By Lifestyle Reporter 20h ago

Share this article:

Perhaps the most human trait of all, is the ability to create and in many ways the history of humanity is a timeline of innovation.

The discovery of fire revolutionized human life on earth, the development of the wheel got the world moving faster, and in todays world, travel into space is our new frontier.

As we watch SpaceX begin a fresh exploration into the mystery beyond, its a wonder to learn of just how much the race to space has given birth to the gadgets we now use in our everyday lives.

Child safety seat

It was Swedish engineer Bertil Aldman that came up with a crucial aspect of todays child booster seat; that of positioning it backwards, and Aldman got his inspiration directly from Nasa.

He saw that astronauts of the Gemini Space program were positioned backward in their capsule, a means to limit the effect of acceleration force on them, and immediately knew that the same logic would help protect infants and young children in motor cars.

Its a concept that has gone on to save millions of lives, thanks to Volvo Cars.

Volvo is famous for having invented the three-point safety belt, and so it comes as no surprise that they were responsible for developing Aldmans vision in to the first child safety seat too.

Camera phones

A little known fact is that the first digital camera was built by Eastman Kodak in 1975 (if only they had continued to develop it!) but the actual concept of digital photography has its root in the 1960s, developed by an engineer at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

It was the discoveries of that program that led to the iconic shots of the galaxy, the moon, and even the earth, all of which still inspire us today; and that specific technology which powers one in three camera phones.

The next time you whip out your phone to take a family snap, remember, the tech in your hand was inspired by the stars.

The soles of your running shoes

Most runners wouldnt know it, but since the Apollo era, every weekend jogger and marathon champion has been competing in space shoes.

In the 1960s Nasa developed the "blow rubber molding" process to produce space helmets, which is the same tech used to create the hollows in running shoes that get filled with shock absorbing material.

In fact, it can be said, that without Nasa engineer Frank Rudy, the Nike Air brand would never have seen the light of day.

Baby formula

Its not really so surprising, is it?

Who better than space explorers to discover the best way to turn nutrients into a powder?

Today, many infant formulas rely on a nutrition enrichment process originally devised by Nasa.

The agency began research into the potential for algae to be used as a food recycling agent, which resulted in the creation of an algae-based vegetable oil.

The result became known as Formulaid, which is the bedrock of many baby foods today.

The computer mouse

Potentially the space inspired gizmo most in use the world over today is none other than the mighty computer mouse.

That tiny staple of every laptop and PC was born during the frenzy that was the race to the moon of the 1960s.

Nasa and Stanford researchers were focused on finding an easier way for astronauts to connect with their onboard computers, giving the developed world our most trusty sidekick.

Today space exploration is back in the news.

Virgin Galactic have already sold tourist tickets for space flips, Nokia is installing cell towers on the moon to assist engineers slated for lunar work shifts, and Elon Musk sees Mars as an obvious choice for a new home.

Humanitys speed of innovation is only increasing, making the wave of new gadgets set to join life on earth as fascinating as ever.

Go here to read the rest:

5 everyday gadgets inspired by space travel - IOL

Written by Rebecca Cairns, CNN

Cylindrical steel and glass towers protrude through solar panels on the vast circular roof of the futuristic, four-story Spaceport City.

The spaceport rises from an island that floats in Tokyo Bay, with the skyscrapers of Japan's capital in the background. It's designed to launch tourists on day trips to space, where they will be able to see the building's huge roof -- as well as glimpse the curvature of the Earth and experience zero gravity.

The spaceport will do much more than offer adventurous tourists the trip of a lifetime. It's a day trip destination in itself, with lifestyle and education facilities designed to help earthbound visitors become "more familiar with space" says Urszula Kuczma, project manager at Noiz Architects.

The roof of the spaceport will be covered with solar panels. Credit: Space Port Japan Association, Dentsu, Canaria and Noiz Architects

The mixed-use space includes research and business facilities, an education academy, shops, a hotel, an astronaut-food restaurant, a 4D IMAX movie theatre, an art museum, a gym, an aquarium and a disco -- all space-themed, of course.

To make the spaceport accessible, Noiz Architects' design incorporates public transport with a network of bridges that carry electric cars and autonomous trains, seamlessly integrating the floating island with the city, says Kuczma. The idea, she says, is to stimulate economic opportunities, while inspiring people to explore the possibilities of technology and the wonders of space.

Day trips to space

Unlike the conventional vertical rocket launchers most of us associate with space travel, Spaceport City is designed for suborbital spaceships that look more like planes and take off horizontally.

The spaceport is designed like an airport, for suborbital spacecrafts that take off horizontally like planes. Credit: Space Port Japan Association, Dentsu, Canaria and Noiz Architects

Noiz Architects' plans for Spaceport City include facilities to help space tourists get prepared, says Kuczma. Space travel can be physically and mentally challenging, she says, so health check-ups in the medical clinic and training at the gym or space academy may be part of pre-flight preparations.

Location, location, location

These spaceports have been located near cities to attract space-related businesses and space travelers -- once commercial flights are available.

The four-story spaceport will be multi-purpose: a travel hub as well as an education, entertainment, retail and business center. Credit: Space Port Japan Association, Dentsu, Canaria and Noiz Architects

Tokyo's Spaceport City is designed to showcase the benefits of urban spaceports, to get city dwellers on board with having a spaceport on their doorstep, says Hidetaka Aoki, director of Spaceport Japan.

This kind of spaceflight is still decades off, but Spaceport Japan wants conceptual projects like Spaceport City to lay the groundwork in changing perceptions and "educating" the public about "potential business," says Aoki.

Whether elements of Noiz Architects' design will make it into spaceports of the future remains to be seen -- but the project starts a conversation about what space travel could be like.

Kuczma hopes it will give "people a peek and get them primed for the concept of space as part of the contemporary landscape."

View post:

This floating spaceport in Japan could bring space travel to the city - CNN

When astronaut Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev boarded the first pieces of the International Space Station on November 2, 2000, they clasped hands in unison.

"At that moment, we were thinking of the present," Krikalev told NASA in October 2010. But, he added, "subconsciously, we understood that was a certain threshold we were supposed to cross."

Since Expedition 1, the facility's first long-term mission, humans have lived aboard the ISS every second of the next 7,300 days, all while the now-football field-size laboratory has careened around Earth at 17,500 mph.

The station has far outlasted expectations engineers gave it a 15-year life expectancy though its future remains uncertain. NASA thinks the ISS can remain in orbit until 2028 or so, but that depends on whether or not the US and other countries keep funding the project, to the tune of billions per year.

An early version of the Space Station, back when it consisted of just three primary modules, on September 1, 2000. NASA

Private space companies are hoping to build new stations with the help of NASA; some may be way fancier than the current station, or have a lot more room.

But no matter what comes next, engineers and commercial operators will look to the space station as the foundation for all of our future space travel endeavors.

They'll learn from crew members' solutions to common engineering problems, like when one cosmonaut used tea leaves to find a leak in one of the station's main modules. And they could build on ISS research by digging deeper into how to grow fresh produce off-planet, or how the human body reacts to months of microgravity.

Expedition One commander William (Bill) Shepherd in the Zvezda Service module of the International Space Station (ISS) Alpha, May 24, 2011. NASA

Shepherd, a NASA astronaut, has said Expedition-1's first day was "hectic" as the crew prepared to broadcast leaving their spaceship and entering the space station.

"There was kind of a very busy scramble to do the initial things that we had to do and, particularly, to find the TV hook-up and the TV cable," he told AmericaSpace in October 2015. "We were really close to the wire getting all that rigged and happy, and we almost missed it."

The team eventually succeeded in hooking up the equipment, though things never really quieted down: The crew spent more than four months conducting 22 science experiments between piecing the station together. Shepherd likened their mission to "trying to build a house and live in it at the same time."

On that mission, Shepherd, Krikalev and Gidzenko installed the station's solar arrays, which boosted the station's power, plus the $1.4 billion US "Destiny" research module. They also exercised multiple hours a day to stave off bone and muscle loss that can occur in microgravity.

On March 18, 2001, the crew packed up and left after their replacements arrived: Expedition 2 aboard NASA's space shuttle Discovery. But Expedition 1's legacy lives on in the sections they installed, and in hidden surprises, like an aluminum cover for a ventilation duct with a message scrawled on it.

"I wrote on the back of it that this was something that was manufactured by the first expedition, figuring that no one would ever see that," Shepherd said. But in 2014, one of the crews finally found his message.

"There are a few other things hidden away in various parts of the original modules on Space Station that I don't think people have found yet... But some day," he said.

The International Space Station (ISS). NASA

Thanks to nearly 100 crewed missions over its first 20 years, the ISS now boasts dozens of modules, or sections, installed by astronauts and cosmonauts. In all, the flying laboratory now has more livable room than a six-bedroom house.

As it's gotten bigger, ambitions for the station's use have also grown. Most crews now conduct upwards of 200 experiments during a six-month mission a 10-fold increase from two decades ago.

All told, the station has hosted 3,000 science experiments since 2000. Crew members' work has ranged from growing fresh produce in space to studying how living in space affects the human body, an area vital to understand before long-term missions to the moon and Mars begin.

Cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, Expedition 22 flight engineer, holds Mizun lettuce plants from the BIO-5 Rasteniya-2 (Plants-2) experiment in the Service Module during Expedition 20. NASA

In one prominent example, known as the Twin Study, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent 340 days aboard the Space Station. His identical twin brother and fellow astronaut, Mark, remained on Earth.

The study found that Scott Kelly's time on the station likely changed his body mass, his bone density, and even the way his genes expressed themselves.

In addition to scientific research, ISS crew members have helped shoot feature films, like the IMAX movie "Space Station." And recently, NASA has ratcheted up commercial activity at the facility. In October, it sent up bottles of Este Lauder skincare product and instructed astronauts to photograph them for a commercial. The agency is also in talks with a production company to make a space-based reality show, called "Space Hero," that would allow one contest-winner to travel to the station and live there for 10 days.

Astronaut Robert L. Curbeam Jr. (left) and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Christer Fuglesang, both STS-116 mission specialists, participate in a spacewalk on December 12, 2006. NASA

The ISS has cost NASA and other space agencies approximately $150 billion to build and operate. And like any large and elaborate home, it needs constant upkeep and repairs; the agency still spends about $3 billion to $4 billion per year so crew members can keep the station in working order.

Sometimes the work takes them outside. To date, crew members have performed at least 231 spacewalks, many to conduct repair work.

Such operations, also called "extravehicular activities," usually require intense concentration and stamina, since they more nakedly expose crew members to the dangers of space. They're also grueling, since the spacesuits, called extravehicular mobility units, weigh about 280 pounds and limit normal human motions.

But they're not all risky tedium: They can also dazzle in rare moments, as retired astronaut Peggy Whitson previously told Business Insider while recounting a moment outside the ISS.

"I could see myself in a space suit, I could see the Earth behind me in the solar arrays, and I was like, 'holy cow, I really am an astronaut!' Because you forget. You're in this moment. You're getting a job done," Whitson said.

"Mixed feelings about International Women's Day: why do we still have 364 mens days a year? Proud to have Peggy Whitson by my side: future 2-time Space Station commander." Thomas Pesquet courtesy of ESA/NASA

Astronaut Terry Virts also experienced his own zen moment during a maintenance procedure. When he had a few moments to rest, he paused outside the station as it orbited 240 miles above the Earth.

"The only sound I heard was the faint, high-pitched whine of the spacesuit fan, and my own breathing, and for a few glorious seconds it was just me and the universe," the retired astronaut wrote in his book "HOW TO ASTRONAUT: An Insider's Guide to Leaving Planet Earth." (Astronauts sometimes describe a powerful "overview effect" from such experiences.)

Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy takes a break during a six-hour spacewalk to help with assembly and maintenance on the International Space Station, August 22, 2013. Johnson Space Center

But, he added, such moments were rare.

"Ninety-nine percent of my time was spent repairing equipment and storing gear and putting grease on bolts and running on a treadmill. And 1% of it was spent hearing from God and seeing creation from a perspective that I'd never thought possible," he wrote.

And even as crew members work around the clock to keep the station in normal working order, unexpected problems arise.

Since 2000, crews onboard the ISS have dealt with more than a dozen moderate to serious maintenance issues, including oxygen generator failures, air leaks, and torn solar panels.

Such problems have become more frequent in recent years, particularly on the station's Russian side where some of the oldest modules reside. The segment has seen a toilet go bust, an oxygen-supply system break down, and an air leak grow larger.

NASA astronaut Serena Aun-Chancellor works on the current US space station toilet. NASA

Crew members found the leak by watching tea leaves float around in microgravity, then patched it with Kapton tape until a more permanent fix can be made.

Such issues are only likely to grow more common as the ISS hurtles into its twilight years.

"All modules of the Russian segment are exhausted," Gennady Padalka, a cosmonaut, told RIANovostion October 15, 2020.

The space station is projected to remain in orbit until at least 2024, though possibly through 2030.

But all good things must come to an end. And when the ISS does, other habitable stations are expected to take its place. Some companies, like Blue Origin, are already working on their own "orbital habitats," which would apparently lay the foundations for a space-based economy of millions of workers.

Others, like Axiom, hope to build new modules that add on to the space station initially, yet later detach to become part of an independent orbital outpost before the world's space agencies retire the ISS into the Pacific Ocean.

An artist's rendering of Axiom's Earth Observatory, a section within its planned International Space Station module. Axiom Space

The Axiom plan is likely to be a welcome development, at least for the current crew aboard the station.

Asked what they think a fitting 20th birthday gift for the ISS would be, all three crew members of Expedition 64, the crew currently living there Kate Rubins, Sergey Ryzhikov, and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov agreed on what they'd want.

"We welcome any and all modules," Rubins said on a recent conference call. "Particularly if they have some stowage space."

See original here:

Humans have now lived on the International Space Station for 20 years - Business Insider - Business Insider

A few months ago, amidst Covid, newspapers in West Bengal carried reports about a man who bought an acre of land on Mars. When he brandished the title deed, the media asked whether he planned to spend his honeymoon (he was about to get married) on the red planet. Those who buy a bottle of Laphroaig also get a title deed, with a lease on one square feet of land in Islay. But Islay is terrestrial, Mars is not.

There is indeed a company (perhaps there is more than one) that sells you an acre of land on Mars with a deed registered with the International Association of Human Planetary Exploration (IAOHPE). I havent found anything suggesting this is an authentic organisation. But if there are people gullible enough to pay for this doubtful package (there are standard, deluxe and premium rates) and like the resultant ego trip, why not? It seems to be no different from the idea of purchasing honorary doctorate degrees from places with dubious academic merit.

Anyone who has bought land in India knows that registration of a sale deed does not guarantee ownership or title. But this is an inappropriate analogy. For registering a sale deed, the seller is presumed to possess title. For Mars, or the moon for that matter, there can be no such presumption.While Mars is relatively new, land on the moon has been around for some time, again with deeds registered by IAOHPE, or without it. Sushant Singh Rajput was only one example. There was the German who claimed Frederick the Great gave his ancestor the moon. Interplanetary Development Corporation and Lunar Embassy Commission hawked lunar real estate.

Every science fiction connoisseur will remember Robert Heinleins 1949 novella, The Man who Sold the Moon. That man was a businessman named Delos David Harriman. At the time, at least in fiction, Heinlein invoked a legal maxim that has gone through extremely interesting evolution in jurisprudence. This fancy sounding Latin (law always becomes more impressive when Latin is used) maxim is, Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos, abbreviated more simply as the ad coelum doctrine.

In plain English, a person who owns a plot of land not only has rights to the land, but also to the air above and subsurface below the land. In the novella, using this principle, Harriman persuades the United Nations to grant his company rights to the moon. With air travel (the change started with balloon flights) and now space travel, ad coelum has become circumscribed. No infinitely above and infinitely below. There are limits.

On specifics of rights on the moon, Mars and asteroids, there is an Outer Space Treaty (OST, 1967) and this covers the moon and other celestial bodies. Most countries have signed this, though some have signed, but have not yet ratified it. Article II of this Treaty seems clear enough, at least in intent. Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means. All law (and legislation) is overtaken by events, just as the ad coelum doctrine eventually had to be modified.

The world in 2020 is different from that in 1967. Other than in the realm of science fiction, who would have imagined in 1967 that private companies would venture into space, or that chicken nuggets would float around in space? The likes of IAOHPE can argue that Article II applies only to sovereign states, not individual parties. If there is such a legal case, I suspect Article VI of the OST is sufficient to settle matters. States Parties to the Treaty shall bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, whether such activities are carried on by governmental agencies or by non-governmental entities, and for assuring that national activities are carried out in conformity with the provisions set forth in the present Treaty.

The activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorisation and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty. The problem with the Treaty is elsewhere. Reflecting the vintage, the OST is primarily about peaceful space exploration and limiting the Cold War in space. It didnt anticipate property rights in space. As with land, property rights are a bundle of rights.

Ownership is only one element. Delinking from ownership, what about mining extra-terrestrial resources? There have been add-ons to the OST, such as on return of objects from space (astronauts included), international registration and liability for objects launched and limitations on what governments can do on celestial bodies. India is a party to these. But these dont address the core issue of exploitation of resources, not always by governments, but also private companies. UN treaties are often honoured in the breach.

In any event, such a new treaty under the UN umbrella is unlikely. If the US can enact national legislation in 2015 (Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, one should read what this says about space resource exploration and utilisation), why shouldnt India? We have a space programme and private entry has recently been allowed into these. However, Indian National Space Promotion andAuthorisation Centre (In-Space), New Space India Ltd (NSIL) and Antrix Corporation require legislative backing on commercial exploitation of resources too, even if this conflicts with prior positions India adopted.

Bibek debroyChairman, Economic Advisory Council to the PM (Tweets @bibekdebroy)

View post:

Who can own property on the moon and mars? - The New Indian Express

Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies, a Seattle, Washington-based company, reported they had sent NASA a concept design for nuclear thermal propulsion engine. As part of a study on space flight, they designed a NTP with the aim of getting Mars in just three months for future space travel missions. It comes after NASA officials have said nuclear-powered systems will be required for further exploration into space.

NTP systems use nuclear fission, power from splitting atoms, to create thrust, and are generally more efficient than existing chemical rockets.

Michael Eades, principal engineer at USNC-Tech, issued a statement on the companys nuclear engine, touting it as even more reliable than other designs.

He also claimed the companys NTP design has a specific impulse, referring to the amount of thrust from a propellant, more than twice that of chemical systems."

Mr Eades added: We want to lead the effort to open new frontiers in space, and do it quickly and safely.

READ MORE:SpaceX news: Elon Musk's firm aiming to provide internet to first residents of Mars

NTP systems have been looked at as promising ways to slash space travel time with heavier payloads than modern advanced rockets.

Experts believe the systems will be able to halve the travel time to Mars, which is currently held to be seven months one way.

Paolo Venneri, UNSC-Tech CEO, has claimed their design uses nuclear design aspects from reactor, and added: Key to USNC-Tech's design is a conscious overlap between terrestrial and space reactor technologies.

"This allows us to leverage the advancements in nuclear technology and infrastructure from terrestrial systems and apply them to our space reactors."

The proposal followed NASA scientists and engineers admitting nuclear-powered engines were the next big step forward for space travel.

Former NASA administrator Daniel Goldin recently argued "it's time to grow up" and go nuclear for future space exploration missions.

In a statement, NASA said adopting NTP would save the company millions, and added: What if it costs less, carries more, and uses less fuel? This radical system is in-space electric propulsion.

"It can reduce the amount of fuel, or propellant, needed by up to 90 percent compared to chemical propulsion systems, saving millions in launch costs while providing greater missions flexibility."

DONT MISSUK to launch own satellite with Space Commandto combat Russia threat [REVEALED]Coronavirus: Psychological impact of mask-wearing [EXPOSED]Boris Johnson's plan to slash your energy bill by 750 [REVEALED]

It also follows companies eyeing up ways to make interplanetary travel more of a reality in the near-future.

Elon Musks SpaceX have touted their Starship rocket as almost ready to start travelling to Mars.

Mr Musk, CEO of the company, said in a conversation with Mars Society founder Robert Zubrin that SpaceX is on track to begin its first unmanned mission to Mars within four years time.

He added, referring to a once-every-26-month period: "I think we have a fighting chance of making that second Mars transfer window.

An expert has also warned NASA are being challenge by China over being the dominant space power.

Dr Malcolm Davis, Senior Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, toldExpress.co.uk: The Chinese have made it very clear they intend to be a comprehensive space power, certainly by 2049. That is in their official statements.

I think they're probably moving faster than that to try and achieve that goal.

So we'll see how they go about that. It's not just the military side of things there, its also the civil and commercial side of things.

Originally posted here:

NASA breakthrough: Humans could travel to Mars in HALF the time after major development - Daily Express

The witching hour is upon us.

Maybe ghosts, ghouls and superheroes wont fill the streets this year, but the coronavirus pandemic cant take all the fun out of Halloween.

While the coronavirus pandemic never got as bad as the horror classic Dawn of the Dead, heading to the mall was a spooky proposition a few months ago. Now that masks and social distancing protocols are the norm, shoppers are starting to head back to the register.

Thats good news for the Florida Retail Federation, which is expecting Halloween to do wonders for stores across the state according to a consumer survey conducted by the National Retail Federation, Halloween spending is expected to cross the $8 billion mark this year. While thats a significant dip from last year, its not as bad as once feared.

When FRF needs help in the Legislature, they turn to French Brown of Dean Mead, Jon Johnson and Darrick McGee of Johnson & Blanton, and their in-house team of R. Scott Shalley, Jake Farmer, Lorena Holley and Grace Lovell.

After making the trip to Wal-Mart or Target to grab some garb for the kiddos and something sweet, theres the question of what to do with the rest of the night.

In a normal year, Halloween falling on a Saturday would mean plenty of options parties for adults, Halloween Horror Nights for the tourist crowd and of course trick-or-treating for kids without fear of missing bedtime on a school night.

Universal Studios might be seen as a little brother to Disney for most of the year, but not in October. Unfortunately, their monthlong Halloween bash was scrubbed this year, but the Horror Nights spirit lives in in a scaled-down celebration.

The theme park has set up a pair of haunted houses, one is themed after the 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein Lives and the other is titled Revenge of the Tooth Fairy dentophobics be warned, this one flips the tooth fairy mythos on its head.

Just as horror fans rely on Universal for scares, the tourism juggernaut relies on a talented team of lobbyists to advance its priorities in Tallahassee. The current roster: Brett Bacot, Jim Magill and Kimberly McGlynn of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney; Will McKinley, Angela Dempsey, Fred Dickinson, Erik Kirk and Sophie Smith of PooleMcKinley; Missy Timmins of Timmins Consulting; and in-houser Melanie Becker.

As for trick-or-treating and partying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention placed both on the high-risk list. Its for the greater good, of course, but its no less disappointing than getting a tube of toothpaste at the door. Still, there a few places for kids to safely sport their costumes.

Down in the Glades area, U.S. Sugar has teamed up with the cities of Moore Haven, LaBelle, Clewiston, Belle Glade, and Indiantown to make sure trick-or-treaters dont go home empty-handed Saturday night. The events range from drive-in candy pickups to socially distanced, mask required haunted houses.

U.S. Sugars is among Floridas biggest businesses and, accordingly, they have many of the big-name lobbyists at the biggest firms on retainer.

The list includes Brian Ballard and Chris Dorworth of Ballard Partners; Gregory Black of Waypoint Strategies; Carlos Cruz of Converge Government Affairs; Charlie Dudley and Cory Guzzo of Floridian Partners; Mercer Fearington, Seth McKeel, Sydney Ridley and Clark Smith of The Southern Group; Richard Heffley and Kelly Horton of Heffley & Associates; Frank Mayernick and Tracy Mayernick of The Mayernick Group; Kirk Pepper of GrayRobinson; Christopher Smith of Tripp Scott PA; and Screven Watson of Screven Watson & Associates.

With few knocks at the door and limited party options, many of us will be flipping through channels or, more likely, streaming services looking for a festive film.

Sunshine State cinema savants can pocket this piece of trivia: Creature from the Black Lagoon was shot in Florida more specifically, Silver Springs, Wakulla Springs and Jax. The definitive deep ones film went on to be considered a classic, but theres been few other Fresh from Florida films to be so honored in the 65 years since it bowed.

If Film Florida gets its way, that could change. The trade association has been fighting for years to lure film productions back to Florida, most recently through an innovative grant model. It hasnt squeaked through the Legislature yet, but the proposal has definitely gained traction among influential lawmakers such as Sen. Joe Gruters.

The renewed interest is thanks in part to the lobbying efforts of Al Cardenas, Slater Bayliss, Chris Chaney, Stephen Shiver and Sarah Busk Suskey of The Advocacy Group at Cardenas Partners.

Of course, not everyone is into creature features. For those that want a little Sci-Fi mixed in, all-time greats such as It Came from Outer Space, Alien and The Thing are always good picks for a reliable fright. Space travel is in vogue right now, and the premier name in the business is shooting rockets from the Space Coast to the stars.

Elon Musks SpaceX (or Space Exploration Technologies for the long winded) brought joy to people the world over early on in the pandemic when it launched a Falcon9 into orbit from Kennedy Space Center. That rocket carried two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA.

While the mission was a success, SpaceXs team of rocket scientists know their limits. Thats why the company turns to Jeff Sharkey andTaylor Biehl of Capital Alliance Group to bring its priorities in for a safe landing at the Capitol.

Back on terra firma, theres another tech revolution in its nascent phase: Self-driving cars. And unlike the nightmare-inducing Maximum Overdrive, the new-fangled innovation is apparently safe enough for Sen. Jeff Brandes to hop in the non-driver seat.

Musks Tesla Motors is one of the companies making waves in autonomous vehicles, but theres a truckload more looking to boost their presence in Florida, Starsky Robotics and Google (via Waymo) among them. But until the programming geniuses behind AVs find a way to automate the Legislature, theyll be in need of some backup in Tallahassee.

For Starsky, those duties have been farmed out to Cesar Fernandez, Jonathan Kilman, Paul Lowell and Brad Nail of Converge Government Affairs while Waymo has Rhett ODoski, Sara Clements, Ryder Rudd and Sean Stafford of McGuireWoods Consulting in the drivers seat.

Read more:

Halloween is brought to you by these Florida lobbyists and political associations - Florida Politics

Water has been definitively found on the Moon, Nasa has said, and there are a set of water traps that could hold it stably.

The research suggests that water could be distributed right across the lunar surface, not just trapped in the cold, shadowed parts of the Moon.

The discovery is a major breakthrough in the mission to explore the rest of the solar system, as well as giving a better understanding of the lunar surface.

It also raises new questions about how exactly the water got there, and how it is able to survive the harsh conditions on the Moon.

It could, for instance, be trapped in glass beads on the surface that form when micrometeorites crash into the Moon and melt a part of the lunar surface, either forming water or capturing it in the beads as it does.

Scientists had previously thought that any water on the sunlit side of the Moon would immediately be lost. But it appears that it is in fact present, and not just on the parts that are shaded from the sun.

Nasa was keen to stress that the amount of water is very limited, with the new discovery representing only around one per cent of the amount of water found in the Sahara desert. But even that very small amount of water was not previously confirmed to exist, and it remains unclear how it could be created or stay on the surface.

Researchers had previously found evidence of hydration on the lunar surface. But it was unclear whether that hydrogen was in the form of hydroxyl the chemical that makes up drain cleaners or in the form of H2O, or water.

Now scientists have found unambiguously that there is a water on the surface.

We had indications that H2O the familiar water we know might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon, said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.

That could be used for humans who travel to the Moon and create a permanent lunar base there, as Nasa hopes to. It could also help create fuel to travel elsewhere in the solar system.

Nasa hopes to head to the Moon in 2024, taking the first person in more than 50 years and the first woman ever to step foot on the lunar surface. By the end of the decade, it wants to have established a sustainable human presence on the Moon.

Water is critical for exploring space: not just as a fuel or drinking, but it can also be turned into oxygen to breathe. But it is heavy, and therefore very expensive to be carried into space on a rocket, and so finding it on the Moon could make space travel significantly cheaper and easier.

Water is a valuable resource, for both scientific purposes and for use by our explorers, said Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist for NASAs Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.

If we can use the resources at the Moon, then we can carry less water and more equipment to help enable new scientific discoveries.

Scientists still dont know exactly where the water is being stored on the Moon, or if it can be used at all. They said the new discovery is just the beginning of future research that will involve exploring the state and location of the water on the surface.

Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space, said Casey Honniball, the lead author, who published the results from her graduate thesis work at the University of Hawaii at Mnoa in Honolulu. Yet somehow were seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there.

Researchers suggest that in some cases tiny patches of ice might exist in permanent shadows no bigger than a penny.

They explored phenomena on the moon called cold traps, which are shadowy regions of the surface that exist in a state of eternal darkness.

It is thought that many have gone without a single ray of sunlight for potentially billions of years.

Now scientists say there may be a lot more of these nooks and crannies than previous data suggests.

Paul Hayne, assistant professor in the laboratory of atmospheric and space physics at University of Colorado Boulder, said: "If you can imagine standing on the surface of the moon near one of its poles, you would see shadows all over the place.

"Many of those tiny shadows could be full of ice."

Drawing on detailed data from Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the researchers estimate the moon could harbour roughly 15,000 square miles of permanent shadows in various shapes and sizes.

According to scientists, these might be reservoirs capable of preserving water via ice.

Prof Hayne added: "If we're right, water is going to be more accessible for drinking water, for rocket fuel, everything that Nasa needs water for."

In one of two papers published in Nature Astronomy, Casey Honniball, from the University of Hawaii, and colleagues analysed data from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) airborne telescope that observed the moon at six micrometres.

At this wavelength, they were able to detect a spectral signature of water that is not shared with other hydroxyl compounds.

They found water is present at high southern latitudes.

The observations arose from something of a test observation, to see whether Sofia could examine the Moon. The flying observatory is usually used to look deeper into space, and it was not clear that it could even see the lunar surface properly since it is so close and bright.

It was, in fact, the first time SOFIA has looked at the Moon, and we werent even completely sure if we would get reliable data, but questions about the Moons water compelled us to try, said Naseem Rangwala, SOFIAs project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley, in a statement.

Its incredible that this discovery came out of what was essentially a test, and now that we know we can do this, were planning more flights to do more observations.

In the other study, Prof Hayne assessed a whole range of possible sizes for cold traps, down to one centimetre in diameter.

The team found that small-scale micro cold traps - some just 1cm wide - are hundreds to thousands of times more numerous than larger cold traps, and they can be found at both poles.

The authors suggest that approximately 40,000 square km of the lunar surface has the capacity to trap water.

Researchers say the findings indicate water is efficiently produced or delivered on the moon by various processes, and is likely to be stored in the moon's cold traps at both polar region.

The team pulled data from real-life observations of the moon, then used mathematical tools to recreate what its surface might look like at a very small scale.

They say it is a bit like a golf ball.

However the researchers caution that they cannot prove these shadows actually hold pockets of ice, and the only way to do that would be to go there in person or with rovers and dig.

But they say the results are promising, and future missions could shed even more light on the moon's water resources.

Prof Hayne said: "Astronauts may not need to go into these deep, dark shadows.

"They could walk around and find one that's a metre wide and that might be just as likely to harbour ice."

Additional reporting by Press Association

Read more:

Nasa reveals that there is water on the moon in breakthrough that could lead to deep-space travel - The Independent

If its your birthday today Those in a relationship may feel slightly confused about it, but avoid giving an ultimatum about it. Buying property is an option. Negotiations for new business/contracts/deals/projects bring results much quicker than last year. Professionally you are in a better space. Travel for work/business is possible after December, but it depends entirely on how you feel about it. Do follow a healthy diet.

Capricorn: One potential client/contract looks a little undecided right now; but carry on with alternate plans without undue waste of time. Love msg: An important milestone is celebrated. Colours: grey/blue.

Taurus: Make sure creative goals can be translated to a success story. Financial advantages are revealed due to some investments made last year. Love msg: Singles enter the marriage dasha. Colours: maroon/yellow.

Aquarius: Be very aware of body language and not sending the wrong signals. Do follow a healthy diet. Love msg: A relationship is in a state of flux and change. Colours: brown/beige.

Gemini: A karmic cycle of selling property begins. A better financial time begins too. Do get enough sleep. Love msg: Your actual feelings come as a surprise to someone special. Colours: tan/purple.

Libra: Optimism and acceptance of what there is in life makes it sweeter. Life is good. Love msg: This is a time of making conscious and well thought out choices. Colours: brown/grey.

Pisces: Both of you feel responsible and know important issues need to be addressed and sorted out. Health is good. Love msg: A turn for the better in a relationship. Colours: black/khaki.

Cancer: Some decide on refurnishing the home or office. A cycle of changes ensures happiness and career/business in a forward movement. Love msg: A period of emotional turmoil ends. Colours: green/black.

Scorpio: Wanting to end a business partnership should be thought out in detail before deciding what to do. Love msg: Relatives and friends may wonder why you are being so secretive. Colours: red/grey.

Aries: A karmic cycle for acquiring or selling immovable assets begins. Health is good. Love msg: A karmic cycle for some involves a chance meeting with someone from the past. Colours: pink/lavender.

Leo: Helping a friend through a tough time has taught you many lessons through second hand experience. Do get enough sleep. Love msg: Reach for happiness by following your heart. Colours: orange/red.

Sagittarius: The boss is quite co-operative and appreciative about certain ideas discussed with you. A slow moving day. Love msg: Singles meet someone they have admired for quite a while. Colours: khaki/pink.

Read more:

Horoscope today: Here are the astrological predictions for October 31 - Mumbai Mirror

Fast & Furious 10 & 11 are set to be the concluding chapters of the franchise - here's what they need to do to bring it all to a close.

The Fast and Furious series is set to conclude with its 11th film, but the franchise will need to tie up a few loose ends before it wraps up. As moviegoers await the chance the se the upcoming F9, delayed to May 2021 from May of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fast and Furious series is still growing. The franchise has spanned an astonishing two decades from its modest beginnings in 2001's The Fast and the Furious. The journey in that time has been one for the record books, going from street racing action movies that were moderate hits in their time to the biggest action movie franchise on the planet.

The series has also undergoneamind-boggling metamorphosis, slowly phasing out the Earth-bound stakes it once occupied to now sitting on a similar plane as superhero movies. A run like that is enviable by any measure, andnews recently brokethat the 10th and 11th chapters of the series will be its last. Given what a monumental tentpole the franchise has become for Universal Pictures, one certainly couldn't be faulted for viewing such a claim with skepticism. There's also a pretty fair chance that this falls in the "Yes and No" category, with theprimaryFast and Furious series indeed coming to end after number 11, while the larger franchise continues to live on through spin-offs such as Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw and Netflix's Fast and Furious: Spy Racers animated series.

RELATED: Fast & Furious Tokyo Drift IS Now One Of The Franchises Most Important Movies

In any case, the 10th and 11thFast and Furiousmoviescannot truly end the series without addressing a number of key issues pertaining to its story and characters. The increasingly outrageous territory the franchise has expanded into also presents it with an opening to do a few things that would have been bafflingly absurd when it first began, but which now fit right in with the kind of gloriously unhinged thrill ride that the series has come to embody. Here is what Fast and Furious 10 and 11 need to do in order to give the series the finale that it deserves.

The most obvious, and the most called for, resolution of the Fast Saga is in the promise of justice being done for Han's attempted murder by Deckard Shaw. Han was supposedly killed by Shaw in bothFast and Furious: Tokyo Drift and Furious 7due to their overlapping timelines, only for the trailer for F9 to reveal Han alive and well in the present day and returning to Dom's crew. This opens a whole can of worms on its own with how Han survived the explosion of his car and where he's been all this time, though the series easily skirted that exact complication with Letty's return after her own supposed death in Fast and Furious 6. More importantly, there's also a lot of water under the bridge that is Shaw's attack on Dom's family in Furious 7.

The Fate of the Furiouscasually retconned Shaw from a villain into an outright hero, even inducting him into Dom's inner circle, and by Hobbs and Shaw, the only narrative link to prior assault on Dom and company was he and Hobbs continuing to butt heads more out of egos than a true grudge. From his own perspective, Shaw was acting in retaliation for his brother Owen Shaw's near-death from his battle with Dom's family in Fast and Furious 6, only for everyone (Owen included) to set that aside when it became clear they shared a common enemy in Cipher in The Fate of the Furious.

Though Shaw isn't appearing in F9, his return to the mainline series is assured, and it would be horrendously negligent to not directly address his attempt to kill Han. A face-to-face encounter goes without saying, and perhaps even a physical altercation does too, its doubtless Hanwill refuse to trust Shaw. TheFast Sagafound its own way for Hobbs to bury the hatchet with Shaw over his previous attempt to kill him, and however it goes about doing so, it has to extend some form of justice to Han, as well.

Of course, with Han returning, there's no reason why other characters can't, and it would actually be a huge missed opportunity if the last chapters of the Fast and Furious series didn't pull in everyone that they possibly could. Given that Han is back, the return of his girlfriend Gisele Yashar is right at the top of the list, all the more so for Gal Gadot's Wonder Womanprestige. Though Gisele seemingly died herself in Fast and Furious 6, Han's return itself is really the biggest argumentfor Gisele to also jump back in.

Eva Mendes returning as Monica Fuentes would be a lot trickier, given Mendes having essentially retired from acting, but if she were to show any interest incoming back for even a cameo, Monica's return would certainly expand the ensemble of the franchise's finale. Johnny Strong's Leon was also one of the more minor associates of Dom and his crew, but bringing him back in some capacity would also be a wise choice as the series comes to an end, and the same would be the case for Lucas Black's Sean Boswell from Tokyo Drift, as well as Tego Calderon and Don Omar as Leo and Santos from Fast Five (bringing back Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs also goes without saying.) One thing's for sure - in a series predicated on the idea of family, the last two Fast and Furious movies should bring back every retired character that it possibly can.

RELATED: Dom vs. Brian: Who The Best Driver In Fast & Furious Really Is

At a glance, the notion of time-travel in a Fast and Furious movie sounds ridiculous, but realistically, should it? Few movie franchises have undergone such a radical facelift as the Fast and Furious series has, beginning as a pretty transparent Point Break knock-off to Dom BASE-jumping a car from one skyscraper to another in Furious 7. Once the series hit its stride in Fast Five, half of the fun of each new chapter has been in how each can be more over-the-top than the last, and sci-fi elements are also now firmly embedded into the franchise with Hobbs and Shaw's cybernetically augmented villain Brixton Lore and the Eteon organization. The point is, the Fast Saga abandoned any pretense of being a grounded action movie series long ago.

There's also the fact that F9 is now set to take the series into space, and while that feels perfectly fitting for just what the franchise is now, that also makes a hard to imagine just what the 10th and 11th installments can do to one-up it. After bringing space travel into the mix, time-travel is very possibly the only thing left for the series to dive into that can take it into even more outlandish territory. It could even make the concluding chapters of the series a kind of Avengers: Infinity War/Avengers: Endgamesituation, and bringing the whole story full circle in what is now the true Fast and Furious style. Time-travel might be jumping the shark for The Expendables or John Wick, but in a franchise that has gradually transitioned from street racing to space travel and essentially shrugged while doing it, it's justthe nextlogical frontier.

Going back to the family aspect of the franchise, that certainly needs to be central to how Fast and Furious 10 and 11 close the curtain on the series. With Han returning, that throws the door wide open for a whole slew of characters to come back into the mix, andthis could turn the final installments of the franchise into a kind of family reunion, literally and thematically. Moreover, as the central pillar of the whole series, the biggest question of all is how Dom's story should wrap up.

Considering how long the series has lasted, and done so against all odds and expectations, a final street race or scene of Dom riding off into the sunset would be fitting. At the same time,Dom going out in a blaze of glory might be the most fulfilling way to conclude his story. Tying into the family theme that the series is renown for, Dom would certainly be far from reluctant to lay down his life for the sake of anyone in his crew, so perhaps a final showdown in which Dom, armed with a pair of torque wrenches, no doubt, makes the ultimate sacrifice for his family would be the best way to finally conclude the legend of Dominic Toretto.

That the Fast and Furious series continued long enough to hit their groove with Fast Five and rise to where it is now is an astonishing accomplishment, and its ending will surely be an emotional farewell for audiences, even if it's likely to continue in some form through spin-offs and whatnot. However the book ends up being closed on the series, there are a number of beats that it should hit, a few that it absolutely has to, and a few plot elements that are simply a logical extension of the wild vehicular adventure it's transitioned into. The Fast and Furious series always lived its life a quarter-mile at a time, and the only proper way for it to conclude is for it to end that way.

NEXT: Fast & Furious: Everything That Happened To Dom That The Movies Didn't Show

Key Release Dates

WandaVision Adds Orange Is The New Black Cast Member

Growing up, Brad developed an innate love of movies and storytelling, and was instantly enamored with the world of adventure while following the exploits of Indiana Jones, Japanese kaiju, and superheroes. Today, Brad channels his thoughts on all manner of movies, from comic book films, sci-fi thrillers, comedies, and everything in between through his writings on Screen Rant. Brad also offers philosophical musings on martial arts and the filmographies of everyone from Jackie Chan to Donnie Yen on Kung Fu Kingdom, where he's also had the privilege of interviewing many of the world's great stunt professionals, and hearing plenty of gripping stories on injuries incurred in their line of work and the intricacies of designing the acts of death defiance he first thrilled to as a youngster. When he's not writing, Brad enjoys going on a ride with the latest action hit or Netflix original, though he's also known to just pop in "The Room" from time to time. Follow Brad on Twitter @BradCurran.

Read the original:

What Fast & Furious 10 & 11 Need To Do To Properly End The Fast Saga - Screen Rant

When it comes to video games portraying the atmosphere and tone of its film influences, Alien: Isolation is in a class of its own. Translating the Alien film series into a unique horror game focused on persistent terror as opposed to fleeting cheap thrills, this survival horror experience channels a sense of dread and slow-burn tension that forces players to respect the very thing that stalks them. Though its reception at launch was met with some polarizing responses--including from GameSpot's former reviews editor Kevin VanOrd--and along with modest sales, this comparatively unorthodox take on the Alien franchise became a favorite in the years since its release--even prompting fans to make an unofficial VR mod to amp up the scares.

On the sixth anniversary of its release and in time for Halloween 2020, GameSpot is taking a look back at Creative Assembly's uncompromising horror game, and how it made players to learn to fear the Xenomorph once again.

Right from outset, Alien: Isolation sets the tone for what players can expect. Its eerie 1977-era 20th Century Fox fanfare opening is a throwback to the beginnings of the Alien franchise. Creative Assembly wears its reverence for the source material on its sleeves, reveling in the iconic 70s retro-futurism that defined the movies. In the game, the nostalgia of it is alluring, but Isolation does more than pay its source material lip-service, it builds on and presents a story of its own that both fits into and enhances the movies.

Gallery

Ridley Scott's 1979 film is still regarded as one of the most influential and powerful horror films ever. Channeling elements of slasher films and science fiction, the crew of the Nostromo stumble upon a strange alien life-form of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, quickly spiraling out into a fight for survival. Despite their reliance on futuristic, yet run-down technology capable of interstellar space travel, the film was very much a humbling experience for its characters. For survival horror, this feeling of vulnerability and perilousness is an especially vital pillar of the genre--which Alien: Isolation ratchets up considerably throughout.

Initially developed as a third-person stealth action game with an in-depth cover system, the developers at Creative Assembly soon shifted to first-person to have a more intimate feel. Along with this, it introduced design tenets from the immersive-sim sub-genre--a la Dishonored and BioShock--and leaned on the tension and gameplay of classic survival horror games. Set 15 years after the Nostromo's destruction, Alien: Isolation brings Ellen Ripley's daughter Amanda to the Space Station Sevastopol to uncover clues behind her mother's disappearance. But of course, an alien organism is already onboard, unleashing a seemingly unstoppable creature focused entirely on picking off members of the space station one by one.

Unlike the bombast of movie's sequels, the game stays true to the first movie's subdued, disquieting feel. Aside from the flamethrower, firearms are the least useful of tools at the player's disposal, as the Alien is invulnerable to bullets, and is always lurking in the vents and tunnels of the station. Alien: Isolation is a re-examination of what horror and the fragility of character is in gaming, hammering the notion that you're trapped, and with no way out.

Video games as a medium have quite a history of boiling complex, highly-intelligent apex predators into a moving target for players to unload bullets into. This is especially true for how the Alien series has evolved in the gaming medium, with most of these games revolving around shooting swarms of Xenomorphs with smart-guns, pulse-rifles--and even with the Predator making an appearance. Because of this, the Alien creature became the quintessential video game cannon-fodder. However, Isolation was cold and cruel in showing players how futile this approach was, instead forcing players to relearn their relationship to the Xenomorph and, ultimately, respect it. While your goals and destination are mostly one-note, Isolation allows players to come up with their own solutions, either from sacrificing resources to craft new items, or by making a bold move to take advantage of nearby enemies as a distraction to make a quick getaway.

With a focus on staying on top of your resources, avoiding enemy encounters when possible, and a static save system that makes simply recording your progress a risk in itself--the main hook of Isolation's design is making players constantly aware of how vulnerable they are. Coming a year after the lackluster and uninspired action-horror game Aliens: Colonial Marines, the developers at Creative Assembly distinguished their Alien game with authenticity. Alien: Isolation, in many ways, relishes in subverting expectations; whether that's making players the prey instead of the predator, or giving players conditioned to expect a shooter something entirely different.

Though Isolation's lead character comes from one of the sequel's deleted scenes, Isolation benefits from extrapolating out what made the original movie memorable. In addition to Amanda, however, are an assortment of side-characters that can be played as in the Survival mode, offering their side of the story on the Sevastopol. As a ramshackle space station falling apart, populated with knock-off Working Joes androids that couldn't be sold off due to how creepy and off-putting they look, the setting feels like a haunted house floating in the cold depths of space. And to make matters worse--there's a high-intelligent, merciless killer lurking about.

Alien: Isolation saw its release in a particularly interesting year for horror gaming. The genre had gone through a rather surprising upswing with notable releases from independent developers like Five Nights at Freddy's, to some more larger scale releases like the enigmatic P.T--the teaser for the now dead Silent Hills. What these games have in common with Alien: Isolation was that they forced players into a position of disempowerment, either keeping them in a specific location, or tasking them with making to it one location from another, while avoiding the gaze of the antagonist.

With the survival horror genre, much of the experience is about humbling the player and getting them to feel the sense of uncertainty that looms throughout their trek. Alien: Isolation isn't about the big victories of taking down bosses over the course of several hours, but rather the smaller victories scattered throughout; slinking back into the shadows as the Xenomorph enters the room, narrowly avoiding certain death, or managing to grab an item of a desk in the same room as a Working Joe. Broadly speaking, Alien: Isolation spends 12-15 hours ratcheting up the tension when needed, and then gradually loosening it up. But in the midst of it all, the ever-present threat of the Xenomorph feels like the touch of fingertips on your neck, threatening to choke the life out of you at a moment's notice. Its delicate cycling of tension feels more like a constant chokehold.

While Creative Assembly and Sega may never make a game like Isolation again, it will be remembered for its bold, brave inventive realisation of the Alien franchise's potential. It understood what the property was capable of beyond the shooting galleries and recycling of cheesy one-liners. Alien: Isolation stands as a remarkable achievement for its re-examination and re-invigoration of the horror experience in gaming, and is likely one of the best things to happen to the Alien franchise in a long time.

Follow this link:

Alien: Isolation Is Still An Unmatched Horror Experience - GameSpot

Anyone familiar with cable television programs knows that Americans love the occult. Series like Ancient Aliens, Finding Bigfoot, Haunted History, MonsterQuest and Most Terrifying Places in America are more popular than shows about Adolf Hitler, real housewives or tiger kings. The fact that the objects of the search are never found does not matter. Ghosts, space aliens and monsters continue to dominate our imagination, whether they are real or not.

As a lifelong student of the occult, I admit that shows about ghosts, space aliens and monsters are a guilty pleasure of mine, along with DC Comics and chips n salsa. This does not mean that I believe in them. Take ghosts for instance. Many people believe that death is not the end, and that a persons soul or spirit travels to another realm after their bodys demise. (Here I am an agnostic, though I hope the believers are right.) From that comes the belief that many souls, whose bodies died abruptly or violently, remain at or near the site of their deaths, seeking closure. Though I do not believe in ghosts, I know some people who do. In fact, I once had a roommate who claimed that the ghost of my late partner, Michael Greenspan, haunted his bedroom. I investigated the matter, found nothing amiss, and threw out my roommate.

Still, I enjoy watching programs where ghost hunters investigate haunted houses in search of a presence.

- - - advertisement - - -

- - - advertisement - - -

Space aliens, or unidentified flying objects (UFOs), have stirred our imagination since the 1940s. They are not as farfetched as they seem. We could argue that, in a universe that is as vast as ours, intelligent life is not limited to our planet Earth. We could further argue that, if there is intelligent life elsewhere, those beings could have developed a form of space travel that is more advanced than ours. Furthermore, if their curiosity is as advanced as their technology, it is not inconceivable for them to have visited us, if only to see what is going on around here. This does not mean that space aliens came over in ancient times and helped us built the Pyramids in Egypt or Machu Picchu in Peru, no matter what Chariots of the Gods or its television offspring, Ancient Aliens, might say.

The dictionary defines cryptozoology as the search for and study of animals whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated. Todays cryptozoology might be tomorrows hard science as new species are discovered every year. Still, some cryptids existence remains in doubt. If such creatures are large or deadly, we call them monsters, and here our fascination is tinged with fear. The most famous of these monsters are the Bigfoot or Sasquatch of North America, along with their Asian cousins, the Yeti. In this case I am a believer. Though I have never seen a Sasquatch, I do not doubt that a population of giant apes, descended from Gigantopithecus, roams the forests of the Pacific Northwest and, perhaps, other places. On the other hand, no science is as fraught with hoax as the study of Sasquatch. Many so-called Bigfoot sightings turn out to be bears, men in ghillie suits or figments of someones imagination. Sadly, no photo or video of a Sasquatch is clear or conclusive, even the famous Patterson-Gimlin film (1967). Only the capture of a Sasquatchs body, living or dead, will prove to the world, once and for all, that this creature is real.

- - - advertisement - - -

See original here:

Ghosts, Space Aliens and Monsters - QNotes

Sometimes half measures can be a good thing especially on a journey this long. The agencys latest rover only has about 146 million miles left to reach its destination.

NASAs Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission has logged a lot of flight miles since being lofted skyward on July 30 146.3 million miles (235.4 million kilometers) to be exact. Turns out that is exactly the same distance it has to go before the spacecraft hits the Red Planets atmosphere like a 11,900 mph (19,000 kph) freight train on February 18, 2021.

At 1:40 p.m. Pacific Time today, our spacecraft will have just as many miles in its metaphorical rearview mirror as it will out its metaphorical windshield, said Julie Kangas, a navigator working on the Perseverance rover mission at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. While I dont think there will be cake, especially since most of us are working from home, its still a pretty neat milestone. Next stop, Jezero Crater.

The Suns gravitational influence plays a significant role in shaping not just spacecraft trajectories to Mars (as well as to everywhere else in the solar system), but also the relative movement of the two planets. So Perseverances route to the Red Planet follows a curved trajectory rather than an arrow-straight path.

NASAs Mars 2020 Perseverance rover reached its halfway point 146.3 million miles (235.4 million kilometers) on its journey to Jezero Crater on October 27, 2020, at 1:40 p.m. PDT (4:40 EDT). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Although were halfway into the distance we need to travel to Mars, the rover is not halfway between the two worlds, Kangas explained. In straight-line distance, Earth is 26.6 million miles [42.7 million kilometers] behind Perseverance and Mars is 17.9 million miles [28.8 million kilometers] in front.

At the current distance, it takes 2 minutes, 22 seconds for a transmission to travel from mission controllers at JPL via the Deep Space Network to the spacecraft. By time of landing, Perseverance will have covered 292.5 million miles (470.8 million kilometers), and Mars will be about 130 million miles (209 million kilometers) away from Earth; at that point, a transmission will take about 11.5 minutes to reach the spacecraft.

NASAs Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has logged 146.3 million (235.4 million kilometers) of space miles exactly half of what will be covered before reaching the Red Planet. View the full interactive experience at Eyes on the Solar System.

The mission team continues to check out spacecraft systems big and small during interplanetary cruise. Perseverances RIMFAX and MOXIE instruments were tested and determined to be in good shape on October 15. MEDA got a thumbs up on October 19. There was even a line item to check the condition of the X-ray tube in the PIXL instrument on October 16, which also went as planned.

If it is part of our spacecraft and electricity runs through it, we want to confirm it is still working properly following launch, said Keith Comeaux, deputy chief engineer for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission. Between these checkouts along with charging the rovers and Mars Helicopters batteries, uploading files and sequences for surface operations, and planning for and executing trajectory correction maneuvers our plate is full right up to landing.

This illustration of the Mars 2020 spacecraft in interplanetary space was generated using imagery from NASAs Eyes on the Solar System. The image is from the missions midway point between Earth and Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A key objective of Perseverances mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planets geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent missions, currently under consideration by NASA in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASAs Artemis lunar exploration plans.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers.

More here:

Woah, We're Halfway There: NASA's Perseverance Rover Is Midway to Mars - SciTechDaily

In the second episode of Netflixs space drama Away, two astronauts head outside into space to make some emergency repairs.

Emma Green (Hilary Swank), the American commander of the international mission to Mars, and experienced Russian cosmonaut Misha Popov (Mark Ivanir) must work together to get the third solar array of their ship properly deployed.

As if a spacewalk on a moving ship wasnt risky enough, Emma and Misha who must stay tethered to each other to keep from floating off into space are also at a crossroads: the latter believes the commander is unfit to lead the mission. Its an early look at how closely the 10-episode series, now streaming, weaves its interpersonal and technical dramas together for added tension.

We spent hours sitting in a room trying to figure out how to do that spacewalk and make it feel as epic and terrifying as it would be, said Jessica Goldberg, executive producer and showrunner of Away.

Emma and Misha must make their way around the exterior of their spaceship toward a large array of solar panels whose function is critical to the success of their mission and their survival. As expected from a high-stakes drama, the repairs are anything but simple and require Emma to take additional risks.

Based on an Esquire article by Chris Jones (who was a part of the shows writers room), Away is set in a future that is near enough that all of the science and technology feels within the realm of what is actually possible. There was plenty of research and consultants involved, including former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, to help maintain the series realism.

NASA astronaut Emma Green (Hilary Swank) must fix a part of her ship so her crew can survive.

(Netflix )

Emma and Mishas spacewalk like a number of other events experienced by the members of the Atlas crew is inspired by actual events: the spacewalks at the International Space Station.

Pulling off the scene required the collaboration of multiple departments.

Production designer David Sandefur, who designed a detailed 3-D model of the Atlas even before building the actual set pieces, said that it all starts with the writing. He and the writer can then make adjustments as they figure out what things work and what dont.

We went back and forth until we hit this sort of perfect place where the set piece and the script and also the tenor of the scene matched up perfectly, said Sandefur. Some of the hardest things to shoot wind up being the most flawlessly executed, because theres so much effort put into the complexity of it and making sure that its all sorted.

Among the many specifics to consider for the spacewalk were the design and location of the solar array, the actual problems the astronauts would encounter along the way to get there, and how they would get back to safety.

I built everything that was needed for [Emma and Misha] on their physical journey, said Sandefur. They travel 50 feet in one direction and 20 feet in another direction along the solar array I basically built everything that they would make contact with and everything that would capture their shadows.

We spent hours sitting in a room trying to figure out how to do that spacewalk and make it feel as epic and terrifying as it would be, said Away showrunner Jessica Goldberg.

(Netflix)

Everything was planned in order to create a sense of real jeopardy according to stunt coordinator Jeff Aro.

There are some logistics that dont necessarily translate from the page to the physical world, said Aro. We were tasked with making those transitions, bringing their words on the page to reality and determining what was sensible for our cast to do and they did a large part of it.

Our goal was to use as much of Mark and Hillary as we could in the scene, added Aro. So we would use the stunt doubles to suss out the sequence, get the approval from the director, and then have our cast go through all of the elements to fill out the story beats.

The key to the scene was making sure everything from the design of the spaceship to the decisions the astronauts are making dont stray too far into the realm of science fiction. Staying tethered, for example, is something astronauts actually do for their safety during spacewalks.

Were trying to capture how a spacewalk feels, said creator and executive producer Andrew Hinderaker. Astronauts talk about it being so nerve-racking and exhausting and thrilling. And yet most spacewalks themselves, if you watch, are a little boring. A lot of just crawling along the side of the ship. So how do you capture how it feels and still keep a foot in conversation with what feels real?

Sandefur said working on Away has felt a bit like fulfilling a childhood dream.

Ive always had an interest in this, said Sandefur. Ive always been interested in space travel since I was a kid and I wanted to be a fighter pilot as a young boy.

Misha (played by Mark Ivanir) does not believe Emma is capable of commanding their mission to Mars.

(Netflix)

For the Atlas itself, he took inspiration from the technology used by both NASA and SpaceX (though not necessarily their actual designs). Even the crews quarters having artificial gravity is rooted in research and proposals that have been made for real-life space travel.

This helped balance realism and the demands of storytelling when it came to one unique facet of a TV show set in space. Almost every scene with zero gravity such as those in the common room on the Atlas involves stunt work with the actors being on wires.

Because we dont have zero gravity, we have to create that, which requires planning in every instance, said Aro. In that way, it was quite a challenge. Our storytelling typically is in explosions and fights but in [Away] it was of deeper emotional challenges and we were trying to make choices that reflected and complemented the story. Thats not typically what were solicited to do.

It turns out the science on Away might be one of the most realistic aspects of the show.

Hinderaker recalled an early conversation with a source from NASA about the concept of the series and asked how soon a human mission to Mars would be possible with the adequate funds and international cooperation.

He said, Oh, we could go tomorrow, explained Hinderaker. That was so powerful and thats really part of why we chose to put the show in a very near future world that really felt like ours.

There are moments where it feels impossible that well have the collective international will to do this, said Hinderaker. But the thing that feels [most] impossible, the show presupposes happened.

View original post here:

'Away' on Netflix: How close it gets to real Mars space travel - Los Angeles Times

(CNN) Genetically enhanced mighty mice that were part of a heath experiment on the International Space Station have shown that blocking a molecular signaling pathway can protect against muscle and bone density loss in the absence of gravity.

The new study also revealed this treatment promoted the recovery of muscle and bone mass once the mice returned to Earth.

The results are promising to researchers because they could be used to develop therapies that might help astronauts mitigate the muscle and bone loss they experience during long-term spaceflight.

Targeting this pathway could also be used to help people on Earth who experience muscle and bone loss due to various conditions such as muscular dystrophy, osteoporosis and diseases that cause muscle wasting like cancer, heart disease, sepsis and AIDS.

The study published Monday in the journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. NASA astronauts Drew Morgan, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, who participated in the experiment while it was on the space station, are included as authors and investigators on the study.

The 40 female mice, provided by the nonprofitJackson Laboratoryin Maine, were genetically manipulated for muscle growth in an experiment to better understand how zero gravity affects the human body.

They launched and arrived at the space station in December andsplashed downin a SpaceX Dragon capsule on January 7 in the Pacific Ocean.

The SpaceX cargo vehicles are unique in that they can bring new materials and experiments to the space station and return to Earth 30 days later. This means that samples can be returned to the ground in a timely manner, which enabled the live mice to be returned to Earth, said Morgan, who also serves as an emergency physician with the US Army.

These mice are just one of many groups of rodents that have flown on the space station over the years in the name of research.

The experiment was calledRodent Research-19, and it was used to study both myostation and activin, which are the molecular signaling pathways that can influence and regulate bone density and skeletal muscle mass, according to NASA. These pathways, researchers believe, could be targets to prevent muscle and bone loss during missions and help with recovery efforts once astronauts return to Earth.

While on the space station, some of the mice were treated with an agent, the ACVR2B receptor, that actually blocked the pathways to see how it impacted their bone and muscle loss. Blocking these pathways has also been known to induce muscle and bone growth.

Because some of these mice were genetically engineered to lack myostatin, they had twice the average muscle mass hence, the nickname mighty mice.

The mice who flew on the space station were compared with a control group of 40 female mice who remained on Earth.

The mice in space and on Earth that received the receptor treatment largely maintained and even increased their muscle and bone mass in comparison with the untreated mice. Meanwhile, the untreated mice experienced significant muscle and bone mass loss.

After returning to Earth, mice receiving the receptor treatment also showed an enhanced recovery of muscle mass. This was compared with the control mice that were not given the treatment upon returning to Earth.

Mice that were hypermuscular as a result of having a mutation in the myostatin gene were able to retain most, if not all, of that extra muscle during spaceflight, said study authors Se-Jin Lee and Emily L. Germain-Lee in an email.

These findings show that blocking the activities of these hormones does work to enhance both muscle and bone even when mice are unable to bear weight.

Dr. Lee is a professor at The Jackson Laboratory and presidential distinguished professor at the University of Connecticuts School of Medicine. Dr. Germain-Lee is a pediatric endocrinologist at Connecticut Childrens Medical Center and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Connecticuts School of Medicine.

One thing that we found somewhat surprising is how resilient mice are even when subjected to all of the stresses associated with space travel, they said. We knew that mice had been sent to space in the past, but we still found it remarkable that after spending a month at the ISS, they seemed to resume normal activity very quickly after returning to Earth.

Astronauts on the space station exercise every day to mitigate muscle and bone loss, but experiments like this can help scientists understand how the loss occurs and establishbetter ways to manage it.

The exercise countermeasures astronauts use, which include two hours of resistance training and cardiovascular workouts, may not always be possible during long-term spaceflight.

The potential for a drug treatment that could prevent (bone and muscle loss) shows a lot of promise in long-duration spaceflight, Morgan said.

But there are potential side effects that need to be considered and understood, the researchers said.

Although myostatins major role is to regulate muscle growth, a drug that targets other hormones besides just myostatin can affect other tissues besides muscle, the researchers said.

The doctors cited an example including Acceleron, a biotechnology company, which used its version of this receptor in clinical trials to treat patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Some of the patients experienced nosebleeds, but the reason for that is not entirely understood. But it sheds light on the fact that these receptors can block other things beyond myostatin.

The challenge moving forward will be to understand the reasons for this and other effects with the goal of figuring out how to modify these drugs to avoid such problems, the researchers said.

The study has revealed new questions for the researchers. Going forward, they want to better understand the changes caused by microgravity in blood, muscle and bone. They also want to consider how to conduct further investigation on a future space mission.

Our hope is that this could be used both for astronauts during extended space travel and for people on Earth suffering from muscle and bone loss, the doctors said. There is still a lot of work that would need to be done in this regard, but we believe that this type of strategy holds promise.

We would like to focus on figuring out ways to engineer better drug candidates that might avoid some of the potential side effects. Only by understanding the underlying science will we be able to try to translate this work into new medical treatments.

Astronauts themselves are also the basis for understanding how the space environment can affect humans.

Koch and Morgan both participated in extended stays on the station, withKochspending 11 months aboard andMorganstaying for nine months. Currently, astronauts typically spend about six months on the space station, but some likeScott Kellyhave stayed for nearly a year to test how the human body reacts to long-term spaceflght.

These health studies could be applied to future long-term spaceflight as NASA looks ahead with the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon in 2024 and could eventually land them on Mars.

The-CNN-Wire & 2020 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.

Original post:

The 'Mighty Mice' That Went To Space Could Help Protect Astronauts' Muscles And Bones - CBS Sacramento

The concept of space is insane! The fact that there's so much we haven't even discovered yet in outer space blows is enough to blow anyone's mind. To us, Earth is everything we know, but in reality, we're just specks of nothingness compared to the universe.

Brave men and women have traveled beyond our planet Earth to explore what's beyond our atmosphere. Unfortunately, a few technical details are standing in your way before you can start exploring infinity and beyond like Buzz Lightyear, including cracking the code of near-light speed travel.

But there is hope still. NASA recently released a fun video, explaining some of the mechanics of travelling at this velocity, which is 90% of the speed of light. (Light travels at more than a billion kilometres per hour.) While it might take you three years to reach the planet of your choice, on Earth, time would have moved a bit faster.

To get to the edge of the Earths solar system would take nine months, while on Earth, a year-and-a-half would pass. The next closest star system is Proxima Centauri, and it would take more than two years to get there at 90% of the speed of light.

If you left your twin behind on Earth, they would age more quickly than you. The age difference would depend on the speed of the spaceship, including when it accelerates and when it slows down. This time differentiation is called time dilation.

This is a fact of space travel that forms part of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

According to NASA there are three ways that this acceleration can happen: through electromagnetic fields, magnetic explosions and wave-particle interactions.

These mostly involve the collision of energies and magnetic fields. Time dilation also depends on gravity and how close the "clock" is to a gravitational force like that of a planet. Space also isn't exactly empty.

You would need something to shield you from free-running particles that could damage you and your spacecraft, as they can also travel at around the speed of light. "Space travel is life-enhancing, and anything that's life-enhancing is worth doing.

It makes you want to live forever," according to science fiction author, Ray Bradbury. Unfortunately, humanity is still a long way from having the kind of technology that allows us to reach these speeds. For now, you can but daydream and travel around in space with NASA.

Read more:

Space travel on the far horizon - Tennis World USA

One of the funny little things I noticed after having lived in space for a while is that, contrary to everyday experience on Earth, it took some effort to keep my arms pressed against my body. Had I remembered better my childhood reading, I wouldnt have been surprised. Jules Verne imagined this back in 1865. At one point, the protagonists of his From the Earth to the Moon realise that their bodies were absolutely without weight. Their arms, full extended, no longer sought their sides.

That wasnt the first time literature imagined a trip to the moon: in Ludovico Ariostos Orlando Furioso (1516), the knight Astolfo flies to the moon in search of Orlandos lost wits. Cyrano de Bergeracs satirical novel The Other World: Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon dates back to the 17th century, and in 1857 Italian astronomer Ernest Capocci wrote a novel about the first journey to the moon, which he imagined undertaken in 2057 by a woman named Urania. Yet Verne was the first to narrate the endeavour with some measure of engineering credibility, eventually coming to be recognised as one of the fathers of science fiction.

Decades later, space travel became a reality. So along with fiction, which continues to challenge the limits of our imagination and confront us with profound questions, we now have books that tell the story of real spaceflight. My book is one of those. Its the story of my journey as an apprentice astronaut, from the long, nerve-wrecking selection process through five years of training. Years spent in classrooms and simulators, swimming pools and centrifuges, emergency and survival drills, suitcase always to hand, living across continents. Until, one day, a rocket was waiting to take me to the International Space Station, humanitys outpost in space. For 200 days, I would inhabit a weightless body, I would see the sun rise and set 16 times per day, I would enjoy the sublime view of the Earth moving beneath me. And I would slowly learn to be an extraterrestrial human being.

In fiction and in fact, these books seem truest to that extraordinary experience.

1. Carrying the Fire by Mike CollinsI am fascinated by Collins, by the absolute loneliness of his solitary orbits around the moon while his crewmates Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were on the surface during the Apollo 11 mission. This is his autobiography and it is honest, humble, unafraid to delve into the details. My favourite quote from the book: I have not been able to do these things because of any great talent I possess; rather, it has all been the roll of the dice, the same dice that cause the growth of cancer cells, or an aircraft ejection seat to work or not.

2. If the Sun Dies by Oriana FallaciOne hundred years after Jules Verne published From the Earth to the Moon, Fallaci published this account of the US space endeavour, after months of research and with extensive access to all the famous sites of the Apollo missions and to dozens of astronauts, scientists and doctors. It is written with uncompromising honesty and an engaging style that mixes factual reporting and her own emotional and intellectual struggle. Torn between embracing technology-driven progress and remaining loyal to humanistic tradition, Fallaci creates a vivid picture of the space community, and the astronauts in particular, that shatters every stereotype.

3. How Apollo Flew to the Moon by W David WoodsThis is an unapologetically geeky book: the complete story of how the Apollo missions were accomplished and of the engineering feats that made them possible. Rigorous and exhaustive, but written in an accessible and engaging style well-suited for the non-technical reader.

4. Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge by Asif A SiddiqiThis is a scholarly work, grounded in many years of research of Russian-language archival sources available in the post-Soviet era. It is a fascinating account of the epic achievements and struggles of the USSRs space programme, from its origins to the 1970s, and enjoyable reading for anyone interested in history as well as space.

5. Packing for Mars by Mary RoachIf there is a Q&A session, I know that this question will be asked: how do you pee in space? This entertaining, at times hilarious book is an account of the authors quest to understand this and many other challenges of functioning as a human being in space. While she makes no effort to hide a preference for the less palatable, sometimes disgusting, anecdotes going back to the early days of human spaceflight, and the work predates the more mature conditions of the International Space Station that I am personally familiar with, this is a fun and informative book.

6. The Martian by Andy WeirThe story is well known because of the film adaptation, in which Matt Damon, stranded on Mars, famously declares: Im going to have to science the shit out of this. With the exception of the initial storm setting the events in motion, and the almost supernatural portion of luck needed for everything to work out just right, everything is plausible.

7. The Invincible by Stanisaw Lem Opening with a masterful sequence out of hard science-fictions classic repertoire a vivid depiction of an interstellar spaceships landing on an alien planet to investigate the mystery of another crews demise this novel weaves together memorable futuristic battles with an intriguing quest for understanding that shakes conventional, anthropocentric assumptions about intelligence and evolution.

8. Star Maker by Olaf StapledonThe consciousness of the disembodied narrator, to his own astonishment, is projected away from Earth on a mind-blowing journey through time and space that, by itself, would make this book unforgettable. This is obviously not about conventional space travel, not a conventional novel and there is no conventional plot. Rather, it is social-philosophical speculation on a cosmic scale accompanied by boundless, fearless imagination and mythopoeic ambition.

9. The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino In the first of his Six Memos for the Next Millennium, devoted to the virtue of lightness, Calvino wrote: Lightness for me is related to precision and definition, not to the hazy and haphazard. Paul Valry said: One must be light like the bird, not like the feather. Thats the essence of the Cosmicomics. These short stories are a dizzying journey of the imagination, witty, light-hearted, endearing and yet clearly inspired by scientific theories and coherent with their basic premises.

10. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas AdamsForty-two, said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm after pondering for million of years to answer the ultimate question to life, the universe and everything. As a crew-member of Expedition 42 on the International Space Station, I made sure that this was in my essential luggage. It provided two important reminders for space travellers. First, dont panic! Second, lets not take ourselves too seriously.

Diary of an Apprentice Astronaut by Samantha Cristoforetti is published by Allen Lane. To order a copy, go to guardianbookshop.com.

More:

Top 10 books about space travel - The Guardian

Soon after the moon landing, the vast majority of Americans were unable to remember Neil Armstrongs name. Illustration: Kate Hazell

On 30th May, five days after the death of George Floyd, two astronauts were sent to the International Space Station in a mission named Launch America. The launch marked the first time since 2011 that astronauts had departed American soil for the International Space Station.

A rat done bit my sister Nell, my partner said aloud, while reading a BBC headline about this supposedly historic event. And Whiteys on the moon.

He was quoting a 1970 spoken word poem by the African-American poet and jazz singer Gil Scott-Heron. Whitey on the Moon plays like a macabre nursery rhyme, growing more disturbing with each line, and more true. Her face and arms began to swell (and Whiteys on the moon) / I cant pay no doctor bill (but Whiteys on the moon) / Ten years from now Ill be payin still

The Space Race of the 1960s shared a timeline with the USs fight for racial equalityeven then, there was criticism over what race Americans should be paying attention to. Who benefited from sending Whitey to the moon? Who benefits from sending two more white astronauts to the International Space Station, now? Space travel has inspired Americans, but it has never united them wrote Marina Koren recently in the Atlantic. Not in the late 60s, and certainly not in the present moment. Koren is right to say it has never united Americans, but funnily enough, it hasnt always interested them either.

In 1969, an estimated 123m Americans watched the moon landings, some 61 per cent of the population. Internationally, the event was just as captivating. Paris had to rely on extra generators to keep so many televisions firing on throughout the night; West Germany reported a sharp drop in crime while the moonwalk was airing. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins went on a world tour, drawing millions of revellers.

But before long, the vast majority of Americans were unable to remember Neil Armstrongs name. Whatever Happened to Neil Whosis? asked the Chicago Tribune in 1974, in an article that revealed that most Americans could not remember the astronauts name. In his 2014 No Requiem for Space Travel, history professor Matthew Tribbe charts this instant disenchantment: Any explanation for why Apollo faded so quickly from the national consciousness needs to start with the fact that Americans were never as keen on the moon programme as current public memory and myth suggest. Poll after poll in the years leading up to Apollo revealed a public that was sceptical of the amount of money being spent on the moon race, the rush to complete the task before 1970, and the misplaced priorities it represented.

The press at the time seemed to imply that Armstrong and his colleagues had gone missing, or had become hermits. In fact, the astronauts were just as baffled. I had hoped that the impact would be more far-reaching than it has been, Armstrong said on the first year anniversary. Im certainly a little disappointed, said Aldrin, who by 1977 was working at a Cadillac dealership in Beverly Hills (where, according to his own book, he failed to sell a single car). Just three years after Apollo 11, after an array of problematic, dangerous and badly publicised missions, Nasa cancelled Apollos 18, 19 and 20 due to budget cuts and lack of public interest.

There is no single explanation for the sharp decline in astronaut interest that carried on throughout the 1970s. Watergate and the Vietnam War cast a shadow over the optimism of the 1960s. But also important was the evolution in the longstanding cultural fascination with loners, who came to be viewed with a certain pity. For what was more loner-like than floating around for months at a time in space?

In popular music, astronauts became the ultimate symbol of loneliness. From Elton Johns mournful declarations that hes not the man they think I am at home to David Bowies Major Tom, there was a sense that the astronauts fate was both a symptom of and metaphor for a world that was moving too fast and leaving too many behind. Mad Mens Don Draper may have summed it up best when dismissing a space-themed advertising poster. Who is this moron, flying around space? he growls at his creatives. He pees his pants.

While science fiction remains robustly popular todayeven now, children rapturously watch Star Warsits difficult to imagine what kind of space news would be big enough to grab our stretched and overstimulated attentions. Would we literally need confirmation of alien life to care again? My ennui runs deep. I did not watch the online footage of Launch America. I cannot name a single modern astronaut. Perhaps in todays world, we are all just too hard to dazzle.

Read more:

Who is this moron, flying around?: A short history of our disillusionment with space travel - Prospect

During his six month stint in orbit in 2010, American astronaut Scott Kelly accidentally started a fire in the toilet of the International Space Station.

The floating habitats complex filtration system applies an acidic chemical known as a pretreat to spacefarers urine, and a leak in the system caused a cannonball-sized globe of this acid to leak out when Kelly opened a maintenance panel to see why the toilet wasnt working.

A floating ball of acid isnt an ideal travel companion when youre orbiting the Earth in a sealed tube, so Kelly had to act quickly. He grabbed an old t-shirt to try and soak up the acid but the water molecules in the sweat on the shirt reacted with the acid, creating a fireball.

A fictionalised version of this scene described in detail in a brilliant 2014 Esquire article by Chris Jones kicks off the action in Away, a new Netflix drama launching this week. The series, loosely based on Jones reporting on the realities of life in orbit, follows the five-person crew of the first manned mission to Mars at some point in the near future.

The three year mission is an international effort, with astronauts from Russia, China, India, the USA and the UK clearly still maintaining its international influence despite Brexit, and presumably on the verge of signing a galaxy-beating trade deal with Mars.

But while previous entries in the space genre have focussed on what happens when things go wrong with the ship, Away does something different. Toilet fires aside, it instead tries to paint a picture of the emotional trauma associated with a long mission, and the hardships caused by being away from your family on both sides. The action takes place as much on Earth as it does in space.

The show follows American commander Emma Green, played by Hilary Swank, and chosen to lead the mission against the wishes of some of her crewmates. Green has a husband (The Good Wife's Josh Charles)and a teenage daughter at home, and the plot of Away centres on her struggles to balance her work and her life as she travels further and further away during a family crisis.

The show was commissioned in 2018, and you might have expected the current situation to have lent it some extra poignancy video calls with friends and loved ones are something weve all had to get used to in the last six months. Maybe a year ago, screen-mediated communication would have hammered home the difficulties of life as an astronaut, but now it just feels normal at times, Im actually jealous of how good their internet speeds seem to be up there.

Each of the crew members has some personal baggage back home, but they also have to contend with office politics which, in collaborative space travel, is less about who took someones lunch from the communal fridge, and more about navigating the intricacies of soft power and international relations. An American gets to command the mission, on the proviso that a Chinese woman will be the first person to set foot on Mars, for instance.

The result is a show that strips some of the thrill and the sense of danger from space travel. There are some heart-racing moments in the first few episodes but not a whole lot of action instead, expect lots of tense stares and passive aggressive comments.

The Esquire article which the series is based on does a great job of describing in detail how living in space changes you the complex, multi-stage process required to go to the toilet, the way the calluses on your heels start to slough away because youre not walking on them anymore, the way everything from eating to moving around is fundamentally changed by a lack of gravity. But in Away, most of the crew's interactions with each other seem to take place around a table they could be sat in the break room at work, bitching about the boss. It doesnt give you much of an insight into an astronauts life, other than the fact that theyre away from their families, and they occasionally have to use handrails to move around.

You could argue that this leaves Away feeling kind of flat, and maybe a bit boring an uncharitable reviewer could argue that its basically Gravity without the action, Space Force without the comedy, Armageddon without the giant asteroid heading towards Earth.

But if we do succeed in sending people to the surface of Mars, this is exactly what it will be like. There will be moments of high tension interspersed with long periods of doing nothing. There wont be malevolent AIs or hastily improvised repairs, or aliens running amok in the air ducts. They wont send miners. Itll be a team of professionals slowly, calmly and patiently doing their jobs, and missing their families. Away might not have the thrills and spills of a summer blockbuster, but it nails the boring, emotional reality of space travel.

Amit Katwala is WIRED's culture editor. He tweets from @amitkatwala

A liver disease is putting the Skye Terriers existence at risk. Doggy DNA banks could help save it

As AI technology gets cheaper and easier to use, deepfake porn is going mainstream

Back at work? So are burglars. Heres the tech you need to keep your home safe

Listen to The WIRED Podcast, the week in science, technology and culture, delivered every Friday

Follow WIRED on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn

Get The Email from WIRED, your no-nonsense briefing on all the biggest stories in technology, business and science. In your inbox every weekday at 12pm sharp.

by entering your email address, you agree to our privacy policy

Thank You. You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter. You will hear from us shortly.

Sorry, you have entered an invalid email. Please refresh and try again.

Continued here:

Netflix's Away perfectly captures the boring reality of space travel - Wired.co.uk

(CNN) -- Genetically enhanced "mighty mice" that were part of a health experiment on the International Space Station have shown that blocking a molecular signaling pathway can protect against muscle and bone density loss in the absence of gravity.

The new study also revealed this treatment promoted the recovery of muscle and bone mass once the mice returned to Earth.

The results are promising to researchers because they could be used to develop therapies that might help astronauts mitigate the muscle and bone loss they experience during long-term spaceflight.

Targeting this pathway could also be used to help people on Earth who experience muscle and bone loss due to various conditions such as muscular dystrophy, osteoporosis and diseases that cause muscle wasting like cancer, heart disease, sepsis and AIDS.

The study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. NASA astronauts Drew Morgan, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, who participated in the experiment while it was on the space station, are included as authors and investigators on the study.

The 40 female mice, provided by the nonprofit Jackson Laboratory in Maine, were genetically manipulated for muscle growth in an experiment to better understand how zero gravity affects the human body.

They launched and arrived at the space station in December and splashed down in a SpaceX Dragon capsule on January 7 in the Pacific Ocean.

The SpaceX cargo vehicles are unique in that they can bring new materials and experiments to the space station and return to Earth 30 days later. This means that samples can be returned to the ground in a timely manner, which enabled the live mice to be returned to Earth, said Morgan, who also serves as an emergency physician with the US Army.

These mice are just one of many groups of rodents that have flown on the space station over the years in the name of research.

The experiment was called Rodent Research-19, and it was used to study both myostation and activin, which are the molecular signaling pathways that can influence and regulate bone density and skeletal muscle mass, according to NASA. These pathways, researchers believe, could be targets to prevent muscle and bone loss during missions and help with recovery efforts once astronauts return to Earth.

While on the space station, some of the mice were treated with an agent, the ACVR2B receptor, that actually blocked the pathways to see how it impacted their bone and muscle loss. Blocking these pathways has also been known to induce muscle and bone growth.

Because some of these mice were genetically engineered to lack myostatin, they had twice the average muscle mass -- hence, the nickname "mighty mice."

The mice who flew on the space station were compared with a control group of 40 female mice who remained on Earth.

The mice in space and on Earth that received the receptor treatment largely maintained and even increased their muscle and bone mass in comparison with the untreated mice. Meanwhile, the untreated mice experienced significant muscle and bone mass loss.

After returning to Earth, mice receiving the receptor treatment also showed an enhanced recovery of muscle mass. This was compared with the control mice that were not given the treatment upon returning to Earth.

"Mice that were hypermuscular as a result of having a mutation in the myostatin gene were able to retain most, if not all, of that extra muscle during spaceflight," said study authors Se-Jin Lee and Emily L. Germain-Lee in an email.

"These findings show that blocking the activities of these hormones does work to enhance both muscle and bone even when mice are unable to bear weight."

Dr. Lee is a professor at The Jackson Laboratory and presidential distinguished professor at the University of Connecticut's School of Medicine. Dr. Germain-Lee is a pediatric endocrinologist at Connecticut Children's Medical Center and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Connecticut's School of Medicine.

"One thing that we found somewhat surprising is how resilient mice are even when subjected to all of the stresses associated with space travel," they said. "We knew that mice had been sent to space in the past, but we still found it remarkable that after spending a month at the ISS, they seemed to resume normal activity very quickly after returning to Earth."

Astronauts on the space station exercise every day to mitigate muscle and bone loss, but experiments like this can help scientists understand how the loss occurs and establish better ways to manage it.

The exercise countermeasures astronauts use, which include two hours of resistance training and cardiovascular workouts, may not always be possible during long-term spaceflight.

"The potential for a drug treatment that could prevent (bone and muscle loss) shows a lot of promise in long-duration spaceflight," Morgan said.

But there are potential side effects that need to be considered and understood, the researchers said.

"Although myostatin's major role is to regulate muscle growth, a drug that targets other hormones besides just myostatin can affect other tissues besides muscle," the researchers said.

The doctors cited an example including Acceleron, a biotechnology company, which used its version of this receptor in clinical trials to treat patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Some of the patients experienced nosebleeds, but the reason for that is not entirely understood. But it sheds light on the fact that these receptors can block other things beyond myostatin.

"The challenge moving forward will be to understand the reasons for this and other effects with the goal of figuring out how to modify these drugs to avoid such problems," the researchers said.

The study has revealed new questions for the researchers. Going forward, they want to better understand the changes caused by microgravity in blood, muscle and bone. They also want to consider how to conduct further investigation on a future space mission.

"Our hope is that this could be used both for astronauts during extended space travel and for people on Earth suffering from muscle and bone loss," the doctors said. "There is still a lot of work that would need to be done in this regard, but we believe that this type of strategy holds promise.

"We would like to focus on figuring out ways to engineer better drug candidates that might avoid some of the potential side effects. Only by understanding the underlying science will we be able to try to translate this work into new medical treatments."

Astronauts themselves are also the basis for understanding how the space environment can affect humans.

Koch and Morgan both participated in extended stays on the station, with Koch spending 11 months aboard and Morgan staying for nine months. Currently, astronauts typically spend about six months on the space station, but some like Scott Kelly have stayed for nearly a year to test how the human body reacts to long-term spaceflght.

These health studies could be applied to future long-term spaceflight as NASA looks ahead with the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon in 2024 and could eventually land them on Mars.

Continued here:

The 'mighty mice' that went to space could help protect astronauts' muscles and bones - FOX10 News

SERIES "Away"

WHERE Streaming now on Netflix

WHAT IT'S ABOUT An international space crew led by Hillary Swank's Emma Green departs on the first mission to Marsin "Away," a new Netflix series from creator Andrew Hinderaker that's based on a Chris Jones article for Esquire.

The others on this pioneering journey aboard the spaceship AtlasareLu (Vivian Wu) from China; Russia's Misha (Mark Ivanir); Kwesi (Atoh Essandoh), a British-Ghanaian; and Ram (Ray Panthaki), of India. Over the course of 10 episodes, the series chronicles their yearslong trip to the Red Planet, paying especially close attention to the emotions in leaving loved ones behind to make such an unprecedented journey.

Back on Earth, Emma's husband Matt (Josh Charles) and teenage daughter Alexis (Talitha Bateman) must adjust to three years without mom in person and an unexpected health challenge that adds to the difficulty.

MY SAYThis is a perfect premise for a TV show: you don't have to be a sci-fi aficionado or obsessed with space travel to be fascinated by the particulars involved in conquering the next extraterrestrial frontier.

In the coming years, NASA has plans to begin the process of launching just such a mission to Mars and "Away" derives a lot of its appeal from the fact that nothing on-screenseems especially far-fetched. This isn't "Total Recall" or even "The Martian" it's a glimpse at a future that's much closer than one might think.

We want to learn about the science, the stresses and the otherspecifics of how this major moment in exploration might unfold to understand what astronauts can expect on the arduous trip through the cosmosand upon arriving on another world, and precisely why this is such a priority for not only the space agency, but humankind.

With the exception of a handful of moments, "Away" offers preciously little of that through its first five episodes.

By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy.

It is instead painstakingly focused on the back stories of the astronauts, rife with flashbacks to traumaand difficult moments with the family members back home who seem to recede further into the distance with each passing day.

We're talking tear-streaked conversations between Swank's Emma and Bateman's Alexis that come complete with dialogue that would be a better fit for a bad family drama.

"And boys," mom says to daughter, "I know they're beautiful, I get that, I do, but honey they're bucks is what they are, wild bucks."

There's a Christmas episode, another onebuilt around the married Lu's love for a female co-worker and a whole lot of time spent on Alexis and Matt adjusting to their new reality. None of this is inherently objectionable, were it balanced with a focus on the mission at hand, but other than some drama involving a spacewalk, the characters might as well have been self-isolating during the COVID-19 pandemic, or just about anywhere else.

Their spaceship is a metaphor, you see, their journey through the stars representing the walls that are built even among those closest to us.

Hinderaker and the various directors, including the Oscar winner Edward Zwick ("Glory") on the pilot, achieve some moments of transcendent beauty, including a gift for montage linking the experiences of Emma with her family. If you're going to take the "Away" plunge, do it on the biggest possible screen.

It's just sad that the primary emotion that resonates above all else is boredom.

BOTTOM LINE: "Away" should be much better than it is, squandering a fascinating subject on pedestrian family drama.

See original here:

'Away': Hilary Swank series should be much better than it is - Newsday