and smaller, and the moon get larger, and larger and larger, Tito said, describing the planned trajectory. We will then, upon emerging from the far side of the moon, see the Earth from a perspective only the Apollo astronauts have enjoyed to date.

We will be literally out of this world, he said.

As it now stands, their voyage presumably would follow two other piloted flights of the Super Heavy/Starship rocket: one to Earth orbit, presumably with billionaire Jared Isaacman, who funded the first private orbital flight aboard a Crew Dragon capsule in 2021; and an around-the-moon flight chartered by Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa.

Its not known when those missions might get off the ground or how much they might cost. Likewise, Tito would not discuss how much hell be paying for two seats aboard the Starship.

Whatever the amount, its obviously worth it to a man who describes his space station visit two decades ago as 100 percent enjoyment, adding Ive been thinking about it every day since.

One of the things I hope to do, we both hope to do, is inspire people that as we get older, there are so many things we still can do, Tito said. And flying in space actually is a lot easier than a lot of other things. I mean, Im beyond the age of skiing, but space is a lot easier than that.

Said Akiko Tito, a real estate investor and jet pilot: Like Dennis said, I think age is just a number. We just want to inspire people and especially me, inspire women, you know, young women (who) want to become a pilot in the future, want to become astronaut. You know, work hard and make it happen.

Star Trek actor William Shatner, then 90, set the age record last year when he flew to the edge of space aboard a sub-orbital New Shepard spacecraft. The oldest person to reach orbit was the late John Glenn, who was 77 when he flew aboard a space shuttle in 1998.

Tito could be nearing 90 himself when he finally gets his Starship flight, but he told CBS Mornings correspondent Janet Shamlian hes in better shape now than when he launched aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to become the first so-called space tourist.

I am probably in better physical shape than I was 21 years ago, he said, because Ive taken up weightlifting in a serious way. And I wasnt able then to manage the kind of weight I can manage now. So I think Im in better shape.

But realizing it could be several years before he blasts off aboard the as-yet-untried Starship, weve engaged in upping our physical fitness activities and health monitoring to really make sure that were going to be in shape for many years into the future.

The regimen includes weight training in a fully equipped home gym along with walking and running on a quarter-mile track outside his house. The couple also has a Pilates studio.

Were not counting on (launching) next year, Tito said. So we have to stay in good shape, which is a great motivational thing for us because a lot of people when they reach my age, you know, will sit in a rocking chair and wait for the inevitable.

Akiko Tito said she started working out on a daily basis 20 years ago and now trains for beauty and fitness competitions that focus on total physical fitness. And then you have to be elegant as well at the same time.

She said she had no hesitation about joining her husband for a flight to the moon.

I know him very well, so, yes, here we go, you know? she said. I wanted to join him. So here we are. We want to make it happen together, as a couple.

Born in Tokyo, Akiko Tito holds a degree in economics and moved to New York in 1995 to work on Wall Street while raising a daughter. She and Tito were married in 2020 during the COVID outbreak.

So we didnt have a chance really to have a honeymoon, Tito said. Then, laughing, he added, so maybe this is our honeymoon.

The 394-foot-tall Starship will be the worlds most powerful rocket when it finally takes off, generating a staggering 16 million pounds of thrust from the 33 methane-burning Raptor engines powering its Super Heavy first stage twice the liftoff thrust of NASAs $4.1 billion Space Launch System moon rocket.

SpaceXs upper stage the Starship is equipped with six Raptor engines and will be capable of carrying passengers and payloads to the moon and beyond. Both stages are fully reusable and will descend to tail-first landings back on Earth using similar software and techniques perfected using the companys smaller Falcon 9 rockets.

The Starship upper stage has been launched seven times on low-altitude test flights, four of which suffered catastrophic failures during the landing sequence. The most recent test flight in May 2021 was fully successful.

Every time a rocket explodes, you learn something, Tito said. So the more rocket explosions we see, the better because then well get all the bugs out of it.

The Super Heavy first stage has not yet been launched. SpaceX is in the process of testing its engines and other critical systems before a test flight to boost an unpiloted Starship into orbit for the first time, possibly before the end of the year.

SpaceX already holds a $2.9 billion NASA contract to develop a variant of the Starship to serve as the initial lunar lander in the agencys Artemis moon program.

Under the current plan, astronauts launched aboard the agencys third piloted SLS rocket will dock with a Starship in lunar orbit and descend to touchdown near the moons south pole in the 2025-26 timeframe. SpaceX is required to carry out an unpiloted test flight, complete with moon landing, before the Artemis 3 mission.

To reach the moon with enough propellant for landing and takeoff, SpaceX plans to refuel the Starship lander in Earth orbit using multiple flights of Super Heavy/Starship tankers. Its not yet known what role refueling might play in Titos mission.

Whether SpaceX can perfect the huge rocket and test it to NASAs satisfaction by 2025-26 remains to be seen.

SpaceX does not provide details about its schedule and its not known how the NASA mission will fit in with the companys plans to launch the other two currently planned Starship missions before Tito and his wife get their turn.

Isaacman, who funded the first private-flight Inspiration 4 to low-Earth orbit in September 2021 using a Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon capsule, has announced plans for three more private missions with SpaceX, including one aboard a Crew Dragon that will feature the first spacewalk by a private citizen.

Isaacmans three-flight Polaris project could include the first piloted flight of the Super Heavy/Starship in Earth orbit, although no details are yet available.

Billionaire entrepreneur and art collector Maezawa, founder of ZoZotown, one of Japans largest retail websites, also has booked a Super Heavy/Starship flight to carry him and several companions on the first privately-funded passenger flight around the moon.

Titos flight presumably will follow Maezawas, but its not known whether one or both will precede NASAs lunar landing mission or whether Tito will get his wish within five years as hoped.

Were prepared to wait as long as it takes to get everything perfected, Tito said.

Read more:

Dennis Tito, first space tourist, books trip around the moon on SpaceX's Starship Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

Tomorrow, people around the world will get the chance to see the first-ever Indigenous woman in space in a live-streamed in-flight interview withNicole Aunapu Mann (Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes).

NASA selected Mann to become an astronaut in 2013. She is a California native with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Mann is a Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps and served as a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet. Additionally, she deployed twice aboard aircraft carriers to support combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I didnt figure that out until a little bit later on in life as a young girl growing up in Northern California, Mann said. I was certainly interested in math and science, but I didnt really realize that being an astronaut was in the realm of possibility. So it wasnt until I was flying jets in the Marine Corps, looking at my future career options, that I started looking at potentially becoming a test pilot and, from there, an astronaut. It took me a little time to get it all figured out.

Do you appreciate a Native perspective on the news?

For the past decade-plus, weve covered the important Indigenous stories that are often overlooked by other media. From the protests at Standing Rock and the toppling of colonizer statues during the racial equity protests,to the ongoing epidemic of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) and the past-due reckoning related to assimilation, cultural genocide and Indian Boarding Schools, we have been there to provide a Native perspective and elevate Native voices.

Our news is free for everyone to read, but it is not free to produce. Thats why were asking you to make a donation this month to help support our efforts. Any contribution big or small helps us remain a force for change in Indian Country and continue telling the stories that are so often ignored, erased or overlooked. Most often, our donors make a one-time gift of $20 or more, while many choose to make a recurring monthly donation of $5 or $10. Whatever you can do, it helps fund our Indigenous-led newsroom and our ability to cover Native news.

Donate to Native News Online today and support independent Indigenous journalism. Thank you.

Continued here:

NASA to Host In-Flight Interview with First Indigenous Woman in Space, Nicole Aunapu Mann - Native News Online

Sam Moore, Executive Director of the Moonshot Museum, joined FOX Weather to give a preview of the museum as it opens on Saturday.

PITTSBURGH A visit to the new Moonshot Museum in Pittsburgh is all the convincing you should need that Western Pennsylvania is about to enter the same class as well-known space towns such as Houston, Cape Canaveral and Huntsville with storied roles in spaceflight.

Focusing on the achievements of present and future space exploration, the Moonshot Museum is the only place in the country where you can watch engineers in a clean room work on a robot destined for another world without special access.

That experience is possible because the museum is located within Astrobotic's headquarters on Pittsburgh's north side. The lunar logistics and robotic company set aside 3,000 square feet to make room for the nonprofit museum and provide a window into their work.

"The real spark is when people step into the space for the first time, and they go, 'Oh, you weren't kidding. I am 10 feet away from a lunar spacecraft right now. I am waving through the glass to the engineers who are building, technicians who are building the spacecraft on the other side of the glass.'" Moonshot Museum Executive Director Sam Moore said.

ULA TARGETS EARLY 2023 FOR FIRST VULCAN ROCKET LAUNCH FROM CAPE CANAVERAL WITH MOON LANDER

Astrobotic is currently targeting early 2023 to launch the Peregrine moon lander, a mission that will carry the first NASA payloads to the moon under the Artemis program, setting the stage for a human landing in 2025.

Astrobotic engineers work on the Peregrine lunar lander at the company's headquarters in Pittsburgh, which is also home to the Moonshot Museum where visitors can see views into the cleanroom. (Image credit: Astrobotic)

Astrobotic's mission control is also located in the same building. During a mission, the museum will transform to be a seat at the table in mission control. All the screens in the building will carry a live feed from mission control, and the museum has events planned around the Peregrine moon landing.

The museum held a few soft openings ahead of the grand opening Saturday. The reactions so far validate the unique experience now open to everyone.

Moore said a local college student and space enthusiast became emotional when she saw the clean room for the first time.

"That moment where she could come in and stand on the other side of the glass. Take a look at this work that's happening behind me," Moore said, pointing to the clean room. "It was an overwhelming moment for her, and it was very, very cool to be here for that."

Among the goals of the nonprofit museum is to make sure their guests know there is a place in space for them, especially visiting students of all ages. While astronauts and rocket scientists are well-known career paths, making any space mission possible requires many different jobs.

"The reality is that it takes folks who can work on HVAC systems, and it takes folks who can market the space industry," Moore said. "It takes policymakers, and it takes designers to inspire the next generation of spacecraft."

A visitor to Moonshot can experience real space industry challenges, including assembling a lunar lander, finding a site for a moon base and learning how to survive in the lunar environment. The concept is that each interactive exhibit will introduce visitors to real careers within the space industry.

The Moonshot Museum has partnered with Pittsburgh Public Schools, Carnegie Mellon University, Saint Francis University and STEM education nonprofits to develop student-driven experiences. Moore said the museum will work specifically with both middle school and high school students to make sure those students know that, "space is on the menu for them in Pittsburgh."

"We want to get people up close to this work," Moore said. "We want them to find their place in the future of space exploration, and we want them to leave knowing that this is happening here in their backyard and that they can be involved in it."

The museum will be open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children and free for children 2 and under.

Go here to read the rest:

Pittsburgh's Moonshot Museum offers a window into space exploration by inviting you to be part of it - Fox Weather

Enterprise mounted to the top of a modified Boeing 747 during OV-101 Flight 7 on October 12, 1977. The Shuttles Tail Cone was removed for this mission, exposing its mock engines. Photo: NASA

Prior to the inaugural launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981, NASA conducted a series of performance tests with a prototype known as Enterprise. Named for the fictional Star Trek vessel, Enterprise provided our first glimpse of what a future spaceship might actually look like.

When I was a kid, I loved to play with my toy Enterprise Shuttle, which rested comfortably on top of its corresponding toy 747 jet airliner. NASAs Space Shuttle had not yet launched to space (yes, Im dating myself here), yet my imagination was already soaring, as I envisioned the black-and-white spaceplane soaring through the celestial void.

As an adult, I still hold a soft spot for Enterprise. The intrepid prototype set the stage for NASAs a 4.5-million-pound space truck, despite it never reaching orbit.

Visit link:

Remembering Enterprise: The Test Shuttle That Never Flew to Space - Gizmodo

After the USSR launched Sputnik 1 in 1957, the space race quickly gained momentum. A decade later, the first space probe that entered the atmosphere of another planet while still operational did so successfully 55 years ago today, on October 18, 1967. Venera 4 arrived on Venus and began sending data about the planets atmosphere until it lost contact thereafter, also making it the first space probe to send data from inside the atmosphere of another planet.

The spacecraft revealed more than any mission previously had about another planet, but the mission also alluded to how the USSR was managing its public image when it came to the space race.

Venera 4 landed on Venus just one day before the arrival of Mariner 5, a US spacecraft originally destined for Mars that had been modified and sent to our sister planet to collect data on its atmosphere, but as a flyby mission with no probe, marking a minor space race victory for the USSR.

Interestingly, although you might have thought that the Russians would concentrate on Mars, it being a Red Planet, they actually concentrated on Venus for a lot of the Soviet era, Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Institute, member of the Chandra X-ray Telescope team, and a space history archivist, tells Inverse.

Venera 4 mission prior to launch.Sovfoto/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

While the USSR set its sights primarily on Venus, it hadnt entirely forgotten about Mars.

According to McDowell, Americans were focusing on Mars, and [the Soviets] knew they couldnt beat the Americans at Mars. But, come to think of it, they did try Mars a number of times, [but] they just kept failing. They kept failing at Venus as well, but they tried enough with Venus that they eventually had some success.

The USSR actually had a Mars program where similar to NASAs approach with the Mariner 5 spacecraft, the same spacecraft design was used for both Mars and Venus.

They [the USSR] launched a bunch of them, and a lot of them failed before getting out of Earth orbit. So, they got codenames like Kosmos 21. Translation: it got as far as Earth orbit and then died, McDowell says.

In fact, there has been an entire slew of Kosmos missions since 1962. As of 2013, there were at least 2500. That is a lot of failed missions.

Initially, two versions of Venera 4 were constructed and launched. The second one launched just five days after the first, but it never left Earth orbit due to an engine malfunction. Unsurprisingly, given the USSRs modus operandi, this mission earned itself the name Kosmos 167.

What made Venera 4 stand out from its predecessors wasnt simply that it arrived at Venus intact without overheating before reaching the atmosphere like Venera 3 but also that the space probe was engineered to survive for a relatively long time once inside of the planets hot and high-pressure atmosphere, particularly compared to what we are used to here on Earth.

The surface pressure of Venus exceeds 75 times that of Earths at sea level (measured in bars), and temperatures can reach up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit.

Trying to make a piece of hardware that can survive crushing pressures and all those temperatures is not easy. Especially if you're trying to have parachute strings that dont melt, McDowell explains. The idea is that once it's down to a certain altitude, it releases a parachute and then floats down and lands on the surface and then makes measurements of temperature and pressure on the surface. But, in fact, it returns temperature and pressure data on the way down.

An example of Soviet space propaganda. Buyenlarge/Archive Photos/Getty Images

Despite the fact that after entering the atmosphere, the Venera 4 rapidly lost connection, the Soviets were confident that the probe had landed on the planets surface.

They [the Soviets] initially claimed it had landed. But later, they realized it hadnt. It just landed on the top of a very tall mountain, McDowell says. And then later they realized, no, actually, it was crushed in the atmosphere before it hit the surface. It took a long time before the Soviets kind of went back on it. Once Venera 7 landed successfully, like quietly, you know, [the USSR] started listing Venera 4 as not having landed.

The manufactured story about Venera 4s (faux) landing became another example of the USSRs tendency towards secretiveness and their tendency to dictate history as they desired, as opposed to how it actually happened.

Nonetheless, the incorrect interpretation of Venera 4s landing ultimately became attributed to the radio altimeter. It would give the same radio signal signature every 18 miles. This effect is called aliasing and makes altitudes that are a certain distance apart indistinguishable. Initially, the Soviet scientists interpreted the first signal to come from an altitude of 16 miles, which was thought to be approximately where the cloud tops were with respect to the surface (though, this was unconfirmed).

Were this the case, Venera 4 would have successfully landed. However, due to inconsistencies with other data, it later became clear that the actual altitude of the first signal was from 34 miles above the surface and that the ship never made it to the ground intact.

Illustration of the Venera 9 spacecraft on the surface of Venus. MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Science Photo Library/Getty Images

Regardless of Venera 4s controversial, or supposed landing, on Venus, it provided important scientific insights.

Venera 4 carried a number of instruments on board designed to collect data relevant to the characterization of Venus atmosphere including gas analyzers, an altimeter, thermometers, a barometer, an atmospheric density gauge, and radio transmitters. All of these were contained within a 844-pound lander probe.

The main bus that had carried the lander and detached from it prior to its descent through the Venusian atmosphere measured that the planet had a weak magnetic field, but detected no radiation belts.

Prior to Venera 4, the temperature, pressure, and composition of the atmosphere were largely up for debate. While it was largely thought the planet was hot, one paper from MIT proposed that Venus was experiencing an ice age. Estimates for surface pressures ranged from several to thousands of atmospheres.

Finally, on October 18, 1967, Venera 4s lander entered the Venusian atmosphere. The space probes cabin decelerated 300 Gs upon descent and its heat shield reached temperatures of 19,830 degrees Fahrenheit. But it returned valuable information for future Soviet missions to Venus, including successful landers.

To sum up, it was the first in situ confirmation that Venus' lower atmosphere was indeed very hot (something that was suggested from prior remote microwave observations), Emmanuel Marcq tells Inverse. Marcq is a professor in atmospheric science at Universit de Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines (UVSQ) and at Laboratoire Atmosphres, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS) who specializes in telluric atmospheres and particularly the atmosphere of Venus.

It did pave the way for later missions that could reach and operate at the surface, like Venera 9 and 10 in 1975 (more historically significant in my opinion: first pictures taken from the surface of another planet, a few months before NASA's Viking pictures from Mars), Marcq says.

The data had been useful in 1967 to validate the atmospheric models that scientists had already predicted for the planet, but in the same sense that the geologic data from Venera 8 is still used for studies today, can data from the Venera 4 be helpful in the same way?

The fact that it was a Soviet mission more than 50 years old does not help in that regard (even some data from Apollo or later Viking missions cannot be read anymore because the digital file formats used back then were not documented and the scientists/engineers involved are now retired and/or dead...), said LeMarcq.

Venera 4 was a leap forward at the time, providing important data for scientists and meant big strides in aeronautical engineering. Fifty-five years later, it still has its place as a major landmark in space exploration history and serves as a reminder of revisionist history.

Original post:

55 years ago, Russia changed spaceflight forever and lied about it a little - Inverse

Ranked: The Worlds Most Surveilled Cities

This may come as a surprise, but it wasnt until 2007 that the global urban population overtook the rural population. At that time, the two groups were split nearly 50/50, with around 3.3 billion people apiece.

Today, the percentage of people living in urban areas has grown to over 55%, and is expected to reach 68% by 2050. Due to this trend, many of the worlds largest cities have become home to tens of millions of people.

In response to such incredible density, governments, businesses, and households have installed countless security cameras for various purposes including crime protection. To grasp the scale of this surveillance, weve taken data from a recent report by Comparitech to visualize the most surveilled cities in the world.

Excluding China for the time being, these are the worlds 10 most surveilled cities.

Figures rounded

The top four cities all belong to India, which is the worlds second largest country by population. Surveillance cameras are playing a major role in the countrys efforts to reduce crimes against women.

Further down the list are cities from a variety of countries. One of these is Russia, which has expanded its use of surveillance cameras in recent years. Given the countrys track record of human rights violations, activists are worried that facial recognition technology could become a tool of oppression.

The only U.S. city on the list is Los Angeles, which contains some of the countrys wealthiest neighborhoods and municipalities. That includes Beverly Hills, which according to the Los Angeles Times, has over 2,000 cameras for its population of 32,500. That translates to about 62 cameras per 1,000 people, meaning that Beverly Hills would finish at #2 in the global ranking if it were listed as a separate entity.

IHS Markit estimates that as of 2021, there are over 1 billion surveillance cameras installed worldwide. The firm also believes that 54% of these cameras are located in China.

Because of limited transparency, its impossible to pinpoint how many cameras are actually in each Chinese city. However, if we assume that China has 540 million cameras and divide that amongst its population of 1.46 billion, we can reasonably say that there are 373 cameras per 1,000 people (figures rounded).

A limitation of this approach is that it assumes everyone in China lives in a city, which is far from reality. The most recent World Bank figures suggest that 37% of Chinas population is rural, which equates to over 500 million people.

With this in mind, the number of cameras per 1,000 people in a Tier 1+ Chinese city (e.g. Shanghai) is likely far greater than 373.

Chinas expansive use of cameras and facial recognition technology has been widely documented in the media. These networks enable the countrys social credit program, which gives local governments an unprecedented amount of oversight over its citizens.

For example, Chinas camera networks can be used to verify ATM withdrawals, permit access into homes, and even publicly shame people for minor offences like jaywalking.

This might sound like a dystopian nightmare to Western audiences, but according to Chinese citizens, its mostly a good thing. In a 2018 survey of 2,209 citizens, 80% of respondents approved of social credit systems.

If youre interested in learning more about surveillance in Chinese cities, consider this video from The Economist, which explores the opportunities and dangers of comprehensive state control.

View original post here:

All of the World's Spaceports on One Map - Visual Capitalist

Backdropped by a blue and white part of Earth, space shuttle Discovery is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 26 crew member as the shuttle approaches the International Space Station during STS-133 rendezvous and docking operations. Docking occurred at 2:14 p.m. (EST) on Feb. 26, 2011. Photo: NASA

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe:

For three decades, the Space Shuttle program carried 355 astronauts into orbit on 135 missions.

And it took a team of thousands of engineers, technicians and other employees to keep the program flying. A new documentary When We Were Shutte tells the stories of those working behind the scenes and what the program meant to them.

Well speak with director Zackary Weil about the film.

Then, SpaceX is making progress on its Starship spacecraftand work continues here in Florida at the Kennedy Space Center. Well hear from NASA Spaceflight dot coms managing editor Chris Gebhardt about the latest from Starbase and KSC.

RSVP to the Thursday, October 20 screening of When We Were Shuttle at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Your trusted news source for the latest Central Florida news, updates on special programs and more.

WMFE Journalistic Ethics Code | Public Media Code of Integrity

Read this article:

From the Space Shuttle to Starship | 90.7 WMFE - WMFE

Richard Parker has 29 years of experience in the space industry. He is currently head of space insurance at Canopius and divisional president of Assure Space, an underwriting agency that provides space insurance, which he co-founded in 2011.

As we enter a new frontier of space development, the insurance industry is playing a key role in propelling space endeavors.

Considering that a typical telecommunications satellite in geostationary orbit costs around $200 million, and launching it into its proper orbit costs another $100 million, space insurance is essential for financing commercial space ventures.

Commercial human spaceflight has arrived. Rockets from companies run by Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk are regularly going to space. Massive satellite constellations in low-Earth orbit are being built to provide global satellite services.

And new commercial missions are being planned to return humans to the moon and to explore Mars by the end of the decade. These endeavors represent both opportunities and risks for space insurers.

Most space-related insurance to date has centered around the satellite services on which modern life increasingly depends.

In our interconnected, data-driven world, spacecraft provide a vital link in telecommunications and internet infrastructure. Satellites enable internet, television, banking, Earth observation, the Global Positioning System (GPS), weather, national defense, and communication between cell towers and networks in remote areas.

With increasing satellite launches driven by demand for broadband, the need to replace older satellites, and more regular resupply schedules for the International Space Station (ISS), considerable opportunities exist for space insurers.

Spacecraft and the rockets that launch them are becoming increasingly more complex, as are the business applications that ensure their seamless integration into our daily lives. This, combined with a limited number of launches per year and the potential for large losses, makes space insurance one of the most challenging types of insurance to underwrite.

In addition, two new challenges are significantly affecting the core business of space insurers.

The first is the risk of collision due to an increasing number of objects in low-Earth orbit. The deployment of over 2,000 satellites for Starlink and OneWeb into an already-congested environment containing both active and derelict satellites and rocket bodies has greatly raised the probability of collision. Recent anti-satellite demonstrations have added to the amount of both trackable and un-trackable debris in these orbits.

Potential regulation surrounding debris in low-Earth orbit is possible, as space debris could ultimately cause significant losses for space insurers and limit the use of certain orbits. How it will be cleaned up and who will fund these efforts could affect space insurance in terms of risk analysis and the potential to insure debris removal operations.

Tracking technology, automatic collision avoidance systems, debris removal, and in-orbit servicing also have the potential to reduce the risk of collision.

The second new challenge facing space insurers is the introduction of new launch vehicles. Several companies are currently developing rockets, both small and large.

For these vehicles to be commercially successful, they will need paying customers, who in turn will need insurance, for early flights. Insurers will then have to decide whether to insure the first, second, or third launch of a new rocket.

Renewed interest in space exploration, as well as the predicted rise of the space-for-space industry (when goods and services are produced in space for use in space), are fueling a number of emerging space endeavors. For example, NASA is working on multiple moon missions as a prelude to returning humans to the moon by 2024 and establishing a potential staging point for traveling onto Mars.

Many of these missions will be implemented by the commercial space industry. Their objectives will include mapping, demonstrating technology, and exploring the moons natural resources.

Many other countries are also working on moon missions; some will orbit the moon, others will land, and some will deploy rovers for detailed exploration. Canopius is already considering the requirements for space insurance for all or elements of these missions.

Space tourism is another new project. In addition to buying a seat on a commercial rocket into space, a private citizen can pay NASA to take a trip to the ISS.

To date, most space tourism has been funded by high-net-worth individuals who have not typically sought insurance. As additional players enter the market, they will need access to both insurance and funding for cutting-edge space projects.

The space insurance industry cautiously welcomes growth in commercial space endeavors. New launch vehicles, new satellite technology, and ambitious space missions require careful analysis of the design, manufacture, and testing of the hardware.

Underwriters need to be comfortable with the heritage, margins, and redundancy of these programs. Policy expertise is needed to ensure that the coverage is appropriate and addresses all potential scenarios. Financial modeling of individual space insurance risks and the overall space portfolio is necessary to calculate premium, establish strategy, and ensure results.

Much excitement in the space industry stems from innovative ideas that are pushing well beyond the boundaries of traditional space exploration or commercial satellite use.

Many space-related entrepreneurial business opportunities are being explored. Some of these include sending objects to space for the sole purpose of raising their value once back on Earth, increasing use of Earth observation combined with artificial intelligence, assembling spacecraft with components already in space, expanding the internet of things, and mining asteroids for materials to construct habitats or fueling stations.

Indeed, a boom in the space-for-space economy is not only possible, its expected. It may soon be possible to assemble commercial satellites in space, further reducing risk and launch costs. Again, insurers will facilitate these opportunities by providing coverage for the first-party physical loss of the assets involved, likely a requisite to secure funding.

Evolving legislation opens the possibility for additional space-related risks and resulting insurance implications. Increased regulation of the commercial space industry is imminent as the congressionally-mandated learning period surrounding space travel ends in 2023.

The commercial space industry, worried about onerous regulations slowing progress made in space travel, may be in direct opposition to those members of Congress who feel space travel should be regulated like commercial aviation.

Space insurance is important for both existing and future commercial space endeavors. It provides financial protection for current satellite operators, new entrepreneurs, and investors in an industry facing potential significant losses due to collisions in orbit, failure of launch vehicles or spacecraft, and loss of human life.

If insurers pull back from space by reducing exposures or coverage, or dramatically increasing premiums, the effect will be felt across the whole space industry. &

View original post here:

Where No Policy Has Gone Before: Insuring the Risks of Doing Business in Space - Workers Comp Forum

Study indicates that noninvasive exosome-based liquid biopsy would be feasible for monitoring health and disease in people traveling in space

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ: TECH) today announced that Exosome Diagnostics, a Bio-Techne brand, has reported results from a proof-of-concept study for a novel exosome-based platform that could monitor key biological changes in astronauts in space. The peer-reviewed publication was issued in npj Microgravity, a Nature publication.

Astronauts who return from microgravity environments in space often suffer from vision impairment, intracranial pressure, and other health problems that are not well understood. Collectively, these symptoms are known as spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS). As astronauts are sent on longer missions, and as commercial spaceflight allows non-astronauts to reach microgravity, there is increasing demand for research into the biological mechanisms responsible for SANS and a reliable technique for diagnosing the syndrome.

Exosomes are particles packed with molecular cargo, including proteins and RNA, that are released by cells as part of a natural cell-to-cell communication system. Their molecular contents can reveal important information about health and disease. Exosomes are found in bodily fluids such as blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and urine. They can be accessed with noninvasive liquid biopsy methods, making them an ideal solution to the challenge of monitoring dynamic changes in astronauts traveling in space.

In the study reported in npj Microgravity, scientists from Exosome Diagnostics, Baylor College of Medicine, and NASA contractor KBR demonstrated that exosomes could be extracted from biofluids collected at the International Space Station and stored for future analysis, and that their molecular contents could reveal transcriptome-wide information about key pathways that could shed light on SANS.

Story continues

"Exosome Diagnostics has spent years developing and optimizing a platform for whole-transcriptome profiling based on exosome isolation and analysis. Our platform is designed for noninvasive monitoring of health and disease with a depth and breadth that are not possible using other approaches," said Johan Skog, Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President at Exosome Diagnostics. "We have worked closely with NASA to ensure that this technology will be applicable for space travelers, who are exposed to microgravity, different air composition, and radiation. This demonstration clearly shows that exosome-based analysis is a feasible and powerful approach for longitudinal monitoring of the dynamic biological changes that may arise from those conditions."

"We are excited about the potential for our technology to keep astronauts healthier, and also believe that our multi-analyte exosome analysis platform will enable a wide range of precision medicine applications here on Earth," said Kim Kelderman, President of the Diagnostics and Genomics Segment at Bio-Techne. "With an extremely robust and reproducible workflow, our approach to exosome analysis is useful for any research group interested in pathway profiling, patient stratification, and biomarker development."

Paper cited: Chakrabortty, S.K., Khodor, Y.L., Kitchen, R.R. et al. Exosome based analysis for Space Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome and health risks in space exploration. npj Microgravity 8, 40 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-022-00225-4https://www.nature.com/articles/s41526-022-00225-4

About Bio-Techne Corporation(NASDAQ: TECH)Contact: David Clair, Vice President, Investor Relationsdavid.clair@bio-techne.com612-656-441

Bio-Techne

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-publication-from-exosome-diagnostics-demonstrates-proof-of-concept-for-monitoring-astronaut-health-in-space-301651042.html

SOURCE Bio-Techne Corporation

Originally posted here:

New Publication from Exosome Diagnostics Demonstrates Proof-of-Concept for Monitoring Astronaut Health in Space - Yahoo Finance

A couple of ground rules for living on the International Space Station: You never wear shoes (socks are just fine), and there is no shame in existing among clutter.

From my perspective, as viewed through immersive virtual reality goggles and headphones while inside a warehouse in the East Bay, the astronauts who float above Earth inside the space station are shoeless and messy.

I saw hallways crammed with boxes like ice cubes at the bottom of a glass, and there were floating wires sprouting out from the walls. The casual atmosphere helped to acculturate me to an otherwise out-of-world experience.

SFGATE travel editor Silas Valentino wears a VR headset as part of "The Infinite," an immersive space experience currently housedinside the Craneway Pavilion on the Richmond waterfront.

Like a ghost of the space station, I watched as astronauts floated between their regular duties growing greens in space, pumping iron to keep their muscles active and gazing over continents on the nearby blue planet relying on a calculated schedule to keep them, well, grounded.

The space station makes 16 orbits of Earth in a 24-hour period. Meaning, the astronauts are traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets a day. To keep their sanity and busy workload, they abide by a constant schedule. Sometimes they need a reminder to return to their sleep chamber, which is attached to the ceiling and straps them in.

At 254 miles above us, the astronauts are no longer earthlings, but that doesnt mean theyve sacrificed their humanity. And drawing this connection is exactly the goal of the exhibit. Dubbed Space Explorers: The Infinite,the VR experience occupies part of the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond, which was once a Ford assembly plant located along the Richmond shoreline.

Astronaut Joseph R. Tanner, STS-115 mission specialist, waves toward the digital still camera of his spacewalk colleague, astronaut Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper as the two share extravehicular activity (EVA) duties during the first of three scheduled spacewalks. The STS-115 astronauts and the Expedition 13 crewmembers are joining efforts this week to resume construction of the International Space Station.

Customers of The Infinite try out there headsets at Craneway Pavilion in Richmond on Thursday Oct. 13, 2022.

SFGATE culture editor Dan Gentile wears a VR headset as part of The Infinite, an immersive space experience currently housedinside the Craneway Pavilion on the Richmond waterfront, on Thursday Oct. 13, 2022.

A scene from VR scenes of The Infinite, an immersive space experience currently on display at Craneway Pavilion.

Footage from the International Space Station, upper left and lower right, is showcased in "The Infinite," which attendees view through a VR headset. (Images courtesy of The Infinite & by Charles Russo/SFGATE) Footage from the International Space Station, upper left and lower right, is showcased in "The Infinite," which attendees view through a VR headset. (Images courtesy of The Infinite & by Charles Russo/SFGATE)

The exhibition opened last week and will run until the end of the year, with the possibility of an extension. A joint venture of PHI Studio and Felix & Paul Studios, Space Explorers: The Infinite is a traveling circus that uses state-of-the-art technology (in particular, the Oculus Quest 2 headset) to place attendees inside the space station.

Each person is given a headset, and after a bit of fun initiation including a voiceover explaining how we are all a tribute to light and space you enter a large room with lightly padded flooring. After settling into your digital visuals, youre taught to avoid the red lines that indicate the barrier and to avoid stepping too close to other humans.

Jenna Starkey of San Francisco tries on the VR headset at "The Infinite," an immersive space experience currently housedinside the Craneway Pavilion on the Richmond waterfront.

The experience is broken up into four sections that softly guide you along to experiencing everyday life on the International Space Station. The finale has you seated in a theaterlike chair to sit back and view a spacewalk outside the station and above Earth.

The experience ends up becoming one part Neil Armstrong and one part P.T. Barnum. It is a dazzling outing and even brought a member of my group to tears by the time we returned to Earth.

Tickets for adults range from $44 on weekdays to $54 on weekends, and for children ages 8-12, its $24 on weekdays and $29 on weekends. The experience is wheelchair accessible and lasts for about an hour.

An advertisement on the exterior of the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond advertises "The Infinite," an immersive space experience currently housed inside.

Compared to Jeff Bezos Blue Origin (where a seat on a 2021 space flight was auctioned off for $28 million) or Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo (for which tickets are $450,000), the $54 ticket price for The Infinite feels manageable for the rest of us.

The experience is based on the series Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, which is billed as the largest production ever filmed in space, and its producers are not hyperbolic. Felix & Paul Studios worked with Time Studios to collaborate with the U.S. International Space Station National Laboratory, NASA and five other international space agencies.

The footage you see was shot over three years to compile more than 250 hours of virtual reality footage. The visual insights into life in space are parsed down into 60 mini clips that attendees activate by slapping at a glowing orb. To watch all 60 orbs would take at least two hours, and you really only have 35 minutes to spend inside the experience a wise marketing move by the producers to lure visitors back.

Attendees explore virtual space inside the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond as part of "The Infinite" on Oct. 13.

The show was designed and constructed in Montreal. For footage, the producers communicated with NASA in Houston to send directives to the astronauts on the space station. This was perhaps the most elaborate movie shoot of all time, and to top it off, the Canadarm contributed to some of the exterior shots from outside the space station.

Once the exhibit was finalized, it premiered in Montreal in July 2021, staying until November 2021. The plan is to stop in three cities per year until 2026. Prior to the Bay Area, the tour stopped in Houston and Tacoma, Washington.

Co-CEO Eric Albert told me it takes three weeks to set up each installation, and they hire about 50 people from each city to help put on the show. He added that the show is continuously evolving and adding or subtracting video clips for the orbs.

The Bay Area is the first to see a new clip from September 2019 of the astronauts gathering around the dinner table on the space station to celebrate one of the International Space Station crew members. Astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri from the United Arab Emirates was gifted a harmonica by one of his crewmates.

Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos.

Hazza, I know its not your birthday, he begins to say before another astronaut cuts him off.

Every day is your birthday in space! she says, as the crew continues floating in the most peculiar way.

A scene from "The Infinite," an immersive space experience currently on display at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond.

Here is the original post:

Bay Area's 'The Infinite' VR show is tribute to light, space - SFGATE

The spacecraft at the center of NASA's first asteroid sample return mission has altered its trajectory in preparation for its return to Earth next year.

On Sept. 21 OSIRIS-REx spacecraft fired its thrusters for 30 seconds for a course correction. This is the first time the spacecraft carrying a sample of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu has altered its trajectory since leaving the space rock on May 10, 2021.

Asteroids are made up of material that is left over from the beginning of the solar system and the formation of its planets, including Earth. Scientists hope that by studying the dust and rock OSIRIS-REx returns on Sept. 24, 2023, they could learn more about the building blocks of the solar system, and potentially even those of life itself.

Related: The greatest asteroid missions of all time!

The sample-return mission OSIRIS-REx, formally known as the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer, is tasked with completing what is far from a straightforward "parcel drop," according to NASA.

The spacecraft must approach Earth with a precise speed and in the right direction to deliver the capsule containing the sample collected from Bennu to the planet's atmosphere safely.

"If the capsule is angled too high, it will skip off the atmosphere," Mike Moreau, OSIRIS-REx deputy project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in a statement. "Angled too low, it will burn up in Earth's atmosphere."

Additional course corrections like this one, therefore, will be essential over the coming year to ensure that the success of the seven-year-long mission, which launched on Sept. 8, 2016, and arrived at Bennu on Oct. 20, 2020.

If OSIRIS-REx stayed on its current trajectory, the spacecraft would pass Earth at a distance of about 1,370 miles (2,200 kilometers), so in July 2023, the spacecraft will begin a series of steering maneuvers.

"Over the next year, we will gradually adjust the OSIRIS-REx trajectory to target the spacecraft closer to Earth," Daniel Wibben, trajectory and maneuver design lead with KinetX Inc., which partners with Lockheed Martin's team that steers the spacecraft, said in the statement. "We have to cross Earth's orbit at the time that Earth will be at that same location."

The process will bring the spacecraft to around 155 miles (250 km) of Earth's surface. This is close enough to release its sample capsule into the atmosphere for a parachute-guided precision landing at the Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range in the Great Salt Lake Desert.

Next, NASA personnel will take the returned cargo to a newly built and specially engineered curation lab at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Scientists will use equipment such as specialized gloveboxes, tools and storage containers, all of which are being designed to keep the sample from being contaminated, and thus remain as close as possible to how it was when it was collected by OSIRIS-REx. Samples collected by the mission will also be sent to teams of scientists across the world and a large sample will be preserved for future generations to study.

Not all of the OSIRIS-REx mission's Bennu findings must wait for the sample, however.

Even before the spacecraft reaches Earth next year it has delivered data that could teach researchers more about the asteroid.

In July, scientists announced that data gathered by OSIRIS-REx about the surface of Bennu revealed that the asteroid is so loosely packed that if the spacecraft had attempted to land on it rather than firing its thrusters to back away quickly, it would have sunk beneath the asteroid's surface.

OSIRIS-REx has also provided NASA with data that is important in calculating the potentially hazardous object's future orbit until 2300. This information could be crucial in determining if Bennu, which has a diameter of 1,200 feet (490 meters), could impact Earth after its close approach in 2135.

"NASA's Planetary Defense mission is to find and monitor asteroids and comets that can come near Earth and may pose a hazard to our planet," Kelly Fast, program manager for the Near-Earth Object Observations Program at NASA, said in a 2021 statement.

"We carry out this endeavor through continuing astronomical surveys that collect data to discover previously unknown objects and refine our orbital models for them," she added. "The OSIRIS-REx mission has provided an extraordinary opportunity to refine and test these models, helping us better predict where Bennu will be when it makes its close approach to Earth more than a century from now."

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

See the original post here:

NASA asteroid-sampling mission on track for delivery next year - Space.com

More money is pouring into the race to launch the first vertical rocket from the United Kingdom.

Scotland's Orbex received 40.4 million (roughly $63 million) in a Series C fundraising round as satellite launch activity accelerates rapidly in the region via companies like Virgin Orbit, Lockheed Martin and Astra.

Orbex CEO Chris Larmour stated Tuesday (Oct. 18) that his company has made "significant" strides in getting its environmentally friendly small-satellite launching rocket ready for action after the booster, called Prime, was unveiled to the public in May.

In photos: First look inside Orbex's Scotland rocket factory

Orbex has already notched numerous milestones including new customers, more manufacturing and "rapid development and testing" of Prime, Larmour said in the statement. "We're delighted to have closed this new funding round led by the Scottish National Investment Bank," he added.

Orbex has said it wants to get its Prime rocket off the ground later this year at Space Hub Sutherland, a new spaceport in northern Scotland that received planning permission in August 2020.

The 62-foot (19-meter) Prime is just one of a set of rockets competing for the small satellite business in the United Kingdom, however. The race to launch space rockets from the U.K. has attracted a clutch of companies seeking to prove not only business smarts, but environmental sensitivity as they launch in protected coastal areas or near heritage monuments.

Related: The UK really wants commercial spaceports. Will they see rockets fly in 2022?

A veteran Scottish rocket startup, Skyrora, plans orbital launches in 2023 from the Shetland Islands' SaxaVord Spaceport, using the 74-foot (22.7 meters) Skyrora XL. Skyrora has sent smaller rockets aloft before, but failed a debut vertical rocket launch to suborbital space earlier this month in Iceland with the 36-foot (11 m) Skylark L. Skyrora sent a shipping container to the Icelandic launch site with all the necessary rocket launch materials to make minimal mark on the coastal landscape, the company said at the time.

Lockheed Martin and its launch partner, ABL Space Systems, had hoped to launch into space from SaxaVord in 2022, but development and regulatory delays forced a slip into next year, according to SpaceNews (opens in new tab). ABL has yet to perform a test launch of the RS1 rocket from Kodiak Island in Alaska, which was initially slated for early 2022.

ABL may be close to that test launch; the usually quiet company announced via Twitter (opens in new tab) in September that they are finalizing their launch window with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Last week, ABL released footage (opens in new tab) of a test fire of their E2 engines for an expected RS1 flight in Mojave, California.

Even Astra, a company based in California, is eyeing SaxaVord with hopes to launch ahead of the competition. The company already sent rockets to space from Kodiak Island and from Cape Canaveral, Florida. SaxaVord would offer even more orbital options for existing clients and launches may happen there as soon as 2023, Astra has said.

Related: Spaceport construction set to begin on UK's northernmost island

Horizontal launch capability is also coming to the UK soon. Virgin Orbit, which aims to send satellites into space from a horizontal rocket flying aboard a modified 747 plane known as Cosmic Girl, is readying to launch within weeks from another startup spaceport in Cornwall, on the southernmost tip of British land.

A quieter competitor, Black Arrow Space Technologies, is working on horizontal rocket launches using a repurposed crude bulk carrier near the coast of Wales. It is aiming for a maiden launch in 2023 using a small rocket to launch into low Earth orbit, with plans to heft as much as 5.5 tons (5 metric tons) on a larger launcher sometime down the line.

Outside of the U.K. there are even more European companies racing for orbital business, such as Bavaria's Rocket Factory Augsburg and Munich's Isar Aerospace, both of which have 2023 launches on the roster. Examples of other European competitors include HyImpulse, which is a spinoff from the German Aerospace Center, and Spain's PLD Space for suborbital launches.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter@howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcom (opens in new tab)orFacebook (opens in new tab).

See the rest here:

Orbex raises $63 million to help fund 1st vertical rocket launch from UK - Space.com

MASON, OhioKings Island has done it again.

Cincinnati's favorite theme park has tweeted that they will announce something new for 2023 on Wednesday, without giving any hint about what it could be.

"What's new for 2023? Visit our website tomorrow to find out! Let the speculation begin," the park tweeted with a photo of the Eiffel Tower.

So we took up their offer and decided to speculate.

Why it probably won't be a roller coaster

While fans would love to see a new roller coaster, possibly to fill the empty space where Vortex once stood, that seems unlikely. Why? Because every time they announced a major coaster in the past decade, the park put out teasers weeks in advance.

Think about the posters hinting about space flight before Orion's announcement in 2019. Or all the teasing about axes, and broken wood, before the Mystic Timbers announcement in 2016.

A coaster rollout usually comes after a whole season of clues, and there have been none this year.

A flat ride?

Some coaster enthusiasts have speculated that Kings Island could get a new "flat" ride, or ground-based ride in 2023, that might possibly replace Sling Shot, the capsule on steel cables that was removed back in May.

Currently, that is just a big empty space near Adventure Express.

In addition, with parent Cedar Fair closing its California's Great America theme park near San Francisco, it is already moving some of those rides to other parks. Kings Island could get one of them.

Planet Snoopy revamp to "Camp" Snoopy

This one is getting some buzz, because several Cedar Fair parks have rebranded Planet Snoopy as Camp Snoopy the last few years.

Among them, Cedar Point and Carowinds, where the children's area has been repainted, spruced up, and turned into a summer-camp like environment.

Kings Island has not made many changes to Planet Snoopy in recent years: it might be time for an update.

Year-round operations?

This one was getting the most talk on Tuesday on Kings Island discussion boards, such as KI Central.

It is possible the park will add some weekend operations in January, February and March to make it officially a "year-round" park.

Why? Because sister parks Carowinds and Kings Dominion this week just announced they will be going to year-round ops.

And Kings Island doesn't want to sit there, closed, while Kings Dominion is running rides. After all, Kings Dominion has always been looked at as Kings Island's "kid sister."

Of course, the weather in Mason is a lot colder in January than in Charlotte, NC.

So the park would probably not be able to operate much more than it does during Winterfest, which means Mystic Timbers and Flight of Fear.

But Kings Island said "let the speculation begin," so we speculated.

There._______________________

"Don't Waste Your Money" is a registered trademark of Scripps Media, Inc. ("Scripps").

Follow John:

For more consumer news and money-saving advice, go to http://www.dontwasteyourmoney.com

More Don't Waste Your Money news:

Link:

Kings Island plans major announcement Wednesday: What it could be - WCPO 9 Cincinnati

A computer-generated rendering of the mothership that Aurora has been contracted by Virgin Galactic to build for future spaceflight missions (Photo courtesy of Virgin Galactic)

Aurora Flight Sciences has reached a new agreement with Virgin Galactic that will see the Virginia-based Boeing subsidiary become a partner in the design and manufacturing of Virgin's next generation motherships.

Virgin Galactic's new agreement reached with Aurora comes two months after the company reported its first quarter 2022 results that confirmed its next VSS Unity test space flight is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of this year. Virgin's work under the partnership agreement with Aurora has already begun, as the two companies have been spending the "past several months" developing design specifications and workforce and resource requirements for the two-vehicle contract.

With Aurora, we are accessing the best of the nationwide aerospace ecosystem, Swami Iyer, President of Aerospace Systems, said, commenting on the new agreement. As a subsidiary of the worlds largest aerospace company, Aurora has some of the industrys top engineers and manufacturing facilities.

The motherships that Aurora is developing will provide the air launch capability needed by Virgins spaceship spaceship to be released into suborbital flight at an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet.

Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier, commenting on the Aurora agreement, said the motherships under development are "integral to scaling our operations. They will be faster to produce, easier to maintain and will allow us to fly substantially more missions each year. Supported by the scale and strength of Boeing, Aurora is the ideal manufacturing partner for us as we build our fleet to support 400 flights per year at Spaceport America."

Aurora's new partnership with Virgin Galactic comes a year after the "Unity 22" sub-orbital spaceflight of their SpaceShipTwo-class VSS Unity that occurred in July last year. Since then, Virgin has committed to launching its next "Unity 23" mission in 2022 that will carry three paying crew members from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council. Their focus with Unity 23 is to measure the effects of the transitional phase from gravity to microgravity on the human body.

Virgin has also established limited availability for purchasing of tickets on future space flights for a total price of $450,000. As of April 25, 750 people have made reservations for their piloted flights, according to an article published in the June 2022 edition of Via Satellite, a sister publication to Avionics International.

Manufacturing activities for the motherships being built by Aurora will occur at the company's Columbus, Mississippi, and Bridgeport, West Virginia, facilities, with final assembly occurring at Virgin Galactic's facility in Mojave, California.

The first new Aurora-built mothership is expected to enter service in 2025, the same year Virgin Galactics first Delta-class spaceship is expected to begin revenue payload flights. The companys upcoming commercial missions are expected to begin by the first quarter of 2023.

Visit link:

Aurora to Design New Motherships for Virgin Galactic Space Flights - Aviation Today

From left to right: A Chinese Long March 2F rocket launches June 4 with the Shenzhou 14 astronaut mission; A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches Feb. 3 with a batch of Starlink internet satellites on Feb. 3; A Soyuz rocket launches Feb. 10 with a cluster of OneWeb internet satellites. Credit: Xinhua/SpaceX/Arianespace

If it feels like there are more rockets launching into orbit than ever before, its not just you. The worlds launch operators, led by SpaceX and Chinas state-run enterprises, launched 72 missions into orbit in the first half of 2022, on pace to break last years record of 135 orbital deliveries.

There were 15 launches to add spacecraft to SpaceXs Starlink internet network, three crew missions to the International Space Station and an astronaut launch to Chinas space station, and missions to deploy satellites for the U.S., Chinese, and Russian military.

The launch cadence in the first half of the averaged one mission every two-and-a-half days, driven primarily by the rapid-fire launch rate by SpaceX and China.

Last year, the worlds launch providers broke the record for the highest number of orbital missions in a calendar year. The 135 successful orbital launches in 2021 dont include 11 failed orbital launch attempts. The previous record for the most successful orbital launches in a year was 129, set in 1984.

But declining post-Cold War military budgets led to lower launch rates in the 1990s and 2000s. Chinas growing aspirations in space and the rise of SpaceX have reversed that trend, with annual launch numbers now exceeding those of the 1970s and 1980s.

Here are some statistics for orbital launches from Jan. 1 through June 30:

Ten of the launches in the first half of the year used small-class rockets capable of carrying less than a metric ton (about 2,200 pounds) of payload into low Earth orbit. The remainder of the missions used medium or heavy-lift rockets.

There were three launch failures in the opening six months of 2022, all by light-class launchers. Two commercial rockets developed by Astra failed to reach orbit on missions in February and June for NASA to deploy CubeSats into orbit. And a Hyperbola 1 rocket developed by the by the Chinese company i-Space failed on a launch attempt in May.

China closed out the first half of the year with three more launches.

A solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A launcher lifted off June 22 at 0208 GMT (10:08 p.m. EDT on June 21) from the Jiuquan launch base in northwestern China. The Kuaizhou 1A rocket deployed a small research satellite named Tianxing 1 into a low-altitude polar orbit less than 180 miles (290 kilometers) above Earth.

Chinas state-run Xinhua news agency said the Tianxing 1 satellite will be mainly used for experimentssuch as space environment detection.

The Kuaizhou rocket family is operated by Expace, a subsidiary of the government-ownedChina Aerospace Science and Industry Corp., or CASIC. Expace developed the Kuaizhou rocket family based on Chinese military missile technology to pursue a growing commercial space market in China.

The Kuaizhou 1A rocket is capableof injecting 660 pounds (300 kilograms) of payload to low Earth orbit, according to Expace.Kuaizhou means speedy vessel in Chinese, a name indicative of its purpose as a satellite launcher that can be readied for liftoff in a short time period.

The launch of the Tianxing 1 satellite marked the 15th flight of a Kuaizhou 1A rocket.

China launched a Long March 2D rocket with three military payloads at 0222 GMT on June 23 (10:22 p.m. EDT on June 22). The three satellites make up the second group of spacecraft in a family of Chinese military platforms in low Earth orbit.

Chinese officials said the satellites were collectively part of the Yaogan 35 fleet. The first three Yaogan 35 satellites launched on a Long March 2D rocket in November 2021.

The exact purpose of the Yaogan 35 satellites is unknown, but the Yaogan name is typically used as a cover for Chinese military spacecraft. U.S. military tracking data showed the satellites orbiting at an altitude of about 300 miles (500 kilometers) and an inclination of 35 degrees to the equator.

Another Chinese launch June 27 deployed the third in a line of Gaofen 12-class remote sensing satellites. A Long March 4C rocket took off from the Jiuquan launch base at 1546 GMT (12:46 p.m. EDT) to haul the Gaofen 12-03 imaging satellite to a polar orbit at an altitude of approximately 370 miles (600 kilometers).

The Gaofen 12 satellites carry microwave remote sensing instruments for Earth observations.

Chinese officials say the Gaofen satellites are part ofthe China High-Resolution Earth Observation System, or CHEOS.

China says the CHEOS satellite fleet is a civilian-operated program comprising optical and radar imaging spacecraft. Chinese authorities have published high-resolution imagery taken by previous Gaofen satellites, suggesting there is a civilian component to their missions. Other satellites, like the Yaogan series, are for primarily military purposes.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

Read the original post:

World's rockets on pace for record year of launch activity Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now