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COVID-19 and the new age of copper | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal – voxeu.org

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Governments around the world have launched economic recovery packages in response to the recession brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Two key themes feature prominently: investments in digitalisation and green technologies. Both China and the EU have established reactivation plans supporting 5G telecommunications networks, big data, and artificial intelligence (Meinhardt 2020, European Council 2020). The EU has further committed its recovery to moving the region towards carbon neutrality by 2050, proposing a massive expansion of the electric car market and related charging infrastructure (European Commission 2020). These demand drivers are expected to accelerate the arrival of the age of copper (Taylor 2020). The red metal conducts both heat and electricity, and is a key input for global manufacturing, electrical equipment, industrial machinery, and construction. Chinas post-pandemic rebound has already translated into higher orders. In June 2020, China recorded the highest ever monthly imports of copper (Reuters 2020). Are copper producers prepared to leverage this new era for their development?

These trillion-dollar, multi-year recovery plans require significant quantities of copper. This will accelerate the demand for the metal which has picked up steadily since 2016. This rise in demand is thanks in part to coppers central role in the digital and green economy of the future. Clean energy is the fastest growing segment to support electrification, with solar panels and wind turbines requiring some 12 times more copper than previous generation methods (Copper Development Association 2020a). Further, electric vehicles use four times the amount of copper used in internal combustion engines (Glencore 2017). A Chinese national 5G network will require some 72,000 tons of copper (Mills 2020). COVID-19 has also brought copper to the forefront of the healthcare industry due to its antimicrobial properties, adding entirely new sources of demand (Copper Development Association 2020b). Even before the pandemic, it was estimated that the sector would drive one million metric tonnes of demand over the next 20 years (Morrison 2020). While demand in 2020 may yet fluctuate (as countries respond to the pandemic), the fundamentals of copper demand have changed for the better (Hall 2020, Jacks and Stuermer 2018).

This boost in future demand is taking place against a backdrop of tightening supply in a globally concentrated industry, contributing to a likely copper deficit (Mining.com 2019). Five countries Chile, Peru, Indonesia, Australia, and Canada export three quarters of traded copper concentrate. The two Latin leaders Chile and Peru are by far the most important in terms of meeting the new demand since they account for close to half of the worlds supply. Chile is home to both the worlds biggest copper mine (Escondida) and the worlds single largest copper company (the state-owned CODELCO) (Chen 2019). This company alone accounts for 10% of the worlds copper.

Stung by end of the supercycle in 2012, CODELCO and other leading miners have operated conservatively. They have focused on consolidating their high-value assets, cutting costs, and boosting productivity. They have also focused on divesting from low-grade projects and limiting exploration and new project development. There are currently very few new projects set to come into operation before 2023. COVID-19 has brought the construction of most of these new projects to a halt. In Chile, CODELCO stopped the underground expansion of its two largest copper mines (El Teniente and Chuquicamata), while Teck Resources Quebrada Blanca 2 announced a six-month delay as it sought to protect its 15,000 strong workforce (Reuters 2020b, Fundacion Terram 2020, Jamasmie 2020). Similarly, Perus largest new project, Anglo Americans Quellaveco, was brought to a standstill for months.

The shutdown of future projects exacerbates the impact of slowdowns in operating mines as a result of the pandemic. Between January and May 2020, Perus copper output fell by 23% (year-on-year), as all of its major mines went into care and maintenance, and 75% of its workforce went home in a nationwide quarantine.1While some employees went back to work by the end of July, output was still below 80%. Peru (the worlds second largest producer) estimates a 20% decline in exports for 2020 (Aquino 2020). While there are concerns about Chilean producers facing similar crises,2output to date has remained steady with a 3% (year-on-year) increase (Figure 1) (Comision Chilena del Cobre 2020). Through the combined effect of shutting down existing operations and pausing new ones, COVID-19 has pushed back the delivery of thousands of tons of copper, just at a time when demand is beginning to pick up. Despite the global economic contraction, in July 2020 copper futures hit their highest level in two years (at $2.97 per lb) as Europe announced its recovery plans (Els 2020).

Figure 1Copper production in January to May 2019 versus 2020 (thousands of tonnes)

Source: CoChilco and Banco Central de Peru.

While copper directly contributes significantly to host-economies (it accounts for 50% of Chilean exports, 30% of Perus, and approximately 10% of fiscal revenue), even greater spillovers can be harnessed (Cochilco 2020). To some extent, mines have operated in isolation from their host economies. In particular, developing countries have struggled to increase the benefits from their engagement in the value chain (De Haas and Poelhekke 2016). Emphasis is often placed on increasing value addition through greater industrialisation of raw materials. Copper producers, however, have shown uneven success in generating shared value around domestic metal processing. For example, returns on copper concentrate smelting remain relatively low, as a result of significant global processing capacity. Further, refining encompasses significant environmental impacts. How to generate more value around mining activities remains a tantalising question for industry and policymakers, as well as for civil society stakeholders. This is especially pressing for those wondering whether the benefits outweigh the social and environmental impacts and risks associated with copper mining.

In recent years, multiple experiences have shown that greater value capture may take place through the development of strong backward linkages to the value chain (Katz and Pietrobelli 2018). This can be achieved through localising the supply base in the host economy. The Chilean copper mining sector procures approximately $12 billion on goods and services annually,3while Perus miners spend $9 billion (INEI 2019). Currently, much of this is spent on foreign goods and services due to limited capabilities and opportunities for local suppliers. Yet, ranging from low-value, simple options such as protective gear and grinding balls to excavators and highly complex engineering services, this industry offers a wide set of opportunities for local suppliers to participate. Australia, for example, has successfully tapped into this GVC upgrading option. It has developed a robust set of METS (mining equipment, technology and services) suppliers, investing $2.7 billion in research and development.4Not only does this serve domestic mining operations, it also helps to achieve export volumes of approximately $10 billion. However, most producing countries in the developing world lag behind in this area. In the past five years, Chile has made some progress, launching the Alta Ley programme.5Similarly, Peru has recently launched a mining technological roadmap (but with limited impact to date, considering the sectors potential and stakeholder expectations) (Bamber and Fernandez-Stark forthcoming).

In this new age of copper, producer countries need to do better. Mining value chains can help them achieve ambitious innovation, sustainability, and inclusiveness goals. Their development requires decisive and coordinated action from diverse public and private sector stakeholders. First, national mining innovation systems must be geared towards supporting existing (and fostering new) competitive suppliers, as well as creating conditions for local players to access industry opportunities. Open innovation platforms can help bridge market failures and information asymmetries (Bnamericas 2019). Second, as the backbone of the future green economy, copper extraction itself has to become more sustainable, reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and water usage.6It is also essential to obtain and maintain social licenses to mine, and to respond to increasingly sustainability-minded customers within the value chain. The industry is already actively seeking to adopt zero-emissions, waterless, and desalinisation solutions within its operations (Leotaud 2020, InvestChile 2019).7Third, it needs to be inclusive both from a gender perspective and in terms of engagements with local communities (Fernandez-Stark et al. 2019). Generating shared value necessarily means increasing participation from all key stakeholders, as well as effectively leveraging local human capital. It is not just good practice, it is good business (Doku 2019).

Economically, Latin America has been hit extremely hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.8The economic reactivation plans of China and the EU can be leveraged to support the economic recovery of the region through their demand for copper. It is now up to these countries to seize the moment and make the most of the opportunity.

Aquino, M (2020), Exclusive: Peru mines set to restart; to hit 80% production in a month industry official, Reuters, 07 May.

Bamber, P and K Fernandez-Stark (forthcoming), Innovation and Competitiveness in the Copper Mining GVC: Developing Local Suppliers in Peru, Inter-American Development Bank.

Bnamericas (2019), Open innovation in copper mining is the name of the game, 29 May.

Chen, J (2019), RANKED: Worlds top copper mines, Mining.com, 02 July.

Comision Chilena del Cobre (2020), Informe seminal del mercado interacional del cobre, 24 July.

Copper Development Association (2020a), Copper is among the Best Conductors of Electricity and Heat, so it is hardly surprisingly that about 60% of Total Copper Use is for these Applications, Copper Alliance.

Copper Development Association (2020b), CDA Position Statement on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, Copper Alliance.

De Haas, R and S Poelhekke (2016), Mining matters: Natural resource extraction and local business constraints, VoxEU.org, 22 September.

Doku, L (2019), Why The Mining Industry Needs More Women, Forbes, 24 May.

Else, F (2020), Copper price near 2-year high after Chinese imports rocket, Mining.com, 14 July.

European Commission (2020), A European Green Deal, European Commission, Strategy, Priorities 2019-2024.

European Council (2020), Special meeting of the European Council (17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 July 2020) Conclusions, EUCO 10/20

Fernandez-Stark, K, V Couto and P Blamber (2019), Industry 4.0 in Developing Countries: The Mine of the Future and the Role of Women, World Bank background paper.

Fundacion Terram (2020), Codelco supende obras de Chuqui Subterranea y FTC pide una cuarentena total, 26 March.

Glencore (2017), Annual Report 2017.

Hall, M (2020), How coppers tumultuous year sets the stage for an uncertain future, Mine.

INEI (2019), Peru. Cuentas Nacionales 1950-2018.

InvestChile (2019), Mining: Use of sea water in Chiles copper production to triple in 10 years, InvestChile Blog, 09 January.

Jacks, D and M Stuermer (2018), Drivers of commodity price booms and busts in the long run, VoxEU.org, 07 December.

Katz, J and C Pietrobelli (2018), Natural resource based growth, global value chains and domestic capabilities in the mining industry, Resources Policy 58: 11-20.

Leotaud, V R (2020), Pathways towards zero-emissions copper mines, Mining.com, 28 June.

Meinhardt, C (2020), China bets on new infrastructure to pull the economy out of post-Covid doldrums, Merics, 04 June.

Mills, R (2020), 5G And Metals, Sharecafe, 24 June.

Mining.com (2019), Global copper market under supplied, demand on the rise report.

Morrison, J (2020), Coppers Virus-Killing Powers Were Known Even to the Ancients, Smithsonian, 14 April.

Reuters (2020a), UPDATE 1-Chinas June unwrought copper imports rise to record 656,483 tonnes, Reuters, 14 July.

Reuters (2020b), Codelco to suspend El Teniente mine expansion, cites pandemic, Mining.com, 05 July.

Taylor, C (2020), Welcome to the age of copper: Why the coronavirus pandemic could spark a red metal rally, CNBC, 24 June.

1 http://www.iimp.org.pe/actualidad/coronavirus-por-que-las-empresas-mineras-siguen-operando-en-cuarentena (in Spanish).

2 https://plusmining.com/chile-lucha-por-mantener-la-produccion-de-cobre-a-medida-que-el-coronavirus-se-propaga-entre-los-trabajadores/ (in Spanish).

3 https://si3.bcentral.cl/estadisticas/Principal1/Informes/anuarioCCNN/index_anuario_CCNN_2018.html?chapterIdx=-1&curSubCat=-1

4 http://www.austmine.com.au/About

5 https://corporacionaltaley.cl/en/home/

6 https://copperalliance.eu/benefits-of-copper/green-building/

8 https://www.cepal.org/es/comunicados/pandemia-covid-19-llevara-la-mayor-contraccion-la-actividad-economica-la-historia-la (in Spanish).

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COVID-19 and the new age of copper | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal - voxeu.org

Weekly Digest of Central Asia – Times of Central Asia

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

BISHKEK (TCA) The Publishers note: Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Central Asia was the scene of intense geopolitical struggle and the Great Game between the British and Russian Empires, and later between the Soviet Union and the West, over Afghanistan and neighboring territories. Into the 21st century, Central Asia has become the area of a renewed geopolitical interest, dubbed the New Great Game, largely based on the regions hydrocarbon and mineral wealth. On top of that, the region now is perhaps the most important node in the implementation of Chinas One Belt, One Road initiative through which Beijing aims to get direct access to Western markets. Every week thousands of news appears in the worlds printed and online media and many of them may escape the attention of busy readers. At The Times of Central Asia, we strongly believe that more information can better contribute to peaceful development and better knowledge of this unique region. So we are presenting this Weekly Digest which compiles what other media have reported on Central Asia over the past week.

KAZAKHSTAN

Kazakhstan: Borat creators' attempts to whip up fury achieve mixed results

Some social media users are angry, but officials are taking the high road, for now

Oct 3 The makers of the Borat sequel wanted to bait officials in Kazakhstan into a tetchy reaction for some free publicity. For now, the officials appear reluctant to comply. As part of pre-release publicity campaign, the marketers selling the film opened two social media accounts, on Instagram and Twitter, posing as representatives of the Kazakhstan government. READ MORE: https://eurasianet.org/kazakhstan-borat-creators-attempts-to-whip-up-fury-achieve-mixed-results

Strengthening multidimensional ties between the European Union and the Republic of Kazakhstan during the presidency of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

Kazakhstan is an important and trusted partner of the European Union. This is embodied in the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA) with the EU, which entered into force on 1 March 2020, writes political adviser Ipek Tekdemir

Oct 7 The diplomatic relations between the EU and Kazakhstan have increasingly intensified throughout nearly three decades, and the EU member states have been among the first nations to recognize Kazakhstan as an independent state in 1991. The European Union opened its formal diplomatic representation in Kazakhstan shortly after, in 1994. Kazakhstan was the first nation among the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to establish a formal representation to the EU, which reflects the strength of the bond. READ MORE: https://www.eureporter.co/eu-2/2020/10/07/strengthening-multidimensional-ties-between-the-european-union-and-the-republic-of-kazakhstan-during-the-presidency-of-kassym-jomart-tokayev/

Capital Market In Kazakhstan Is There A Positive Outlook?

Kazakhstan realizes that it does not have any choice other than developing its economy through non-oil-based sources, such as a strong capital market

Oct 8 The recent outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has not created new issues for Kazakhstan's economy, but it has uncovered the existing ones. Long before the pandemic it was already clear to the Government that "oil era" was coming to an end and new instruments needed to be developed to attract investment to the country. In response to this challenging reality, the Government will need to apply non - resource based means to boost the economy. Creating a strong capital market to attract regional and foreign investors to Kazakhstan is one such non - resource based measure.READ MORE: https://www.mondaq.com/commoditiesderivativesstock-exchanges/992522/capital-market-in-kazakhstan-is-there-a-positive-outlook

KYRGYZSTAN

Kyrgyzstans Third Revolution

Kyrgyzstans main problem has never been how to encourage political pluralism or fostering a diverse and dynamic civil society. It is the persistent failure of building responsive state institutions capable of providing the most elementary public goods

Oct 8 Kyrgyzstan is again in turmoil following the countrys parliamentary elections on October 4. The day after the election, thousands of demonstrators gathered in central Bishkek to protest the outcome of what opposition leaders described as the dirtiest in the countrys history, ending in a violent showdown between riot police and demonstrators. The fighting went on long into the night, until the protesters overrun the police and seized the presidential palace and the parliament. State power collapsed in the blink of an eye. Now begins the hard part of bringing back law and order and finding a viable path forward. The outcome is genuinely uncertain. There are no boundaries for what kind of interests that can lay claim on political authority. Old and new politicians, criminal groups and political activists all try to fill the power vacuum. READ MORE: http://cacianalyst.org/publications/analytical-articles/item/13643-kyrgyzstans-third-revolution.html

Kyrgyzstan: Politicians mob rampage draws army onto the streets

The events in Bishkek today easily outstrip anything that has happened in this crisis to date

Oct 9 A convicted kidnappers attempt to engineer a seizure of power in Kyrgyzstan by unleashing destructive hordes upon the capital has taken an ominous turn. Sadyr Japarovs supporters have assaulted journalists. His mobs broke up a peaceful rally by pelting participants with rocks and bottles. And one of his men attempted to assassinate a political opponent. READ MORE: https://eurasianet.org/kyrgyzstan-politicians-mob-rampage-draws-army-onto-the-streets

Will Events in Kyrgyzstan Echo In Other Central Asian States?

Regional political experts on how the public reacted to events in Kyrgyzstan and how they could possibly echo in other Central Asian countries

Oct 9 CABAR.asia: How do public and state view the events unfolding in Kyrgyzstan? Baurzhan Tolegenov, political analyst (Kazakhstan): We do not observe prevailing judgment in public discourse. This is clearly conveyed in how people label the current social unrest in Kyrgyzstan. While the events of 2005 and 2010 were unambiguously deemed a revolution, now it ranges from a revolution to a coup. Some observers use a neutral wording events in Kyrgyzstan. At the same time, enthusiasm dwindles as the political crisis unfolds and aggravates. To many, it may appear as if Kyrgyzstan is losing its image of an island of democracy in Central Asia and is now perceived as the country experiencing political turmoil and crisis of statehood. But civic activists in any case support the events in Kyrgyzstan, wherein its more of a lesson for the elites that demonstrates growing weary of the Establishment. READ MORE: https://cabar.asia/en/will-events-in-kyrgyzstan-echo-in-other-central-asian-states

TAJIKISTAN

Whats Important About Tajikistans Presidential Election?

Whats at stake in Tajikistans election isnt the presidency, but what comes next

Oct 8 Kyrgyzstans election-induced semi-revolution has certainly occupied most Central Asian observers this week. But neighboring Tajikistan also has an election approaching, too. Tajikistans presidential election is scheduled for October 11. Tajikistans election will be nothing like the parliamentary polls in Kyrgyzstan. Where in Kyrgyzstan there are various nodes of power and an established precedent of street-protest driven revolutions, Tajikistan has but one node of power: Emomali Rahmon. READ MORE: https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/whats-important-about-tajikistans-presidential-election/

Why Tajikistans president will win a fifth term

Emomali Rahmon has arrested or chased away any better candidates

Oct 9 Elections in Tajikistan are a staid affair compared with Kyrgyzstans. When voters go to the polls to elect a president on October 11th, the ballot paper will offer them a false choice: either tick the box next to the name of Emomali Rahmon, the strongman who has ruled for 28 years, or choose one of four stooges also on the ballot and watch Mr Rahmon storm to victory anyway. The only question is how big a landslide Mr Rahmon will award himself: it would be poor form if he did not better the 84% he won in 2013. READ MORE: https://www.economist.com/asia/2020/10/10/why-tajikistans-president-will-win-a-fifth-term

Yet Another Election With Rahmon

A glance at how the Tajik president has managed to stay in power for nearly three decades

Oct 9 Tajikistan will hold a tightly controlled presidential election on October 11 with five candidates in the race, including the incumbent, long-serving authoritarian Emomali Rahmon, who is running for office for the fifth time. The Tajik Constitution has been amended twice to make it possible for Rahmon to run so many times. Not a single election in which Rahmon claimed victory was deemed free, fair, or democratic by Western observers, who pointed out that Tajikistan has rarely allowed "real" opponents to run in its presidential races. READ MORE: https://www.rferl.org/a/30884643.html

TURKMENISTAN

Residents of Turkmenabat organize a protest following attempts of police officers to close a flea market

The ongoing economic crisis has forced ordinary Turkmen citizens to survive as they can

Oct 8 As has been previously reported, in connection with the economic slump flea markets selling second-hand clothes and other used goods have become popular in recent years in Turkmenistan. Radio Azatlyk reports that about a week ago a flea market appeared in one of the residential district of the city of Turkmenabat. READ MORE: https://en.hronikatm.com/2020/10/residents-of-turkmenabat-organize-a-protest-following-attempts-of-police-officers-to-close-a-flea-market/

Turkmen President Replaces Several Officials, Regional Judges, Prosecutors

Berdymukhammedov has run the former Soviet republic since 2006, tolerating no dissent and becoming the center of an elaborate personality cult

Oct 9 Turkmenistan's authoritarian President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov has replaced several officials, regional judges, and prosecutors. According to state media reports, Berdymukhammedov sacked Mergen Gurdov from the post of the chairman of the State Migration Service; Bekmyrat Ovezov became the service's new chief. No explanation for the moves was given. READ MORE: https://www.rferl.org/a/turkmen-president-replaces-several-officials-regional-judges-prosecutors/30884212.html

EBRD and EU help Turkmenistan polystyrene moulder maintain growth

In last three years, the EBRD and EU helped a Turkmen company introduce ISO 9001:2015, a quality standard required to start exporting its products to Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine, and provided support to introduce a financial reporting system in accordance with international principles

Oct 9 In Turkmenistan, a country highly reliant on oil and gas exports, thoughtful diversification of economic activity and the development of solid small and medium-sized enterprises is key to ensuring sustainable growth. Leveraging assistance from the EBRD and European Union (EU), the evolution of one local enterprise, Ak Hunji, struck the perfect balance between these priorities. Established in 2009, Ak Hunji (meaning white beads) is a leading company providing decorative mouldings, insulating panels and other building materials made of expanded polystyrene (EPS).READ MORE: https://www.ebrd.com/news/2020/ebrd-and-eu-help-turkmenistan-polystyrene-moulder-maintain-growth-.html

UZBEKISTAN

Rehabilitation Here and Now: Pursuing Transitional Justice in Uzbekistan

Steve Swerdlow, a human rights lawyer, by providing a roadmap for transitional justice in Uzbekistan, examines the relevant international and domestic legal framework and summarizes attempts by former political prisoners to pursue their rehabilitation, and in so doing, a larger national conversation about Uzbekistans dark past

Oct 5 More often than democracy-watchers would like to acknowledge, the death of a dictator usually does little to fundamentally change the nature of a political system. Think Syrias Bashar al-Assad in 2000, North Koreas Kim Jong Il in 2011, and Venezuelas Hugo Chvez in 2013. But in certain rare cases, it can lead to concrete improvements in the lives of millions of ordinary people. Some have argued this occurredat least in part and for a timein the case of Josef Stalins death in 1953. It most certainly happened in August 2016 with the death of Islam Karimov, whose ruthless 27-year reign (1989-2016) in Uzbekistan became synonymous with the worst forms of repression, torture, and political imprisonment. READ MORE: https://cabar.asia/en/rehabilitation-here-and-now-pursuing-transitional-justice-in-uzbekistan

AFC CAPITAL: Uzbekistans Golden Cross

In Uzbekistan the key central bank interest rate has crossed the dividend return curve, which often means the market is about to dramatically re-rate

Oct 6 A golden cross is a chart technical analysis term in the investment industry referring to when the short-term moving average of a security crosses over a major long-term moving average, to the upside. Commonly, this is the 50-day moving average crossing above the 100 or 200 day-moving average, indicating bullish momentum and the start of an uptrend from a conservative standpoint as the uptrend would likely already be weeks old at this point.READ MORE: https://intellinews.com/afc-capital-uzbekistan-s-golden-cross-193522/?source=uzbekistan

In Unprecedented Lawsuits, Former Uzbek Political Prisoners Seek Compensation From Tashkent

Since President Shavkat Mirziyoev came to power in 2016, Uzbekistan has released more than 50 political prisoners

Oct 9 Two former political prisoners in Uzbekistan are demanding financial compensation from the government over unjust convictions and the suffering they endured in the countrys notorious Jaslyk Prison. In the unprecedented civil lawsuits filed by two residents of Qashqadaryo Province, Chuyan Mamatkulov is demanding about $50,000 and Elyor Tursunov is seeking $20,000 in damages.READ MORE: https://www.rferl.org/a/in-unprecedented-lawsuits-former-uzbek-political-prisoners-seek-compensation-from-tashkent/30884276.html

AFGHANISTAN

As Kabul Backs Azerbaijan In Conflict With Armenia, Afghans Recall Fighting In Previous War

While far from being materially involved in the current war over Nagorno-Karabakh, Kabul still supports Baku's position, which sees Yerevan as occupying its territory a position also recognized internationally

Oct 7 Mohammad Younas is nostalgic about his time fighting with Azerbaijani forces in the war against Armenians for the Nagorno-Karabakh territory in the early 1990s. "If possible, I would again join the Muslims of Azerbaijan to defend them against non-Muslims," he said, alluding to the predominantly Muslim country in its battle with Armenian forces, who are mainly Orthodox Christians. The conflict between the South Caucasian neighbors has never been considered a religious one. READ MORE: https://www.rferl.org/a/as-kabul-backs-azerbaijan-in-conflict-with-armenia-afghans-recall-fighting-in-previous-war/30880802.html

Afghanistans Economy and Access to Aid at Stake in Peace Talks

Will the Taliban and the Afghan government come to terms in time to rescue the countrys fledgling economy?

Oct 8 The 2020 Afghanistan Conference, to be hosted jointly by Finland, the United Nations and the government of Afghanistan, is scheduled to taken place in Geneva on November 23 and 24. This ministerial conference will decide how much financial assistance Afghanistan will need from 2021 to 2024 in order to help move it toward peace, prosperity and self-reliance. Four years ago, in October 2016, at the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan, the United States and other international donors committed to provide Afghanistan $15.2 billion in civilian assistance through 2020, according to a U.S. Department of State Fact Sheet. READ MORE: https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/afghanistans-economy-and-access-to-aid-at-stake-in-peace-talks/

A New Generation Fights for Afghanistan

Ahmad Massoud, 31, commands anti-Taliban fighters 19 years after his legendary fathers assassination

Oct 9 The explosion occurred a few hours earlier. A suicide car bomber double-parked on a shopping street. When the convoy passed carrying Vice President Amrullah Saleh, known for his anti-Taliban militancy, the driver pulled up alongside Mr. Salehs armored car. Ten people were killed and 15 wounded. The vice president survived with burns to his hands and face. Thank you, Taliban. A fine affirmation of the commitment you made in advance of the peace talks that will begin in Doha, Qatar, the day after the Kabul bombing, to cease what you have the temerity to call the fighting. READ MORE: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-generation-fights-for-afghanistan-11602265383

WORLD

China business briefing: Mooove over, Australia

Kazakhstans food producers look primed to benefit from Chinas increasingly tense relationship with traditional trading partners. This and more in Eurasianet's monthly Chinese business briefing

Oct 7 Economic historians are going to look back at the era of coronavirus and see more of a rollercoaster than a nosedive. While Kazakhstans economy suffers with the rest of the worlds, the countrys exports to China grew significantly in August, according to the latest data from Beijing. Compared to last August, Kazakh shippers sent off more chemicals (up threefold to $151 million), tobacco (almost 15 times more to $2 million), cotton (doubled to $1.8 million) and a bumper crop of diverse victuals worth $24 million. Overall, Chinese-bound exports grew 20 percent year-over-year to $881 million. READ MORE: https://eurasianet.org/china-business-briefing-mooove-over-australia

Indians and Central Asians Are the New Face of the Islamic State

Terrorists from India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan were never at the forefront of global jihad beforenow they are

Oct 8 As white nationalists across the world have gained prominence through racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic acts, the worlds focus on terrorism seems to have shifted. Many experts on extremism now focus heavily on the far-right in its many incarnations as an important driver of terrorist threat. But this myopic approach ignores the dynamism that the Islamic State injected into the international jihadist movement, and the long-term repercussions of the networks it built. In particular, the Indian and Central Asian linkages that the group fostered are already having repercussions beyond the region. READ MORE: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/10/08/isis-indian-kyrgyzstan-tajikistan-uzbekistan-central-asians-are-the-new-face-of-islamic-state/

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Weekly Digest of Central Asia - Times of Central Asia

Sirajul Haq rules out joining hands with Opp alliance – The News International

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

LAHORE:Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Senator Sirajul Haq ruled out possibility to join hands with opposition alliance, saying the people already tested the parties and had no trust in them.

He said the so-called mainstream political parties supported the every move of the government in past two years and this time too they did not pose any threat to the rulers. The JI leader said though PML-N, PPP and the military rulers had left no stone unturned to damage the institutions for establishing their personal rule in the country, yet PTI broke all previous records of bad governance.

The JI believed there was no difference between major opposition parties and those ruling the country, he said while addressing a press conference on the occasion of joining the JI by a Sialkot-based politician Hafiz Khawar Mirza along with his supporters at Mansoora on Friday.

Siraj said people had fully recognised the agent of status quo and were no more ready to give them any other chance. He said entire politics of JI revolved around the objective of transforming Pakistan into a real Islamic Welfare State. The JI is set to launch a full-fledged campaign against inflation and interest-based economy. A committee has already formed to chalk out plans for public rallies and organise the masses to bring real change in the country, he said. He welcomed Hafiz Khawar and other political workers from Sialkot in the ranks the JI. Meanwhile, JI naib ameer Liaqat Baloch said the interest-based economy, corruption and massive debts were the real hurdle to the countrys development.

Addressing a workers gathering at Mansoora, he said inflation and unemployment made the peoples lives miserable and it became impossible for them to meet their ends in the prevailing circumstances.

LDA DG: Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Director General Ahmed Aziz Tarar has directed that applications for seeking permission for commercial use of properties should be processed on a priority basis and the fee for the purpose be collected without delay. He stated this on Friday while chairing a meeting on resource generation for LDA. The LDA DG directed all the directorates to compile data about extension of building period of plots, issuance of completion certificates of constructed buildings, change in land use of properties, commercialisation fee and various other sources of income in their respective schemes to formulate workable proposals for revenue generation.

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Sirajul Haq rules out joining hands with Opp alliance - The News International

Kim-Jong un could unveil biggest ever nuclear missile THIS WEEKEND as WW3 fears soar – Daily Express

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

On Saturday the North Korean military is expected to hold a mass parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of North Koreas communist party.There is also speculation Kim Jong-un is keen to focus attention on his country ahead of the upcoming US presidential election.

North Korean state media has told scientists and technicians to glorify the great October festival following a new development in the field of national defence.

According to Straits Times US and South Korean intelligence a missile larger than anything North Korea is known to possess being transported near the capital Pyongyang.

An official said: The missile is larger than the one they fired in 2017 and we believe they will showcase that at a military parade on October 10.

In November 2017 North Korea test fired the Hwasong-15, currently its largest in-service missile.

Experts have suggested the missile is capable of ranging the entirety of the US mainland.

Speaking to The Sun Online Dr Ramon Pacheco-Pardo, an international relations associate professor at Kings College London, said North Korea could display a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Saturday.

He commented: I think they will unveil something new, intelligence tells us that it probably will be an ICBM.

From what we know, there are indications they are working hard on a new ICBM and that is more threatening to the US.

READ MORE:Kim Jong-un bombshell - North Korean leader calls for 80-Day Battle'

At the very least in unveiling a new ICBM you would expect the range to be better.

The range of the current missiles is estimated to reach the whole of the US land mass. But we don't know for sure.

In a sense, any lingering doubts over whether their missiles can reach the US would be gone with a new ICBM.

Dr Pacheco-Pardo said Saturday would be the perfect time for North Korea to unveil a new weapon, coming on both an important internal anniversary and ahead of the US presidential election.

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Satellite analysis by 38 North, a group which monitors events in North Korea, suggest missile carrying vehicles have arrived at the Mirim Parade Training Ground ahead of Saturdays parade.

The group also claims work has taken place to strengthen a key bridge along the parade route.

Speaking to The Sun Online Tom Plant, a nuclear weapons expert at the Royal United Services Institute, argued North Korea is likely to unveil a new missile soon but it may not be over the weekend.

He commented: North Korea has a pretty good heritage of giving the incoming US President something to think about so it pushes them up the agenda.

Whether they do that now, or they until November - who knows.

But they certainly have an interest in doing something, I would be surprised if we do not see something of that nature over the next three to four months.

He continued: The North Korea issue is not going away, and its going to get harder to resolve as times goes on.

North Korea was founded in 1948 out of the part of Korea taken by the Soviet Union after WWII.

The United States controlled area formed the rival anti-communist, and later democratic, South Korea.

A bitter war from 1950 to 1953 pitted the two countries, and their respective allies, against each other leaving several million dead.

China vs India: Tensions on knife edge as Beijing plan next move in psychological warfare – Daily Express

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Chinas Peoples Liberation Army has been releasing reports of military equipment being dropped along its border with India as the two countries prepare to meet.But Indian officials have claimed this is part of Chinas psychological warfare.

Tensions between the two nations have remained high since a clash in June which killed at least 20 Indian soldiers.

India rejected Chinas 1959 claim on its perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at the end of last month.

The two sides are set to meet on 12 October in Ladakh at the 7th military commanders meeting.

At the meeting, India is expecting China to present their position on the LAC perception that is said to be central to resolving the stand-off at the fiction points along the border line in Ladakh.

India will be represented by Lieutenant General Harinder Singh who will be leaving his position on 14 October.

He will be joined by the incoming commander Lieutenant General PGK Menon and the foreign ministrys joint secretary Naveen Srivastava.

China will be represented by the South Xinjiang military commander, Major General Liu Lin.

Top military commanders have reportedly said there is no change in the ground situation in Ladakh.

READ MORE:Indian air force chief defiant over border conflict with China

Both sides face each other at contested points and there has been no pull-back from either the Chinese or Indian forces.

Chinas PLA has produced articles about armed soldiers and artillery guns being airdropped near the contested LAC.

A former Indian Army chief told Hindustan Times: This begets a question as to why did the PLA build roads to their last posts on the perceived LAC if they still have to paradrop military hardware.

It comes after China accused Indian troops of illegally crossing the Himalayan border last month.

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It said Indian forces fired provocative warning shots at patrolling soldiers.

Beijing said its military were forced to take countermeasures.

India rejected the allegations, accusing Chinese forces of firing in the air during the stand-off in the Ladakh region.

A statement from Indias military said: At no stage has the Indian army transgressed across the LAC or resorted to use of any aggressive means, including firing.

India said the PLA tried to approach a forward Indian position near the LAC.

It said Chinese troops fired a few rounds in the air in an attempt to intimidate [our] own troops.

If Indias allegations are true, then it would be the first time in 45 years that gun fire has been shot in the area.

A 1996 deal between the two nations has banned the use of guns and explosives on the LAC.

The two sides have fought only one war in 1962 when Indian were defeated.

The contested LAC is poorly defined due to rivers, lakes and snow caps which can cause the line to shift.

More here:

China vs India: Tensions on knife edge as Beijing plan next move in psychological warfare - Daily Express

SpaceX crew launch delayed to assess Merlin engine concern – Spaceflight Now

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

NASAs SpaceX Crew-1 crew members are seen seated in the companys Crew Dragon spacecraft during crew equipment interface training. From left to right are NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, mission specialist; Victor Oliver, pilot; and Mike Hopkins, Crew Dragon commander; and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, mission specialist. Credit: SpaceX

NASA said Saturday that the launch of four astronauts on SpaceXs first operational Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station has been delayed from Oct. 31 until no sooner than early-to-mid November, allowing time for SpaceX to resolve an issue with Falcon 9 rocket engines that halted a recent launch attempt with a GPS navigation satellite.

The engine concern appeared during an Oct. 2 launch attempt of a Falcon 9 rocket with a GPS satellite at Cape Canaveral, prompting computers controlling the final seconds of the countdown to abort the mission just two seconds prior to liftoff.

Elon Musk, SpaceXs founder and CEO, tweeted after the abort that the countdown was stoppedafter an unexpected pressure rise in the turbomachinery gas generator, referring to equipment used on the rockets Merlin main engines. The gas generators on the Merlin 1D engines drives the engines turbopumps.

While the Falcon 9 launch of the U.S. Space Forces next GPS navigation satellite remains grounded, SpaceX proceeded with the launch of a different Falcon 9 rocket Oct. 6 from a neighboring pad at NASAs Kennedy Space Center. That mission successfully placed 60 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit.

In a statement Saturday, NASA said the Crew Dragon launch delay from Oct. 31 will allow SpaceX more time to complete hardware testing and data reviews as the company evaluates off-nominal behavior of Falcon 9 first stage engine gas generators observed during a recent non-NASA mission launch attempt.

The Crew Dragon mission will use the same type of Falcon 9 rocket as the GPS and Starlink launches.

NASA said it has full insight into SpaceXs launch and testing data. SpaceX developed the Crew Dragon spacecraft and flies the capsule under the auspices of a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA.

We have a strong working relationship with our SpaceX partner, said Kathy Lueders, associate administrator of NASAs Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. With the high cadence of missions SpaceX performs, it really gives us incredible insight into this commercial system and helps us make informed decisions about the status of our missions. The teams are actively working this finding on the engines, and we should be a lot smarter within the coming week.

NASA commander Mike Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Shannon Walker, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi will fly aboard Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, kicking off an expedition lasting about six months. The four-person crew will blast off from pad 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center.

The crew has named their Crew Dragon spaceship Resilience.

The reusable crew capsule was secured to its expendable unpressurized trunk section Oct. 2 at SpaceXs processing facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Hopkins and his crewmates will join NASA flight engineer Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts SergeyRyzhikov andSergey Kud-Sverchkov on the space station.Ryzhikov,Kud-Sverchkov, and Rubins are scheduled for launch Wednesday on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The first operational Crew Dragon flight, named Crew-1, follows a 64-day Crew Dragon demonstration mission with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. Hurley and Behnken launched to the space station May 30 and returned to Earth on Aug. 4 with a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, marking the first flight of astronauts into orbit from a U.S. spaceport since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.

With the test flights now in the books, SpaceXs Crew Dragon is set to begin a series of regular crew rotation flights to the space station, ending NASAs sole reliance on Russian Soyuz missions for crew transportation.

NASA said Saturday that the launch of the U.S.-European Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich oceanography satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket remains scheduled for Nov. 10 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. And a Dragon resupply mission to the space station is targeted for launch in late November or early December from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, a delay from a previous launch date of Nov. 15, according to NASA.

NASA and SpaceX will use the data from the companys hardware testing and reviews to ensure these critical missions are carried out with the highest level of safety, the space agency said Saturday.

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SpaceX crew launch delayed to assess Merlin engine concern - Spaceflight Now

These astronauts read Tom Wolfe’s ‘The Right Stuff’ and flew in space. Here what it meant to them. – Space.com

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Four-time space shuttle astronaut Steve Smith loved professional adventurers when he was a child. In the 1960s, Jacques Cousteau explored the ocean while astronauts were making their first journeys into space during NASA's Mercury program, which paved the way for the first astronauts to land on the moon in 1969.

It is this early world of spaceflight and the test pilots who made up the first astronauts that came to the fore in "The Right Stuff" the 1979 book by Tom Wolfe, the 1983 Hollywood movie and the new National Geographic TV series that launches on Disney Plus today (Oct. 9) to cap World Space Week 2020.

In an interview with Space.com, Smith said that reading the book as a young man increased his commitment to space exploration "1000-fold," allowing him to persevere as initial rejections came in from NASA and the United States Air Force.

Related: 'The Right Stuff' lifts off on Disney Plus, takes flight from book, film

Smith recalled seeing Ed White perform the first American spacewalk in 1965, which spurred the 7-year-old's "singular goal" to fly in space one day. Other factors were exposing Smith to aerospace as well. A friend's father took him flying in a small airplane, and he spent significant time on commercial jets while his family was assigned to live in Japan for two years requiring a lot of time going back and forth to the United States over the Pacific.

"But I knew nothing of behind the scenes. I knew no details about what the astronauts were like, nor what the path was to become one. 'The Right Stuff' changed everything for me. The book filled a huge void," said Smith, who spoke about his spaceflight experiences Tuesday (Oct. 6) as part of The Virtual Astronaut online series.

"The Right Stuff" book and movie duo was influential to a generation of engineers and scientists, including the astronauts of NASA. Some, like Smith, took the movie as inspiration for exploring space and for overcoming obstacles along the way.

Related: How Tom Wolfe inspired a generation of astronauts

"I found the book compelling, extremely interesting, and oftentimes humorous, as I would mentally place myself in the flight suits of these men who were to become the first," Clayton Anderson, who flew twice in space as a NASA space shuttle astronaut and International Space Station crew member, told Space.com.

The movie scene that stuck out to him most, however, was a humorous rendition of the early medical procedures that the astronaut candidates went through to prepare them for spaceflight procedures which have changed substantially since the 1960s.

"[My] takeaway was that if I was ever to become a real astronaut, I wanted no one to see my bare-naked rear end, fully exposed in the revealing flap of a single-tie hospital gown, as I sprinted down a hospital hallway in search of an 'enema-tic' release of supernova proportions. I guess that means I may not have really had 'the right stuff'," Anderson joked, presumably having never needed to undergo that scenario himself during his astronaut career a generation later.

Two-time NASA space shuttle astronaut Danny Olivas, who will speak on The Virtual Astronaut series Oct. 14, recalled another portion of the medical testing in the movie.

"There is a section where the astronauts are being evaluated for their lung capacity by having them blow into a medical device. All the astronauts were competing with one another to see who could sustain their airflow longer. After virtually all of them exhaust themselves, they look over at John Glenn, who is quite easily continuing to exhale," he told Space.com.

"That segment encapsulates what I saw as the level of competition to become an astronaut, not just between their peers, but as individuals. It was that mindset that informed me. If I wanted to become an astronaut, I would have to be prepared to compete at a very high level, and push myself to my own limits. I still think about that scene to this day, and continue to push myself."

Related: What it's like to become a NASA astronaut: 10 surprising facts

But the medical scenes of the movie also underlie some of the controversy of "The Right Stuff" film, which some of the older astronauts said was not an accurate rendition of their training. "Tom Wolfe's coverage of it was pretty good. The movie was lousy, but Tom Wolfe's coverage in the book, I thought, wasn't bad at all," Glenn, who died in 2016, told NASA in a 1997 oral interview.

Fellow Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter, another of the main characters of the book and the movie, told NASA in 1999 that he had "great affection" for Wolfe, but some troubles with the movie based upon his book.

"He is a bright, bright, fine man; and I think the film is a great film," said Carpenter, who died in 2013. "I'm asked about it frequently, and people say, 'Does it tell the truth?' And I say what I believe: that the book and the movie, for that matter, are truthful ... both of them take some literary license with facts, but only nonessential facts. The important details portrayed by both the book and the film are presented accurately."

The movie also provoked strong opinions from some of those who joined the NASA astronaut corps later in the 1960s, during the Gemini and Apollo programs. Those astronauts interacted directly with the real-life people featured in "The Right Stuff," allowing them to think critically about the story's accuracy.

"I haven't read the book critically. I'm not sure I've read it all," Gemini astronaut and Apollo 11 moonwalker Neil Armstrong, who died in 2012, told NASA in 2001. "I did see the movie. I thought it was very good filmmaking, but terrible history. The wrong people working on the wrong projects at the wrong times. It bears no resemblance whatever to what was actually going on."

NASA space shuttle astronaut Joe Allen was selected to join the astronaut corps in 1967 and became familiar with many of the personalities portrayed in the book, which he talked about in a NASA oral history in 2003. "These [people] are, in many ways ... personified by the description of Tom Wolfe in the book 'The Right Stuff'. He exaggerates it ... but he underscores a mindset of these people. They're a very extraordinary group, and they, no choice of their own, found themselves in an extremely high-profile job because of the wild enthusiasm in the eyes of the American public [for] this extraordinary undertaking and adventure."

Mindset was also what Gemini and Apollo astronaut Jim McDivitt focused on in his NASA interview in 1999. "If you've seen 'The Right Stuff', that [training approach] really came out of the [U.S. Air Force] Test Pilot School," McDivitt said. "We taught each other. We just sort of divided up the things that we wanted to [and] thought we ought to learn, and then one of us would bone up on that and then we'd teach the other guys."

At least some astronauts, however, used "The Right Stuff" as cultural touchstones to discuss milestones in their training. Gerald Carr was selected by NASA in 1966 and flew during the Skylab 4 space station mission in 1973.

"Our [qualification] physical was very much like the one that they show in the movie 'The Right Stuff', just about all the same stuff," Carr said to NASA in 2000; he died earlier this year. "We didn't have any of the comedians like [astronaut] Pete Conrad in the movie, but there was lots of good memories about that. It's an unforgettable experience, I'll tell you."

John Blaha, a space shuttle astronaut of the 1980s, recalled a different facet of "The Right Stuff" after his STS-29 crew was invited to The White House in 1989 to meet then-President George H. W. Bush, during a presidential phone call to the space shuttle.

"Did you see that movie, 'The Right Stuff'?" Blaha said during his NASA interview in 2004. "You know that one area in there where one of the wives says something to the effect of, 'I can't wait until we go to the White House and see Jackie [First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy],' or something like that. Well, that was true of space flights. So now when [Bush] said that on-orbit, it was kind of like, 'Hey, we get to go to the White House and see George.' "

Blaha, who eventually took Bush up on the invitation, laughed at the memory. "That was a fun thing," he added.

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These astronauts read Tom Wolfe's 'The Right Stuff' and flew in space. Here what it meant to them. - Space.com

Cygnus supply ship reaches space station with titanium toilet – Spaceflight Now

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Northrop Grummans Cygnus supply ship is grappled by the Canadian-built robotic arm at the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV / Spaceflight Now

A Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station on Monday, delivering nearly four tons of supplies and experiments to the research lab and its crew, including a $23 million titanium toilet and a high-definition virtual reality camera planned for use on a future spacewalk.

Capping an automated laser-guided rendezvous sequence, the Cygnus cargo freighter moved within 40 feet (12 meters) of the space station early Monday, close enough for the labs Canadian-built robotic arm to reach out and grapple it.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, assisted by Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner, took control of the 58-foot-long (17.7-meter) robotic arm to capture the Cygnus spacecraft at 5:32 a.m. EDT (0932 GMT) Monday.

Northrop Grumman named the Cygnus supply ship the S.S. Kalpana Chawla in honor of the first woman of Indian descent to fly into space. Chawla flew on two space shuttle missions, and she died with her six crewmates on the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.

In the name of space exploration, all have given some, some have given all, Cassidy said after capturing the Cygnus spacecraft Monday. Its an honor to welcome the good ship Kalpana Chawla. Welcome aboard the International Space Station, KC.

Ground controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston took control of the robot arm later Monday morning to attach the Cygnus spacecraft to a berthing port on the space stations Unity module, where it will stay for around two months.

Cassidy and his crewmates will open hatches leading to the S.S. Kalpana Chawlas pressurized cargo compartment to begin unpacking the supplies and experiments inside.

The arrival of the S.S. Kalpana Chawla supply ship Monday marked the 14th delivery of cargo to the space station by a Cygnus spacecraft since 2013.

The Cygnus cargo mission blasted off Friday night from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport aboard an Antares rocket, following delays earlier in the week caused by bad weather and a ground software issue.

The S.S. Kalpana Chawla is packed with 7,829 pounds (3,551 kilograms) of supplies and experiments heading to the International Space Station. Heres a breakdown of the cargo manifest provided by NASA:

The Cygnus supply ship will remain berthed Unity module until mid-December, when it will be released by the stations robotic arm.The automated cargo carrier, loaded with trash after its departure from the station, will perform an in-flight combustion experiment before re-entering the atmosphere and burning up over the South Pacific Ocean to end its mission.

The fresh food packed inside the S.S. Kalpana Chawla supply ship includesprosciutto, chorizo, salami, summer sausage, brie, smoked gouda, smoked provolone, and fruits and vegetables.

Among clothing and other crew provisions, the Cygnus mission will deliver an upgraded toilet to the space station, allowing astronauts to test its functionality before a similar commode flies on the Orion crew capsule to the moon.

The new toilet, or Universal Waste Management System in NASA-speak, is roughly the size of a camper commode. Its about 65 percent smaller and 40 percent lighter than the toilet currently on the space station, according toMelissa McKinley, logistics reduction manager for the agencys advanced exploration systems division.

NASA partnered with Collins Aerospace to develop the new toilet, which officials said is better suited for female crew members than the existing commode on the space station. Engineers made parts of the toilet out of titanium to withstand acid used to pre-treat urine before the fluid is recycled back into drinking water for the astronauts, said Jim Fuller, the toilets project manager at Collins Aerospace.

On Earth, we have gravity that helps pull the feces and urine away from our body and into the toilet, Fuller said. In space, where we have microgravity, we dont have that luxury. The dual fan separator actually creates the motive force by creating a strong airflow that helps pull the urine and feces away from the body.

When the astronauts have to go, we want to allow them to boldly go, Fuller said.

Designers wanted the new toilet to be easier to use for women flying on the space station,

The funnel design was was completely re-contoured to better accommodate the female anatomy, McKinley said. And particularly, this is a concern when the crew members are trying to do dual ops, when theyre theyre doing both defecation and urination at the same time, just the alignment of all of that at once Trying to make that more appropriate for female use was a big driver.

Theres also a virtual reality camera flying to the space station that will capture imagery of a future spacewalk.

The cosmetics companyEste Lauder is also flying 10 bottles of its Advanced Night Repair serum to the space station, where the bottles will be photographed with Earth as a backdrop.Este Lauder says it will use the images in social media and marketing campaigns, and then plans to auction the serum returned to Earth from the space station, with the proceeds going to charity.

Its part of a new NASA program that dedicates 5 percent of space station cargo capacity and crew time to commercial marketing activities.Este Lauder will reimburse NASA around $128,000 for the space station resources used in the night serum marketing initiative, according to Phil McAlister, NASAs director of commercial spaceflight development.

Northrop Grummans Cygnus spacecraft shares space station resupply duties with SpaceXs Dragon capsule, the Russian Progress resupply freighter, and Japanese cargo missions.

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Cygnus supply ship reaches space station with titanium toilet - Spaceflight Now

On the trail of causes of radiation events during space flight – Newswise

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Newswise Scientists have made significant progress in understanding the sources of radiation events that could impact human space-flight operations. Relativistic Electron Precipitation (REP) events are instances when high energy electrons move through areas of space at significant fractions of the speed of light. These REP events may pose challenges to human spaceflight, specifically during extravehicular activity (EVA).

These hazards motivate the question of whether REP events can be forecasted in order to avoid unnecessary human exposure to radiation. In order to predict REP events, their cause must first be determined.

A scientific team led by researchers at the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) in Japan has made strides in answering that question. Their findings were published on August 14 in theJournal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.

Ryuho Kataoka, the lead author of the study and an associate professor at NIPR, pinpointed the cause of REP events and emphasized that REP events must be accounted for in human spaceflight missions.

"The importance of understanding REP events has been increasing since the REP events have been clearly identified at International Space Station (ISS)," Kataoka said. "REP events are important because they cause radiation dose during EVAs."

It has been hypothesized that electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves play an important role in REP events at the ISS. It was still an open question, however, whether other mechanisms played a role in REP event generation. EMIC waves are electromagnetic waves that propagate through the plasma in Earth's magnetosphere, causing disturbances in the charged particles within the plasma.

Using multiple sensors aboard the ISS, as well as data from the Arase satellite, the research group was able to show that at least three separate processes contributed to REP events. One is indeed EMIC waves. But the data also suggested two other sources: Whistler mode chorus waves and electrostatic whistler waves. Whistler mode waves can be excited by high energy electrons associated with auroral activities, such as the Northern Lights.

"It turned out that REP events at the ISS are caused not only by EMIC waves but also by whistler mode waves, which makes the space weather forecast more difficult," Kataoka said.

With a better understanding of the physical causes of REP events, Kataoka and his team are working towards ways to predict future events. "The next step is the space weather forecast of REP events at the ISS by modeling different kinds of plasma wave activities. The ultimate goal is to obtain a unified theory to understand the interaction between energetic particles and plasma waves, and their impact of radiation dose on the atmosphere, space craft, and human beings."

###

About National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR)

The NIPR engages in comprehensive research via observation stations in Arctic and Antarctica. As a member of the Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS), the NIPR provides researchers throughout Japan with infrastructure support for Arctic and Antarctic observations, plans and implements Japan's Antarctic observation projects, and conducts Arctic researches of various scientific fields such as the atmosphere, ice sheets, the ecosystem, the upper atmosphere, the aurora and the Earth's magnetic field. In addition to the research projects, the NIPR also organizes the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition and manages samples and data obtained during such expeditions and projects. As a core institution in researches of the polar regions, the NIPR also offers graduate students with a global perspective on originality through its doctoral program. For more information about the NIPR, please visit:https://www.nipr.ac.jp/english/

About the Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS)

The Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS)is a parent organization of four national institutes (National Institute of Polar Research, National Institute of Informatics, the Institute of Statistical Mathematics and National Institute of Genetics) and the Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research. It is ROIS's mission to promote integrated, cutting-edge research that goes beyond the barriers of these institutions, in addition to facilitating their research activities, as members of inter-university research institutes.

On the trail of causes of radiation events during space flight - Newswise

Space Week: From Human Spaceflight to Studying Sun, ISRO’s Upcoming Missions Aim to Transform Indian Space Exploration – The Weather Channel

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Chandrayaan 2 launch.

Saturday, October 10 marks the conclusion of this years International Space Weekan annual celebration of science and technology as well as their contribution towards the betterment of the human condition. Over the past few decades, exponential growth in science and technology has allowed humanity to take gigantic leaps in understanding our planet and exploring far-off cosmic worlds that lie beyond our physical reach. In return, space science has helped humanity advance in all fields of science and ameliorate human conditions.

India too, over recent years, has become a notable contributor to the field of space science and exploration. In addition to the incredible research from Indian astronomers, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been taking the nation to greater heights and unexplored territoriesquite literally. With a hunger to explore more and understand better, the Indian space agency has no intentions of slowing down any time soon. And while the COVID-19 pandemic may have delayed some plans to an extent, ISRO has some major projects lined-up just for the next two years.

Here are ISROs five upcoming space missions that it aims to launch by the year 2022:

The first of ISROs upcoming missions will be the Radar Imaging Satellite 1A, or RISAT-1A. A land-based mission, this remote sensing satellites primary application will be in terrain mapping and analysis of land, ocean, and water surface for soil moisture.

RISAT-1A will be the sixth in the series of RISAT satellitesIndian radar imaging reconnaissance satellites built by ISRO that provide all-weather surveillance using synthetic aperture radars (SAR).

These radars can be used for Earth observation irrespective of the light and weather conditions of the area being imaged. RISAT-1A will provide continuity of service for RISAT-1, which was launched on April 26, 2012.

The satellite will carry payloads (instruments) for three categories, each consisting of different parametersLand (Albedo and reflectance, soil moisture, vegetation, and multi-purpose imagery), Ocean (Ocean topography/currents), and Snow & Ice (Ice sheet topography, Snow cover, edge and depth; Sea ice cover, edge, and thickness).

While its launch date is yet to be confirmed, reports indicate that it may take-off by late 2020 or early 2021, using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

Last year, the Chandrayaan-2 mission not only took India to the Moon, but it also made ISRO a household name across the country. And while the failure to perform a soft landing on the lunar surface prevented the mission from being a 100% success, those incomplete objectives will soon be achieved through ISROs next lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3.

Chandrayaan-2 was a reasonably successful mission, said Dr Abhay Deshpande, a Senior Scientist working for the Government of India and the Honorary Secretary of Khagol Mandal (a non-profit collective of astronomy enthusiasts). The only setback we have faced is that through Chandrayaan-3, we now have to repeat some of the work that was supposed to be done by Chandrayaan-2. This has effectively delayed ISROs timeline and postponed some of its future missions. But other than this, there is nothing that needs to be done differently for Chandrayaan-3. I believe we will take all the necessary precautions, and achieve success in this mission, he added.

C3 is expected to retain the heritage of its predecessor while sporting a configuration that allows robust design and capacity enhancement for mission flexibility. Further, considering the C2 Orbiter continues to function optimally, the C3 mission will only consist of a lander and a rover. This also makes the mission more economical, with ISRO chairman K. Sivan estimating it to be worth 615 crore rupees. In comparison, C2 cost India 970 crore rupees.

The type of payloads C3 will carry remains unknown as of now, but if it retains all the main objectives of C2, it is likely to consist of payloads identical to those within Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover that were destroyed during the hard landing.

The mission is likely to be launched somewhere in early 2021, as per an announcement made by Jitendra Singh, the Minister of State for the Department of Space, in early September 2020.

Having made strides in the field of unmanned space exploration, ISRO is now on the verge of launching the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme through its Gaganyaan mission. The Gaganyaan, which means Sky Craft in Sanskrit, is a crewed orbital spacecraft jointly manufactured by ISRO, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), and the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

Representative image

In the maiden crewed mission, which has been scheduled for December 2021, the 3.7-tonne capsule will orbit the Earth at a 400 km altitude for up to seven days, with a crew of one to three persons on board. Prior to his crewed mission, however, ISRO has also planned two uncrewed orbital test flights of the Gaganyaan capsulethe first in December 2020 and the second, July 2021.

While the crewed launch is still more than a year away, the biggest challenge of the entire mission may arrive much before the launchduring the human training phase, according to Dr. Deshpande.

Shedding light on this potential block, he told The Weather Channel: At present, the Indian astronauts are preparing for the mission in Russia, training in a simulated zero gravity environment to get accustomed to the harsh conditions of space. But at some point of time, we will have to train them on the Indian soil, for which we will have to create our own simulation and training centres. This could be one of the toughest parts of the mission, considering our lack of experience and data in this field.

While these challenges do lie in the way, they are manageable, and the overall Gaganyaan mission is expected to proceed smoothly. In fact, its successful completion will mark Indias entry to the human spaceflight programs, while simultaneously boosting the countrys space ambitions and opening doors of imagination for many Indians. For more information on the mission, click here.

So far, the year 2020 has been the year of Solar Physicsin January, US-based National Science Foundation's Inouye Solar Telescope released the most detailed images of the Sun ever; a month later, NASA and ESA launched their Solar Orbiter; and just last month, the Parker Solar Probe made its closest approach to the Sun, managing to get within 13.5 million kilometres of the solar surface.

India, too, hopes to add to these achievements and contribute its own share to the field by January 2022 through Aditya-L1, the first Indian Solar Coronagraph spacecraft mission to study the solar coronathe outermost part of the Suns atmosphere. While ISRO initially envisaged it as a small low-Earth orbiting satellite with a coronagraph, the scope of the mission has since expanded to make it a comprehensive solar and space environment observatory.

Five Lagrangian points. Position of Telescope at L2. Aditya will be at L1.

Aditya will be placed near the Lagrangian Point L1, one of the five points between the Earth and the Sun where the gravity seems to balance. This very fact allows any spacecraft placed on such Lagrangian points to go around the Sun-Earth system without requiring much fuel.

Aditya will have seven payloads: Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC), Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT), Aditya Solar wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX), Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA), Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS), High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS), and Magnetometer.

Together, these payloads will help Aditya-L1 observe the Sun's photosphere, chromosphere, and corona; the magnetic fields of the solar wind and solar magnetic storms; and the overall space environment around Earth, among other phenomena. They will also help us gain a comprehensive understanding of the dynamical processes of the Sun, while addressing some of the outstanding problems in solar physics and heliophysics. For more information on the mission, click here.

The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) is a joint project between NASA and ISRO to co-develop and launch the first ever dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar on an Earth observation satellite. With an estimated total cost of US$1.5 billion, it is likely to be the world's most expensive Earth-imaging satellite.

Artist's Concept of NISAR

NISARs main objective will be to observe and measure some of the Earth's most complex natural processes, including the evolution of Earths crust, ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet collapse, changing climate, and natural calamities like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc. To do this, it will use advanced radar imaging to map the elevation of Earth's land and ice masses at resolutions of 5 to 10 metres.

All data collected by this satellite will be made available for all 1-2 days after observation, and even within hours in case of emergencies and disasters.

ISROs role in the mission will be to provide the satellite bus, an S band synthetic aperture radar, the launch vehicle, and associated launch services, whereas NASA will supply the L band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a high-rate telecommunication subsystem for scientific data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and a payload data subsystem.

It will be launched from India aboard a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle in September 2022, with a planned mission life of three years.

For more space, science, and weather updates on the go, download The Weather Channel App (on Android and iOS store). It's free!

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Space Week: From Human Spaceflight to Studying Sun, ISRO's Upcoming Missions Aim to Transform Indian Space Exploration - The Weather Channel

UAE will launch its first moon rover in 2024 – Space.com

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

The United Arab Emirates has joined the roll-call of nations looking to visit the moon, with a lunar rover named Rashid scheduled to launch in 2024.

The announcement comes while the nation's first mission beyond Earth orbit, a Mars spacecraft called Hope, is still trekking out to the Red Planet. That mission is a science-minded endeavor meant to study how Mars' climate and atmosphere work from orbit. The new lunar mission is of a different flavor, focused more on developing technologies and evaluating concerns before crewed and longer-duration exploration missions leave Earth and land on other worlds.

"There are many scientific objectives behind this mission that will help us to better understand the moon," Adnan AlRais of the UAE's Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) told Space.com, "but also in the long run to support our ultimate goal, sending humans to Mars and building settlements on Mars."

Related: The United Arab Emirates' Hope Mars mission in photos

AlRais heads up the agency's Mars 2117 program, which was established in 2017 to target landing humans on Mars within a century. As part of the program, the UAE is developing a "Mars Science City" in the desert and taking part in practice Red Planet missions at analog facilities, among other activities.

Meanwhile, the nation's astronaut program is selecting two new spaceflyers to double its ranks. The UAE currently has two astronauts, one of whom spent a week on the International Space Station in 2019, and recently sent them to NASA's Johnson Space Center for additional training.

And that's all going on while the UAE prepares for the Hope spacecraft's orbital arrival at Mars in February.

For a space program less than two decades old, the newly announced lunar mission marks a foray beyond the existing focus areas of Earth-observation satellites, human spaceflight and Mars exploration.

The decision to target a lunar rover stems from the international recognition of the moon as a stepping stone to Mars, a nearby world to test technologies before committing to the monthslong voyage to the Red Planet.

"It makes sense to go to the moon," Hamad Al Marzooqi, project manager for the new lunar mission, told Space.com. "The moon is nearer to Earth than Mars and it will allow us to do high-frequency missions," although he declined to elaborate on what sort of future missions the agency is considering.

The team's current focus, he said, is on this initial lunar rover, dubbed Rashid after the late Sheik Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the current sheik's father and one of the founders of the UAE, according to the Associated Press. The UAE has not yet selected the rocket that will launch the rover in 2024.

The team also still needs to select a landing site from among five finalists, Al Marzooqi said. Those candidate sites, all located in the equatorial region of the near side of the moon, are locations that have never been visited by landed spacecraft, he added.

"We plan to go and explore new areas that have not been explored during previous missions and that will allow us to do interesting science," Al Marzooqi said.

The four-wheeled rover's task list is a bit of a smorgasbord, determined more by the landing site and the instruments the team believes it can manage than by an overarching scientific narrative. Rashid will carry a high-resolution camera, a thermal imager and a microscopic imager to tell scientists about the dusty lunar regolith (moon dirt) and the probe's surroundings.

It will also carry a Langmuir probe, an instrument that will study a particularly strange phenomenon on the moon. The solar wind, a constant stream of charged particles flowing off the sun, continually bombards the dayside lunar surface, since the moon has no atmosphere to stop these particles. The result is a slight positive charge to the dayside surface and in turn, a negatively charged photoelectron sheath about 3 feet (1 meter) tall above it.

The phenomenon may contribute to the stickiness of lunar dust that so frustrated Apollo-era exploration, a potential concern already on the minds of those looking to return to the moon. Al Marzooqi said no Langmuir probe has ever reached the lunar surface and he hopes Rashid's will address this ongoing mystery.

The rover will also test experimental spacesuit materials to evaluate how they withstand the harsh lunar environment. And although Rashid's primary mission will last just one lunar day (about 14 Earth days), the rover will carry experimental software that will monitor instruments' temperatures and regulate their power, with the goal of waking them up again once the frigid lunar night ends, Al Marzooqi said.

Related: Hazzaa AlMansoori: The 1st Emirati astronaut's space mission in photos

To date, three nations have successfully soft-landed on the moon: the then-Soviet Union, the U.S. and China. Two countries attempted to join that list last year but failed: Both Israel's Beresheet lander and the Vikram lander of India's Chandrayaan-2 mission experienced glitches during the landing process and didn't slow down enough to survive the impact.

Al Marzooqi said those missions were on the Rashid team's mind looking ahead to a 2024 landing attempt.

"I was disappointed to see those failed missions," he said. "When you see failed missions before your mission, you need to understand the risk better in order to make sure that we don't follow the same path."

But that risk is also the price of admission, the UAE knows.

"There is no space mission with 100% success rate," Al Marzooqi said.

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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UAE will launch its first moon rover in 2024 - Space.com

NASAs Planet Patrol wants you to join the search for exoplanets – EarthSky

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Have you ever wanted to help scientists find exoplanets, worlds orbiting distant stars? Well, nows your chance! NASA has just launched a new citizen science website called Planet Patrol,a collaboration between NASA, the SETI Institute, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and Zooniverse. Volunteers will assist astronomers by looking through images taken by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), NASAs newest planet-hunter, which was launched in 2018.

As described on the Planet Patrol website:

NASAs Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission will take pictures of more than a million stars to search for planets orbiting them, called transiting exoplanets. We expect this mission will see thousands of these transiting exoplanets when they pass in front of nearby stars and periodically block some of the starlight.

But sometimes when a star dims like that, its not because of a planet. Variable stars, eclipsing binary stars, blended stars, glitches in the data, etc., can cause a similar effect. We need your help to spot these imposters!

At Planet Patrol, youll help us check the data from the TESS mission, one image at a time, to make sure that objects we suspect are planets REALLY are planets.

Artists illustration of TESS. Planet Patrol uses data from the space telescope to search for exoplanets orbiting far-away stars. Image via NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center.

The objective is twofold: search for planetary candidates in the data, as well as planetary imposters, other objects or phenomena that could be mimicking a planet. Project leader Veselin Kostov of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center said in a statement:

Automated methods of processing TESS data sometimes fail to catch imposters that look like exoplanets. The human eye is extremely good at spotting such imposters, and we need citizen scientists to help us distinguish between the look-alikes and genuine planets.

This also explains why human volunteers (3,968 at the time of this writing!) are needed in the first place. TESS collects a lot of data, hundreds of thousands of images in a year. Since according to scientists most stars have planets,each image could contain thousands of unseen planets. When you multiply that by the thousands of images, it becomes a daunting task to try to find the stars where planets are transiting in front of them, from our viewpoint (keeping in mind that many planets will have orbits that dont transit). Computers can detect many or even most of such transits, but they are not perfect. This is especially true for smaller planets, like Earth, in larger orbits far out from their stars.

Scientists have discovered over 4,000 exoplanets so far, of many different kinds, as represented in this artists concept. With the publics help, they should find many more as well. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech).

The Planet Patrol volunteers will help find the planets that the computer algorithms miss, but they will also assist with something just as valuable: weeding out false positives. Sometimes, what appears to be a planet transiting its star isnt actually a planet at all. Other possibilities include binary star systems, where two stars orbit each other around their common center of mass, and so alternately eclipse each other periodically. Other times, what seems to be a transit is actually just changes in brightness of a star itself. Still another kind of false alarm is simply errors or quirks in the observing instruments themselves.

All of those possibilities need to be eliminated before a candidate planet can actually be declared a confirmed discovery.

It can be tricky, of course, separating the real planets from the false ones, but on the new website, volunteers can ask questions about each image they study. This helps the TESS team narrow down the list of potential planets to the ones that are the most promising. Theres also the Planet Patrol Talk community where participants can discuss their findings with each other as well. As Marc Kuchner, Citizen Science Officer for NASAs Science Mission Directorate, described the process:

Were all swimming through the same sea of data, just using different strokes. Planet Hunters TESS asks volunteers to look at light curves, which are graphs of stars brightness over time. Planet Patrol asks them to look at the TESS image directly, although we plan to also include light curves for those images in the future.

Veselin Kostov of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, Project Leader at Planet Patrol. Image viaVeselin B. Kostov.

Over 4,000 exoplanets have been discovered so far in our galaxy, ranging from scorching hot Jupiters to smaller and cooler rocky worlds like Earth. Astronomers now estimate that almost every star has at least one planet and that the total number of planets may outnumber the stars in our galaxy. Thats a staggering thought.

Planet Patrol is not only a new way to help find distant worlds that might otherwise be missed; it is also a great way for the public to become involved and engaged. There are still many planetary candidates from TESS to be examined, and TESS is expected to find thousands more, so this is a great time to learn how to go planet-hunting.

Bottom line: NASA has launched a new website called Planet Patrol where volunteers can help search for exoplanets.

Via NASA

NASAs Planet Patrol wants you to join the search for exoplanets - EarthSky

Why flexibility is critical for launch industry to tide over current unpredictabilities – Geospatial World

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

While launch schedules are beginning to return to normal, the satellite industry will likely be feeling long-term effects from the pandemic. Under strict lockdown regulations, many satellite developers have been unable to continue development at pre-COVID-19 speed, and taken together with issues up and down the supply chain, the industry will certainly see a broad impact in speed of development. In this background, flexibility is critical to combating the unpredictability of timelines and implications they have on launch schedules, believes Grant Bonin, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Spaceflight Inc.

Before the pandemic, a Bryce report found that 100% of all commercial smallsat launches experienced some form of launch delay. Delays leave satellite developers unable to get revenue-generating assets on orbit on time and unable to demonstrate a satellites capabilities, limiting opportunities for future funding. While launch delays will never disappear completely, flexibility can mitigate negative impacts, he explains.

Initially, a lot of VC-backed companies press pause and take austerity measures, but as the current pandemic has drawn out, it is being observed that commercial companies are recognizing that the best way to create value is by launching and operating their satellites. So were seeing the market rebound in a fairly powerful way. The industry has proven more resilient than even we thought there are many great companies out there, and great companies will always get funded and need launch, he underlines. Of course, there could be a ripple effect in this regard that wont fully be understood for another six to 12 months.

In an exhaustive interview, Bonin talks about the impact of the pandemic on the industry, and how Spacelight is providing the much-needed flexibility in launches that the industry so desperately needs to tackle some of the unpredictable challenges.

ALSO READ: Satellogic teams up with European Space Imaging and others to launch global consortium of imagery

In the short term weve seen a lot of disruption to the majority of launch schedules this year. However, were now seeing launches pick back up again. For example, the VV16 Vega mission was supposed to launch in the spring of 2020, following a failure on a previous launch, but this mission was delayed following a variety of lockdowns across the globe. The mission successfully launched in September, sending more than 50 satellites to orbit. Spaceflight has three more launches scheduled this year, with several others slated for quarter one of next year.

With longer-term effects, I anticipate well see some disruption in satellite readiness for launch dates scheduled before the pandemic. Under strict lockdown regulations, many satellite developers have been unable to continue development at pre-COVID-19 speed, and taken together with issues up and down the supply chain, we certainly see a broad impact in speed of development. We fully expect to see a ripple effect in this regard that wont fully be understood for another six to 12 months: but thats where Spaceflights launch flexibility really becomes of substantial value.

When delays occur, we can re-manifest our customers on another launch via our global launch vehicle network. Additionally, we recently announced several other programs, including multi-launch subscription services for launch, fully-transparent pricing, a Book My Launch platform, new vehicle and launch contracts, and our next-generation Sherpa orbital transfer vehicle, to take customers from the airport to the hotel in comfort. All of these programs are designed to help our customers get to exactly the orbit they want, exactly when they want. Spaceflight offers launch schedule assurance and greatest flexibility to smallsat customers needing frequent, reliable, and cost-effective ways to get spacecraft on orbit.

The biggest impact Spaceflight experienced was the disruption to launch schedules. For many of our clients, we execute the integration of satellites, so we are on site for launches and supporting weeks of integration work leading up to the launch. Even with the lockdowns, we serviced the customers above and beyond. Now were seeing things return to normal with regards to launch schedules.

From the booking perspective, things have not slowed. We are still working with many clients, existing and new, to schedule upcoming launches. Similar to many organizations, our team is largely working remotely (though as with many in the aerospace sector, we have been deemed essential and engineering activities continue at our Auburn facility). Before the pandemic struck, we were already set up to work across time zones to service customers, so we adapted to it with ease and have continued to keep everything on track with our customers. Finally, with the recent introduction of our Mission Control platform, an online portal that allows customers to easily access mission statuses, learn about key deliverables and view updates, has enabled our customers to see the progression of their mission online and provides an easy way for them to coordinate with their mission manager.

Weve been making our moves into the digital realm quickly, to make sure that in this new world we all find ourselves in, were still reliable and easy to book launches through.

The major downside for us, as with many companies, has actually been the loss of in-person water-cooler conversations. The team at Spaceflight thrives on internal and customer interactions; we miss hanging out!

Spaceflight intends to change the way customers get delivered into orbit. Conventional approaches to booking (and paying for) launch are arcane and transactional. Were drawing on the best insights of the best service providers across many different industries to revolutionize the launch experience.

First, our new overall booking process was born out of a desire to create a customer experience that is seamless and convenient. Our online booking portal allows customers to easily find launch options and book the ones that suit their needs, much as they would book (or change) any other flight. Next is the ability to move spacecraft from one launch to another launch in the case of a delay. This entails moving from one vehicle and integration facility to another and the launch sites can be a country apart. The team at Spaceflight has deep expertise across a variety of launch vehicles, ensuring a smooth integration process for customers. Finally, our Sherpa OTV program completes the picture, letting us provide the much-advertised but not yet realized last mile delivery service, enabling satellites to reach almost any exact orbit from any launch to common orbits.

Spaceflight is changing the way people think about launch deals by offering exactly that: subscription services for launch. Price is always critical, but in this industry, cash is king. Spaceflight has pioneered new launch deal structures that give maximum flexibility as well as correspondingly great cashflow terms to customers. The aerospace industry has always traded on being the pointy end of the sword technically, but virtually all other industries have surpassed it in terms of customer service. We aggressively learn from other sectors about how to best serve customers, and putting customers first.

ALSO READ: Satellite data nails Chinese fishing fleet near ecologically sensitive Galpagos Islands

Now more than ever, cash is king in the space industry. As the acceptance of subscription models rises for consumer and business goods in other industries, from everything from software and entertainment to pet food, we believe its a model that could also benefit the space industry. In an industry as unpredictable and risky as the space industry, subscription models provide certainty. Under our new ownership, we are uniquely poised to offer it, to the benefit of both our customers and our launch providers.

For launch vehicle providers implementing a subscription model allows launchers to gain predictable insight into their own cash flow. It helps them capitalize on the compounding value of customer relationships and commit to providing exceptional service. Predictability, like cash, is highly valued in our business.

For satellite developers, subscriptions can help them maintain some schedule consistency and predictability. Developers can have an extra level of flexibility by securing capacity on a wide range of launch vehicles rather than just one, enabling the payloads to easily spread across multiple vehicles to minimize risk.

While conventionally, the space industry is inherently inflexible and quite challenging, subscription models bring consistency and reliability for both launchers and satellite developers.

Spaceflight has recently signed a number of multi-launch agreements, which enables us to offer our smallsat customers a diverse portfolio of launch options and extensive launch capacity. In June, we signed a multi-launch agreement with SpaceX. This agreement secures rideshare capacity to launch payloads on several SpaceX missions through the end of 2021. Additionally, we signed a launch services agreement with Firefly Aerospace in April 2020 to maximize launch capacity on the commercial Alpha mission.

We are always evaluating new vehicle entrants and securing capacity with the goal to open space access for more smallsats.

Our Sherpa orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) product will enable satellites to be deployed to anywhere on orbit, even if the initial launch drops them off in a non-ideal orbit. Satellites that require a specific orbit dont often have many launch options available, so if they are able to catch a ride to a common orbital destination and finish in an orbit that is harder to reach, the number of launches available to them will increase dramatically.

Other companies have been advertising this for years, but we generally find either their technology is intrinsically flawed, their business model is unsustainable, or they cant access the broad range of launch vehicle providers that Spaceflight can. Spaceflights Sherpa program pre-dates almost all in-space transportation solutions, and weve revamped it with the current state of the art in propulsion, radiation-tolerant avionics, and high-accuracy control and telemetry systems to deliver customers quickly (hours to days) and accurately to their final destination in space, in a way no one else can achieve.

Typically, launches that meet satellite developers orbit requests are pricey and may warrant purchasing a whole rocket, but recent innovations in hardware development have proven a promising future to make last mile delivery possible. Specifically, orbital transfer vehicles, such as Spaceflights Sherpa-FX vehicle, are paving the way to create flexible manifest changes, enabling deployment to multiple altitudes and orbital planes, all while offering rapid launch solutions.

The debut of Spaceflights Sherpa-NG (next generation) program will occur later this year, with its first OTV, Sherpa-FX, launching 16 satellites. This hardware is one of the many innovative solutions coming to the market that will allow smallsat payloads to ride on large vehicles, which offer low-cost options, while getting to their preferred orbit coordinates.

The Sherpa-NG program will host a family of space vehicles, continuing the tradition of Spaceflights first orbital free flyer on the SSO-A mission. The new orbital transfer vehicle, Sherpa-FX, will be capable of executing multiple satellite deployments to multiple orbits, as well as providing independent and detailed deployment telemetry for customers and flexible interfaces. Spaceflight delivers value that outweighs the premium costs for launch.

Be flexible. There are countless ways businesses are affected by the pandemic and its important to be adaptable and flexible and find innovative solutions. And that flexibility is something we are constantly focused on offering to our customers. That flexibility may help them manage the impacts of pandemic and find a new launch that better suits their needs. We are hopeful that businesses will survive these unique circumstances and that the industry will bounce back stronger.

At the same time, be aggressive: unfortunate as our current global circumstances are, there are huge opportunities that arise from hardship that can allow companies to create great value and improve the world.

One striking thing about all our customers is that they want to do something importantwhether its defending their country or improving it, everyone who comes to us with launch needs tends to be passionate and devoted to their cause. Space is our shared high-ground, and excitement for what we can do up there hasnt diminished. We would lastly encourage companies to be bold, take big swings, and remember that history isnt a spectator sport. Our achievements up there long-outlive our companies and lives down here.

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Why flexibility is critical for launch industry to tide over current unpredictabilities - Geospatial World

Travis Scott Appears to Hint at New Music: ‘Going to Go Cook Up and Build These Walls for Utopia’ – Complex

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Travis Scottappeared to tease his forthcoming album Utopia with an incredibly small change to his Instagram that only eagle-eyed fans may have noticed when hechanged his bio from Astroworld, the title of his 2018 album, to Utopia.

Scott also tweeted that he's "GOING TO GO COOK UP AND BUILD THESE WALLS FOR UTOPIA. SEE YOU GUYS SOON." On top of that, Scott told DJ's to "keep checking ur mailbox" as he has "something on the way in the mail for ya."

GOING TO GO COOK UP AND BUILD THESE WALLS FOR UTOPIA. SEE YOU GUYS SOON.

DJs Just keep Checking ur mailboxGot something on the way in the mail for ya

Back in August, Scott celebrated the two-year anniversary, or "Astroversary,"of Astroworld with a handwritten note that concluded, "Let's keep the ride going, see you in Utopia."

When asked to confirm that Utopia was the title of his next album, Scott's friend and collaborator Chase B responded, "Oh nah, it's not. I think thats just him being Trav. Just feeling good, in the moment."In an interview with GQ published in October, La Flame was asked "Where does one go after Astroworld,"to which he responded, "You go to Utopia. Thats where you go."

Scott's latest single "Franchise" debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100, making him thefastest artist to accumulate three No. 1 debuts in the chart's history.

Stay tuned.

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Travis Scott Appears to Hint at New Music: 'Going to Go Cook Up and Build These Walls for Utopia' - Complex

Meet new faculty: Katie Adkison and what the Bard tells us about the power of voice – Bates News

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Each week this fall, well introduce new Bates professors who have tenure-track positions on the faculty.

This years nine tenure appointments are in the disciplines of art and visual culture, classical and medieval studies, economics, English, environmental studies, dance, politics (two appointments), and psychology.

This week we introduce the seventh of our nine new faculty members, Katie Adkison.

Name: Katie Adkison

Title: Assistant Professor of English

Degrees from: University of California, Santa Barbara, Ph.D. in English; Colorado State University, M.A. in English literature, B.A. in English education

Her work: Adkison studies the role of an individuals spoken voice in early modern English literature what the actual feeling of speaking means and conveys, especially in terms of power structures.

In Adkisons scholarship, voice becomes a kind of embodied sensation. Not literally a sixth sense, but something more akin to sensing knowledge than to just a tool of communication.

Her dissertation: The Sense of Speech: Voice and Sovereignty in Early Modern Tragedy, describes the relationship between early modern theories of sovereignty and the phenomenology of the voice in Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedy.

For example: In the opening scene of King Lear, the titular monarch decides to divide his kingdom based on how much his three daughters say they love him. His first two daughters make elaborate but insincere declarations of love.

Lear then turns to his third daughter, Cordelia, and asks, What can you say to draw a third more opulent than your sisters? Cordelia, who does truly love the king, responds, Nothing, my Lord. She continues:

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heaveMy heart into my mouth: I love your majestyAccording to my bond; nor more nor less. (1.1.91-93)

In referring to her own voice, Cordelia is trying to tell her father something about politics and about love that his love test is failing to understand, says Adkison. Shes saying that love and politics are not mathematical equations. You cant give more love through your voice the way that you can give more money or more of something tangible.

The opening scene is a kernel in the larger lesson of the play. Cordelia, in effect, is vocalizing the fact that her vocalization cant do what her father wants it to do it cant be reduced to words. Shes saying, Theres more to love here, just as theres more to language in the very voice Im speaking through.

The scene sets the stage for the tragedy. Lear wants words to equal inheritance, a kingdom, power. Cordelia wants no part of it. And so it ends, with death, tears, and so much pain, says Adkison.

Iambic sortameter: In King Lears opening scene, Shakespeare uses a jarring version of iambic pentameter for some of Cordelias lines. The rhythm is off, says Adkison, noting that the Bard sometimes uses an extra syllable, 11 instead of the usual 10 or even a whole extra two-syllable iamb in some lines.

Shakespeare did that often, she explains, usually to draw attention to something. If the rhythm is off, you are supposed to feel it as an audience member.

We cant know the intentions of the author now or 500 years later. But the meaning is there, regardless. Thats magic to me.

Adkison recalls the moment that something felt off in one of the lines. And so I started counting syllables, the way youre supposed to when something feels off. The extra syllable had to be purposeful. Its too perfect not to be.

In Cordelias 11-syllable lines, there is something that literally cant be divided up. The rhythm of the lines is as out of step with her fathers demands as her inability to speak her love is. Shes really talking about vocal rhythm and the experience of voice to explain whats going on.

A beautiful thing: The beautiful thing about how literature thinks about language is that we cant know the intentions of the author now or 500 years later, Adkison says. But the meaning is there, regardless. Theres always something new to be parsed and to be found. Thats magic to me.

Classroom magic: Sometimes, magical classroom moments happen when a teacher allows a discussion to go off the straight rails.

Last winter, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Adkison was teaching Thomas Mores Utopia. A student asked, Is anyone watching The Good Place? referring to the NBC fantasy comedy about a utopian, but problematic, afterlife.

Rather than guide the discussion back to the 16th century, Adkison took a moment to connect the dots. She noted the etymology of the word utopia and how it can mean the good place or no place or the good place that cannot exist or something along those lines.

Eager for wordplay, Adkisons students jumped at the chance to connect Mores Utopia to The Good Place, which led to a conversation about the way that the show uses and problematizes the notion of a utopia in such interesting ways.

Then she guided the students back to how More imagined what a good life looked like in his Utopia. The text is infamously sticky about how one constructs a good life, what it means to live the good life, and all the problems that are wrapped up in that text.

And a course is born: All of that left Adkison wanting so badly to teach a class on utopia. And if you look at utopia, you have to teach the second half of the class on dystopias because it seems to be true that a good place for some frequently comes to mean a bad place for others.

College students are special because they will think with you taking on the agency of research and thinking of their learning as their own.

And, voil! This spring, Adkison will teach such a course on utopian and dystopian fiction, from Mores Utopia and Margaret Cavendishs The Blazing World to George Orwells 1984 and the first of N.K. Jemisins Broken Earth trilogy. Im hoping well end with the first season of The Good Place and try and end on a funny note even if its not necessarily optimistic in all of the ways one wants it to be.

Why Bates? I was so excited when I visited Bates to see how much collaboration happens between departments and between students and faculty. Collaborative research structures the idea of the undergraduate thesis that all students write here.

Why college? College students are special because they will think with you taking on the agency of research and thinking of their learning as their own.

Finding her path: At my core, I have always known I wanted to be a teacher, Adkison says.

I thought I would be a high school English teacher for the rest of my life. But my path to graduate work was one I found late in the stages of my own bachelors degree, when I was taking education courses alongside literature courses. I realized I had more questions about the literature. I couldnt be done.

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Meet new faculty: Katie Adkison and what the Bard tells us about the power of voice - Bates News

‘Utopia’ is a Pandemic Story That Looks a Lot Like Reality – The Heights

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Utopia, a new series from Gone Girl writer Gillian Flynn, hit Amazon Prime on Friday. The show is the furthest thing from utopic, but its title is well-suited for the satirical, vice-filled thriller. Expect the unexpected with Utopiathe plot twists and distorts seemingly harmless comic-obsessed fanboys into serious threats to humanity.

The Amazon Original is adapted from the British show of the same name that aired from 2013 to 2014. It follows a group of friends bonded together by a graphic novel series. The gang connects over the internet, where they share their conspiracy theories that the fictional novels foreshadow reality. When an original copy of the sequel, named Utopia, turns up, the group of young adult friends follow it to a Chicago comic convention. Even though they try to fight it, the friends are eventually forced to come to grips with the fact that their theories might be true. With that knowledge comes the responsibility to save the world.

The eight-episode television series is set amid a rising pandemic that affects children (what a coincidence, right?). This version features familiar namesRainn Wilson plays epidemiologist Dr. Michael Stearns, while John Cusack plays his villainous counterpart, Dr. Kevin Christie. Ashleigh LaThrop of The Handmaids Tale also appears.

Utopia is grim, especially with regard to its characters. The most central character of Utopia is Jessica Hyde (Sasha Lane), a not-quite-hero with complex motivations. Her questionable choices always boil down to her own survival. Trying to understand why she makes the decisions she does is a puzzle in and of itself. Her selfish worldview reflects the shows cynical outlook on humanity.

Many thrillers fixate on a single character who has undergone trauma of some kindthey had a lonely childhood, or skeletons in their closet, or they simply neglect their mental health. Utopia amplifies this trope by fleshing out many of its characters, further strengthening the plot. To varying degrees, each character falls into the trope of the poorly adjusted adult or the mysterious one with a dark past. Still, Utopia knows when to step back and leave some things unknownnobody is put under a microscope. Even with Jessica Hyde, interpretations are about the morality of her actions, not her. Utopia masters the balance of characterization: Although viewers are kept at a distance, they know just enough to empathize with the cast and feel the shows suspense.

Though the show is loosely connected to the coronavirus pandemic, Utopia does not claim to offer up any wisdom for the real world. The show pays more attention to how the characters drive the plot, and most of the time, they dont need to say much for a scene to have significance. The suspenseful storyline of Utopia is an escape from reality, not a fix.

Featured image courtesy of Amazon

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'Utopia' is a Pandemic Story That Looks a Lot Like Reality - The Heights

"Utopia" shows the disheartening problems of pandemic TV – Salon

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

There are TV series that speak to their times, those that are products of their times, and shows that become casualties of them. Amazon's violent, cluttered "Utopia" is an exemplar of all these concepts at once and almost entirely by accident.

This is a series that's been in the works since 2018 and initially had David Fincher attached before being passed to "Sharp Objects" and "Gone Girl" writer Gillian Flynn, adapted from a 2013 British thriller that only lasted a season. Take note of those dates, because they're relevant here. In 2018 the very thought that a pandemic would unravel life as we know it was enough removed from our reality to nestle it in the background of puzzle-driven action drama revolving around a graphic novel with a cult fanbase.

Five years prior to that, when the U.K. original came out, the world was only a few years removed from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, a novel influenza virus that ripped across the globe, causing nearly 12,500 deaths in the United States alone. But that was a flu; infection rates subsided, and we moved on.

What we could not let go, however, was our fascination with stories containing mysteries and meanings begging to be detangled, a mass infection triggered by the end of "Lost" . . . and we still haven't stumbled upon that cure.

Now our most pressing concerns are related to, yes, a global pandemic that the current president of the United States has failed to curb or attempted to battle with any strategy whatsoever.Conspiracy theorists have infiltrated our government on the federal and local levels, and the world is praying for a vaccine while fearing that anything rushed to market is bound to either be ineffective or laced with potentially dangerous side effects.

That's also "Utopia," more or less,save for a heroine,Jessica Hyde (Sasha Lane), whose life parallels the action in a comic book with a cult following one that may be laden with clues warning that a deadly manmade pandemic is in the offing. Well, that and recurring appearances by a villain wearing the rabbit's head and a hitmen who indulge in a whole lot of torture and violence.

"Utopia" has polarized critics and many viewers, particularly those who have seen the British original and aren't enamored of Amazon Studios' upgrades. But it is particularly telling that many of the critiques mention the problem of evoking our current moment too closely and nowhere nearly as imaginatively as the moment demands.

The accidental relevance of this series wouldn't be its sole flaw in a timeline where COVID-19 never happened. "Utopia" suffers from stumbles that are all too typical among ambitious creators, primarily the urge to showcase Lane's formidable heroine and a knotty conspiracy with apocalyptic implications at the expense of story and character development.

Diving into the specifics of "Utopia" beyond the barest of descriptions would spoil the twists in its eight episodes, so I'll skip to the diagnosis:this is initially buoyed by fine performances from Ashleigh LaThrop, Dan Byrd, Jessica Rothe, and the always compelling Desmin Borges as comic book fan foursome Becky, Ian, Samantha and Wilson Wilson, respectively. Unfortunately they and Rainn Wilson's disillusioned virologyDr. Michael Stearns aresoon overpowered by Case's gruff takeover of their lives, andthe casual escalation of a body count.

Maybe these traits would be perceived as lesser sins in times past. This being 2020, a year of exhaustion, anxiety and despair, asking the average viewerto get excited about "Utopia" may be equal in appeal to, say, sitting down with someone who has narrowly escaped the California wildfires and offering to soothe them with a "Chicago Fire" marathon, or a screening of "Backdraft."

We are still figuring out how to navigate this existence, mentally and physically, and television plays a more central role in that process than ever before. It is our information source and our escape, and will increasingly be so as the weather grows colder and the political noise surrounding the election grows more piercing and dangerous.

However as I was watching the finale of "Utopia" a line of dialogue spoken by John Cusack's character Dr. Kevin Christie stuck with me: "People are driven by the need to know what happens next." Mired as we are in such a precarious era, it struck me that the downfall of series such as "Utopia" or even shows revolving around prosaic premises such as Netflix's upcoming"Social Distance" or NBC's "Connecting" is their inability to transport us to places beyond the hell we're in.

"Social Distance" is an eight-partanthology series tracing the chronology of this novel coronavirus from the onset of quarantine to the eruption of protests stemming from the murder of George Floyd. "Connecting" is a network comedy featuring an ensemble cast, and what these shows have in common with, for that matter, Freeform's "Love in the Time of Corona" and HBO's "Coastal Elites" is that they're all products of our lockdown culture.

Each is filmed using distanced cameras, creating scenes from security footage, computers and mobile devices, or approximations thereof, and basically transforming the audience into webcam spies. The thing is, these are series inviting us to watch conversations between actors conversing directly to us or to each other using web conferencing screens, as if the people watching them haven't been on those screens nearly every waking moment of their days.

"Utopia," meanwhile, is a fiction that imagines a dark, dystopic fantasy of our reality, which is already a darkdystopia, and attempts to resurrect the sort of cryptographic mystery that defined "Lost" in our memory. But if that were all that drama had going for it, the story never would have gotten its hooks into us.Instead its appeal is very simple and the missing ingredient in the "Utopia" formula, which is that we embraced it for the relationships.

This is where "Utopia" fails and, although those other shows are quite different, this is where they come up short as well. I understand, of course, that the very point of "Connecting," "Social Distance" and "Love in the Time of Corona" is to illustrate the difficulty of forging new connections and maintaining the strength of old ones at a time when we're supposed to limit the time we spend outside of our own houses and stay at least six feet apart from people we use to reflexively hug on sight.

And this brings me back to Dr. Christie's question: What would we get, as viewers and humans hungry for an uplift, if creatives stopped looking back or trying to commiserate with the audience and dared to leap ahead a few years and create a destination that isn't dark, disturbing and violent, or too much like looking like the walls of our own coop?

What if someone created a comedy or a drama based on aspiration and hope as opposed to yet another procedural or ensemble piece featuring characters yelling at one another through windows, actual or virtual?

What if, despite the fathoms-deep social divisions wrecking our conscious hours, some enterprising writer and studio can collaborate on a vision that isn't an adaptation of our flawed present or some property that's already been explored. That turns out not to be a place to escape, but a destinationat which we can dream of arriving?

Sure, it's an ideal. But it's exactly the type of show I'd happily tune in.

"Utopia" is currently streaming on Amazon. "Social Distance" premieres on Thursday, Oct.15 onNetflix. "Connecting" airsThursdays at 8 p.m.NBC, moving to 8:30pm on Oct. 29.

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"Utopia" shows the disheartening problems of pandemic TV - Salon

Bringing the promise of quantum computing to nuclear physics – MSUToday

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Quantum mechanics, the physics of atoms and subatomic particles, can be strange, especially compared to the everyday physics of Isaac Newtons falling apples. But this unusual science is enabling researchers to develop new ideas and tools, including quantum computers, that can help demystify the quantum realm and solve complex everyday problems.

Thats the goal behind a new U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) grant, awarded to Michigan State University (MSU) researchers, led by physicists at Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). Working with Los Alamos National Laboratory, the team is developing algorithms essentially programming instructions for quantum computers to help these machines address problems that are difficult for conventional computers. For example, problems like explaining the fundamental quantum science that keeps an atomic nucleus from falling apart.

The $750,000 award, provided by the Office of Nuclear Physics within DOE-SC, is the latest in a growing list of grants supporting MSU researchers developing new quantum theories and technology.

The aim is to improve the efficiency and scalability of quantum simulation algorithms, thereby providing new insights on their applicability for future studies of nuclei and nuclear matter, said principal investigator Morten Hjorth-Jensen, an FRIB researcher who is also a professor in MSUs Department of Physics and Astronomy and a professor of physics at the University of Oslo in Norway.

Morten Hjorth-Jensen (Credit: Hilde Lynnebakken)

Although this grant focuses on nuclear physics, the algorithms it yields could benefit other fields looking to use quantum computings promise to more rapidly solve complicated problems. This includes scientific disciplines such as chemistry and materials science, but also areas such as banking, logistics, and data analytics.

There is a lot of potential for transferring what we are developing into other fields, Hjorth-Jensen said. Hopefully, our results will lead to an increased interest in theoretical and experimentaldevelopments of quantum information technologies. All the algorithms developed as part of this work will be publicly available, he added.

What makes quantum computers attractive tools for these applications is a freedom afforded by quantum mechanics.

Classical computers are constrained to a binary system of zeros and ones with transistors that are either off or on. The restrictions on quantum computers are looser.

Instead of transistors, quantum computers use technology called qubits (pronounced q-bits) that can be both on and off at the same time. Not somewhere in between, but in both opposite states at once.

Combined with the proper algorithms, this freedom enables quantum computers to run certain calculations much faster than their classical counterparts. The type of calculations, for instance, capable of helping scientists explain precisely how swarms of elementary particles known as quarks and gluons hold atomic nuclei together.

"It is really hard to do those problems, said Huey-Wen Lin, a co-investigator on the grant. I dont see a way to solve them any time soon with classical computers.

Huey-Wen Lin

Lin is an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering at MSU.

She added that quantum computers wont solve these problems immediately, either. But the timescales could be measured in years rather than careers.

Hjorth-Jensen believes this project will also help accelerate MSUs collaborations in quantum computing. Formally, this grant supports a collaboration of eight MSU researchers and staff scientist Patrick Coles at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

But Hjorth-Jensen hopes the project will spark more discussions and forge deeper connections with the growing community of quantum experts across campus and prepare the next generation of researchers. The grant will also open up new opportunities in quantum computing training for MSU students who are studying in the nations top-ranked nuclear physics graduate program.

The grant, titled From Quarks to Stars: A Quantum Computing Approach to the Nuclear Many-Body Problem, was awarded as part of Quantum Horizons: Quantum Information Systems Research and Innovation for Nuclear Science," a funding opportunity issued by DOE-SC.

Hjorth-Jensen and Lin are joined on this grant by their MSU colleagues Alexei Bazavov and Matthew Hirn from the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering; Scott Bogner, Heiko Hergert, Dean Lee and Andrea Shindler from FRIB, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Hirn is also an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics.

MSU is establishing FRIB as a new user facility for the Office of Nuclear Physics in the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Under construction on campus and operated by MSU, FRIB will enable scientists to make discoveries about the properties of rare isotopes in order to better understand the physics of nuclei, nuclear astrophysics, fundamental interactions, and applications for society, including in medicine, homeland security, and industry.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of todays most pressing challenges. For more information, visit energy.gov/science.

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Bringing the promise of quantum computing to nuclear physics - MSUToday

4 Reasons Why Now Is the Best Time to Start With Quantum Computing – Medium

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Quantum computing is a rapidly developing field, with everyone trying to build the perfect hardware, find new applications for current algorithms, or even develop new algorithms. Because of that, the near-future demand for quantum programmers and researchers will increase shortly.

Many governmental and industrial institutions have set aside substantial funds to develop quantum technologies. The Quantum Daily (TQD) estimated the current market for quantum computing to be around $235 million. This number is predicted to grow substantially to $6.25 billion by 2025.

This incredible amount of funds leads to an increase in the number of academia, government, and industry positions. Almost all technology companies are changing their business model to adapt to when quantum technology makes an impact.

TQD also adds that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that in 2020 so far, there are around 1.4 million more quantum software development jobs than applicants who can fill them.

In 2019, MIT published an article called Q&A: The talent shortage in quantum computing that addressed the different challenges the field faces right now. Afterward, it developed MIT xPRO, a group addressing the reality that students arent the only people interested in learning about the different aspects of quantum information.

What is Quantum Computing, and How does it Help Us? – Analytics Insight

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

The term quantum computing gained momentum in the late 20thcentury. These systems aim to utilize these capabilities to become highly-efficient. They use quantum bits or qubits instead of the simple manipulation of ones and zeros in existing binary-based computers. These qubits also have a third state called superposition that simultaneously represents a one or a zero. Instead of analyzing a one or a zero sequentially, superposition allows two qubits in superposition to represent four scenarios at the same time. So we are at the cusp of a computing revolution where future systems have capability beyond mathematical calculations and algorithms.

Quantum computers also follow the principle of entanglement, which Albert Einstein had referred to as spooky action at a distance. Entanglement refers to the observation that the state of particles from the same quantum system cannot be described independently of each other. Even when they are separated by great distances, they are still part of the same system.

Several nations, giant tech firms, universities, and startups are currently exploring quantum computing and its range of potential applications. IBM, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and other companies are investing heavilyin developing large-scale quantum computing hardware and software. Google and UCSB have a partnership to develop a 50 qubits computer, as it would represent 10,000,000,000,000,000 numbers that would take a modern computer petabyte-scale memory to store. A petabyte is the unit above a terabyte and represents 1,024 terabytes. It is also equivalent to 4,000 digital photos taken every day. Meanwhile, names like Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Systems, 1Qbit Information Technologies, Inc., Quantum Circuits, Inc., QC Ware, Zapata Computing, Inc. are emerging as bigger players in quantum computing.

IEEE Standards Association Quantum Computing Working Group is developing two technical standards for quantum computing. One is for quantum computing definitions and nomenclature, so we can all speak the same language. The other addresses performance metrics and performance benchmarking to measure quantum computers performance against classical computers and, ultimately, each other. If required, new standards will also be added with time.

The rapid growth in the quantum tech sector over the past five years has been exciting. This is because quantum computing presents immense potential. For instance, a quantum system can be useful for scientists for conducting virtual experiments and sifting through vast amounts of data. Quantum algorithms like quantum parallelism can perform a large number of computations simultaneously. In contrast, quantum interference will combine their results into something meaningful and can be measured according to quantum mechanics laws. Even Chinese scientists are looking to developquantum internet, which shall be a more secure communication system in which information is stored and transmitted withadvanced cryptography.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University used quantum algorithms to transform MRI scans for cancer, allowing the scans to be performed three times faster and to improve their quality by 30%. In practice, this can mean patients wont need to be sedated to stay still for the length of an MRI, and physicians could track the success of chemotherapy at the earliest stages of treatment.

Laboratoire de Photonique Numrique et Nanosciences of France has built a hybrid device that pairs a quantum accelerometer with a classical one and uses a high-pass filter to subtract the classical data from the quantum data. This has the potential to offer an highly precise quantum compass that would eliminate the bias and scale factor drifts commonly associated with gyroscopic components. Meanwhile, the University of Bristolhas founded a quantum solution for increasing security threats. Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine are working to uncover the potential quantum computers hold to help understand genetic diseases.Scientists are also using quantum computing to find a vaccine for COVID and other life-threatening diseases.

In July 2017, in collaboration with commercial photonics tools providerM Squared, QuantIC demonstrated how a quantum gravimeter detects the presence of deeply hidden objects by measuring disturbances in the gravitational field. If such a device becomes practical and portable, the team believes it could become invaluable in an early warning system for predicting seismic events and tsunamis.