Category Archives: Space Exploration

Debris believed to have fallen from a Chinese space rocket landed near villages in Malaysia and Indonesia on Saturday, only days after a large object that reportedly came from an Elon Musk-owned spacecraft was found in Australia.

Incidents of space debris falling to Earth are "getting more frequent," and that should be a matter of some concern, Dr. John Crassidis told Newsweek.

Crassidis is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University at Buffalo. He has been studying space junk for 15 years and works with NASA and the U.S. Air Force to help the agencies monitor space debris.

Along with real-life incidents involving these types of debris hitting Earth, space junk has also been on people's minds due to popular entertainment. Jordan Peele's recent hit sci-fi horror film Nope contains an element of falling objects from space, while past blockbusters like Wall-E and Gravity also depicted space debris.

Discussing space junk in the real world, Crassidis said that "the odds of you being hurt by a piece of space junk are extremely small." But with an increase of private space tourism, as well as countries like Russia and China announcing larger commitments to space exploration, he feels those odds could soon increase.

In the incident from last week, a farmer in Australia discovered an approximately 10-foot piece of space junk on his property after his daughters heard a large crash. An Australian National University space expert was called to the scene, and he identified the object as having come from a SpaceX Crew-1 craft.

This is not the first time Elon Musk has been blamed for space junk hitting Earth. Part of what authorities said was a SpaceX rocket was discovered in Washington state last year. The 5-foot-tall vessel didn't cause any damage aside from 4- to 5-inch impact mark in the ground.

Crassidis said SpaceX likely tried to maneuver its debris to fall into a "highly unpopulated" part of the Pacific Ocean that's often used as a target for objects returning from space.

"It's not an exact science. So I'm not exactly sure what happened here, and I'm certainly not blaming SpaceX," Crassidis said of the debris found in Australia. "I think they did the best they could to ensure that it would go into the Pacific Ocean."

Crassidis also pointed out that since most of the Earth is covered by ocean, most debris hits water. However, an uptick in space junk hitting land will likely coincide with the recent increase in space tourism offered by companies owned by Musk, Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic) and Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin).

"It's starting to get to the point where places should start worrying about this stuff," Crassidis said. "There have been some studies that say if this keeps up, there's going to be a 1-in-10 chance in the next 10 years that somebody will be hurt."

Different suggestions have been discussed in how to prevent space junk from hitting Earth. These include large space nets and harpoons, as well as lasers to blast the debris into smaller pieces before it enters the Earth's atmosphere.

"A laser blowing it out of the sky is probably one of the last things you want. When you start blowing up stuff in space, you cause more space debris. That'd probably be better for when it comes back down. But the last thing you want to do is cause space debris in space that can possibly collide with other objects," Crassidis said.

He added that a "marble-sized piece of debris can wipe out a satellite," which brings him to his more pressing concern.

"Honestly, to me, I think the astronauts in space have a bigger chance of being hurt than us here on the ground," he said.

Right now, Crassidis said the technology is just not there to stop space junk from entering Earth's atmosphere and hitting somewhere on the planet's surface.

"I'm trying to do what's more feasible, and that is better track this stuff," he said. By understanding how debris is moving through space, Crassidis said scientists can better predict where it's going to go.

"I don't really focus on stuff coming back in because there's nothing really we can do about that," he said. "I'm just trying to better track the stuff that's out there right now."

More:

Expect More Space Junk From Elon Musk and Other Space Travelers: Expert - Newsweek

July M&A Activity

July 5 AST SpaceMobile, Inc. announced that it entered into an agreement to sell its majority ownership interest in smallsat manufacturer NanoAvionics Corp. (NanoAvionics) to Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (Kongsberg), the space and maritime surveillance business unit of Norway's Kongsberg Gruppen. The contemplated transaction values NanoAvionics at approximately $68m, with Kongsberg acquiring a 77% ownership interest in the company, while company management will retain a 23% stake. The transaction is expected to close in Q3 2022, subject to regulatory approvals.

July 8 Safran Electronics & Defense SAS acquired Orolia SAS, a manufacturer of atomic clocks, from private equity investor Eurazeo SE for 189m with the aim of consolidating its leading position in the market for resilient positioning, navigation and timing systems.

July 18 The Raytheon Intelligence & Space business unit of Raytheon Technologies Corp. announced that it will acquire, under terms not yet disclosed, Northern Space and Security Ltd. (NORSS), a UK-based start-up focused on space domain awareness, orbital analysis, space surveillance and tracking.

July 25 Eutelsat Communications S.A. (Eutelsat) and OneWeb Communications Ltd. (OneWeb) announced a memorandum of understanding setting forth their agreement to merge their companies in an all-share transaction that values OneWeb at $3.4b. Eutelsat, which currently holds a 23% stake in OneWeb, will acquire the company from existing shareholders in exchange for newly issued shares in Eutelsat, although the UK government will retain a share in OneWeb with priority voting rights. The combined company will transform into a leading multi-orbit satellite operator providing integrated geostationary and low-Earth orbit satellite-based connectivity services through the joining of Eutelsat's geostationary orbit satellite fleet and OneWeb's low-Earth orbit broadband constellation.

Satellite Vu Procures Second Satellite from SSTL

On July 21, Global Satellite Vu Ltd. (Satellite Vu), a UK-based start-up with plans to deploy a seven-satellite thermal imaging constellation, announced that it selected Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) to manufacture a second satellite for the company. Scheduled for launch in early 2024, the new satellite will be a clone of Satellite Vu's first satellite, which the company ordered from SSTL in 2021.

July Investment Activity

July 5 Virginia Venture Partners, the equity investment program of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation, announced that it made an investment of undisclosed amount in Virginia-based Lynk Global Inc., a start-up working to provide global satellite-based broadband connectivity services directly to standard mobile phones.

July 6 L3Harris Technologies, Inc. (L3Harris) and Mynaric AG (Mynaric) announced an agreement whereby L3Harris will invest 11.2m in Mynaric to acquire a 7.2% ownership stake in the company through the issuance of 409,294 new shares, reflecting a per-share price of approximately 27.37. As part of the transaction, Mynaric will become L3Harris' preferred provider of laser communications systems, and the companies will collaborate on laser communications technologies.

July Launch Services Performed

July 7, 10, 17, 22, 24 Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) successfully performed five launch missions for its Starlink low-Earth orbit broadband constellation, launching batches of 53, 46, 53, 46 and 53 satellites, each time using a Falcon 9 launch vehicle and then recovering the vehicle's first stage. The second of the five missions was the first dedicated Starlink launch to polar orbit, with satellites dedicated to a new polar-orbiting layer in the Starlink system. There are now more than 2,500 Starlink spacecraft currently operating on orbit.

July 13 Arianespace S.A. successfully conducted the inaugural launch of the new Vega-C medium-lift launch vehicle for the European Space Agency, orbiting Italy's LARES-2 physics satellite together with six scientific cubesats from Italy, France and Slovenia. The first Vega-C commercial mission is scheduled for November of this year.

New Investment Funds Target Space

July 7 New venture capital firm Stellar Ventures announced the formation of SV Andromeda Fund LP with more than $23m in capital commitments to invest in space technology.

July 17 The United Arab Emirates announced the establishment of the National Space Fund, with more than $800m in government funding to support the country's space sector, including a new SAR satellite system called Sirb.

July 20 Boeing announced that it agreed to provide $50m in capital to AEI HorizonX, a new venture fund managed by AE Industrial Partners, LP and focused on aerospace technology.

View original post here:

Space Business Review: A monthly round-up of space industry developments for the information of our clients and friends - July 2022 - Lexology

Story at a glance

Although space tourism seems like a futuristic chapter for humans, the current lack of regulation around commercial rocket flights and space traffic which has also increased as more countries bolster military capabilities is a major concern for society now, experts say.

For these reasons, and because an additional 25,000 satellites are projected to launch into space by 2030, the Atlantic Council is calling on the United States government to increase its management of space traffic.

In their report issued this month, experts at the think tank urge the U.S. to lead a global coordinated effort to track space debris and spacecraft, regulate operators positioning of craft and oversee mitigation strategies for debris.

If space development remains on its current trajectory, and the global community fails to advance an effective [] framework, humankind will jeopardize its use of outer space, modern ways of living, and all the corresponding benefits on Earth,authors Mir Sadat and Julia Siegel wrote.

The report comes as the U.S. Air Force announced plans in March to expand its abilities to monitor the space between the Earth and moon.

Currently, more than 4,800 satellites representing more than 40 nations satellite the Earth, according to the report.

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

As humanity expands its frontiers deeper into the galaxy, the threats to US and allied space capabilities will continue to increase,Sadat and Siegel said.

Yet, despite the proliferation of space activity, the ability of international and national bodies to track and regulate space objectsoften referred to as space traffic management (STM)reflects a past era wherein few actors conducted limited operations in space.

Under current policies, STM may be better defined as space situational awareness (SSA), or just knowing objects are in orbit, they said. Currently, this knowledge mainly serves to prevent potential collisions and is carried out in a decentralized manner via operators.

As more debris and activity flood already congested areas of space, the risks of collision increase and could jeopardize national security, Sadat and Seigel wrote.

It is no longer sufficient to know the location of spacecraft and space debris; instead, it is imperative to have a common understanding of and management over maneuver in a congested environment.

Among the actions necessary to achieve this goal, researchers call for increased international coordination to develop global standards among those already pursuing space projects and those expected to join soon. Through this effort, the U.S. could help develop ways of holding irresponsible actors accountable, researchers suggested.

The Space Data Association could serve as a model for international regulation going forward, but the programs opt-in nature limits its efficacy, authors wrote.

The report also highlights the benefits of public-private coordination which could be achieved through a notice of public rulemaking or participation in the National Space Council Users Advisory Group.

Private corporations can play their part in ensuring active debris removal solutions are integrated into space exploration plans.

STM deliberations should also prioritize elements such as defining relevant terms for universal usage; establishing minimum standards of conduct; assigning liability; distinguishing between orbits; and allocating responsibilities and authorities.

The standards could draw inspiration from regulatory bodies governing both air and maritime travel and exploration. Certain technical capabilities will also have to be developed and employed to better track space objects and communicate between operators.

While the US government is investing in capabilities for tracking and, when necessary, removing space objects from orbit, the United States still lacks a viable technical capability for STM, authors wrote.

Currently, there are no integrated systems that can provide comprehensive domain awareness on par with the air or maritime domains for the space domain, which is more complex than the other two domains.

Overall, authors call on the U.S. to lead by example to ensure security, economic and societal objectives relating to outer space are met.

Now is the time to act and protect a future of security and prosperity in space, they concluded.

Published on Aug. 03, 2022

See the article here:

Should the US government oversee space traffic? Some experts think its time - The Hill

SYDNEY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Australia was at the forefront of the first space race and played a vital role in Apollo 11s iconic Moon landing in 1969. Half a century later, Australians are more likely to see space as a threat than a frontier full of positive possibilities, and just one in ten say they would like to work in the space industry.

According to a new global report from Inmarsat What on Earth is the value of space?, based on a survey of 20,000 people in 11 countries 49% of Australians are concerned about space junk and collisions and 44% are worried about polluting space, while just over one third (36%) say they feel hopeful about the possibilities of space, one fifth (21%) say they dont understand much about space and 10% say they dont care about space at all.

With the space sector attracting record levels of investment and expanding faster than ever before, it is essential than Australians learn more about an industry that will increasingly impact their lives, according to Inmarsat.

According to the report, Australians are twice as likely to associate space with aliens (21%) than with communications and connectivity (10%). Most concerning for the future is that younger generations appear to have a view of space built on movie depictions rather than reality. 31% of Australians aged 18-24 associate space with aliens, compared with just 11% of people aged 65+. In comparison, only 8% of this younger age group associate space with communications the sector that is leading global growth in the industry half that of the over-65s (16%).

Meanwhile, 70% of Australians said they had never heard of or had no idea about space-based Internet, and 36% said the same for weather and climate monitoring despite the first weather satellite having been launched in 1960 and 31% had never heard or knew nothing about GPS and Satnav.

I have a positive view that we can help people fall in love with space again. Ive worked in the industry for decades and see the truly amazing stories that are just waiting to be told, said Todd McDonell, President of Inmarsat Global Government, based in Sydney. Its understandable that with space-based technology so embedded in our everyday lives, it has become largely invisible, especially to a generation brought up with smartphones and tablets.

Space can enable a better way of living for us all, but public support will make or break this vital contribution to a better future.

What was really interesting is that, like their counterparts in other countries and despite a generally low level of awareness, Australians identified genuine causes of concern related to the space industry. As the sector goes through a period of major expansion with forecasts that the number of satellites in orbit will rise from 7,000 to over 100,000 by the end of this decade players in the industry have a vital duty to manage this growth responsibly.

Having come so far, we cannot afford to destroy the gift of space through poor stewardship, fear, ignorance or inaction. Sustainability on Earth cannot exist without sustainability in space. Responsible space exploration and stricter regulation is a must.

I see first-hand how space is playing a vital role in putting food on our tables, how it keeps us safe when we fly, how it enables us to buy goods from home and have these shipped to us from the other side of the world. Whenever a natural disaster strikes and damages Earth-based telecommunications, satellites are there immediately to support search & rescue and rebuilding efforts. Perhaps most importantly for the future, space technology lies at the heart of efforts to combat climate change.

Im sure that if the industry can tell these stories, especially to the younger generation, then interest in space will grow and we will see a new generation emerge one, much like back in the 1960s, who regard space as an amazing opportunity both as a career and as a force for positive change.

ENDS

ABOUT INMARSAT

Inmarsat delivers world leading, innovative, advanced and exceptionally reliable global, mobile communications across the world in the air, at sea and on land - that are enabling a new generation of commercial, government and mission-critical services. Inmarsat is powering the digitalisation of the maritime industry, making operations more efficient and safer than ever before. It is driving a new era of inflight passenger services for aviation, while ensuring that aircraft can fly with maximum efficiency and safety. Furthermore, Inmarsat is enabling the rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) and enabling the next wave of world-changing technologies that will underpin the connected society and help build a sustainable future. And now Inmarsat is developing the first-of-its-kind, multi-dimensional communications network of the future, ORCHESTRA.

In November 2021, Inmarsat and Viasat announced the planned combination of the two companies, to create a new leader in global communications. The deal is scheduled to close in the second half of 2022.

For further information, follow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram.

Read more from the original source:

Australians See Space More as a Danger Than a Benefit, According to New Global Research - Business Wire

NASAs Curiosity rover landed in Gale Crater on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012 at 1:32 a.m. 10 years ago this week. It is in good shape, and expected to continue its climb up Mt. Sharp for years to come.

Its successor, the Perseverance rover, set down in Jezero Crater in February, and Chinas first Mars rover, Tianwen-1 landed at Utopia Planitia in May.

Mars is currently in our morning sky, just one in a line of four planets (Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) extending from north-northeast to southwest. In recent weeks, Ive made a point of getting outside around dawn to catch a few views, but had to jockey for position in various places on the street to see out between the trees and their mid-summer foliage. The neighborhood was utterly quiet in the morning twilight, so this did not present a problem.

Elusive Mercury was in this planet parade in early July, but low in the glow of sunrise. Uranus and Neptune are still in this line up, but too distant and dim to see without telescopes.

The planets constantly shift position in our sky and against the backdrop of distant stars because they are so much closer to us. Each world follows its own schedule, and shows little regard for our calendar an unruly behavior that prompted the ancient Babylonians to call them wild goats.

Now that we understand the planets and their orbits in fine detail, Mars, the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, has somehow managed to gained an outsized status. My Google search for Mars produced 1,750,000,000 results more than 2-1/2 times its nearest competitor Venus, with 650,000,000 results.

There are many reasons for this popularity. While not the brightest of the bunch, its unique rusty hue prompted its ancient designation as the god of war, and its modern nickname, The Red Planet. Remember when you look that we are seeing the actual color of Marss surface rocks and dirt through its mostly clear atmosphere.

(Only three celestial objects visible to the naked eye show us their bare rocky surfaces: The moon, Mars, and Mercury. Curiously, their names all start with the letter M, making them easy to remember.)

Mars also varies more in distance and brightness than any other planet. As Earth swings nearer to it in the coming months, we will see it brighten and move into our evening skies.

While its unique color and dramatic changes in brightness have intrigued people through the ages, our modern fascination got a kick start in the 1800s when Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli described its contrasting light and dark areas as seas and continents. He called the channels he saw through his new generation telescope canali. This was soon mistranslated into canals along with the idea of intelligent life there.

Enter Percival Lowell, an astronomer from Boston, who, from his private observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, mapped hundreds of canals he believed Martians made to carry water from the poles to the equatorial regions. He promoted his ideas in several books.

These were the inspiration behind H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds in 1898, and Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom series starting with the novel A Princess of Mars. Burroughs used Schiaparellis names for Martian regions, and decided to make his Martians green the reason people still refer to aliens as little green men.

On Halloween Eve in 1938, Orson Welles and The Mercury Theater on the Air famously broadcast a radio version of The War of the Worlds, which convinced thousands that Martians were invading America.

Although most experienced astronomers never saw Marss supposed canals, questions persisted into the space age. I actually remember when the controversy was finally settled to everyones satisfaction in 1964 with the first ever close up images of Marss surface sent back by NASAs Mariner 4 fly-by probe. My Dad opened the glossy pages of Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine with me as soon as it arrived, but I could not see much in the grainy black and white images.

When he walked across the room and held up the pictures, craters emerge from the noise. This was history. The alleged network of lines crisscrossing the surface of Mars were merely an illusion due to the human tendency to connect faint groups of dark smudges, such as those seen on Mars through telescopes, with imaginary straight lines.

The deep sense of disappointment many felt at this discovery was short-lived because a new era of Mars exploration was underway, and new surprises awaited. When the twin Viking landers touched down on opposite sides of the planet in 1976, they essentially revealed Mars as we know it today. Color images and data from an array of scientific instruments transformed our understanding of that world and proved that robots would be capable explorers of the Solar System.

By 2015, with New Horizons flight past Pluto, NASAs probes had visited of every major planet in the Solar System.The beautiful dynamic world we found at Pluto was just the latest in a long string of crazy revelations about the worlds of our Solar System.

Why does Mars still beckon? Of all the planets in our solar system, it is, in some ways, the most Earth-like. Roughly halfway in size between Earth and the moon, it has characteristics of both. With so little atmosphere, it has craters like the moon, yet there is enough for weather, including clouds like on Earth.

Mars seasons span a Martian year roughly equal to two Earth-years, but the Martian day, or sol, is only slightly longer than a day on Earth: 24 hours and 39 minutes. Mars is half again as far from the sun as earth, so it gets about 40% of the sunlight reaching Earth although a person standing there would hardly notice the difference.

The reduced sunlight does affect temperatures however, exacerbated by Marss lack of a significant heat-retaining atmosphere. At ground-level the mostly carbon dioxide air is less than one percent as dense as Earths nitrogen-rich atmosphere. The weak sun and thin atmosphere allow temperatures to drop to minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The ground can reach a balmy 70 degrees Fahrenheit in summer, but temperatures rarely surpasses the freezing point.

We can relate strongly to those alien hills and valleys because the sky is not black like on the airless moon. More significantly, the Mars sky sometimes appears blue. Pictures of such obtained by the Curiosity rover are particularly striking to those of us still struggling with the fact that this is another planet! (See above picture.)

Most of the time however, Marss sky is some variation on salmon, brown, or butterscotch depending on the angle of the sun, the direction you are looking, and the amount of dust in the air. Sunsets on Mars are blue, as opposed to our reddish sunsets.

Curiosity found strong evidence that in the distant past, Mars had warmer temperatures and enough water in liquid form to support primitive life. Whether any ever existed remains a mystery, but Curiosity has found intriguing hints including this years discovery of a kind of carbon that on Earth is associated with life.

All these things and more make it easy to understand why Mars, with eight active orbiters, three rovers, and one stationary lander, is the busiest place in the Solar System other than Earth.

There are probably many worlds orbiting other stars that are more like Earth, but Mars may be the closest example we humans will ever see in detail. The few images of extrasolar planets so far obtained are unresolvable dots, and no telescope will resolve the continents and oceans of a planet like ours even around the nearest stars for a very long time.

The Curiosity rover has raised Mars exploration to a whole new level, and we are well on our way to making The Red Planet a part of our world.

Find rise and set times for the sun and moon, and follow ever-changing celestial highlights in the Skywatch section of the Weather Almanac in The Republican and Sunday Republican.

Patrick Rowan has written Skywatch for The Republican since 1987 and has been a Weather Almanac contributor since the mid 1990s. A native of Long Island, Rowan graduated from Northampton High School, studied astronomy at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the 1970s and was a research assistant for the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory. From 1981 to 1994, Rowan worked at the Springfield Science Museums Seymour Planetarium, most of that time as planetarium manager. Rowan lives in the Florence section of Northampton with his wife, Clara, and their cats, Eli and Milo.

Here is the original post:

Patrick Rowans Skywatch: Curiosity rover marks 10th year exploring Mars - MassLive.com

Another actress who is getting a lot of meaty material from For All Mankind is Cynthy Wu.

Cynthy plays Ed and Karen Baldwin's daughter, Kelly. Kelly is on Mars with her father and one of her best friends, has fallen in love with a Cosmonaut and is having his baby. That's a lot to unpack!

We jumped on the phone, and Cynthy shared her thoughts on everything Kelly has been experiencing.

So this is a huge season for Kelly, as her dreams are finally realized beyond her imagination. Can you talk about what it's been like for her to get this opportunity to actually go to Mars to test her project?

Oh man, it's been incredible and mind-blowing for Kelly. When we see her at the top of season three, she's camped out in McMurdo Station in a lab, studying bacteria and she's a happy little camper.

And then she gets an opportunity to take all of that research and go to Mars. So I think that she was pretty excited. And then I think as the season progressed, as you saw, she got to experience all the highs and lows along with the crew.

Oh, that's for sure.

Yes.

What challenges has Kelly experienced being on a different Mars mission from her father? They had always imagined that they would do that together, and then that took a left turn.

Well, I think certainly being on the NASA mission, it's her independent mission, right? So it's not having Ed or dad there to guide her at every step, which I think is natural for a young woman who's already out in the world with her own professional career.

So she's hitting the bumps along the road that any young woman in a field would be coming across.

But the difference then is the race aspect that she's competing against her dad to see who gets there first, which is both fun and also like, "Oh gosh, dad is not going to love it if he really doesn't get to be there first, because that's been his whole lifelong thing."

But yeah, we do get to see throughout the season too, how Ed does show up and how all the teams work together to help each other out because Steph goes down and they need each other's help to survive.

I thought it was interesting that she calls him out whenever she finds out about the water project.

Oh yeah. That was a big moment because, well, first of all, the Russians wouldn't be alive without NASA's help because Helios, under Dev Ayesa's guidance, chose not to rescue the Russians who were in distress.

And so then to find out that Helios and the Russians have been working together with their secret of liquid water, you kind of go, "Well, okay, that's a big betrayal because you guys need to bring us in on your findings because you wouldn't even be alive without us."

So that was definitely a huge moment. But obviously Kelly uses that to her advantage.

Sure, sure.

Because, hey, it's like, "Well, dad, obviously, that sucks finding that you guys have been working together behind our backs, but bring me in. I can do this. I have the research, and I know how to handle this to gather what we need." So yeah, like any smart person, she uses that connection to her advantage.

Kelly's also managed to fall in love, which whenever you have close quarters like that, it's probably going to happen.

Yeah.

And she also lost him, which, I mean, it's a nightmare scenario to be someplace that's going to remind her of him nonstop. How's she going to navigate that loss? And that's not even considering that other big moment.

Right. Oh my gosh. So I didn't see it coming, but yes, you're right. She's a young woman; they're living in close quarters, and she found a connection with an unlikely match, but it's a Russian guy.

So I think it was very human, and I love that the writers wrote that because things like this do happen. And I think they had a great connection.

I think Pawel, who plays Alexei did a wonderful job, and we had such great chemistry working together. And so when he was killed off, oh my gosh, I think I actually cried when I got the script.

Aww.

I was like, "Oh my God." We had so much fun working together. He is just the nicest guy. And his journey came to a close on our show, as it often does for folks because space exploration is dangerous, so that part was sad.

Gosh, Kelly's world was just turned upside down because it's like, oh, she fell in love. And then her dad is injured, and she's going out to look for him. And she's going with essentially this new love connection.

And then she comes back, her dad is found, but then her lover dies. And then the big spoiler, like you said, we find out that she's pregnant with his child.

I can't even imagine.

Oh, my gosh.

I mean, nobody planned for a baby on board.

Nobody planned for someone to get pregnant.

Let alone Kelly.

God, when I got that script, I was just floored. And my jaw fell to the ground. I was like, oh my God, is this really happening? I literally felt the implosion, like shit hitting the fan. Are we going there? And it was like, yep, we're going there.

So yeah, it was hard for Kelly to wrap her mind around that, a youthful connection, something that's so human as falling in love and making a mistake that you got pregnant in space, but not just your life, but all of your crew members at risk.

And that's a huge, huge responsibility and such huge guilt that I certainly carried as Kelly towards the end of the season of just, God, of all places to get pregnant. How the fuck did I get pregnant in space? And now, what do we do? You know?

And I have to ask too, I mean, Danny is responsible for all of it; how is she going to wrap her head around the fact that one of her best friends just did this, and now, she lost somebody she fell in love with and who was going to be the father of her child.

Everybody is so close up there. I just imagine that explosion that we saw is going to be nothing compared to the emotional explosions that go through the last two episodes of the season. What can you tease about them?

Yeah. I think for Kelly's purposes, in the remainder of the season in Episodes 9 and 10, I don't think she is aware that Danny Stevens is the one who almost killed her father or got him killed. I don't think she's aware.

Obviously, the viewers were watching, and we know. You guys all know what's going on and how Ed came to be in that place. But I think for Kelly, I don't think Danny would be able to walk into a room without getting smothered if we all knew. You know what I mean?

Right.

But no, Danny Stevens is in Episodes 9 and 10, and he's still a part of the crew and working with everybody to figure out how to help Kelly and how to help deliver Kelly's baby. And that's the end of the season: do they make it? Are we able to help her deliver her baby safely? Yeah.

Oh, nightmarish.

Oh, every day, I was walking in like, "Oh gosh, here we go. Are we going to survive?" It was really just like, oh my God. Forget about exploring space just as non-pregnant humans. Yeah. Strap on a belly and see if you can make it out alive!

Oh my gosh, I can't wait to see it. I mean, this show is just so incredibly written and has so many unexpected turns that I'm sure we're in for yet another amazing finale.

Our writers do such an incredible job of marrying the wonders of exploration and how exciting and forward thinking it all is with the emotional realities of when you're out there fighting in space -- fighting the elements, fighting the unknown.

All of the emotions definitely come to a head, I feel, throughout the season, but certainly to the end of the season. And I can't wait for you guys to watch. It's really remarkable.

For All Mankind Season 3 Episode 8 premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday.

Edit Delete

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on Twitter and email her here at TV Fanatic.

Go here to read the rest:

For All Mankind's Cynthy Wu on Kelly Baldwin's Triumphs and Tragedies - TV Fanatic

At the recent Space Renaissance Festival held in Berlin, I attended a talk by Michael Waltemathe from the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany on the so-called overview effect, a term coined by author Frank White in his 1987 book of the same name. Science writer Jeffrey Kluger has described this effect as the change that occurs when [astronauts] see the world from above, as a place where borders are invisible, where racial, religious, and economic strife are nowhere to be seen.

That feeling has been experienced by many travelers to space, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or nationality. After spending 20 days in orbit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Makarov reported, Something about the unexpectedness of this sight, its incompatibility with anything we have ever experienced on Earth elicits a deep emotional response Suddenly, you get a feeling youve never had before That youre an inhabitant of the Earth.

Edgar Mitchell, who walked on the Moon during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971, described it this way:

You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the Moon, international politics looks so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say: Look at that, you son of a bitch.

Not everyone is likely to feel the same way as Makarov or Mitchell. But the overview effect has been experienced by many professional and non-professional space travelers, including the American-Iranian multimillionaire Anousheh Ansari, who described her experience as life-changing. Given the current state of affairs on our planet, we clearly could benefit from more people gaining this perspective.

At the same time, space exploration, especially human space exploration, seems to have slowed down or at least become less ambitious over the past couple of decades. Yes, there are still triumphs like the recent launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. But in the nearly half-century since the Viking mission, there hasnt been a single spacecraft sent to Mars or any other planetary body explicitly devoted to detecting life.

For the cost of the Iraq War, we could already have a station on Mars with 10-12 inhabitants.

New missions to Venus and the outer Solar System are on the drawing board, but all too often these plans get delayed or even cancelled. I was on the preliminary science definition team for a planned mission to Europa about 20 years ago. During our discussions, we concluded that a basketball-sized lander to analyze the Europan ice for remnants of organic compounds and possibly life should be included in the mission. A Europa lander remains stuck in the conceptual stage.

Subscribe for counterintuitive, surprising, and impactful stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday

In the 1980s, plans for a lunar outpost never materialized. Instead, we launched space shuttles and built the International Space Station (ISS). While the ISS did maintain a presence in Earth orbit, it did not fulfill early hopes of propelling us to become a space-faring society (which may only now start to happen due to the initiative of private space companies).

Interest in a human mission to Mars has rekindled after a long hiatus. But even that effort seems stalled. When I attended NASAs First Mars Human Landing Site Workshop in Houston in 2015, the first astronauts were expected to arrive on the Red Planet in the mid-2030s. Current NASA estimates are way less optimistic, although SpaceX still talks about that as a realistic timeline.

Even projects we might consider much more pressing have gotten bogged down. The survival of our species may depend on our ability to detect threatening asteroids, yet progress on this front has been slow. While more asteroids are detectable today than 20 or 30 years ago thanks to programs like the Near Earth Object Observation Program, we are still not doing everything we can to reduce that risk or any other existential risks to our planet. Nor have we prepared for how to react if and when we detect intelligent extraterrestrial life.

Space exploration is certainly expensive, but it has brought us many new inventions used in daily life. LEDs, asphalt roofing shingles, water filters, smoke detectors, and freeze-dry technology are only a few examples. And expensive is a relative term. In a conversation I once had with my colleague and friend, the late Rob Bowman from New Mexico Tech, he mentioned that for the cost of the Iraq War, we could already have a station on Mars with 10-12 inhabitants.

Another colleague, Ed Guinan from Villanova University, used to do a lot of work in the developing countries of Africa. He once told me that students from those countries want to be inspired, to be part of the global community that reaches for the stars. Astronomy programs have now started in many African countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and several others. Space always triggers humanitys dreams and aspirations. Personally, I like that about our species. Exploration is in our blood, and it brings out the good in us.

No doubt, there are many other problems on our planet to resolve more every day, it seems. But the overview effect gives us perhaps the most important perspective of all. We are living on a fragile planet with a thin veneer, our atmosphere, as our only lifeline. We need to overcome our petty differences and realize our vulnerabilities. Maybe more of us need to experience, or at least fully appreciate, the overview effect.

Excerpt from:

The overview effect is another reason to speed up space exploration - Big Think

STS-115 mission specialists Astronauts Daniel C. Burbank and Steven G. MacLean, representing the Canadian Space Agency, participate in the second of three scheduled space walks on the International Space Station on September 13, 2006. As satellites and other manmade bodies proliferate in space, so does space junk.

Photo: NASA/Getty Images

As space exploration from both the private sector and governments continues to grow, not only does the number of orbiting satellites increase, so too does the amount of space junk, or debris.

Every mission to space leaves a debris signature. For example, small fragments of paint are released as a natural consequence of the separation activities between a launcher and its payload. Some debris incursion is unavoidable, but debris mitigation is fast becoming a priority for regulators that license commercial activity.

We have already witnessed the incursion of pollution in general into the Earths oceans. Now is the time to take steps so that space does not suffer the same fate and remains sustainable.

The proliferation of debris in space, which has virtually doubled in the past 10 years (see Figure 1), is the equivalent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. The Western Garbage Patch, located near Japan, and the Eastern Garbage Patch, located between Hawaii and California, are vortices of debris bound by the massive North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.

Figure 1: The Number of Objects in All Orbits Has Grown Significantly Between 1960 and 2020

Polluting the sea causes damage to marine life and the marine environment. For humans, this manifests itself in the food chain.

Space is different. Debris, which performs no function, is simply a hazard to another object that is intended to be in space. Orbital paths cross one another, and launching new satellites into space is similar to crossing a three-lane road. There needs to be a gap in each lane to be able to cross safely. If traffic increases significantly, crossing the road becomes difficult.

In simple terms, too much debris would spell the end of access to space.

The International Telecommunications Union describes space exploration as the backbone of modern communication technologies. Behind every phone call, internet search, remote financial transaction, and many other daily activities is space technology.

The presence of space debris may not lead to large hunks of metal falling from the skies. Still, it poses a significant threat to our day-to-day lives. Information from satellites provide our transport systems with global positioning, our banking systems with transaction timing, and our aircraft and shipping sectors with up-to-date and accurate positioning services. We rely significantly on satellites, and most of us engage with 20 to 30 satellites before we finish our morning coffee or send our first work email.

Further commercialization of space will bring even more benefits. There are a host of new applications, including environmental and crop monitoring, more accurate weather forecasting, and the manufacturing in space of industrial and pharmaceutical materials that cannot be manufactured on Earth. These will bring huge benefits to society.

Space agencies regulate the activities of commercial actors that operate from their given state. Recently, we have seen increased focus on finding the best way to promote sustainability by mitigating the risk, managing the way space objects are dealt with, and removing debris.

Ideally, operations should be conducted in a way that the mission produces minimal debris and leaves little, if anything, behind in space. Operators should be encouraged to commit to behaving as good citizens and construct their spacecraft in a way that reduces the debris signature during launch, operation, and at the end of the missions life. The ability for a satellite to be able to maneuver is an important consideration because it means it can avoid a collision. It also means the satellite can be moved to a safe graveyard orbit or deliberately de-orbited at the end of its life.

Keeping as much debris out of space as possible may necessitate coordinating activity to avoid collisions by using tracking and positioning equipment that can determine the precise location of objects. A number of commercial entities are now able to accurately locate the position of objects that are just 1 millimeter in size. This level of accuracy will help operators avoid collisions, which would otherwise increase the amount of debris in space.

The process of active debris removal entails seeking out known hazards, capturing them, and removing them from their orbits so that they no longer pose a hazard to other spacecraft. A live spacecraft connects to a defunct piece of debris and then transports it to a graveyard orbit. This type of mission is more suitable for low earth orbit activity. The debris is dropped off in a very low orbit, which causes it to enter the Earths atmosphere and burn up on re-entry.

Alternatively, debris can be stored in space. In this scenario, the debris is picked up and placed in a safe orbit to make a compact and managed debris cloud. Debris in the cloud may even be held in orbiting trash can-type structures. The debris can then be salvaged and materials recycled for manufacturing new hardware in space. While this may sound farfetched, and there are considerable legal challenges to overcome, it is a very real prospect.

The U.K. Space Agency is one of the global space agencies leading the way in these matters: The U.K.sNational Space Strategysets out a bold vision for the sector, recognizing the need of making space safe and sustainable.

Related Reading

As we move toward greater commercial exploitation of space, with all of the benefits that it may bring, let us not forget one of the most fundamental aspects funding. The space sector has a new breed of entrepreneurs who bring fresh ideas that will benefit society in ways that we have never imagined. They are in touch with their sustainability and environmental credentials and, therefore, expect more from their suppliers and partners and want the people they work with to share their values.

The prioritization of sustainability features strongly when it comes to accessing financing for space missions. Lenders and investors are today far more focused on environmental, social, and governance issues when it comes to deciding whether to participate in projects. With ambitious sustainability targets, lenders and venture capitalists need to demonstrate to their shareholders and investors that they are making strong ethical decisions.

Access to space is imperative to our day-to-day lives, underscoring the importance that it is protected. The good news is that those involved seem to be engaging with the issue in a more timely manner than we have when it came to protecting the High Seas.

Visit link:

Does Space Exploration Have a Sustainability Problem? BRINK Conversations and Insights on Global Business - BRINK

Country

United States of AmericaUS Virgin IslandsUnited States Minor Outlying IslandsCanadaMexico, United Mexican StatesBahamas, Commonwealth of theCuba, Republic ofDominican RepublicHaiti, Republic ofJamaicaAfghanistanAlbania, People's Socialist Republic ofAlgeria, People's Democratic Republic ofAmerican SamoaAndorra, Principality ofAngola, Republic ofAnguillaAntarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S)Antigua and BarbudaArgentina, Argentine RepublicArmeniaArubaAustralia, Commonwealth ofAustria, Republic ofAzerbaijan, Republic ofBahrain, Kingdom ofBangladesh, People's Republic ofBarbadosBelarusBelgium, Kingdom ofBelizeBenin, People's Republic ofBermudaBhutan, Kingdom ofBolivia, Republic ofBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswana, Republic ofBouvet Island (Bouvetoya)Brazil, Federative Republic ofBritish Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago)British Virgin IslandsBrunei DarussalamBulgaria, People's Republic ofBurkina FasoBurundi, Republic ofCambodia, Kingdom ofCameroon, United Republic ofCape Verde, Republic ofCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChad, Republic ofChile, Republic ofChina, People's Republic ofChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombia, Republic ofComoros, Union of theCongo, Democratic Republic ofCongo, People's Republic ofCook IslandsCosta Rica, Republic ofCote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of theCyprus, Republic ofCzech RepublicDenmark, Kingdom ofDjibouti, Republic ofDominica, Commonwealth ofEcuador, Republic ofEgypt, Arab Republic ofEl Salvador, Republic ofEquatorial Guinea, Republic ofEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFaeroe IslandsFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Fiji, Republic of the Fiji IslandsFinland, Republic ofFrance, French RepublicFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabon, Gabonese RepublicGambia, Republic of theGeorgiaGermanyGhana, Republic ofGibraltarGreece, Hellenic RepublicGreenlandGrenadaGuadaloupeGuamGuatemala, Republic ofGuinea, RevolutionaryPeople's Rep'c ofGuinea-Bissau, Republic ofGuyana, Republic ofHeard and McDonald IslandsHoly See (Vatican City State)Honduras, Republic ofHong Kong, Special Administrative Region of ChinaHrvatska (Croatia)Hungary, Hungarian People's RepublicIceland, Republic ofIndia, Republic ofIndonesia, Republic ofIran, Islamic Republic ofIraq, Republic ofIrelandIsrael, State ofItaly, Italian RepublicJapanJordan, Hashemite Kingdom ofKazakhstan, Republic ofKenya, Republic ofKiribati, Republic ofKorea, Democratic People's Republic ofKorea, Republic ofKuwait, State ofKyrgyz RepublicLao People's Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanon, Lebanese RepublicLesotho, Kingdom ofLiberia, Republic ofLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtenstein, Principality ofLithuaniaLuxembourg, Grand Duchy ofMacao, Special Administrative Region of ChinaMacedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic ofMadagascar, Republic ofMalawi, Republic ofMalaysiaMaldives, Republic ofMali, Republic ofMalta, Republic ofMarshall IslandsMartiniqueMauritania, Islamic Republic ofMauritiusMayotteMicronesia, Federated States ofMoldova, Republic ofMonaco, Principality ofMongolia, Mongolian People's RepublicMontserratMorocco, Kingdom ofMozambique, People's Republic ofMyanmarNamibiaNauru, Republic ofNepal, Kingdom ofNetherlands AntillesNetherlands, Kingdom of theNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaragua, Republic ofNiger, Republic of theNigeria, Federal Republic ofNiue, Republic ofNorfolk IslandNorthern Mariana IslandsNorway, Kingdom ofOman, Sultanate ofPakistan, Islamic Republic ofPalauPalestinian Territory, OccupiedPanama, Republic ofPapua New GuineaParaguay, Republic ofPeru, Republic ofPhilippines, Republic of thePitcairn IslandPoland, Polish People's RepublicPortugal, Portuguese RepublicPuerto RicoQatar, State ofReunionRomania, Socialist Republic ofRussian FederationRwanda, Rwandese RepublicSamoa, Independent State ofSan Marino, Republic ofSao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic ofSaudi Arabia, Kingdom ofSenegal, Republic ofSerbia and MontenegroSeychelles, Republic ofSierra Leone, Republic ofSingapore, Republic ofSlovakia (Slovak Republic)SloveniaSolomon IslandsSomalia, Somali RepublicSouth Africa, Republic ofSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSpain, Spanish StateSri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic ofSt. HelenaSt. Kitts and NevisSt. LuciaSt. Pierre and MiquelonSt. Vincent and the GrenadinesSudan, Democratic Republic of theSuriname, Republic ofSvalbard & Jan Mayen IslandsSwaziland, Kingdom ofSweden, Kingdom ofSwitzerland, Swiss ConfederationSyrian Arab RepublicTaiwan, Province of ChinaTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailand, Kingdom ofTimor-Leste, Democratic Republic ofTogo, Togolese RepublicTokelau (Tokelau Islands)Tonga, Kingdom ofTrinidad and Tobago, Republic ofTunisia, Republic ofTurkey, Republic ofTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUganda, Republic ofUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited Kingdom of Great Britain & N. IrelandUruguay, Eastern Republic ofUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofViet Nam, Socialist Republic ofWallis and Futuna IslandsWestern SaharaYemenZambia, Republic ofZimbabwe

Go here to read the rest:

Science Voice: Is space exploration a waste of money? - Herald Review

Three big hunks of space junk have been found in rural Australia, suspected to be detritus from a SpaceX mission launched in 2020. Now it's time for the less exciting part of space exploration: the cleanup.

The unidentified fallen objects were found between July 14 and 25, scattered across the Snowy Mountains region of the state of New South Wales. The latest piece, discovered by sheep farmer Mick Miners, stands nearly 10 feet tall and is firmly embedded in a paddock by one end.

Understandably, Miners was initially baffled by his unexpected find. His neighbour Jock Wallace, who also found some debris, was told by Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority to talk to NASA about it.

"I'm a farmer from Dalgety, what am I going to say to NASA?" Wallace asked Australia's ABC News. Dalgety is a small town by the Snowy River, with a population of 252.

Fortunately, these humble farmers won't have to figure out what to do with the space junk themselves. The Australian Space Agency is working with the U.S. to determine exactly what the chunks of metal are and who they belong to. The piece found by Miners at least appears to have a serial number, which should help.

While the formal identification process is still underway, informally it's believed Australia's surprise installation art comes courtesy of SpaceX specifically its Crew Dragon Resilience.

SpaceX's Crew-1 flight transported four astronauts to the International Space Station in November 2020, successfully conducting the company's first operational crewed mission. The same capsule subsequently returned them to Earth in early May last year, with jettisoned debris from the mission expected to reenter the atmosphere approximately two months later.

As noted by astronomer Jonathan McDowell, Dalgety is near the Dragon's July 8 re-entry path (or July 9 in Australia, as it's across the international dateline from the U.S.). Several Australians reported hearing a sonic boom and seeing a fast-moving object in the sky at the time.

Though this particular piece of plummeting death landed in an empty field, a recent study found there's a one in 10 chance somebody will be killed by falling space debris within the next 10 years. People in the Global South are also at higher risk that is, areas such as Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, as opposed to Western and European countries. Australia is considered part of the Global North.

SpaceX hasn't yet acknowledged or claimed its alleged space litter. Yet even if CEO Elon Musk continues to pretend he does not see it, he may not necessarily have to pick up after himself.

According to Article 7 of the UN's Outer Space Treaty and the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, the country from which a rocket is launched is responsible for any damage it causes. These agreements have been ratified by both Australia and the U.S., meaning that the American government may be left to clean up Musk's suspected mess.

Continued here:

Space junk found on Australian farms suspected to be from SpaceX - Mashable