Earlier this year, it was reported that an astronaut in space had developed a potentially life-threatening blood clot in the neck. This was successfully treated with medication by doctors on Earth, avoiding surgery. But given that space agencies and private spaceflight companies have committed to landing humans on Mars in the coming decades, we may not be so lucky next time.

Surgical emergencies are in fact one of the main challenges when it comes to human space travel. But over the last few years, space medicine researchers have come up with a number of ideas that could help, from surgical robots to 3D printers.

Mars is a whopping 54.6 million kilometers (33.9 million miles) away from Earth, when closest. In comparison, the International Space Agency (ISS) orbits just 400 kilometers above Earth. For surgical emergencies on the ISS, the procedure is to stabilize the patient and transport them back to Earth, aided by telecommunication in real time. This wont work on Mars missions, where evacuation would take months or years, and there may be a latency in communications of over twenty minutes.

As well as distance, the extreme environment faced during transit to and on Mars includes microgravity, high radiation levels and an enclosed pressurized cabin or suit. This is tough on astronauts bodies and takes time getting used to.

We already know that space travel changes astronauts cells, blood pressure regulation and heart performance. It also affects the bodys fluid distribution and weakens its bones and muscles. Space travelers may also more easily develop infections. So in terms of fitness for surgery, an injured or unwell astronaut will be already at a physiological disadvantage.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield using a cardio lab at the ISS. NASA

But how likely is it that an astronaut will actually need surgery? For a crew of seven people, researchers estimate that there will be an average of one surgical emergency every 2.4 years during a Mars mission. The main causes include injury, appendicitis, gallbladder inflammation or cancer. Astronauts are screened extensively when they are selected, but surgical emergencies can occur in healthy people and may be exacerbated in the extreme environment of space.

Surgery in microgravity is possible and has already been been carried out, albeit not on humans yet. For example, astronauts have managed to repair rat tails and perform laroscopy a minimally invasive surgical procedure used to examine and repair the organs inside the abdomen on animals, while in microgravity.

These surgeries have led to new innovations and improvements such as magnetizing surgical tools so they stick to the table, and restraining the surgeonaut too.

One problem was that, during open surgery, the intestines would float around, obscuring view of the surgical field. To deal with this, space travelers should opt for minimally invasive surgical techniques, such as keyhole surgery, ideally occurring within patients internal cavities through small incisions using a camera and instruments.

A laroscopy was recently carried out on fake abdomens during a parabolic zero gravity flight, with surgeons successfully stemming traumatic bleeding. But they warned that it would be psychologically hard to carry out such a procedure on a crew mate.

Bodily fluids will also behave differently in space and on Mars. The blood in our veins may stick to instruments because of surface tension. Floating droplets may also form streams that could restrict the surgeons view, which is not ideal. The circulating air of an enclosed cabin may also be an infection risk. Surgical bubbles and blood-repelling surgical tools could be the solution.

Researchers have already developed and tested various surgical enclosures in microgravity environments. For example, NASA evaluated a closed system comprising a surgical clear plastic overhead canopy with arm ports, aiming to prevent contamination.

When orbiting or settled on Mars, however, we would ideally need a hypothetical traumapod, with radiation shielding, surgical robots, advanced life support and restraints. This would be a dedicated module with filtered air supply and a computer to aid in diagnosis and treatment.

The surgeries carried out in space so far have revealed that a large amount of support equipment is essential. This is a luxury the crew may not have on a virgin voyage to Mars. You cannot take much equipment on a rocket. It has therefore been suggested that a 3D printer could use materials from Mars itself to develop surgical tools.

Tools that have been 3D printed have been successfully tested by crew with no prior surgical experience, performing a task similar to surgery simply by cutting and suturing materials (rather than a body). There was no substantial difference in time to completion with 3D printed instruments such as towel clamps, scalpel handles and toothed forceps.

A Mars settlement would need a traumapod. NASA

Robotic surgery is another option that has been used routinely on Earth, and tested for planetary excursions. During NEEMO 7, a series of missions in the underwater habitat Aquarius in Florida Keys by NASA, surgery by a robot controlled from another lab was successfully used to remove a fake gallbladder and kidney stone from a fake body. However, the lag in communications in space will make remote control a problem. Ideally, surgical robots would need to be autonomous.

There is a wealth of research and preparation for the possible event of a surgical emergency during a Mars mission, but there are many unknowns, especially when it comes to diagnostics and anesthesia. Ultimately, prevention is better than surgery. So selecting healthy crew and developing the engineering solutions needed to protect them will be crucial.

This article is republished from The ConversationbyNina Louise Purvis, Postgraduate Researcher in Space Medicine, Kings College Londonunder a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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From floating guts to 'sticky' blood here's how to do surgery in space - The Next Web

NASA is scheduled to launch another rover to Mars on July 20.

Yawn.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

During the decade I worked at NASA, my job involved touring the Space Shuttle trainer, exploring experimental extraterrestrial habitats, holding meteorites and donning a bunny suit for the clean room, where satellites were built. My friends nicknamed me The Astronaut.

Youd be perfect, they said, knowing I was athletic and daring in my role as senior science editor. Just fill out the astronaut application. I knew my oceanography background qualified me, but I couldnt get past the idea of spending six months trapped in a smelly enclosure while eating freeze-dried lasagna, bathing with a washcloth and breathing recirculated air. Besides, I cared about Earth, not space.

At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, where I was based, those who worked on Mars science and those who worked on Earth science competed for attention and praise from management. During regular meetings, Mars People sat in the choice seats nearest the director, who saw Mars as exciting and prestigious and treated the Earth People like stepchildren. A Mars rover cost $2.5 billion, whereas an Earth orbiting satellite was around $400 million. Mars People snubbed Earth People.

I remember when the Deputy Director of Communication lectured me on space exploration as the only way for humanity to move forward. I glanced around his office at the stacks of paper piled across his desk, while he executed his duty to school me on all things NASA. He explained with great confidence how the success of humankind was the result of an innate drive to go and explore, and how the pioneering spirit was integral to human nature. His opinions echoed those of Neil deGrasse Tyson, with whom Id once argued. Tyson and I spent an hour going at it so intensely that I ended up apologizing for accidentally spitting on him. Go ahead and lean in, he told me. Im a New Yorker; I can handle it.

Both Tyson and the NASA director claimed that sending humans to Mars was the best way to excite people about science. They painted a romanticized ideal, with charismatic explorers sailing forth toward wonder and travel and discovery. But to me, exploration represented machismo and pillaging and conquest. In school, we were taught to regard imperialistic conquerors as heroes, even though each journey to discovery was mired in colonial exploitation driven by expansionism. Excerpts from diaries and letters written by Christopher Columbus included descriptions of genocide, slavery and rape. The British explorer, James Cook, committed massacres and kidnapped Native people. Such atrocities were not humanity.

These space enthusiasts also claimed that during NASAs Apollo Program (1963-1972), the American public was more scientifically literate, which was a talking point supporting space flight to Mars. But there was no empirical evidence for the assertion that human or robotic space-travel increased public interest in science. Science literacy among US adults hasnt changed for decades. So why would dredging it up again move society now? If space travel were so inspirational, then more people would be able to name astronauts other than Buzz Aldrin or Neil Armstrong. They cant.

True, many Americans have an abysmal understanding of how the world works. According to the Pew Research Center, 33 percent of Americans reject the concept of evolution and believe the Earth is less than 10,000 years old. This lack of awareness about how science impacts politics, policy and our future is a problem with economic and civic consequences. We live on this planet together, so our collective actions impact each other as well as other species. Every apathetic citizen or hostile denier represents a gamble on everyone elses future.

The coronavirus started as an ecological pandemic. It spread quickly because of globalization and public misunderstanding of, and distrust in, science. Instead of trips to Mars, we could focus attention on Earth and clean up the mess here before exploring new horizons.

During the 13 years I taught college-level oceanography, my students told me they believed science was cold and difficult to understand. But these young people were keen to learn about Earths climate and get involved. I convinced them that literacy involved connections they made to the world, not facts to memorize.

After Trump took office, I was called into JPL Ethics and told that climate change was a sensitive topic, and that my work was being monitored. By September 2017, Id been censored, intimidated by Media Relations, stripped of my duties and barred from speaking to the press. My manager suggested I write something about Mars.

I knew NASA administrators cared about Mars. Neil deGrasse Tyson cared about Mars. But I didnt, and neither did many of my friends and neighbors. My responsibility to be honest about climate change outweighed my responsibility to protect NASA. I refused to stay quiet. By October, I was forced out.

Was it worth it? Yes. Our generations ambitious project, our moonshot, isnt space travel. Its the climate crisis, plastic pollution and public health.

Our scientific talents should be focused here. On Earth.

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I worked for a decade at NASA and I can tell you the 'Mars bros' have it all wrong - The Independent

Fast & Furious 9 star Ludacris has potentially given away that the franchise is about to head into space.

The idea that space was the final frontier for the Fast franchise has been a long-running joke, but given how outlandish the series has become, we wouldn't be too surprised.

Appearing on Sirius XM's The Jess Cagle Show, Ludacris explained how the delay on the release of Fast 9 has given the creative minds behind the franchise more time to make the film (and possible sequels) some of the best of all time.

Prince Williams / ContributorGetty Images

Co-host Julia Cunningham then said: "I don't even know creatively what they could come up with to wow us even though I know they do every time.

"I'm like, space has to be involved, submarines, I don't even know. In my mind I can't imagine what happens in the next movie."

Ludacris responded: "You just said something very important. I will say that you are very intuitive, cause you said something right, but I'm not going to give it away."

"It was space I said space," Julia then shouted, to which the rapper simply put his hand over his mouth, so as not to say anything more.

Related: Vin Diesel hints there's a "big surprise" coming for Fast & Furious 9

Obviously, this could all be a big wind up, but we're actually kind of excited about the possibility of seeing the gang potentially hop in a spaceship.

Last year, Fast & Furious screenwriter Chris Morgan admitted that "nothings out of the question" when asked whether we could see Dominic Toretto and the gang travel to space one day.

"It just has to be cool and it has to be good," he explained in an interview with Polygon. "You know, thats the thing. I would say nothing is off-limits as long as we can stay on the right side of keeping the audience engaged."

Fast & Furious 9 will be released in April 2021.

Fast & Furious 8-Film Collection DVD (1-8 Box Set) [2017]

24.99

Fast & Furious 8 (Amazon Prime)

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Fast & Furious 7 [Blu-ray] [2017] [Region Free]

3.44

Fast & Furious 6 (Limited Edition Steelbook) [Blu-ray] [2013] [Region Free]

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Fast & Furious 1-6 (includes sneak peek of Fast & Furious 7) [Blu-ray] [2015]

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Fast & Furious 5 [DVD] [2011]

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Fast & Furious 1-8 (4K + Blu-ray) [2019] [Region Free]

Fast & Furious Monopoly Board Game

23.71

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Fast 9 star might have revealed that the movie goes to space - Digital Spy

A Redfin Corp. 'For Sale' sign stands outside of a home in Seattle, Washington.

David Ryder | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines after the bell:

Marathon Oil The oil company's stock climbed 1% in extended trading after falling 7.05% earlier Thursday. Oil dropped 3%during the day amid concerns over rising coronavirus case counts.

Redfin Shares of the real estate brokerage fell 2% after the closing bell. The company's stock hit an all-time high earlier in the week as real estate recovers from pandemic-forced lockdowns across the country. The pandemic is causing an exodus from cities and home searches are now increasingly in the suburbs, Ryan Schneider, chief executive ofRealogy Holdings, told CNBC Thursday.

Virgin GalacticShares of the space travel company rose 1% in extended trading after the stock jumped nearly 16% earlier in the day. Last week, Virgin Galactic said it expects to attain its Federal Aviation Administration license within the next two spaceflights, which would bring the company closer to flying customers.

Bed Bath & Beyond Shares of thehome goods retailer climbed 1% in extended trading after falling 24.5% in regular hours. Bed Bath & Beyond released its first-quarter financial results Wednesday and said it will close about 200 stores over the next two years.

NIO The Chinese electric-car maker's stock rose 2% after the market closed. Shares jumped 13% during the day, continuing an upward trend for the stock. Last week Nio reported a monthly record of 3,740 vehicle deliveries for June and said it delivered 10,331 vehicles in the second quarter.

Carnival The cruise operator's stock climbed 1% in extended trading. Earlier Thursday, Carnival's subsidiary AIDA Cruises announced it would restart vacation trips in August.

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Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: Virgin Galactic, Redfin, Carnival and more - CNBC

Photos of empty airports have come to symbolize the head-spinning drop in air travel during the pandemic. But the more surprising illustration for me involves a now-crowded space.

The parking lots of rental car agencies near the Ottawa airport are now overstuffed with unwanted cars. So many of them have piled up since air travel has fallen by 90 percent in Canada that the unwanted rentals have overflowed into the vast parking lot of a nearby convention center.

Recently, Canadas two major airlines, Air Canada and WestJet, have been pushing to get more people back on their planes, urging politicians to substantially ease virus-related restrictions, including expanding border travel with the United States, as they move to restart additional routes later this month.

This is hundreds of times worse than 9/11, SARS, or the global financial crisis quite frankly combined, Calin Rovinescu, the chief executive of Air Canada, told the Financial Post in an interview.

But at the same time that Mr. Rovinescu and his counterparts are working to get more people back in the air, theyve made one change that gives some health officials pause.

On Canada Day, both Air Canada and WestJet ended what the industry calls seat blocking, leaving a vacant seat between passengers. Though that gap was far short of the minimum recommended distance of 2 meters, it was still a gap.

So while health officials are urging Canadians to keep their distance as various measures are eased, airlines are putting them in close contact in an enclosed space for flights that can last hours.

During recent testimony before the House of Commons health committee, officials from all of Canadas major airlines played down the need to keep passengers apart and emphasized what they called a cascading or multilayered approach to making sure infections dont spread aboard flights. That approach, they repeatedly said, includes taking into account the quality of the air filtration systems on planes.

In an email, Air Canada explained the end of seat blocking to me this way: While we would all like a single measure that reduces risk, we are left to use a combination of approaches to mitigate risk as far as practical.

It added: It is very important that people understand how efficiently aircraft ventilation works to refresh air regularly onboard every 2 to 3 minutes, which is a key reason there has been no reports of disease outbreak clusters onboard flights.

But scientists, public health authorities and physicians seem less enthusiastic about a return to jampacked cabins and, for that matter, about moving large numbers of people around the country.

From a public health perspective the physical distancing is one of the key public health measures, Dr. Howard Njoo, the deputy chief public health officer of Canada, said at a news conference when asked about the airlines new plan. Physical distancing is our recommendation.

Dr. David N. Fisman, an epidemiologist at the University of Torontos Dalla Lana School of Public Health, agreed that having multiple measures can lead to greater overall control of infections and he added that hes been surprised by the lack of outbreaks clustered around flights.

That said, at the end of the day, proximity and crowding are important factors in facilitating disease transmission, so maintaining as much space as possible between individuals and requiring masks when space cant be maintained seems quite common-sensical to me, he said. I cant imagine that airplanes have some magical property that makes droplet borne transmission difficult if people are packed closely together.

Dr. Cory Neudorf a professor at the University of Saskatchewans medical school and the medical director for health surveillance at Saskatchewan Health Authority, told me in an email that viruses can still pass between passengers even with the most vigorous filtration.

Airplanes try to mitigate this through frequent air circulation and use of HEPA filters, but yes, you can still be infected if you breathe in the particles on their way to the filters, he wrote in the email.

He added that limiting the number of people aboard planes cuts the risk of transmission in other ways.

Fewer people in a given shared space means fewer people touching shared surfaces, so risk is reduced, especially if you dont have someone using the same arm rest or other surfaces as they walk down aisles, use the washroom etc., he wrote.

Air Canada will allow economy class passengers on flights that are nearly full to rebook at no cost. That, of course, assumes travel flexibility and the availability of flights with lots of empty seats.

Moris Moreno recently produced a record for The Times of air travel from Seattle to Boston with his family, although the middle seats were empty when he took to the skies.

Balarama Holness is a Montreal educator, broadcaster, law student, former professional Canadian football player, and one of the leaders of Canadas current Black rights and anti-racism movement. He told Dan Bilefsky he aspires to be a Canadian Obama.

Justin Trudeau is at the center of another conflict-of-interest investigation his third since he became Prime Minister in 2015. This one is over his familys connections to the international WE Charity, which his government had awarded a no-bid contract to disburse hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to student volunteers. This week, it was revealed that Mr. Trudeaus mother and brother were paid more than 280,000 Canadian dollars over four years by the charity for speaking at its events.

For those feeling stir-crazy under coronavirus travel restrictions, you can travel virtually along the 360-mile Tshiuetin railroad in rural Quebec, from Sept-les to Schefferville. Partly owned and wholly operated by the three First Nations that it connects, the line is a symbol of reclamation and defiance for those it serves, writes Chlo Ellingson. Her photos are wonderful.

A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has reported about Canada for The New York Times for the past 16 years. Follow him on Twitter at @ianrausten.

Were eager to have your thoughts about this newsletter and events in Canada in general. Please send them to nytcanada@nytimes.com.

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An End to Empty Seats on Canadas Airlines - The New York Times

The United States should not have to rely as much on charitable contributions from billionaires to help solve the nation's economic challenges,Biden campaign surrogate Pete Buttigieg told CNBC on Thursday.

"It's wonderful when there are these major commitments, generous commitments by individuals, but we've also got to ask how things got so unequal in the first place," the former Democratic presidential candidate said on "Squawk Box."

Buttigieg's remarks came in response to a question about whether to tax charitablecontributions such as the one that multibillionaire Warren Buffettjust announced. The "Oracle of Omaha" on Wednesday saidhe woulddonate nearly $3 billion worth ofBerkshire Hathawaystock.As of Wednesday's market close, Buffett ranked No. 4 on Forbes' list of the richest people in the world with an estimated net-worth of $67.6 billion.

Buffett has said he will give away nearly all of his fortune, with most of it going to a handful of philanthropic organizations including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and charities run by his three children.Since 2006, he has donated more than $37 billion, including the latest contribution.

Instead of taxing philanthropy, Buttigieg said it would make more sense for the U.S. to have a more equitable tax structure on the "front end." That way, he said, the tax revenue wouldsupport programs and other efforts that reduce inequality that have more input from voters.

"If a little bit more of that was making its way into a democratically guided process, in other words the kind of research and development that invent trillion dollar ideas like the internet itself and space travel, we know our country is better off," said Buttigieg,the former two-term mayor of South Bend, Indiana. "We've got to ask where the balance is."

For example, Buttigieg referenced a report last year that found a full-time worker earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is unable to pay for an affordable two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the U.S. However, some states and localities have higher minimum wages than the federal rate, which has remained the same forabouta decade.

"I would argue that if that weren't the case, if we had higher wages and more public investment, we wouldn't need to lean on philanthropy quite as much as we do," Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg, who won the most delegates in February's Iowa caucus and finished second in the New Hampshire primary, ended his unlikely presidential bid on March 1, one day after Joe Biden's crucial victory in South Carolina.

Buttigiegendorsed the former vice president shortly after leaving the race.

On Thursday, Biden released an economic plan that proposes investments in American manufacturing. It calls for a $400 billion, four-year increase in government purchasing of U.S.-based goods and services, along with another $300 billion on research and development in technology.The Biden plan also touts the candidate's long-standing promises to strengthen workers' collective bargaining rights and to roll back part of the tax cuts passed by President Donald Trump.

Buttigieg said the U.S. economy needs that kind of spending to help it recover from the impact of the coronavirus crisis, which has put millions of American residents out of work. While saying he's attentive to concerns about government deficits, Buttigieg said investment plans like Biden'shave shown to have a "much higher rate of return than tax cuts."

"If you look at the overall picture of where our economy is headed, we don't have a choice and we can handle these kinds of investments if we make them before it's too late," Buttigieg said.

Continued here:

Economy shouldn't have to rely on charity from billionaires, says Biden backer Pete Buttigieg - CNBC

A long-exposure photograph of the Milky Way overlaid by the Drake equation: an equation developed by Frank Drake in 1961 for estimating the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy. Image via Medium.com.

Are we alone in our galaxy? If not, how many other civilizations might there be? And where are they? In 1961, astronomer Frank Drake created whats now known as the Drake Equation shown above a tool for discussing the question of alien life. Now two scientists have incorporated the Drake Equation into a new system called the Alien Civilization Calculator. In addition to the Drake Equation, the new calculator also employs a new method called the Astrobiological Copernican Limits, to find the number of advanced civilizations we might be able to communicate with in the future. Like the Drake Equation itself, the new calculator is a tool for thinking and discussing. Its an aid for contemplating how many advanced alien civilizations there might be theoretically speaking in our own galaxy. Using the calculator, you can compare outcomes using the Drake Equation and the Astrobiological Copernican Limits. And you can adjust the input values, to how different factors might affect the number of alien civilizations in our Milky Way galaxy, and how close the nearest ones might be.

The scientists who created the Alien Civilization Calculator are with Omni Calculator which has many different types of calculators under one roof (1,197 according to the website) and which, Omni Calculator says, makes it:

super simple for anyone to solve their day-to-day calculations and math problems with ease in no time.

So a super simple answer to the question of alien life? Lets see.

A young Frank Drake. Drake, an astronomer, has been a leader in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence since the 1960s when he implemented Project Ozma to search for radio signals from advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. He developed the Drake equation. And he created the Arecibo Message, a 1974 interstellar radio message from Earth to the globular star cluster M13, carrying encoded information about Earth and its humans. Image via Spaceflight Now.

The inspiration for the calculator came from recent news about the Astrobiological Copernican Limits method, a new method for looking at the possibilities for alien life, based on a study by Tom Westby and Christopher J. Conselice. That study reached the conclusion that there should be at least 36 worlds with advanced alien societies in our galaxy. The peer-reviewed paper was published on April 8, 2020, in The Astrophysical Journal. The study estimated that the nearest civilization would probably be about 17,000 light-years away, so not all that close.

This gave Steve Wooding and Dominik Czernia at Omni Calculator the idea to create a new calculator, combining the Astrobiological Copernican Limits method with the Drake Equation. The two approaches are rather different, so using and comparing both of them was a unique and novel way to try to find possible solutions to what scientists called the Fermi Paradox. That paradox is based on physicist Enrico Fermis famous pondering about an apparent contradiction. That is, the Drake equation suggests there should be many, many extraterrestrial civilizations. Yet, all rumors to the contrary aside, theres been no hard and fast evidence for these civilizations that we all can see and agree upon. Fermi famously asked:

Where are they?

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) was an Italian-American physicist, who received a 1938 Nobel Prize in physics for his work in nuclear physics. He famously asked, Where are they? Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Using the calculator is quite simple. First, you select which method you want to use, and then fill in all the fields in the Milky Way assumptions section. The result gives you an estimate of the number of civilizations in the galaxy, depending on the variables that you input, such as star formation rate, number of stars with planets, etc. It will also tell you how far away the closest of those civilizations should be. You can create many different combinations of variables to test your ideas out with. Theres even a space travel calculator to find out how long it would take to travel to these other worlds by rocket!

So how do the two methods compare?

The first, the Drake Equation, is a rather simple formula, and was developed by astronomer Frank Drake, who is also the father of modern SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The formula looks like this:

N = R* x fp x ne x fl x fs x ft x L

N stands for the number of detectable civilizations. The other variables are as follows:

R* is the average rate of star formation in our galaxy. By observing our galaxy and all nearby galaxies, we know its about 2.3 per year;fp is the percentage of stars that have at least one planet. Scientists agree that almost every star has a planet, therefore fp ? 100%;ne is the average number of hospitable planets per star. Thanks to the Kepler space mission, we know that each star in the galaxy has, on average, four Earth-sized planets;fl is the percentage of those planets where life actually emerges;fs is the percentage of those planets where life evolves into intelligent beings;ft is the percentage of those planets with intelligent creatures capable of interstellar communication; andL is the lifetime a civilization remains detectable for.

Perhaps the worlds ongoing effort to search for extraterrestrial life operates under the auspices of Yuri Milners project called Breakthrough Listen. Here is the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, one of the telescopes used by Breakthrough Listen for SETI. This is an artists concept of a signal from a Fast Radio Burst or FRB detected by the telescope. FRBs are one of the sorts of objects on the new Breakthrough Listen Exotica list, which some hope will help guide the search for ET. Image via UC Berkeley.

The first three are now well-known or fairly well-known at this point, but the remaining three are not. This of course makes it difficult still to come to any solid conclusions. But the Drake Equation is what has been used by astronomers for decades now, to try to come to at least some kind of understanding of how common, or rare, intelligent life might be.

Thats where the second method, the Astrobiological Copernican Limits, comes into play. Westby and Conselice developed it in April 2020 as a more modern form of the Drake Equation. The parameters are different from the Drake Equation, and based on the assumption that any habitable, Earth-like planet, presumably near in size to the Earth, with a similar composition, atmosphere and water, would eventually host life. That may sound like a big assumption to make, and it is. This method is also based on the one example we have so far of a communicating, intelligent civilization, our own.The paper has generated a lot of discussion, including criticism from some fellow scientists. For example, Caleb Scharf, Director of Astrobiology at Columbia University, wrote on Twitter:

From the paper:

We present a cosmic perspective on the search for life and examine the likely number of Communicating Extra-Terrestrial Intelligent civilizations (CETI) in our galaxy by utilizing the latest astrophysical information. Our calculation involves Galactic star-formation histories, metallicity distributions, and the likelihood of stars hosting Earth-like planets in habitable zones, under specific assumptions which we describe as the Astrobiological Copernican Weak and Strong conditions. These assumptions are based on the one situation in which intelligent, communicative life is known to exist, on our own planet.

For the purposes of the calculator, the premise is that an Earth-like planet could only support intelligent life when it is five billion years old or older. This is based on the knowledge that Earth is about five billion years old, and humanity has only appeared within the last three million years or so, as currently understood. The equation for this method looks like this:

N = N* x fL x fHZ x fM x (L/?)

Giant artificial constructions in space, such as this hypothetical type of Dyson sphere, are one kind of possible technosignature. Image via CapnHack.

Again, N stands for the number of intelligent, and communicable, civilizations. But now the variables are as such:

N* is the total number of stars within the galaxy;fL is the percentage of those stars which are at least 5 billion years old;fHZ is the percentage of those stars which host a suitable planet for supporting life;fM is the percentage of those stars for which there is a sufficient amount of metal resources allowing the formation of advanced biology and a communicable civilization;L is the average lifetime of an advanced, communicable civilization; and? is the average amount of time available for life to develop on a planet, or, in other words, ? is the time in which life could exist.

For this model, users can also choose between strong, moderate or weak values in regards to how strict conditions are for intelligent life to appear and evolve. Strong = only a few stars with planets able to host such life, while weak = many such stars.

The maximum distance results from both methods can be used to calculate how many civilizations might be nearby. As might be expected, the farther out you go, the greater the chances of a habitable planet having intelligent life. This is based on the volume of space involved and simple statistics. For example, according to the calculator, there is only a one in 3 billion chance of the nearest star, the Alpha Centauri system, having a planet with intelligent life. But the farther out you go, the greater the odds.

As discussed in EarthSky recently, we are also now getting a better idea of where to search for evidence of advanced alien civilizations. The new Exotica Catalog, aka The Breakthrough Listen Exotic Target Catalog, from Breakthrough Listen, currently lists over 700 objects and phenomena of interest in the universe that might be good places to look. The catalog lists one of everything in the known universe that might be a good target for study and observations.

Steven Wooding and Dominik Czernia of Omni Calculator, who created the Alien Civilization Calculator. Image via Omni Calculator.

The catalog will help guide the search efforts of those looking for evidence of intelligent life, in particular by searching for technosignatures artifacts or phenomena produced by a highly advanced intelligent species that could be detected by telescopes. Modern SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is now finally starting to move beyond just looking for alien radio signals. Technosignatures could include many different possibilities, like Dyson spheres built around stars or other huge artificial constructions, lasers or other more exotic communications like Fast Radio Bursts, evidence of industrial pollution on a planet, etc.

The Alien Civilization Calculator is useful in trying to determine how many civilizations might exist in our galaxy, albeit based on many variables, and how close by some of them might be. Projects like the Exotic Catalog and Breakthrough Listen/ SETI will help to narrow down more specific locations and actual detected candidates. This kind of multi-pronged approach is what is needed, even if it still takes a long time to actually find something or someone.

The famous Drake Equation in illustrative form, depicting the different variables involved. The new calculator combines this formula with the new Astrobiological Copernican Limits method. Image via SETI Institute/ Enter the Realm of Guy Erma.

Bottom line: The new Alien Civilization Calculator combines two different methods of calculating how many advanced alien civilizations may exist in our galaxy.

Via Alien Civilization Calculator

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How many ETs are in our galaxy? Ask the Alien Civilization Calculator - EarthSky

Global Ultrathin and Superlight Solar Cells Market

Solar power is already a major part of the global renewable energy mix. The low production cost of solar energy, the abundant availability of solar power across the world, and the ease of use of solar power generation systems have led to the widespread usage of solar energy for both residential and nonresidential uses. Several countries in developed as well as developing regions have encouraged the widespread utilization of solar power to ease the pressure on the countries main power grids. Tax incentives and government entry into the field of renewable power have become commonplace all over the world, as solar photovoltaic has become a major energy source in many regions.

The firm foothold already established by the solar power sector in the overall energy generation field will massively help the development of ultrathin and superlight solar cells in the coming years. Whereas solar power is already an established renewable energy source in many countries, the application spectrum of the same is widening in several regions, which is expected to be greatly helped by the innovation of ultrathin and superlight solar cells.

The report helps deliver precise facts about the global ultrathin and superlight solar cells market by using a granular approach. Major regional segments of the global ultrathin and superlight solar cells market are examined in the report in order to provide a clear view of the geographical breakdown of the market. The competitive landscape of the market is also examined to provide key insights to readers.

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Global Ultrathin and Superlight Solar Cells Market: Drivers and Restraints

Recently, scientists at MIT developed a solar cell literally thinner than human hair. Such ultrathin and superlight solar cells it only weighs around 3.6 g/square meter are the order of the day, and the proof of concept developed by MIT researchers will help drive the global ultrathin and superlight solar cells market massively. While the actual model developed by MIT scientists is too small and lightweight for practical use, since it would be blown away by the slightest of breezes, the field of ultrathin and superlight solar cells is just getting started. The application of ultrathin and superlight solar cells includes, but is not limited to, space travel and high-altitude balloons, where the weight-to-output ratio of energy systems can be a deciding factor. Such solar cells could even become part of apparel and wearable devices without the customer ever realizing it, potentially completely transforming the wearable electronics industry.

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The wide-ranging potential application spectrum of ultrathin and superlight solar cells will be a major driver for the global market, since R&D in the field has been allowed to go on unhindered in many regions. The high weight-to-output ratio of ultrathin and superlight solar cells MITs design delivers 400 times more energy per weight than conventional silicon-based solar cells means that widespread usage of the cells is beneficial for alleviating the rising dependence on fossil fuels, which has helped the market garner government support.

The major restraint on the global ultrathin and superlight solar cells market is the difficulty in expanding the scale of the operation of the industry. While initial R&D in ultrathin and superlight solar cells has been promising, scaling up to commercial production will require significant cost reductions for the technology to be feasible on a large scale. The sophisticated technology required to manufacture ultrathin and superlight solar cells is currently not available across the world, with developed regions such as North America dominating the R&D scenario. However, these constraints could be eased by steady demand in fields where price is no factor, such as space exploration and defense.

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COVID-19 Pandemic Amplifies Growth Opportunities in the Ultrathin and Superlight Solar Cells Market till 2023, TMR Research Report - Jewish Life News

ESA's Euclid mission has reached another milestone on its journey towards launch. Its two instruments are now built and fully tested. These have been delivered to Airbus Defence and Space in Toulouse, France, where they are now being integrated with the telescope to form the mission's payload module.

Euclid consists of a 1.2-metre mirror telescope that is designed to work at both visible and near-infrared wavelengths - the latter being just longer than the red light humans can see. The telescope will collect light from distant cosmic objects and feed it into two instruments.

The Visible instrument (VIS) and the Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) will run in parallel, recording data simultaneously from whatever portion of the sky the telescope is pointed at.

Euclid's mission is to measure the shapes of more than a billion galaxies, and the accurate redshifts of tens of millions of galaxies across more than one third of the sky. The redshift is an effect caused by the expansion of the Universe. It stretches the wavelength of light emitted by distant galaxies; the further away the galaxy, the more extreme its redshift. The galaxies in Euclid's survey will span 10 billion years of cosmic history, and allow scientists to investigate the mysterious dark matter and dark energy that are thought to dominate the Universe.

The VIS instrument will handle the precise measurement of galaxy shapes by taking the very best images of distant galaxies that it possibly can. To do this, the instrument uses a mosaic of 36 CCDs, each of which contains 4000 pixels by 4000 pixels. This gives the detector a total of about 600 megapixels.

"The design, development, manufacturing, testing and calibration of the VIS instrument over a dozen years to a stringent specification has been a challenge," says Mark Cropper, VIS instrument Lead and Professor at the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UK.

"We are immensely proud of what the VIS Team has achieved to bring this project to its culmination. That the final performance exceeds our expectations is a tribute to their expertise, dedication and professionalism."

Not only is the number of pixels impressive, the instrument will also deliver the best low-light sensitivity over a broad range of wavelengths at long integration times.

"These are very special CCDs, they've been developed specifically for Euclid over many years," says Alex Short, ESA's VIS payload engineer.

The other instrument, NISP, is dedicated to making spectroscopic measurements of galaxies, which involves splitting their light into individual wavelengths. This allows the redshifts to be deduced. This property allows cosmologists to estimate the distance to the galaxy in question, and will allow Euclid's data to be turned into the largest, most accurate 3D survey of the Universe ever conducted.

"The international NISP team and supporting industries made an incredible job to design, develop and test this challenging instrument," says Thierry Maciaszek, NISP instrument project manager, from CNES and Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, France.

"This is, however, not the end of the story for us as many major activities have to be completed with NISP at satellite level. We are waiting impatiently for the first light in flight demonstrating the excellent global performances."

The NISP detector will feature the largest field of view ever flown in space for an infrared instrument.

"The quality of the optics is just amazing," says Tobias Boenke, Mission System and NISP Instrument Engineer at ESA.

A key factor in achieving Euclid's exceptional optical accuracy was a decision made early in the project's history to construct the entire payload module out of silicon carbide. The use of this material at ESA was pioneered in the manufacture of the telescope for the Herschel space mission. On ESA's Gaia mission, the support structure for the spacecraft's subsystems were mounted on a silicon carbide frame. On Euclid, the material has been used for the instruments as well as the telescope.

Whereas metal expands and contracts as its temperature changes, thus degrading an optical system's ability to focus light, silicon carbide is extremely stable to such variations in temperature. But using the compound brings its own challenges. Silicon carbide is a ceramic and so much more brittle than metal.

"It was a big challenge to be able to manufacture the instruments from this material and make sure they can remain undamaged during the launch," adds Tobias.

Like VIS, NISP also uses specially designed state-of-the-art detectors to record the faint light coming from distant stars and galaxies. Unlike VIS, NISP can also operate in spectrographic mode. The detectors, which are operated at -180 C to provide ultra-low noise and high sensitivity, register these 'spectra' and convert them into tiny electronic signals. These signals can then be amplified and accurately measured to provide the photometric and spectroscopic redshifts.

The instruments will receive light from Euclid's telescope, which has already been assembled at Airbus, Toulouse. Like the instruments, it too is made from silicon carbide and is a state-of-the art construction in all senses.

"We are pushing all the manufacturing levels to the limit," says Luis Miguel Gaspar Venancio, ESA's Mission Performance and Optical Systems Engineer.

A special component behind the telescope, called the dichroic, separates the collected light and diverts the visible wavelengths to VIS and the infrared wavelengths to NISP.

When the information from VIS and NISP is combined, scientists will be able to deduce the way that the Universe's large-scale distribution of galactic structures has built up throughout cosmic history. This will help them determine the speed at which such structures grow, providing strong constraints on the nature and amount of dark matter and dark energy in the Universe.

The instruments were prepared for delivery to Airbus just before the COVID-19 pandemic imposed restrictions and lockdowns in many ESA member states. Fortunately, VIS was already at Airbus, and NISP had to wait for a few weeks for shipment from Marseille to Toulouse, but was not on the critical path.

"I am extremely grateful to all project parties: institutes, industry and colleagues at ESA for their dedication and commitment during these difficult times," says Giuseppe Racca, ESA's Euclid project manager.

"We were hit by the pandemic in a particularly critical moment when both VIS and NISP were to be transferred to industry. Despite the work and travel restrictions a concerted effort by all parties allowed to minimise the delays by implementing distributed and sequential integration activities of the instrument units and remote monitoring."

Now that the instruments have been delivered to Airbus, they will be integrated first with the telescope, and next with the rest of the payload module. It has been a long journey getting this far. Euclid was selected for implementation in 2011, having already undergone almost five years of studies. While there is still a lot of hard work and testing ahead, the delivery of the instruments and telescope means that the spacecraft can really begin to come together.

"Finally, we have something in front of our eyes," says Luis Miguel. "It's not just paper anymore. It's a fantastic piece of hardware; beautiful in a way."

Integrating the payload module will last several months as it is painstaking work to get everything bolted together, precisely aligned and electronically talking. The instrument's control units have already been mechanically and electrically integrated to the payload module. These tests have verified that the instruments can be properly powered by the spacecraft, can talk to the onboard computers, and can transmit the science data that will then be downloaded to ground through the spacecraft antennas.

Once the telescope has been integrated with the rest of the payload module, it will be shipped to Centre Spatial de Liege, Belgium, for 'end-to-end' testing in a thermal vacuum chamber that can simulate the conditions of space as well as possible on Earth. This test is scheduled to take place in February and March 2021.

Once that test shows that everything is working as expected, the payload module will be shipped to the prime contractor Thales Alenia Space (TAS), in Torino, Italy. TAS has been building the service module, which contains essential systems such as power, propulsion and communications.

The service module's main structure recently passed its structural and thermal tests and is now ready to have the various systems integrated inside. TAS will begin by laying down the pipelines for the propulsion systems, and the cabling for other distributed systems. Flight electronics, including computers, power units, and attitude control units, are already mounted on their own structural panels and these will now be installed inside the main structure. Integration is due to be complete in the third quarter of the year, at which time tests will be performed.

TAS will then integrate the payload module with the service module to form the final, finished spacecraft. Then, another round of tests will ensure that everything is working together properly. At that point, the spacecraft is essentially finished, and ready for launch.

Launch is currently scheduled for the second half of 2022 from Europe's spaceport, Kourou, French Guiana.

Related LinksEuclid at ESAStellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It

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The Euclid space telescope is coming together - Space Daily