Monthly Archives: June 2020

Ambitious Goals

Despite a massive explosion that obliterated the fourth prototype of its Starship spacecraft, SpaceX is still planning on an orbital test launch of the vehicle before the end of the year.

Starship a different project than SpaceXs Crew Dragon, which successfully launched with two astronauts on board over the weekend is meant to eventually ferry up to 100 passengers as far as the Moon, and even Mars.

I expect first test flights, lets say, to a height of 150 meters, in the coming weeks, Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceXs VP of Build and Flight Reliability, told German magazine Der Spiegel in a Tuesday interview. Were going to be doing that a couple of times.

If everything works, we want to go into Earth orbit at the end of the year, Koenigsmann added. It might take a little longer.

The news comes after Starships fourth prototype, SN4, exploded last Friday at the companys testing site in Boca Chica, Texas.

Unfortunately what we thought was going to be a minor test of a quick disconnect ended up being a big problem, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told the press.

Its a setback, but SN4 endured far more trials than its predecessors. Its also the first Starship prototype to endure a cryogenic pressure test, which caused older prototypes to crumple like tin cans.

A scaled-down Starship prototype, called Starhopper, has also already completed a test flight to 150 meters last summer.

READ MORE: SpaceXs orbital Starship launch debut could still happen this year [Teslarati]

More on Starship: BREAKING: SPACEXS STARSHIP PROTOTYPE BLOWS UP IN HUGE FIREBALL

Read the rest here:
After Explosion, SpaceX Still Hoping to Launch Starship This Year - Futurism

Gaining Traction

At long last, NASAs InSight Mars lander managed to wedge its thermal probe underground without it getting stuck.

It sounds trivial, but the lander has been struggling to burrow the instrument, dubbed the mole, for more than a full year now, CNET reports. Now, finally, InSight may be able to complete its research on Mars internal temperature.

After early attempts to bury the mole, NASA was worried that a large rock was blocking its path. Instead, it turned out that the terrain was too loose for the mole, which digs like a jackhammer, to get traction and push downward.

The end result was that the mole kept getting itself stuck a problem that NASA even once deployed percussive maintenance to remedy.

But the mole is finally underground, after a helpful shove from InSights robotic arm, NASA tweeted from its in-character InSight account.

The next test for InSight will be whether its mole can continue to dig downward on its own, as originally planned, now that its underground.

In order to measure Mars internal temperature and provide NASA with new information on how the planet formed, the probe needs to dig 16 feet beneath the surface far too deep for the rest of InSights tools to give it a boost.

READ MORE: NASA InSight lander finally pushes its burrowing mole into Mars [CNET]

More on InSight: NASA Fixes Mars Lander By Telling it To Hit Itself With a Shovel

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NASA InSight Lander Finally Manages to Bury Its Probe Into Mars - Futurism

Tilt-A-Whirl

According to new data, the entire early universe was spinning like a planet or galaxy.

The new theory is based on the observation that more galaxies are spinning counterclockwise than clockwise, New Scientist reports, whereas previous models expected a balance between the two directions.

There is no error or contamination that could exhibit itself through such unique, complex and consistent patterns, Kansas State astronomer Lior Shamir said in a press release. We have two different sky surveys showing the exact same patterns, even when the galaxies are completely different.

Using data from three powerful observatories including the Hubble Space Telescope,according to New Scientist, Shamir and collaborators found evidence that a rotating universe influenced the spin of galaxies.

And according to data presented at this months meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Shamiralso found evidence that the universe had an axis of rotation: more galaxies spun counterclockwise when looking up from the Earths poles and the opposite was true when looking from the equator.

That doesnt mean that the universe itself is spinning around a single point like a giant spiral galaxy. Rather, theres evidence that it rotated across multiple complex and shifting axes at once.

If the universe has an axis, it is not a simple single axis like a merry-go-round, Shamir said in the release. It is a complex alignment of multiple axes that also have a certain drift.

READ MORE: The entire universe may once have been spinning all over the place [New Scientist]

More on astrophysics: Scientists: Magnetic Fields May Have Crushed Our Entire Galaxy

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Evidence Suggests That the Entire Early Universe Was Rotating - Futurism

Mass Extinction

Over 500 land-based vertebrates animals with spines are on the brink of extinction.

New research suggests that rates of animal extinction, explicitly caused by human activity, is accelerating to unsustainable levels. And by focusing on mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles, Earther reports that the scientists behind the study hope people will take note of the dire problem.

The problem of mass extinction goes far beyond the 515 vertebrates identified as being one the brink of extinction in the study, which was published Monday in the journal PNAS. Last year, a U.N. report found thata million species were at risk of going extinct in the coming years. And each one lost could create a domino effect that then drives even more species to extinction.

We are no longer looking at the loss of obscure species that most people arent interested in, Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, whos unaffiliated with the new study, told Earther. We are looking at biological annihilation.

The researchers behind the study warned that each time an animal goes extinct, it also threatens humanitys continued survival.

The current extinction crisis is one of the more urgent global environmental problems and the only one [that is] truly irreversible, study author Gerardo Ceballos of the National Autonomous University of Mexicos Institute of Ecology told Earther. Once a species is gone, there is no way to bring it back. Our paper indicates that is vastly speeding up.

READ MORE: More Than 500 Vertebrate Species Are on the Brink of Biological Annihilation [Earther]

More on extinction: United Nations: One Million Species Are Poised To Go Extinct

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Study: More Than 500 Vertebrates Poised To Go Extinct - Futurism

Except for occasional abrasive comments and other potshots, the relationship between NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos has remained relatively respectful even in the face of international tension between the two countries.

But if a news conference on Saturday is any indication, SpaceX CEO Elon Muskisnt playing nice.

First, some backstory. Back in 2014, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin, quipped that the US might as well deliver its astronauts to the ISS by using a trampoline a reference to how the US had to rely on Russian spacecraft to launch astronauts into space since 2011.

But as of Saturday, NASA has a new and cheaper option: SpaceX. And Musk couldnt help but take a jab.

The trampoline is working, Musk said during the conference, hours after his companys Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully carried two NASA astronauts into orbit.

Its an inside joke, Musk added.

Roscosmos underplayed SpaceXs historic achievement.

We dont really understand the hysteria sparked by the successful launch of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, spokesman Vladimir Ustimenko. What should have happened a long time ago happened.

Rogozin has previously accused SpaceX of unfairly undercutting the competition.

Instead of honest competition on the market for space launches, they are lobbying for sanctions against us and use price dumping with impunity, Rogozin wrote in an April tweet.

Rogozin also said that his space agency is is working to lower prices by more than 30 percent on launch services to increase our share on the international markets, which he framed as an answer to dumping by American companies financed by the US budget.

To Musk, the reason why SpaceX could undercut the competition so significantly was simple.

SpaceX rockets are 80% reusable, theirs are 0%, he wrote in an April tweet. This is the actual problem.

READ MORE: Trampoline Is Working: Musk Taunts Russia [The Moscow Times]

More on the launch: SpaceX Makes History: Launches NASA Astronauts Into Orbit

Original post:
Elon Musk Just Absolutely Roasted the Russian Space Program - Futurism

One of the many exciting things happening for Philanthropy Womens community is Allison Fines bid for New Yorks 17th Congressional District. Allison is a contributor here at Philanthropy Women and she brings immense potential for real progressive leadership to our government in the U.S., leadership we need now more than ever.

But dont take it from me. Head on over to The New Yorker where Eric Lach interviews Allison in-depth and provides a fascinating portrait of how her leadership has been both fierce and nimble in the age of COVID.

From The New Yorker:

Last November, Allison Fine resigned from the board of the prominent pro-choice group Naral to enter the Democratic primary in New Yorks Seventeenth Congressional District. Fine, a self-described futurist and activist, has written three books about online organizing, including Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age. She came into her campaign already thinking about the tensions between new and old ways of connecting with people, and of building support. Then covid-19 arrived. For those campaigning in the Seventeenth, which was hit by the virus as hard as anywhere else in the country, this meant that the very mechanics of the election were thrown into question. In-person campaigning was suspended. Local news attention turned elsewhere. Potential voters were out of work, stuck at home, and, in some cases, dying. Fine called her friend Seth Godin, a digital-marketing pioneer, who lives a few towns over. I said, All right, this will not be traditional in any sense of the word. What do I do? Fine told me. And he laughed and said, You know exactly what to do.

Fine announced that her campaign would go fully digital and embrace relational organizing, a buzzy term among political operatives for decentralizing campaigns and empowering volunteers. The whole idea is to focus on identifying individual supporters, she said, and then providing them with tools to share informationabout issues, or about me, or about the electionwith their network. In mid-March, Fine let her field team go, paused her fund-raising (I just couldnt, at that moment in time, as a human being, ask people for money), and adjusted her plans for paid media, devoting more resources to online ads. She made the centerpiece of her campaign a daily newsletter, which goes out to a list of five thousand subscribers. Its an intentionally stripped-down product: a chatty subject line followed by a short list of informational and diverting links, which Fine puts together every morning, after shes had her breakfast and read through a hard copy of theTimes. We spend the rest of the day in conversation online on different platforms, whether its Facebook Live, Instagram, Twitterwherever it is, she said. Weve gone all-in with building and strengthening a social network to connect with voters.

Read the whole piece at The New Yorker.

Read Allisons pieces here at Philanthropy Women

Related:

Women: Embrace Your Power for Funding Social Change

#WomenFunded2019: Winning the White House with Women of Color

Activist Collaboration Fund Awards 15 Grants to WOC Orgs

Jean Case Explores Fearlessness in Business and Philanthropy

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Kiersten Marek, LICSW, is the founder of Philanthropy Women. She practices clinical social work in Cranston, Rhode Island, and writes about how women donors and their allies are advancing social change.View all posts by Kiersten Marek

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Allison Fine Featured in The New Yorker - Philanthropy Women

New Algorithm

Over the weekend, Microsoft announced that its laying off dozens of journalists, editors, and other workers at MSN and its other news divisions.

While media layoffs are tragically widespread at the moment, Microsoft said that the layoffs had nothing to do with the COVID-19 pandemic, The Verge reports. Instead, its part of the companys push over the last few months to automate journalism: it plans to replace the laid-off workers with news-scanning artificial intelligence.

Many of the roughly 77 editors and journalists hit by the layoffs helped curate the news stories that appear on the homepage for Microsoft News, MSN, and Microsofts Edge browser, according to The Verge. Now, AI algorithms will scan the internet for news articles to highlight, taking the work of deciding which news is important out of human hands.

In recent months, Microsoft has increasingly urged reporters and editors to rely on AI for tasks like finding and distilling online content and images to use in articles, The Verge reports.

While plummeting ad revenue and other financial downturns caused by the coronavirus pandemic have hit newsrooms hard, Microsoft says thats not what motivated its layoffs.

Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis, a company spokesperson said, according to The Verge. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time to time, re-deployment in others. These decisions are not the result of the current pandemic.

READ MORE: Microsoft lays off journalists to replace them with AI [The Verge]

More on automated news: This Site Uses AI to Generate Fake News Articles

The rest is here:
MSN Fires Journalists, Replaces Them With AI - Futurism