These Billionaires Are Making a Killing Off the Pandemic

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Ever since the coronavirus pandemic began, American billionaires have collectively made an extra $282 billion.

Ass-Backwards

A number of American billionaires have used the coronavirus pandemic to grow even wealthier than they were before.

In fact, billionaires in the U.S. have increased their wealth by a combined $282 billion, Fast Company reports. That’s a ten percent increase over where the billionaire class stood at the beginning of March — illustrating how the global crisis has furthered global inequality.

No Options

Some of that newfound wealth came from how consumer behavior has changed since people found themselves stuck at home during the quarantine.

For instance, the video conferencing software Zoom saw a surge in new users as isolated friends and family sought a way to connect online. As a result, Fast Company reports that Zoom CEO Eric Yuan has personally made $2.58 billion over the past two months.

Unfair Advantage

But market changes alone don’t explain how people like SpaceX CEO Elon Musk or all of how Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos have walked away with significant increases to their net worth. The rest comes from numerous tax breaks and loopholes, not unlike how Microsoft founder Bill Gates actually grew wealthier after pivoting to largescale philanthropy.

“We’re reading about benevolent billionaires sharing .0001% of their wealth with their fellow humans in this crisis,” inequality researcher Chuck Collins told Fast Company, “but in fact they’ve been rigging the tax rules to reduce their taxes for decades — money that could have been spent building a better public health infrastructure.”

READ MORE: American billionaires have gotten $280 billion richer since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic [Fast Company]

More on the mega-rich: The Wealthy Are Hiding From the Pandemic in Underground Bunkers

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Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine Effective in Monkeys

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Researchers at private Beijing-based company Sinovac Biotech have developed an experimental COVID-19 vaccine that protected macaques from infection.

Researchers at Beijing pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech have developed an experimental COVID-19 vaccine that it says protected macaques from infection, Science Magazine reports.

The vaccine was based on a tried-and-true formulation that included an inactivated version of the virus SARS-CoV-2, as detailed in a preprint uploaded to the server bioRxiv on April 19.

“These data support the rapid clinical development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for humans,” reads the paper.

The team at Sinovac injected eight macaque monkeys with two different doses. Three weeks after injection, they introduced the coronavirus straight into the money’s lungs. There were reportedly no side effects.

None of the monkeys developed an infection beyond a small “viral blip.” A less fortunate control group of monkeys developed severe pneumonia after being infected by the virus.

“This is old school but it might work,” Florian Krammer, a virologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-authored a status report on COVID vaccine candidates, told Science Mag. “What I like most is that many vaccine producers, also in lower–middle-income countries, could make such a vaccine.”

Critics say, though, that the sample size in Sinovac’s trial was too small to produce generalizable results. Questions also remain about the viability of the vaccine candidate for use in humans — especially considering that monkeys don’t experience the same severe symptoms of COVID as humans.

In a separate Sinovac experiment, the researchers mixed a cocktail of antibodies from patients in China, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and the United Kingdom with the virus.

According to the team, the antibodies “potently neutralized 10 representative SARS-CoV-2 strains, indicative of a possible broader neutralizing ability.”

And that’d be good news.

“This provides strong evidence that the virus is not mutating in a way that would make it resistant to a #COVID19 vaccine,” tweeted of Oregon Health & Science University immunologist Mark Slifka on Wednesday.

Sinovac Biotech is now planning trials on thousands of human subjects.

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Lysol Begs Customers Not to Drink Its Cleaning Products

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The company behind brands Lysol and Dettol is urging customers not to ingest its cleaning supplies after Donald Trump's comments on Thursday.

Reckitt Benckiser, the British company behind the cleaning product brands Lysol and Dettol, is urging customers not to consume its cleaning supplies after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested scientists should try to inject COVID patients with disinfectants.

No, we’re not making this up.

In a statement, the company was forced to reiterate that Lysol wipes should not be on the menu.

“As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),” the company wrote.

Trump made a series of mind-boggling claims on Thursday about injecting cleaning products — and even UV light — into the human body, without basing any of them on any scientific evidence or even common sense.

“And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in one minute,” Trump said, as quoted by CNN. “Is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning… it would be interesting to check that. It sounds interesting to me.”

It’s a delusional statement that may well cause some who don’t know better to put themselves at risk — and at the worst time possible.

On Monday — days before Trump’s rant — the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that poison center calls related to cleaners and disinfectants were up 20 percent over last year, which is likely related to fear of the coronavirus.

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Trump Suggests Injecting COVID Patients With Disinfectant, UV Light

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Trump is suggesting more unproven and likely deadly ways to fight the coronavirus. This time, it's injecting patients with disinfectant.

On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested a number of bizarre and untested treatments for COVID-19 patients.

Chief among them, NBC News reports, was injecting some sort of disinfectant — Trump never specified which — into patient’s lungs to kill any viruses lingering there. He also suggested somehow putting high levels of ultraviolet radiation “inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way.”

“This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible and it’s dangerous,” University of Washington healthcare researcher Vin Gupta told NBC. “It’s a common method that people utilize when they want to kill themselves.”

The President’s suggestions were so outlandish that even his science advisor, Dr. Deborah Birx, appeared baffled and defeated while he was making them.

Here is Dr. Birx's reaction when President Trump asks his science advisor to study using UV light on the human body and injecting disinfectant to fight the coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/MVno5X7JMA

— Daniel Lewis (@Daniel_Lewis3) April 24, 2020

While it’s likely not a shock to many that Trump has a weak grasp on medical science, his latest ideas for how to fight the coronavirus illustrate a serious systematic problem.

As NBC reporter Ben Collins tweeted, Trump’s strategy seems to be mostly comprised of jumping from one unproven treatment to another in hopes that something will eventually stick.

The bleach and alcohol stuff is deeply worrying, but what's much more alarming is that the executive plan now appears to be bumbling from viral miracle cure to viral miracle cure with supreme confidence, hoping at every turn that people forgot about the last one.

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) April 24, 2020

And that’s a dangerous approach.

Trump spent weeks pushing the drug hydroxychloroquine, even though there was no good evidence that it would help COVID-19 patients. All the same, doctors investigated it at the President’s behest, just to find that it seemed to increase the death rate of coronavirus patients without helping them.

On top of that, one man died after ingesting similar compounds on his own.

Needless to say, injecting disinfectant into people won’t do any better.

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NASA Develops Ventilator to Treat Coronavirus Patients

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A team of NASA researchers have developed a ventilator for treating COVID-19 patients in just 37 days and is requesting the FDA for fast-tracked approval.

NASA Ventilator

A team of NASA researchers have developed a ventilator for treating COVID-19 patients in just 37 days. The space agency is now asking the US Food and Drug Administration for a fast-tracked approval.

According to a statement, the machine was “tailored to treat coronavirus patients” — and “passed a critical test” earlier this week.

VITAL

The device, dubbed VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally), was developed by engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“We specialize in spacecraft, not medical-device manufacturing,” said JPL Director Michael Watkins in the statement. “But excellent engineering, rigorous testing and rapid prototyping are some of our specialties.”

Meeting Expectations

According to NASA, the ventilator is easier to build and to maintain than a traditional one, as there are far fewer parts. It can also be modified for use in field hospitals.

“The NASA prototype performed as expected under a wide variety of simulated patient conditions,” Matthew Levin, Director of Innovation at the Icahn School of Medicine said in the statement. “The team feels confident that the VITAL ventilator will be able to safely ventilate patients suffering from COVID-19 both here in the United States and throughout the world.”

READ MORE: NASA develops ventilator prototype in just 37 days [The Hill]

More on ventilators: EXPERTS SAY PUTTING MULTIPLE PATIENTS ON ONE VENTILATOR IS UNSAFE

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Black Hole Devours Outside of Star, Leaves Core Behind

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Astronomers found a rare, near-death experience play out in space where a black hole devoured the outer layers of a star but left the core intact.

Two-Course Meal

In a gruesome bit of cosmic drama, a distant star was partially devoured by a black hole but managed to escape, at least for the time being.

Looking at x-ray data from NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) observatories, astronomers found what appear to be the remnants of a red giant star that veered too close to a black hole. As a result, the star’s outer layers were stripped away — but its core, now just a white dwarf, managed to survive.

Buying Time

Unfortunately for the half-eaten star, astronomers predict the black hole will continue to snack until only a small fraction remains.

“It will try hard to get away, but there is no escape,” lead researcher Andrew King, from the University of Leicester, said in a press release. “The black hole will eat it more and more slowly, but never stop.”

“In principle, this loss of mass would continue until and even after the white dwarf dwindled down to the mass of Jupiter, in about a trillion years,” King added. “This would be a remarkably slow and convoluted way for the universe to make a planet!”

Dining Out

While this near-death experience is a rare find, the fact that he saw it at all leads King to believe that it happens fairly often.

“In astronomical terms, this event is only visible to our current telescopes for a short time — about 2,000 years,” King said. “So unless we were extraordinarily lucky to have caught this one, there may be many more that we are missing.”

READ MORE: Star survives close call with a black hole [Chandra X-ray Center]

More on cosmic destruction: Scientists Release Incredible Video of Black Hole Spewing Matter

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NASA: Don’t Break Quarantine to Watch SpaceX Launch Astronauts

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Next month, NASA and SpaceX will launch astronauts from U.S. soil to the ISS for the first time in years. Don't break quarantine to watch it happen.

Stay Home

If there wasn’t a global pandemic going on, NASA’s upcoming SpaceX launch — the first to send astronauts into space from U.S. soil since 2011 — would be a huge spectacle.

But this time around, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine urged would-be spectators to stay home and stay safe, Space.com reports. Bridenstine still hopes the public will tune in online, but said on a Thursday conference call that they definitely shouldn’t break quarantine to do so.

Tuning In

The May 27 launch, which will send two crewmembers to the International Space Station, will carry American astronauts on a SpaceX rocket that blasts off of an American launchpad. As a result, Bridenstine said he would normally expect a bigger-than-average crowd.

“Yes, we are moving forward,” Bridenstine said of the launch. “We are very excited about launching commercial crew. We are asking people to join us in this launch, but to do so from home. We’re asking people not to travel to the Kennedy Space Center.”

Locked Out

NAA will close the Kennedy Space Center to the public, Space.com reports. But it’s still possible for rocket fans to catch a glimpse of the launch from the surrounding area or a nearby beach.

Keeping people who ignore his warning from congregating in those areas, Bridenstine said, is up being left to local authorities.

READ MORE: NASA chief to space fans: Don’t travel to Florida to watch SpaceX’s 1st astronaut launch [Space.com]

More on the crewed launch: SpaceX Is Officially Sending Astronauts to Space Next Month

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US Ditches Global Team Helping Develop COVID Vaccine

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The United States has ditched a global initiative led by the World Health Organization to accelerate cooperation on a coronavirus vaccine.

The United States has ditched a global initiative led by the World Health Organization to accelerate cooperation on a coronavirus vaccine and to openly share information on possible treatments and technologies, as The Guardian reports.

“There will be no U.S. official participation,” a spokesman for the US mission in Geneva told Reuters.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted the importance of cooperation after the US made the decision not to join.

“We are facing a common threat that we can only defeat with a common approach,” he said. “The world needs these tools and needs them fast.”

A number of world leaders and luminaries — including German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Emmanuel Macron, and philanthropist Bill Gates — decided to make a pledge via a virtual conference call, agreeing to share research without hesitation.

The sharing of scientific knowledge is more important than ever as the number of global cases and deaths continues to rise. Scientists are searching for possible treatments at a record pace.

A vaccine could also be key to eventually allowing societies to return to normal — and stop global economies from hemorrhaging.

The news comes after president Donald Trump decided to completely pull WHO funding last week, an action widely criticized by experts. Bill Gates called the move “as dangerous as it sounds,” arguing that “the world needs the WHO now more than ever.”

The US response to the crisis has been marred by dangerous comments made by Trump, plans to reopen entire states as early as this week despite numerous warning calls from experts, and a failure to make sufficient numbers of COVID-19 tests available to all of its citizens.

Macron criticized the US’ decision to withdraw from the plans.

“We will continue now to mobilize all G7 and G20 countries so they get behind this initiative,” Macron said during the meeting. “And I hope we will be able to reconcile around this joint initiative both China and the US, because this is about saying the fight against Covid-19 is a common human good and there should be no division in order to win this battle.”

Some of the pledges the world leaders made during the call included providing access to new research regarding treatments and vaccines globally and to commit to collective decision making.

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China Will Launch Mars Mission “In Coming Months”

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China's space agency says that its mission to Mars is still happening

Forging Ahead

China says that it’s still on schedule for the mission to Mars it plans to launch later this year.

The mission, originally slated for a July launch date, is set to happen “in the coming months,” according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA), CNN reports. On top of that, the mission finally has a name: “Tianwen 1,” which translates roughly to “heavenly questions.”

Wherefore Art Thou

The name comes from poetry written more than 2,000 years ago, according to state-run news agency XinhuaNet. In the piece, the ancient poet Qu Yuan questioned traditional narratives around the mythology of the era, especially as it pertained to space, the Earth, and other natural phenomena.

The mission plans on sending a rover to the surface of Mars to study the planet’s atmosphere, environment, and the composition of its soil, CNN reports. The rover will be accompanied by an orbiter and a lander, all three of which will be equipped with scientific instruments.

Bronze Medal

If the mission succeeds, China will become the third country to successfully land a rover on Mars after the U.S. and Russia.

But that’s assuming China is able to maintain its original launch schedule. Other space agencies around the world have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic — so it’s possible that the CNSA will face unexpected delays as well.

READ MORE: China reveals name of Mars mission, which will take place in ‘coming months’ [CNN]

More on space: China Powers Through the Coronavirus To Launch a Mars Mission

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Experts: Social Distancing Is “Biggest Challenge” Humanity Faces

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A team of experts called current social distancing measures the

As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, the sheer number of people currently living in quarantine poses an unprecedented challenge for humanity.

A team of European neuroscientists and philosophers say that living in isolation poses a unique, uncharted threat that flies in the face of the base human instinct for connection — and one that deserves better recognition from world leaders.

In an essay published in the May edition of the journal Current Biology, the researchers argue that living in quarantine and separating ourselves from one another contradicts the urge to come together during difficult times.

“Hazardous conditions make us more — not less — social,” Olivia Deroy, a philosopher and neuroscientist at Munich’s Ludwigs-Maximilians Universitaet, said in a press release. “Coping with this contradiction is the biggest challenge we now face.”

The team doesn’t suggest that quarantines should be lifted just so people can reunite — doing so would be unimaginably hazardous from a public health standpoint.

Rather, they want to see more attention given and better access granted to the ways that people can still come together, whether that’s improved accessibility to high-speed internet or specific platforms that people can use to socialize.

“When people are afraid, they seek safety in numbers,” Guillaume Dezecache, a social psychologist at the Université Clermont Auvergne, said in the release. “But in the present situation, this impulse increases the risk of infection for all of us. This is the basic evolutionary conundrum that we describe.”

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In Depth | Comets NASA Solar System Exploration

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OverviewIn the distant past, people were both awed and alarmed by comets, perceiving them as long-haired stars that appeared in the sky unannounced and unpredictably. Chinese astronomers kept extensive records for centuries, including illustrations of characteristic types of comet tails, times of cometary appearances and disappearances, and celestial positions. These historic comet annals have proven to be a valuable resource for later astronomers.

We now know that comets are leftovers from the dawn of our solar system around 4.6 billion years ago, and consist mostly of ice coated with dark organic material. They have been referred to as "dirty snowballs." They may yield important clues about the formation of our solar system. Comets may have brought water and organic compounds, the building blocks of life, to the early Earth and other parts of the solar system.

Where Do Comets Come From?

As theorized by astronomer Gerard Kuiper in 1951, a disc-like belt of icy bodies exists beyond Neptune, where a population of dark comets orbits the Sun in the realm of Pluto. These icy objects, occasionally pushed by gravity into orbits bringing them closer to the Sun, become the so-called short-period comets. Taking less than 200 years to orbit the Sun, in many cases their appearance is predictable because they have passed by before. Less predictable are long-period comets, many of which arrive from a region called the Oort Cloud about 100,000 astronomical units (that is, about 100,000 times the distance between Earth and the Sun) from the Sun. These Oort Cloud comets can take as long as 30 million years to complete one trip around the Sun.

Each comet has a tiny frozen part, called a nucleus, often no larger than a few kilometers across. The nucleus contains icy chunks, frozen gases with bits of embedded dust. A comet warms up as it nears the Sun and develops an atmosphere, or coma. The Sun's heat causes the comet's ices to change to gases so the coma gets larger. The coma may extend hundreds of thousands of kilometers. The pressure of sunlight and high-speed solar particles (solar wind) can blow the coma dust and gas away from the Sun, sometimes forming a long, bright tail. Comets actually have two tailsa dust tail and an ion (gas) tail.

Most comets travel a safe distance from the Suncomet Halley comes no closer than 89 million kilometers (55 million miles). However, some comets, called sungrazers, crash straight into the Sun or get so close that they break up and evaporate.

Exploration of Comets

Scientists have long wanted to study comets in some detail, tantalized by the few 1986 images of comet Halley's nucleus. NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft flew by comet Borrelly in 2001 and photographed its nucleus, which is about 8 kilometers (5 miles) long.

NASA's Stardust mission successfully flew within 236 kilometers (147 miles) of the nucleus of Comet Wild 2 in January 2004, collecting cometary particles and interstellar dust for a sample return to Earth in 2006. The photographs taken during this close flyby of a comet nucleus show jets of dust and a rugged, textured surface. Analysis of the Stardust samples suggests that comets may be more complex than originally thought. Minerals formed near the Sun or other stars were found in the samples, suggesting that materials from the inner regions of the solar system traveled to the outer regions where comets formed.

Another NASA mission, Deep Impact, consisted of a flyby spacecraft and an impactor. In July 2005, the impactor was released into the path of the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 in a planned collision, which vaporized the impactor and ejected massive amounts of fine, powdery material from beneath the comet's surface. En route to impact, the impactor camera imaged the comet in increasing detail. Two cameras and a spectrometer on the flyby spacecraft recorded the dramatic excavation that helped determine the interior composition and structure of the nucleus.

After their successful primary missions, the Deep Impact spacecraft and the Stardust spacecraft were still healthy and were retargeted for additional cometary flybys. Deep Impact's mission, EPOXI (Extrasolar Planet Observation and Deep Impact Extended Investigation), comprised two projects: the Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI), which encountered comet Hartley 2 in November 2010, and the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization (EPOCh) investigation, which searched for Earth-size planets around other stars on route to Hartley 2. NASA returned to comet Tempel 1 in 2011, when the Stardust New Exploration of Tempel 1 (NExT) mission observed changes in the nucleus since Deep Impact's 2005 encounter.

How Comets Get Their Names

Comet naming can be complicated. Comets are generally named for their discoverereither a person or a spacecraft. This International Astronomical Union guideline was developed only in the last century. For example, comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was so named because it was the ninth short-periodic comet discovered by Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy. Since spacecraft are very effective at spotting comets many comets have LINEAR, SOHO or WISE in their names.

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That’s the way the comet crumbles: Hubble image shows remains of Comet ATLAS – Space.com

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Skywatchers had high hopes that a comet called ATLAS would light up the night sky this spring, with forecasts suggesting it could become bright enough to see with the unaided eye.

Instead, the icy object crumbled to pieces but it's still putting on a spectacular show for scientists. Ye Quanzhi, an astronomer at the University of Maryland, snagged some time with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to take a look at Comet ATLAS on Monday (April 20) and caught a stunning image of its fragments that he shared on Twitter as a preview of his research.

"We have been following the break-up of ATLAS since it was first detected in early April, but with ground-based telescopes we couldn't resolve most of the debris field," Ye told Space.com in an email, adding that he was excited to see the new images. "With Hubble, we are finally able to resolve individual mini-comets."

Related: The Hubble Space Telescope and 30 years that transformed our view of the universe

Ye hopes those mini-comets will help scientists understand what caused ATLAS to fall apart. In particular, astronomers rely on the distance between fragments to reconstruct events, since that distance increases as more time passes since a specific fracture.

Previous observations had identified four main fragments from Comet ATLAS. In the Hubble image, Ye said, he believes two of those fragments have broken down even more, yielding the two pairs of bright spots on the right, which represent the four largest fragments at the time.

The two clouds of brightness on the left may represent where older fragments have broken up into smaller pieces. Before beginning the observations, which lasted for one of Hubble's orbits around Earth, Ye had hoped that Hubble would be able to spot more mini-comets in those regions, but it would appear those fragments had already disintegrated too far by the time the observations began.

Comet ATLAS is hardly the first icy space rock to break up within scientists' view, but there are a few special conditions that make these new observations particularly exciting, Ye said. First, ATLAS happened to break up when it was quite close to Earth and quite bright, giving astronomers an especially clear view.

And ATLAS hails from the Oort Cloud, a distant sphere of icy rubble enveloping the solar system as much as 9.3 trillion miles (15 trillion kilometers) away from Earth. That vast distance makes it quite difficult for astronomers to study the Oort Cloud directly, but watching Comet ATLAS's antics will help scientists develop new hypotheses about what's happening out there.

ATLAS is only the second bright Oort cloud comet whose fragments Hubble has been able to observe in its 30 years of work, Ye said.

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

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Comet of the Week: Bradfield C/2004 F4 – RocketSTEM

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Photograph I took of Comet Bradfield on the morning of April 26, 2004.Perihelion: 2004 April 17.09, q= 0.168 AU

One of the most legendary comet discoverers of the 20th Century was the Australian amateur astronomer William Bradfield, who resided near Adelaide, South Australia. By trade a rocket propulsion engineer with the Australian government until his retirement in 1986, Bradfield began a systematic visual comet hunting effort at the beginning of 1971, and scored his first success a little over 14 months later. He would go on to discover a total of 18 comets over the next 3 decades, which is not only a remarkable feat in and of itself, but furthermore all of his discoveries bear his name alone. A couple of his discoveries turned out to be Halley-type comets, and meanwhile, although none of his discoveries could be considered Great Comets, several of them did become bright enough to see with the unaided eye.

Bradfields 18th, and last, comet was also one of his best. He discovered it low in evening twilight on March 23, 2004 as an 8th magnitude comet and successfully re-observed it the following night, however due to poor weather and its low location it eluded detection for the next two weeks before he and other observers successfully relocated it, by which time its brightness had increased to about 4th magnitude but its elongation had dropped to 17 degrees. The discovery was formally announced on April 12, and the very preliminary orbit available then indicated an imminent perihelion passage at a small heliocentric distance, and also indicated it would soon become visible in the LASCO C3 coronagraph aboard the SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft.

Comet Bradfield entered the C3 field of view late on the 15th, and for the next five days put on a spectacular show in the C3 images as it traveled from south to north, and exhibited a tail up to eight degrees long. The comet was passing between Earth and the sun at the time with the minimum distance from Earth being 0.83 AU on the 19th and with phase angles as high as 164 degrees it undoubtedly exhibited a significantly enhanced brightness due to forward scattering of sunlight.

After exiting C3 Comet Bradfield began appearing in the northern hemispheres morning sky around April 22, initially as a 4th-magnitude object deep in twilight. As it climbed higher into the morning sky over subsequent mornings it became rather easily visible to the unaided eye, and exhibited a long filmy tail for which I measured a maximum length of 8 degrees near the end of the month. Meanwhile the comet began to fade fairly rapidly, being near 5th magnitude during the last few days of April and dropping below naked-eye visibility in early May. It remained visually detectable until late May or early June by which time it had become quite vague and diffuse and the final observations were obtained in mid-September, by which time it had faded to magnitude 19 or 20.

On one morning in late April I successfully observed Comet Bradfield and another comet, Comet LINEAR C/2002 T7, simultaneously with my unaided eye the first of only two occasions in my life when I have obtained such an observation. Comet LINEAR was low in the southeastern sky at the time and soon became accessible only from the southern hemisphere (although it came back north after it had faded); curiously, observers in the southern hemisphere were able to observe it simultaneously with another naked-eye comet, Comet NEAT C/2001 Q4. This comet was still relatively bright, at 3rd magnitude, when it became accessible from the northern hemisphere in early May, and remained visible to the unaided eye for another month.

William Bradfield would not discover any additional comets, and he passed away in June 2014 at the age of 86. With all the comprehensive survey programs that are now operational and with even more expected to come on-line within the not-too-distant future, it is quite certain that we will never again encounter someone with his level of success at the art of visual comet hunting.

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Planets, stars, and comets to spot while stargazing – Los Angeles Times

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This might be a good time to look up.

So said writer and physicist Andr Bormanis. He may be biased, because he has been telling true and fictional stories set in space for more than 25 years. Many of us now have more time, and if you can safely step outside, you can spy the skies and navigate the universe.

In your imagination, you can travel to different worlds simply by looking up at night, he said.

Bormanis, who has a masters degree in science, technology and public policy from George Washington University, served as a science consultant for the Star Trek television and film franchise in the 1990s, then went on to write for Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise and other series.

He wrote the narration for Centered in the Universe, the Griffith Observatorys long-running planetarium show, and serves as co-executive producer and writer for the Fox/Hulu series The Orville and consulting producer for National Geographics Cosmos.

We asked Bormanis for a beginners introduction to the sky a handful of celestial highlights you can see without a telescope. He gave us seven. All should be visible to the naked eye on a cloudless night, especially if theres not too much light pollution in your neighborhood. (For his bonus suggestion, No. 7, you might need binoculars.)

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Why Our Minds Can’t Really Be Uploaded to Computers – Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

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In an earlier segment of the podcast, Can We Upload Ourselves to a Computer and Live Forever?, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks and computer scientist Selmer Bringsjord discussed whether we could achieve immortality by uploading our minds to computers.

The basic problem with that idea is that human minds arent computable. Peter and Jane are not bits and bytes. Here, they continue the discussion, addressing the notorious Hard Problem of consciousness. People are conscious and even the most sophisticated foreseeable computers are not. And we are not at all sure what consciousness even is.

A partial transcript of the podcast follows (start at 8:50).

08:50 | Is consciousness a special case of cognition?

Robert J. Marks: In your paper, you claim that consciousness is a special case of cognition. Thats the first time Ive heard that sort of claim. Could you elaborate and unwrap that a little bit?

Selmer Bringsjord (right): Let me just say that I couldnt agree with you more about the delayed scrutiny [claims about uploading our minds to computers are pegged to an indefinite future] and the antidote to that is just taking a bet. But nobody wants to take the bets. So if Id been around when Herb Simon well, were talking the Fifties and he said, in a few years, were going to work it out. Or Marvin Minsky well, its a few summers or maybe even one summer, dont worry, well bring you back this AI.

What I dont get about this is, Well, really, heres five thousand dollars, heres fifty, heres a hundred, heres my entire 403B that says right now, you can take it and my descendants will sort this out. Lets work out the contract. Im willing to make a bet. Lets make a bet But no ones willing to take the bet.

Note: Its possible to get a great deal of attention for promising thinking computers in the indefinite future without making any bets as to performance or even being held accountable for lack thereof.

Herbert Simon (19162001): Machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work that a man can do. (1965).

Marvin Minsky (19272016): Within 10 years computers wont even keep us as pets. (1967)

Robert J. Marks: Its kind of an algorithm of the gaps that someday we are going to have an algorithm that does this sort of thing, yet it has been promised since sixty years ago and nothing has really happened. And nothing has passed, as Ive seen it, the Lovelace test that you proposed about fifteen years ago. So, consciousness isa special case of cognition?

Selmer Bringsjord: Right. I certainly will agree that that is not in any way universally affirmed and some people steer clear of consciousness and try to prevent consciousness from entering the scientific discussion, whether its neuroscience or even sometimes things that are more formal like treatments in decision theorywhether its normatively correct, that is, whether the agents are good at it, whether theyre making bad decisions. No, no, lets come up with an account of decision-making that doesnt take the consciousness associated with desire seriously. So we dont have to worry about what desire really is and the consciousness associated with that, lets keep it separate

If were going to be honest with each other, you cant instantiate these things in agents, at least agents of the human variety, unless that agent has feelings. Unless there is something that it is actually like to be human, unless the human feels pain, unless the human feels pleasure Lets just write down the activities that are part of being a cognitive agent as opposed to just an agent because in AI a textbook can say that an agent just computes a function from the percepts of the environment to actions. So even something that computes the square root is technically an agent in AI. But when we say a cognitive agent, we cant suppress consciousness rising up before our faces and we have to deal with it. But again, some people can try to dodge it.

Note: Approaches to consciousness that are currently under discussion in science principally fall into one of three categories:

It is a material phenomenon: Philosopher Galen Strawson argues that, in order to exist in any scientific sense, consciousness must be wholly physical.

It is an illusion, naturally selected to aid survival: Neuroscientist Michael Graziano espouses this view. The problem is that, as Michael Egnor explains, If consciousness evolved as an aid to reproduction, there is little reason to credit it with any particular effectiveness as a tool for ascertaining truth. Its an aid to coitus, not contemplation.

It exists and pervades nature but we are only aware of human consciousness: Thats the panpsychist view: Scientific American, for example, has given panpsychism considerable respectful space in recent years because the alternative appear to make even less sense.

The idea that consciousness is a real but immaterial phenomenon is not at present considered a scientific idea, irrespective of evidence.

13:16 | Are consciousness and cognition non-algorithmic?

Robert J. Marks (right): So, if we have these things cognition and consciousness, which are attributes of humans, your claim in your paper is that they are non-algorithmic, that is, that you cant write a computer program to simulate them. They are not computable. What is your argument that cognition is not computable?

Selmer Bringsjord: Well, first, to be careful, some of them are not computable. Clearly, playing checkers is a computable process, provably so by definition. If we want a simpler case, applicable even to young children, then Tic Tac Toe. Even a very young child can learn an infallible algorithm for Tic Tac Toe but when they make those decisions theyre doing something thats computable. But Im talking about things that distinguish the human person.

14:48 | Examples of cognition that are not computable

Robert J. Marks: So what would be some examples of cognition that were not computable? Clearly, chess and checkers are computable.

Selmer Bringsjord: Well, at the top of the list is conjectured discovery and confirmation in the formal sciences orto use what is probably good enoughmathematics.

Doing mathematics where you are conjecturing and making discoveries and confirming them is untouchable. I have a booketernally undone but getting quite close nowon Gdels great theorems. If you just look at one little piece of his career, where he proves that the continuum hypothesis (basically that there is no set between the natural numbers and the reals) this is astounding. So when we talk about AI doing all this work, it doesnt really do anything in mathematics.

The great thing about that one is that we can inspect the output produced by humans that are playing in this space. So its not like they just give us vague reports about doing these amazing things. They write their results down. So we can look at the results and we can say, Can a machine generate something like this? and the answer is, flat out, with a ring of iron, no. This would be my number one.

Number two would be creativity As much as he was a maniac, Wagner. I mean, how does one human being create the storyline, the music, the libretto, which is essentially poetry, and produce that out of whole cloth?

Lets just think about love. Whats it like for one person to genuinely love another person and be loved by that person. Now, we cant mathematize that. Weve got no account of what it is. In fact, the leadng formal account of human emotionsthe so-called OCC account, which I like very muchhas come up totally empty on any kind of formal account of love. And yet, we love people and we want to be loved and we know what were talking about so every human being on the face of the planet can just see that there is a major problem here!

Note: Transhumanists do not usually try to explain how they would create immortality by capturing human consciousness in a machine so one can only evaluate the social movement in terms of the issues it would raise if their ideas were remotely possible. Here are a few questions that have been raised:

What does it mean for conventional notions of the person? As Jonathan Bartlett asks, If I kill you, but upload your mind into an android, did I murder you or just modify you?

Bartletts question is especially pertinent because schemes for reproducing you as a computer program may require killing you first..

Would you want immortal life as a computer program? What would be left of life as it matters to us? Heres a test question: Would you give up your right arm for a robotic device that performs better?

Next: Why a computer will not write the Great 21st Century Novel

Earlier: Can human minds be reduced to computer programs? In Silicon Valley that has long been a serious belief. But are we really anywhere close?

Robert J. Marks and Selmer Bringsjord were discussing issues around human vs. computer thinking abilities:

Thinking machines? The Lovelace test raises the stakes. The Turing test has had a free ride in science media for far too long, says an AI expert. (This is the partial transcript and notes to the earlier part of the podcast.)

and

Thinking machines? Has the Lovelace test been passed? Surprising results do not equate to creativity. Is there such a thing as machine creativity? The feats of machines like AlphaGo are due to superior computational power, not to creativity at originating new ideas. Dr. Bringsjord sees the ability to write, say, a novel of ideas as a more realistic test of human vs. computer achievement.

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Why Our Minds Can't Really Be Uploaded to Computers - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

How to edit the caption on a TikTok by reposting it – Business Insider – Business Insider

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TikTok is a great app that lets you create and upload short videos on nearly any topic.

As you're creating a video, you can add music, sound effects, graphics, and many other effects. This is in addition to adding tags and a caption.

Unfortunately though, once you upload a video onto TikTok, you have to put all those editing tools away and be happy with the final product. TikTok doesn't let you edit any part of the video once it's uploaded, including the caption.

As such, before you post anything, you should make sure that you're happy with what you've made.

If you decide you're not, however, or find a typo in the caption, there is a workaround as long as you don't mind losing any immediate likes or comments you may have on your video.

Here's what you need to know, whether you're using TikTok on your iPhone or Android device.

You can't edit a video's caption once it's posted. The solution is to download the video to your phone, delete the video from TikTok, and then reupload it with a new caption.

Here's how to do it.

1. Go to your profile tab on TikTok by tapping the "Me" icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen, and select the video that you want to edit.

Go to your profile tab and open the video. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

2. Towards the bottom right of the video, tap the three dots to open an options menu.

Tap the three dots near the bottom-right. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

3. At the bottom-left of the pop-up menu, tap the download button labeled "Save video." The video will be downloaded onto your phone.

Tap "Save video." Melanie Weir/Business Insider

4. Once you're sure the video has saved, tap the three dots again. This time, scroll all the way to the right on the lower list of options and tap "Delete."

Open the menu again, scroll to the right, and tap Delete. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

5. Once it's deleted, tap the "+" button you would use to add a video, but instead of recording, tap the "Upload" button to the right of the record button.

You can upload videos directly from your camera roll. Melanie Weir/Business Insider

6. Select the video you just saved, then tap "Next" at the bottom-right of the screen.

7. Proceed with the posting process as you normally would, this time adding your new caption.

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How to edit the caption on a TikTok by reposting it - Business Insider - Business Insider

The best broadband deals in April 2020 – The Sun

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WITH fibre optic broadband getting rolled out to more and more of the country, there's fewer excuses for not having decent quality speeds in your home.

But just because you're getting top quality broadband, doesn't mean you have to spend top dollar.

1

If you haven't switched your broadband for a couple of years, it could be worth doing so.

You'll often find your rates climbing the longer you're with a provider, when you could be getting the same package far cheaper elsewhere.

We've taken a look around the web at the best deals available right now.

Although it's worth doing a bit of your own research as well, as the availability of certain packages and prices can change depending on your location.

Vodafone has exclusive offers for existing pay monthly customers making its broadband deals even cheaper.

Sky, BT and Virgin broadband comes cheaper if you buy it as part of a bundle with a TV package.

You can switch your broadband provider at any time, but if you're still in your contract period (when you sign up for a package, you'll often sign on for a year or two) you might well have to pay a substantial fee to end your contract early.

If you're not sure, check your contract to see how much time you have left or if your contract has expired.

If your initial contract has expired, and you've been moved onto a rolling contract, you should be able to switch providers without any fuss.

But if you've still got some time to go before your contract expires, you could look at upgrading your contract with your existing provider to boost your broadband speed.

The speed of broadband you need depends what you're planning on using it for.

If your home has one or two people using the internet to stream TV shows and films, or to upload the odd photo to Facebook or Instagram, you won't need much more than 5-10mbps (megabits per second) to avoid buffering.

If you've got a larger family, all of whom are streaming, online gaming and/or uploading videos to Instagram and Tik Tok, you're going to want something in the range of 10-30mbps.

You'll want to consider superfast broadband (speeds of 30mbps or above) if you're regularly downloading whole films or games to your devices, or you need to upload substantial digital files to the web.

We reckon it's a good idea to get a bit more broadband speed than the bare minimum, though, because if you find yourself stuck in your house for a few months, it's nice to have a decent connection so your Zoom calls and House Party gatherings can continue without a hitch.

Price should definitely be a factor in your choice of broadband provider.

Often, the speed available at your home will be down to the infrastructure of the wiring near you, rather than the provider (find out your available speed using a checker, such as this one).

That means price should be one of your primary concerns, along with good customer service and fast installation times.

We've picked out the best broadband providers if you want a bit of inspiration.

If the speed of your broadband is good, but the Wi-Fi is patchy in your home, it could be worth looking at getting a new router, a signal booster, or mesh system, which uses multiple routers to ensure a steady internet connection wherever you are in your home.

If you're a subscriber to a TV service, such as Sky, BT or Virgin, you could get a discounted broadband subscription as part of your package.

For instance, you can get a basic Sky TV package for 29 per month and a super fast fibre optic broadband package from Sky for 27 a month (56 total) or you can get a TV and fibre bundle for 52 a month, saving you 72 over an 18-month contract.

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Enjoyed our round-up of the best broadband deals? We've also picked out the best broadband providers for your piece of mind.

Looking to boost your signal? We found the best routers on the web.

Or if you're looking to improve your home office set up, we've rounded up the best PC monitors you can buy.

This article and any featured products have been independently chosen by The Sun journalists. All recommendations within the article are informed by expert editorial opinion. If you click a link and buy a product we may earn revenue: this helps to support The Sun, and in no way affects our recommendations.

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The best broadband deals in April 2020 - The Sun

Everything You Need to Know About Your Smartphone’s New COVID-19 Tracker – University of Virginia

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Find the latest information on the Universitys response to the coronavirus here.

Apparently a global pandemic makes strange bedfellows.

That was one of the first things to come to mind following the recent announcement that Google and Apple would work together to enable the use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the coronavirus by tracking the movements and interactions of users.

All of this prompts another question: Will the advent of the new smartphone software put personal privacy at risk?

For the lowdown on how the technological advances on our iPhone and Android devices scheduled to roll out in mid-May will work, UVA Today turned to computer science professor Madhav Marathe, one of the leaders of the University of Virginias Biocomplexity Institute, who replied to questions via email.

Q. What was your reaction when you saw that Apple and Google would be collaborating on this project?

A. I think this is a laudable initiative. Both companies have significant depths in computing and understand the issues related to privacy very well. They also have control at the [operating system] level that allows them to undertake the development of projects that employ the complete software stack, thus making the solution efficient, scalable and useable.

Other groups, including the TCN consortium, CoEpi and NOVID are also working on similar questions.

Q. For those who may not be technologically inclined, can you explain in very simple terms what the companies are doing with this new smartphone software and how it will work?

A. In very simple terms, these companies are developing an app that alerts an individual who comes in close proximity of another individual who later tests COVID-19 positive. This works only when both the individuals have the app. It is done in four simple steps: one, users download the apps; two, then the users come within certain distances of each other, they exchange their encrypted keys (they are generated frequently and cannot be identified with a device directly); three, when an individual with the app falls sick and gives consent, their own keys get uploaded to the cloud; and four, all apps download these keys every so often and see if the keys match one of the keys that they had stored. Keys are generated randomly and frequently.

So tracking a users movement is not easy. It also does not store the interaction explicitly in the cloud. The cloud only has keys of the infected users and that, too, in an encrypted form. So in summary, an individual can know that someone who was in close proximity at some time was infected. It does not reveal who the person was, when the person might have come in physical proximity and where this encounter might have happened. In this sense, it preserves three important elements of privacy: who?, when? and where?

Of course, correlation attacks are still possible, using other cameras or other tracking technology to correlate users with the keys generated. However, those attacks would be difficult to execute, especially on a large scale.

Q. The companies say that privacy, transparency, and consent are of utmost importance in this effort. In your opinion, should the public feel confident in this?

A. Although experts have pointed to a few potential security flaws, I believe they are not as serious. The primary concern is locational information, and the experts point to correlational attacks to identify users at certain locations. But as other articles have pointed out, while this is certainly possible, there are other ways to track a user and that this can only be done for a user that tests COVID-19 positive.

This does not mean that the proposed solution is 100% privacy-preserving. It, however, does mean that it is unlikely that one can do this at a large enough scale due to proximity constraint and the fact that only keys pertaining to people who were proximal for long enough period can potentially be identified in this way. (See this Wired article for additional discussion.)

Q. From purely a technological standpoint, what do you think of this idea?

A. I believe this is a good idea to explore. Making an app completely secure is quite unlikely; I believe this app strives to strike a good balance between public health needs and personal privacy. Furthermore, once the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, one can easily disable the app.

Q. Do you think the software will be helpful in combatting COVID-19? Aside from possible privacy infringements, are there any other dangers?

A. The usefulness of the app will depend on the participation by the public (they need to download the app). This implies that a large section of the society might be completely missed either due to technological challenges or due to concerns related to personal privacy.

Second, individuals who have a confirmed COVID-19 case have to agree to upload their keys to the cloud. They may or may not choose to do this.

Finally, individuals who receive the information, may or may not act on the information.

In spite of these limitations, such an app can potentially be useful; its efficacy can only be tested after it is deployed.

Q. Are there any other ways or better ways Apple and Google could be helping during this crisis? Anything youd like to see them try and do?

A. There are number of other ways Google and Apple can help during crisis. One is providing mobility related data; both companies have already taken important steps in this direction. (See Apples reports and Googles.)

Second, they can provide computing services, which again Google has begun providing; see the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium. Finally, the companies can develop innovative products as they pertain to providing information about health care resources and information accessible from Google Search trends.

Q. Anything else youd like to add?

A. Contact tracing is an important tool in the fight against COVID-19. Apps such as the ones Google and Apple are developing is a step in the right direction.

Importantly, as a society, we need to have a serious debate that is about balancing privacy and public health during a crisis like this. Laws need to be enacted now so that [people in] future pandemics can benefit, rather than waiting for an event such as COVID-19 to happen.

In the end, the success of the apps depends a lot on user participation. Each country has adopted a different balance between privacy and public health. It is time to act now.

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Everything You Need to Know About Your Smartphone's New COVID-19 Tracker - University of Virginia

The University of Utah library wants you! to share coronavirus history being made at your house – Salt Lake Tribune

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Youre a part of history.

That might be hard for people observing stay-at-home orders, taking care of kids and trying to work remotely to comprehend. But its true.

Really, when anybodys going through anything, do they feel like theyre making history? Generally not, said Jeremy Myntti, head of digital library services at the University of Utahs J. Willard Marriott Library. Think about during World War II. People may have been standing in line to get groceries, to make their potato soup for the week. Did they feel like they were making history? No. But now when we look back on that, yes, they were.

So even though we might just be sitting at home right now feeling like we're doing nothing, this is going to be a big part of history.

And the Marriott Librarys Utah COVID-19 Digital Collection wants to document whats happening to people across the state. Utahns are encouraged to share their photos and stories.

It will help to explain what happened during this time, Myntti said. What happened to the economy. What happened in terms of illness and deaths. So even though this doesn't feel like a very historic time it feels mundane and boring we are definitely making history.

People today might want to forget about all of this, but in the future people will want to know.

Submissions become part of a public record that will be open to researchers in the decades, even centuries, to come. They will be raw data for historians to draw on.

The function of a library is to capture, preserve, archive and make accessible. Its a historians job to put that in context, said Digital Initiatives librarian Anna Neatrour. Were really building research materials for future historians.

You dont have to go out of your way to create anything new for the project. Your social media posts words and pictures will be of interest to future generations.

Thats the kind of thing that were wanting to capture the way peoples lives have changed during this time, Neatrour said. Everybody has phones and can take pictures.

Historians dont have much of this kind of material from the 1918-20 Spanish flu pandemic, so we dont know as much about how that affected daily life, Neatrour said. But this is something different that we can do right now.

And those wont necessarily last unless we archive them, Neatrour said.

As of midweek, the library had received about 200 submissions.

It really ranges from more commonly occurring experiences like social distancing at grocery stores, empty shelves in the supermarket because people are panic buying to some really humorous ways that people deal with the pandemic, said Rachel Wittman, digital curation librarian at the Marriott Library. For example, people receiving gifts of toilet paper for their wedding anniversary.

A woman submitted multiple photos of her social distancing with a mannequin, Neatrour said. Its kind of funny, but its also commentary and art, in a way. I think itll be interesting to see what kind of creative expression comes out of this period.

Not all the submissions are lighthearted. One submitter who tested positive for COVID-19 has been quarantined in his basement. Others sent in photos of themselves getting tested at drive-thru facilities.

One submission came from a woman who went to Spain to visit her boyfriend at the end of February and was stuck there when COVID-19 hit that country hard. Its about how they were dealing with that, Myntti said. How they were trying to get back to the States. As of yesterday, she had made it back to Utah but her boyfriend is still stuck in Spain.

But documenting the little things like empty spaces where the toilet paper was supposed to be at the store are also part of the story. And thats already going away, Wittman said.

To date, a large majority of submissions have come from the more urban areas of Utah Salt Lake, Utah and Davis counties.

But we want this collection to be more representative of the whole state, Myntti said. So, hopefully, we can get people in some of the more rural areas to submit some content on how theyre dealing with this.

Were hoping to be able to represent all types of people, all ages of people.

Theyre looking for stories from children as well as adults. Theyve reached out to public school teachers whove assigned their students to tell their stories, but were always looking for more, Neatrour said. And wed like stories of people who are running small businesses. Thats something that we dont really have in the collection yet.

And theyd like to hear more stories from the front lines, Myntti said. What are the doctors and nurses going through?

Utahns in the Salt Lake Valley have a unique pandemic experience. Like tens of millions of Americans, theyve been staying at home and those homes shook during the 5.7 earthquake centered near Magna on March 18, and in multiple aftershocks since then.

We want to be able to document how that has affected the pandemic as well, Myntti said. We havent really had too much content, if any, related to the earthquakes. And that was certainly part of whats been happening here.

Thats made easier by the explosion of technology. Those suffering through the flu pandemic from 1918-20 didnt have cellphones equipped with cameras or social media to share their thoughts.

Theres so much digital information being shared through different social media sites. So many people are taking so many photographs, Myntti said. Whats going to happen to them in five or 10 years? If were not preserving that now, were going to lose all of this history relatively soon.

Utahs COVID-19 Digital Collection is one of many across the nation.

This is part of a national movement to collect historical materials during this time, Neatrour said. There are multiple libraries and museums across the country that are pursuing similar projects. Were reaching out to the community to collect materials while the current state of things is fresh on everyones mind.

To date, Utahs project has received far more photos than stories, which doesnt come as a surprise. The easiest thing for people to do is snap a picture and then upload it, Myntti said. With a story, you kind of have to think more about that think about what you really want to say.

But no one should feel like they have to write the next Great American Novel. People are encouraged to share their social media posts from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram whatever.

Well take whatever we can get, Myntti said. Theres some people that have submitted two sentences. There are a couple of people that have submitted four-page-long documents talking about everything that theyve been going through.

Theres no form to fill out, no pattern to follow. People have asked if they can submit their daily journals yes, of course. And they want to know when daily? Weekly? When the pandemic is over? And the answer is yes.

Were giving people the option, Myntti said. Whenever they feel its appropriate, they can submit their story. ... Every story is important, no matter what youre going through. We want to hear from you and see how this is affecting you.

And your stories just might end up affecting others. Neatrour was struck by photos of a Hello out there sign in the window of someones home.

I think that kind of brings home what its like to be quarantined and kind of reaching out to people, she said.

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The University of Utah library wants you! to share coronavirus history being made at your house - Salt Lake Tribune

Russian freighter arrives at space station with nearly 3 tons of supplies – Space.com

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A Russian cargo spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS), wrapping up a brief orbital chase.

The robotic Progress 75 vehicle docked with the orbiting lab at 1:12 a.m. EDT (0512 GMT) today (April 25), less than 3.5 hours after launching atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The rendezvous occurred when both craft were flying about 260 miles (418 kilometers) over northwest China, NASA officials said.

Related: Russia's Progress spacecraft: ISS supply ship

Progress 75 is packed with nearly 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) of food, propellant and other supplies for the astronauts aboard the orbiting lab, who number just three at the moment: NASA's Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.

But the ISS population will increase by two a month from now, if all goes according to plan. SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule is scheduled to launch on May 27, kicking off Demo-2, a test mission that will send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the orbiting lab.

Demo-2 will be the first crewed orbital spaceflight to launch from the United States since NASA's space shuttle fleet retired in July 2011. If the test flight goes well, SpaceX will be cleared to start flying operational crewed missions to and from the ISS for NASA, which Elon Musk's company will do under a $2.6 billion deal signed with the space agency in 2014.

The Progress will be at the ISS for Demo-2; the Russian cargo craft won't depart the orbiting lab until December, NASA officials said. That departure will spell the end for Progress 75, which will burn up in Earth's atmosphere shortly thereafter.

Three other robotic spacecraft currently fly cargo missions to the ISS. Two of them are disposable like the Progress: Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicle and Cygnus, which is built by Virginia-based company Northrop Grumman. The lone reusable one is SpaceX's cargo Dragon, which ends its missions with parachute-assisted ocean splashdowns. (Both Northrop Grumman and SpaceX hold NASA ISS resupply contracts.)

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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Russian freighter arrives at space station with nearly 3 tons of supplies - Space.com