NASA terrified it could be shut out from the International Space Station next year – Express.co.uk

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The report blames commercial crew delays from Boeing and SpaceX, neither of whom are likely to be certified for regular flights to the ISS by the summer.SpaceX will have a certification review in January while Boeing will have to wait until the following month. The report concludes final vehicle certification for both contractors will likely be delayed at least until summer 2020 based on the number of ISS and CCP [commercial crew programme] certification requirements that remain to be verified and validated.

Space News report launch abort systems and parachutes are the biggest issues for both companies.

Only in April, a parachute test failure by SpaceX contributed to at least a 3-month delay in SpaceXs crewed test flight.

Boeing saw one of their three parachutes fail to open in a test earlier this month.

In the spring, the ISS crew will half from six to three with just one, Chris Cassidy from NASA.

NASA and non-Russian parters will be less able to work on the US On-Orbit Segment (USOS).

The report explains: Any reduction in the number of crew aboard the USOS would limit astronaut tasks primarily to operations and maintenance, leaving little time for scientific research.

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has made a formal request for seats on a Roscosmos spacecraft.

The Russian agency is yet to respond.

READ MORE:'God of Chaos Apophis asteroid may set world back to prehistoric times

The station has two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment operated by Russia and USOS.

The station is expected to operate until at least 2030.

236 people have been on board from 18 countries.

Major Tim Peake is the only Briton to have done so.

Currently on board are Italian commander Luca Parmiitano, Russian flight engineers Aleksandr Skvortsov and Oleg Skripockhka as well as American flight engineers Andrew Morgan, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir.

All the Americans on board are on their first spaceflight.

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NASA terrified it could be shut out from the International Space Station next year - Express.co.uk

Watch live: Spacewalks to fix important Space Station instrument – Astronomy Magazine

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The mission

AMS-02 came to the ISS in 2011 on the space shuttle Endeavour. After it was attached to the outside of the ISS, operators planned was to run the experiment for only three years. But eight years later, the instrument is still operational but is in dire need of repairs.

AMS-02 is designed to search for antimatter and dark matter, allowing physicists to learn more about these mysterious substances. Since its installation, the instrument has challenged current thinking about physics as scientists analyze the cosmic particles it processes.

The instruments cooling pumps, which are essential for AMS-02 to continue running, have been failing for a few years now. When the pumps started to malfunction, engineers at NASA knew they needed to come up with a plan to fix them.

After four years, the repair plan is finally ready.

Were all very excited to stop talking about it and start executing, said Kenny Todd, the manager of International Space Station Operations Integration, at the press briefing on November 12.

Currently, the team is planning on four spacewalks to repair the pumps and upgrade AMS-02, but because of the complex nature of the tast, the last two have not been scheduled yet and a fifth excursion could be added.

During the first walk on Friday, Parmitano and Drew will be doing prep work for the upcoming excusrions, including adding handles on the outside of the ISS for stability when performing the walks and removing the debris shield thats currently protecting the instrument.

The next walk will be on November 22, but the real work on repairing AMS-02 wont begin until the third or fourth spacewalk.

One of the biggest challenges of repairing AMS-02 is that it wasnt designed to be repaired. Because of the expected three-year life span of the instrument, the initial design wasnt created with consideration for fitting spacesuit gloves into the instrument. Other devices, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, have been designed with the intention of astronauts fixing it from inside space suits.

To overcome a lot of these challenges, teams of engineers have been working to create tools and ways for the astronauts to work around the sharp corners of the instrument. They reached out to college programs as well, encouraging student engineers to design a tool that will help the astronauts cut zip ties inside AMS-02 and retrieve them safely in zero gravity.

Both Parmitano and Drew have been performing test repairs with the tools and NASA officials stated in the press briefing that they feel confident in the astronauts abilities to complete the task at hand.

The schedule for the spacewalks also brings challenges. Boeing will be performing orbital tests of their uncrewed capsule, Starliner, at the beginning of December. This could hit pause on the spacewalks as the crew turns their attention to the Starliner tests. Plus, on December 7, a SpaceX Cargo Dragon will be making a resupply run to the ISS, taking even more time away from the walks.

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Watch live: Spacewalks to fix important Space Station instrument - Astronomy Magazine

Astronauts experienced reverse blood flow and blood clots on the space station, study says – CNN

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Six of the astronauts experienced stagnant or reverse blood flow, one had a blood clot and another was found to have a potential partial blood clot.

This is the first time researchers have observed these conditions in astronauts and the implications of their discovery could impact future long-term spaceflight, such as a mission to Mars.

After more than 50 years of human spaceflight, researchers know some of the risks posed to the human body by being in zero gravity. Space motion sickness happens in the first 48 hours, creating a loss of appetite, dizziness and vomiting.

Over time, astronauts staying for six months on the station can experience the weakening and loss of bone and atrophying muscles. Astronauts also experience blood volume loss, weakened immune systems and cardiovascular deconditioning, since floating takes little effort and the heart doesn't have to work as hard to pump blood. Scott Kelly and other astronauts in their late 40s and 50s have also complained about their vision being slightly altered. Some of them have required glasses in flight.

And the Twins Study, comparing changes in astronaut Scott Kelly during his yearlong spaceflight mission while his twin, Mark, was on Earth revealed numerous other changes affecting gene expression and the microbiome.

The weightless environment of zero gravity causes a fluid shift in the body toward the head, the opposite of what we experience standing on Earth. On Earth, humans spend about two-thirds of the day in an upright position and about a third laying down at night. This causes a daily fluid shift that varies based on our position.

But for astronauts, the fluid shift is sustained for long periods of time. It causes puffiness in the face, "bird leg" syndrome where the legs lose volume, and decreases plasma volume while increasing stroke volume -- the volume of blood pumped per beat.

"A recently identified medical issue with long duration spaceflight on the International Space Station is a constellation of neuro-ocular issues that we've coined SANS -- Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome," said Michael Stenger, study author and director of NASA's Johnson Space Center Cardiovascular and Vision Laboratory.

"Approximately 10 years ago, we noticed that astronauts were developing optic disc edema, globe flattening, choroidal folds and permanent refractive error changes. The purpose of our experiment was to quantify the headward fluid shift in all astronauts by examining arterial and venous structure and flow characteristics in the head and neck (as well as several other parameters) and determining the relationship between these parameters and ocular structural and functional changes."

The researchers wanted to assess how this fluid shift affected the left jugular vein. This vein carries deoxygenated blood from the head and neck to the vena cava, the largest vein in the upper body.

The researchers disclosed that one limitation of the study is that they did not image the right jugular vein, but it has been analyzed in previous spaceflight studies and there was no sign of stagnation or clotting.

The astronauts provided blood flow measurements before and after spaceflight while seated, laying down and angled at a 15-degree downward head-tilt. Measurements during the flight were taken on days 50 and 150 of the mission.

The astronaut who developed a blood clot was treated with anticoagulants for the rest of the spaceflight and did not participate in the study past day 50.

The observation that blood was clotting in otherwise healthy astronauts, both male and female, due to weightlessness was a surprise to researchers, who are concerned due to the other issues blood clots can cause.

"Blood clots that are newly formed and small are easily filtered out of the circulation in the lungs," Stenger said. "If one were to grow excessively large and solidify, then one would be at risk of a pulmonary embolism. This formation of clots is the primary concern related to flow stasis."

The idea of reverse blood flow requires more scrutiny.

"Reverse flow is really interesting, and we're uncertain if it harmful," Stenger said. "Reverse flow in the jugular vein could be completely harmless as the blood is simply leaving the head via one of the other venous pathways. However, reverse flow implies altered venous pressure dynamics, which could impact the ability of the brain to drain cerebral spinal fluid and possibly increase pressure in the brain. This is something we're continuing to investigate."

A possible way to reverse the head-ward fluid shift is to apply lower body negative pressure.

The Russian side of the space station includes a Chibis suit that was used to test this method. The suit basically acts as vacuum-sealed pants, according to the study authors.

"It encompasses the lower limbs in a hard enclosure that is sealed at the waist and connected to a vacuum pump to decrease the pressure in the chamber around the lower limbs to subatmospheric pressure," the authors wrote. "Lower body negative pressure sequesters fluid volume, mainly venous blood, in the lower extremities and is used by cosmonauts on the ISS as a countermeasure for postflight orthostatic intolerance."

Other possible ways to shift fluid from the upper body could include thigh cuffs, resistance breathing devices and acceleration via cetrifugation, Stenger said.

Stenger pointed out that research should be fast-tracked to better understand the issue, as well as considering the limits on medical and research capabilities on vehicles used in future exploration missions.

"As potentially scary as this may sound, this novel and interesting finding isn't terribly concerning," Stenger said. "The reality is that this has probably been happening since we started flying in space, we just never looked before. This gives us the opportunity to now conduct further research to determine what is causing this before speculating too much on potential consequences.'

Of the 17 sessions with the Chibis suit during flight, 10 were associated with improved blood flow, two actually showed worsened flow and five did not cause any changes, according to the study. During sessions when blood flow improved, three astronauts actually went from stagnant or reverse blood flow to regular.

"This study underscores the need to monitor vascular changes in astronauts," said Christopher Mason, one of the Twins Study authors and an associate professor of physiology and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine. Mason was not affiliated with this study. "Stagnant and retrograde blood flow can lead to complications, such as thrombosis [blood clotting], but fortunately can be tracked and treated. Also, just like taking a long flight, the risk of this would almost certainly resolve upon landing back on Earth."

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Astronauts experienced reverse blood flow and blood clots on the space station, study says - CNN

Nanoracks just booked a SpaceX launch to demo tech that turns used spacecraft into orbital habitats – TechCrunch

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SpaceX is going to launch a payload for client Nanoracks aboard one of its new rideshare missions, currently targeting late 2020, that will demonstrate a very ambitious piece of tech from the commercial space station company. Nanoracks is sending up a payload platform that will show off how it can use a robot to cut material very similar to the upper stages used in orbital spacecraft something Nanoracks wants to eventually due to help convert these spent and discarded stages (sometimes called space tugs because they generally move payloads from one area of orbit to another) into orbital research stations, habitats and more.

The demonstration mission is part of Nanoracks Space Outpost Program, which aims to address the future need for in-space orbital commercial platforms by also simultaneously making use of existing vehicles and materials designed specifically for space. Through use of the upper stages of spacecraft left behind in orbit, the company hopes to show how it one day might be able to greatly reduce the costs of setting up in-space stations and habitats, broadening the potential access of these kinds of facilities for commercial space companies.

This will be the first-ever demonstration of structural metal cutting in space, provided the demo goes as planned, and it could be a key technology not just for establishing more permanent research families in Earths orbit, but also for setting up infrastructure to help us get to, and stay at, other interstellar destinations like the Moon and Mars.

Nanoracks has a track record of delivering when it comes to space station technology: Its the first company to own and operate its own hardware on the International Space Station, and it has accomplished a lot since its founding in 2009. This demo mission is also funded via a contract in place with NASA.

Also going up on the same mission is a payload of eight Spire LEMUR-2 CubeSats, which Nanoracks ordered on behalf of the global satellite operator. That late 2020 date is subject to change, as are most of the long-tail SpaceX missions, but whenever it takes place, itll be a key moment in commercial space history to watch.

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Nanoracks just booked a SpaceX launch to demo tech that turns used spacecraft into orbital habitats - TechCrunch

Life on the Space Station is about to get really weird and lonely – Wired.co.uk

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Right now, there are six astronauts aboard the International Space Station, floating 408km above our heads. But soon things could be about to get a lot lonelier up there. Delays in building new spacecraft to get astronauts into space mean that the next trio of astronauts set to join the ISS in April 2020 are facing the possibility of being the space stations lone occupants for six months.

It'll be the first time the ISS has had only three semi-permanent occupants since 2009, when it was expanded so it could comfortably fit six occupants at any one time. But for the last 10 years a crew of six has kept up with the ISS endless list of maintenance tasks and research projects. What will happen when this floating workforce is cut in half?

The next three astronauts to be sent up American Chris Cassidy, and Russians Nikolai Tikhonov and Andrei Babkin will travel in a Soyuz capsule. Since the retirement of the US Space Shuttle in 2011, all journeys to the ISS have taken place in these Russian-made spacecraft, which bring three people at a time. One Soyuz capsule is attached to the ISS, like a lifeboat, at all times, and the crew members who have been there the longest will take this capsule home. Three new astronauts arrive a couple of weeks later so apart from the short periods while crews are changed over, there are usually six astronauts and cosmonauts on the ISS at any one time.

This system has worked worked for nearly a decade, but for 2020, Nasa decided that instead of buying seats on Soyuz, it would rely on contracts with commercial companies SpaceX and Boeing for extra crew launches. But development of the commercial capsules has been delayed, with Boeing having trouble with their parachutes and SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule exploding during tests.

In 2010 when Nasa prepared to shut down their Space Shuttle program, they gave commercial companies a combined $50m (38m) to design their own transport spacecraft. Its uncertain exactly when the commercial capsules will be ready as they need to pass rigorous safety tests first, so rather than paying for an extra Soyuz, Nasa has decided to prepare the next group of astronauts for what might happen if theyre left alone.

Over the years, ISS expedition experiments have made discoveries which will be vital if humanity wants to explore space further. Previous missions have revealed the effect of microgravity on the human body and the source of cosmic rays. But if the crew need to do general maintenance on the station, with fewer people on board there will be less time for other activities.

A large amount of experiments can be done with commanding from the ground so we're trying to to give preference to those, says Ruediger Seine, space training team leader at ESA's European Astronaut Centre. Space agencies managing experiments will have to pick which of their projects theyd like the astronauts to devote their limited time towards, and press pause on experiments that require more human intervention.

But some experiments might fare between without humans getting in the way. Some experiments actually might benefit from less people because of vibration, says Laura Forzcyk, founder of the consulting firm Astralytical who used to work for the ISS US National Laboratory. Even with three there are still a lot of vibrations. Some experiments just want to be left alone.

The limited crew will also mean more sharing of resources. The ISS itself is split into two sides Russian and American. The Russians usually operate on their side, while astronauts from the United States, Europe, Japan, and Canada operate on the other. However with such a small number of people on board, they need to work more cohesively. With only one American, the two Russians have been trained on how to use the US equipment. For example, each side has its own space suit both with different ways of operating but the astronauts and cosmonauts need to be trained in how to use both. Its a case of being prepared for all situations.

It's not easy to get from the Russian airlock to the American segment of the International Space Station. The additional training for the remaining crew members is to make sure that we're covering all contingencies, says Seine.

And while the experiments may appreciate being alone, the people may not. Experiments only take up part of astronaut's time on board the ISS. Like a typical working week on Earth, they have time off, in the evenings and on the weekends. Chris Cassidy, Nikolai Tikhonov and Andrei Babkin may not see another person from spring 2020, to when their mission finishes at the end of the year.

And 2020 could be the last point the ISS gets this quiet for a while. In 2019, Nasa announced that it would let tourists fly to the ISS from 2020 if they were willing to pay the 27,500 for the privilege. This isnt the first time this has happened seven people who arent employed by a space agency have gone to the ISS before. And it wont mean they are dead weight; anyone who gets sent up, professional or not, will be given tasks and help out in any way they can.

But until then, the trio of astronauts will have to endure the mental stress that comes with isolation. Research has found that along with psychological effects caused by adjusting to the novel situation of being in space, astronauts also often struggle with anxiety and depression. ISS astronauts, despite being kept busy with experiments, will still have opportunities to socialise they try to have at least one shared meal a day, and receive plenty of contact from their friends and family.

Michael Lopez-Alegria, who has flown the longest US space station mission to date, went up to the International Space Station in 2006 when the crew was still small. He was there with only two other people at a time, but managed to not feel too lonely during the mission.

I like the small size crew, because we tend to bond more as a unit, he says. Sometimes there can be a divide by culture when there are more people. We had one Russian, me and then the third person was either a German or an American, and so we tended to be more cohesive and spend more time together.

Lopez-Alegria found that looking out at Earth helped him feel closer to home, and in 2010, an observatory module was added to the ISS to create an even bigger window to help with astronauts mental health. I wish I were going back myself, he says.

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Life on the Space Station is about to get really weird and lonely - Wired.co.uk

‘Get back to the moon and forget the orbiting space station’ – Politico

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He makes no secret of his current views that the space agency is on the wrong track by continuing to put so much of its scarce resources into the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule after so many years of delays and when new and cheaper commercial alternatives are so promising.

People have fallen in love with them but they got old and expensive, and I think they're more worried about keeping some of the aerospace companies in fit shape than the American taxpayer, he complains.

Gibson supports returning astronauts to the moon, but he's also among the vocal group of space insiders who contend that building a lunar Space Station first will just slow things down.

Nor is he convinced that extending NASAs primary role in running the International Space Station makes sense, given all the other competing goals.

Gibson sat down with POLITICO last weekend on the sidelines of Space Vision 2019, hosted by Students for the Exploration and Development of Space at Arizona State University.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

You were among the first astronauts who were scientists and not military pilots.

The test pilots thought they were going to rule the world forever. Congress said, 'Youve got to get some science in the program, and the way to do that is get some who have science backgrounds to go flying in space.'

So, begrudgingly NASA did that, and I think the test pilots in the program said, 'All right, bring them in here. They'll quit, flunk out, or kill themselves. And we won't have to deal with them again.' But when we came in there, they found out we could walk and chew gum at the same time.

Once we got working with each other, we gained respect for each other and it started to come together.

Do you think returning to the moon should be NASAs main exploration goal?

I know we are very limited in our budget, and I want to see things happen quickly. I think the best place is a facility right there on the moon itself.

So, go directly to the surface and not build the lunar Gateway? I just don't see the advantage of it. I listened, and I've studied, and I've tried to see the advantage of that Space Station. But to me it never registers as superior, or even better than doing it the simple way.

Get back to the moon and forget the orbiting Space Station. If that is needed in the future, show that it really is needed.

You've got the ability to produce oxidizer and fuel from the resources on the moon. So, why don't we go there, create those things at some point on the surface either the North or South Pole?

The South Pole, I think, is a little bit better. And if you want to go up to the pole and study the ice and other resources from there, it's a small hop ... to get to any other spot in that hemisphere. And that can be happen very easily.

You've spent a lot of time in space. Are we prepared for the physical rigors of such long duration missions to deep space?

I think there's a real issue. You don't want to living in lunar orbit or Mars orbit for a long period of time. That's why I think it's great to just go to the surface to shield yourself [from the radiation].

Then, if you want to go somewhere, you go out and, obviously, you've got to suffer whatever radiation there is, and youve got to have your spacecraft or your spacesuit to give you some added protection.

You have also expressed concerns about the cost and capability of the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft.

SpaceX could be a lot cheaper than what we're going to do with the SLS and maybe even the Orion, as nice as those programs are.

People have fallen in love with them, but they got old and expensive. ... I think they're more worried about keeping some of the aerospace companies in fit shape than the American taxpayer.

Do you think NASA should extend operations on the ISS beyond 2024?

The question is, What are we getting for it, versus other things that we can do with that money? We can cut back a little bit, let the other nations pick up even more.

I have to ask what we're getting back from it and what else we want to do in space? I think as we get to where we're wanting to go back to the moon and onto Mars the Space Station is probably going to lose some of its support.

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'Get back to the moon and forget the orbiting space station' - Politico

China’s Own Space Station to Start Operation in Two years’ Time – Asgardia Space News

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China that last sent people to space back in 2016 hasn't been idle. Its manned space program's main designer Zhou Jianpingsaidthis weekend that by 2022 China will have a 100-tonne space station suitable for 3 astronauts to work and live, up and running. The station, he added, will be technically adjustable for further expansion

The space station designed to become the nation's chief space research platform will be well-suited for long scientific missions, ensuring protection of health, and personal safety, of the people aboard, while a space laboratory will provide them with the latest technological developments for successful work.

'The main goal of the construction of the space station is to enable Chinato become a country independently mastering the technology for long-term manned flight in near-Earth space,' Zhou explained as he talked of the project at the 4th China Summit Forum on Human Factors Engineering at theSun Yat-sen Universityin the Guangdong Province in the South of China on November 16 and 17.

The station will present excellent opportunities for long-duration near-Earth scientific work, along with the utilization of space resources, he added.

China has already extended an invitation to international colleagues to work at its space station together with Chinese astronauts, explicitly mentioning that its space station's initial capacity will eventually be enlarged.

Back in 2016, Zhou said that the expected operational lifespan of China's space station will be about ten years, which is short compared with Mir's fifteen years and the currently functioningISS launched in 1998, which, if, as planned, serves until 2024, will have been active for 26 years at the time.

2016 was the year that last saw Chinese astronauts in space, working aboard the Tiangong-2 orbital lab for 33 days. Its predecessor Tiangong-1 prototype station might have had bad luck, but all of the work done has constituted preparatory steps for putting the Chinese Space Station in orbit, to provide Chinese astronauts and scientists, as well as their international colleagues, with new space research opportunities.

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China's Own Space Station to Start Operation in Two years' Time - Asgardia Space News

The story behind the first batch of cookies in space and the first zero-gravity oven – CNN

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Typically, this is good advice, but for the astronauts aboard the International Space Station, tasked with baking the first batch of cookies in space, it may be tough to follow. And understandably so. For the last year and a half, husband and wife duo Ian and Jordana Fichtenbaum, founders of Zero G Kitchen, have been developing the first zero-gravity oven that could revolutionize space food and bring a taste of home to astronauts who dearly miss it. Last week, the oven arrived at the space station. No date has yet been announced for it to be tested.

The Fichtenbaums' mission is both simple and highly technical: "We want to build a kitchen in space, one piece at a time, and partner with companies, educators and researchers all along the way," said Ian Fichtenbaum.

Designing an oven capable of baking space cookies is no easy feat. Everyday tasks are more difficult in space, which lacks the force of gravity to keep objects from floating around -- and baking presents its own unique challenges. Traditional convection ovens function by utilizing gravitational properties; "the hot air rises, the cool air falls," explained Abby Dickes, Nanoracks' marketing director.

Then there's the challenge of keeping food secure and stationary while it bakes. To complicate things further, the oven must run on a limited power supply, so as not to blow a fuse on the space station.

But the zero-gravity oven was designed to circumvent these issues. It's composed of a sleek, cylindrical chamber that houses an insertable silicone frame, which surrounds the food to hold it in place. Cylindrical heating coils focus the heat on the food in the center of the chamber and rise to temperature much more slowly than traditional ovens, to accommodate the power constraints.

"The oven went through a few different iterations, but the final creation ended up being very chic, very beautiful, and now it's up on the space station ready to bake some DoubleTree cookies -- and hopefully after that, all kinds of other creations," says Ian Fichtenbaum.

What might those other creations be? "Right now it's best to stick with things that are patty-size and shape -- a roll, a meatball," said Jordana Fichtenbaum.

What about more composed dishes? A tiny casserole, perhaps? "Yeah, maybe a mini casserole," says Ian Fichtenbaum.

But first, cookies. The irony, of course, is that the cookies are not technically meant to be eaten. They are, after all, the product of a science experiment and, what's more, one that's never been conducted before.

"The top priority for everyone who works on the space station is the safety of the crew on board," said Dickes. Some cookies will be reserved for analysis. For the rest, taste-testing will be at the baker's discretion.

For astronauts who choose to eat the cookies, the real question will be whether they taste just as good as those you get at any DoubleTree here on Earth. While the proof will be in the pudding, Dickes has high hopes.

"You have to start with great ingredients, which we know we're doing because we've eaten far too many of these cookies," she said. "I think they're going to look different -- like more of a spherical blob shape, which honestly just sounds gooey and delicious."

But just in case the first batch doesn't turn out to be edible, a tin of pre-baked DoubleTree cookies was sent up to the space station along with the oven.

The shape of the cookie may lend itself perfectly for this experiment, but that's not the only reason it was chosen for the zero-gravity oven's maiden voyage.

"It's a symbol of hospitality and we're trying to make space travel more hospitable for the future," said Dickes. "A cookie represents the perfect symbol of everything we're trying to do in this mission."

Oh yeah, and it's delicious.

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The story behind the first batch of cookies in space and the first zero-gravity oven - CNN

Chocolate chip cookies are about to be baked in outer space, the first test of an oven in microgravity – Business Insider

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Astronauts have never had a home-cooked meal in space aboard the International Space Station.

Instead, their sustenance is prepared in briefcase-like "food warmers" strapped on to the walls.

"It all kinda starts tasting the same after a while," NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson previously told Business Insider.

But any day now, the smell of a freshly-baked chocolate chip cookie will tantalizingly waft through the cramped quarters of the ISS, right under six astronauts' noses.

A first-of-its-kind space oven, and enough dough for five chocolate chip cookies, has been dispatched to the station to test what happens when food is cooked in the microgravity environment. The inaugural ISS cooking attempt is a three-way partnership between space-outfitter NanoRacks, cookie-maker DoubleTree by Hilton, and ZeroGKitchen, a New York City-based husband-and-wife startup that's paying to develop the space oven.

Retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson says she misses floating the most. NASA via AP

The astronauts won't get to eat any of the fresh-baked cookies, however.

"They definitely won't be doing that," NanoRacks Senior Internal Payload manager Mary Murphy, the project manager for the new oven, told Insider. "We will have them taking pictures and recording the results as they remove it from the oven."

After that data's been recorded, three of the five cookies will get sent back to Earth, while the other two will get tossed in the trash. (Wouldn't want the space travelers to accidentally eat any raw dough.)

"We did send the crew some pre-baked cookies that they could eat instead," Murphy said.

Astronauts have been fed cookies in space before, but never the freshly-baked kind.

As early as 1964 on the Gemini missions, NASA's space travelers were given sugar cookie cubes designed to be eaten in a single bite. (The cookies had to be coated in goo, to prevent wayward crumbs from clogging up the spacecraft's instrumentation.)

In the microgravity environment aboard the ISS, there's still a lot of mystery surrounding what might happen when astronauts attempt to bake cookies fresh. The first batch of space cookies are set to heat up in-near Earthly conditions, at a temperature of 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 18 minutes.

The cookie recipe is the exact same one that DoubleTree by Hilton hotels uses for its guests on Earth. But the oven setup, and the environment around it, will be completely different from what happens when we bake cookies with the benefit of Earthly gravity.

"On the ground you have the differential between cold and hot air, where the hot air actually rises while the cool air sinks," Murphy said, explaining that type of baking convection is completely absent in space. "The space inside the oven is heated through contact, instead of through that convection current."

The cookies will be baked one by one, in the middle of a cylindrical, shoebox-sized oven, heated by a circle of electric elements that wraps around the bake zone.

DoubleTree by Hilton / YouTube

The goal is to learn enough from these experiments that one day, a bigger oven, capable of actually feeding a crew headed into the far reaches of the solar system, could be dispatched.

"When we look at those longer duration space flights going farther and farther from Earth, we're not going to have the luxury of being able to provide all of the food that a particular crew is going to need for a mission," Murphy said.

The five test cookies will be baked on a silicone baking tray, which sandwiches each cookie in between two sheets so it doesn't float off while it's cooking.

Cookie dough will be baked in between 2 layers of silicon in space, a full-coverage baking sheet. . zerogkitchen / Instagram

"In microgravity, the cookie dough itself will want to hold itself together and it will pull itself to itself," Murphy said. "There are some theories that we might see a kind of a funky shape, and it might kind of a ball up a little bit."

The couple contracting with NanoRacks and DoubleTree to get the cookies in space know a thing or two about living with a less-than-ideal oven.

"We have a New York City rental apartment oven," ZeroGKitchen co-founder Jordana Fichtenbaum said. It isn't even big enough for some larger cookie sheets.

Fichtenbaum and her husband Ian financed and helped develop the space oven, and partnered with DoubleTree for the space dough, a collaboration that all started with a tweet about Elon Musk's Starman possibly needing an interstellar snack.

The space oven, they said, does cost a little more than their apartment's Avanti.

"We do know that amount, but that's not an amount we're going to publicize," Ian said.

They started working on the oven right around the time they got married, about two years ago, and they say now that the appliance is in orbit, there may be other space station kitchen items in store from ZeroGKitchen.

DoubleTree by Hilton / YouTube

"A blender, a freezer, a waffle maker," Ian said.

No matter what happens with the future food situation in space, there's a chance that the space cookies could make for better cookie-baking here on Earth.

"As we try to be creative and solve these problems in terms of how do we do things in these unique environments, we tend to learn a lot of things that then become applicable to people on the ground here as well," Murphy said. "It's certainly possible that we'll learn something from this that could then cause better efficiency, for instance, in ovens here on the ground."

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Chocolate chip cookies are about to be baked in outer space, the first test of an oven in microgravity - Business Insider

Science around the planet uses images of Earth from the Space Station – Space Daily

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Artificial lighting at night affects the behavior of urban wildlife, according to a recent study published in Nature Scientific Reports, which examined animals in the laboratory and the field. The researchers mapped light levels in the city of Chicago using publicly available images of Earth taken by astronauts from the International Space Station.

The study is only one example of the wide variety of scientific research based on images taken by crew members from space using the Crew Earth Observations (CEO) facility. Other recent research used these images to show that urban green areas, which contribute to human well-being, are rarely in close proximity to where people live. Another study relied on CEO images to create population maps, an important tool for urban planning, resource allocation and disaster prevention and response.

"Astronaut photography from the space station provides regional and global perspectives of land surfaces and what is changing on those land surfaces," said William Stefanov, manager of NASA's Exploration Science Office at Johnson Space Center and principal investigator for CEO. "The images allow a look at a much broader area, and those regional processes and relationships often become much more obvious when seen from that perspective. It allows you to see the whole picture beyond the fine view you have on the ground."

Most orbiting satellites collect data at the same place and about the same time of day for set intervals of time. The space station's inclined equatorial orbit takes its cameras over different parts of the planet at different times, and the station revisits sites at variable intervals, making it possible to collect images from many areas at varying times of day and night.

"That opens up possibilities to investigate a lot of processes," said Stefanov. "Researchers can compare areas to each other and see changes on a broader scale that you might not notice on a smaller spatial scale and fixed time interval. Things such as how urban lighting patterns change over time, or tracking the recovery of power following a major storm, as represented by lighting."

CEO images currently support a number of urban night lighting studies, glacier and volcano monitoring, and studies of atmospheric processes such as the frequency of lightning flashes. The images also are used in ecological studies, including a collaborative project called Aviation Migration Aerial Surface Space (AMASS), which tracks bird migration routes and the effects of changes occurring along those routes.

Astronaut photography also supports NASA Disaster Response, a program that works with a number of NASA centers to collect data before, during and following a disaster. "The CEO facility is still the workhorse for data collection on the space station for responding to disasters," Stefanov said. "Images can show the structure of hurricanes and tropical storms before landfall, and post-storm images of affected areas reveal the extent of flooding and damage." For wildfires, the images can identify smoke plume location and extent.

In addition, NASA delivers imagery to the US Geological Survey's Hazards Data Distribution System, which provides access to remotely sensed imagery and other data as they become available during a disaster response. Internally, images support NASA astronaut candidate training.

Apart from supporting scientific research, images from the space station often show up in movies, YouTube productions, and advertising, and contribute to educational uses, including school science projects.

One advantage of the photographs, taken with handheld digital cameras, is their similarity to those people might take out an airplane window, Stefanov points out. "You can look at an image and pretty much grasp what you are seeing without an explanation, as opposed to, say, a false-color hyperspectral image. You don't need to be a remote sensing expert to understand the data. That's very powerful, particularly on the education side."

CEO imagery is free to the public. Users can access the database at any time at Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. A query page offers several ways to investigate existing data, and researchers and educators can request new imagery as well.

NASA's Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit (ESRS) at Johnson Space Center works to enhance the scientific usefulness of astronaut photography from the space station, adding geo-referencing to disaster response images to help users incorporate data into response activities, for example. NASA is also developing machine-learning applications to classify features in the images automatically.

The agency has collected photographs of Earth from space since the early Mercury missions beginning in 1961, Stefanov adds. "This is a pretty incredible data set."

Related LinksGateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application

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Science around the planet uses images of Earth from the Space Station - Space Daily

Luna is a new kind of space company helping biotech find its footing in microgravity – TechCrunch

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Toronto-based startup Luna Design and Innovation is a prime example of the kind of space company that is increasingly starting up to take advantage of the changing economics of the larger industry. Founded by Andrea Yip, who is also Lunas CEO, the bootstrapped venture is looking to blaze a trail for biotechnology companies who stand to gain a lot from the new opportunities in commercial space even if they dont know it yet.

Ive spent my entire career in the public and private health industry, doing a lot of product and service design and innovation, Yip told me in an interview. I was working in pharma[ceuticals] for several years, but at the end of 2017, I decided to leave the pharma world and I really wanted to find a way to work along the intersection of pharma, space and design, because I just believe that the future of health for humanity is in space.

Yip founded Luna at the beginning of this year to help turn that belief into action, with a focus on highlighting the opportunities available to the biotechnology sector in making use of the research environment unique to space.

We see space as a research platform, and we believe that its a research platform that can be leveraged in order to solve healthcare problems here on Earth, Yip explained. So for me, it was critically important to open up space to the biotech sector, and to the pharma sector, in order to use it as a research platform for R&D and novel discovery.

The International Space Station has hosted a number of pharma and biotech experiments.

NASAs work in space has led to a number of medical advances, inducing digital imaging tech used in breast biopsy, transmitters used for monitoring fetus development within the womb, LEDs used in brain cancer surgery and more. Work done on researching and developing pharmaceuticals in space is also something that companies including Merck, Proctor & Gamble and other industry heavyweights have been dabbling in for years, with experiments conducted on the International Space Station. Companies like SpaceFarma have now sent entire minilaboratories to the ISS to conduct research on behalf of clients. But its still a business with plenty of remaining under-utilized opportunity, according to Yip and tons of potential.

I think its a highly underutilized research platform, unfortunately, right now, she said. When it comes to certain physical and life sciences phenomena, we know that things behave differently in space, in what we refer to as microgravity-based environments [] We know that cancer cells, for instance, behave differently in short- and longer-term microgravity when it comes to the way that they metastasize. So being able to even acknowledge that type of insight, and try and understand why can unlock a lot of new discovery and understanding about the way cancer actually functions [] and that can actually help us better design drugs, and treatment opportunities here on Earth, just based on those insights.

Blue Origins New Shepard rocket. Credit: Blue Origin .

Yip says that while there has been some activity already in biotech and microgravity, were on the early end of this innovation, and goes on to suggest that over the course of the next ten or so years, the companies that will be disrupting the existing class of legacy big pharma players will be ones whove invested early and deeply in space-based research and development.

The role of Luna is to help biotech companies figure out how best to approach building out an investment in space-based research. To that end, one of its early accomplishments is securing a role as a Channel Partner for Jeff Bezos commercial space launch company Blue Origin. This arrangement means that Luna acts a a sales partner for Blue Origins New Shepard suborbital rocket, working with potential clients for the Amazon founders rocket company on how and why they might seek to set up a sub-orbital space-based experiment.

Thats the near-term vision, and the way that Luna will seek to have the most impact here on Earth. But the possibilities of what the future holds for the biotech sector start to really open up once you consider the current trajectory of the space industry, including NASAs next steps, and efforts by private companies like SpaceX to expand human presence to other planet.

Were talking about going back to the Moon by 2024, Yip says, referring to NASAs goal with its Artemis program. Were talking about going to Mars in the next few years. Theres a lot that we will need to uncover and discover for ourselves, and I think thats a huge opportunity. Who knows what well discover when were on other planets, and were actually putting people there? We have to start preparing for that and building capability for that.

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Luna is a new kind of space company helping biotech find its footing in microgravity - TechCrunch

China now launches more rockets than anyone in the world – Ars Technica

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Enlarge / The 49th Beidou navigation satellite was successfully launched by a Long March 3b carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China on November 5, 2019.

Costfoto / Barcroft Media via Getty Images

In recent weeks, China's space program has made news by revealing some of its long-term ambitions for spaceflight. These includeestablishing an Earth-Moon space economic zone by 2050, which, if successful, could allow the country to begin to dictate the rules of behavior for future space exploration.

Some have questioned whether China, which has flown six human spaceflights in the last 16 years, can really build a large low-Earth space station, send taikonauts to the Moon, return samples from Mars, and more in the coming decade or two. But what seems clear is that the country's authoritarian government has long-term plans and is taking steps toward becoming a global leader in space exploration.

By one important metricorbital launchesChina has already reached this goal.

In 2018, the country set a goal of 35 orbital launches and ended up with 39 launch attempts. That year, the United States (29 flights) and Russia (20) trailed China, according to Space Launch Report. It marked the first time China led the world in the number of successful orbital launches.

This year, China is set to pace the world again. Through Sunday, the country has launched 27 orbital missions, followed by Russia (19), and the United States (16). Although nearly a month and a half remain in this year, a maximum of six additional orbital launches are likely from the United States in 2019.

To be fair, China's space launch program has not been without hiccups. The country's space program is still trying to bring its large Long March 5 vehicle back into service after a catastrophic failure during just its second mission, in July 2017. And the country had three failures in 2018 and 2019, compared to just one in the United States and Russia combined.

The United States has taken a step back this year in part due to decreased activity by SpaceX. The company launched a record 21 missions last year but has so far launched 11 rockets in 2019. A flurry of missions remains possible in the next six weeks for the company, including a space station resupply mission in early December, a commercial satellite launch, and additional Starlink flights.

Another big factor has been a slow year for United Launch Alliance. The Colorado-based company has launched just two Delta IV-Medium rockets this year, one Delta IV-Heavy, and a single Atlas V mission. The company may launch Boeing's Starliner spacecraft before the end of 2019, giving the Atlas V rocket a second launch.

It is possible that Rocket Lab, which has flown its Electron rocket from New Zealand five times in 2019 and is planning at least one more mission before the end of the year, will have more launches than United Launch Alliance for the first time. Sometime next year, Rocket Lab should also begin to add to the US tally for orbital launches as it opens a new facility at Wallops Island, Virginia.

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China now launches more rockets than anyone in the world - Ars Technica

Mankato native designed patch for upcoming NASA mission to the International Space Station – Mankato Free Press

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Artist Andrew Nybergs work soon will be out of this world. Literally.

Nyberg who is originally from Mankato but now resides in Brainerd was asked to design the official patch for an upcoming mission by NASA and SpaceX to the International Space Station.

Nyberg, a graduate of South Central College, is a professional graphic artist whose work youve probably already seen if youre a fan of Mankatos downtown sculpture tour. But this latest development could launch his career to infinity and beyond.

OK, enough with the jokes. Heres our interview with Andrew.

We asked Nyberg to tell a little bit more about his work and how he was chosen to design that spacey patch.

The Free Press: Tell us how you got tapped to design this patch?

Andrew Nyberg: My uncle, Douglas Hurley, is one of the astronauts assigned to DM2 (Demonstration Mission 2) which will be the first manned mission aboard a U.S.-built craft to the International Space Station since the retirement of the Space Shuttle. He was also the pilot of the very last shuttle mission that retired the program. He is married to my aunt, Karen Nyberg, who is also a NASA astronaut and has had two missions aboard the ISS. Once on Space Shuttle Discovery in 2008 and another six-month mission during Exp. 36 and 37, which flew on the Russian Soyuz.

When Karen was going on her second mission, she commissioned me to create a patch for her mission. The patch was designed and was even printed and ready for their trip. At the last minute the commander for the mission changed. The commander has the final say in the mission patch design and went with one of his own artists. So my design got tabled. However, it wasnt before they had already printed a bunch. So I at least got a few of those created patches and Karen did fly it alongside their official patch on the ISS. There is a version of it aboard the ISS to this day.

When Doug got assigned to fly aboard the Dragon Capsule, he asked me if I would be willing to create their mission patch. Of course I accepted.

FP: Were there several drafts that had to be approved by NASA/Space X or was your original creation the one that was ultimately accepted?

AN: Yes. With most design work, we tend to go through a few different variations before the final design is accepted. They were actually very easy to work with and picked one of four different versions I had given them. From there it was fine-tuned to add all of the finer details required for the mission patch.

FP: Walk us through the design. Theres a lot going on here and it seems like every thing in it symbolizes or references something that might not be apparent to people who dont know the story.

AN: There is quite a lot, indeed. We did have a lot of stuff we needed to include on the patch and I tried my best to be as creative as possible when presenting all of the elements.

Some people may ask where the clover is hidden. SpaceX has a long tradition of including a four-leaf clover in all of their patch designs. The clover tradition began after the successful orbital launch of any privately funded and developed rocket which occurred on Sept. 28, 2008. I remind them that this is a patch for NASAs commercial crew program. SpaceX will most likely have their own mission patch as well.

FP: Do you do a lot of commission work like this?

AN: I sure do! I have had the honor of doing a lot of commissioned work for various people and businesses around the Mankato area, including some of the local colleges and schools in the area.

FP: Does something like this with high visibility give the artist any kind of boost? Will you get more work because of this?

AN: I certainly hope so! Ive already had a few inquiries about some business logos and other projects.

FP: Tell us about your other work. Didnt you have a piece in the Walking Sculpture Tour?

AN: I have done quite a few large projects while working for companies like SPX Sports in Mankato. Walking through MSU or either West or East High School and you can see many of the projects I helped with when I was a part of their team (large wall murals or over-sized banners and graphics). This was also eight years ago so many of those things may have been replaced by now. The wall graphics in the Myers Field House at MSU is one of the largest projects that comes to mind.

I have also done work for Z99 in town. I designed the wrap on their Punisher parade vehicle as well as the large white and black truck you may see at Rockin Ronnys.

Im a graphic designer by trade. But overall I just like to refer to myself as an artist. My grandfather, Ken Nyberg, is pretty well known for his larger-than-life sculptures that dot the roadside in central and northern Minnesota, many of which can be seen at NybergSculptures.com or our Facebook page by the same name.

So, following in my grandfathers footsteps, I started creating some sculptures of my own using scavenged metal objects. I have a wolf titled The Cog of the Wild on display in the Mankato art walk and can be seen on the corner of Main and Second streets. (Editors note: The Cog of the Wild was just named the Peoples Choice winner on this years tour. That means the sculpture remains in the community permanently.)

The largest of my sculptures is on display at the Chahinkapa Zoo in Wahpeton, North Dakota. It is a life-sized moose made similarly to the wolf, with random metal objects welded together over a wire frame.

FP: Is creating art your full-time job or do you have a different 9-5?

AN: I am currently working as a graphic designer for Mills Automotive Group in Brainerd. Graphic design is art.

So, yes, creating art is my full-time job.

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Mankato native designed patch for upcoming NASA mission to the International Space Station - Mankato Free Press

Space leaders discuss the future of the industry at Naples conference – Naples Daily News

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Space allows scientists to possibly one dayrecreateretinas and print3D human tissues.

Such possibilities mean it's in humanity'sbest interest to explore space but that requires commercial partners, saidJim Bridenstine, NASA administrator President Trump nominated in 2017.

"We are always, always, always thinking about what we can commercialize and the next step,"Bridenstine said Tuesday in Naplesduring a panel discussion titled "Space: The New Market Frontier," at the Global Financial Leadership Conference at The Ritz-Carlton along the beach.

Space industry leaders talk Nov. 19, 2019, on a monitor during the Global Financial Leadership Conference at The Ritz-Carlton by the beach in Naples. No media were allowed to shoot photos inside the auditorium.(Photo: Daily News staff)

Joining him for the discussion were Tim Hughes, senior vice president and general counsel of SpaceX, and Stephen Attenborough, commercial director for Virgin Galactic.

Chris Davenport, space editor for the Washington Post, served as moderator.

More: Oprah is coming, but where should she eat in Naples?

More: Oprah, Martha, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban will visit Naples this week: What to know

Bridenstine a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma has served in the post since 2018. He said the president has supported NASA and nearly two years ago signed Directive 1.

That policy provides for a U.S.-led, integrated program with private sector partners for a human return to the moon, followed by missions to Mars and beyond.

Hughes said SpaceX recently had its 77th launch and emphasized the importance of using rockets more than once.

"Reusability is kind of a holy grail of space," Hughes said.

SpaceX looks to one day develop the Starship, the largest spaceship launched from Earth that will one travel to the moon and Mars, Hughes said.

Attenborough said what's exciting is creating an opportunity for more people to visit space. So far, a total 579 people (mainly men) have traveled into space, he said.

"We have to fly in a commercially viable way," Attenborough said.

And SpaceXseeks to reduce the cost to access space and make humanity a multi-planetary species, Hughes said.

"Most importantly, human beings living and working in space is an exciting future, an American future," he said.

Space exploration will remain important as well for science, as Bridenstine pointed to scientific experiments on the International Space Station in microgravity such as experimenting with retina regeneration and making 3D human organs on a printer."

Such medical technology is less than a decade away, he said, noting that a "significant breakthrough on earth" is required to make it happen.

One aspect of space where the U.S. is different from other nations is its "exceptional willingness to fail," Bridenstine said.

Through trial and error, NASA has achieved because of trial and error, he said.

"In the United States of America, that's a learning point and we go forward," he added. "Other countries don't have that resolve."

The annual global conference draws up to 350 of the Chicago-based CME Group's top clients from around the world. The cost to attend is $2,995.

Terry Duffy, CME Group executive chairman and president, began the conference in Naples a dozen years ago.

Oprah Winfrey spoke immediately after the space panel discussion but media were barred from attending.

Past speakers have included former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger and others.

Actress Nicole Kidman and husband country music star Keith Urban were to host a dinner gala Tuesday night at the Ritz but the media was barred from that event as well.

Read or Share this story: https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/local/2019/11/19/what-leading-experts-space-said-naples-going-moon-mars/4239742002/

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Space leaders discuss the future of the industry at Naples conference - Naples Daily News

Garry Kasparov on chess, tech, Trump and Putin – Chessbase News

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11/20/2019 Garry Kasparov became, at the age of 22, the youngest World Champion in chess history. His famous matches against the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue brought chess and artificial intelligence into the mainstream. Now, hes focusing on the quiet war Russia is waging against U.S. democracy. Last week he sat down on the PBS show (in collaboration with CNN) Amanpour and Company and, with Miles OBrien, discussed everything from computer chess, troll farms to election interference.

Master Class Vol.7: Garry Kasparov

On this DVD a team of experts gets to the bottom of Kasparov's play. In over 8 hours of video running time the authors Rogozenko, Marin, Reeh and Mller cast light on four important aspects of Kasparov's play: opening, strategy, tactics and endgame.

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A recent addition to the stable of shows on American public television,Amanpour and Companyis aone-hour public affairs seriesfeaturing, as described on its 'about' page, "wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports."

Garry Kasparov's appearance was published on November 12th:

Here is some of the main chess-related points in the interview:

Miles O'Brien: Take us back to 1997, and a match, a quite celebrated match, between you and a machine. Going into that tournament in 1997, did you think humans still have supremacy?

Garry Kasparov, chess grandmaster & activist: Yes. Most likely. We experienced troubles against some chess engines like Fritz or Deep Junior. And I think one thing we couldnt understand is that the machine would always have a steady hand. So its not about solving the game which is mathematically impossible, the number of legal words in the game of chess. According to Claude Shannon, its I think 10 to the 46th power. But its about making mistakes. So Deep Blue was by todays standards, todays chess engine standards, not sort of a great success. The free chess app on your mobile is probably stronger than Deep Blue. Try chess engines that you can buy online and put on your laptop: they are so much stronger than the current world champion, Magnus Carlsen. The gap between the world champion today and a chess engine, just an ordinary one that you can buy online is the same between say Usain Bolt and a Ferrari.

OBrien: People have looked at that moment and seen it as a pivot point. You think thats overstating it?

Kasparov: For me, that was a revelation that started human versus machine. We should look for human plus machine, for a collaboration. Anything that can be classified as a closed system, the machine will be better. If we know how to do it, a machine will do it better. So whether its game of chess, any video game, Texas Hold Em Poker, machines will do it better. For a simple reason: not because they play perfectly theres no perfection to the universe. No machine will ever reach 100%. They will make a few mistakes. Its about precision, its about vigilance during the game that no humans could sustain.

OBrien: I think its probably accurate to say that youre the first knowledge worker in the world who had his job replaced by machine.

Kasparov: Again, "replaced" is overstatement. Threatened, endangered, challenged. Because the chess hasnt stopped. People are still playing chess. Actually, chess is far more popular today than it used to be 25 years ago. One of the reasons, actually: computers. More people can follow chess games and while understanding what is happening. So theres simple to have their computer at their elbow. They look at the game played by the top players, the world championship match and they dont need even commentaries. Okay commentaries are always nice, but they can look at their computer screen and they can know exactly whats happening.

OBrien: So are you making a larger point about technology here? We always fear that technology is going to displace us in some fashion. But it doesnt always turn out that way, does it?

Kasparov: It never did. I mean the problem is that while those who are spreading this fear, this army of doom-sayers, they are ignoring the fact that many times in history, the humanity faced this kind of challenges. Many industries have been ruined, jobs lost, people got desperate. But then we move forward. And I think now its we simply ignore the fact that technology is the main reason why so many of us are still alive to complain about technology. Just look at the average lifespan, the quality of life, thanks to technology. Its a human pride we always thought that our cognitive skills will never be challenged. Its the same story. I think eventually it helps us to become more human, to become more creative. I mean you can sit passively, waiting for technology to change your life around us. But you can be more proactive and look for ways to free us, to inspire our creativity and to help us to realize our grandest dreams.

Read (and listen to) the rest of the very interesting interview on PBS.

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Garry Kasparov on chess, tech, Trump and Putin - Chessbase News

Hamburg Grand Prix Final Goes To Tiebreak – Chess.com

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The final of theFIDE Grand Prix in Hamburgwill be decided in a tiebreak on Sunday.Jan-Krzysztof Dudawas under pressure twice but held the draw against Alexander Grischuk in both standard games.

Over the board Duda and Grischuk had played each other in only rapid and blitz, and you might also remember their epic Speed Chess match here on Chess.com, played 14 months ago and narrowly won by Duda. On Friday, they met for the first time in classical chess (or "standard" as FIDE now calls it).

In a Queen's Indian, Grischuk seemed to surprise his opponent when he used a recent idea from Ivan Cheparinovon move 13. Duda thought for more than 50 minutes for his next two moves.

Grischuk wouldn't be Grischuk if he played the remainder of the game with more time on the clock, so he spent 47 minutes for his next two moves! He did manage to get a stable, positional advantage but missed a chance in time trouble.

The second game was even more exciting, with Grischuk again getting the better chances out of the opening, this time as Black in a Queen's Gambit Declined. It was obvious that Duda hadn't expected this particular variation.

Grischuk found a great pawn sacrifice behind the board, and engines gave him a big advantage after Duda took it. Again both players spent a lot of time early in the game; they weredown to 20 minutes after just 13 moves.

It became extremely tactical, and with so little time Duda found a number of great defensive moves and somehow held his own once again.

"Maybe a better calculator like Maxime Vachier-Lagrave would have found something," said Grischuk, "but he would not get this position because he doesn't play the Queen's Gambit, which is the most aggressive opening."

The biggest chess fans will know what to do on their free Sunday: follow the tiebreak between these two great players. It will start15:00 CET, which is 9 a.m. Eastern and 6 a.m. Pacific. You can follow the gameshere as part of our live portal.

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Hamburg Grand Prix Final Goes To Tiebreak - Chess.com

Alexander Grischuk wins the third leg of the Grand Prix in Hamburg – Chessbase News

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The third leg of the FIDE Grand Prix is being played in Hamburg, Germany. The 16-player knockout has a 130,000 prize fund, with the series as a whole having an additional prize fund of 280,000 plus two qualifying spots for the 2020 Candidates Tournament. The tournament takes place in the Kehrwieder Haus from November 5th to 17th. You can find more infohere.

The third leg of the FIDE Grand Prix series concluded on Sunday and crowned Alexander Grischuk as its champion. Grischuk's victory earned him24,000 and almost secured him at least second place at the overall series, despite him not participating in the final leg. The Russian received 10 GP points in Hamburg and now leads the standings table on 20 points.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (13 points), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (10) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (9) are yet to play the fourthleg in Jerusalemandare the main contenders to get one of the two spots in next year's Candidates. However, only anunlikely occurrence would leaveGrischukout of the top two e.g. Mamedyarov winning and Vachier-Lagrave finishing in second place, plus both of them gettingthree extra points by winning matcheswithout needing tiebreaks.

During the press conference, the champion stated:

I think I would have had great chances even [if I got] second place, even if I lost the final. But there is also first place, it also counts, there are overall prizes and so on, so now it will be very pleasant for me to watch the final event. Of course I wish luck to everyone who can still qualify: to Shakh Mamedyarov, to Nepomniachtchi and to Maxime...but to Maxime I wish luck but not too much luck, because I don't want him to overtake me. I mean, I cannot be rooting against myself (laughs).

Grischuk also talked with Macauley Peterson, who stressed the importance ofthe three extrapointsobtained after winningthe final. When referring to the outside chance of being eliminated after the fourthleg in Jerusalem, Grischuk explained:

I would not even care if that happens. I mean, it's not my fault. I did everything I could. But of course I want to take first. In general, to win the whole series is much bigger than winning just one event.

And he should know Grischukqualified to the 2018 Candidates by finishingthe 2017 FIDE Grand Prix seriesin second place, behind Mamedyarov.

Grischuk achieved a memorable triumphin Hamburg | Photo: Nadja Wittmann

When the tiebreakers were about to begin, twenty spectators were sitting in the playing hall.Grischuk arrived on stage at 14:57,collar turned up, looking a bit dishevelled.In typical style, hesat, adjusted his pieces and lefta minute later.Duda, in turn, emergedfrom therest area, evidently having arrived in the hall earlier,looking fresh and well-dressed. As the games started to unravel, more spectators kept showing up, until the hall was almost full by the end of the day's action.

Duda played White firstandkicked off the final's play-offs with a convincing win. After Grischuk failed atmakingthe most ofhis kingside initiative, Duda went on to show the strength of the bishop pair and the importance of having so much control over the centre:

White has just played 22.d4 and is nowready to activate his pieces and slowly get the upper hand.For a while, Duda seemed to be losing the grip of the position.However, he ended up showing the superiority of his setup and getting the first full point of the day.

The initial handshake of the rapid tiebreakers | Photo: Nadja Wittmann

Game twokicked off at 16:15 sharp. The finalists shook hands and Grischuk paused for several seconds before playing 1.d4. For a third time in the match-up, the Russian got an opening advantage, as he also got the upper hand from the get go in the classical encounters. He first won a pawn on the queenside, then infiltrated the opposite camp with his pieces, and finally put an end to the game with an elegant knight move:

Mating Patterns

On this DVD, Grandmaster and worldrenowned commentator Maurice Ashley reviews some of the most interesting patterns with examples meant to educate and entertain.

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Resignation came after 32.d7. Of course, 32.xe8 also won, but Grischuk did not miss the opportunity to show a finer blow. The Russian would later comment:

Definitely I was getting amazing positions out of the openings.

A quicker time control would now be used to decide a winner. When the 10-minute games were about to start, the players took off their jackets. The tension was rising notoriously and Grischuk had the white pieces first. On move 10, the 36-year-old uncorked a strong novelty:

Developing the initiative

Dynamic play is what makes your chess effective and most importantly fun! Timur Gareyev shows severeal examples which aspects are important to remember when seizing for the initiative!

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The central expansion with10.d5 gives up a pawn, but it is also the first suggestion of the engines. Duda had won a game with Black from this position back in 2013, which prompted Grischuk to take a look at some lines here, although not very deeply. He told Macauley:

I even saw that the computergives it with a big advantage. Of course, I didn't analyze [the move]. I mean, nowadays you are not analyzing won positions because there are so many equal positions to analyze (laughs).

As Grischuk said, this is a strong novelty that gives White a large edge. Naturally, the players spent most of their thinking time on moves 11 to 15, after which Black had castled queenside and White had a host of alternatives to increase his dominance. On move 19, Duda missed his last chance to put up more resistance.

Eventually,an ending with a large material advantage for White was reached:

White's rook and bishop still need to deal with the passers on the queenside, and both contenders were pretty much playing on increments at this point. A well-known time trouble addict, Grischuk would later declare:

Actually with seconds he played much better than me. I barely won this position with a rook for a pawn. [...] But I was gettingmuch betterpositions before we got to the seconds.

The man of the hour Alexander Grischuk | Photo: Nadja Wittmann

Now it was Duda's turn to win on demand, and he hadWhite. The Polishused the same approach that had served him well to take down Daniil Dubov in the semis: to go for simple playable positions and try to outplay his opponent later on. The strategy seemed to be working out well, as Grischuk spent over five minutes on his seventh move (don't forget these are 10-minute games):

First Steps in Positional Play

First Steps in Positional Play attempts to equip the viewer with all the information he or she needs to begin to tackle this aspect of chess. Players below 1500 will benefit from this basic advice. Players above 1500 will enjoy the detailed examination of many current master games. This is an enjoyable tour of positional play from which everyone can learn.

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The Russian explained that he was already looking for lines that would give him a large edge. He did not remember the position, but he did find that 7...d6 was the strongest attempt for Black a move played by the likes of Caruana or Mamedyarov in the past. Despite spending quite some time, he was not convinced, which prompted him to go for the "sort of practical move" 7...c5.

Not long afterwards, White had the more comfortable position, but Duda could not convert it into anything meaningful Grischuk would later retold how his colleague commented that he had not been able to recover emotionally after the two straight losses. Pressed to win, Duda startedto lose the thread. Grischuk took over, and the match came to an endwhen Duda offered a draw from a totally lost position. The Russiancould not hide his emotions:

The first thing Grischuk mentioned during the press conference was how much he had enjoyed the match against the young Polish star:

I want to thank Jan-Krzysztof for an incredible match. I was enjoying every moment of each game all three days. [...] All games were very tense, huge fights, no short draws or anything.

Duda had a great run as well. He declared:

My play here was great. I didn't expect to get to the final.I didn't even expect to get to third round, because I found Ian Nepomniachtchi and Yu Yangyi [his opponents fromthe first two rounds] to be probably the most unpleasant players forme. [...] But I was lucky they both blundered in one move.

The decisive leg of the series will be played in Jerusalem, starting December 11th.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda did not expect to perform as well as he did| Photo: Nadja Wittmann

Additional reporting by Macauley Peterson

Click or tap any result to open the game via Live.ChessBase.com

Commentary by GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko

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Alexander Grischuk wins the third leg of the Grand Prix in Hamburg - Chessbase News

Geek of the Week: If there’s roadwork ahead, Kurt Stiles uses 3D modeling and more to drive project – GeekWire

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Kurt Stiles and his team at the Washington State Department of Transportation often take to the air to better illustrate the stories theyre telling on the ground. (Photo courtesy of Kurt Stiles)

If a new roadway or bridge or other infrastructure element in Washington state looks and drives exactly like youd hoped it would, perhaps Kurt Stiles and his team at the Washington State Department of Transportation are to thank.

Stiles and the Visual Engineering Resource Group (VERG) are the visual media professionals who use a variety of tools, such as aerial photography, 3D modeling and animation, to communicate the stages of all types of projects.

Our latest Geek of the Week spent 10 years in the military before going to school for civil engineering. He was helping to raise three boys and working full time at WSDOT when he discovered the world of 3D modeling and visualization in 1998. Today he leads the group he helped develop at the agency in 2008.

The tech for 3D modeling has grown tremendously. There is no excuse now we have tremendous tools to visually communicate infrastructure change, Stiles said. Our productions can tell any story, to any audience and at any scale. Decision making processes have improved, saving time and money. All stakeholders and the public alike have a deeper understanding which translates to improved consent.

Stiles points to a variety of projects which VERG has had a hand in, whether its photography work showing everything from highway overpasses to rest areas to ferry terminals, or drone footage of a mudslide. Video production and animation is especially useful to show renderings of completed projects, such as this video-game-like fly-by of Interstate-90 near Snoqualmie Pass:

Stiles is particularly proud of the teams 3D modeling work for whats called a diverging diamond interchange, a project being implemented for the first time in Washington, in Lacey.

This retrofitted interchange will handle much more daily traffic volume and do so in a much safer way, Stiles said. Moreover, the new interchange will provide improved, safer pedestrian and bike travel, too much better than what was there originally. This type of interchange design is very progressive and will be a hallmark project for other interchange retrofits to follow in Washington.

Modeling cars and trucks on conventional roadways is all fine and good, but what is VERG going to do when we get the flying vehicles were all waiting for?

That will be fun! Im sure we can animate all sorts of flying objects, Stiles said. But we will have to make sure there is a solid tax-structure to handle all those landing pads that are going to have to be built everyone will want one! Perhaps a new tax on leather flying jackets and goggles? Im sure that will work.

Learn more about this weeks Geek of the Week, Kurt Stiles:

What do you do, and why do you do it? I built and lead a visual communication content development group that is centered in 3D computer modeling, video production and commercial photography. We provide strategic communication content for infrastructure decision makers. They use it so they can get understanding, consent, funding, etc. from their stakeholders and constituents when building civil projects.

Whats the single most important thing people should know about your field? Civil infrastructure change needs to be first and foremost communicated correctly so all parties understand what the change is and why it has to happen. Twentieth-century problems of the built-environment cannot be fixed with 20th century technology. By using 3D modeling and other tools, tremendous insight can be gained in a precognitive way. A future view can be displayed showing the pros and cons, decisions can be made quicker and with increased understanding. Time and money is saved while the project moves forward in an accelerated way.

Where do you find your inspiration? Watching an underdog, any underdog, work hard, work long and then beat the ass off some self-righteous, privileged SOB.

Whats the one piece of technology you couldnt live without, and why? Blender. Open source software that you can make a living with. You can model anything the built environment needs. Remember to give back though with donations keep Blender open source!

Whats your workspace like, and why does it work for you? VERG works in an office like a lot of Geeks. We also have a lot of outside field work, too video shoots, helicopter photography, flying drones, etc. Its never dull in VERG.

Your best tip or trick for managing everyday work and life. (Help us out, we need it.) Setting and managing production expectations. Lead the conversation with your clients based upon their spoken need and youll never go wrong.

Mac, Windows or Linux? Windows.

Kirk, Picard, or Janeway? Picard.

Transporter, Time Machine or Cloak of Invisibility? Time machine. I wanna go back so I can get it right the second time.

If someone gave me $1 million to launch a startup, I would Run to the hills with the dough? No, Id do it, but its gotta be MY startup.

I once waited in line for A warm Coke in the Philippines, which I drank with fevered intent.

Your role models: Napoleon Bonaparte: Capability is worthless without opportunity.Gen. George Patton: Lead me, follow me, or get the hell outta the wayTony Robbins: There are only two options: make progress or make solutions

Greatest game in history: Chess.

Best gadget ever: Theyre all great, but not without WD-40.

First computer: Compaq Portable.

Current phone: Android S7 or Motorola DynaTAC CellStar, I cant remember which.

Favorite app: WAYZ.

Favorite cause: Dog rescues for any dog.

Most important technology of 2019: Gaming engines.

Most important technology of 2021: Gaming engines.

Final words of advice for your fellow geeks: Just do it. Suck it up, stand for something and take the risk. Feel free to draw a line in the sand, just be able to defend it. Take ownership no one else will and youll impress the hell out of people for it.

Website: Visual Engineering Resource Group

LinkedIn: Kurt Stiles

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Geek of the Week: If there's roadwork ahead, Kurt Stiles uses 3D modeling and more to drive project - GeekWire

Boston Theater Needs To Start Offering Something No Screen Could Match – WBUR

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Im going to say something that theater critics arent supposed to say: Lately Ive been enjoying going to the movies a lot more than going to the theater.

Theater has had a special pull for me since I got my first goosebumps seeing Annie Get Your Gun and South Pacific at the South Shore Music Circus when I was in grade school. David Wheelers Theater Company of Bostons brilliant stagings of modernist masterpieces thrilled me in college. That magnet was even stronger after I switched from television to theater criticism at the Boston Globe in the mid-90s. Lately, though, Ive been feeling that pull to be resistible.

To be fair, its not every month that four of the greatest filmmakers in the world release new films: Pedro Almodvars Pain and Glory; Bong Joon Hos Parasite; Martin Scorseses The Irishman; and Franois Ozons By the Grace of God. So it would be premature and probably inaccurate to declare a new day dawning in world cinema.

Still. All four movies deliver what Id call a peak artistic experience. What in the world is that? Its often out of this world, maybe even beyond words, a transcendental experience that leaves one weak at the knees or in awe of the artistic excellence or emotional impact of whats just been witnessed.

As the fall theater season winds down, it disappoints me that I havent had any such peak artistic experiences in Boston area theater this year. David Byrnes American Utopia at the Colonial and Cambodian Rock Band at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre came close, but American Utopia needed more of a thematic through line and the dialogue in Cambodian Rock Band was often a little too unsophisticated when it wasnt talking about genocide. There were a number of other excellent productions this season including SIX at the American Repertory Theater; Admissions at SpeakEasy Stage Company; My Fascination with Creepy Ladies by Anthem Theatre Company; The Purists and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead at the Huntington; Nixons Nixon at New Repertory Theatre.

So isnt excellence good enough? And sharing a communal experience with live actors and audiences that arent siloed into popcorn-munching easy chairs? What more do I want?

What I want not all of the time, but certainly some of the time is to see a play or musical that makes me look at the world differently when I walk out of the theater. Admissions is certainly a provocative play and nicely staged by SpeakEasy, but its debate about the pros and cons of striving for diversity doesnt tell me anything I didnt know about the issue. I often get the sense that Boston theater, unlike New York or even Berkshires theater, is so obsessed with telling stories of the moment that theyre giving short shrift to stories meant to last.

What I want not all of the time, but certainly some of the time is to see a play or musical that makes me look at the world differently when I walk out of the theater.

Will people still be talking about Admissions and SIX 50 years from now? My guess is that unlike say, A Raisin in the Sun or Caroline, or Change, these shows dont address their issues about diversity, empowerment and misogyny in a way that feels transcendent and timeless.

This year is a far cry from last fall, which was loaded: SpeakEasys Between Riverside and Crazy; A.R.T.s The Black Clown; the Huntingtons Man in the Ring; ArtsEmersons import of Measure for Measure; and the long-awaited Hamilton. If you look, for example, at Between Riverside and Crazy, Stephen Adly Guirgis' play feels absolutely of the moment in terms of how it deals with multiculturalism and economic displacement, but is also hilariously written, thoroughly transporting, empathetic, scabrous and redemptive. Not unlike Parasite. And a great SpeakEasy production to boot. If Im around in 50 years, Id get off my deathbed to see this again.

Im still thinking about the emotional and/or intellectual wallop of all of these productions a year later. This year feels more like a tap on the shoulder by contrast. Some of it can be attributed to accidents of timing, but the fact is that theaters often lead with their best in September and this year felt a little complacent.

Take another play I admired Ronan Noones one-man play the smuggler, at Boston Playwrights Theatre, with the wonderful Billy Meleady in the title role of a writer so down on his luck that he turns to a life of violence and crime. Spoken in verse, no less. I chuckled at a lot of the rhymes and had sympathy for the devilish path that the character embarked on, despite the victims in his wake.

It was a far cry, though, from how Scorsese handled Frank Sheerans (Robert De Niro) similar pragmatic immorality in The Irishman or how Bong managed the twists and turns of the central impoverished family of con artists in Parasite. In the play and the two movies were presented with a world in which the only way to live the dream, American or Korean, is through crime, betrayal and stepping on the backs of others.

But even in an amoral universe there doesnt seem like theres that much at stake in the smuggler and everything seems to be at stake in those two films, politically and personally. In all four films, really, as Pain and Glory is about finding personal redemption through art and fellowship and By the Grace of God is a deeply sophisticated, humanistic look at the courage of French victims of child abuse risking everything by standing up to the reprehensible lack of attention by the Catholic Church.

Theater should be offering more than the movies and TV, not less.

I dont mean to single out Noone's play. Im a fan of his work, including this one. But it only served to solidify my dissatisfaction with this season of Boston theater. Theater should be offering more than the movies and TV, not less. And its not about the buckets of money that someone like Scorsese can throw at a film compared to the money available to local theater. God knows there are megamillion dollar movie disasters, but there are also one-man shows that Ill never forget like the Sgn Theatre Companys one-man St. Nicholas from the 90s with Richard McElvain starring as Conor McPhersons protagonist (a theater critic no less).

I could make the same argument about television vs. theater. There was recently a play at the New Repertory Theatre called Trayf, about the conflicts between orthodox and secular Jews. It was cute enough, but not one-tenth as satisfying as an Israeli TV comedy series on Netflix, Shtisel, that dealt with the same issue.And talk about peak artistic experiences if you didnt see the HBO series,Our Boys, an Israeli-Palestinian co-creation about the murder of a Palestinian boy and the tension it creates between Orthodox and secular Israelis, get thee to HBO On Demand. Have I been as moved in a Boston theater as I have on my couch watching Allen Ginsbergs benediction in Scorseses Netflix film about Bob Dylans Rolling Thunder Revue or by Ken Burns storytelling on PBS Country Music? Not that I could remember.

I do think that Boston theater, at least since Ive been covering it, goes through cycles of moving forward and then plateauing, and that part of the current plateau has to do with obsessing about the divisive politics of the moment. That should absolutely be part of the mission of theater in general and local theater companies in general. But lets not lose the artistic forest through the political trees.

One of the undeniable peak artistic experiences in recent years was Dave Malloyand Rachel Chavkins Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 at the American Repertory Theater in 2015. A.R.T. is premiering the same teams Moby-Dick in December. And the Huntington is about to open Quixote Nuevo followed by Lynn Nottages Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat.

I hope they all kick-start the theater season. By the end of2020 I want to be eating my words and writing that local theater offers something that no other medium can match.

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Boston Theater Needs To Start Offering Something No Screen Could Match - WBUR

Roosevelt Island Was Ed Logue’s Utopia. Would He Like It Today? – Commercial Observer

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Its the height of folly to conduct an interview in the middle of a New York City sidewalk on a weekday morning. But during a stroll earlier this month along Roosevelt Islands quiet Main Street downright pastoral by Big Apple standards Lizabeth Cohen was coming in loud and clear.

Theres something very peaceful about this place, Cohen said, taking in the rows of mixed-use buildings that line the gently curving streets mile-long course. Theres all this open space, and its so much quieter than Manhattan. And [the retail] is not dominated by huge chains, like Hudson Yards is.

That as she has documented at length in a new book was by design.

Cohen, a history professor at Harvard University, whose first book, Making a New Deal, won the fields prestigious Bancroft Prize in 1991, has spent the last 14 years cataloguing the career of Ed Logue, the mastermind behind the residential enclave that sits tucked between Manhattan and Queens in the middle of the East River. Logue, who died in 2000 at the age of 79, planned Roosevelt Islands development in the late 60s and early 70s as the crown jewel of a massive state-backed housing program.

Logue, who served as the head of the New York State Urban Development Corporation, took the initiative to turn the narrow island, which had been primarily a dumping ground for unsavory city institutions like insane asylums and prisons, into what he envisioned as a utopian mixed-income community. The UDC obtained a 99-year development lease in 1969 and Logue set to work drawing up designs for the island in exacting detail.

Those plans remain the islands backbone even now that private developers have entered the scene. In 1996, Related Companies and Hudson Companies were the winners of a state bidding process for private development on the island. Since then, their nearly 2-million-square-foot Riverwalk development seven of the planned nine buildings have already been completed has added nearly 1,500 apartments to the island, some market rate and some affordable. And the $2 billion Cornell Tech campus has brought a significant new presence from an Ivy League university.

Still, the island remains an oddity of the public sector qua developer: an ever-lonelier relic of an era when governments werent shy about building big things.

Its difficult to write about Logue without yielding to the temptation to compare him with one of the most divisive figures in New York City history, master builder Robert Moses. Moses, a generation older than Logue and a fellow Yale alumnus, ran his own ambitious development agency, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, from Randalls Island, another East River Island just a mile north of Logues domain.

Logue, in the end, succeeded on territory that eluded Moses, who had made two failed attempts to develop Roosevelt Island in the decades before Logue came to New York.

Still, Cohen said, itd be a mistake to draw too direct a line between the two men.

Logue was Robert Moses and the anti-Robert Moses all at once, Cohen quotes a former Logue colleague, Lawrence Goldman, as saying. He would think as large as Moses but unlike Moses, he was as committed to social transformation as he was to physical building.

When Cohen began researching Logues career in the early 2000s, she couldnt have foreseen the relevance her work would have for New York Citys current political moment. But the fruits of her labor a 500-plus-page biography of Logue called Saving Americas Cities that Farrar, Straus and Giroux published in October couldnt have been timelier.

Two years ago, New York Citys 421-a tax credit for housing lapsed for more than a year before being resurrected as Affordable New York, a hair-raising period of uncertainty for New York City multifamily developers that spawned renewed conversation about the governments role in promoting renter-friendly housing markets.

And this year, Albany lawmakers drew fury from New York City developers when they passed a far-reaching new housing law aimed at making it much more difficult for landlords to deregulate rent-protected buildings.

All of a sudden, the same broad questions about governments proper place in guiding housing markets that animated Logues ambitious plan for Roosevelt Island are, once again, reverberating through the halls of power.

That made a visit to Roosevelt Island with Cohen earlier this month a prime occasion to reflect on the islands example. Tracking its evolution from centrally planned community to mixed-use destination is informative most of all because it provides a case study in the strengths and weaknesses of both government planning and private development.

Theres sort of a natural check-and-balance philosophy to the place, said Alexandra Kaplan, a project manager at Hudson Companies, which since the early 2000s has joined with Related as the force behind the islands private apartment buildings. Its a true public-private partnership. Thats part of what has made it so successful.

Related and Hudson are currently at work on their eighth and ninth private residential buildings on the island, but the companies emphasize that scrupulous attention to Logues broad vision for the space if not his specifics have guided their work throughout.

Our development, at the end of the day, is additive to the original, said Frank Monterisi, a Related Companies executive. You look at Roosevelt Island and say, from the original thought, how can there be further development brought to the island to make it better?

Cohen, who during our visit to the island professed a fondness for the heavy, brutalist UDC-built multifamily properties that sprang from Logues original plan, might disagree with Monterisis assessment that Related and Hudsons buildings are a seamless fit. She grimaced at seeing that some of the developers newest construction, such as a project called Riverwalk Point, had an off-street drive for cars. Originally, Logue meant for the island to be mostly an auto-free zone.

This feels really different, doesnt it? she asked, approaching the development. Because there were no cars originally. There was no sense that youd be arriving in a vehicle. It was just going to be, Youre going to approach the building as a pedestrian.

More broadly, she suggested Logue would have been less than comfortable with the arrival of private developers in the first place, which, in bringing luxury tenants to the island alongside subsidized renters, have brought the beginnings of a class divide to the island.

Logue was very proud of the fact that Roosevelt Island was a total piece of social engineering, Cohen said. As [planners of Logues era] were watching inequality grow and boy, it was nothing then compared with today there was a confidence that government interventions in the physical environment could make a huge difference in the way people lived.

But elsewhere, Cohen was pleased to observe continuity with Logues original vision. Disembarking from the aerial tram, which connects the island to 59th Street in Manhattan, she was thrilled to notice a handful of tourists apparently setting off in the direction of Four Freedoms State Park, at the islands southern tip. The small park, which features a monument to Franklin Roosevelt, for whom Logue rechristened the island, was commissioned by Logue in 1972 but didnt open until 40 years later more than a decade after Logues death.

She was also happy to see that a handful of historic sites predating Logues plan which Logue preserved remain intact. One example is the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, a church built on the island in 1889 as a place for the almshouse denizens who lived on the island at the time to worship. Under Logues plan, the chapel was converted to a more sublunary purpose, taking on a role as a community event space. That vision was alive and well last month, when posters advertised upcoming book talks and other community meetings in the building.

This is literally an island unto itself, with its own culture, Ben Kallos, the New York City councilman who represents Roosevelt Island, told Commercial Observer. This is a small-town environment with about 12,000 residents. Everyone knows everyone.

But private development has also brought radical change, including in the form of Manhattanesque rents for market-rate units a taste of the larger citys housing market from which Logue had hoped the island could provide sanctuary. Today, for instance, rental rates for a market-rate studio in The Octagon, a private building at the islands north end, have approached $3,000 per month, according to data from StreetEasy. And two-bedroom apartments in Riverwalk Point have been leased for more than $4,800. BMWs and Range Rovers were not an uncommon sight among the cars parked near those developments entrances.

Even though were responding to market forces, were operating around some basic elements of Roosevelt Island, Hudsons Kaplan said. Were seeing a lot of families [in our developments], and thats a product of supplying really high-quality housing at a price point thats less than the Upper East Side.

Suri Kaiserer, whose firm represented Cornell Tech to island residents and local politicians during its development process, said the islands strong at times forceful community was in evidence throughout.

Those years of work were so intense, Kaiserer recalled. Its such an organized, engaged community. We couldnt just show up. We really needed to build those relationships.

At one early meeting, she added, I almost felt we were getting tomatoes thrown at us. In the end, community engagement led to significant concessions during the construction process, including an arrangement for materials to be shipped to the island by barge instead of via more disruptive trucking.

During the visit, Cohen was interested in the question of how well Logues clarion call for social and racial diversity has persevered on the island. Under Logues plan, 70 percent of the islands stock would be set aside for middle-income residents, with the balance meant to house the poor and the elderly. He also hoped to rent at least 30 percent of the islands apartments to minorities, a goal that came from his desire that no one development would be too strongly associated with a particular ethnic group.

The U.S. Supreme Courts 1978 decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke has since strictly limited governments abilities to target racial quotas that way. Thats a change thats mirrored the direction of government housing policy writ large, which has grown far less activist in the decades since Logue was in his prime.

Compared with looking back in time to when government actually built things, the current state of affairs is that government lays the groundwork and creates the framework and puts the incentives forward. The government communicates to developers, Heres what we think should happen, and asks the market to respond, Monterisi said. When you look at any place around the city, its all about public-private partnership.

In Monterisis view, developers responsiveness to incentives on Roosevelt Island has borne out as a key advantage compared with the earlier era of government-driven development, arguing that despite the coming of wealthier renters, the islands community is as strong as ever.

Theres a healthy incremental approach today, compared with when government comes in and plops something down, Monterisi said. Its a bit more of a market-based concept and a community-based concept.

Separately, Monterisi and Cohen both noted an irony in the course of the islands history. Logue had attempted to achieve diversity by means of central planning. But since the state, through its local agency, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, opened the enclave to more private development, the arrival of market-rate housing has made the island for better or worse more diverse than Logues state agency could have achieved on its own.

After all, Logue hadnt envisioned a Roosevelt Island outpost of an Ivy League school, but Cornell Tech has now opened shop near the islands southern tip. Nor had he planned for a ritzy indoor tennis facility, but that facility too the Roosevelt Island Racquet Club has diversified the crowd that pays the island weekly visits

The fact that theres now the university here, the market rate housing, that theres more recreation: That is still consistent with what [Logue] wanted, Cohen said.

Judging by a stroll past one of the public schools Logue built on the island, his legacy has not disappeared. Cohen noted that the kids running around in the courtyard during recess there were a diverse bunch racially at least.

The scene was a rebuke to an argument Logue heard from developer Richard Ravitch in the 1970s: that Logue had better persuade a ritzy Upper East Side private school such as Dalton to start an outpost on the island, because white families would surely never send their children to its public schools.

Cohen recalled Logans reaction: Logue basically said, Thats not my idea. And this is my island, not your island. So get off.

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Roosevelt Island Was Ed Logue's Utopia. Would He Like It Today? - Commercial Observer