June 27, 2022

Researchers at Arizona State University have earned 19 National Science Foundation early faculty career awards dating back to June 2021. The new awards total $12 million in funding for ASU researchers in grants that will be used over the next five years.

The work covers subjects that explore a wide variety of science and technology, from advancing AI-based data processing to measuring the cosmological signatures of stars and galaxies to understanding infants development of curiosity to enhancing 3D-printing precision.

The NSFs Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program identifies the nations most promising young faculty members and provides them with funding to pursue outstanding research, excellence in teaching and the integration of education and research. Often, these awards spur the creativity of the faculty member and help set them on an innovative career path. To date, more than 200 ASU faculty members have earned NSF CAREER awards.

The 19 ASU NSF CAREER award recipients exemplify the best of our ASU faculty, said Nancy Gonzales, executive vice president and university provost. Each scholar is committed to research that improves our world, while demonstrating equal dedication to their teaching, guiding and mentoring students to achieve their highest potential.

I am proud that these honorees come from a range of academic disciplines at ASU, including engineering, psychology and the sciences. On behalf of the Academic Enterprise, I congratulate you on this well-deserved award.

Here is a look at the current ASU NSF CAREER award recipients:

Abhinav Acharya, assistant professor, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy

Acharya works at the interface of the immune system and engineering. His efforts include the isolation and identification of disease biomarkers and natural therapeutics, as well as biomaterials synthesis and translational technology development. The results of his NSF research could enable the development of vaccines to treat diseases such as cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. Read more

Kumar Ankit, assistant professor, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy

Ankit is leading the first integration of computational, experimental and characterization techniques to better understand how processing methods affect steel microstructures and their properties, such as strength and hardness. This project will add new knowledge to the field and help optimize the future of steel manufacturing. Read more

Christina Birkel, assistant professor, School of Molecular Sciences

Birkel is working to create new materials that can be used for renewable energy, catalysts and permanent magnets. Materials are all around us and are the driving force for new and innovative solid-state technologies centered on batteries, sensors and magnets. Birkels projects focus on solid compounds that contain different metals and either carbon, nitrogen or both, called carbides, nitrides or carbonitrides, respectively. Read more

Katelyn Cooper assistant professor, School of Life Science

Cooper is a biology education researcher whose work seeks to understand the relationship between biology learning environments and undergraduate and graduate student mental health. Her research aims to identify factors of student research experiences that positively and negatively impact mental health, and to develop tools and resources to support students throughout their research experiences. Read more

Deliang Fan, assistant professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering

Fan is conducting electrical and computer engineering research to validate the performance of a new hybrid in-memory computing system. The concept behind his work is to leverage memory device and circuit properties in ways that will advance AI-based big data processing fields such as computer vision, autonomous driving and robotics. Read more

Emma Frow, assistant professor, School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering and School for the Future of Innovation in Society

Frow studies the role of care in responsible innovation for bioengineering. Her work will document the growth and development of a new type of facility for high-throughput design and genetic engineering called "biofoundries. Her research aims to design interventions or tools that can help attune practitioners to the politics of care and responsibility, and shape the governance of these foundries. Read more

Gillian Gile, associate professor, School of Life Sciences

Gile studies the diversity and evolution of microbial eukaryotes, otherwise known as protists. Despite their microscopic size, protists are more closely related to plants and animals than to bacteria, and they play important roles in ecosystems such as soil and marine plankton. Her research examines protists that live in termite hindguts and digest wood to understand the origin and evolutionary dynamics of the termite microbiome.

Christian Hoover, assistant professor, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment

Hoovers research focuses on further understanding the synergistic effects of composition, porosity and structural rigidity on the mechanics of glassy metal-organic frameworks. These porous materials have the ability to be used for several applications, especially in carbon dioxide capture, separation and storage. Read more

Daniel Jacobs, assistant professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration

Jacobs is an interdisciplinary scientist across the areas of astrophysics, cosmology, experimental physics and aerospace engineering. His primary research focus is measuring cosmological signatures of the first stars and galaxies in the early universe with custom radio arrays. The award will be used for observation with existing radio arrays, to improve radio arrays and to develop new technology to support future experiments. Read more

Kelsey Lucca, assistant professor, Department of Psychology

Luccas research investigates cognitive development during infancy and early childhood, with a focus on the development of curiosity, social cognition, communication and problem-solving. The award will help her explore the psychological processes involved in curiosity starting in infancy.

Yuval Mazor, assistant professor, School of Molecular Sciences

Mazor's research focus is the structural biology of the membrane complexes involved in oxygenic photosynthesis. His research explores new approaches in cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) that are revolutionizing the abilities to understand the role of structure for different functions carried out by essential protein supercomplexes. Read more

Troy McDaniel, assistant professor, Polytechnic School

McDaniel is exploring how intelligent wearable technology can enable older adults with memory challenges to live independently. Using visual recognition, this novel hardware, placed strategically on the wrist, deciphers hand movements and identifies objects in the environment through a camera lens, providing insight to a users behaviors to aid cognitive decline. Read more

Anamitra Pal, assistant professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering

Pal conducts fundamental and applied research in the power and energy systems domain. His project employs robust statistics and machine learning to real-time data for better monitoring and control of our national electric power infrastructure, helping to ensure the reliable and resilient operation of the electric power grid. Read more

Kenan Song, assistant professor, Polytechnic School

Song is developing a new additive manufacturing method called Multiphase Direct Ink Writing to enhance 3D printing precision of ordered patterns at nanoscales. This method can be used for rapid prototyping of sensors and for applications in supercapacitors, batteries and regenerative medicine. Read more

Beckett Sterner, assistant professor, School of Life Sciences

Sterner examines issues in the philosophy of biology and medicine. His research studies how and why pluralism advancing multiple approaches to an issue makes a difference to current and historical practices of computational science. He is applying these insights to develop novel, collaborative approaches to making data and models relevant to global societal challenges such as biodiversity.

Xiaojun Tian, assistant professor, School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering

Tian employs quantitative experiments and mathematical modeling to expand the understanding of fundamental problems in systems and synthetic biology. His exploration of molecular and cellular mechanisms could enable the synthesis of new therapeutics, the expansion of sustainable agriculture and the production of renewable resources. Read more

Arul Mozhy Varman, assistant professor, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy

Varman is developing advanced metabolic engineering computational tools and strategies to harness the capabilities of microbial cell factories for the sustainable production of chemicals, fuels and pharmaceuticals. His work to optimize genetic and metabolic processes can have an impact on the production of bulk chemicals, fuels and pharmaceuticals. Read more

Ruoyu Fish Wang, assistant professor, School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence

Wang is working on research to mitigate the effects of malware and computer viruses by making the vulnerabilities in software easily understandable. His research may enable analysts and researchers to uncover source code in a manner that identifies vulnerabilities to protect them from malware. Read more

Jia Zou, assistant professor, School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence

Zou is designing a new database that seamlessly supports and optimizes the deployment, storage and serving of both traditional machine learning models and deep neural network models. This work significantly decreases latency in databases that rely on real-time results, such as credit card fraud detection and emergency services response.Read more

Media Relations Officer , Media Relations and Strategic Communications

480-727-8627 david.rozul@asu.edu

The rest is here:

Thunderbird School prepares global leaders with an out-of-this-world education - ASU News Now

Space tourism could be a big industry in the future -- some analysts think it could grow to an estimated $1.5 billion by 2027, and easily get far bigger over the coming decades.

Virgin Galactic Holdings (SPCE -5.27%) is one of the companies vying to carve out its market share in the sector. It's developing spacecraft for taking civilians on suborbital flights. The business is exciting, and a successful spaceflight program could have enormous long-term potential. However, several red flags make Virgin Galactic a risky investment in today's bear market. Here is what investors should know.

Virgin Galactic made headlines last summer when it successfully conducted a crewed test flight on its flagship spacecraft Unity that included the company's founder, Richard Branson. Virgin Galactic is gearing up for commercial flights, but supply chain problems caused it to push these trips back to next year.

Meanwhile, there is another spacecraft in development, Imagine, which currently has a target-ready date of mid-2023 for commercial use -- but it hasn't yet gone to space, so there is still more testing needed.

A lot of money and work go into preparing these spacecraft for commercial use, and the repeated delays could impact the company's cash burn, a risk in this current market. Meanwhile, rival companies are pushing forward.

Virgin Galactic had $1.2 billion in cash and short-term investments as of the company's 2022 Q1, likely alleviating any immediate financial needs. However, investors should consider how the company accumulated some of these funds. It took out a loan for just $425 million in early 2022. Debt is rarely ideal for a young and growing company, especially when the business model is not yet operational.

The chart below shows Virgin Galactic's negative free cash flow, meaning the business loses cash. It's burning between $50 million and $90 million per quarter, totaling about $253 million over the past year. Management guided for a cash burn of up to $90 million for 2022 Q2.

SPCE Free Cash Flow data by YCharts

It's easy to do the math and figure out that there's enough cash to last many quarters, but Virgin Galactic presents unique risks that investors should consider. Commercial flights keep getting delayed, which is discouraging because the commercial flights will take time to ramp up -- the company's Unity spacecraft will conduct just one flight per month to start.

The Unity spacecraft holds just eight people, including two pilots, which means that actual paying passengers will number just six per trip. $450,000 per ticket is about $3 million in monthly revenue. In other words, the company is still far from running commercial trips frequently enough to bring in meaningful revenue.

And what happens if there is a problem? Could a technical failure cause months of lost revenue from the resulting testing and repairs? Could the company face pricing pressure if there's trouble stirring up demand at such lofty ticket prices? Virgin Galactic's cash pile needs to be enormous, because it will likely take a while to start turning a profit, and a lot could go wrong along the way.

This makes the current market all the more treacherous for investors. Interest rates are rising to combat inflation, making debt more expensive.

The current bear market has crushed share prices of stocks across Wall Street, and Virgin Galactic is no different, down almost 90% from its peak. It's hard to issue stock to raise money when prices are low because you can't raise a significant amount without dilution -- adding tons of new shares decreases the value of existing shares.

Virgin Galactic will hopefully see its share price recover before it needs to raise money again; debt isn't healthy for a company with hardly any revenue. The company could be in a tricky spot if the stock languishes until more cash is needed.

This dilemma makes the stock riskier for investors. There isn't a clear path to near-term profitability, and the long-term financials of the company are questionable at best. However, patient investors could benefit -- the stock is worth just $1.6 billion today, leaving room for investors to capture long-term upside once the business proves itself a bit more.

Read more:

Why You Should Avoid This Space Pioneer for Now - The Motley Fool

"India is an important International Space partner for Australia," said Mr Enrico Palermo, Head, Australian Space Agency(ASA), while virtually addressing a conference on 'Development of Space Start-up Ecosystem in India'(DeSSEI). Referring to the areas of Indo-Australia cooperation in the space sector, he mentioned India's Gaganyaan Human Spaceflight mission, the $25million (INR 144crore) expansion of the Indian International Space Investment initiative and assured that Australia continues to look at new ways to enhance space collaboration with India.

According to the Australian Government, the country's space economy is projected to triple in size by 2030, to $12bn(INR 65,200crore). With natural features such as clear skies, unique geography and advanced space capabilities, Australia offers international players comparative advantages in earth observation, communication technologies and services, access to space, robotics and automation, it was added.

Speaking at the event, Mr Michael Costa, Australia's Deputy Consul General to South India said that Australia welcomes Indian space start-up partnerships. He also highlighted the pathways for Indian space sector start-ups to access funding, tax incentives, incubation programmes and global networks in Australia. "The planned establishment of an Australian Consulate-general and a join Australia-India Centre of Excellence on Critical and Emerging Technology Policy in Bengaluru ais to further encourage technology linkages between Australia and India from cyberspace to outer space" he added.

Speaking of how there was an increasing appetite for Australian Space firms to set up a physical presence in India, Piyush Dhaundiyal, General Manager, Space Machines Company(SMC) said that his firm performed assembly, integration and testing of hardware in Sydney, while their core R&D, design and prototyping were being conducted in Bengaluru. Notably, Bengaluru is the aerospace hub of India.

Earlier, Mr Anthony Murfett, deputy head, Australian Space Agency(ASA), had said The Australian government is proud to be supporting the Gaganyaan mission, by tracking through Australias territory on the Cocos (Keeling) islands. It shows that Australia can be a trusted partner - we were a partner to NASA during the Apollo missions, we were a partner to Japan during Hayabusa 1&2 and now were working with India on Gaganyaan mission.

ISRO has been working on the ambitious Gaganyaan mission that involves demonstrating the indigenous capability to undertake human space flight missions to low Earth orbit and will lay the foundation for a sustained Indian human space exploration programme in the long run. As part of this programme, two unmanned missions and one manned mission have been approved by the government of India.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

Link:

Australia`s space economy projected to triple by 2030, sees India as important international partner - WION

By Emily Burleigh

American Press

An experiment designed by three students at F.K. White Middle School has been chosen as the winner of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Educations Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.

The team is made up of Edith Evey, Cynthia Caron Chulo and Priscilla Moncada and their experiment, Sunflower Microgravity Growth, seeks to analyze whether or not sunflower seeds exhibit a difference in growth with microgravity exposure.

Sunflower microgravity growth is very simple in its nature, yet the impact of what is to be learned from it could have far-reaching effects, said their teacher, Dana Istre. The project that the girls will execute is to send a few dozen organic sunflower seeds on board the International Space Station for several weeks.

Upon return to Earth the students will plant the seeds that were exposed to microgravity along with a control group of seeds that were not exposed in an effort to learn how or if the microgravity will affect growth.

The experiment, part of Mission 16 for the SSEP, is projected to launch this fall.

The winning experiments are being loaded onto rockets and being transported to the International Space Station as it is in orbit, Istre explained. Therefore, projects may contain no more than three volumes that are no greater than 10 ml altogether.

Istre said the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program website will be frequently updated with countdowns, dates and live links of mission launches.

The students will be notified with details of the launch while coordinating with teacher facilitators and the flight operations manager for the program, Istre said.

After the experiment is conducted, the students will present their findings at the annual SSEP National Conference at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

They will be considered official microgravity researchers, Istre said.

There were 1,234 submissions nationwide, and these students were selected to be a part of the final 21, Istre said. Two other projects were submitted from, F.K. White, including one on the growth of Bacillus Coagulns in microgravity and another on yeast fermentation in microgravity.

Istre said she and colleague Sandra Hayes were honored to guide the students through this process.

To be able to participate in a project that can have such meaningful results in the real world outside of the classroom I believe was eye-opening for the students as they saw that they can be valuable assets to their community, even at such a young age, Istre said. I feel confident that this project could have a lifelong impact for the winning group.

Istre said the three students, two of whom are Spanish-speaking, show that girls in STEM are capable and passionate and will change the world.

It was exciting to see the learning happening as the students did research and mini-experiments and worked so hard to complete their projects, but it was most exciting just to be able to bring an opportunity like this to our students.

Continue reading here:

FK White trio wins ultimate STEM prize, Experiment chosen to go up to International Space Station - American Press | American Press - American Press

NASA & SPACE NEWSThe picturesque Whirlpool galaxy (M51) is a classic spiral 60,000 light-years across and located 30 million light-years away. This view, featured on the June 13, 2022, APOD, digitally combines images taken in different colors by NASAs Hubble Space Telescope. The Whirlpool is interacting with a smaller companion galaxy on the left. (NASA image)

(NASA) On June 16, 1995, when the World Wide Web was young, two gamma-ray astronomers at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, launched a website with a simple aim to post a daily astronomical image along with a brief, easily understood explanation.

Twenty-seven years on, Astronomy Picture of the Day (known affectionately as APOD) is available in 20 languages, seen by millions each day, and is used in classrooms throughout the world.

APOD has now been honored in the International Astronomical Unions first-ever round of outreach prizes. The award will be presented at the IAU General Assembly in Busan, South Korea, in August.

APOD is a gem in the crown of astronomy outreach that continues to raise awareness of astronomy and space science, said Mark Clampin, the director of Goddards Sciences and Exploration Directorate. It is truly a fixture in the daily routines of millions of people.

APOD founders Jerry Bonnell, working at the University of Maryland, College Park and Goddard, and Robert Nemiroff, now at Michigan Technological University, hit on the idea while brainstorming how they might contribute to the growing web.

We realized NASA had an incredible archive of images from astronomy and solar system exploration missions, explained Bonnell.

We started with those but invited basically anyone with a camera to contribute. The individual amateur contributions really took off and are a mainstay of APOD after all these years. Posting one astronomy picture a day and a simple explanation really became a labor of love.

APOD features science ranging from atmospheric phenomena and naked-eye astronomy to cosmology and space exploration, with images taken in light across the spectrum, from radio to gamma rays, along with supercomputer simulations and data visualizations.

Weve always had a very generous idea of what constitutes an astronomical picture, said Nemiroff.

That first image was one I computed showing how Earth and the sky would look if our planet had the density of a neutron star. While APOD features the work of professional astronomers using high-end facilities, including NASA satellites, we frequently highlight the work of non-scientist astrophotographers, who produce incredible work now.

APOD has hosted nearly 9,900 daily images over the last 27 years. As one of NASAs most popular websites, APOD continues to inspire awe, curiosity, and interest in the cosmos. Its creators hope something like it will continue far into the future, long after the web itself is obsolete.

APOD is funded by NASAs Science Activation program, a community-based approach to connect NASA science with learners of all ages, from the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

CLICK HERE FOR BREVARD COUNTY NEWS

Excerpt from:

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day Containing Whirlpool Galaxy Recognized for Decades of Outreach - SpaceCoastDaily.com

This spring, when the teams submitted their results to IARPA, evaluator teams graded how well each one did. In June, the teams learned who was moving on to Smarts second phase, which will run for 18 months: AFS, BlackSky, Kitware, Systems & Technology Research, Applied Research Associates, and Intelligent Automation, which is now part of the defense company Blue Halo.

This time, the teams will have to make their algorithms applicable across different use cases. After all, Cooper points out, It is too slow and expensive to design new AI solutions from scratch for every activity that we may want to search for. Can an algorithm built to find construction now find crop growth? Thats a big switch because it swaps slow-moving, human-made changes for natural, cyclical, environmental ones, he says. And in the third phase, which will begin around early 2024, the remaining competitors will try to make their work into what Cooper calls a robust capabilitysomething that could detect and monitor both natural and human-made changes.

None of these phrases are strict elimination roundsand there wont necessarily be a single winner. As with similar DARPA programs, IARPAs goal is to transition promising technology over to intelligence agencies that can use it in the real world. IARPA makes phase decisions based on performance against our metrics, diversity of approaches, available funds, and the analysis of our independent test and evaluation, says Cooper. At the end of phase 3, there could be no teams or more than one team remainingthe best solution could even combine parts from multiple teams. Alternatively, there could be no teams that make it to phase 3.

IARPAs investments also often leak beyond the programs themselves, sometimes steering scientific and technological paths, since science goes where the money goes. Whatever problem IARPA chooses to do is going to get a lot of attention from the research community, says Hoogs. The Smart teams are allowed to go on to use the algorithms for civil and civilian purposes, and the datasets IARPA creates for its programs (like those labeled troves of satellite imagery) often become publicly available for other researchers to use.

Satellite technologies are often referred to as dual-use because they have military and civilian applications. In Hoogs mind, lessons from the software Kitware develops for Smart will be applicable to environmental science. His company already does environmental science work for organizations like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; his team has helped its Marine Fisheries Service detect seals and sea lions in satellite imagery, among other projects. He imagines applying Kitwares Smart software to something thats already a primary use of Landsat imagery: flagging deforestation. How much of the rainforest in Brazil has been converted into man-made areas, cultivated areas? Hoogs asks.

Auto-interpretation of landscape change has obvious implications for studying climate change, says Bosch Ruizseeing, for example, where ice is melting, coral is dying, vegetation is shifting, and land is desertifying. Spotting new construction can show where humans are impinging on areas of the natural landscape, forest is turning into farmland, or farmland is giving way to houses.

Those environmental applications, and their spinout into the scientific world, are among the reasons Smart sought the United States Geological Survey as a test and evaluation partner. But IARPAs cohort is also interested in the findings for their own sake. Some environmental issues are of great significance to the intelligence community, particularly with regard to climate change, says Cooper. Its one area where the second application of a dual-use technology is, pretty much, just the same as the first.

View post:

Spotting Objects From Space Is Easy. This Challenge Is Harder - WIRED

HANNOVER, Germany, June 28, 2022 Scientists from the Laser Zentrum Hannover eV (LZH) and the Technische Universitt Berlin (TU Berlin) are planning a flight to the moon to melt lunar dust with laser radiation. Researchers, on a project calledMOONRISE, are looking to AI-aided lasing for the 3D printing of landing sites, roads, or buildings, using lunar dust.

Pulverized lunar rock, or regolith, is abundant on the moon and could be used as a raw material for 3D printing. Onsite fabrication of infrastructure could save enormous transportation costs. The use and processing of onsite materials, known as in situ resource utilization, or ISRU in spaceflight, could be a crucial factor in advancing the exploration of the moon and space.

Because the far side of the moon is always turned away from Earth, it is considered a prime spot for powerful space telescopes; the European Space Agency, therefore, has plans for a moon village. The lower gravity and lack of an atmosphere make the moon an ideal stopover for setting up missions to more distant destinations in space. However, the problem of launch pads, landing sites, and buildings remains an expensive one.

At a cost of up to a million dollars per kilogram, a complete transport of the material from Earth to the moon would be extremely expensive, said Jrg Neumann, MOONRISE project manager at LZH.

In a predecessor project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, the team developed a laser and tested it in the laboratory on the robotic arm of a lunar rover. The scientists also smelted regolith under lunar gravity in the Einstein-Elevator of the Hannover Institute of Technology at Leibniz Universitt Hannover.

The task now is to make the laser fit for lunar flight. The scientists from LZH and TU Berlin want to develop a flight model of the laser that is qualified for use in space. The laser will be supported by trained AI.

To train the AI, the researchers will photograph the regolith under lighting conditions that mimic those on the moon. This will allow a corresponding pool of images to be created.

In addition, a regolith construction kit has been developed over the past few years, which allows the various possible landing sites to be precisely recreated in terms of properties, said Benedict Grefen from the group Exploration and Propulsion at TU Berlin. This is then adapted in the project to the final landing site on the moon, so that in the laboratory the laser and the AI can be aligned with the real lunar mission.

The surface analog model created in this way will also support decision-making during the mission.

Once the technology is deployed on the moon, a camera will take photos of the lunar dust melted by the laser. Researchers will analyze these photos with the help of an intelligent image processing system.

The MOONRISE FM project will run for three years and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Action with 4.75 million ($5 million). The mission is scheduled to launch in 2024.

Read the original here:

LZH and TU Berlin Bring 3D Printing to the Moon - Photonics.com

Breadcrumb Trail Links

Dave Williams, Chris Hadfield and Robert Thirsk say the ISS offers the world a model for collaboration

Publishing date:

The space station, high above, is a microcosm an international collection of people living in a finite area with finite resources, just like the planet below, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield once wrote. He knows the International Space Station (ISS) well. Hes been up three separate times: 1995, 2001 and 2012, eventually becoming ISS commander on his final mission.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

The stations limited resources coupled with the harsh environment of space create the perfect conditions for innovation.For one, the ISS uses closed-loop heating and water systems so the astronauts dont need to depend on external sources. You flush the toilet, and yesterdays coffee becomes todays water, astronaut Dave Williams said, with a laugh.

The crew members, who all hail from different parts of the world, offering a range of technical and professional expertise, have to work together to maintain and operate the stations habitability systems.

Innovation on Earth tends to follow the drumbeat of space. A website called NASA Spinoff documents the space technologies that have found their way back to Earth, which include memory foam and freeze-dried food. Arguably, the most important space export by far is the strong tradition of collaboration between the international crew members, which transcends cultures and political affiliations.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Thats exactly what we need to address the Earths most pressing issues, namely, the climate crisis, Williams said. It is the greatest lesson of the International Space Station: the opportunity to learn how effective collaboration actually works.

The growing space economy, now worth US$424 billion, will create an abundance of new jobs linked to climate innovation, he added. Youre developing technologies, many of which are going to help with the greening economy and enable us to have less environmental impact.

Williams went to space in 1998, and again in 2007, setting the record for the most spacewalks completed by a Canadian astronaut. His biomedical tech startup, Leap Biosystems Inc., is just one example of the ways in which space technology can be used on Earth.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

The company is experimenting with holoportation, a technology developed by Microsoft Corp., which allows someone wearing a headset on Earth to appear as a hologram on the ISS. It reminds Williams of Star Trek. Beam me up, Scotty! he said.

The technology is still in its infancy, but he hopes it will one day be used to deliver medical care to remote corners of the world.

It is the greatest lesson of the International Space Station: the opportunity to learn how effective collaboration actually works

Dave Williams

Lately, Williams has been considering another terrestrial application for space technology. In his forthcoming book on planetary stewardship, he asks: Can we live as collaboratively and sustainably on Earth as we do on the ISS?

The globe, like the ISS, is a closed loop. It depends on finely tuned connections between the land, oceans, atmosphere, the freshwater cycle, flora and fauna, astronaut Robert Thirsk wrote in his blog.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

He went to the ISS in 1996 and 2009, setting the Canadian record for the most time spent in space, at 204 days and 18 hours. The planet is whole. And its integrated, he said in an interview.

The planet is whole. And its integrated

Robert Thirsk

From the ISS, astronauts can watch as natural events on one side of the world affect the other. Smoke plumes from forest fires in Siberia drift over to North America, lowering the air quality there. A small, unassuming atmospheric depression in the southern Atlantic grows into a Category 4 or 5 hurricane, affecting residents and businesses along the Gulf Coast.

Thirsk said that a mutant virus originating in Asia and wreaking havoc on the world may seem unbelievable to most, but for an astronaut, that is very easy to appreciate.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

The astronauts marvel at natural phenomena. Travelling at 8 km/s, or 25 times the speed of sound, the ISS completes a single orbit of the globe once every 90 minutes, meaning that its occupants witness a sunrise and sunset every 45 minutes.

The view out the window takes everyone by surprise, Thirsk said. Theres (something) about seeing the Earth with your naked eyeball and seeing it from above. The privileged position that you have, somehow, it just amplifies the beauty and majesty of it all.

Earthbound astronauts speak about the planet with wonder. Williams called it a beautiful blue oasis cast against the infinite void of space. Describing this image to people back home, he said, is perhaps a lesser-known mission of space travel.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

The view of the Earth from space was personally transformative, Thirsk wrote on his blog. Viewed from afar, our marbled-blue planet is alone for hundreds of millions of kilometres, surrounded by nothing but void.

Hadfield said he was fortunate enough to watch the world change seasons, snow shifting from one hemisphere to the other.

I got to see the world, in effect, take one breath out of 4.5 billion breaths There has been life, uninterrupted, on Earth, for four billion years, he said. Thats really optimism-building. Life isnt going anywhere. The world isnt going anywhere. The question is: How good a quality of life do we want for people, and how sustainable do we want it to be?

Every day, astronauts on the ISS are confronted with the reality of the ecological crisis. Mining cuts jagged strips into the Earth. A smear of pollution obscures major cities. The Amazon rainforest is clear cut and burnt down to create room for agriculture, the smoky pall drifting across the Atlantic to impact the air quality in Africa.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

There is just a thin veil of atmosphere around the planet that is protecting the inhabitants below from the vacuum of space, the ultraviolet and ionizing radiation, the extremes of temperature, Thirsk said.

That, he said, is the only thing that makes the difference between a barren planet and one that teems with life.

Realizing that frail, vulnerable planet down below is our home makes me even more diligent in preserving its existence, he added.

If everyone in the world could see that view, the astronauts said, the question would no longer be if we will solve the climate crisis, but when.

Astronauts are not the only ones keeping an eye on emissions from space. Private satellite companies are jostling for market share in the expanding orbital environmental monitoring industry.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Montreal-based company GHGSat Inc., which sends satellites into space to track methane emissions, on June 15 said one of its satellites had detected 13 plumes of methane emanating from a coal mine in Russia in January. It was the largest methane leak the company had ever detected.

Compared to carbon dioxide, methane is 25 times as effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

GHGSat has a track record of calling out serious offenders. In 2019, its satellites helped pinpoint methane leaks in Turkmenistan, which were releasing emissions equivalent to 250,000 gas-powered cars. In 2021, the company spotted a methane plume coming from a landfill in Pakistan.

The public sector is getting involved as well. This January, Canada committed $8 million to environmental monitoring via satellites as part of the Canadian Space Agencys smartEarth initiative.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Its an emerging area. Its really going to change the way we quantify and understand emissions, said atmospheric scientist Ray Nassar, one of the pioneers of environmental observation via satellites. You cant manage what you cant measure.

In 2017, he led the first study to use satellites to quantify carbon emissions, with results precise enough to pinpoint the source of emissions to a single power plant.

Emissions can be tracked from the ground as well, but satellites allow enhanced transparency, Nassar said. Under the Paris Agreement, countries are pledging to reduce their emissions. Theyre not actually obligated to do that. Theyre obligated to report. We want to have the ability to verify emissions reductions.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Satellites will paint a more cohesive picture than traditional measurement techniques.

There is a network of ground-based measurements for greenhouse gases across the world, Nassar said. But the thing about those measurements is its so unequally distributed if you ever want a global picture, its really lacking. And satellites can do that.

The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) is trying to get the companies that send out these satellites to work together and share data, to create a sort of constellation of satellites in space, he said.

As the green transition progresses, collaboration will be key, both in space and on Earth. The astronauts were divided on the solutions to the climate crisis, but agreed that addressing the issue would require precise political co-operation, similar to what already exists on the ISS. Co-operation on the ISS is next to perfect. It has to be.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Everyone on the space station, their lives are in each others hands, Hadfield said. If anybody makes a mistake, everyone else dies.

The ISS astronauts are united by a common purpose, he added, and by the ever-present danger of being there.

Everyone on the space station, their lives are in each others hands

Chris Hafield

But even on the ISS, collaboration is not always easy, Williams said. He likened it to disputes among family members. On a planetary scale, however, the disagreements are more complex and involve more people, such that it is difficult to find solutions that work for all governments.

Collaboration on the ISS is helped because political divisions are muted.

Were just a bunch of people up there, Hadfield said.

Thirsk echoed a similar sentiment: All the crews from all the nations, the cultures that are represented, have a single-minded focus on accomplishing the mission objectives.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

To facilitate communication, astronauts aboard the ISS need to speak English and Russian, with English serving as the interstellar lingua franca.

Even so, when youre on board the space station as a crew member, most of us tend to think of ourselves as humans first, he said.

Williams considers himself a Canadian, but also a citizen of the Earth, a resident of a global village. The borders between countries, he pointed out, are invisible from space.

Were just a bunch of people up there

Chris Hadfield

If youre sitting in Montreal, or sitting in Toronto, you have a really skewed view of the world, Hadfield said. Its very local. As a result, a lot of the decisions that we make and some of our elected officials make are parochial in nature.

Citizens tend to focus on their own communities. What they can see, where they can travel. But when you get into space, you see Earth as a planet, he said.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

The astronauts said that, upon returning to Earth, their political perspectives had evolved. For instance, Thirsk said that the daily, local news cycle was of little interest. Thats all noise level to me. His concerns are now more global, chief among them being nuclear annihilation and the climate.

I do worry about the motives of some of these world leaders who have created an unstable geopolitical situation, he said. I dont see the older generation showing enough leadership in making the difficult decisions, today.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Thirsk expects it will be the younger generation who will ultimately take charge of the climate fight. Williams agreed. Young people, he said, led by activists such as Greta Thunberg, will lead the way.

Its really easy to be critical of the lack of collaboration, he said. There are areas that, quite clearly, we are not collaborating here on Earth and areas that we are.

Either way, Hadfield is optimistic that we will find answers. The same driving, restless intellect that created the problems can minimize and even reverse them, he once wrote.

If ever we doubt our capacity to collaborate, we need only look up, morning and night, and watch the space station fly over, Hadfield said. Its a pretty clear example of what we do together when we do things right.

Email: mcoulton@postmedia.com | Twitter: marisacoulton

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Sign up to receive the daily top stories from the Financial Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of Financial Post Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notificationsyou will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

Read more from the original source:

The view through the window: Three Canadian astronauts weigh in on innovation, climate and future of spaceflight - Financial Post

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a recent collaboration with Axiom Space. Together, they are developing a more efficient way to analyze data from the Axiom Mission 1 (known as the Ax-1, the first all-private mission to the ISS) via Amazons AWS Snowcone SSD. Ax-1 is the first of several private space missions to ISS planned by Axiom Space, with the ultimate goal of building the first commercial space station.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a recent collaboration with Axiom Space. Together, they are developing a more efficient way to analyze data from the Axiom Mission 1 (known as the Ax-1, the first all-private mission to the ISS) via Amazons AWS Snowcone SSD. Ax-1 is the first of several private space missions to ISS planned by Axiom Space, with the ultimate goal of building the first commercial space station.

Bandwidth is seriously contained on space stations due to the limited available infrastructure, which makes sending data and imagery astronauts attain back to the surface for processing arduous. While this only presents a minor inconvenience while orbiting just above the Earth, this will eventually cause serious problems when space expeditions start to venture much further (such as missions to Mars). There will be considerably longer delays due to the vast distance and the massive amount of data that will be transmitted back to Earth and then back to a spacecraft again. Amazon aims to help solve this.

At Amazon re:MARS 2022, AWS announced the joint Axiom Space-AWS team has successfully communicated remotely with the Snowcone on the ISS and also demonstrated the repeatable ability to perform edge processing on space-based datasets. This is a significant accomplishment, as it is the first time AWS has remotely operated a general-purpose edge processing and storage device on the ISS.

One of the main objectives of the Ax-1 mission is scientific research. Axiom private astronauts are working as many as 14 hours a day on 25 different research investigations and technology demonstrations, including the AWS Snowcone. Microgravity experiments (that is, experiments that are not possible within the gravity of Earth), such as modeling tumor organoids for cancer research, are generating a plethora of imagery and data that must be both cataloged and analyzed. In addition, on-board experiment photos must be screened for sensitive information. This research activity results in terabytes of data every day.

The AWS Snowcone SSD is an ideal solution for this, offering edge processing capabilities with multiple layers of encryptionall in a simple, ultra-portable form. During a 7-month process, AWS worked with Axiom and NASA to ensure the Amazon storage device can be safely sent to the ISS. This meant putting the device through NASAs rigorous safety review process, including detailed thermal analysis and a range of laboratory tests that simulated random vibrations of both a rocket during launch and the spacecraft during flight.

Podcast #77: HPE Spaceborne Computer-2

AWS Snowcone

Engage with StorageReview

Newsletter|YouTube| PodcastiTunes/Spotify|Instagram|Twitter|Facebook|TikTok|RSS Feed

See more here:

Amazon and Axiom Space Remotely Operate AWS Snowcone on the International Space Station (ISS) - StorageReview.com