Let’s go to Mars! The future of space travel – CNET

Mars as seen by the Hubble Telescope. NASA

Editors' note, December 19, 2015: This article was originally published August 6, 2015 and has been updated to include new developments in space travel efforts to Mars.

This year, scientists made one of the most important space discoveries in a long time, one that brings the mission of landing humans on the surface of another planet into laser focus -- and I'm not talking about Pluto's heart. They found compelling evidence that there is liquid water flowing on Mars, and that means there's the potential for life on the Red Planet.

You don't have to be a Space Camp alum like I am to feel your heart race at the very thought. Potentially finding water on Mars is an enormous triumph any way you look at it, and its discovery is sure to spur manned exploration of Mars' surface, something that's eluded us in the 46 years since landing on the moon.

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Outside of the scientific community's renewed interest in Martian exploration, there's another reason why I'm hopeful we'll set foot on Mars in my lifetime: we already have technology far more advanced than the spacecraft and control systems that got us to the moon, most of which ran on computers no more powerful than a calculator. These days, we also have the entrepreneurial hunger it takes to put people on the dusty red planet. A handful of smart people who share my passion for outer space have the drive and resources (ahem, money) to make it happen.

In my lifetime, human exploration of Earth's closest neighbor isn't just the province of space disaster movies like the Martian (thanks, Matt Damon), or abduction films like Mars Attacks and Mars Needs Moms. It's closer to reality than ever. Here are some of the important programs and people on our planet that will help put us on the Red Planet.

Like me, entrepreneur Elon Musk, the man behind SpaceX, the first private company to send supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), dreams of a Mars landing. Musk believes that humans could reach the planet in as few as 10 years.

Then there's billionaire Richard Branson, whose tourism venture, Virgin Galactic, is currently working on sending civilians (not just astronauts) into sub-orbital flight with a private spacecraft. Virgin Galactic isn't setting its sights on Mars just yet, but the company's work could one day help us get to the Red Planet.

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin is vocal about Mars too, advocating in his book " Mission to Mars" that it should be our next exploration goal. Meanwhile, Dutch non-profit foundation Mars One is planning and raising money for a one-way mission where some brave people establish a permanent base there, never to return to Earth. The Mars One group faces criticism from the scientific community, though, for not having a feasible plan to actually reach the planet with volunteers and sufficient supplies.

More credibly, NASA, the long-standing agency in charge of the US's space travel efforts, is optimistic about getting us to at least orbit Mars by President Obama's mid-2030 timeline, and has early-stage plans to make it real.

Though no one company or organization has an imminently viable action plan to get us to Mars just yet, these advancements and advocacy by the big players will hopefully pave the way for a mission to Mars.

Right now, the biggest challenges in getting to Mars are paying for the costly trip (the cheapest proposed plan would cost $76 million), keeping the astronauts healthy, and figuring out the right type of fuel for a round-trip voyage. Mars is an average 140 million miles from Earth (depending on its position in its orbit around the sun, and it would take a crew of astronauts around 200 days or 6 months to get there, at least. In order to cover that distance, we need sufficient fuel to power a spacecraft, and NASA is researching the best kind of ship and propulsion for such a trip.

SpaceX's Dragon Capsule.

SpaceX believes it has the right ship with the Dragon capsule, a manned spacecraft that could one day carry astronauts on interplanetary trips. Similarly, Texas-based rocket company Ad Astra Rocket is building the Vasmir electric engine that could possibly power a spaceship to Mars.

Meanwhile, SpaceWorks, an aerospace engineering firm out of Atlanta, has proposed the possibility of putting astronauts in torpor -- a hibernation-like state -- during the trip to conserve food and supplies and reduce the health risks associated with traveling in zero-gravity, like bone density loss. Though it sounds like something out of science fiction (in fact, astronauts were in a torpor state in the movies "Interstellar" and "2001: A Space Odyssey"), it could be a real, practical way to get humans to Mars as safely as possible.

The six-month trip to Mars won't be easy on the astronauts, as they face long stints of isolation, extended stays in cramped quarters and harsh weather conditions on the Martian surface. In order to keep them healthy, happy and safe, several organizations are currently conducting experiments that simulate conditions of being on Mars and traveling to the planet.

The NASA-funded Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation missions are studying a group of six humans living together in a confined, enclosed habitat, similar to what astronauts would live in on the surface of Mars during a mission. Meanwhile, astronauts from the European Space Agency (ESA) are in Antarctica at the Concordia research facility, a highly isolated compound that simulates what it's like to be on long space journeys in harsh conditions, hundreds of miles away from other humans.

The road to Mars through both private and government-funded space travel hasn't been easy so far. SpaceX's unmanned Falcon 9 rocket exploded just after launch in June 2015 during a resupply mission to the ISS. Likewise, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crashed in the fall of 2014 during a test flight in California, killing one person.

NASA's Columbia Shuttle broke up during re-entry during the STS-107 mission in 2003. The launch is shown here.

These accidents stir up memories of the prominent tragedies NASA has endured over the last 50 years; Apollo 1 catching on fire on the launchpad during testing, the Challenger space shuttle exploding 73 seconds after launch and the Columbia space shuttle disintegrating during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Each of those accidents claimed the lives of the crews on board.

The unfortunate truth is that in the quest for space travel, there will be near misses, failures and disasters. NASA carried on from its setbacks and so will SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and others, driven by the deep desire to explore uncharted territory.

Scientists, space agencies and private companies are still in the early stages of any kind of Mars mission, but their advancements in space travel are nothing short of astounding. Roughly 50 years ago, we were scrambling to send people on the week-long journey to the moon.

Now, we've sent astronauts to orbit the Earth for more than a year at a time, launched unmanned rovers to Mars to gather data about the planet's ability to host our species, and currently maintain a crew of people continuously living at the ISS (and posting pictures of the spectacular view to Twitter).

There are still untold hurdles to tackle before we can put a small crew of trained astronauts on the Red Planet, and many more after that until commercial rockets blast off for Mars with civilian spectators inside. But give it 50 more years, and I'm betting that we'll have a ship breaking away from Earth on a flight plan straight towards Mars. And when those first humans touch down, I'll be with the other fervent stargazers, watching every minute of it.

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Let's go to Mars! The future of space travel - CNET

DK Space: Space Travel – Fact Monster

People began traveling in space in 1961 in tiny spacecraft called capsules, which were launched from Earth by powerful rockets. Russian crews still travel in this kind of craft, in Soyuz capsules, but Americans now travel into space in shuttles, which are rocket-powered space planes.

There is no oxygen in space, so all crewed spacecraft carry a life-support system. This supplies air for people to breathe. The system also includes equipment to keep the air at a comfortable temperature and pressure and to remove carbon dioxide and odors.

Gravity in space is much weaker than it is on Earth. When people travel in space, they seem to become weightless. This often makes them feel sick. Their bodies do not have to work as hard, because they are not fighting gravity to sit or stand up. If they stay in space for a long time, the lack of gravity makes their muscles start to waste away. Exercise and a special diet help to combat these effects.

Astronauts on the APOLLO PROJECT traveled to the Moon, about 239,000 miles (385,000 km) away. Russian cosmonaut Valeri Poliakov traveled a distance of about 174 million miles (280 million km) around Earth while in the Mir space station.

In the space race of the 1960s, the US Apollo Project beat the Soviet Union by landing the first astronauts on the Moon. The first Moon landing, by Apollo 11, took place on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on another world.

The Apollo spacecraft was launched from Earth by the Saturn V rocket. On the launch pad, the whole assembly stood 365 ft (111 m) tall. The spacecraft itself weighed 50 tons (45 metric tons). It was made from three main modules (sections). The command module for flight control housed the three-person crew. The service module carried equipment, fuel, and a rocket motor. The lunar module detached from the craft and landed two astronauts on the Moons surface.

There were six Moon landings, beginning with Apollo 11 in July 1969 and ending with Apollo 17 in December 1972. During the missions, 12 astronauts explored the lunar surface for a total of over 80 hours and brought back nearly 880 lb (400 kg) of Moon rock and dust for examination on Earth.

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Anemia in Space: Implications for Space Travel and Tourism – Hematology Advisor

Space anemiaposes a significant risk to deconditioning, and should be considered as spacetourism becomes more popular and available, according to a paper published inthe American Journal of Hematology.1

Space travelrelated anemia has been a concern for the past 60 years, though conflicting data have prevented researchers from determining, with certainty, that being in space can directly lead to the condition. Researchers determined that evaluating hemoglobin (Hb) concentrations and red blood cell (RBC) mass within 7 days of returning to Earth from space would, however, be sufficient for determining any link.

For this study,the authors evaluated data recorded in the National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministrations Lyndon B. Johnson Space Centers system, which containsrecords for all astronauts since the programs inception, to determine anycausal relationship between space travel and changes in Hb concentrations.

Two datasetswere included, the first of which contained records from 711 mission-astronautswith 1962 Hb measurements and 721 mission-astronauts with 17,336 Hbmeasurements. All data were compared with those from control records taken atthe time of each mission.

Forty-eightpercent of astronauts were anemic when they returned to Earth after spacetravel. Longer trips to space also appeared to require more recovery time afterthe journey than did shorter trips, with Hb levels returning to normal after 49days for trips of 11.5 to 145 days vs 24 days for trips of a mean of 5.4 days.

Astronauts whosetrips lasted 5.4 days, 11.5 days, and 145 days had Hb decrements of -0.61 g/dL(4%), -0.82 g/dL (5%), and -1.66 g/dL (11%), respectively.

Wecharacterized space anemia, its dose-response relationship with exposure to spaceas well as longitudinal effects, the authors wrote. Whether acute spaceanemia will turn into chronic anemia depends critically on the duration ofexposure to space.

Reference

Trudel G, Shafer J, Laneuville O, Ramsay T. Characterizing the effect of exposure to microgravity on anemia: more space is worse. Am J Hematol. 2020;95(3):267-273.

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Anemia in Space: Implications for Space Travel and Tourism - Hematology Advisor

Alfred Worden: Astronaut and first man to walk in deep space – The Independent

Alfred Worden orbited the moon for three solitary days in the summer of 1971, piloting the Apollo 15 command module and taking detailed pictures of the lunar surface as his fellow astronauts drove a rover far below.

Only 24 people have journeyed to the moon and few spent as much time in quiet contemplation of its surface and the universe beyond as Worden, who has died aged 88. He was an Air Force officer who later ran for Congress, worked for aerospace companies and reflected on space travel in a childrens book and poetry collection.

A farm boy from Michigan, he graduated from Army West Point and became a jet pilot and flight instructor, training some of the men who would later join him as astronauts. While returning to Earth with Apollo 15, the fourth lunar landing mission, he became the first person to conduct a spacewalk in deep space, venturing outside for nearly 40 minutes at a distance of 196,000 miles from Earth.

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Now I know why Im here, Worden later said of his mission. Not for a closer look at the moon, but to look back at our home, the Earth.

Worden was joined for Apollo 15 by David Scott, spacecraft commander, and James Irwin, who piloted the lunar module. In a mission that marked a new focus on science for the Apollo program, his colleagues spent 67 hours on the lunar surface, collecting rocks and soil samples and using a four-wheeled moon buggy for the first time.

Worden remained aboard the command module, Endeavour, overseeing a suite of cameras and scientific instruments as he circled the moon in a cramped spacecraft he likened to a Volkswagen car. During his downtime, he simply looked out the window, awaiting the next Earth rise as he came around the moons far side.

After his colleagues returned to the command module, Worden embarked on his planned spacewalk, a kind of deep-space ballet in which he removed two 80lb film cassettes from outside the spacecraft.

Youre sort of floating out there in a vast nothingness, Worden told Smithsonian magazine, and the only thing you can see and touch and grab a hold of is the spacecraft I had trained so well that it didnt take me any time to do what I had to do, and everything worked out OK, and when I was all done, I thought, Gee, I wish I had found something so that I could have been out there a little longer.

Worden and his fellow astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean and were greeted as national heroes, meeting with Richard Nixon in the White House and delivering an address before Congress. But the astronauts never returned to space and were effectively forced out of the Apollo programme after a controversy over a set of mementos stamped envelopes that they brought aboard Apollo 15.

Some of the envelopes were sold after the flight, and the astronauts were slated to receive $21,000 (18,800)of the proceeds. Previous astronauts had arranged similar deals, Worden said, but he and his colleagues turned down the money amid an uproar over the sales. Worden said the money was intended to help fund his childrens education.

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The second of six children, Alfred Merrill Worden was born in Jackson, Michigan, in 1932. His family worked on a farm outside his town, although his father preferred tinkering with electronics and was a projectionist at the local movie theatre.

Worden said he ran the farm from the age of 12 but decided his life should explore other avenues. He secured an appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated in 1955 and joined the Air Force.

He later studied as a test pilot in England and in 1963 received a pair of masters degrees in aeronautics and engineering from the University of Michigan, experiences that he credited with helping him land a spot in Nasas 1966 astronaut class.

Worden was a member of the support crew for Apollo 9 and served as the command module backup pilot for Apollo 12. After Apollo 15, he held senior science positions at Nasas Ames Research Centre in Mountain View, California, before retiring in 1975.

In 1974 Worden published his childrens book, I Want to Know about a Flight to the Moon. He also wrote poetry, and published a collection, Hello Earth: Greetings from Endeavour.

The poems are about as good as you might expect from a pilot, Worden wrote in his memoir Falling to Earth (2011). I hope I did a better job than a poet would if asked to fly a jet with no training. And on those long nights when I couldnt sleep, the writing helped me. It was my own personal, emotional debriefing.

In 1982, he ran in Florida for the US House of Representatives, losing to Thomas Lewis in the Republican primary.

His marriages to Pamela Vander Beek and Sandra Wilder ended in divorce. In 1982, he married Jill Hotchkiss, who died in 2014. He is survived by two daughters and a stepdaughter.

Alfred Worden, astronaut, born 7 February 1932, died 18 March 2020

Washington Post

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What will we do when diseases reach space? – TNW

Inan effort to mitigate damage from COVID-19 here on Earth, people worldwide are practicing social distancing, attempting to limit the spread of the disease. However, space is extremely tight on space stations, and the first lunar and Martian colonies are also likely to house occupants in close quarters. Disease in space has been affecting astronauts for decades. So, how will we respond to epidemics in space when they inevitably occur.

Since the dawn of the human exploration of space, illnesses and medical emergencies have stricken space travelers. The first missions to space took just a single occupant beyond the bounds of Earth. The number of people traveling on each mission went up to two, then three. Now, four to seven crew members typically take part in each flight, and the International Space Station (ISS) is usually home to six occupants. Lunar and Martian colonies would house hundreds to thousands of people.

Living in space also changes the way bodies react, and alter health under the best circumstances. For this reason, NASA and other space agencies study the effects of space on the human body. Not only will these studies helpprotect those living in space, but lessons learned from these studies could help protect populations here on Earth.

Factors like radiation, microgravity, stress, and altered sleep cycles could all affect astronaut immune systems Understanding these immune system changes may help scientists pinpoint the onset of illness, and suggest monitoring strategies, or treatments, that can boost the immune system and prevent full-blown infections and diseases here on Earth,NASA officials report.

The human immune system reacts differently in the microgravity environment of space than it does here on Earth, studies find. The immune system is disrupted, altering the way bodies react to infections.

The immune system is very complex, and several aspects of immunity remain uninvestigated during spaceflight. We now need to delve deeper into the immune system changes that happen in space, and also determine if immune changes during flight elevate clinical risks for astronauts in future deep-space missions. All the factors that change immunity on the ISS will be worse on longer missions to an asteroid or to Mars, Dr. Brian Crucian of NASAs Johnson Space Center (JSC) states.

During the Apollo 7 flight in 1968 (the first Apollo mission to carry astronauts), the crew all came down with colds, altering mission plans. NASA officials believe commander Wally Schirra likely had a mild cold when boarding the spacecraft, before spreading the illness to his crew mates. Due to their illnesses, the crew refused to wear helmets during reentry into the Earths atmosphere.

Surprisingly, the crews of the next twoApollo missionsalso developed colds during their flights. Following these experiences, NASA developed quarantine procedures, limiting human exposure to astronauts prior to their flights.

Since the early days of space travel, advances in communication have made it possible to treat a wider variety of ailments in space, using knowledge and resources on Earth.

NASA was even once able to treat anastronautwho developed a blood clot while visiting the ISS. At the time, the space traveler (whose name is protected for privacy concerns) was two months into a six-month mission when the deep vein thrombosis (DVT) was discovered during a routine test on how space affects the flow of body fluids.

Dr. Stephan Moll, a blood clot expert at the UNC School of Medicine, was called in to help treat the astronaut by teleconferencing.

My first reaction when NASA reached out to me was to ask if I could visit the International Space Station (ISS) to examine the patient myself. NASA told me they couldnt get me up to space quickly enough, so I proceeded with the evaluation and treatment process from here in Chapel Hill,Moll recalls. The NASA video below shows how Dr. Stephan Moll treated a blood clot on the international space station while remaining firmly on terra firma.

Treatment for this condition often involves putting the patient on blood thinners, slowing the growth of the clot, potentially reducing damage caused if the clot breaks free, and travels to another part of the body. However, the ISS is only equipped with a limited supply of medicines, but some Enoxaparin was available, which the astronaut used for 40 days until a supply ship delivered another drug, Apixaban, to the space station crew.

During the course of treatment lasting more than 90 days, the spaceborne patient took regular ultrasounds of their neck, following guidance from a radiology team on Earth. Following a safe landing on Earth, no additional treatments were required for the once-ailing astronaut.

Influenza and microbes like coronavirus could quickly work their way through a crew isolated together in the depths of space.

The absence of gravity precludes particles settling down, so they stay suspended in the air, and could be more easily transmitted. To prevent this, compartments are ventilated and the air HEPA filters would remove particles,Jonathan Clark, a former six-time crew surgeon for NASAs Space Shuttle program, stated.

A 2012 study examining health records of 742 astronauts who flew on 106 flights revealed 29 cases of disease transmission, including fungal, urinary tract, and skin infections, as well as the flu.

For reasons scientists have not quite figured out, the immune system can go on the fritz in space: wounds heal more slowly; infection-fighting T-cells send signals less efficiently; bone marrow replenishes itself less effectively; killer cells another key immune system player fight less energetically. At the same time, the pathogens grow stronger, developing thicker cell walls, greater resistance to antimicrobial agents and a greater ability to form so-called biofilms that cling to surfaces, Jeffrey Kluger reported inTime Magazine.

Physical changes caused by radiation may present problems keeping astronauts and space colonists healthy. Another challenge for space travelers is that dormant viruses, like herpes simplex, can reawaken during space travel.

Visitors have spent a year or more aboard the International Space Station. Colonists on the Moon orMarswould stay even longer, increasing health issues including sleep deprivation, even without an epidemic. Without proper sleep, and suffering from high stress levels, space travelers could be even more susceptible to infections their bodies may have fought off at home.

The types of problems you may encounter are a decline in mood, cognition, morale, or interpersonal interaction. You could also develop a sleep disorder because your circadian rhythm might be thrown off due to the 38 extra minutes each day on Mars, or by a small, noisy environment, or the stress of prolonged isolation and confinement, NASAsHuman Research Programsuggests. The video below shows alook at how the human immune reacts to the strange conditions of space.

Astronauts aboard the ISS are regularly tested to ensure once-dormant viruses are not re-activating. Bacteria taken from body swabs of astronauts are regularly examined, revealing populations of bacteria and viruses onboard the space station. Air circulating though the orbiting outpost is safe from both biological and chemical contaminants.

Just as on Earth, isolation and containment of those potentially infected by a disease. The International Space Station is equipped with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, and containment masks are available for infected residents of the ISS. Following any sort of infection, space travelers could be quarantined after returning to Earth, as they were in the early days of human space travel.

Future colonies on the Moon orMarswill, almost certainly, have similar facilities for lessening the reach of outbreaks like the one currently engulfing our planet.

Answers to the challenges of epidemics on Earth much less onlunar or Martian colonies remains unanswered. And, viruses are more likely to spread, and be harder to treat, in space than they are on Earth.

But, many of the same treatments and procedures that we employ on Earth to limit the spread of disease and to flatten the curve of infections would also likely play significant roles in protecting colonists exploring theSolar System.

As we expandout into the solar system, epidemics are bound to follow us. But, even today, we are already protecting the explorers who are pioneering our quest to reach beyond the confines of our planet.

This article was originally published onThe Cosmic Companionby James Maynard, an astronomy journalist, fan of coffee, sci-fi, movies, and creativity. Maynard has been writing about space since he was 10, but hes still not Carl Sagan. The Cosmic Companionsmailing list/podcast. You can read this original piecehere.

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How to Store Your Travel Gear – The New York Times

Travel gear is by nature a polarizing topic: hard-shell versus soft-sided, folding versus rolling, carry-on versus checked heck, even unpacking or not at the start of a vacation.

But most people can agree that putting away travel gear after a long trip is a chore. Hence the half-full suitcase that languishes out in the open for days, if not weeks.

When things dont have a home, you become paralyzed. You think, I dont know where to put it, so Im just going to push it to the side and not deal with it, said Anna Bauer, the New York Citybased founder of Sorted By Anna, a professional organizing company.

But as few people now have trips in the foreseeable future, thanks to coronavirus-related travel restrictions and social-distancing measures, theres no better time to herd those airplane neck pillows, international adapters and 3.4-ounce bottles into formation, even if theyre not actively being used.

Why should you only treat yourself well when you go on vacation? asked Julianna Strickland, the Los Angelesbased founder of Space Camp Organizing. Treating yourself well at home means making a space that you want to be in, and setting yourself up for success as you head into whatever youre doing between trips.

Organizing your travel gear will not only help fill some extra time at home, but it will prep you for the ultimate goal: efficient and enjoyable packing when the time comes to finally get going again. Here are some easy-to-implement tips from professional organizers:

There are two basic approaches to organizing travel toiletries, be they half-full T.S.A.-approved liquids containers or pilfered hotel shampoos: pre-packing and decanting.

I like to keep a Dopp kit packed with one of each thing a client might need on a trip, like shampoo, conditioner and a toothbrush. The extras go in a little travel bin usually under their sink, depending on the storage situation, said Ms. Strickland, who helps clients, many of whom are avid travelers, organize their homes and offices.

Others might find it helpful, if not cathartic, to decant their toiletries into clearly labeled bins, bags, or divided lazy Susans.

If youre someone whose skin-care needs change depending on what youre doing and where youre going say, you travel to a lot of different climates youll benefit from being able to shop your toiletries, said Ms. Bauer.

Jakia Muhammad, the Maryland-based founder of SoleOrganizer, separates her travel toiletries into categories by function; say, hair products.

I try to keep it as simple as possible. From a psychological standpoint, you dont want to overwhelm yourself or stress yourself out before you go on vacation, she said.

What no professional organizer espouses, however, is the method I used for years: dumping everything into a big basket and praying the contents wouldnt metastasize.

When things are hidden, you either re-buy in excess or you forget you have something. Whats great about decanting is that its a visual reminder when youre low, said Ms. Bauer.

A vinyl zipper pouch in a kitchen drawer. A cabinet or file box in a home office. A drawer in a nightstand. It doesnt matter exactly where a passport lives; what matters is that you put it back.

Its about creating consistency and intentionality, said Ms. Bauer. Ive fallen victim to a misplaced passport and the stress of it was a lesson enough to never let that happen again.

Ms. Bauer and her husband keep their passports in a fire-sealed envelope. But frequent business travelers, she said, might consider storing passports with toiletries: No ones traveling without them.

Ms. Strickland is a fan of storing passports with social security cards and other important documents. Thats important for multiple reasons, especially if theres an emergency and you need to get out of the house fast, she said.

Leftover international currency can be more hassle than its worth when you factor in conversion fees. Additionally, said Ms. Strickland, Its just more clutter; most people hang onto it thinking theyll remember it the next time they travel, but they never do.

Ms. Strickland recommends storing significant sums of currency in labeled zip pouches, which can live with other travel accessories.

Ms. Muhammad, meanwhile, keeps her leftovers in Mason jars labeled by destination and date.

Its a great way to reflect back to the place you traveled and have a piece of that trip with you to cherish, she said.

And when international travel does ramp up again, be sure to keep in mind Ms. Bauers favorite hack for offloading cash abroad: buying a Starbucks gift card at the airport. It can be used back home, and there are no foreign-transaction or currency-conversion fees.

The easiest way to store luggage, be it a nylon-duffel bag or a hard-shell aluminum suitcase, is to nest it by shape and size.

Its helpful to store smaller bags inside of larger ones to save space. And I like to keep all the suitcases with the other things youre going to need on a trip like packing cubes, neck pillows, backpacks together, whether thats in the house, in a basement or in a storage cabinet inside a garage, said Ms. Strickland.

Ms. Muhammad likes to preserve floor space by hoisting larger suitcases onto shelves. She stores smaller bags (backpacks, laptop bags) in a container under the bed.

This prevents them from being all over the place and creating not only an eyesore but making the space feel cluttered, she said. The goal is to contain and store like items together, so that when its time to pack and prepare for a trip, locating luggage and other bags doesnt add to the anxiety that can sometimes be associated with packing.

Anything else that youd use only on a trip, from climate-specific gear (waterproof phone pouches, packable down jackets) to international power adapters, can be labeled (cold-climate items, beach gear) and placed with luggage or toiletries.

As long as you corral them together and label them, youll eliminate the guesswork of wondering whether you have something, said Ms. Bauer. Gallon-size Ziploc bags and Sharpies go a long way.

Sarah Firshein is a Brooklyn-based travel writer.

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SpaceX Reveals Its Plan To Take Passengers To Mars In The Starship User Manual – Tatler Hong Kong

Adventurous travellers looking for an otherworldly experience have a whole new travel guide to read as SpaceX reveals a user manual for its massive Starship spacecraft.

The reusable spaceship is designed to be a flexible transportation system that will be capable of transporting both people and materials to a wide variety of destinationsincluding Mars.

The Starship project, which is currently underway in Boca Chica Texas, represents a fully reusable transportation system designed to service Earth orbit needs as well as missions to the Moon and Mars, according to the SpaceX website.

The new user manual was released to help give the public a better idea of the Starships possible capabilitieswhich includes details on the spacecraft and rocket booster like its ability to carry payloads and passengers alike.

According to the manual, the Starship will be able to take passengers into low Earth orbit (LEO), to the moon and possibly to Marsall without sacrificing luxury and comfort.

SpaceX was founded with the goal of making life multiplanetary, the company said in the manual. The Starship crew configuration can transport up to 100 people from Earth into LEO and on to the Moon and Mars, [including] private cabins, large common areas, centralized storage, solar storm shelters and a viewing gallery.

The manual also suggests that the spacecraft will be able to travel between spaceports by climbing to the edge of space before descending to the next destination, which will make it the fastest-ever travel between distant points on Earth.

For performance estimates to a specific orbit, including the moon or Mars, or to conceptualize new ideas, SpaceX is encouraging travelers to contact sales@spacex.com.

See also:SpaceX Plans To Send Tourists To Space As Soon As 2021

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SpaceX Reveals Its Plan To Take Passengers To Mars In The Starship User Manual - Tatler Hong Kong

Poster finalists illustrate their dreams of space – Las Cruces Bulletin

By Elva K. sterreich

While the Las Cruces Space Festival has been canceled, the enthusiasm for all things space has not. The children of Las Cruces Public Schools turned in their work to a poster contest, and the quantity and quality of the artwork is testament to the lasting dream of space travel.

The festival, which was scheduled for March 30-April 4, has been rescheduled to the fall.

The poster selected is by seventh-grade Vista Middle School student Josswe Duarte. It was chosen as the official poster image for the 2020 Las Cruces Space Festival by a public vote. The festival received hundreds of entries from LCPS students, and 12 finalists were selected by the crew from the Challenger Learning Center of Las Cruces. The final images were voted on at the Challenger Learning Center Open House in December and on the festivals social-media pages.

The winner and the runner up, Picacho Middle School sixth grader Alicia Lopez, received a Sid the Astro Gnome trophy along with a goody bag from festival sponsors at Spaceport America.

Festival organizers work with LCPSon the poster contest each year to enrich curriculum, engage with students of all ages and inspire them to pursue careers in aerospace and the commercial space industries, according to a release.

The Festival team and the Challenger Learning Center of Las Cruces work together to encourage students to participate in the poster contest, as well as the festival.

The 2020 Las Cruces Space Festival theme is future spaceflight, and we chose Life on Mars for the poster design to match the current middle-school curriculum, the release said. We asked middle-school students to create an image to representwhat they thought future colonies on Mars would look like.

The poster had to be the students own original work, had to include at least one illustration and be presented on 8 1/2 x 11 paper only.

The official poster is displayed in schools across the Las Cruces Public School district, and all the entries by the twelve finalists can be viewed at lcspacefestival.com/las-cruces-space-festival-poster-contest-2/ and will be on display during the Space Festival at the Dawn of Discovery exhibit at the Bank of the West Building.

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Poster finalists illustrate their dreams of space - Las Cruces Bulletin

Travel the World and Into Space With These Virtual Reality Apps – Tatler Singapore

(Image: stem.T4L/Unsplash) By Chloe Pek March 31, 2020

All you need is a VR headset, a phone or computer, and one of these VR-optimised apps to see the world

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Weve previously shared five travel experiences you can enjoy from your homefrom taking a tour of the United States beautiful national parks to exploring museums and art galleries from around the world. But if thats not enough to satisfy your wanderlust, why not take the experience further with virtual reality (VR)?

(Related: 5 Travel Experiences You Can Still Enjoy from the Comfort of Your Home)

Available on the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, Google Earth VR brings the world to you. Teleport across the globe, soar over the Grand Canyon, or stroll through the streets of Tokyo, which is made more immersive with Street View imagery. Its almost like youre there!

Compatible with Google DayDream, Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Go, National Geographic VR regularly offers new content across culture, animals, science, and travel, giving us a glimpse into life on the other side of the world. You can get up-close and personal with beautiful, endangered species, dive with sharks in the ocean, and free-climb El Capitan from the comfort of your home. If youre looking for a more interactive experience, however, the National Geographic Explore VR on Oculus Quest puts you in the shoes of a National Geographic explorer on a mission to capture photographs in Antarctica and Machu Picchu, Peru.

Looking to make a virtual trip down under? Grab your VR headset and load up Australian airline Qantas VR app. Offering 360-degree aerial footage of Qantas destinations, you can see all of Australias breathtaking sceneryincluding the worlds first virtual fly over of Uluruin six minutes or less. It is available for iPhone, Android, Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive devices.

(Related:The Best Shows to Watch on Netflix While You're Social Distancing and Staying Home)

Like Youtube for VR, VeeR is a VR video platform featuring content by creators from around the world. Whether your interest is in sports, travel, sci-fi, animation, or horror, theres plenty to explore on the platform, which is available for mobile as well as major VR headsets including the Oculus, HTC Vive, and Google Daydream.

A truly immersive arts and culture experience, Boulevard offers an interactive tour of various museums and cultural sites in the United States and England. Explore true-to-life 3D renderings of exhibitions including The Rubin Museum: Gateway to Himalayan Art; Turner Contemporary: Grayson Perry: Provincial Punk; Victoria & Albert Museums Romance & Nostalgia: Constable; and more, and tap into the artworks or artefacts to see textual information or listen to an audio guide. There are also bonus features for selected pieces that will engage you furthertapping on douard Manets, A Bar at the Folies-Bergre, for example, will transport you into an animated reimagining of the events in the 19th-century painting.

Climb the breath-taking but treacherous Mount Everest in this first-person, photo-realistic experience. Everest VR's vivid recreation gives you a glimpse into the journey of a climberfrom preparing for your expedition at the base camp to eventually reaching the summit of Everest. And when you conquer the mountain, enter God mode, which offers a stunning VR diorama of the Himalayas. Compatible with Valve Index, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

Dive deep into this award-winning VR experience, which brings you face to face with some of the most awe-inspiring creatures of the ocean. Play a marine explorer as you encounter an 80-foot whale, witness an undersea migration on the edge of a coral reef, and venture into the deep sea in theBlu. You can slow time and capture images in the Inspector mode, or enjoy the view in Ambient mode. The experience is available on Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality.

(Related: The Most Inspiring Books To Read To Uplift Your Mood)

In this Oculus and HTC Vive-compatible app, Nasa takes you on a guided tour of the Trappist-1the only known exoplanet system to host seven Earth-sized planets. The app was first released in 2018 tocelebrate the 15th anniversaryof the launch ofNasas Spitzer Space Telescope. As the telescopes mission concluded on January 30 this year, the app has been further updated to include a narrated tour of the telescope, allowing users to control and interact with it.

Inspired by Nasas training programs, this highly-acclaimed VR app takes you on a spacewalk 250 miles above Earth, where you are tasked with making a repair outside the International Space Station. Endorsed by British astronaut Tim Peake, Home offers an authentic look into the work of astronauts, while delivering an emotional and heart-stopping narrative. It is available on HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift.

What will a trip to Mars be like in 2030? Developed by FMG Labs in partnership with Nasa, Mars 2030 is VR simulation that lets you take on the role of an astronaut on the first manned mission to the Red Planet. Centred on open-world exploration, venture across 40 sq km of the terrainmapped and modelled using Nasas satellite datato collect samples and make new discoveries. Youll also get to experience realistic weather conditions, atmospheric pressure and gravity of the planet. It is compatible with Valve Index, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

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Travel the World and Into Space With These Virtual Reality Apps - Tatler Singapore

Branson’s Virgin Orbit Joins The Fight Against The Coronavirus – ETF Trends

With the number of coronavirus infections continuing to ramp up each day, Richard Bransons California-based rocket company Virgin Orbit joined forces with medical researchers and developed a ventilator device that the company plans to mass-produce and ship to hospitals around the United States to battle the coronavirus.

[It is] a very, very simple and robust design that we can get out to the people who are in the most need, and the hospitals that are in the most need, of devices like these very, very quickly, Virgin Orbits ventilator project leader Kevin Zagorski said. Zagorski manages the companys advanced manufacturing of propulsion systems, meaning that he typically spends his day building rocket engines.

Virgin Orbits devicecompresses medical ambu bags, which assists patients with COVID-19 to help them breathe.Ventilators deliver air to the lungs through a pump that is placed in the windpipe but there is currently a dearth of devices availin the U.S.While Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart stated in a video that the company is working with the Food and Drug Administration on approval, he stated that the company is trying to get a helpful unit into hospital as soon as possible.

Bransons company does not have an exact timeline for when FDA approval could come, but Virgin Orbit is wishful that the approval process will expeditious, as the ventilator devices fall under the FDAs Emergency Use Authorization authority, which essentially allows the FDA to speed up limited approval for devices during a crisis.

Virgin Orbit is not the first company to begin producing ventilators and aid the fight against the coronavirus. General Motors has beenin the news recently for its decision to repurpose parts of two U.S. automotive factories under the Defense Production Act, to produce health-care supplies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

GMs efforts, which have been both criticized and lauded byPresident Trump lately, include producing FDA-cleared Level 1 surgical masks at a manufacturing facility in Warren, Michigan, and Ventec VOCSN critical care ventilators at a components plant in Kokomo, Indiana.

Supporters of Virgin Orbit can consider ETFs like theProcure Space ETF (UFO), which holds Virgin Galactic and is poised to take advantage of the space travel revolution.

For more market trends, visitETF Trends.

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Branson's Virgin Orbit Joins The Fight Against The Coronavirus - ETF Trends

Manned spaceflight from Britain could begin in just two years claims UKSpace chief – Express.co.uk

Will Whitehorn argued there are massive commercial opportunities to Britain becoming a real spacefaring nation. The UK Space Agency, a Government body, wants Britain to hold 10 percent of the global space economy by 2030.

Funding has already been provided to establish Spaceport Cornwall, which plans to launch satellites into space via Richard Bransons Virgin Orbit, with proposals from two Scottish sites also being considered.

According to Mr Whitehorn Virgin Galactic, which plans to take humans into space, could also operate from the site.

Speaking to Express.co.uk he said: We should be taking people into space from Britain. I dont see why Spaceport Cornwall cant, as well as carrying satellites with Virgin Orbit, host Virgin Galactic.

Its going to be commercial by the end of this year or early next year. I have a ticket for a flight, well maybe my ticket could be from Cornwall. Im thinking within two years.

I think we need to move quite quickly on this kind of stuff. We need to get everything up and running as fast as we can.

We can do launch here. It was difficult to do launch with old style rocketry. But for instance Virgin Orbit, which has the 747 with the air launched satellite launching vehicle, that can come to Cornwall and launch satellites anywhere out over the Atlantic very safely and we build the right sort of satellites for that.

Not only that in Scotland there are a couple of sites which are almost fighting to see whos going to be the one to be basically the vertical launch site.

We could have real launch capability and that matters for reasons of commerciality, the industrialisation of space and also for national security.

Mr Whitehorn was formerly president of Virgin Galactic and is chair of Clyde Space, a UK based commercial space company.

READ MORE:NASA astronaut about to escape coronavirus for ISS: 'Good luck'

The Government is currently working on the UKs Defence Space Strategy, the release of which has been repeatedly postponed.

According to Mr Whitehorn the UK space industry is significantly bigger than much of the public realises.

He claimed: We need to industrialise space and Britain is in a position to be part of that story in a major way. We are, without any doubt now, one of the countries with the most developed industries to build satellites.

Were building something like 35-40% of the worlds commercial satellites here in the UK.

Our universities with their commercial arms build most of the best instruments used on the missions people get excited about going to Mars or going to the Moon. Now you add to that the expertise Britain has been building up in artificial intelligence and quantum technologies.

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Last year the UK announced it would increase its funding of the European Space Agency, a coalition of 22 nations, by over 15 percent.

In a blog published in June 2019, shortly before he took up a position advising Boris Johnson in Downing Street, Dominic Cummings suggested Britain could work with Amazon boss Jeff Bezos to establish a manned base on the Moon.

Asked about the Governments target for Britain to hold 10 percent of the global space market by 2030 Mr Whitehorn was optimistic.

He stated: I think it is ambitious but its achievable.

It wouldnt have been achievable in a world where we could only produce the hardware but we in this country are now capable of doing things like the robotics.

I believe we will have server farms in space that displace the ones you now see on the ground and they will be built in space by robots where the artificial intelligence and the thinking behind how they work comes from this country.

I also believe we are going to be able to launch a lot of these smaller type satellites from the UK. We couldnt do that in the past.

Then we can create a viable space economy which can also help maintain Britains national security because if youre not in space youre not going to have any security in the future.

Mr Whitehorn noted renewed space travel could have a radical impact on human society within a few decades.

He explained: I can imagine in 20 or 30 years time a small group of scientists going from Oxford University in their hover flivver down to Cornwall and getting onboard a Virgin Galactic spaceship with their new experimental molecule that they think can cure viruses, but they need five minutes of weightlessness to combine it.

Then they get back onboard and theyre back at Oxford that night and have done it. Thats the kind of world we want to create.

Continued here:

Manned spaceflight from Britain could begin in just two years claims UKSpace chief - Express.co.uk

Virtual worlds: Can we travel without travelling? – BBC News

Against a backdrop of whistling wind and heavy breathing, a man with a Germanic accent is yelling at me: Take your time!.

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I try to focus on the ascender clips on two wires leading steeply upwards, but theres a constant temptation to look left to a sharp drop into a vast snowy abyss. But I reach out, clip in and start to climb. I am at the foot of the Hillary Step, the infamous 12m rock face near the summit of Everest, long considered the most challenging section of an ascent from the Nepal side. With oxygen dangerously thin at approximately 8,790m high, many climbers have fallen here, or simply sat down and never stood up again.

When Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first known individuals to reach the summit of Everest in 1953, Hillary wrote of Norgay reaching the top of the Hillary Step: He collapsed exhausted like a giant fish when it has just been hauled from the sea after a terrific struggle.

When I reach the top of the wires and unclip, I feel faintly queasy, but not perhaps in the way the great Sherpa did. I pause Everest VR and take off my HTC Vive virtual reality headset. As my eyes recalibrate, I find myself in my second-floor flat in Hackney, East London, on coronavirus-induced lockdown. My view is no longer a birds-eye one of the high Himalayas. Instead, beyond my Juliet balcony, a handful of builders are working on a new residential block, the sun glinting on their high-vis vests. I find myself envying them, while also pondering if they really qualify as essential workers.

While there are many people much worse off than I am, this is an awkward time to be a freelance travel writer. Ive had trips to Kazakhstans Charyn Canyon and Utahs Canyon Point postponed indefinitely, and most of my commissions cancelled. There was a brief window where hiring a motor home and driving to the Scottish Western Isle of Eigg seemed like a good idea. Now, like many across the world, Im mostly homebound

Its become a time to reflect on what it actually means to travel, something Ive done on an almost monthly basis for years and whether its possible to travel without, well, travelling.

You may also be interested in:Is this the future of underwater exploration? Five superpowers ruling the world in 2050The travel ache you cant translate

In one sense, the answer is yes. Everest VR, an hour-long recreation of an Everest climb from incense ceremonies and kit run-throughs at Base Camp to crossing deep crevasses is just one of the experiences available with VR headsets from brands such as Vive and Oculus.

I could equally choose to swim with blue whales and entrancing blooms of jellyfish in Blu, or drive a Mars Rover around 15 square miles of rocky Martian ochre in Mars 2030. While the mainstream uptake of VR has been limited by the quality and quantity of releases, and the high cost of headsets like the HTC Vive and Oculus Quest, it is still improving. Half Life: Alyx, a darkly immersive new zombie shoot-em-up game for VR headsets, has already been hailed as a breakthrough for the format in terms of intuitive playability and storytelling.

The wider video game industry which was worth more than US$148.8 billion last year, according to industry analysts Newzoo has long been creating rich and beautiful virtual worlds, from the anime sci-fi world of Final Fantasy to the rich Wild West of Red Dead Redemption 2 and the infinite galaxies of No Mans Sky. Ubisoft, the makers of popular action-adventure game Assassins Creed Origins, employed an in-house historian and a team of Egyptologists to create a version of Ancient Egypt so accurate that it even predicted the 2017 discovery of a secret antechamber in the Great Pyramid. The game also has a tour mode so gamers can explore Cleopatra-era Egypt with virtual tour guides instead of enemies from the Templar Order.

Gaming tourism has become such a thing that late last year Rough Guides released The Rough Guide to Xbox, an exploration of beautiful locations in Xbox games, from the Arcadian Eddian Grove in Anthem to the Golden Sands Outpost in Sea of Thieves, a sort of Maldivian pirate island.

Meanwhile, producers of all kinds are looking at fresh ways to immerse us, from Google whose Expeditions app includes VR tours of the International Space Station and the National Museum of Iraq, using Cardboard headsets to the BBC. If series like Seven Worlds, One Planet are arguably as close as many people get to travel, the BBCs Natural History Unit wants to take viewers further. It has produced 360-degree 3D videos including a solar eclipse from space and diving with giant manta rays in Mexico, and has teamed up with Magic Leap the makers of augmented reality headsets so that viewers can see virtual leafcutter ants and wandering spiders on their living room tables. There are plans afoot for a VR tour of the home, going deep into the world of house flies, spiders and the rats that live under our floorboards.

Even viewing nature digitally has been scientifically proven to help peoples mental wellbeing, which feels especially important right now, said Lee Bacon, head of digital at the BBCs Natural History Unit, over Zoom (one of the apps that has boomed in recent weeks). Were always looking to use new innovations for deeper immersion, whether that means VR or Slow TV. With people travelling less, it could be a big moment for this kind of technology.

Certainly, current conditions seem ripe for virtual travel to grow, with the era of low-cost flights now threatened by both covid-19 and growing concerns over the environmental impact of flying. Dr Ian Pearson is a leading futurist, engineer, author and inventor who runs Futurizon, a futurist consultancy. He predicts a number of innovations that will make digital travel more appealing in the near future, especially in the field of virtual reality.

One example is what he calls Active Skin, which will allow us to feel virtual destinations, perhaps some time in the 2030s. We can already make transistors so small that they can penetrate skin, he told me over the phone. They could be sprayed on, like ink, and then send signals to our nervous system. We could then be manipulated to feel the sunshine and salty breeze on a beach in the Maldives, or the cool marble of the Taj Mahal. Even sooner, he argues, we will see augmented reality contact lenses, which will use existing technology to give physical spaces different digital properties, for example turning living rooms into tiki bars or airport lounges into rainforests.

But its in the 2050s that he sees the really big advances. By then, he says, well be able to upload our minds to cyberspace using nano devices linked to our synapses, allowing our brains to inhabit a new breed of fully functioning humanoid robots, effectively turning us into superhumans. Youll be able to log on in the UK, say, and choose your robot in Australia, he said. Then youll be able to inhabit its body and do anything a human would, and more. Youll also be able to think faster and have a bigger memory, so the travel memories will be with you longer.

It is, he admits, a problematic proposition. The engineer in me thinks its great fun, but of course there are a lot of dystopian potential outcomes, from android overpopulation to the ethical issues of minds living on electronically, he said. There will be winners and losers, and like in the X-Men a lot of people wont want to live side-by-side with new humans with superpowers.

Many of these ideas make my head hurt. So, after our call, I go for my daily walk. It is a sunny afternoon in Londons Victoria Park, and I am determined to soak it all in: the longboarders and lovers; the wagging tails of dogs with their owners undivided attention; the man singing Hallelujah to a faintly wary, unusually dispersed crowd.

For once, I read the little signs around the park: about the beautiful Chinese pagoda bought from Hyde Park for 110 in 1847, which East End kids believed was home to a mysterious Chinese family; and about the statues of two guard dogs, both replicas of a 2nd-Century Roman statue, installed in 1912 and still believed to guard against drownings in the nearby canal. In the lake by the Pavilion, I watch coots with white faces like Venetian masks, swans like bread-seeking cruise liners and male mallards whose necks and heads seem to be made of the most lavish green velvet. And I see something new in pigeons, those flying vermin, whose neck feathers glint a magnificent green and pink in the sunlight, and whose soft cooing is strangely soothing.

Travel has always been a difficult thing to define in philosophical terms, but in slowing down, looking and really appreciating my surroundings, I feel like Im travelling. Digital developers will have to do something big to come close to replicating all of this and when I later summit my virtual Everest, it doesnt give the same joy as watching those Victoria Park pigeons. We will be seeing more and more mind-bending and beautiful virtual worlds in the years to come but to me, the real world still has the upper hand.

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Virtual worlds: Can we travel without travelling? - BBC News

The Greatest Gamble of All Time – Thrive Global

Unbeknown to most of us, the rate of extinction today is 500-1,000 times faster than previously experienced. It is safe to say that extinctions are happening significantly faster than ever before. An estimated 200 unique species go extinct everyday. A species lost, on average, every 7 minutes, day and night. A rhino is shot for its horns every 6 hours. An elephant for its tusks every 15 minutes. Apangolin, the worlds most traded wild mammal, is killed every 2 minutes for its scales and flesh. The doomsday clock is ticking. Wildlife is dying in wet markets and starving to death in degraded habitat. This COVID-19 pandemic came from our wasteful and destructive interaction with wildlife and ecosystems across the globe.

There is no doubt.Our world is in crisis.Our planet is burning and polluted. As shared oceans acidify and choke on plastics every year sets a new heat record. We are experiencingcatastrophic and irreversible losses every day. Extinction is forever, and whatever was going to happen with that unique species during millions of years of evolution and natural selection will never be realised. Is this the shared doom of our iteration of complex life. Life on Earth will go on, but, like the dinosaurs and their peers, all large-bodied animals die off. The next iteration of complex life is in the works right now. Maybe in a deep ocean trench, the edge of a volcanoe, or on top of Mount Everest? During mass extinctions like the one we are definitey experiencing right now, the species in our position does not survive. T-Rex did not make it out of the Cretaceous, neither did any other dinosaurs.

Before 1950, there were estimated to have been 1 million lions roaming the African continent. Today, there are less than 20,000 wild lions remaining in Africa. This, however, is still more than double the fewer than 7,000 wild cheetah, our fastest land animal, remaining on the planet. Alarmingly, there are estimated to be about half as many great white sharks (made famous by the film Jaws) remaining in our oceans with an estimated 3,500 still swimming. We all know that pandas are anEndangeredspecies, but a wild population of around 1,700 is terrifyingly close to extinction. Ring-fenced by people and agriculture, and threatened by disease and climate change, just 1,000 mountain gorillas survive in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. As an example, there are just 75 Sumatran rhino remaining in the wild. Grand species of folklore and legend are being lost under our watch.

To put this into perspective, there are twice as many Van Goghartworks known to be in circulation, over 2100, than there are living mountain gorillas. Just a few years ago, the Portrait of Joseph Roulin sold for $115 million. Joseph worked for a railway company in the south of France and was a friend to Van Gogh. A masterful portrait now considered to be of great value. A single similar investment in mountain gorillas, as a species, would go a long way towards securing their future in the wild. An endowment of this size could give them the equivalent of human rights.

Imagine being able to make an investment in a species, and then sit on the board that represents their interests to the world, buying up land, advocating for their rights, working with local human communities, and protecting them from disaster. Just imagine that for a second. There are obviously more questions than there are answers, but it has become clear that we need to rethink what we consider to be valuable. Is one living mountain gorilla more valuable than a Van Gogh painting? Are all of Van Goghs paintings together more valuable than all of the remaining mountain gorillas? We need to decide these answers.

By 2050, machines and androids will most likely be able to do everything better, more efficiently, and more reliably than us. Theserobots will not need the biological world of plants and animals to survive, and would probably prefer it if insects didnt nest in their air vents, and it never rained. As technology advances beyond current imagination, just being in nature could become one of the only thing human beings are the best at. We are resilient, naturally waterproof, dont rust or require insulation, and we can be fuelled with just water and raw vegetables.

When robots or just sequences of code become our lawyers, accountants, administrators, artists, musicians, managers, mechanics, machinists, architects, designers, authors, reporters, politicians, and doctors, which is inevitable, we will be left as the stewards and custodians of the natural world that we evolved in. That will be our most important job in the future. So, dont tell your children to be lawyers or doctors, rather tell them to become organic farmers, explorers, divers, foresters, or conservationists. To me, the alternate future in which we surrender to being entirely dependent on machines to sustain life on Earth seems more sinister.Our freedom and security on this planet is rooted in our relationship with the natural world.

In the United States, the 1964 Wilderness Act defined wilderness as an area wherethe earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man. Land that retains its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvement or human habitation.Wilderness has been described as an unsettled, uncultivated region, a barren or desolate area, a wasteland, a state of neglect, powerlessness, or disfavour, and something characterized by bewildering vastness, perilousness, or unchecked profusion. In these definitions we seem to intentionally exclude ourselves and make wilderness seem more barren and dangerous than spiritual and fulfilling.

These very exclusive definitions for wilderness demonstrate our gradual disassociation, our unconscious divorce, from nature, and our own innate wildness. When in the wild, modernised people often say things like, You know, nature is so cruel! when a predator kills its prey, before looking back down at their iPad. My guests on safari say things like, Nature is just amazing when a zebra walks past, or Nature will always find a way when an animal, or plant, survives a catastrophe against all odds. We say these things unconsciously as if we are somehow alien and not part of the natural world.We are not aliens from another planet. We are certainly not gods. We are, however, arrogant and vengeful. We love, yet we also hate. We judge each other to isolate ourselves. We divorced from nature to justify and ignore the atrocities we commit against nature.

Are we really man the killer that walked out of the wilderness into the city? Are we great because we left the wild or because we came from it? Why are we burning down the house we live in? Is it our destiny to destroy this interaction of complex life on Earth to make way for something new?Since 1990, we have continued our systematic destruction of the biosphere, wiping out another 10% of our remaining wilderness. Over 30% of the Amazon Basin gone in 25 years. A total area twice the size of Alaska no longer considered to be ecologically-intact no longer wild. Over3.3 million square kilometres that could have been saved, but is now lost, forever.

Natural disasters are becoming more intense, and more frequent. Mass human migration, incredible violence and conflict, terror and extremism, nuclear threat, water shortages and famine, viral pandemics, and xenophobic attacks across the developed world, are all very bad signs. We are living in unprecedented times.Ecosystems are ceasing to function properly everyday as they reach their own tipping points. We know how to fix this. We know how to save ourselves and this planet. It starts with conserving what we have left and living better where we are already.

As a scientist, conservationist, forester, explorer and mammal, I know that we cannot compute or even fully-understand the actual functioning of the complex, connected ecosystems that support life as we know it.We depend on them, yet we do not fully understand their functioning. These losses are happening on an unimaginable scale oceans and rivers, not bays and streams. EO Wilson agrees that there is no existing definition that clearly defines what an ecosystem really is. Where does an ecosystem begin, and, more importantly, where does it end? We have most likely developed the computational power, but still do not have the baseline data to even start mapping out the millions of connections and co-dependences between ecosystems, species, cycles, processes, niches, and even isolated dead ends of creativity. Hopefully one day the mystery of what we really will be revealed.

The surviving wildlife in our cities is being shocked, caught, shot at, run over, and poisoned. Raccoons, squirrels, pigeons, possums, polar bears and tigers have no space to live. Insects, most importantly bees, are disappearing in a fog of poison and pollution, as the bacterial communities that populate our bodies shift and change due to self-imposed isolation using deadly chemicals and antibiotics. Apart from us, and in conflict with us, nature is adapting, shifting and adjusting with outbreaks of Ebola, the plague, and novel coronaviruses becoming more severe and more common. HIV/AIDS continues to spread through communities around the globe. These are all very bad signs for us. We may be the last to go extinct, but we will go extinct if we continue this toxic interaction with the biodiversity surrounding us and inside us.

Elon Musk famously said that he wanted to die on Mars, but not on impact. My hope is that he will be looking back, from the safety of his leafy habitat, at a shining, biodiverse, self-sustaining blue-green planet with 10 billionHomo sapiensliving longer and better, readying themselves, some of them, for space travel. I hope that, by the time Musk goes to live on Mars, having intact wildernesses is more important than having libraries, museums and national archives. Having wild places preserves our ability to leverage the option value of the infinite power of the natural world, billions of years of iteration towards perfect balance. This is a very important time to be alive.

There is no doubt. We are approaching a moment of significant change before 2050. A radically-different future that few of us have taken the time to imagine. Over the next decade, we all need to be present, woke and proactive during one of the most important times in human history.Gen X, Xennials, Millenials, Boomers The human beings alive today face the greatest gamble of all time. It is simple. Either we protect half of the Earths landscapes and seascapes to accommodate the millions of species driving the vast ecosystems that create the air we breathe and clean the water we drink, or we can choose to depend solely on new technologies to do this for us.

Most people worry about and care for their cars, their motor vehicles, working hard to keep them fuelled, well maintained, clean and safe. In return, they give us freedom, a sense of power, and make our modern lives easier and more efficient. Now, imagine how you, or anyone else, would feel about your vehicle if you could speak to it and you depended on it for clean air, atmosphere, food, and water.It would be very interesting to unpack how astronauts on long stays in the International Space Station feel that about their daily maintenance routines. Is the space station working for them or are they working for it? How will we react when AI in our devices starts talking to us in text and voice? Where are we going in this relationship with our machines?A new religion based on bits, qubits, and the day of the singularity? Are there ghosts in the machine? Only time can answer these questions.

We need to think very carefully before gambling on new technologies manipulating the natural world to support life on Earth.Can technology maintain our atmosphere, feed us, clean our water, or protect us from unnatural disaster? Will blockchain manifest the shared ownership, accountability and connectivity achieved already by nature? Can we replicate billions of years of natural selection and evolution using CRISPR? Will the first application of artificial intelligence and advanced robotics be in environmental stewardship, farming, or in the military? We need to decide these answers.

We are one experiment away from AI. Self-powered, self-aware and self-replicating code, drones and machines are an inevitability, the same as universal translators, light sabres, private space travel, augmented human cyborgs, digestible knowledge, settlement on the Moon, and our great grandchildren being raised and augmented by robots. Inevitable? We really do not know what is going to happen. What is science fiction or future fact? Are we going to see anewHomospecies evolve out of technology? Will the first trillionaire be anasteroid miner? Is it inevitable that we settle on Mars and go to Alpha Centauri?Our exploration must continue into space, but all human beings exploring space must come from Earth.Any investment in space travel must be matched by investments in the protection and restoration of our natural world, our home. This is imperative.

Blood, soil and water, our connection to the Earth, will forever be our superpower. Billions of years of natural selection and creative iteration, from trilobites to us, built a vast global ecosystem of animals, plants, fungi, bacteria and viruses, which, if undisturbed by a cataclysm like an asteroid (or us), will remain self-sustaining, adapting and evolving for millions of years, in balance.The technological singularity is the hypothesis that beyond a certain point AI or artificial superintelligence (ASI) coupled with new technologies, like quantum computing, will manifest an exponential technological expansion, making discovery and invention instantaneous. It is hard to believe that this human engineered event could replicate the level of complexity and interconnectedness through time, space and dimension achieved by nature already.

Before it is too late, we will value nature more than anything else.Decades exploring Africas wildest, remotest wildernesses have shown me that the human experience in the wilderness, represented in our innate wildness,is the formative power that created all of us. These last wild places and our shared human experience in them explainthe origin of religion, of science, and of the laws that govern our modern society. Observing the inter-web of life connects us to self-realization, balance and a sense of purpose working for our children and the planet. This connection also helps us celebrate our ancestors like we used to, and preserve valuable traditional knowledge systems and indigenous languages.

We are part of the awesome, unstoppable power of the ocean, the almighty ebb and flow of life, the life tide pulling and pushing our life force. This connects us to our fates, fears, failures and fortunes. There are laws of connection and attraction that we do not yet understand, described and explained as gravity, luck, superstition, religious belief, love, the Secret, greed, and fate. We have spent millennia trying to understand the basic metaphysical laws of the universe through prayer, meditation, hallucination, chanting, dance, substance abuse, and study. The unifying life force will never die, but does periodically flicker and collapse due to cataclysm, only to be reborn as a new age and visualisation of the original spark of life at the Big Bang.

The humanoids portrayed in Star Trek and Star Wars represent the different versions of us evolved during hundreds of years of space exploration. They were human beings that adapted, evolved and engineered themselves to live on other planets in other solar systems. Human beings from this Planet Earth cannot become multi-planetary as Elon Musk suggests we should. Human beings living sustainably on Mars will cease to beHomo sapiens. They will become a new species living on a new planet, adapting and augmenting themselves to survive off Earth. Rapid adaption and even evolution will occur and they will very quickly cease to be us, if they are to survive sustainably. They will, of course, consider themselves different, perhaps consider themselves to be Martians.

There is no doubt our world is in crisis with two-thirds of all wildlife and almost 80% of all seabirds estimated to have disappeared around the world since 1975. From this point forward, we really cannot afford to making any mistakes. We tend to appease or ignore the things we fear most until they are upon us. Now is the time for large-scale coordinated action. Hope is not gone. There is still so much to secure, protect and restore this decade. When it comes down to it there is a lot left to save. We are still a living, breathing, spinning blue-green planet orbiting the sun where it was possible to film the astonishing new Netflix series,Our Planet, narrated by Sir David Attenborough. We need to act to save these places now.

The awe and wonder of the natural world is not gone, but it is dying. In the words of David Attenborough: The Garden of Eden is no more. The call-to-action is clear and the time for change is now. We will never get to experience the world our grandparents took for granted, but maybe our grandchildren could? We need a sparkling vision of a planet in balance that we must all subscribe to. An Earth with a stable population of 10 billion people living longer, happier and better in a world filled with the abundance of life, with elephants, rhinos, lions, jaguars, polar bears and pandas, all enriched, not controlled, by technology. As explorers, this leafy paradise will be our home as we launch out the atmosphere to explore the galaxy always wanting to return.

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The Greatest Gamble of All Time - Thrive Global

NASA astronauts give tips on handling isolation amid coronavirus outbreak – Florida Today

Even if you're self-quarantined, here are some ways to use technology to still have a date. Buzz60

Need some tips on how to survive and thrive while you are physically cut off fromthe rest of the world?

Who better to turn to than astronauts?

Astronauts, who venture into the dark abyssofspace, know a thing or two about isolation, especially those who spend months aboard the International Space Station.

"COVID-19 gives us a very higher purpose, much like being in space does," retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson said on CBS This Morning on Monday. "Because we are saving lives by quarantining. And so it is important to understand that bigger purpose and to embrace that purpose to give you reason and rationale for continuing to put up with the situation."

Heck, even before their space travel, astronauts are forced into quarantine a couple of weeks prior to launch to ensure they aren't contracting any illnesses before their trip.

NASA astronaut Anne McClain, who lived in space for over 200 days, offered some tips via Twitter of living in confined spaces.

"Twenty years of successful living and working on (the ISS) did not happen by accident. Through lessons learned, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and psychologist Dr. Al Holland examined what human behaviors create a healthy culture for living and working remotely in small groups," McClain said via Twitter.

"They narrowed it to five general skills and defined the associated behaviors for each skill. We, NASA astronauts now call them 'Expeditionary Behaviors,' and they are part of everything we do."

The five skills are:

Communication:McClain says the best way to communicate is to discuss intentions before taking action, using good terminology, being able to listen and admit when you're wrong.

Leadership/followership: Lead by example and be able to provide direction, feedback, coaching and encouragement. Instead of just pointing out problems, offer solutions.

Self-care:Assess one's own strengths and weaknesses and make sure to balance work, rest and personal time.

Team-care: Develop positive relationships through patience, respect and encouragement. Also, don't be afraid to accept and offer help, as well as sharing the credit and taking the blame.

Group living:Work as a team. Respect each other's roles, responsibilities and workload while taking accountability, giving praise and maintaining a positive team attitude.

"We are all astronauts on planet Earth together," McClain said. "We'll be successful in confinement if we are intentional about our actions and deliberate about caring for our teams."

NASA astronaut Anne McClain during her first spacewalk at the International Space Station on March 22.(Photo: NASA)

Retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent nearly a year in space onboard the space station, also shared his tips on isolation via the New York Times.

According to Kelly, these are best tips to practice while being stuck in quarantine:

Follow a schedule: "You will find maintaining a plan will help you and your family adjust to ad different work and home life environment," Kell said in the article.

Pace yourself: "Take time for fun activities." Playing board games, watching TV, reading a book are all ways to help distract you from being stuck inside.

Go outside: Kelly recommends going for a daily walk to take a breath of fresh air during your quarantine schedule, but "just stay at least six feet away from others," he warns.

You need a hobby: Whether it's reading books, playing an instrument or making art, "you need an outlet that isn't work or maintaining your environment," Kelly said.

Keep a journal: Log each day of isolation. Kelly says it will help you put your experiences in perspective and when this is all over, be able to look back at this time in history and what it meant for you.

Take time to connect: Keep in touch with family and friends. Make sure they're doing OK during these troubling times. Staying in touch with loved ones can not only help your mental health, but also physical health.

Listen to experts: Heed the advice of the World Health Organization and the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

We are all connected: "As helpless as we may feel stuck inside our homes, there are always things we can do," Kell said. "I've seen humans work together to prevail over some of the toughest challenges imaginable, and I know we can prevail over this one if we all do our part and work together as a team."

Now more than ever, you need an independent news source working for you. Support local journalism and subscribe at floridatoday.com/specialoffer Florida Today

To provide our community with important public safety information, FLORIDA TODAY is making stories related to the coronavirus free to read. To support important local journalism like this, please consider becoming a digital subscriber atcm.floridatoday.com/specialoffer.

Contact Jaramillo at321-242-3668or antoniaj@floridatoday.com. Follow her onTwitterat@AntoniaJ_11.

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NASA's Chris Cassidy and his two Russian crewmates have been taking precautions to stay germ-free before their April 9 launch to the International Space Station, frequently washing their hands and keeping a safe distance from others. (March 19) AP Domestic

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NASA astronauts give tips on handling isolation amid coronavirus outbreak - Florida Today

Read to Soothe Your Soul – coastalbreezenews.com

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.~C.S. Lewis

If there was ever a time to catch up on some reading, that time would be now. Books can provide solace and help fill anxious hours when there seems to be nothing to do. But your reading habit hasdeclined,and you dont know where to start? Let me help with some recommendations!

The library may be closed but you do have the ability to borroweBooksfor free! You will already need to have a library card to access and there is a limit to the number of books you can borrow. Just get onto your library account online (www.collierlibrary.org) and search the book you want to read.You will be asked what format you want to useI downloaded it to Amazon Kindleandjust like that, I was able to check-out WhereTheCrawdads Sing, by Delia Owens for 14-days.

Of course,you can go directly toAmazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nookfor otherfreedownloadable books,and if you are an Amazon Prime Member, the selection is evenbetter.If you are okay with shelling out some dough your options expand greatly with new releases being higher pricedthan older onesor as I did above, check out from the library. On Amazon, you can sign up for a trial membership for Audiobooks and enjoy a new release for free.Just remember to cancel your subscription before the trial period ends. Or maybe youll love it so much you keep it!

Somewebsites offerfree content. Librivox.org provides free Audiobooks read by volunteersyou can even become one yourself!Project Gutenberg at Gutenberg.org, Manybooks.net and Authorama.com are three other sites. I found that most of the free books fall into the Classics and Romance but with some digging, you can find great reads.

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.~Mortimer J. Adler

So,now that you have some resources to find books, which books to read? Let me help with some books that still resonate with me today.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and AllTheLight We Cannot See by AnthonyDoerrare two of the besthistorical fictionbooks I have read about WWII. Zusaks novel is rooted in Germany and narrated by Death,whileDoerrsPulitzer Prize Winner follows a blind Frenchgirl and German boy. I read themback to back and was surprised at the emotions they elicited.

Thinking of delving into someone elses life with a biography? If you are looking forlaughsthen try Bossypants by Tina Fey or Yes Please by Amy Poehler.These women are as funny as they are relatable.Angelica Huston lets us into the charmingearly years of her life surrounded by Hollywood and Artistic Elites inA Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London and New York.OrDear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker,anedgy and fascinatingread;Ms. Parker is a wonderful writer.Takea step back in time to the early days of Hollywood and Broadway with This Time Together: Laughter and ReflectionbyCarol Burnett.And for something really different and amazing,look up Down the Nile: Alone in a Fishermans Skiff by Rosemary Mahoney.She does exactly as the title describes and its unbelievable.

Classics I cant get enough of are The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath,The Good Earthby Pearl S. Buck,A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway,andMemoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.To me, they have stood the test of time. Recent books I consider classicsbesides the aforementioned WWII bookwould be The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien and Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. These two are emotionally wrenching in a very good way.

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.~Groucho Marx

Now to my favorite genrefantasy and science fiction! NeilGaimansThe Ocean at the End of the Lane is a great standalone,and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern took my breath away.A readable trilogy would be Erika Johansens The Queen of theTearling series,but my all-time favorite fantasy trilogy would have to be TheFionavarTapestry by GuyGavrielKay.Theres a lot of And so it happened startstosentencesthat sound a bit dated,but the emotional punches are well worth it. Seriously, I cried more than once and that was during my THIRD reading.In Science Fiction, the Red Rising Saga trilogy by Pierce Brown may be slightly predictive but it is wholly imaginative.

I could go on andonbutlet me end with some random titles that deserve a look: The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsukais the riveting storyof Japanese women brought to San Francisco as picture brides.Read a fictional account of an American woman combat photographer during the Vietnam War in The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli.Also, tryThe Gunslinger by Stephen Kingbecause Stephen King! Learn about the ups, downs andall-aroundoddities of space travel in the nonfiction Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach. Last, but not least, introduce or re-introduce yourself to the beauty and balm of poetry with The Poets Corner: The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family by John Lithgow. No word-salad poems herejust a fantastic selection of poems for, well, the whole family.

Stay well, stay safe and find solace in your reading!

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Read to Soothe Your Soul - coastalbreezenews.com

Which foods will survive the apocalypse? – BBC News

However, if you did decide to seek out something edible here, you would need to choose your seeds carefully. Apple, apricot, cherry, peach and plum seeds, for example, are coated in amygdalin which when digested releases cyanide. Although, an adult man would need to eat 75 apricot kernels to receive a lethal dose, which is unlikely to happen under normal circumstances.

Foods of the future

Rather than take the risk, you might be better turning to foods that have been specifically produced in a laboratory for their durability. Technology is helping to give us foods whose shelf lives could put our ancestors best efforts to shame.

Sulu suggests that food designed for space travel could be a good bet. Designed to be lightweight and stay safe for a long time in fluctuating temperatures, space food is dehydrated and vacuum sealed. Similarly, general purpose army rations, known as Meals, Ready to Eat (MRE) in the US, are good for three years at 80F (27C), according to US military guidelines. They are also designed to withstand a whole gamut of conditions that commercial food is not like being airdropped from a plane.

"Commercial products are not formulated to meet extended shelf life requirements, says Julie Smith, a food technologist at the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, Natick, Massachusetts. The mission of the commercial industry is to sell products quickly. Whereas the Defense Logistics Agency report they currently have five million MREs in storage ready to go. That is food just sitting, waiting for the right time to be eaten.

Other food replacements would still be edible, like Huel, and everything that is derivative of that, adds Sulu.

Huel, a company who offers a nutritionally complete diet in powder form, uses freeze drying and milling to create powders with no moisture in them. They can be certain that their products have very long shelf lives because of the amount of processing the powders go through to make them shelf-stable.

The control comes from how we package with moisture, light and oxygen barriers, says Rebecca Williams, a nutritionist at Huel. We screen everything to make sure it is hygienic. The packaging has to be sterile as well, so we use steam or acid to remove microbes that are on the packaging.

Walking into a supermarket that has been abandoned for several years should present a few interesting options. If you know where to look, there would probably be a lot of food that is still safe to eat.

I would still expect it to be dessicated foods, says Thomas. Though, all the hobnobs might be gone.

--

William Park is@williamhparkon Twitter.

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Preventing the contamination of other planets – Euronews

While the Covid-19 pandemic continues to develop rapidly the world's knowledge of contamination is rising in parallel with the sale of hand sanitizer.

Large and small events have been cancelled globally and air-traffic is drifting to a standstill. The spread of the deadly virus has almost brought our busy planet to a halt.

The effect contamination can have on a planet is not just a recent important topic for consideration. In 1967 a treaty was drafted called 'The Outer Space Treaty'. Now over 50 years old, the treaty has 109 signatory countries. It provides the basic framework on international space law. The treaty was a progressive step to make space travel a peaceful endeavour by stating 'space and celestial bodies cannot be appropriated by a nation. This means a country cannot claim the moon or any other planet as their own.

Abiding by the treaty each space mission must avoid the harmful contamination of celestial bodies. This is one reason why space crafts are often built, tested and prepared in 'clean rooms'. Measured by particle count, there are different grades of decontamination to which a space mission must adhere to. This is mission-specific. For example, if a spacecraft were to land on Mars it would have more stringent decontamination procedures than a mission simply orbiting and not touching the surface of the Red Planet.

Euronews spoke to Mr. Alawadh, an engineer for the Mars Hope mission, based in the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai. He told us how a low particle count is best practice for a successful mission. If the 'Hope' probe were to have particles on its thrusters or valves, it could potentially affect the directional control of the craft. Launching in June 2020 the Hope probe has multiple instruments onboard including an infrared spectrometer, an ultraviolet spectrometer and an autonomous camera. To get the optimum data collected during the mission there must be no particles obstructing the instruments.

After a 7 month journey, the Hope probe will enter the Red Planet's orbit. The data that it will collect will give an insight as to how Mars experienced climate change. Scientists here on Earth could then see if there is any correlation with the transformation of our planet's climate.

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Preventing the contamination of other planets - Euronews

Top Uses Of Crypto Currency – University Herald

Crypto currencies have come a long way since their launch. People who used to be wary of crypto currencies now look at it as a nice way to transact because it offers anonymity and ease of use. However, people who have not yet taken to crypto currencies still feel that they will not be able to use them like normal currency. Well, given below are the top uses of crypto currency:

Normal money transfer can take a lot of time and if it is international money transfer it can even take a few days. But with crypto currency it is very easy and you can transfer money in a few hours. Normal money transfer through financial intermediaries charge a lot of transaction fees but when it comes to crypto currency the transaction fees are very less. The low fees and ease in transfer is one of the reasons why a lot of people have started to opt for crypto currency rather than traditional money.

Online gaming has grown exponentially after they started accepting Bitcoins and other crypto currencies. People love to play online and the added advantage of anonymity and safety has made people to take up online gaming with crypto currencies like a duck takes to water. You can play games such as Cryptoskull or eSports and the like. Getting bonuses with crypto currency is also easy and hence the popularity of crypto currencies like Bitcoin etc.

Who does not like to travel? Everyone does. However, what puts off travel plans is the planning part. Getting tickets for the flight, booking hotels, booking car rentals and the like can be a real pain. But with so many online travel companies now accepting crypto currency it has really become easy to plan and book tickets, hotels etc. The ease with which the transactions are conducted is the reason most people are opting to travel book using crypto currency. Also with many bitcoin ATM's available in many countries, it becomes easy to use your payment wallet and get real money in the native currency.

Additionally if you are a real adventurer and want to venture into new territories you can try your hand at space travel. Virgin Galactic accepts Bitcoin payments for space travel. Many people have already booked their tickets for space travel even though the tests have not been completed for commercial space travel. So, why wait, use your crypto currency and book a ticket to travel space, now!

Yes, you heard that right, you can buy super luxury automobiles using crypto currency like bitcoins. There are luxury providers who accept bitcoin and can help you buy even a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. You can also buy the best in wines and also invest in real luxury real estate.

The options are many and the options are only going to increase. The rise in the value of Bitcoins is the reason for the success of all crypto currencies.

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Top Uses Of Crypto Currency - University Herald

Database documents cities that are repurposing car space during the pandemic – Streetsblog Chicago

During the global pandemic, cities around the world are recognizing it makes sense to take road space that is usually used for moving and storing cars and instead give it to people. Theyre reallocating the right-of-way from travel lanes and parking to create emergency bikeways for essential workers, and open space where residents can safely walk, bike, and exercise, with sufficient room for social distancing.

Dr. Tabitha Combs, a transportation researcher at the University of North Carolina, and Mike Lydon, founder of transportation design firm Street Plans, have started a crowdsourced database of what cities are doing to create safer, people-friendly streets during the shelter at home era.

View Coms and Lydons database here.

So far, Chicago has taken the opposite approach. Last week Mayor Lori Lightfoot closed the citys most important routes for car-free transportation and recreation, the Lakefront Trail and The 606 elevated greenway. It was an understandable emergency response to dangerously crowded conditions on the paths and the failure of some residents to practice social distancing. But hopefully a compromise can be reached to allow residents to use these facilities for essential trips. In the meantime, Streetsblogs Low-Stress Lakefront Pandemic Cycling Route offers an on-street alternative to the shoreline path.

Meanwhile Bogot, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Calgary, and Minneapolis have prohibited cars on certain streets. Berlin and a district in Mexico City have created new temporary bike lanes.

Privately-owned bike-share companies in Mexico City and Bogot are offering free rides to healthcare workers during the pandemic. (These companies supplement the cities publicly-owned bike-share systems). Divvy, Chicagos publicly-owned bike-share network, is also offering free rides to healthcare workers, plus $1 rides and $49 annual memberships to everyone else.

The database also notes that five cities have removed beg buttons from intersections, which pedestrians are normally required to press to request a walk signal. This can result in people crowding on sidewalks waiting for a walk signal, which creates a risk of viral transmission not to mention it eliminates something many people are touching. Thankfully, beg buttons arent common in Chicago. The Chicago Pedestrian Plan of 2012 (see page 40) called for removing nearly all of them, but some still remain.

Back to the Lakefront Trail issue. Although Chicagos non-essential workplaces have been closed during the pandemic, there are still Chicagoans who need to commute for essential jobs and errands. But because there are so few people driving at this time, the streets are relatively empty, which encourages dangerous speeding.

Reopening the Lakefront Trail for essential commutes would help keep workers safe from traffic crashes. And opening some streets in various parts of the city for car-free transportation and recreation is a very practical idea. Our city hosts hundreds of street festivals, races, and other special events that involve temporarily pedestrianizing streets, so this isnt rocket science.

Shortly before I wrote this post, I biked to the grocery store. The other shoppers were careful to give me the prescribed 6 of space at the store. But on my way home, not a single driver provided me with the three feet of clearance thats required by Illinois law.

If you hear of a city doing something innovative with their streets to improve safety during the pandemic, add it to the shared spreadsheet or email me. Hat tip Daniel Ronan.

Here are some tips on preventing the spread of coronavirus, and advice for Chicagoans on what to do if you think you may have been exposed to the virus.

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Database documents cities that are repurposing car space during the pandemic - Streetsblog Chicago

Star Trek: Picard 10 Things We’re Looking Forward To In Season 2 – Screen Rant

After two decades spent in reclusive retirement Jean-Luc Picard, one of the most beloved characters in the Star Trek franchise, returned to save the galaxy. When Patrick Stewart began the process of filmingStar Trek: Picard,he stated that there was enough material outlined for several seasons of the CBS series, and if Season 1 has been any indication, the best is yet to come. Picard has a new crew and a new lease on life, having finally found his purpose once again.

RELATED:Star Trek: 10 Mysteries About Picard's Life In Between TNG & Picard

Star Trek fans enjoyed the nostalgic reunion of characters from bothStar Trek: The Next GenerationandStar Trek: Voyager,Romulan conspiracies, heroic acts of selflessness, and many a Picard monologue. They also enjoyed all of the new characters brought into Picard's life, and look forward to their further adventures in a much-changed universe. Here are 10 things we're looking forward to in Season 2!

After Season 1, the series will arrive at the time in all good Star Trek series when the crewhas been given its context, and all exposition is finished.This allows for all the different personalities tostart to complement each other as a family, and real bonds to start to form.

Soji has decided to leave her synthetic collectiveand accompany Picard, Raffi, Rios, Elnor, and Seven of Nineon their further adventures.Even Agnes who once hated space travel is now a member of the crew,a group that she said was the closest she had ever had to family.Inside jokes, engage!

Even though many XB's (Ex-Borgs) were lost thanks to Narissa's conspiracy to destroy the Borg Reclamation Project, many managed to stay alive thanks to the resourceful thinking of Seven of Nine. Though she isn't their defacto Borg Queen, she may lead them into a new era of prosperity.

Hugh, late Director of the Borg Reclamation Project was able to make the XB's be seen as victims, not monsters, so perhaps they'll take their place as part of the Federation as an entirely new race of people. If the XB's can show that they're able to acclimate to civilized society, they may be valuable allies in future encounters with the Borg.Will they get to inherit the Artifact?

With the destruction of Romulus and the collapse of the Neutral Zone, the Fenris Rangers had to provide law and order in reaches of space far from Federation jurisdiction. Led by Seven of Nine, the Fenris Rangers offer aid to those in need, defenseless against the violence of the criminal underworld that operates with impunity.

RELATED:Star Trek Picard: 10 Things That Led Seven Of Nine To Becoming A Vigilante

It looks like Seven of Nine has a new ally in Elnor, who has taken quite a shine to the ex-Borg vigilante. Having recently lost Icheb, who was about Elnor's age, she may be able to utilize his warrior skills while developing a similar maternal bond with him.Besides, he's sworn to defend those whose cause is lost.

Part of the fun of watchingStar Trek: Picardhas been to see how favorite characters from prior Star Trek series have fared over the past several decades. While fans got to see Data, Hugh, Seven of Nine, Will Riker, and Deanna Troi, Geordi LaForge and Worf were only mentioned in passing.

RELATED:10 Best Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, According to IMDb

It's been rumored thatVoyager'sEMH played by Robert Picardo will make an appearance in Season 2, so it's anyone's guess which new old faces will appear. Perhaps Wesley is the captain of his own ship somewhere. Geordie was operating out of the Mars shipyards when the synths attacked but managed to get to safety, so perhaps he'll reveal himself in future episodes.

After first the Tal Shiar's subterfuge, then the Zhat Vash infiltration of Starfleet for decades, and finally the false flag operation which resulted in the destruction of the Mars shipyards and the banning of synthetic lifeforms,Star Trek: Picardcould have big plans to go after the Romulan secret police.

In an unprecedented act of war, the Tal Shiar's actions will have a ripple effect all across the Federation and the Romulan Empire. It could mean another full-scale assault or, at the very least, a continuation of the standoff that happened at the Season 1 finale.

One of the most notable absences, when it came to Star Trek alum on the series, was Q, the immortal trickster who so memorably played puppet master to Picard's life onStar Trek: The Next Generation.Showing up at the most inopportune times, he constantly found new ways to test Picard - both his morals and his patience.

RELATED:Star Trek Picard: Where The Original TNG Characters (Probably) Are Now

Star Trek fans are predicting that actor John De Lancie might appear in Season 2 now that Picard is back in action. How could Q stay away so long, especially when Picard is back soaring among the stars and not spending his golden years wasting away at his family's winery?

In a very poignant moment on The View,host Whoopi Goldberg received a special requestfrom guest Patrick Stewart.On behalf of the creative team and producers behind Star Trek: Picard, he formally invited her to reprise her role as a Guinan, the insightful bartender on theEnterpriseduring Star Trek: The Next Generation.She accepted with enthusiasm.

Guinan was an old associate of Picard's,who shared a deep connection with the captain that was "more than family" and "more than friends".The nature of the relationship was always deeply mysterious, but perhaps in Season 2, fans will finally get some answers to its origins.

TheLa Sirenabecame a hub ofromantic activity in season 1.Viewers watched dashing Captain Rios and shy cyberneticist Agnes Jurati form a close bond on their mission to find Soji, and it was clear by stopping in at the Riker residence that the great affection that originated in Star Trek: The Next Generationstill blooms between Will Riker and his wife, Deanna Troi.

In the final shot of the season finale, both Seven of Nine and Raffi are seen speaking quietly and holding hands, implying that the mutual respect between them has grown into something more intimate.It will be interesting to see where that goes,and what happens romantically to the sheltered Romulan Elnor.

The series was characterized by a salient level of cynicism, beginning with the Federation and Starfleet depicted as intolerant, prejudicial,and paranoid.A sense of hope and optimism could not even be found in Jean-Luc himself, one a paragon of such ideals.Only in the finale did a sense of unabashed faith in the future curb the bleakness that hung over the series like a shroud.

RELATED:Star Trek: Picard - 5 Reasons Why The Federation's Turn For The Dark Is Great (& 5 Why It's Not)

Fans are encouraged that the new mood for the next season might be more positive, especially with Picard given a new lease on life now that his Irumodic Syndrome has been cured. The characters all seem in a better place now that they've saved the galaxy and found each other, primed for their next adventures.

Longtime fans were looking forward to catching up with not just Picard and some of his officers from theEnterprise,but the inhabitants of Federation space and beyond. With the state of Starfleet ambiguous in the series, what was the state of the Klingons? The Cardassians? The rest of the Borg Collective?

The Star Trek canon can be expanded by theLa Sirenagoing to more parts of the galaxy, seeing more planets and more alien species. Star Trek is known for seeking out "new life and new civilizations", regardless of whether it's from the bridge of theEnterpriseor not.

NEXT:Star Trek: Picard's 10 Greatest Mistakes

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Kayleena has been raised on Star Wars and Indiana Jones from the crib. A film buff, she has a Western collection of 250+ titles and counting that she's particularly proud of. When she isn't writing for ScreenRant, CBR, or The Gamer, she's working on her fiction novel, lifting weights, going to synthwave concerts, or cosplaying. With degrees in anthropology and archaeology, she plans to continue pretending to be Lara Croft as long as she can.

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Star Trek: Picard 10 Things We're Looking Forward To In Season 2 - Screen Rant