Mars (TV Series 20162018) – IMDb

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I thought this was horrible. I love The National Geographic Channel, they have some amazing programs. This is not one of them. To be fair, I have only seen the premier episode but from slugging through that I am not 1 bit interested in watching another episode.

They tried a new concept of mixing present day education of space travels past, present and possible with a fictional drama of an actual mission to Mars. The show bounces back and forth from documentary or classroom to fiction moving from past present to future, it's very disjointed. I think I would quite enjoy the documentary part on it's own. I would not enjoy the fictional drama on it's own because it's just plain bad. If you want to see a fictional mission to Mars there are several good Hollywood movies that cover this subject and they do a much better job, watch one of those instead.

The dramatic part of the show is incredibly slow moving, things move along so slowly I had trouble keeping my eyes open, it made me want to take a nap. The filming of the dramatic section was weird, the camera was too close to the actors, I suppose the director thought that would impart a feeling of claustrophobia and cramped spaces, I could have gotten the same idea if the camera had been pulled back. Being so close to everything kind of creates a dizzying effect and made me even more uncomfortable watching.

I was so excited to see this series so when I actually saw it and how bad it was it was extra disappointed. I felt like the Drama part was very unrealistic, it seemed like they got a lot of things wrong, I never felt like the actors were actually on Mars, it looked and felt like they were in a desert in Arizona or some such place.

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Mars (TV Series 20162018) - IMDb

NASA’s next Mars rover is just one month away from launch – Space.com

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NASA's next Mars rover is in the home stretch now.

The launch of NASA's Mars rover Perseverance, the life-hunting, sample-caching Red Planet explorer, is just a month away. The car-size robot is scheduled to lift off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during a window that runs from July 20 through Aug. 11.

Getting to this point has not been easy. Mission teams have had to prep the rover and rocket for liftoff while the coronavirus pandemic swirled around them, forcing the closure of many NASA facilities. But the space agency prioritized getting Perseverance to the pad on time (while protecting workers' safety as well), given that Mars-mission launch windows open just once every 26 months.

"If we have to take Perseverance and put it back into storage for a period of two years, it could cost half a billion dollars," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said during a news conference last Wednesday (June 17).

Related: NASA's Mars 2020 rover Perseverance in pictures

That would be on top of the $2.7 billion total price tag for Perseverance's mission, which is called Mars 2020.

Whenever the six-wheeled rover lifts off during the coming window, it will land on Feb. 18, 2021, inside the Red Planet's 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater. Jezero harbored a lake and river delta billions of years ago, and Perseverance will use its seven science instruments to characterize that potentially habitable ancient environment and look for evidence of long-dead Mars life, among other things.

No robot has hunted for signs of life on the Martian surface since NASA's twin Viking landers, which touched down in the mid-1970s to look for extant organisms.

But, as the Vikings' ambiguous results show, making a definitive detection of alien life is a tall order for a lonely robot on a faraway world. So, Perseverance will also collect and cache several dozen pristine samples, which will be brought to Earth by a joint NASA/European Space Agency effort in 2031, if current plans hold.

"On the Perseverance side, we see it as our job to identify potential biosignatures things that are worthy of additional study here on Earth, with the full arsenal of analytical capabilities that we have here in our own laboratories," Mars 2020 deputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said during Wednesday's news conference. "I think that's how we're going to approach that question of the surface of Mars."

Perseverance will also test out tech for future exploration efforts. For example, one of the rover's instruments will generate oxygen from the Martian atmosphere, which is thin and dominated by carbon dioxide. Such tech could help human pioneers live and work on the Red Planet someday, NASA officials have said.

The Mars 2020 mission also features a tiny helicopter named Ingenuity, which will travel to the Red Planet on Perseverance's belly. Ingenuity will make a few short test flights in the Martian sky, potentially paving the way for future rotorcraft that could serve as rover scouts and/or gather lots of data on their own.

"Getting it to Mars, getting it safely off the vehicle we're going to learn a lot," Mars 2020 deputy project manager Matt Wallace said of Ingenuity. "We are not looking for an extensive and ambitious return from this technology; we're looking to learn those first few things that we need to learn."

The nuclear-powered Perseverance is also outfitted with 23 cameras and two microphones. If all goes according to plan, the mission will capture high-definition video of Perseverance's dramatic sky-crane landing and record the sounds of the Martian surface. Both types of data collection would be unprecedented.

"Perseverance is the most sophisticated mission we've ever sent to the Red Planet's surface," said Lori Glaze, the director of NASA's Planetary Science Division.

Two other NASA robots are active on the Martian surface at the moment: the InSight Mars lander, which has been monitoring marsquakes since its November 2018 touchdown, and the Curiosity rover, which has been exploring the 96-mile-wide (154 km) Gale Crater since August 2012.

Curiosity is Perseverance's forebear in multiple ways. Perseverance's chassis is based heavily on that of the older rover, which also pioneered the sky-crane landing strategy that Mars 2020 will employ. And Curiosity has determined that at least some parts of Mars were capable of supporting Earth-like life in the ancient past, paving the way for Perseverance to take the next step and hunt for signs of native Martian organisms.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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NASA's next Mars rover is just one month away from launch - Space.com

NASA needs your help teaching its Curiosity rover how to drive on Mars – Space.com

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NASA is asking for your help to guide its Curiosity rover around sand traps, sharp rocks and other obstacles on the Red Planet.

A new online tool called AI4Mars, hosted on Zooniverse, allows anyone to label parts of the terrain in the landscape surrounding Curiosity, which has been roving on Mars since 2012.

The tool is a form of "machine learning" that allows rover planners assisting with Curiosity's movements to train the rover's intelligence for safe route planning. Picking an appropriate pathway is a pressing problem for Martian rovers. Curiosity's wheels wore down in the early years of its mission from driving over sharp rocks, while another Mars rover called Spirit got permanently stuck in a sand trap in 2010.

Related: How do you drive a Mars rover from home?

The first stage of training the algorithm, called SPOC (short for "Soil Property and Object Classification"), will allow it to distinguish between different types of terrain. SPOC is already used by Martian rover drivers, but bringing in the public will provide more training information at a faster pace. Curiosity's challenges are distinct from the self-driving car algorithms available, for example, as the rover isn't working with roads, pedestrians or traffic signs. So more help is needed to get the algorithm trained quickly.

"In the future, we hope this algorithm can become accurate enough to do other useful tasks, like predicting how likely a rover's wheels are to slip on different surfaces," Hiro Ono, an artificial intelligence researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.

A typical rover drive takes about four to five hours to plan, including several people writing and reviewing hundreds of lines of code, JPL said in the statement. Coders aren't the only ones involved in the process. Geologists look at the terrain for safety issues, planners make sure the rover's high-gain antenna has a clear line of sight to Earth so the rover can communicate with mission control, and teams also consider how shadows may interfere with the rover's distance measurements. (Curiosity uses visual odometry, a technique that compares camera images to landmarks in the vicinity, so shadows can make the process more difficult, NASA said.)

"It's our job to figure out how to safely get the mission's science," Stephanie Oij, one of the JPL rover planners involved in AI4Mars, said in the same statement. "Automatically generating terrain labels would save us time and help us be more productive."

Curiosity's training will also give a boost to the Perseverance rover, which is expected to launch no earlier than July 20 for a landing on Mars in 2021. More than 8,000 Curiosity images are available on the AI4Mars site already, allowing the public to start labeling images to help Curiosity and eventually, Perseverance.

Images from the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity who have both ended their missions may be available on AI4Mars in the future, Ono added. More languages are also expected shortly on AI4Mars to assist volunteers, including Spanish, Hindi and Japanese.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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NASA needs your help teaching its Curiosity rover how to drive on Mars - Space.com

What’s the science on the Emirates Mars Mission? – DW (English)

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Every 18 to 24 months, Earth and Mars align in such a way as to make deep-space travel that little bit easier, or at least a bit faster. That reduces a trip or "trajectory" to the Red Planet from about nine months down to seven.

That means that July is shaping up to be a very busy time for missions to Mars.

There are three all launching within days of each other the Emirates Mars Mission, with its atmospheric probe, Hope or "Al-Amal," NASA's Mars 2020, carrying a lander called Perseverance, and China's "Tianwen-1", a collection of orbiters and landers. In fact, there would have been a fourth mission in Europe's ExoMars 2020.

Read more:A question about race in space

"If they don't go know, they will have a very long wait," says Malcolm Macdonald, a professor of space technology at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. "That's why the Americans, for instance, through the current pandemic, prioritized Demo-2, the SpaceX crewed mission to the International Space Station, and their Mars mission."

How the coronavirus pandemic has affected the Chinese mission is hard to know. And Europe's ExoMars 2020 was already heading for delays.

As for the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), failing to leave now would set a 100-year plan for national and interplanetary transformation back by two years. So, after a round of ultra-fast thinking, which predicted the lockdown and those closed international borders, the team dispatched its spacecraft, Hope, and a team of Emirati engineers for the launch in Japan before it was too late.

A sense of urgency

There is a sense of urgency in the UAE that harks back to when the nation was established in 1971, starting from a point where infrastructure like transport and education were underdeveloped.

It was "evident then that you needed to do things rapidly to get on a par with the world," says Sarah Al-Amiri, the EMM's Science Lead, in an interview with DW.

Read more:SpaceX rocket ship blasts off on historic flight to International Space Station

And you can see that in the way the EMM has grown. The UAE has been developing Earth Observation spacecraft since 2006, which is a short time in itself. But the Mars mission has gone from a feasibility study in 2013 to its announcement a year later, and now a launch in 2020. Six short years.

Emirates Mars Mission - Al-Amal Probe in construction and testing

"We don't have a hundred years to sit around and grow organically. It's always been that way, developing in leaps and bounds," says Al-Amiri.

That culture of rapid growth has been hastened by a dwindling demand for oil.

"There is a drive to diversify," she says. "And the way to do that is use today's oil, which is knowledge and expertise that's routed in science and technology."

For Al-Amiri and mission manager, Omran Sharaf, seeing UAE's space sector blossom is a long-held passion. They were perhaps among the more fortunate, being able to study abroad. But they are back and among the country's pioneers.

Read more:Our first InSight into the interior of Mars

Al-Amir says she "never dared to dream of space, just for a lack of existing opportunities" at home, but she had started programming by the 5th Grade at school, studied computer engineering, and is now UAE's Minister of State for Advanced Sciences.

Meanwhile, Sharaf says he was always curious about satellites "I wished I could work on a space program." He studied electrical engineering in the US, came back to the UAE and joined a team of young Emiratis charged with setting up that space program. They started gathering experience in South Korea, working on Earth observation satellites, DubaiSat-1 and 2.

Why not the moon?

It's not only about getting to space. The mission is designed to establish the UAE's space capabilities to encourage homegrown innovation and inspire new generations of scientists, with job prospects and a sustainable future.

As such, it's reasonable to ask, "Why not go to the moon?" It is closer after all.

The answer lies in the science.

"We're not underestimating the moon it's difficult, too. Getting there is not easy," says Sharaf, in the same interview. "But Mars is the next level. When it comes to the scientific questions and the purpose of exploring Mars, we can build a better rationale behind it. It's a planet that scientists believe was once alive and became a dead planet. Understanding what happened there and why it lost its atmosphere will help us understand our own planet."

Mars is an active area of research that relies on data collected "at the planet," says Al-Amiri, rather than via telescopes and other forms of observation. So, she says, the EMM will deliver data that is actually needed by the global science community.

The team has collaborated with universities in the US and UK, and they have consulted the NASA-affiliated Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG).

Some roam, some drill The InSight lander collects seismic data by drilling into Martian ground

MEPAG is a gathering of experts that publishes scientific "vision papers," detailing scientific goals and questions that need to be answered about the planet.

Key scientific objectives for Hope

The Hope Probe aims to be the first to provide a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere. It will try to explain why or how Mars loses hydrogen and oxygen gases into space over the span of a Martian year.

Significantly, Hope will explore Mars' "diurnal," or day-to-night cycle, which has never been done before.

Using three instruments an ultraviolet spectrometer, a digital camera and an infrared spectrometer, they will overlay images to create a picture from the lower to upper atmosphere. But Hope's orbit will be central to getting the data they want.

The EMIRS InfraRed Spectrometer one of three instruments onboard the Emirates Hope Probe that will orbit Mars

As Franois Forget, an astrophysicist at the Laboratoire de Mtorologie Dynamique in Paris, France, puts it: "The instruments are not revolutionary, but the orbit is completely new."

A new Martian orbit

"Mars rotates, like Earth, but in 24 hours and 38 minutes, and the spacecraft will have an elliptical orbit of about 20,000 kilometers at its lowest to 43,000 kilometers at the top," says Forget, who is also involved in the Emirates Mars Mission.

"When it's at 20,000 km, it will stay above the same [location on Mars], rotating with the planet for 8 hours and that will let us monitor what's going on throughout the day so, for instance, we'll see morning fog disappearing here, a storm start there," says Forget, " and then it will move up again, and when it's higher, the spacecraft moves slower, while the planet keeps rotating below it. When it returns to the lowest altitude, it will rotate with the planet again. So, we'll see what's happening over time."

Read more:NASA taps first woman to lead human spaceflight

With each swing of the orbit, Hope will track different locations from its lower and higher orbits. In the end, all the data will be stitched together to make a complete picture of those locations over a full 24-hour period, day and night. But it may take three orbits of a particular location to accumulate a full diurnal cycle, says Forget.

Weather patterns and dust storms

The data will be open to the scientific community, allowing it to be combined with other data, like seismic information collected by the InSight lander or other atmospheric data from the MAVEN probe.

Collaborators in space the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) probe is focused on the Martian upper atmosphere

There are so many questions to answer and no single mission can answer them all.

But, ultimately, scientists want to know how Mars became uninhabitable for humans, why its atmosphere wouldn't protect us like the atmosphere on Earth.

Mars' atmosphere is thin like Earth's, but it mostly consists of carbon dioxide (CO2), and there's only a small amount of oxygen and water vapor. So, finding out more about why that little oxygen which humans need to live and breathe escapes Mars is crucial to our understanding of the planet.

Read more:After Apollo: A new era for American human spaceflight

"MEPAG has set questions for the community, things we need to learn to understand Mars' evolution, and one of those things is historical atmospheric change," says Al-Amiri. "That's understanding the weather system, the day-to-night cycle, and the dynamics there what are the seasonal changes?"

Or why Mars gets global dust storms. "We get localized, regional dust storms. But Mars gets global dust storms. So, what factors allow a planet to be engulfed by a single dust storm," asks Al-Amiri.

What role does Mars play in its own atmospheric loss?

Then there's the specific question of why the planet is losing its atmosphere.

Scientists have looked at whether that's due to space itself for instance, that the atmosphere is being "stripped" by solar winds streams of charged particles that shoot out from the sun at speeds of up to 900 km per second.

The Emirates Mars Mission probe, Hope, spreads its solar panel wings

But some other theories suggest Mars may play its own role.

"There are dust storms, cloud formations, water vapor cycles, and we're asking how much impact that has on the loss of hydrogen and oxygen from Mars into its exosphere," says Al-Amiri.

The mission will do that by taking simultaneous measurements infrared technology in the lower atmosphere, where Hope will study temperatures and ice clouds, and ultraviolet technology for the Martian ozone in the lower atmosphere and hydrogen and oxygen loss in the upper atmosphere.

Finally, there's a simple camera that will enable Hope to take full "disc images" of the planet, which may reveal "interesting phenomena," says Forget.

"For example, a couple of years ago, we found these elongate clouds forming near the top of Olympus Mons [the largest volcano on Mars]. They went for 2,000 kilometers, and this had never been seen, because we were always looking at Mars in strips from the same local time," says Forget. "So, a full disc image can be spectacular, fun and scientific."

Mission to collaborate

Much has been made of the mission's launching from Japan. But the Japanese space agency, JAXA, points out that the mission is "UAE's independent program."

Japan has an overall good track-record for space launches a H-IIA rocket, similar to the one for the EMM, launched from Tanegashima Space Center

Even the launch on a Japanese H-IIArocketfrom JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center will be operated not by the agency but by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

But the Japanese connection is interesting to note because Japan has its own interests in Mars.

In an email to DW, JAXA's Nobuyoshi Fujimoto writes that Japan's MMX mission in 2024 will "survey Mars's two moons and collect a sample from one of them and bring it back."

There is also a good chance that data from the Emirates Mars Mission will flow into Japan's MMX moons mission.

"The Japanese have got fantastic capabilities, but they've never been to Mars," says Macdonald, "so, working as partners in the international community will give them more confidence for the next time they decide to go."

Read more:Why isn't Germany taking over the moon?

The EMM is all about international collaboration, which, Sharaf says, has been good with American teams at the University of Colorado Boulder, Arizona State University, and University of California, Berkeley.

"Getting some of the knowledge for our mission was not easy and we had to think about how it could be done in a way that serves everyone our national interests, that of our partners, and humanity," says Sharaf. "So, this is a case study from which other nations can learn. For instance, how we collaborated in 2006 with Korea a very different mindset and system and in 2014 with the US."

Hope's high-gain antenna dish for communicating with MBRSC Mission Control on Earth

That collaborative spirit will possibly also seep into other areas of research as the UAE moves towards a "post-oil" economy.

"Our space program is a tool for other goals," says Sharaf. "It's linked to national challenges like food and water, and clean energy is an issue, but also economic opportunities. Those are the pillars that dictate our program. It's not just about getting to space. So, if asteroid mining or rocket fuel addressed one of those pillars, we would look into it."

Read more:Of 'white guys on the Moon' and black America

All that's left

The only question that's left for now is whether the UAE and its first Mars mission will succeed.

"Going to Mars is difficult, not a lot of people have successfully gone to Mars," says Macdonald. "The Americans, Europe, Russia and India have orbited it. But Russia's had a lot of failures trying to land on Mars, and the Japanese have failed before."

So, what are the UAE's chances?

"Well, the launch vehicle tends to be a fairly big stumbling block, but the Japanese have a good heritage there, so you'd expect the launch to work and for the spacecraft to get to Mars," Macdonald says. "And as long as it wakes up and gets onto its correct trajectory But you can't expect success, because space is difficult."

The new NASA Mars rover has arrived. It will support the currently operating Curiosity rover in its work on the red planet. The new rover weighs just over 1 tonne (2,000 lbs) and is therefore 100 kg heavier than its predecessor. And, at 3 meters in size, it is also 10 centimeters longer. It can load more research equipment and sensors, and its gripper arm with cameras and tools is also stronger.

This is what the rover looks like when it travels. On board a C-17 Globemaster, it traveled from California to Florida in the US. From there, it will set off to Mars on July 17. The new rover is able to collect samples from Mars. It is equipped with 23 cameras and many other instruments. Among other things, it aims to find out whether oxygen can be extracted from the Martian rocks.

Curiosity is the largest and most modern of all Mars rovers currently deployed. It landed on August 6, 2012 and has since traveled more than 21 kilometers. It is much more than just a rover. Its official name is "Mars Science Laboratory," and it really is a complete lab on wheels.

For example, it contains special spectrometer, which can analyze chemical compounds from a distance with the help of a laser; a complete meteorological station that can measure temperature, atmospheric pressure, radiation, humidity and wind speed; and most importantly, a chemistry lab that can run detailed analyses of organic compounds and is always on the hunt for traces of alien life.

Curiosity has shown that life would theoretically be possible on Mars. But it hasn't discovered any life, yet. The robot's arm is equipped with a full power drill. Here, it's taking a sample in "Yellowknife Bay" inside the Gale Crater.

The Mars dust is processed by a large number of instruments. First, it's filtered and separated into different-sized particles. Then, those get sorted and sent off to different analytical laboratory machines.

Curiosity's predecessors were much smaller. On July 4, 1997, the small Mars rover Sojourner left its first tire tracks behind in the dust of the red planet. It was the first time a mobile robot had been left to its own devices there, equipped with an X-ray spectrometer to conduct chemical analyses and with optical cameras.

Three rover generations. (The tiny one up front is Sojourner.) At 10.6 kilograms (23 pounds), it's not much bigger than a toy car. Its top speed: 1 centimeter per second. Opportunity weighs 185 kilograms roughly the equivalent of an electric wheelchair. Curiosity is as big as a small car, at 900 kilograms. The big ones travel up to 4 or 5 centimeters per second.

Sojourner travelled about 100 meters during its lifetime and delivered data and pictures until September 27, 1997. This is one of the last pictures of it, taken nine days before the radio connection broke down. Sojourner probably died because the battery did not survive the cold nights.

Without the experience of Sojourner, newer rovers could have hardly been envisaged. In 2004, NASA landed two robots of the same model on Mars: Spirit and Opportunity. Spirit survived for six years, travelling a distance of 7.7 kilometers. The robot climbed mountains, took soil samples and withstood winter and sandstorms. Its sibling, Opportunity, lost contact on February 13, 2019.

Opportunity passed the marathon distance of 42 kilometers back in 2015, and to this day, it has covered much more ground than Curiosity. It can take ground probes with its arm. It has three different spectrometers and even a 3D camera. It was last operating in "Perseverance Valley," an appropriate workplace for the sturdy robot, before being incapacitated by a sand storm.

This panorama was taken by Curiosity's mast camera. The most modern of the rovers will stay in service as long as possible hopefully at least another five years and much longer. The Martian landscape looks familiar somehow, not unlike some deserts here on Earth. Should we give in to our wanderlust, then or would it be better leave Mars to the robots?

Author: Fabian Schmidt

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What's the science on the Emirates Mars Mission? - DW (English)

Alien hunters spot carving on Martian warrior in cliffs of Mars – claim – Express.co.uk

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UFO enthusiasts believe they have spotted a mountain carving - similar to that of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota - in the cliffs of Mars. The figure appears to be human-like with an elongated head, which some self proclaimed alien experts believe is the typical characteristics of a Martian. One alien hunter believes this is proof of life on Mars, and that intelligent aliens also hold high-standing members of civilisation in high regards.

Prominent conspiracy theorist Scott C Waring spotted the supposed statue in NASA images, and believes this is the elusive proof that intelligent life once existed on the Red Planet.

Mr Waring explained on his blog ET Database: "I found this figure in a hillside on Mars in the latest NASA rover photo.

"The figure could be male or female, because often on Earth ancient warrior chest armor of warriors often has an enhance chest area to make them look more muscular in battle and put fear into the enemy.

"The tall hat looks to be part of the armour and could be filled 30 percent with the person's head. Some aliens have an enlarged or elongated cranium compared to humans.

"It's placed on the side of a hill and reminds me of the time I lived near Mount Rushmore and saw the presidents faces on the side of the mountain.

"It's a typical thing to do for intelligent species, because being proud of certain individuals in your culture and carving them into stone makes them last forever. Their memory will last forever as we see her today."

However, sceptics and NASA would say the statues and other similar findings are just the effects of pareidolia a psychological phenomenon when the brain tricks the eyes into seeing familiar objects or shapes in patterns or textures such as a rock surface.

Another recent finding which supposedly supports the argument of life on Mars was that of a supposed statue of a Martian god.

READ MORE:Aliens in New York: UFO hunter shares bizarre Google Maps sighting

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Alien hunters spot carving on Martian warrior in cliffs of Mars - claim - Express.co.uk

Cosmic ‘Lighthouses’ to Help Space Travellers Find Ways to Moon, Mars – The Weather Channel

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Artist illustration of a Pulsar

Just as lighthouses have helped sailors navigate safely into harbour for centuries, future space travellers may receive similar guidance from the steady signals created by pulsars.

Scientists and engineers are using the International Space Station to develop pulsar-based navigation using these cosmic lighthouses to assist with wayfinding on trips to the Moon under NASA's Artemis programme and on future human missions to Mars, the US space agency said on Wednesday.

Pulsars, or rapidly spinning neutron stars, are the extremely dense remains of stars that explode as supernovas. They emit X-ray photons in bright, narrow beams that sweep the sky like a lighthouse as the stars spin.

From a great distance, they appear to pulse, hence the name pulsars.

An X-ray telescope on the exterior of the space station, the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer or NICER, collects and timestamps the arrival of X-ray light from neutron stars across the sky.

Software embedded in NICER, called the Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology or SEXTANT, is using the beacons from pulsars to create a GPS-like system.

This concept, often referred to as XNAV, could provide autonomous navigation throughout the solar system and beyond.

"GPS uses precisely synchronised signals. Pulsations from some neutron stars are very stable, some even as stable as terrestrial atomic clocks in the long term, which makes them potentially useful in a similar way," said Luke Winternitz, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The stability of the pulses allows highly accurate predictions of their time of arrival to any reference point in the solar system.

Scientists have developed detailed models that predict precisely when a pulse would arrive at, for example, the centre of Earth.

Timing the arrival of the pulse to a detector on a spacecraft, and comparing that to when it is predicted to arrive at a reference point, provides information for navigating far beyond our planet.

"Navigation information provided by pulsars does not degrade by moving away from Earth since pulsars are distributed throughout our Milky Way galaxy," said SEXTANT team member Munther Hassouneh, navigation technologist.

"It effectively turns the G' in GPS from Global to Galactic," added team member Jason Mitchell, Director of the Advanced Communications and Navigation Technology Division in NASA's Space Communication and Navigation Program.

"It could work anywhere in the solar system and even carry robotic or crewed systems beyond the solar system."

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Cosmic 'Lighthouses' to Help Space Travellers Find Ways to Moon, Mars - The Weather Channel

Scientist calculates 110 humans would be needed to start new civilization on Mars – New York Post

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At least 110 humans would be needed to start a new civilization on Mars, a study has calculated.

That number would ensure enough tools and commodities could be produced before supplies run out.

Any human colony would have to set up home in an oxygen-filled dome and start their own agriculture and other industries.

The study assumes support from Earth has been cut off due to war, failing resources, or settlers declaring an independent republic.

In 2015s The Martian, Matt Damons character Mark Watney was stranded there.

But space expert Professor Jean-Marc Salotti estimates he could have set up a permanent home if he had 109 colleagues.

The scientist, at Frances Bordeaux Institut National Polytechnique, used a mathematical model to determine the feasibility of survival on another planet and being self-sustaining.

He said survival would depend on access to natural resources, work conditions and other assumptions.

Elon Musks SpaceX program hopes to one day colonize Mars, which is around 140 million miles away.

Prof Salotti added: This question is of particular importance for the future of space conquest and perhaps also for the future of humanity in general.

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Scientist calculates 110 humans would be needed to start new civilization on Mars - New York Post

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Took a Picture of Earth and Venus in the Mars Sky – Thrillist

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The Mastcam is the same tool the rover has used to take stunning panoramaslike the incredibly high-resolution image of the Martian landscape it took late last year.

The goal of the image wasn't just to spot Earth but to get a look at the twilight brightness on Mars. It's spring in Mars' southern hemisphere where Curiosity is hanging about. "During this time of year on Mars, there's more dust in the air to reflect sunlight, making it particularly bright," said Mastcam co-investigator Mark Lemmon from the Space Science Institute.

Toward the bottom of the images, you can see the top of a rock formation called Tower Butte. Curiosity has been exploring this region for more than a year. This image should get people excited about NASA's next rover mission to Mars, Perseverance, which will land on the red planet in February 2021. It's currently scheduled to launch on July 20, 2020.

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NASA's Curiosity Rover Took a Picture of Earth and Venus in the Mars Sky - Thrillist

‘Leading in space’: NASA chief Bridenstine talks SpaceX, Mars and the first woman on the moon with Tulsa Regional Chamber – Tulsa World

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America is getting excited about space again.

That was one of NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstines chief takeaways from a recent phone call from movie star Tom Cruise.

He said he was interested in doing a movie on the International Space Station and wanted to talk about that, said the Tulsan, who takes it as another good sign that a renewed national emphasis on space exploration is inspiring people.

Bridenstine, a former U.S. congressman representing Tulsa who now heads the nations space agency, was the guest Tuesday for a virtual discussion hosted by the Tulsa Regional Chamber.

Fresh off the historic SpaceX launch and with NASAs sights set on both the moon and Mars Bridenstine said he couldnt be more excited to be leading the agency at this time in history.

We have a presidential administration right now that is putting space on steroids, he said. They really see this as part of American greatness. We need to do stunning achievements. The world needs to see it. The world needs to partner with us on these things.

Bridenstine added: Its hard to lead on earth if youre not leading in space. And I think thats as true today as it was in the 1960s. We havent had this much support for space activities since John F. Kennedy.

A collaboration between NASA and Elon Musks SpaceX firm, the spacecraft launch on May 30 carried two NASA astronauts, Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley, to the International Space Station.

The pair were the first astronauts the U.S. had launched into space in almost a decade since the space shuttle program ended in 2011.

Bridenstine said NASA is also moving forward with the Artemis program, the goal of which is to return to the moon by 2024, establish a sustainable presence there and let it pave the way for a mission to Mars.

Artemis, he added, will involve another milestone: the first woman to set foot on the moon.

We love the Apollo program. History loves the Apollo program, said Bridenstine. But in those days all of our astronauts came from a fighter pilot or test pilot background and there were no opportunities for women, and very few opportunities for underrepresented minorities.

This time, we have a very robust, very capable, very talented and very diverse astronaut corps.

The SpaceX launch marked the first time a commercial aerospace company carried humans into Earths orbit.

Bridenstine said private-sector partnerships will be the model for how space is explored in the future, and that SpaceX has demonstrated its potential.

Asked about Oklahomas possible future role in space exploration, Bridenstine highlighted the University of Oklahomas GeoCarb program, for which it was awarded a $161 million government contract.

OU has got the absolute best weather scientists, he said, adding that they are going to help NASA better understand the correlation between carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and weather events.

He said, If the program is successful and we can get good science out of it, I think theres going to be a lot of missions that come after that at the University of Oklahoma, and then we build from there.

He added that the Choctaw Nation, which has a test range, is playing a role in urban air mobility.

I know it sounds like science fiction, he said of whats been described as a flying taxi service. But theres billions of dollars of investment going into that right now.

Speaking of Elon Musk, whose automobile company Tesla is reportedly looking at Tulsa as a possible site for a new factory, Bridenstine was asked if hed had a chance to plug Tulsa with the entrepreneur.

I have not personally pitched him on it, he said, adding that he has to be careful as the head of a government agency.

What Ill tell you is that certainly Elon Musk knows that Im from Tulsa. He knows that I love Tulsa and I live here by choice.

I think Tulsa would be a great selection, Bridenstine added.

The virtual audience on Tuesday included area school students, chamber officials said.

Bridenstine said he hoped that young people are motivated by all the exciting things happening.

If you go around the country and talk to the engineers and the scientists that work for us, who are of age, they will tell you exactly where they were when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, he said. Those are moments of inspiration that transform lives.

He said he hopes the SpaceX launch and upcoming Artemis mission can provide those moments for a new generation.

Heres this whole generation of young people that dont remember the last time we flew humans into space from American soil, he said.

But if all goes as planned, the next generation should have some inspiring memories all its own. Asked where the space program will be in 20 years, Bridenstine said:

There is a very real chance, depending on budgets and how they materialize, that we could have a crew on Mars, or maybe even coming home from Mars.

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'Leading in space': NASA chief Bridenstine talks SpaceX, Mars and the first woman on the moon with Tulsa Regional Chamber - Tulsa World

We need to send at least 110 people to Mars to build a civilisation, study finds – The Independent

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Humanity would need to send at least 110 people to Mars to build a self-sustaining civilisation there, according to research.

A study has attempted to understand just how many people and resources would be required to settle elsewhere in the universe.

The paper, written by Jean-Marc Salotti from the Bordeaux Institut National Polytechnique, attempted to solve the question using mathematical modelling. It tried to find out both the minimum number of people that would have to live on the planet as well as the way of life they would have to pursue if their life there was to be self-sustaining.

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He found that 110 would be the minimum number of individuals required, although having more people would change the calculations.

He also noted that the success of those people would depend on a range of factors, including how well they would be able to work together and share their time and resources.

Professor Salotti noted that the question was largely theoretical at the moment, but could have considerable effects for the future of humanity. Life on Earth could one day be threatened by some cataclysmic event, he noted, and it would be possible that the only way humanity would survive would be to head to Mars or some other planet.

Some companies, including SpaceX, have attempted to build ways to ensure this could happen, with rockets made to carry people on the long journey to Mars. But any attempt to do so will inevitably be limited in the number of people that it can take, which Prof Salotti noted will lead people to make important calculations about the minimum number of people that could survive there and create enough resources and tools to allow their life to become self-sustaining.

The research attempted to understand the work the people would have to do to make that possible, and how much time they would have to do that work. The number of 110 people is the minimum number who would be able to do that work, Prof Salotti found.

The study Minimum Number of Settlers for Survival on Another Planet is published in Scientific Reports this week.

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We need to send at least 110 people to Mars to build a civilisation, study finds - The Independent

Elon Musk Loves Mars so Much That He Called it His Souldog – News18

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SpaceX founder Elon Musk speaks at a post-launch press conference after the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. (Image: Reuters)

Seoul: Multi-billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk on Sunday took to the Twitter to describe his relationship with Mars by calling the red planet his souldog.

"Mars is my souldog," Musk said in tweet.

Responding to Musk, a user tweeted, "Elon is from Mars. The Galactic Federation has no say. They agree with his awakening tactics."

"Why Mars? There's plenty of planets out there," mentioned another user.

Another user posted to him, "YOU are my souldog I don't even care how many other people have said this already."

Meanwhile, Musk is building floating spaceports at least 35 kms from the coastline and would be used for launching starship rockets to the Moon, mars and even hypersonic travel around Earth.

The floating spaceports would be accessed via tunnels dug under the water and Musk-owned The Boring Company would construct those.

Musk had earlier tweeted that most Starship spaceports will probably need to be around 35 kms offshore for "acceptable noise levels".

SpaceX is currently hiring "offshore operations engineers" to help develop floating spaceports for Starship.

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Mars Wrigley and Sankalp Beautiful World join hands with Sourav Ganguly Foundation to salute the COVID Warriors – IBG NEWS

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Mars Wrigley and Sankalp Beautiful World join hands with Sourav Ganguly Foundation to salute the Covid Warriors

Kolkata, 20th June 2020: Mars Wrigley recently joined hands with Sourav Ganguly Foundation, Sankalp Beautiful World and A Satadru Dutta Initiative to express gratitude to doctors, health care providers and caregivers during the pandemic.

Health care workers have been on the frontline of the current crisis to ensure safety and wellbeing of others. In an effort to appreciate and acknowledge their relentless spirit and hard work, Sourav Ganguly, President of BCCI, handed over a token of gratitude including Mars Wrigley products such as SNICKERS, GALAXY, BOUNTY, TWIX and M&MS to Dr Saptarshi Basu, Dr Sanjoy Holme Choudhury and Dr Shovon Das from the West Bengal Doctors Forum. Other heroes who were lauded included Briti Kar and Rudranil Raha, who fed 100 people daily throughout the lockdown, Rupa Das, a social worker, Rabi Mukherjee who has been actively involved in sanitization during the lockdown and Sree Basu. Chocolates were also distributed to the entire COVID department of Medica Super Specialty Hospital.

At Mars Wrigley, the purpose is to create beautiful moments to make the world smile. This small gesture to the everyday heroes was a collective way to say, Thank You.

About MARS Wrigley:

Mars is a family-owned business with more than a century of history-making diverse products and offering services for people and the pets people love. With almost $35 billion in sales, the company is a global business that produces some of the worlds best-loved brands: M&Ms, SNICKERS, TWIX, MILKY WAY, DOVE, PEDIGREE, ROYAL CANIN, WHISKAS, EXTRA, ORBIT, 5, SKITTLES, UNCLE BENS, MARS DRINKS and COCOAVIA. Mars also provides veterinary health services that include BANFIELD Pet Hospitals, Blue Pearl, VCA and Pet Partners. Headquartered in McLean, VA, Mars operates in more than 80 countries. The Mars Five Principles Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom inspire its more than 100,000 Associates to create value for all its partners and deliver growth they are proud of every day.

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Mars Wrigley and Sankalp Beautiful World join hands with Sourav Ganguly Foundation to salute the COVID Warriors - IBG NEWS

Livestream event on Steve Fuller’s Nietzschean Meditations – Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

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On Wednesday, 24 June (7 pm - 8.30 pm, London Time), Luke Mason will be interviewing Steve Fuller about his latest book, Nietzschean Meditations: Untimely Thoughts at the Dawn of the Transhuman Era. The event, which is part of the FUTURES Podcast series, will be livestreamed but registration is required.

In Nietzschean Meditations, Fuller openly discusses the more transgressive elements of transhumanism, often in ways that transgress the norms of transhumanism itself. In particular, the book considers the nature and extent of the movements commitment to morphological freedom and asks whether the opportunity for immortality should be seized or resisted. In short, what is the new metaphysics of personal identity and the ethics of life and death in a transhumanist world? Those interested in dipping into the book, can do so here:

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Livestream event on Steve Fuller's Nietzschean Meditations - Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

Heading to the Delaware beaches this weekend? Here’s some things you might need to know – The News Journal

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Lifeguards in Delaware have a lot of responsibilities, and COVID-19 is adding another layer to the risk they face on each beach day. Delaware News Journal

Heading to the Delaware beaches this weekend?

Here's what you need to know if you're planning on dipping your toes in the sand the weekend of June 19-21 and what the beaches look like in phase two of Gov. John Carney's reopening plan.

Delaware's beach towns are open to the public, but government and public health officials still have some suggestions to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Social distancing is encouraged in all public spaces, and people should maintain at least 6 feet of distance from people who are not members of their immediate household.

A sign sits on the entryway to a crowded Bethany Beach on a warm breezy Wednesday, June 10. Masks are required on the boardwalk but not the beach.(Photo: Jenna Miller/Delaware News Journal)

As for face masks, they are still required on the boardwalk, in public spaces where social distancing is difficultand inside businesses that are open. Face masks are recommended, but not required, on the beaches themselves, but social distancing is a requirementon the beach.

Swimming also is permitted, but there has been an increased risk of dangerous rip currents this week.

Make sure to check in with the local lifeguards before you dive in to learn about any potential hazards in the water or on the sand.

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Previous bans on out-of-state travelers and short-term rentals have been lifted. Delaware's reopening plan saysleisure travel "should be avoided" at this time, but it's allowed if people and businesses can adhere to social-distancing-related recommendations, according to the state.

Hotels and other accommodations also are now accepting reservations for vacation stays.

Delaware is in its second phase of reopening businesses previously restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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As of June 15, businesses that were operating at 30% of fire occupancy requirements canincrease capacity to 60%, not including staff.

However, exercise facilities and personal care services such as hair care, tanning, tattoo, massage therapy services, nail care and spas are to remain at 30% of fire occupancy requirements.

RELATED: One restaurant explains what to expect when dine-in service reopens

That means restaurants and bars can increase capacity to 60% of what's allowed by the fire marshal, but must still adhere to social distancing guidelines. Some have increased outdoor seating to try to accommodate more diners.

Moving toward normalcy means that summer parking fees are also back in place. Parking permits or metered parking is in effect in all of Delaware's beach towns from Lewes to Fenwick Island.

In Rehoboth Beach, there are a few areas within the first two blocks along Rehoboth Avenue closest to the beach and boardwalk that have barricades set up so that restaurants can have expanded outdoor seating. Parking is not permitted in those areas.

Some of the barricades that were used to create a pedestrian walkway so merchants could do business on the sidewalk because of the COVID-19 pandemic were being removed in downtown Rehoboth Beach by city crews on Wednesday morning. Some will still remain where restaurants have permission to set up on the sidewalk.(Photo: Chuck Snyder/Special to the Delaware News Journal)

Each town has different rules and rates for parking. For more information, visit an individual beach town's website or call Town Hall in the beach town you plan to visit before arriving.

Below are links to each oceanfront town's parking policies:

This weekend isn't looking like the most perfect beach weekend weather-wise, but forecasts can change.

Lifeguards watch over a crowded Bethany Beach on a warm breezy Wednesday, June 10. They've been trained to work in teams for rescues, wearing masks and gloves when possible due to coronavirus.(Photo: Jenna Miller/Delaware News Journal)

The National Weather Service forecast for Friday, June 19, inRehoboth Beach showed a 20% chance of showers witha high of 75degrees.

A chance of rain lingers into Saturday, which will start off with fog followed bya 50% chance of rain in the afternoonand a high of 76. There's a chance of heavy rain after 2 p.m. and thunderstorms are possible in the evening.

Sunday could see a high of 75 degrees, with a 30% chance of rain.

Water temperatures off the coast of Lewes are reaching the mid- to high-60s this week, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Contact reporter Maddy Lauria at (302) 345-0608,mlauria@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @MaddyinMilford.

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Heading to the Delaware beaches this weekend? Here's some things you might need to know - The News Journal

Southern Shores votes to pursue beach nourishment project; "No Left Turn" weekends set – The Coastland Times – The Coastland Times

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After many months of discussion, the Southern Shores Town Council unanimously decided to pursue a beach nourishment project at their meeting on June 16.

This will be the first time the town engages in such a project; they will join their neighbors, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk and Duck in a nourishment project for the year 2022.

After Ken Wilson with Coastal Protection Engineering joined the meeting via zoom on Tuesday, the council inquired about several aspects of the proposal with their chosen beach engineering firm.

Wilson was ready and willing to help and move forward with plans, if the board so chose: If you ask us a fair question, we are going to give you a fair answer.

Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Morey was hesitant to approve before having the towns new town manager involved, which would not be until mid-July.

Postponing means cost implication on other towns, Wilson offered.

After many residents voiced their thoughts at public comment, it seemed the town as a whole was split between wanting beach nourishment and not being in favor of the project. Some still had questions about tax rates and lengths.

The council agreed that education on the matter was needed, and felt that providing that information via their newsletter, website and other social platforms would help the community better understand the logistics of the project and what it would entail.

Ultimately, the five members of council agreed it was time for a decision. Some sand is better than no sand, and thats kind of the tipping point in my opinion, said councilman Matt Neal.

Councilman Leo Holland concurred: We have to ask ourselves why people come here; its the beaches. If you look at the beaches as an expense, then you dont do anything, but I look at it as an asset and I think we need to look after it.

Neal motioned to pursue a beach nourishment project and all were on board. I would love to see the beach stay the way it is . . . but Im not willing to give up beachfront homes because thats 25% of our tax base; that would be shooting ourselves in the foot, I think, said Morey in the discussion that followed. Unanimously, council approved the motion.

Other business addressed concerns brought forth at public comment regarding the unexpected traffic that has occurred in the town over the last two weekends.

Mayor Tom Bennett relayed to his council members and the public that he had spent some time working on a solution. He mused whether it was worth it to close access to S. Dogwood Trail from eastbound traffic on US 158.

He admitted that in the past, I have not been an advocate for closing our roads, but the traffic has caused a stir within the town.

After receiving North Carolina Department of Transportations blessing, meeting with officials in Kitty Hawk and seeking guidance from the town attorney, Bennett asked council if closing the road for two more weekends, in addition to their previously agreed upon No Left Turn weekends, was appropriate.

The council voted for a budget amendment to put $7400 towards hiring a contractor to oversee the No Left Turn events scheduled in June. The road closure will be in place July 4 and 5, July 25 and 26, and August 1 and 2 as well.

The unanimously agreed upon motion included a resolution to notify local authorities of the events.

In a continued discussion from their previous meeting, councilman Jim Conners elected to withdraw a motion he had made to re-hire Anlauf and Deel as the town engineer. In follow-up, he motioned to retain Anlauf and Deel Engineering to serve as the town engineer for two years, commencing July 1, 2020, and initiate a contract that could be extended one or more additional years by the town manager with council approval.

Neal and Morey, who had wanted to wait for the new town manager to come on board before making a decision, sided with the majority and favored the motion. It passed 5-0.

READ ABOUT MORE NEWS AND EVENTS HERE.

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Kill Devil Hills adopts $19 million budget for 2020-21

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Southern Shores votes to pursue beach nourishment project; "No Left Turn" weekends set - The Coastland Times - The Coastland Times

Multiple waterspouts spotted off Alabama and Florida beaches on Sunday – AL.com

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Several waterspouts were spotted in the Gulf of Mexico off Alabama and Florida beaches on Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service in Mobile.

Forecasters were urging mariners and beachgoers to stay alert:

Waterspouts have been seen off Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Perdido Key among other areas, according to the weather service.

Waterspouts will be possible through early afternoon. The weather service issued a marine weather statement just before 11:30 a.m. and said offshore areas from Pensacola, Fla., to Pascagoula, Miss., could potentially see them.

Forecasters added that waterspouts can easily outrun boats and create dangerous waves and boaters should seek safe harbor immediately if one is spotted nearby.

Forecasters said a land breeze was the culprit behind the waterspouts. A land breeze is basically a sea breeze that reverses course and pushes back over the water.

Showers produced by the land breeze can form waterspouts over the warm Gulf waters. The waterspouts are generally on the weak side.

The weather service said waterspouts will be possible through the mid-morning hours.

The summer months, June, July and August, when the Gulf waters are at their warmest, can make for prime conditions for waterspouts, according to the weather service.

Unlike tornadoes, waterspouts typically develop closer to the surface of the water and reach upward.

A typical waterspout will have winds of 30-40 mph.

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Multiple waterspouts spotted off Alabama and Florida beaches on Sunday - AL.com

Beaches Are Packed In Florida And Everyone’s Happy – The Chattanoogan

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I wish people would please stop drinking the Kool-Aid and scaring everyone. I just returned from a week in Sandestin and beautiful Miramar Beach in Florida There were tens of thousands of happy people of all ages having a great time swimming, sunning, pooling, shopping and eating and almost no one was wearing a mask or social distancing except a few restaurant employees. I mean the pool, entire beach and the first few hundred yards of ocean were so packed you could hardly walk.

Millions of people from all over the world reside in and visit Florida annually, particularly the elderly. If you believe and trust your government, Florida should be the hot bed epicenter of COVID-19. And yet your chances of dying of this flu are actually 0.02 percent based on current coronavirus deaths and population. Your chances of dying are higher in an automobile accident on the trip down there.

If you cant trust the government over war, elections, medical care, policing, financial well-being and numerous other issues then why on earth would you start now. We may never have a vaccine and the great flu of 1918 disappeared on its own as all viruses mutate. Please go to Florida or just get out of your shell and you will see how ridiculous this whole scare tactic really is. Businesses need our money and so do their employees. The more people get out and socialize the faster this flu will disappear and football can get back to normal.

Brian Watson

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Beaches Are Packed In Florida And Everyone's Happy - The Chattanoogan

Bill Maher Begs Millennials To Storm Beaches And Malls, Buy Pants – Deadline

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Bill Maher begged millennials to lead America back to a life not dominated by fear and show the world theyre more than anxiety-ridden scaredy cats.

This is your time, the host of HBOs Real Time with Bill Maher said Friday, addressing the much-maligned demo at the close of New Rules. After all, he said, the Greatest Generation was only great after storming the beaches of Normandy in World War II. Just storm the beaches. And the malls. Go buy pants. Live your pre-corona life because you are the least likely to die from it, he said.

Be careful, but break out of the prison the government has created, he said.Safety is a virtue. But if it was the only one, nothing would ever get done.

In an hour that flitted from pandemic to politics to police and the Supreme Court, Maher and potential Joe Biden running mate Susan Rice had little patience for Democrats who dont think Barack Obamas VP is woke enough. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and National Security Adviser warned protesters who may wish for a more radical agenda than Bidens not to lose sight of the alternative.

We have a choice. Either Donald Trump remains in office, who has governed in a blatantly divisive way, or Biden, who understands its time to invest in health and education and so many of the underlying issues that have contributed to the systemic racism in this country, Rice said. I know him. There is nobody who brings to this challenge a greater sense of the humanity we all share. I would urge people to be very mindful of the choice. It couldnt be more stark.

Maher slammed The New York Times for its Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish The Police, editorial. And he applauded conservative George Will for writing that the Senate should go Democratic because a partys bad management the GOP must be punished or it wont change.

Ah, yes, of course the host took a dig at the Academy Awards: The Oscars are going to be delayed because of the pandemic and they are not making any movies. The committee said, We just need more time not to get it right no matter what we do.

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Rocky Point reopens to tourists amid COVID-19 pandemic, but its beaches are still closed – AZCentral

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Sandy Beach, a stretch of hotels and condos popular with Arizona visitors in Puerto Peasco, Sonora, is completely empty on April 9, 2020. The city closed the beaches, despite it being the peak of tourism season, to prevent the spread of COVID-19.(Photo: Courtesy of Hector Vasquez del Mercado)

TUCSON The popular Mexican resort city of Puerto Peasco began welcoming back tourists earlier this week, as the city beginsto emerge from a nearly three-month lockdown due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.

However, the area's main attraction, its miles-long sandy beaches, will remain closed to the public as health officials in the Mexican state of Sonoraand in Arizona where most of the visitors to Peasco come from continue to grapplewith rising numbers of infections.

Nonetheless, other activitiessuch as fishing, off-roading and using the pool areas of hotels and resorts will resume, with restrictions allowing for social distancing. City officials said that if cases in the city remain low, the beaches couldreopen by the start of July.

"We decided to plan a gradual reopening, orderly obviously, but with the premise of finding what has become a verycomplexbalance between public health and economic health," Puerto PeascoMayorKiko Munro told The Arizona Republic.

Nearly 80% percent of businesses in the city commonly known as Rocky Point toArizonans are dependent on the roughly 2 million visitors each year, according to the city's tourism officials.

Unlike the U.S., the federal government in Mexico did not offer stimulus packages or any other support to private businesses affected by the pandemic and the economic shutdown. That created pressure on the local government to take action.

Munro'splan to reopen Peasco has five phases. The first two allowed some of those businesses and restaurants to open their doors in order to establish and solidify safety guidelines, such as constant cleaning of common areas and mandating the use of masks in public for employees and customers.

As part of its third phase, the city began welcoming visitors from Arizona and other parts of Mexico on Wednesday. Munro marked the occasion with a special ceremony, and some resorts in the cityeven greeted the first visitors with mariachi bands.

Munro said the beaches in Rocky Point could reopen as early as July 1. That's when the city will roll outthe fourth phase of its reopening plan. But the decision lies in the hands of the federal government in Mexico City, which will make that determination based on the number of COVID-19 casesnationwide.

"We're ready to open them safely," he said. "We're just waiting for the official authorization from the government in charge of that matter."

When visitors make their way to Peasco in the coming weeks, they'll havetofollow stringent guidelinesto accessthe city's extensive network of beach-side resorts and hotels. Theirexperience also will be different because of the measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"We want to be very insistent about this point here in Peasco. We do want peopleto visit us, but when you visit us, please follow our guidelines, because that's how we'll maintain the number of infections to manageable levels," said Hector Vasquez del Mercado, the president of the Puerto PeascoConvention and Visitor's Bureau.

To date, Puerto Peasco has been spared the large outbreaks of COVID-19 that haveplagued other cities in northern Mexico and in Arizona. The city has reported only 13 cases in the past three months and one death from the virus.

Elected and tourism officials in Puerto Peasco, or Rocky Point, unveiled protocols for tourists as the popular beach-side city reopens to visitors.(Photo: Puerto Peasco Convention and Visitors Bureau)

At the onset of the pandemic, Munro locked down the city to all outsidevisitors to contain the virus. Local police blocked access and strictlyenforced a federal shutdown at the beaches.

They also set up a checkpoint to the north of the city atMexican Federal Highway 8, the road that connectsRocky Pointto the Arizona border. As the only point of access into Peasco,only homeowners and residents were allowed in.

The checkpoint will play a crucial role for all visitors. Munro said soldiers andRed Cross workerswill check the temperatures of all visitors and residents before entering the city. If someone shows above-normal body temperatures, they'll be given the option to take a rapid-detection test on site.

"If the test comes back positive, then we'll ask that person to return to where they came from, taking the necessary measures so they don't spread the virus along the way," Munro said."But if it's negative, we'll allow them access into the city."

Furthermore, only visitors with hotel reservations will be allowed past the checkpoint, Vasquez del Mercado said.

As part of the reopening guidelines, none of the hotels in the city will accept same-day reservations. So they all need to made at least two days in advance, and visitors will be required to show proof at the checkpoint.As a secondary layer of protection, the hotels open to guests will also be required to check temperatures during check-in.

Additional regulations that hotels and resorts must follow include blocking rooms for 24 hours after a reservation has ended to allow forthorough cleaning. Vasquez del Mercado, said they're also limiting occupancy to 70% for resorts and 40% for hotels.

"This weekend we're expecting a 25% occupancy, and for the following weekend no more than 40%," he added.

To help visitors plan their trip to Puerto Peasco, the city government and the visitor's bureau posted English and Spanish-language versions of their "Entry Protocols for Tourists"to their websites. They explain the policies all visitors must follow, and it lists certified hotels and businesses abiding by the city's COVID-19 guidelines.

In addition, the city government created an online map that allows visitors to see the locations in the city that have recorded positive cases.

But as the number of confirmed cases in Arizona continues to set records, the mayor ofPuerto Peasco said they're well positionedto respond to any outbreaks in the city arising from their efforts to reopen.

In the past three months, local and state officials have provided ventilators to local hospitals, and they've have also donated protective equipment to healthcare workers, Munro said.

The local government has also worked with hospitals tocreate a mobile health unit that can respond quickly to any outbreaks within the city. He added that the plan to reopen was designed to be flexible.

"In the event that we have an outbreak that we realizewe cannot control as a city, the plan allows us to close out the current phase we're in and go back to earlier phases."

Have any news tips or story ideas about the U.S.-Mexico border? Reach the reporter at rafael.carranza@arizonarepublic.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RafaelCarranza.

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Rocky Point reopens to tourists amid COVID-19 pandemic, but its beaches are still closed - AZCentral

Lifeguards To Return To Select Minneapolis Beaches This Weekend – CBS Minnesota

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) Starting this week, lifeguards will be returning to popular Minneapolis beaches on the weekends.

The Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board announced Wednesday that lifeguards will be at Bde Maka Skas Thomas Beach, Lake Nokomis Main Beach and Wirth Lake Beach on Saturday and Sunday, from noon to 7 p.m. Theyll be out again the following weekend as well.

This announcement comes after two swimmers had to be rescued Tuesday evening from the water near Bde Maka Skas Thomas Beach.

Early next month, the park board plans to hire more lifeguards and offer daily services at the beaches listed above, as well as Cedar Lake East Beach and Lake Harriet North Beach. The lifeguards hired will have been certified in past years and receive additional training.

According to the park board, no other beaches will have lifeguards for the remainder of the summer.

In early April, the park board said that public beaches would be closed for the summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, per health guidelines, beaches have been allowed to open to swimmers, although no lifeguards were posted.

Planning to head to the beach this summer? The park board says you should follow social distancing guidelines and bring your own water bottle and hand sanitizer.

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Lifeguards To Return To Select Minneapolis Beaches This Weekend - CBS Minnesota