Monthly Archives: May 2021

Feeding humans hurtling through space isnt easy.

While todays astronauts get to eat high quality cuisine made on on earth by some of the worlds best cooks, space travel in the future will require entirely new approaches that can grow enough food in space to produce sufficient calories and nutrients for astronaut crews on multiyear interplanetary missions.

Which is why theres growing interest from the space agencies from the U.S., Canada, Japan and other countries to find new and novel food system concepts that can keep astronauts and eventually even permanent space inhabitants fed.

To discuss the current and future state of space food, I recently got together with Anjan Contractor, the CEO of BeeHex, a company who created a 3D pizza printer for NASA. Also joining us was Dane Gobel, the operations administrator for the Deep Space Food Challenge, a new initiative by NASA and the Canadian space agency to spur innovation in developing new food systems for long-term space travel.

Some of the things we discuss on the podcast:

And much more!

You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen by clicking the player below.

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The Food Tech Show: The Future of Space Food - The Spoon

I'm a hell of a lot cooler than you guys. Why don't you just fix your little problem and light this candle?

On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel to space. His historic mission in the Freedom 7 spacecraft came a little over three weeks after the Soviet Union successfully made Yuri Gagarin the first person in space. While Gagarins spaceflight lasted 108 minutes and included a single orbit around Earth, Shepards lasted only 15 minutes and was suborbital.

Shepards mission was part of Project Mercury, NASAs first human spaceflight program, and Shepard was part of a group of astronauts called the Mercury Seven.

NASA introduced the Project Mercury astronauts to the world on April 9, 1959, only six months after the agency was established. Known as the Mercury Seven or Original Seven, they are (front row, left to right) Walter M. "Wally" Schirra Jr., Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, John H. Glenn Jr., M. Scott Carpenter, (back row) Alan B. Shepard Jr., Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and L. Gordon Cooper, Jr.

Alan B. Shepard Jr earned his bachelors degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1944 and graduated from the Naval Test Pilot School in 1951 and the Naval War College in 1957. Shepard began his naval career deployed in the Pacific during World War II and he later entered flight training at Corpus Christi and Pensacola, earning his wings in 1947. As a pilot, Shepard logged more than 8,000 flying hours, 3,700 of which were in jet aircraft.

Shepard joined the astronaut program in 1959 and began of training for his first spaceflight. According to NASA, the Mercury Sevens training was intended to provide the new astronauts with an education in astronautics and space biology, conditioning for space flight, training in the operation of the new Mercury vehicle, familiarization with ground operations, and aviation flight training. This included time in the U.S. Navys centrifuge to test his ability to withstand severe acceleration and deceleration forces while they couldnt actually train in space, they could recreate the experience as best as possible. This made ground simulator training incredibly important and required that the selected astronauts be able to adapt quickly if the in-flight experience unfolded differently than in training.

After two years of training, the day was finally here: On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard climbed into his Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7 and became the first American and second person in space on a 15-minute suborbital spaceflight.

To launch Shepard and his spacecraft into space, NASA turned to existing military ballistic missiles, modifying a U.S. Army Redstone rocket. The Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle was also used to launch Gus Grissom when he became the second American in space a few months later. From John Glenns 1962 orbital flight onward, Mercury missions were launched on modified U.S. Air Force Atlas ICBMs.

NASA turned to military designs once more for the Mercury spacesuits. Shepard wore a modified version of a U.S. Navy Mark IV flight suit (designed for high-altitude military pilots in the Navy and Marine Corps) for hisFreedom 7mission.Its futuristic look is thanks to a silver-colored coating meant to increase his visibility if an emergency rescue was needed. The zippers crossing the suit (27 in total!) were designed to make the fit very tight. In order for Shepard to get in and out of the suit, he had to unwrap that spiral zipperpractically going around his entire bodyand then rewrap the suit around him, tightening the zipper as he went.

Shepards mission ended 15 minutes after launch with splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. Throughout the mission, ground control had nearly continuous contact with Shepard through a worldwide network of ground stations, ships, and aircraft. NASA designed the Mercury capsule for a water landing, with a parachute that deployed at 24,500 feet to begin slowing the spacecraft. Unlike Yuri Gagarin, who parachuted out of his Vostok capsule, Shepard and other American astronauts stayed inside the capsule during the entire descent. After landing in the ocean, Shepard exited the spacecraft and was hoisted into a Navy helicopter and taken to the nearby aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain.

Different than Gagarins secretive launch, Alan Shepards spaceflight was very highly publicized, and millions of people watched the launch live, turning him into a national hero. In the days after his successful spaceflight, Shepard received ticker-tape parades in DC, New York, and Los Angeles, and received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal from President John F. Kennedy. In 1963, Shepard became the Chief of the Astronaut Office after being grounded from future spaceflight due toa diagnosis of Mnire's disease, an inner-ear disorder that can cause dizziness and nausea. However, in 1969 Shepard underwent an operation to relieve the symptoms of Mnire's and was cleared to fly again. He returned to space as commander of the Apollo 14 mission in 1971, becoming the fifth person to walk on the Moon.

Shepards two spaceflights took place nearly 10 years apart and his differing experiences one spaceflight a 15-minute orbital flight and the other a nine-day voyage to the Moon including nine hours of extravehicular activity on the lunar surface showcases how far NASAs human spaceflight capability had come in a single decade.

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Light This Candle: What You Need to Know About Alan Shepard's Historic Spaceflight - National Air and Space Museum

LAS CRUCES, N.M.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPCE) (the Company), a vertically integrated aerospace and space travel company, announced today that it has rescheduled the reporting of its financial results for the first quarter 2021 to following the close of the U.S. markets on Monday, May 10, 2021. Virgin Galactic will now host a conference call to discuss the results and provide a business update that day at 2:00 p.m., Pacific Time (5:00 p.m., Eastern Time). The Company is rescheduling its reporting due to the recent statement issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) on April 12, 2021 relating to the accounting treatment of warrants issued by special purpose acquisition companies (the SEC Statement).

The Company today reported in a Current Report on Form 8-K that, following its review of the SEC Statement and consulting with its advisors, the Company will restate its consolidated financial statements included in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. The restatement is due solely to the accounting treatment for the warrants of Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. that were outstanding at the time of the Companys business combination on October 25, 2019. The Company expects to file the restated financials prior to the new conference call date and estimates that it will recognize incremental non-operating, non-cash expense for each of the fiscal years ended December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019. The Company does not anticipate that the restatement will impact its previously communicated non-GAAP financial metrics, including Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.

As of today, approximately 2.7 million warrants remain outstanding, which represents less than 10% of the warrants originally issued.

As previously communicated, Virgin Galactic is targeting its next rocket-powered spaceflight from Spaceport America to take place in May.

A live webcast and replay of the conference call will be available on the Companys Investor Relations website at investors.virgingalactic.com.

About Virgin Galactic Holdings

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a vertically integrated aerospace and space travel company, pioneering human spaceflight for private individuals and researchers, as well as a manufacturer of advanced air and space vehicles. It is developing a spaceflight system designed to offer customers a unique and transformative experience. You can find more information at https://www.virgingalactic.com/.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws with respect to the Company, including statements regarding the expected impact of the restatement of the Companys financial statements on its 2020 financial results and the timing of filing of its 10-K/A . These forward-looking statements generally are identified by words such as believe, project, expect, anticipate, estimate, intend, strategy, future, opportunity, plan, may, should, will, would, and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this presentation, including but not limited to the factors, risks and uncertainties included in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), including, its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, accessible on the SECs website at http://www.sec.gov and the Investor Relations section of the Companys website at http://www.virgingalactic.com. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause the Companys actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and, except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Financial Disclosure Advisory

The Companys independent registered public accounting firm, KPMG LLP, has not audited or reviewed the estimates contained in this press release regarding the impact of the restatement on the Companys historical financial results. All estimates contained in this press release are subject to change, possibly materially, as management completes the Form 10-K/A and the Companys independent registered public accounting firm completes its audit of the Companys restated financial statements.

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Virgin Galactic Reschedules First Quarter 2021 Financial Results and Conference Call In Response to Recent SEC Guidance Relating to Warrants Issued by...

NASA's history-making Mars helicopter Ingenuity will make its third Red Planet flight this weekend, if all goes according to plan.

The Ingenuity team is targeting early Sunday morning (April 25) for sortie number three. The flight plan calls for Ingenuity to get about 16.5 feet (5 meters) above the floor of Mars' Jezero Crater, travel a total of 330 feet (100 m) and stay aloft for 80 seconds, chief pilot Hvard Grip of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote in a blog post today (April 23).

Grip did not give an estimated liftoff time but did say that data and photos are expected to starting coming down to Earth around 10:16 a.m. EDT (1416 GMT) on Sunday.

Video: Zoom in on Ingenuity helicopter's 1st flight on Mars

Ingenuity's first two flights were not so involved. On its groundbreaking first flight, which occurred on Monday (April 19), Ingenuity went straight up and down, attained a maximum altitude of about 10 feet (3 m) and stayed aloft for 39.1 seconds. On Thursday (April 22), the solar-powered helicopter remained airborne for nearly 52 seconds, got more than 16.5 feet (5 m) high and moved laterally a total of 13 feet (4 m).

During that second flight, Ingenuity snapped a photo of Jezero's floor and the tracks made by its much larger partner, NASA's Perseverance rover. It's "the first color image of the Martian surface taken by an aerial vehicle while it was aloft," NASA officials wrote in a caption for the newly unveiled photo, which Grip featured in his blog post today. (Ingenuity took photos during its first flight as well, but apparently only with its black-and-white navigation camera.)

Ingenuity is a technology demonstration designed to show that aerial vehicles can operate on Mars. A successful flight campaign could open the Red Planet's skies to extensive exploration, NASA officials have said.

The helicopter landed with Perseverance on Feb. 18 and deployed from the rover on April 3 to prep for its month-long flight campaign, which ends in early May. The Ingenuity team aims to make a total of five flights during that span, with each one more ambitious than the last.

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

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Mars helicopter Ingenuity snaps epic photo of rover tracks, will attempt 3rd flight Sunday - Space.com

Kathleen Kate Rubins Ph.D. 06 boarded a mission in November 2020 to conduct scientific experiments under a microgravity environment. She returned to Earth on Apr. 16, bringing updates about her latest research finding.

Great to be back on the planet! the NASA astronaut said at the post-flight news conference last Tuesday.

Sunday marks National DNA Day, which celebrates advancements in the field of genomic research. In 2016, Rubins participated in Expeditions 48/49 to conduct scientific experiments in space. She became the first person to sequence DNA in space, research that she continued on her most recent mission a game changer in the field that opens up possibilities for analyzing various biological samples in space.

A former Stanford cancer biology student, Rubins recent assignment at the International Space Station (ISS) totaled 300 days in space across two flights charting her as the U.S. female astronaut with fourth most days in space.

She described her sense of awe and wonder upon glimpsing the Earth for the first time at the press conference: I was blown away, I couldnt even talk, she said. It is one of those views that never gets old.

Rubins 185-day stay in orbit is part of her preparation for the chance to become the first woman to walk on the moon as soon as 2024. The most recent of the 12 people to walk on the surface of the moon was there on Dec. 19, 1972, as part of the final mission of the U.S. Apollo program. Fittingly, in Greek mythology, Apollo has a twin sister named Artemis, for whom the new lunar landing program is named.

Prior to joining NASA as one of nine members of the 20th NASA astronaut class, she was a principal investigator at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT. She studied viral infections that affect Central and West Africa, including Ebola and smallpox. She brought expertise in infectious disease, molecular biology and microbiology to the team at the ISS.

On Nov. 15, the spacecraft left the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and docked on the Earth-facing port of the Rassvet module, a part of ISS, after a two-orbit, three-hour flight. While in space, she worked on numerous research projects, including comprehensive microbe sampling of the space station and cardiovascular cell behaviour in microgravity.

We were able to advance quite a bit from the 2016 initial sequencing, Rubins said at the press conference. [The] team has developed a lot of different ways of processing samples so they can go straight from a swab to a sequence, which is really important if you are looking at microbes or environmental samples.

Rubins also spent a large portion of the time aboard the ISS studying how plants sprout in microgravity. Freeze-dried food does not always contain all the nutrients astronauts need, especially for long voyages, so her work could help missions in the future.

We did get a few to harvest, Rubins said, describing the radishes that she managed to grow. I shared these with my crew mates so the whole crew was the first to eat radishes in space.

Space biology research will also be crucial to the success of the Artemis exploration program, according to aerospace and astronautics associate professor Simone DAmico.

New genetics and biological techniques are needed to understand how life adapts and changes during spaceflight, he said, adding that ultimately, the goal is to support human exploration of the moon and Mars. Gaining more insights here, such as how fluids move around plant roots in microgravity, is necessary for carrying out large-scale crop growth.

Conducting day-to-day biological experiments in space comes with various challenges. In an earlier interview with microbiology and immunology professor David Relman, Rubins described the practical challenges of conducting experiments in space.

Everything is floating, she said. Nothing is tacked down on your lab bench. You have to put velcro on every piece of equipment.

One of Rubins ongoing interests during her time in space was to establish a full microbial map of the space station, which she initiated during her latest trip by collecting 800 different environmental samples in the Space Station.

In an email to The Daily, Relman explained that studying the microbiome of human-inhabited spacecraft will offer multiple interesting insights.

Spacecraft in particular are the ultimate example of a closed environment, with tightly regulated environmental and life-support processes, he said. The role of microbes in adapting to, and modifying such environments, is relevant for our understanding of the interplay between microbial communities and human-associated environments on earth, including for managing and mitigating microbial community processes.

Relman added that better understanding and anticipation of microbial threats to human health will be critical as humans begin to look into long-term space travel. Understanding ways in which humans contaminate their local environments and the way environmental microbes could threaten our health will guide future investigation on how to best monitor and control these issues.

When theres any possibility of discovering extraterrestrial life forms, NASA investigates how to ensure that nothing on a foreign celestial body is exposed to earthly disease. According to Rubins, the moon is a very good control for Mars. Sampling everything that astronauts are bringing with them to the moon will help them develop a library and catalog of microbial population.

I think it would be a really incredibly interesting experiment to sample the lunar surface just as were doing the course of our exploration and understand our microbial footprint, Rubins said.

The crews on board NASA SpaceX Crew-1 mission, which coincided with Rubinss travel, are scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday, April 28. Rubins said that shed love to go back to the space station again, and for the next expedition shell bring a few photographs of family, a journal and mostly the sense of awe and wonder.

This article has been updated to reflect that Kate Rubins was the first person on the planet to sequence DNA rather than the first woman.

A previous version of this article incorrectly attributed a quote to Rubins instead of Relman. The Daily regrets this error.

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Stanford alumna Kate Rubins returns to Earth after six months of being in space - The Stanford Daily