The Short Answer:

Although humans can't hop into a time machine and go back in time, we do know that clocks on airplanes and satellites travel at a different speed than those on Earth.

We all travel in time! We travel one year in time between birthdays, for example. And we are all traveling in time at approximately the same speed: 1 second per second.

We typically experience time at one second per second. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's space telescopes also give us a way to look back in time. Telescopes help us see stars and galaxies that are very far away. It takes a long time for the light from faraway galaxies to reach us. So, when we look into the sky with a telescope, we are seeing what those stars and galaxies looked like a very long time ago.

However, when we think of the phrase "time travel," we are usually thinking of traveling faster than 1 second per second. That kind of time travel sounds like something you'd only see in movies or science fiction books. Could it be real? Science says yes!

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows galaxies that are very far away as they existed a very long time ago. Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Thompson (Univ. Arizona)

More than 100 years ago, a famous scientist named Albert Einstein came up with an idea about how time works. He called it relativity. This theory says that time and space are linked together. Einstein also said our universe has a speed limit: nothing can travel faster than the speed of light (186,000 miles per second).

Einstein's theory of relativity says that space and time are linked together. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

What does this mean for time travel? Well, according to this theory, the faster you travel, the slower you experience time. Scientists have done some experiments to show that this is true.

For example, there was an experiment that used two clocks set to the exact same time. One clock stayed on Earth, while the other flew in an airplane (going in the same direction Earth rotates).

After the airplane flew around the world, scientists compared the two clocks. The clock on the fast-moving airplane was slightly behind the clock on the ground. So, the clock on the airplane was traveling slightly slower in time than 1 second per second.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

We can't use a time machine to travel hundreds of years into the past or future. That kind of time travel only happens in books and movies. But the math of time travel does affect the things we use every day.

For example, we use GPS satellites to help us figure out how to get to new places. (Check out our video about how GPS satellites work.) NASA scientists also use a high-accuracy version of GPS to keep track of where satellites are in space. But did you know that GPS relies on time-travel calculations to help you get around town?

GPS satellites orbit around Earth very quickly at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. This slows down GPS satellite clocks by a small fraction of a second (similar to the airplane example above).

GPS satellites orbit around Earth at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. Credit: GPS.gov

However, the satellites are also orbiting Earth about 12,550 miles (20,200 km) above the surface. This actually speeds up GPS satellite clocks by a slighter larger fraction of a second.

Here's how: Einstein's theory also says that gravity curves space and time, causing the passage of time to slow down. High up where the satellites orbit, Earth's gravity is much weaker. This causes the clocks on GPS satellites to run faster than clocks on the ground.

The combined result is that the clocks on GPS satellites experience time at a rate slightly faster than 1 second per second. Luckily, scientists can use math to correct these differences in time.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

If scientists didn't correct the GPS clocks, there would be big problems. GPS satellites wouldn't be able to correctly calculate their position or yours. The errors would add up to a few miles each day, which is a big deal. GPS maps might think your home is nowhere near where it actually is!

Yes, time travel is indeed a real thing. But it's not quite what you've probably seen in the movies. Under certain conditions, it is possible to experience time passing at a different rate than 1 second per second. And there are important reasons why we need to understand this real-world form of time travel.

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Is Time Travel Possible? | NASA Space Place NASA Science ...

As yet, no-one has committed a crime in space - but someone came close in 2019.

Then Summer Worden, the wife of NASA astronaut Anne McClain, claimed that the former US Army engineer had illegally hacked her bank account from a computer on the International Space Station.

The claims were disproven, and the two women subsequently divorced. But with more and more people making their way into orbit every year its only a matter of time before the first outer-space crime is committed.

The first attempt to draft a set of laws governing space travellers dates back almost 30 years before the first manned space flight. A Czech legal expert published a book about the problems space travel might represent for lawyers.

Most efforts at creating a universal set of laws for off-world activities have centred on property law and mineral rights for example, a NASA bid to capture an asteroid and place it in lunar orbit sparked a major debate about who owns celestial objects.

After all, with the value of some asteroids estimated to be in the trillions of dollars, its a question we need to resolve.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has predicted that the Earths first trillionaire will be the person who exploits the natural resources on them.

For example, one massive iron asteroid that was probably once the core of a dead planet could make someone incredibly rich or end all life on Earth.

The asteroid, called 16 Psyche, is thought to contain deposits of iron worth around 8,000 quadrillion.

Theoretically, if 16 Psyche could be mined and its iron retrieved, the value of the metal could be divided between the worlds eight billion people to make every man, woman and child on the planet a billionaire.

Or, equally, any attempt to bring the multi-trillion-dollar space rock down to Earth could result in a planet-killing catastrophe on a par with the event that saw off the dinosaurs.

NASA are currently working with Elon Musk to design a probe that can land on 16 Psyche, remove a small section, and return it to the Earth for analysis.

Theres another set of international agreements covering the legality of weapons in space. A 1967 Outer Space Treaty signed by most of the major world powers bans military bases, weapons testing and military manoeuvres on other heavenly bodies.

However it doesnt go as far as banning all military activity in space, and the recent anti-satellite weapons tests from Russia and China show that the law doesnt really stretch very far beyond the Earth at all.

John Logsdon, founder of the Space Policy Institute and professor emeritus at George Washington University, says that there are no meaningful laws in space at all.

He said: The governing structure for space activities is way out of date and doesnt reflect today's realities in space.

There are no rules. Theres no space traffic regime or control. [There are] thousands of objects in space - satellites and space debris. Its a wild environment up there with things shooting around and no traffic management to make sure they dont collide with one another.

Paul Kostek, a space policy specialist from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers , says that the next phase of space exploration, with prospectors competing to claim the next valuable asteroid, threatens to turn space into a new wild west.

It really is the wild wild west, or in this case the wild wild space,' he said. "What is all of that going to mean, how are people even going to manage space?

More:

Race to make laws in space before asteroid mining starts and there's a 'new wild west' - Daily Star

In February 2022, Texas-based startup Axiom Space will launch the first fully private mission to the International Space Station (ISS) a milestone for commercial spaceflight. While onboard, the astronauts will conduct microgravity research that could help future astronauts, the first step in Axioms quest to create the worlds first commercial space station.

The challenge: The microgravity environment aboard the ISS allows scientists to conduct experiments that wouldnt be possible on Earth.

However, there isnt nearly enough time for government scientists to conduct all of the potential microgravity research, nor is there enough room aboard the ISS for all the potential experiments.

Humanity has only scratched the surface of low-Earth orbits potential for breakthrough innovation.

The idea: Axiom Space is working to expand the amount of research that can be done in microgravity by creating the worlds first commercial space station, a place where anyone could buy the time and space needed for their experiments.

Humanity has only scratched the surface of low-Earth orbits potential for breakthrough innovation, Michael Suffredini, the startups president and CEO, said in a press release, and Axiom was founded to push that envelope.

In 2024, Axiom plans to launch the first module. Initially, it will attach to the ISS to expand the amount of room available for astronauts and experiments, and when the ISS is retired, itll separate to become its own space station.

Before that happens, though, Axiom is sending groups of private astronauts to the ISS to conduct experiments.

Were doing these series of missions in order to do a couple of things, Christian Maender, in-space manufacturing and research director at Axiom, said during a November conference. First, to develop markets, but also to do pathfinder work towards what is eventually our Axiom station.

Whats new: The first of those missions, Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1), is set to launch in February 2022 with four crew members one is an Axiom employee (hell serve as commander), and the other three are men paying $55 million each to spend about a week aboard the ISS.

During their time in space, the crew will conduct more than 100 hours of microgravity experiments on behalf of a number of universities, startups, and institutes.

We applaud the Ax-1 crews commitment to advancing scientific inquiry and kicking off this civilizational leap.

Those include studies related to climate change, STEM education, and the environmental health of the Great Lakes. Several microgravity experiments focused on the impact of space travel on the human body are also planned.

We applaud the Ax-1 crews commitment to advancing scientific inquiry and kicking off this civilizational leap, Suffredini said.

Were confident this mission will become not just a monumental moment in space travel, but the true beginning of making spaces potential for meaningful discovery available to private citizens and organizations for the first time, he continued.

Wed love to hear from you! If you have a comment about this article or if you have a tip for a future Freethink story, please email us at tips@freethink.com.

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First commercial mission to the ISS prepares for launch - Freethink

At the height of the first space age, visions of future space travel ranged from the fantasticalthe interstellar adventures of Buck Rogersto the credulous, with NASA planning visits to both Venus and Mars before the end of the century. There was a palpable expectation that the world would see a proliferation of new technologies across the sky, and who could blame the prognosticatorsafter all, theyd already seen it happen once in their lifetimes.

Almost as soon as the Wright brothers cracked the code on the ancient dream of human flight, aero fever encircled the globe (well before the airplanes themselves could do so). Our new Early Flight gallery, opening next year, traces the slow evolution of the idea over the centuries and its sudden explosion in one swift decade from that first flight in 1903 to the beginning of World War I.

Champagne corks popped across France as airplanes circled the Eiffel Tower, and New Yorkers craned to see aircraft fly loops around the Statue of Liberty. Hundreds of thousands were thrilled by aerobatic displays at early airshows across Europe and the United States.

During the first years of flight, safety measures were introduced that are still in use today. In 1912, crowds in Chicagos Grant Park watched Tiny Broadwick become the first woman to jump from an airplane. (The pilot was aviation pioneer Glenn Martin.) Tiny had gotten her start leaping from hot air balloons wearing a handmade aerial life preserver. In 1914, while demonstrating parachutes for the U.S. Army, Tinys static line became stuck. Cutting it short and pulling it manually, she executed historys first planned free fall from an airplane, inventing the ripcord and selling the military on the new safety technology for their nascent, and hazardous, fleet of early aircraft.

The centerpiece of the new gallery, the 1909 Wright Military Flyer, is the most complete example of the worlds earliest airplanes. It was used by Wilbur Wright to teach the first three military aviators to fly.

As Mark Twain once observed, history doesnt repeat itself, but it often rhymes. The first decade of aviation was one of frenetic creativity and promise. Now, as we begin a second space age with plans for Starships and new lunar landers (both in this issue), who knows what new advances will come our way? We may yet see the boom predicted in the middle of the last century by pulp magazines and on silver screens. After all, its happened once before.

Christopher U. Browne is the Acting Director of the National Air and Space Museum.

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What the History of Early Flight Might Tell Us About the Future of Space Travel - Air & Space Magazine

Sir Richard Branson flew into space aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel, a voyage he described as the experience of a lifetime at the Spaceport America in New Mexico, United States on July 11, 2021. Virgin Galactic / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

2021 is a historic year for commercial space travel. A record number of civilian orbital and suborbital missions launched successfully: Elon Musks SpaceX launched four amateur astronauts into Earths orbit for the first time; a Russian film crew spent 12 days on the International Space Station shooting the worlds first movie in space; and two multi-billionaires flew to the edge of Earths atmosphere as the first passengers of their respective space companies to show the public that their new spacecrafts are safe and fun.

As with everything in its early stages, space tourism today is unattainably expensive (although demand appears to be strong enough to keep existing companies in this market busy for several years). But eventually, as technology matures and more companies enter the industry, prices will hopefully go down. As a space tourism entrepreneur told Observer this summer, going to space in the future will be more and more like going to Europe.

Below, weve rounded up every space tourism package that is either available now or in the near future. We have listed them in the order of price and compared them by travel duration, maximum altitude, passenger cabin amenities, and value for moneyif you can afford it, that is.

Price: $125,000Flight altitude: 30 kilometersWhat youll get: A relaxing six-hour ride to the stratosphere in a balloon-borne pressurized capsule.Date available: 2024Value for money: (4/5 stars)Space Perspective offers a radically gentle journey 20 miles above. Space Perspective

Founded by the team that launched Alan Eustace in 2014 for his Guinness World Record space jump, Florida-based Space Perspective in June began selling tickets of its yet-to-be-licensed Spaceship Neptune flights.

A pressurized capsule designed to carry up to eight passengers and one pilot will be slowly lifted by a hydrogen-filled balloon the size of a football field when fully inflated to 19 miles (30 kilometers) in the sky, about three times the altitude of commercial planes. The passenger cabin features a bar, a bathroom and huge windows specially designed for sightseeing.

The balloon will hover at its peak altitude for about two hours before slowly descending to a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, where passengers and will be picked up by a recovery ship.

Because the space balloon moves at only 12 miles per hour during ascent and descent, no special training is required before the ride.Space Perspective completed a test flight in June. The company expects to begin flying paying customers before the end of 2024.

Ticket Price: $450,000Flight altitude:50 kmWhat youll get: A 90-minute ride to 50 kilometers above sea level in a SpaceShipTwo spaceplane. A few minutes of zero-gravity experience during descent.Date available:NowValue for money: (2/5 stars)Virgin Galactic Spaceship Cabin In Payload Configuration Virgin Galactic

If you like a more thrilling space experience provided by a company with a little bit of a track record, Virgin Galactics 90-minute suborbital flight might be your choice.

In July, the companys founder, Richard Branson, became its first passenger and flew to the edge of Earths atmosphere in a VSS UnitySpaceShipTwo spaceplane along with two pilots and three Virgin Galactic employees.

A pioneer in the nascent space tourism industry, Virgin Galactic began selling seats in 2013 at $250,000 apiece. By the time it halted sales in 2014 (after a test flight failure), the company had collected deposits from more than 600 aspiring customers.Ticket sales resumed in August this year at a higher price of $450,000. Virgin Galactic said it has since received 100 reservations.

Each VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo can carry up to four passengers. Virgin Galactic expects to fly paying passengers three times a month in 2023. At its current reservation volume, it will take the company a number of years to clear its wait list. So, patience is your friend here.

Ticket Price: Reportedly $28 millionFlight altitude: 100 kmWhat youll get: A 12-minute ride to the Krmn line, the internationally recognized boundary between Earths atmosphere and outer space.Date available:NowValue for money: (1/5 stars)

Blue Origin offers a similar suborbital flight package to Virgin Galactics. The main difference is that Virgin flies passengers in a plane while Blue Origin launches amateur astronauts in a real rocket.

On July 20, a few days after Bransons spaceflight, Jeff Bezos became the first customer of his own space company as well, blasting off to 107 kilometers in the sky in a New Shepard booster-capsule combo. The same spacecraft launched another crew of four passengers, including Star Trek actor William Shatner, on October 13.

Blue Origin began taking reservations in May. The exact ticket price is still a mystery. Bezos has said Blue Origin will price New Shepard flights similarly to its competitors, which led us to speculate that it would likely fall in the range of what Virgin Galactic charges. But, according to Tom Hanks, the ride would cost $28 million, which he said was the reason he turned down Bezos invitation to fly on the October mission. Hanks may have been joking, but $28 million was how much an auction winner paid to fly alongside Bezos in July. Of that total, $19 million was donated to various space organizations, Blue Origin said. If the remaining amount went to the company itself, it was still a hefty $9 million.

Blue Origin said it has raked in $100 million from private clients, but refused to disclose how many tickets have been sold.

Ticket Price: Estimated $55 millionFlight altitude: 574 kmDate available:NowWhat youll get: Three-day stay inside SpaceXs Dragon capsule circling around Earth with three crew mates.Value for money: (3/5 stars)Earth view through the glass cupola on SpaceXs Dragon capsule during the all-civilian Inspiration4 mission in September. SpaceX

SpaceX has more experience launching humans into space than any other company in this roundup. Its civilian package, rightfully the most expensive of the bunch, provides the closest experience to true space exploration.

In September, four amateur astronauts blasted off into space in a modified SpaceX Dragon capsule, equipped with a 360-degree glass dome, and spent three days flying in Earths orbit. The crewed spacecraft shot up to an altitude of 357 miles, about 100 miles higher than the average orbital altitude of the International Space Station.

The trip was paid for by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, who was also one of the passengers. SpaceX didnt disclose the exact amount he paid. It was estimated in the $200 million ballpark, given that NASA pays about $55 million for each seat on SpaceXs regular crewed missions to the ISS.

Ticket Price: $55 millionFlight altitude: 408 kmDate available: 2022What youll get: A 10-day trip to the International Space Station, including a weeklong stay in the orbital lab.Value for money: (5/5 stars)

Next year, another four-person, all-civilian mission is expected to launch with a SpaceX Dragon capsule, this time to actually dock at the International Space Station and let the crew live in the orbital lab for a week. (The Inspiration4 mission stayed in orbit only.)

The trip is marketed by Houston-based Axiom Space, a company led by former NASA official Michael Suffredini. Dubbed Ax-1, the mission will be piloted by former NASA astronaut Michael Lpez-Alegra. Three passengersLarry Connor, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbehave reportedly paid $55 million each for the remaining seats.

Axiom has three more flights planned in 2022 and 2023. Under NASAs low Earth orbit commercialization policy, two ISS civilian missions no longer than 30 days are allowed per year. Axiom actually aims to eventually build a stand-alone space station to replace the aging ISS. The first major module is expected to launch in 2024.

Ticket Price: $50 million to $60 millionFlight altitude: 408 kmDate available: NowWhat youll get: A 12-day trip to the International Space Station.Value for money: (5/5 stars)Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (C), along with film director Klim Shipenko (R) and actress Yulia Peresild (L) pose for a photo ahead of the launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on October 05, 2021. Roscosmos Press Service/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

If you dont feel like buying your first space trip from an inexperienced private company, Russias national space agency Roscosmos has a ISS getaway package very similar to what Axiom and SpaceX have to offer.

In October, Roscosmos sent an actress and a director to the ISS for a 12-day trip to shoot scenes for what will be the first movie filmed in space. On December 8, another civilian, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, known for having booked a SpaceX Starship flight around the moon in 2023, will travel to the ISS in a Russian Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft, set to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Maezawa will fly with his assistant, Yozo Hirano, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin. According to Space Adventures, a Virginia-based company currently working with Roscosmos on future commercial flights, a seat on an ISS-bound Soyuz spacecraft will cost in the range of $50 million to $60 million.

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Every Space Tourism Package Available in 2021 Ranked: From $125K to $60 Million - Observer

The sleeper has awoken! More than 55 years after Frank Herberts seminal sci-fi novel "Dune" hit the shelves, and a year-long pandemic delay, director Denis Villeneuve ("Arrival," "Blade Runner: 2049") has unwrapped the first half of his ambitious $165 million adaptation of the award-winning book with mixed results but a palpable dose of storytelling passion.

The 1965 novel was inspired partly by Herbert's awareness of the Department of Agriculture's plan to stabilize and relocate tons of encroaching sand dunes in Florence, Oregon. This blossomed into a futuristic work of singular significance encompassing themes of religion, politics, and ecology amid the turbulent world of feuding houses vying for control of a valuable consciousness-expanding substance called the spice melange. This rare commodity is found only on Arrakis, AKA Dune.

With such legendary notoriety, this project is only the third Hollywood iteration of "Dune," even counting the respectable TV version produced by the Sci-Fi Channel in 2000. The first to mount an assault on the work was Chilean-French cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, whose trippy version would have come with Mick Jagger, Salvador Dali, Orson Welles and a burning giraffe! Note: If you're wondering how to see the new movie outside the theaters, check out our "Dune" streaming guide for tips on where to watch.

A superb documentary titled "Jodorowsky's Dune" chronicles his exhaustive efforts.

Following the failure of Jodorowskys wild dreams to bring "Dune" to life in the mid-70s, iconoclastic director David Lynch ("The Elephant Man," "Blue Velvet") took up the quest. In 1984, Universal Pictures released the first "Dune" feature adaptation which I still believe is a flawed masterpiece.

Audiences were enraptured with the film's scope and stirring score (and an oiled-up Sting in a loincloth), but were bewildered at the movies' hallucinatory tone and head-spinning mythology. Pre-"Game of Thrones" patrons of that era were unaccustomed to complex sci-fi narratives of the same magnitude as todays "The Expanse," requiring nervous theater owners to even issue "cheat sheet" info cards to aid the confused. Polarizing at best, it's still an ambitious attempt.

Now Villeneuve takes a stab at the book once considered unfilmable, and in his hands the material takes on a magnificent 21st century sheen that at times seems like the definitive cinematic version of the source novel. But this valiant attempt at a revelatory adaptation is sort of ponderous and boring. Not that its not without its visually arresting moments. The spaceships instill power and austerity and those dragonfly-like Ornithopters seem like theyre real machines straight from the novel!

In one of the most startling sequences of the movie near its midpoint, we're whisked from the arid wastelands of Arrakis to the harsh prison planet of Salusa Secundus.

Here in the former homeworld of Emperor Shaddam IV's House Corrino prior to its resettlement on Kaitain, we see thousands of fanatical Sardaukar terror troops in formation during a sinister ceremony while an unsettling war cry drones. It's a chilling scene that reveals the fierce warriors' recruitment process as theyre marked in fresh blood streaming from upside-down victims crucified inside tiered stone fortifications.

Herbert's novel delves briefly into Salusa Secundus as the secret hive where Sardaukar are spawned and trained, but Lynch's treatment doesn't allude to any of it. Witnessing their rituals add a measure of fear that supports their legendary status as the fiercest fighters in the galaxy.

"The big challenge was to try not to crush the audience at the start with an insane amount of exposition," Villeneuve told the Los Angeles Times. "It took a long time to find the right equilibrium so that people who don't know 'Dune' will not feel left aside and will feel part of the story."

Regarding the casting process, Timothe Chalamet is seriously up to the task of portraying Paul, the young messianic member of the Atreides clan who will bring deliverance to the desert planet of Arrakis. Doubters should watch his riveting performance as young Henry V in the Netflix film, "The King."

Chalamet plays Paul with simmering intensity and a hint of naivety that transforms into a determined leader whose compassion is matched only by his reserved vengeance against the Harkonnens and the machinations of the Emperor and the Spacing Guild. The guild and its deformed Navigators from Lynchs version are the ones who alert Shaddam IV of the necessity to kill Paul Atreides to secure spice production. Their monopoly on space travel cannot be understated. Strangely, Villeneuve brushes over the importance of the Spacing Guild and its paranoid orchestration of events that lead to the downfall of House Atreides

Those familiar with the 1984 film will recall the eerie scene when a grasshopper-like Third Stage Guild Navigator in his glass travel tank permeated with orange spice gas glides into the Emperors throne room to warn him of the Atreides' prophecy and implications of his threat to Arrakis' future.

Other cool elements of Lynch's "Dune" you won't see in Villeneuve's movies are the wearable sonic weapons called the Weirding Modules that transform sounds into high-intensity bolts. These throat-worn devices are not mentioned in Herberts "Dune" novels. The special weapons were substituted for the books' Bene Gesserit martial arts form known as the Weirding Way.

Apparently Lynch decided to use sonic modules instead to stay clear of the goofiness of seeing "Kung-fu on sand dunes." I'll sure miss those vocal-triggered neck guns as Villeneuve's "Dune: Part 2" unfolds.

For "Dune's" musical score, the great Hans Zimmer wields the orchestral baton with his usual thunderous aplomb where everything is turned up to "11." This is in stark contrast to Lynch's use of Brian Eno's hypnotic Prophecy Theme and the pop rock tracks by Toto. One wouldnt think those choices wouldn't meld into a proper soundtrack but it gave that movie an operatic grandeur which feels lost in Villeneuves film beneath deafening action-oriented drums and primal chants. Zimmers derivative music seems stale and falls somewhere between his acclaimed scores for "Black Hawk Down" and "Man of Steel." Nothing new here to hear.

The rest of Villeneuve's casting choices are a bit predictable but often daring, especially Jason Momoa inhabiting the skin of the gruff battle-hardened swordmaster, Duncan Idaho, as well as Dave Bautista's rabid Rabban, who cultivates a charismatic ferocity to match his Harkonnen pedigree.

Stellan Skarsgard's Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is a bloated brute portrayed as a power-addicted despot, far different from Kenneth McMillans role in the 1984 film which bordered on over-the-top cartoonishness. (Remember the blood-gushing heart plugs?) As the short-lived patriarch of House Atreides, Oscar Issac is a solid Duke Leto and Josh Brolin lends gravitas to the troubadour-warrior Gurney Halleck. Thick-accented Javier Bardem is magnetic playing the Fremen chieftain Stilgar.

As the Lady Jessica, Rebecca Ferguson is engaging and vulnerable but feels too young to have a son of Pauls age. I was also pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed British actress Sharon Duncan-Brewsters gender-swapped performance as the Imperial planetologist, Dr. Liet-Kynes.

Overall, the glacial pacing for Villeneuve's "Dune" feels far too relaxed, especially the plodding first act before the galactic crossing to Arrakis and the stronghold city of Arakeen. The director can apparently indulge in a languorous start due to the project being delivered in two chapters. Lynch wisely chose one extra-long cut.

And yes, those monster sandworms are on the prowl here, perfectly depicted via modern CGI instead of the intricate puppets created by "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial's" Carlo Rambaldi. These colossal creatures erupt from the sandy oceans like killer kaiju bent on disrupting spice production in the fertile harvesting beds. We're treated with some gaping maws erupting from the sand but not any full-length glimpses of their immensity.

Those hoping to see Zendaya ("Spider-Man: Homecoming") better not blink or youll miss her as her Chani consists of seven minutes of total screen time made up of pensive glances inside Pauls dreams and a dearth of lines in the films final scenes. For someone featured so prominently in all the trailers, teasers, and marketing material it seems somewhat misleading.

But it's not what is shown in "Dune" that feels adrift and absent, it's what's not shown. Namely the royal domain of Emperor Shaddam IV on planet Kaitain, his daughter Princess Irulan, the Spacing Guild and its mutated Navigators, and Feyd-Rautha, the Baron's nephew famously played with sexy savagery by The Police's Sting and whose fate is linked to Paul's.

"Dune: Part 1" unfolds as a sometimes sluggish but occasionally brilliant introduction to Frank Herberts influential magnum opus. I can only hope that the sequel, now officially greenlit by Legendary/Warner Bros. due to the films $41 million opening for a 2023 release, offers a more energized pace and emotionally resonant climax to expand our minds like the fabled psychotropic spice of Arrakis.

It shall be seen whether or not Villeneuve decides to retain the secret that Paul Atreides carries the Harkonnen bloodlines as his mother was once part of the Barons concubine. This was expressly left out of the David Lynch adaptation and needs to be included. Another piece of Herberts book thats omitted is the anti-technology stance of banning all AI and computers across the galaxy.

This movie is really focused on Paul and I brought in a little bit of the Harkonnens just for context, to understand the geopolitics of the story, Villeneuve adds in his interview. This movie just gives a little glimpse into the Harkonnens. The second movie is much more about them.

Overall, I truly miss the source materials inherent weirdness and psychedelia (Herbert experimented with magic mushrooms!) on screen and hope Villeneuve delivers a less subdued and sterile interpretation for the follow-up in two years.

Until then, I just might pop on Lynchs much-maligned Dune and soak up some radical 80s nostalgia. The spice must flow!

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Will the spice flow? How does new 'Dune' hold up to 1984's film and Frank Herbert's classic novel? - Space.com

Fifteen years before Amazons founder, Jeff Bezos, catapulted himself into space in a rocket, Anousheh Ansari became the first female space tourist, spending nine days on the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. She is still the only woman ever to have traveled to space on a self-funded mission, which cost her $20 million.

Today, Ansari is CEO of XPrize, a California-based nonprofit that organizes multimillion-dollar competitions to support scientific innovation and benefit humanity. The first competition (sponsored by her family and worth $10 million) was aimed at building the worlds first nongovernment-funded spaceship. The winning design was licensed by Richard Branson, who used it to build the Virgin Galactic rocket that he boarded on a July spaceflight (nine days before Bezos).

Q: There seems to be a space craze going on right now among the worlds billionaires. What motivated you to go on a space mission?A: Since I was very young, Ive always wanted to go to space. Its what inspired me to study sciences, physics, math, and go in the direction I went. It was and still is a big passion of mine to understand our universe, how its built, my relationship to it. To me, its this extraordinary place of discovery and exploration.

Q: Why do you think Mr. Bezos and Mr. Branson flew to space?A: I happen to know both of them, and both of them are big space fans. Jeff Bezos grew up reading Jules Verne and has had a passion for space for many years. Branson bought the license for the winning spacecraft design in our XPrize competition, and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in building Virgin Galactic.

From the outside, it looks like another billionaire splurge. In the case of those two men, I know its not just a whim. Its something theyve passionately cared about all their life.

Q: What made you spend $20 million on your own space trip in 2006?A: To me, I would have paid with my life. It wasnt a matter of money. I felt that this was part of the purpose of my living on this earth.

Q: What was life like on the space station?A: My time up there was spent partly doing scientific experiments with the European Space Agency, partly talking to a lot of students and telling them how it felt to be there. I also wrote a blog.

For me, it was a moment of reflection on my life, the reason Im here on this planet. It helped me see the big picture.

Q: What about the practicalities of spending nine days up there?A: Life on a space station is like being a child and needing to relearn everything whether its washing your hair, eating in space, or working in space. Youre in microgravity, and things are different. You cant have a shower. Water floats; it doesnt flow. Theres no cooking going on, and no refrigerator. So all food forms are either dehydrated or in cans. Youre floating and not sleeping in a bed, so you need to get used to that. Youre not walking around, youre flying around. Realizing that you dont need to exert that much force to move around takes time. I banged myself around the space station many times, and got bruises.

When youre orbiting the Earth, you see a sunrise and a sunset every 90 minutes, so your biorhythm is completely out of whack. Your body goes through a lot of changes. You get this surge of fluid that goes to your head and causes headaches and puffiness. Your spine stretches, so youre taller, but you feel back pain. Your muscle mass changes; your bone density changes. Slowly your body starts adapting and changing as well.

Q: How is space exploration and travel useful to humanity?A: Space is the answer to our future on Earth. As the population grows, as our way of life requires more consumption of resources, we wont be able to sustain life as we know it without access to the resources of space. We need to build infrastructures and technologies that will give us access to the continuous energy of the sun to power our cities, for example, and to move some manufacturing into orbit so that it doesnt have a negative impact on our environment. Space will allow us to understand our planet and be able to predict things better.

Many technologies we use today come from the space program, whether its the lightweight material in clothing or shoes, or the lightweight material used in aerospace, satellite entertainment, GPS systems, the banking system.

Q: Three years ago, you moved over to the nonprofit organization XPrize. Can you talk about its mission?A: XPrize launches massive competitions to solve humanitys grand challenges. We focus on specific problems that have been stagnant because of lack of funding or lack of understanding or attention. A lot of our work right now is focused on climate change, energy, biodiversity and conservation.

Q: How do your competitions attract such huge sums?A: We dont, the teams do. When we have a $10 million competition, someone whos been sitting on their couch at home just thinking about something will have a reason to go build it. They form a team, and we connect them with potential investors.

Q: Are you tempted to go back to space again?A: I would love to go back to space at any point in time. I would be happy and willing to go live in space. I felt at home when I was on the space station; I experienced a freedom I had never felt before.

Q: A spiritual experience?A: Yes, it was a spiritual experience but not because I felt closer to God, because I dont believe that God is up there and that you get close to him if you go into space! I felt like I was reaching a different level of understanding of humanity.

More here:

Meet Anousheh Ansari, the only woman ever to travel to space on self-funded mission - Economic Times

Investment trusts are supposed to be century old institutions known for solid but stale strategies, but a spate of new launches have offered DIY savers the chance to own stocks involved in space, hydrogen and "digital infrastructure".

It has been a record year for new fund launches, according to the Association of Investment Companies, a trade body, with 13 new companies to choose from. They have attracted 3.4bn in savings.

However, while more options gives investors the chance to own modern stocks, knowing whether a fund is good is difficult due to the lack of a track record.

New funds include Seraphim Space, which raised 180m and buys companies involved in space travel and communications while HydrogenOne Capital raised 107m to invest in hydrogen power. Two digital infrastructure funds were also launched: Cordiant Digital Infrastructure and Digital 9 Infrastructure. Both buy and run physical assets that keep our lives connected and online, such as data centres and undersea cables.

Mick Gilligan, of wealth manager Killik & Co, has invested in four new trusts this year: Cordiant Digital Infrastructure, Digital 9 Infrastructure, Pantheon Infrastructure and Seraphim Space.

"We bought the two digital funds because they generate a lot of cash and are low risk, because customers of the stocks they own will need them regardless of economic growth. They are also big and growing areas so there is a long pipeline of investors to buy and make money from," he added.

See the original post here:

A record year for investment trusts but only these four deserve your attention - Telegraph.co.uk

With latest entry into the Star Trek universe "Star Trek: Prodigy" warping into the unknown on Paramount Plus, Space.com got the chance to talk to one of its stars: none other than Kate Mulgrew, best known for playing Capt. Kathryn Janeway in "Star Trek: Voyager."

The new show from streaming service Paramount Plus and Nickelodeon will follow five kids who are incarcerated on an obscure planet in an uncharted part of the galaxy. They escape from their imprisonment and race across the planet to find a defunct starship buried in the sand of the planet's surface. They enter the ship, but are unable to make it work. With prison guards hot on their heels, they suddenly stumble upon an Emergency Training Hologram in the form of Capt. Janeway.

The seemingly derelict starship is the NX 76884 USS Protostar. Since it carries the NX registration, perhaps this was an experimental ship or prototype of some kind. Here's how to watch Star Trek: Prodigy online and if you're looking for more Trek, check out our Star Trek streaming guide.

A protostar is a very young star that is still gathering mass from its parent molecular cloud and they have been mentioned in "Star Trek" before. The Enterprise NX-01 surveyed a protostar just before the incident at the Vulcan monastery at P'Jem in the "Enterprise" episode "The Andorian Incident" (S01, E07) and the Argolis Cluster was a protostar cluster mentioned in the "Deep Space Nine" episode "Behind the Lines" (S06, E04).

Interestingly, we learn in the "Voyager" episode "The Omega Directive" (S04, E21) that in theory, a type-6 protostar could be used to generate a wormhole So we asked Kate Mulgrew about this. You can watch the full interview above.

"Do you enjoy being nerdy questions about Voyager?" I asked.

"Nerdy questions..?" Mulgrew replied with a quizzical tone in her voice.

"Do you mind if I ask you a nerdy question about Voyager..?!" I continued.

"I wondered if that was coming and I'm not surprised! Go for it!" Mulgrew said with a laugh.

"We learn in the 'Voyager' episode 'The Omega Directive' (S04, E21) that theoretically, a type-6 protostar could be used to generate a wormhole So is this an indication of what's to come, is this an experimental vessel designed to somehow travel to the Delta Quadrant in superfast time by way of a wormhole?" I asked, almost out of breath.

"Not only nerdy, but beautifully and wonderfully nerdy!" Mulkgrew said, smiling. "But unanswerable, due to spoilers. You're going to have to wait and watch."

Along with Kate Mulgew, "Star Trek: Progidy" features an all-star cast, including Jason Alexander (Doctor Noum), Ella Purnell (Gwyn), Jimmi Simpson (Drednok), Jason Mantzoukas (Jankom Pog), Jameela Jamil (Ensign Asencia), John Noble (Diviner), Daveed Diggs (Commander Tysess), Dee Bradley Baker (Murf), Brett Gray (Dal), Angus Imrie (Zero), Rylee Alazraqui (Rok-Tahk) and Robert Beltran as Capt. Chakotay.

"Star Trek: Prodigy" is airing now on Paramount Plus in the U.S. and has already been renewed for a second season. You can also stream it on Paramount Plus in international territories including Latin America, the Nordics and Australia. The first two seasons of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" are also available to on Paramount Plus along with four seasons of "Star Trek: Discovery" which just returned to TV this month.

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Originally posted here:

Kate Mulgrew spills the beans on 'Star Trek: Prodigy' and bringing Captain Janeway back to TV - Space.com