NASA astronauts (from left) Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley and Chris Cassidy are the U.S. members of the Expedition 63 crew aboard the International Space Station. Behnken and Hurley are scheduled to return to Earth on Aug. 2. NASA hide caption

NASA astronauts (from left) Bob Behnken, Doug Hurley and Chris Cassidy are the U.S. members of the Expedition 63 crew aboard the International Space Station. Behnken and Hurley are scheduled to return to Earth on Aug. 2.

Updated 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday

The two astronauts that blasted off in the first private space vehicle to take people to the International Space Station are about to return to Earth by splashing down in the waters around Florida.

This will be the first planned splashdown for space travelers since 1975, although a Russian Soyuz capsule did have to do an emergency lake landing in 1976.

NASA astronaut Douglas Hurley says that he and his crewmate Robert Behnken are prepared for the possibility of seasickness.

"Just like on an airliner, there are bags if you need them. And we'll have those handy," Hurley said in a press conference held on Friday, while on board the station. "And if that needs to happen, it certainly wouldn't be the first time that that's happened in a space vehicle. It will be the first time in this particular vehicle, if we do."

The astronauts will come home in the same SpaceX Dragon capsule that took them up on May 30. Their flight marked the first time people had been launched to orbit from U.S. soil since NASA retired its space shuttles in 2011.

The success of their trip in the SpaceX vehicle has been a major milestone for commercial space travel, and a vindication of NASA's long-term plan to rely on space taxis for routine flights to and from the orbiting outpost while the government agency focuses on developing vehicles for a return to the moon.

The Dragon "Endeavour" capsule undocked from the International Space Station on Saturday at 7:34 p.m. ET. They will spend the night in orbit before heading home, with the splashdown scheduled for 2:48 p.m. ET on Sunday. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine confirmed Saturday afternoon that the crew will target a splashdown site off the coast of Pensacola as the primary location. Conditions there are a "Go," according to the space agency.

"We have confidence that the teams on the ground are, of course, watching that much more closely than we are," Behnken said. "And we won't leave the space station without some good landing opportunities in front of us, good splashdown weather in front of us."

An alternative site off the coast of Panama City in the Gulf of Mexico is still being monitored should the crew need to switch locations. While Tropical Storm Isaias is headed for Florida, it is currently expected to hit the state's east coast.

Their mission is technically a demonstration flight it is the final test for SpaceX's crew system to be certified by NASA as 'operational' for future astronaut missions to and from the space station.

Already, NASA has assigned astronauts to future SpaceX Crew Dragon flights including Megan McArthur, who happens to be married to Behnken.

"She's super excited to be assigned to a SpaceX mission," says Behnken, who says the thing about his return to Earth that he's looking forward to the most is seeing his wife and son.

"My son is six years old," says Behnken, "and I can tell from the videos that I get, and talking to him on the phone, that he's changed a lot even in just the couple of months that we've been up here."

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The Astronauts SpaceX Crew Dragon Capsule Are Returning To Earth - NPR

Virgin Galactic is making dreams of interstellar travel come true with the VSS Unity, the first spaceship designed for commercial travel.

For some time now, Virgin Galactic has had a goal in the works for creating one of the very first commercial space flights. And by space flights, they don't mean inearth's atmospheric space - they mean outer space. For those who have always wanted to know what it's like to be an astronaut, their chances might come sooner rather than later.

Among all the strange things that can be found in outer space, humans are about to be the next thing on the list. Not only is the design top of the line and innovative, but it's intended to add comfort to a journey through time and (literal) space. The Founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson, said that the cabinhas"been designed specifically to allow thousands of people like you and me to achieve the dream of spaceflight safely," and thatthe entire process is"incredibly exciting." What's even more exciting are the details of the first commercial spacecraft, on which potential passengers can put down their $1,000 deposit for a $250,000 round-trip ticket.

The design of this aircraft is truly futuristic and pushes any limits we've previously seen on any flight. Its intended use is to be versatile from commercial trips to actual missions and sports enough features to make both incredibly comfortable. The interior is streamlined and looks like something from a space movie (Interstellar, anyone?). The technology within the craft is high-tech and functioning at the highest capacity for a journey such as this.

While it is quite the undertaking, Virgin Galactic has been designed with the notion in mind of opening up outer space for general public exploration; a means to give the average person a taste of what it's like to float around in space. With this notion in mind, extreme safety precautions have also been put in place so that passengers not only have the experience of a lifetime but will also feel safe while doing it.

Related:You'll Soon Be Able To Book A Hotel Room In Space, But It'll Cost You Around $10 Million

So how did Virgin Galactic accomplish this stellar (no pun intended) feat? With the help of experts, of course. The company consulted with astronaut trainers, doctors, engineers, and even potential customers for input and guidelines, according toTravel + Leisure.One interesting question that was posed to the group was how to temper a "high adrenaline" environment such as a spaceship in order to make it a calm and serene place to be during takeoff and landing. One answer to this was the addition of timed lighting, which serves as a visual signal to passengers during times of excitement or calm. The hope for additions such as these lights is the experience will be both rewarding and thrilling, rather than stressful and uncertain.

Related:15 Stargazing Destinations for Space Lovers (5 Where the City Lights Ruin the Night Sky)

TheVSS Unityalso features 12 windows that wrap around the entire spacecraft, allowing passengers to have a steady view of the earth from every angle. The spacecraft also allows for a level of weightlessness as passengers experience zero gravity for the first time, making it an interactive experience as well as one that's educational and scenic.

Even the seating on this spacecraft has been built to temper the effects of space travel - including offsetting G-forces. These seats will also display live flight data for passengers with its innovative design.

Next:The World's First Hotel In Outer Space Is Coming In 2025!

Virginia Has Its Own Traditional Foods, And These Are The Best

Originally from New York, Katie is used to a fast-paced lifestyle. She got her personal start with writing in the second grade, and carried that passion with her until she won a spot in her high school's published poetry book - but not before becoming the News Editor and columnist for the high school newspaper. In college, she majored in English Literature with an emphasis in Political Science, soaking up most creativity and method from one of the last professors to study under famed beat poet Allen Ginsberg. The more she wrote, the more she learned about the world and, more importantly, herself. She has been writing professionally and has been published since the age of 19, and for nearly a decade has covered topics in entertainment, lifestyle, music news, video game reviews, food culture, and now has the privilege of writing and editing for TheTravel. Katie has a firm belief that every word penned is a journey into yourself and your own thoughts, and through understanding this, people can begin to understand each other. Through her voice, she brings personality, research, and a bit of friendly sarcasm to every piece she writes and edits.

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Planning A Vacation To Outer Space? Here's A First Look At Virgin Galactic's Spaceship - TheTravel

Fifty-one years ago on July 20, 1969, a then 11-year-old Michael Lpez-Alegra was playing on Laguna Beachs shores with his family and friends. He remembers the adults calling the kids out of the water and everyone gathering around transistor radios that broadcast Apollo 11s historic landing onto the surface of the moon.

And once they said, Tranquility Base, the Eagle has landed, all these adults who were kind of strangers to each other were hugging and, like, slapping each other on the back like they were relatives or friends, Lpez-Alegra, 62, said. It was really quite a moment.

Later that day at his familys home in Mission Viejo, Lpez-Alegra was entranced watching grainy black-and-white footage of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon.

The events on that summer day were influential in inspiring Lpez-Alegras 20-year career as an astronaut for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and 37-year career in aviation and space flight.

Now Lpez-Alegra will join his childhood heroes as an inductee for one of the industrys highest honors: the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. Though it was announced earlier this year (the ceremony was originally scheduled for May 16), the 2020 ceremony has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lpez-Alegra and two other retired astronauts Pamela A. Melroy and Scott Kelly will be inducted at a later date.

They exemplify bravery, dedication and passion, and their hard work has paved the way for what promises to be an unprecedented new decade of space exploration and interplanetary travel, said Curt Brown, space shuttle astronaut and board chairman of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which oversees the selection process.

Michael Lpez-Alegra had a 20-year career as an astronaut for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and 37-year career in aviation and space flight.

(Courtesy of NASA)

A place in the Hall of Fame is a rare honor. Lpez-Alegra will be one of only 102 people in a revered company of space greats that includes Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and John Glenn.

Not that hed brag about it. Lpez-Alegra is down-to-earth (pun intended) about his accomplishments.

Lets be clear: I think the people I looked up to as a kid and even later as a 20-something-year-old they really accomplished a lot more in terms of being on the cutting edge, he said. I mean, people who walked on the moon or flew to the moon or were the first in space thats a pretty elite group. Im honored to be a part of it, but Im not really in the same league as those guys.

Lpez-Alegra went on four spaceflights for NASA (three Space Shuttle missions, and one mission as the commander of the International Space Station), holds two NASA records for spacewalks (for the highest number of spacewalks 10 and duration of time spent 67 hours and 40 minutes), and speaks four languages (English, Spanish, Russian and French).

When asked which career highlight hes proudest of, Lpez-Alegra points to his experience in spacewalks, or extravehicular activity (EVA).

Michael Lpez-Alegra traverses along the Starboard One truss on the International Space Station during the missions third and final scheduled spacewalk in 2002.

(Courtesy of NASA)

I didnt set out to specialize in that, but I ended up being in the right place at the right time, and it is sort of the most iconic of the activities that an astronaut does, he said. And so, having [those records] is special. I know that [they] will fall someday, and Id be happy to hand the baton to the next person.

Born in Madrid and naturalized as a U.S. citizen, Lpez-Alegra moved to the U.S. with his family at age 2 and to Mission Viejo at 8. He graduated from Mission Viejo High School in 1976, then from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1980. Designated a naval aviator, Lpez-Alegras childhood dream of becoming an astronaut was reinvigorated at age 25 after he read a magazine article about Navy test pilots segueing into astronauts.

He trained at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot school and earned a master of science in aeronautical engineering before joining NASA in 1992. Three years later, Lpez-Alegra was launched into orbit for his first Space Shuttle mission the first Spanish-born astronaut to do so.

Among his favorite aspects of space flights are the launch (an incredible roller coaster, white knuckle thrill ride), the fun of floating in microgravity, and the consuming but rewarding hours spent on research.

His most tense moment on a spacewalk and likely the most comical involved the least important work he ever had to do: He and his Russian crewmate were tasked with hitting a golf ball in space for a commercial.

Lpez-Alegra nearly lost his grip on the ball when it was exposed to the vacuum of space,

And then my next thing was to hold my partners feet, like an anchor, while he took a swing, and the bad news is that he shanked it, and we didnt get much video of it at all, he said with a laugh.

Initially skeptical of space tourism and commercial space flight, Lpez-Alegra had a change of heart after Iranian American entrepreneur and engineer Anousheh Ansari joined the crew on his last mission in 2006.

Ansari was the fourth space tourist in history and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station. Her blog and subsequent book about the experience introduced space travel to people who may not have considered it before.

Literally a million people were reading her blog, and these are people who would otherwise not care two cents about what was going on in space and human space flight, Lpez-Alegra said. This sort of idea of sharing the experience clicked with me, and really ever since then Ive become a pretty big proponent of this idea of democratization of access to space.

Following his retirement from NASA in 2012, Lpez-Alegra moved to Washington, D.C., and served as president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, an advocacy group for commercial spaceflight companies. He continues to work in D.C. as an independent consultant for the industry, serves on advisory boards and is a public speaker.

He is excited about the industrys progress that there has been a little of a renaissance in human spaceflight in the past several years and suspects that it will be accessible to laypeople sooner than we think.

With the return of Elon Musks SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission on Sunday the first private company to send astronauts to the International Space Station that reality just got a little closer.

He hopes that whoever goes into space whether its astronauts or tourists will get to experience the Overview Effect, a phenomenon where space travelers return with a different perspective about life on Earth.

When you come back, you definitely feel more connected to other people and to the planet. A little bit more tolerant maybe, a little bit more skeptical about conflict, Lpez-Alegra said. It just seems like we all ought to figure out a way to get along together, because were all crew members on the same spaceship planet Earth and theres only one of them. And I think the more people who experience it, the better off our planet.

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Mission Viejo native Michael Lpez-Alegra inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame - Los Angeles Times

Can You Tell Him How To Get, How To Get a Space Shuttle Seat

Perhaps one of the most iconic characters on the Street, aside from our red puppet friend Elmo, is the 8-foot 2-inch, yellow giant we lovingly call Big Bird. Your friend and mine, Big Bird is one of the original puppets on the Street and still graces our television screens with love, compassion, and happiness. But, should he be a few inches shorter, this happy-go-lucky friend may not be around today.

In the early 1980s, NASA reached out to the creators of Sesame Street with an interesting proposal. As space travel was still new and uncertain, the NASA team was eager to gain some public attention and affection for their newly developed space shuttle. The Challenger mission was sure to be one for the books, and what better way to get young children excited about space than by sending their good friend, Big Bird, up into the galaxy.

Luckily, Big Bird and his puppeteer, Caroll Spinney were unable to join the Challenger mission. While the exact reasoning is not quite defined, its safe to say that the puppets towering heights were the main contributing factor. Lets be real, an 8-foot, 4000-feathered bird is not quite an essential when it comes to compact space travel. As we know today, the tragic mission of The Challenger would have resulted in the devasting loss of our yellow friend, and Sesame Street as we know it would never be the same.

So Big Bird continued his residency on Sesame Street with all of his friendsreal, and once imaginary. From 1971 to 1985, the shaggy brown monster, Mr. Snuffleupagus, was a totally ambiguous character. He was introduced to the show as an imaginary friend that only Big Bird could see. The two became extremely close during this time. In fact, when other characters appeared on-screen, Snuffy shuffled off or totally missed everyones arrival each and every time. Big Bird insisted that Snuffy was real, but no one ever believed him.

This tricky friendship raised an eyebrow or two after some disturbing storylines started hitting the front page. In the early 1980s, an episode of 60 Minutes gave the showrunners a reason to think twice about the portrayal of Snuffy as Big Birds imaginary friend. The issue of child abuse became particularly prominent. The last thing writers wanted was kids thinking that they couldnt come to their parents with important or difficult information in the fear that they wouldnt be believed.

The Executive Producer of Sesame Street, Carol-Lynn Parente said The fear was that if we represented adults not believing what kids say, they might not be motivated to tell the truth. And so, with careful planning and storytelling techniques, the writers developed a two-year scheme, introducing Snuffy as a real character to the rest of the members on Sesame Street. In this iconic episode, Bob McGrath, one of the human residents, tells Big Bird: From now on, well believe you whenever you tell us something, driving home the main point of this storyline change.

While Big Bird and Snuffy maintained their friendship on the Street, theyre accompanied by a whole melting pot of characters: Elmo, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, and the cloak-wearing Count.

While Count von Count was originally modeled off of Bela Lugosis Count Dracula, we do have some reason to believe that this cape-wearing, castle-dwelling puppet is a vampire. According to many claims on the Muppet Fan wiki page, the character has been described as a number-friendly vampire and a Numerical Vampire. However, according to The Counts official biography, he is not specifically listed as such. But, why is Sesame Street so set on their Dracula-inspiration?

Perhaps its because, in traditional folklore, vampires are said to have severe arithmomaniaa type of compulsive disorder where individuals become obsessed with counting absolutely everything around them. Aside from the fact that vampires also, quite obviously, have huge fangs and are known to puncture humans and drink their blood, this wouldnt be a good look for our friend The Count. To be safe, were going to stick with his official About Me, and opt for the Dracula inspirationbut hey, you be the judge!

If near-death explosions, imaginary friends, and OCD werent enough, a few characters are worth mentioning for other eyebrow-raising reasons. While only on screen for a short period of time, Don Music, became a quick fan favorite. Writing hit songs like Mary Had a Bicycle, and Drive, Drive, Drive Your Car, he was quite the clever lyricist. However, as a musician, he was bound to make a few frustrating mistakes at the piano. And to voice this frustration, he often began shouting and throwing his head against his instrument. Naturally, kids at home began to follow this behavior leading to some headaches and injuries. Needless to say, Don Music was retired from the screen.

Sesame Street will always be a sunny place we can call home. With an eclectic group of residents, theyve certainly made bright turns out of dark alleys or crooked storylines and it continues to be a place of acceptance, learning, and joy for viewers today.

Source: Down The Dark Alleys Of Sesame Street

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Down The Dark Alleys Of Sesame Street - EverythingGP

Travel enthusiasts and aspiring astronauts have a new aircraft to add to their bucket listVirgin Galactic has revealed the cabin interior of its highly anticipated SpaceshipTwo vehicle live on YouTube yesterday.

In just my second week as Virgin Galactics CEO, it is with great pride that I can lead our talented teams in revealing this latest milestone in our journey to space, Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic said in a press release. The spaceship cabin interior is in many ways the design centrepiece of the astronaut journey and what has been created will both facilitate and elevate a uniquely profound and transformational journey for the thousands who will fly.

The spacecraft itself was built in collaboration with London design agency, Seymourpowell, to include a sense of safety without distraction, so travellers can focus on absorbing periods of sensory intensity while offering each traveler a level of intimacy required to fully absorb the unforgettable experience.

In terms of aesthetics, the color palette of the cabin was curated to complement the architecture of the seats, the spacecraft itself, and the Under Armour-made astronaut spacesuits, with the golden metallics made to resemble desert sands and blues inspired by the celestial spaces and oceans below.

The seats have been made to match the dynamism of the flight, with a built-in, pilot-controlled recline mechanism which will position astronauts to manage G-forces during takeoff and landing phases while also freeing up space to allow for travelers to float through the cabin in zero gravity zones.

When we created Virgin Galactic, we started with what we believed would be an optimal customer experience and then built the spaceship around it, said Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group, adding that, we will continue with that ethos as we expand our fleet, build our operations and underpin Virgin Galactics position as the Spaceline for Earth.

The event also noted that the latest milestone will be available on a new, cutting-edge augmented reality enabled mobile app, which will be available to download for free at the App Store and Play Store before space tourists will officially be able to take off. We hope the new app will help bring the dream of space one step closer for space enthusiasts everywhere, added Colglazier.

Aspiring astronauts and space enthusiasts can now reserve front of the line access to the newly released spaceflight roundtrip for a US$1,000 deposit. For more information or to reserve your seat, be sure to check out the official Virgin Galactic website.

See also:Tatler's Guide to Going to Outer Space

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Inside The Virgin Galactic Spacecraft That Will Take Tourists To Space - Tatler Hong Kong

By Opinion Jul 30, 2020

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By Professor Louis C H Fourie

JOHANNESBURG - It was about 500 years ago that Ferdinand Magellan (born Ferno de Magalhes) in 1519 sailed beyond the edge of the world to find a western route to the spice-rich East Indies in modern day Indonesia something his contemporaries regarded as impossible.

After a journey of about 100 000km only 18 people of the original 260 of Magellans expedition, arrived back in Spain on the ship Victoria in September 1522 under the leadership of Juan Elcano.

They are the first human beings to prove that the globe could be circumnavigated. Along the way, they had encountered a new ocean, mapped new routes for European trade, and set the stage for modern globalism.

Air travel

A little more than 400 years later in 1924, as technology improved, six US Army Air Service pilots for the first time successfully circumnavigated the planet by air in Douglas World Cruiser biplanes. It took them 175 days and 74 stops to cover the 44 337km. Since the arrival of commercial aviation in the late 20th century, circumnavigating the globe became easy and takes only a few days instead of years. The only challenge to circumnavigate the Earth today is about human and technological endurance, speed and unconventional methods of travelling.

Space travel

But technology developed drastically and in April 1961 the first person to fly in space, Yuri Gagarin, completed an orbital spaceflight in the Vostok 1 spaceship within two hours. However, it was Gherman Titov in Vostok 2 that was the first human to circumnavigate the Earth in spaceflight. Eventually, on July, 20,1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first human beings to land on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Nasa launched a series of space probes called Mariner, which studied Venus, Mars and Mercury. Then followed the era of the space stations the Soviet Salyut 1 (1971), Nasas Skylab (1973) and the International Space Station (1998). During the same time two Nasas project Viking probes landed on Mars.

Since the Apollo lunar program was terminated in 1972, much of human space exploration focused on low-Earth orbit, with many countries participating and conducting research on the International Space Station.

However, in the past few decades numerous probes have been launched on missions throughout our solar system and more recently also further into our galaxy.

These probes have made a range of significant discoveries, amongst others that a moon of Jupiter, called Europa, and a moon of Saturn, called Enceladus, have oceans under their surface ice that may contain life according to scientists.

Interstellar exploration

At the same time, technological instruments in space, such as the Kepler Space Telescope, and instruments on the ground have discovered thousands of exoplanets (planets orbiting other stars). This era of exoplanet discovery began in 1995, and advanced technology now allows instruments in space that can quite accurately characterize the atmospheres of some of these exoplanets.

The first spacecraft to enter the interstellar medium (ISM) or region of space outside the bubble-shaped boundary produced by wind streaming outward from the sun, was Voyager 1 in 2012.

At the end of 2018 Voyager 1 was joined by Voyager 2 in the realm of the stars when it became only the second human-made object to journey out of the suns influence at more than 17.7 billion kilometres from the sun.

It was almost 500 years after the significant mission of Ferdinand Magellan beyond the edge of the world that a spacecraft ventured past the edge of our solar system.

Again, we as a human race are in unchartered waters and not sure what we will find. Only now we are not travelling the oceans of the earth, but the vast and endless distances of deep space to discover the universe.

Spacecraft with light sails propelled by light

The very ambitious Breakthrough Starshot project that is the brainchild of Stephen Hawking, Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg, aims to slingshot a spaceship at one fifth of the speed of light, beyond our solar system to the neighbouring Alpha Centauri star system. Even at one fifth the speed of light it is a journey that will take about 20 years and that is only one way.

Just like Magellan, the sailcraft will use sails to get to its destination, but in this case a light sail and a ground-based directed-energy laser array to accelerate them to the target speed. One of the many challenges that will have to be overcome will be to transmit data back to Earth. In a recent study the director of Starshot systems, Dr Kevin Parkin, described the possibility to use a tight-beam laser transmitter embedded in the sail of the craft to transmit data back to a 30-meter telescope on Earth in the near-infrared and near-ultraviolet spectrum (1.02 to 1.25 micrometres).

Using laser beams have many advantages over radio wave or microwave transmissions. Since lasers have wavelengths that are a thousand times shorter than microwaves, it will have a much tighter beam from Alpha Centauri to Earth.

However, the array will have to point very accurately at Earth for the data to be received. To ensure proper communication through numerous downlinks, Starshot plans to launch a thousand 4-gram light sail nanocraft at R100 million each. According to Dr Parkin a distributed algorithm will be used to allow each spacecraft to operate in tandem and with a degree of autonomy while mapping a different part of the Alpha Centauri system.

Living spaceships and bio-inspired design

Another approach to the exploration of deep space is living spaceships and bio-inspired design. Many space agencies and leading research universities are turning to adaptive, biomimetic (the emulation of the models, systems, and elements of nature to solve complex problems) and evolution-inspired designs for space exploration.

According to scientists, bio-inspired design will allow us to design more efficient spacecraft with improved adaptability to unforeseen problems when exploring deep space. Since resources and energy are limited in space, bio-inspired design is becoming increasingly important. It was bio-inspired design that led to the invention of Velcro in the 1940s after researching plant seeds.

Based on the function of human body parts, Raul Polit-Casillas, a Spanish architect and engineer from Nasas prestigious Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is researching the manufacturing of multifunctional spacecraft parts. Just like the human skin is a sensing, thermal management and protective instrument, the parts of spacecraft should have more than one function. His work has already found its way into several Nasa projects.

At the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, Angelo Vermeulen and his colleagues are researching a spacecraft that will feed of an asteroids resources and will evolve like an organism to take it beyond our solar system since spaceships on their way to outer space are not able to carry all the fuel they need.

Daunting challenges

We are in the infancy of interstellar travel and exploration with many obstacles still to overcome. Despite possible innovative data communication at the speed of light, even the data will take 4.364 years to reach us from a spacecraft in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri and that is only one of the nearest stars.

The spacecraft will also have to function autonomously since it will be extremely difficult to send commands to the spacecraft in real time. Two-way light signals will take at least 8.72 years to Alpha Centauri travelling at 299 792 458 m/s.

In order to build a sailcraft as envisioned by Starshot, may take many decades depending on technological development. Light propulsion requires enormous power of about a gigawatt of Power (the output of one powerplant). Microwave phased arrays have been in use for about 50 years, but optical phased arrays do not yet exist and will be no easy feat to integrate into a ceramic sail as envisioned by Starshot.

But any exploration mission as in the case of Magellan in 1519 present their share of challenges and dangers. Interstellar and deep space exploration will indeed have some daunting challenges, but technology has a way to develop and overcome many challenges over time, especially in the Fourth Industrial Revolution with its confluence of innovative technologies. What may sound like science fiction to us, may be part of the future world of our children.

But is space the final frontier for us as human beings to conquer? What is at the edge of the universe if we can ever reach it? Nobody knows.

Professor Louis C H Fourie is a futurist and technology strategist

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Tom Cruise has reportedly recruited Elon Musks technological expertise as he plans the first movie to ever film in outer space with the production backing of Universal Pictures.

Just in case youre checking if its 1st April, Deadline is reporting that Cruise, director Doug Liman and Christopher McQuarrie have agreed with Universal Pictures a budget in the region of $200 million (153 million) to make the film, which currently doesnt even have a script (apparently Liman is writing it now).

Deadlines sources say that Musks firm SpaceX will be involved in the project from day one and while Liman will direct, Cruises Mission: Impossible director McQuarrie will be ground control as story advisor and producer for the project.

The $200m budget is an estimate which, considering no film has ever been made beyond Earth before, is full of probably the greatest variables any movie project has ever had. A logistical nightmare doesnt even begin to hint at what the production team will contend with.

Cruise, though, is renowned for taking risks and doing his own stunts, including climbing the outside of the 123-storey Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, then doing an action scene at the top. The Hollywood star was first reported as conceiving the space-set adventure in May and had obtained Musks interest. The obvious publicity benefits for his SpaceX company would be a big inducement to be involved.

Liman has apparently been doing the preparatory work for the project. Both he and Cruise are qualified pilots and Liman reportedly went to Florida to witness the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, atCape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, complete with two NASA astronauts last week.

Falcon 9 is an historic public-private partnership that put the US back in the business of human space travel for the first time in a decade and the opportunity to be the first film production to ever make a narrative movie in space must have powerful appeal for all concerned, especially Universal Pictures.

Cruise is currently working on Mission: Impossible 7 and was reported last month to be creating a VIP village in Oxfordshire to create a coronavirus-free zone which would allow filming to resume.

If youre looking for more to watch, check out ourTV guide.

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Tom Cruise enlists Elon Musk and SpaceX to help make the first movie in space - RadioTimes

High-altitude balloons could be taking everyday cosmonauts to the edge of space, offering dramatic views of Earth from the stratosphere for those who dare to book a ticket. Sam Ballard reports

There is no doubt about it, the space race is hotting up. However, these days, its not global nation states competing against each other its the battle of the billionaires. And, whether you are rooting for Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic or Elon Musks SpaceX, they have certainly got the worlds attention.

However, while the pair are vying to be the first to take tourists into space there has been a surprise contender that has seemingly risen out of nowhere: space balloons.

The concept of high-altitude balloons has been around for centuries, ever since the first hydrogen balloon was launched in Paris in 1783.

Over the years, the technology has developed to allow passengers to rise to dizzying new heights as anyone who has watched Felix Baumgartners 38,969-metre skydive will attest.

There are now companies that are looking to harness that technology and take passengers more than 30km up in a balloon to enjoy a perspective of the planet that few have had the chance to enjoy before. Optimistic outlooks suggest that this could be happening within the next couple of years.

One such initiative is World View, a project by the Paragon Space Development Corporation. Guests will board a capsule that will rise 30,000 metres by means of a helium balloon.

According to the company, once at that height, passengers will experience the space environment, including a period of weightlessness and the iconic space view: a curved Earth with its thin blue atmosphere against the blackness of space.

Nigel Goode, director at PriestmanGoode, the design agency behind the capsule, says: This is a dream project to work on. Its incredibly exciting to be part of this nascent industry. Inspired by our work designing luxury aircraft interiors, our design vision focuses on enhancing comfort on-board the capsule to create a truly transformative human experience.

The World View flight will incorporate an ascent of roughly one-a-half to two hours with the capsule then spending between two and six hours when it has reached an altitude of roughly 30km. It will then be a much faster 20- to 40-minute descent back to Earth.

Goode adds: We have been working closely with Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum, who founded the Paragon Space Development Corporation. They are both at the forefront of aerospace technology and brought us in for our expertise designing luxury travel experiences. Its been an inspiring process to combine our different skills to define the experience of premium space travel.

PriestmanGoode has also designed balloon passenger cabins for another project called Space Perspective, which also rises 30km into the air.

Spaceship Neptune will be flown by a pilot with up to eight passengers, called Explorers, on board. The entire experience will take roughly six hours a two-hour ascent above 99 per cent of the Earths atmosphere, a two-hour flight at 100,000ft above ground and then a two-hour descent. The Spaceship Neptune will land in the sea where a ship will retrieve the passengers, capsule and balloon.

Meanwhile, Bloon, part of Zero to Infinity, is looking at taking its guests even higher up to a giddy 36km, which is above 99.5 per cet of Earths atmosphere.

Speaking to Globetrender, Jos Mariano Lpez Urdiales founder and CEO of Zero 2 Infinity, says that he started the company in order to share his experiences with others.

Ive been fortunate to have space in my life since I was little, my father is an astronomer, he says. Ive always felt strongly that more people should get to do things in space. Bloon is the way.

The outlook for a first flight is constantly evolving, Urdiales says, however, he is hopeful that the first flight for space tourists could be as early as 2022, with professional flights happening even sooner.

Balloons are the only affordable, safe and cost-effective way to democratise space tourism. By 2030, UBS predicts the space tourism industry to be worth US$3 billion.

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High-altitude balloons could soon be taking tourists into the stratosphere - Globetrender

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This is not my first JPT editorial. In fact,it is more than 16 years since that was publishedsufficiently long ago that I initially put my invitation to write this piece down to an error. When it became clear that was not the case, I wondered what I should use this opportunity to say.

I had entirely forgotten what I had written about in February 2004. Reading that editorial again was slightly uncomfortable, and I found myself wincing at parts. Setting that discomfort aside, when I thought about when the piece was written, as much as what I had said, I was struck by the parallels and contrasts with the world that we live in today. That insight led me to test what I believe to be important for the oil and gas industry of tomorrow.

Compared to 2004 I am, broadly speaking, much the same; perhaps a little wiser. I still have a keen interest in (my words), or pointless obsession with (other peoples words), fonts, text editors, pre-1980s programming languages, and units of weights and measures. I could add more to this list, but I dont want to come across as too nerdy. While I have remained constant, at least in spirit, some things were profoundly different at the start of 2004.

US Oil Production Had Been in a Long Period of Decline. During 2003 the US produced around 5.6 million B/D of crude oil, including lease condensates. Production had been declining steadily from its peak in the mid-1980s. In my editorial I wrung my hands at the slow pace of uptake of methods to improve well productivity and drive down well costs. As far as the US was concerned, I neednt have worried: a productivity revolution was underway that would profoundly affect not only the shape of the US oil industry, but the supply/demand balance of the entire world. The factory drilling of highly stimulated horizontal wells took US crude production from 5 million B/D in 2008 to more than 12 million B/D by the end of last year.

Facebook Did Not Exist. Facebook was launched in February 2004. Gmail was announced in April the same year. Twitter was not a thing until 2006. In a world where something has become so pervasive, it is hard to imagine that the term social media had no meaning for most people in 2004. Today, social media is deeply entrenched in our working practices: it is central to the way that companies communicate with their employees and with the public; it provides the means by which we advertise and apply for jobs; people use WhatsApp groups to collaborate on projects because it is better than the tools provided by their employers. The impact upon our personal lives is perhaps even more dramatic. Although the positive influences of being hyperconnected should not be underestimateda point Ill come back to latercyber-bullying was no real cause for concern in 2004, nor was the impact of social media on major political events.

SARS-CoV Did Not Have a Number. By the end of 2003, the SARS epidemic had been reduced to a few sporadic outbreaks. The coronavirus genome that caused the disease had earlier been classified as SARS-CoV. Today it is known as SARS-CoV-1 and its baby brother, CoV2, is currently wreaking havoc across the world. At a time when the oil and gas industry was already wrestling with oversupply, COVID-19 has managed to destroy demand by an unprecedented level, and the oil and gas industry has been plunged into another downturn. I hear people using phrases like the coronavirus fog is lifting, but Im not so sureI think we have just adapted rather quickly to working in the fog.

Attitudes Toward Climate Change Were in a State of Flux. To be fair, attitudes today are hardly a consensus, but things were still very different in 2004. The Kyoto Protocol of 1997, which agreed on legally binding emissions cuts for industrialized nations, had still not been ratified. The oil and gas industry could largely carry on regardless, with the voices of climate change activists being too quiet or too far away to have any material impact. Today the global politics concerning climate change has, if anything, become more intense, but public opinion has shifted markedly. Irrespective of our individual views, the oil and gas industry is being forced to adapt by attitudes to climate change. Im not trying to make a political pointIm just stating the obvious.

I am writing this article in my house, looking out of the window into a sunny garden, under lockdown in the UK. I feel like Im in the eye of a storm, which has already battered the industry on its way through and will, no doubt, still do further damage. However, Im nothing if not persistent, and after more than 30 years of working in oilfield technology, Im not going to give up now.

I dont feel at all self-serving when I say that the application of technology will continue to transform the oil and gas industry. Nor am I embarrassed about using the tired clich that necessity is the mother of invention. Indeed, Ive watched as the past few months of lockdowns and travel bans have changed the way that people work.

The worlds information networks initially groaned under the strain of supporting so much video-calling, but that strain was shrugged off quickly. Microsoft reported that more than four billion minutes of Teams meetings happened in a single day in April, up from a previous record of 900 million minutes in mid-March. Although the effect on wellbeing of enforced isolation is a cause for concern, for some people the improvement in the quality of their working life has been a revelation.

On reflection, recent events have reinforced my opinion on what needs to be doneat least in the areas that my colleagues and I have any ability to influenceand optimism about that making a difference.

Reduce Footprint. Whether due to lack of bed space, travel restrictions, or the current need to remain socially distant, we need to use fewer people to do jobs at the wellsite. Indeed, we need to use less resources in general. The oil and gas industry is being forced to reduce its footprint, in all senses of the word, and that is a necessity that we should turn into a way of working. As the past few months have shown, technology has a clear role to play: better connectivity, better remote operations support, better data gathering leading to better answersits all doable.

Upgrade Existing Equipment Through Retrofitting. Our industry is characterized by huge amounts of capital equipment, much of it obsolete. In many cases, as a matter of policy, that equipment is serviced only by the original manufacturers who simply keep it functioning. We can do better than that.

We can improve our stewardship of brownfield assets, leaving much of the original equipment in place, by retrofitting new components that enhance performance, reduce inefficiency, and provide better diagnostics. Additive manufacturing will become increasingly important. Lumps of dumb iron can be replaced by printed structureswhere internal complexity reduces waste and costmade as required, rather than kept in overstocked warehouses.

The pace of change in this area is probably going to be limited not by technology, but by policy. It needs us to rethink the supply chain, bursting the misapprehension bubble that a policy of using original equipment manufacturers to service old equipment is the best way to ensure quality and reliability. It isntit increases cost and stifles innovation.

Prepare To Abandon. Nothing stands still; there is always some transition under way. However, the oil and gas industry is not going to suddenly die, no matter how much some people might think that it should. Indeed, it would be an environmental catastrophe if it did. As the world becomes increasingly electrified, the oil and (particularly) gas industry is going to play a key part in this transition.

Nevertheless, there is an enormous amount of infrastructure that will need to be decommissioned. The anticipated costs of that are currently eye-watering and need to be reduced without compromising the quality of the end result. There is great scope for innovation, such as new well-abandonment methods, and better pre-abandonment surveys that inform planning for final decommissioning. All of this should reduce the risk of unforeseen problems, which tend to cause abandonment costs to be heavily skewed toward significant budget overruns.

In closing, despite the current uncertainty and recognizing that this is a difficult time for many people, I believe there is much to be excited about. Im not worried about getting oldI plan to do it with great vigor. I think the oil and gas industry will do the same.

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JPT That Was Then, This Is Now - Journal of Petroleum Technology