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Monthly Archives: May 2021
Tillis, Colleagues Introduce ‘Don’t Weaponize the IRS Act’ – Thom Tillis
Posted: May 24, 2021 at 8:21 pm
WASHINGTON, D.C. Recently, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) and 40 of his colleagues introduced legislation to prevent the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from being used as a political weapon against American citizens.The IRS should never be used as a political weapon based on political or religious affiliation,said Senator Tillis. While the Biden Administration works to expand the IRS to go after hardworking Americans, I am proud to work with many of my colleagues on this commonsense legislation to protect our First Amendment rights.BACKGROUND:From 2010 to 2012, the Obama IRS spent over two years systematically targeting conservative tax-exempt groups. The Trump administration released a final rule in May 2020 that prevented the IRS from targeting certain tax-exempt groups based on their political beliefs.House Democrats H.R. 1 the For the People Act and Senate companion legislation S. 1 seek to repeal and undermine the Trump rule to weaponize the IRS to target nonprofit organizations based on the applicants political and policy positions.TheDont Weaponize the IRS Actcodifies the Trump rule that protects groups regardless of their political ideology or beliefs and prevents the IRS from doxing donors to these groups.Removing the requirement to report the names and addresses of donors helps protect taxpayers First Amendment rights: such information is not needed for tax administration purposes.The text of the Dont Weaponize the IRS Act can be accessedhere.
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Tillis, Colleagues Introduce 'Don't Weaponize the IRS Act' - Thom Tillis
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Coronavirus | DRDO develops antibody detection kit – The Hindu
Posted: at 8:19 pm
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Friday said it had, in collaboration with a company, developed an antibody detection kit for spotting SARS-CoV-2 virus with a high sensitivity of 97% and specificity of 99%.
The DIPCOVAN kit was developed indigenously by the scientists, followed by extensive validation on more than 1,000 patient samples at various COVID designated hospitals in Delhi. Three batches of the product were validated during last one year. The antibody detection kit is approved by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in April 2021, it said in a statement.
In May 2021, the product received the regulatory approval of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, for manufacture, sale and distribution.
The Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), a laboratory of the DRDO, developed the kit in association with Vanguard Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd., a development and manufacturing diagnostics company based in New Delhi.
DIPCOVAN was intended for the qualitative detection of IgG antibodies in human serum or plasma, targeting SARS-CoV-2 related antigens and offering a significantly faster turnaround time as it required just 75 minutes to conduct the test without any cross-reactivity with other diseases. The kit has a shelf life of 18 months, the statement said.
Vanguard Diagnostics would commercially launch the product in June first week, the DRDO said. Readily available stock at the time of launch would be 100 kits (approx. 10,000 tests) with a production capacity of 500 kits a month after the launch. It is expected to be available at about 75 a test. The kit would be very useful for understanding COVID19 epidemiology and assessing an individual's previous SARSCoV2 exposure, it added.
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Coronavirus | DRDO develops antibody detection kit - The Hindu
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New Bill Includes RMD Increase, Income Annuity and Student Loan Provisions – ThinkAdvisor
Posted: at 8:19 pm
What You Need to Know
Two senators have tossed another bill into the river of retirement legislation flowing into the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee.
Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio,last week reintroducedS. 1770, the Retirement Security & Savings Act, which includes a few new provisions.
The Portman-Cardin legislationwill likely get rolled into theSecure Act 2.0, officially calledthe Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2021, which was approved by a House panel in early May and is widely expected to pass the full House.
The bills we have seen introduced in the past weeks demonstrate that momentum is building for the enactment of another comprehensive bipartisan retirement bill, Paul Richman,chief government and political affairs officer for the Insured Retirement Institute, told ThinkAdvisor Monday in an email. We believe these bills form a strong foundation to help Americas workers and retirees build economic equity, strengthen their financial security, and protect their income to sustain them throughout their retirement years.
The Portman-Cardin bill plus the Grassley-Hassan-Lankford bill [Improving Access to Retirement Savings Act]comes close to the Neal-Brady [Secure Act 2.0] bill so theres lots to work with, an IRI spokesperson added.
Key provisions in the bill would:
The bill is under the jurisdiction of the Senate Finance Committee.
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New Bill Includes RMD Increase, Income Annuity and Student Loan Provisions - ThinkAdvisor
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Heroes & zeros: Who’s advancing diversity and who’s selling out the climate? – Corporate Knights Magazine
Posted: at 8:19 pm
More than 3,100 companies trade on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations exchange Nasdaq. They run the gamut from tech giants like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft to little-known pharmaceutical and clean energy start-ups. So any move by Nasdaq to enhance the governance of its listings has the potential to ripple through a wide swath of corporate America and beyond.
The exchange took a step in that direction in December with a proposal that at least two members of most listed companies boards cannot be straight white men. Small boards with five or fewer members will be allowed to have just one diverse director.
The move has drawn praise from the American Civil Liberties Union hardly known as a friend of big business. By pushing its listed companies to address racial and gender equity in corporate boards, Nasdaq is heeding the call of the moment, said Anthony Romero, the ACLUs executive director. Incremental change and window-dressing isnt going to cut it anymore as consumers, stakeholders and the government increasingly hold corporate Americas feet to the fire.
Critics accuse Nasdaq of trying to set quotas for corporate boards, but the exchange has noted that more than two dozen studies have found links between diverse boards and improved financial performance and corporate governance.
Under the proposal, all Nasdaq-listed companies will have between two and five years to comply with the new rules, or explain in writing why they have not. The Securities and Exchange Commission is set to rule on the proposal this summer.
Quartz estimates that the move will add at least 570 women to corporate boards, plus at least the same number who identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian, Indigenous, LGBTQ or other minorities.
Welcome as Nasdaqs move is, it is not the first nor the most aggressive push for boardroom diversity. California passed one law in 2018 and another last year stipulating that, among other requirements, companies with nine or more directors must include at least three from under-represented groups. Goldman Sachs, a Wall Street powerhouse, said last July that it would take a company public only if the board includes at least one woman or member of a racial minority.
Such initiatives are bearing fruit. A record number of women took the reins of Fortune 500 companies last year, including at UPS, Clorox, Gap and Citigroup. Forty-one Fortune 500 companies now have female CEOs, up from 24 in 2018 and just two at the start of the millennium. The ball may be rolling more slowly than many would like. But at least it is rolling and in the right direction.
Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments are not putting their climate-change mouths where their money is.
The two asset-management giants, which together manage close to US$10 trillion, clearly recognize the benefit of investing in companies with strong environmental records. Fidelitys vast stable of mutual funds, for example, includes a water sustainability fund centred on new technologies to improve the availability of safe and affordable water.
Investors are increasingly seeking to meet their financial goals while contributing to positive social and environmental outcomes, Fidelity proclaims in its promotional material. As stewards of our clients capital, we endeavour to satisfy these aspirations.
One may be forgiven, however, for wondering whether these endeavours amount to much. Neither Vanguard nor Fidelity Investments signed a pledge by 30 mostly European money managers last December to invest only in companies with net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. (One signatory is Fidelity International, which was spun off in the 1980s.) Nor have they joined Climate Action 100+, a five-year global initiative by 400 investors to prod the largest corporate greenhouse-gas emitters to mend their ways.
InfluenceMap, a London-based climate-action advocacy group, notes in its latest Asset Managers and Climate Change report that the two firms lag their main U.S. rivals, BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors: Their transparency on the climate engagement process is poor with minimal references to transitioning companies in line with Paris goals or governance of lobbying practices.
Fidelity was the worst performer of 30 groups assessed by InfluenceMap in 2020, prompting the rebuke that it continues to show limited to no evidence of engaging on climate.
In contrast to the water sustainability fund, the report singles out Fidelitys Contrafund as particularly misaligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement, given the funds holdings in oil production and the lack of investment in electric vehicle technology.
Vanguard supported just 21% and Fidelity 23% of all climate-related shareholder resolutions that they voted on during the 2020 proxy season. Together with Los Angelesbased Capital Group, they opposed every resolution related to climate policy lobbying as they had in the previous two years. By contrast, most leading European asset managers backed the vast majority of such resolutions.
As InfluenceMap puts it, The lack of support from the worlds largest asset managers on resolutions relating to lobbying, energy transition plans, and other key climate issues remains a barrier for forceful stewardship by investors on the climate emergency.
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Watch the Virgin Galactic Spaceship Soar at the Edge of Space – Robb Report
Posted: at 8:18 pm
Virgin Galactic took a giant step towards its goal of making space tourism a reality over the weekend.
On Saturday, the companys space plane, the VSS Unity, successfully made it to the edge of space before returning safely back to Earth, reports CNBC. The flight was the companys third successful crewed space flight and first in more than two years.
The companys latest flight took off from Spaceport America in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico at approximately 10:35 am Saturday. The VSS Unity, which was piloted by CJ Sturckow and Dave Mackay, was carried by its mothership, Virgins VMS Eve, until reaching an altitude of 44,000 feet. At that point, the plane released, fired its engine and rocketed towards the edge of space at more than three times the speed of sound.
Once there, or at about 55.45 miles above the surface of the planet, the plane performed a slow backflip in microgravity, which was captured in video shared on YouTube. The US government recognizes 50 miles above the Earths surface as the edge of space. Backflip complete, the VSS Unity began its graceful glide back down to the earth and crowd of onlookers, including founder Richard Branson, waiting for it back at Spaceport America. It landed at 11:43 am, meaning the entire flight lasted just over an hour.
The VSS Unity fires its rocket engine over New MexicoVirgin Galactic/Youtube
Space travel is a bold and adventurous endeavor, and I am incredibly proud of our talented team for making the dream of private space travel a reality, Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement. We will immediately begin processing the data gained from this successful test flight, and we look forward to sharing news on our next planned milestone.
Saturdays flight, which was originally planned for last December, was Virgin Galactics third successful crewed space flight, and first since February 2019. The first took place two months earlier, in December 2018. The previous flights took off from Mojave Air and Spaceport in California, where the company was formerly based. Virgin Galactic moved its operations to Truth or Consequences in 2019.
Virgin Galactic has three more space flights planned before the end of the year, reports The Verge. The first will carry two pilots and four of the companys employees, and the second will include Branson himself. (Hey, the boss has dreams, too.) The third will carry members of the Italian Air Force and is expected to generate $2 million in revenue.
Virgin Galactic still has two remaining Federal Aviation Administration milestones it has to pass before it can conduct regular space flights. The company sounded hopeful that the information gathered from Saturdays flight will put it on pace to begin commercial operations next year, though. When it does finally get the green light from the agency, there are plenty of customers ready and waiting for their cosmic adventure. The company already has over 600 reservations, with tickets costing between $225,000 and $250,000 for the hour-long space flight.
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As Interest In Space Tourism Booms, New Research Shows What May Happen To The Body In Space – Forbes
Posted: at 8:18 pm
Space tourism is a newly introduced luxury that will potentially become reality very soon. There are numerrous companies trying to scale their technology to make this possible. Take for example Jeff Bezos Blue Origin, which is currently open for bids for a seat on its New Shepard flight planned for July 2021 (current high bid: $2.8 million). Elon Musks SpaceX and Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezaw also announced a new project named dearMoon, which will enable 8 civilians to join a week-long Starship mission around the Moon in 2023. These are just two of the biggest names in space travel, with many more smaller companies ramping up their operations with scalable space-travel in mind.
Indeed, as the prospects of space travel are slowly becoming more promising, one cant help but wonder: am I cut out for space travel? Can my body handle the rigors of outer space? After all, venturing into space is by no means for the faint-hearted. The body undergoes a significant amount of change, including functioning in reduced gravity, being exposed to solar radiation, and undergoing muscle atrophy just to name a few of the many health effects.
Since the beginning of space travel nearly 60 years ago, the scientific community has invested significant resources in understanding what exactly happens to the human body during space travel.
A recent report published in Nature describes a study undertaken to determine how muscle mass and strength is affected during spaceflight. The study, conducted in collaboration with the University of Tsukuba, set two murine [mouse] experimental groups in orbit for 35days aboard the International Space Station, under artificial earth-gravity (artificial 1g; AG) and microgravity (g; MG), to investigate whether artificial 1g exposure prevents muscle atrophy at the molecular level. The results were definitely jarring. The paper authors explain that their main findings indicated that AG onboard environment prevented changes under microgravity in soleus muscle not only in muscle mass and fiber type composition but also in the alteration of gene expression profiles. In particular, transcriptome analysis suggested that AG condition could prevent the alterations of some atrophy-related genes.
These findings are congruent with that of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In fact, a NASA fact sheet explains: the absence of gravity makes working in a spacecraft physically undemanding. On Earth, we must constantly use certain muscles to support ourselves against the force of gravity. These muscles, commonly called antigravity muscles, include the calf muscles, the quadriceps and the muscles of the back and neck. Because astronauts work in a weightless environment, very little muscle contraction is needed to support their bodies or move around. The fact sheet provides startling statistics: Studies have shown that astronauts experience up to a 20 percent loss of muscle mass on spaceflights lasting five to 11 days [] Astronauts on the International Space Station spend 2 1/2 hours per day exercising to combat the effects of muscle atrophy.
View of the Earth rising above the lunar horizon photographed from the Apollo 10 Lunar Module, ... [+] (Snoopy) as it orbited around the moon, May 1969. (Photo by NASA/Underwood Archives/Getty Images)
Other aspects of human spaceflight are equally worth considering. According to NASA, the first hazard on their list is exposure to space radiation, which the agency states increases cancer risk, damages the central nervous system, can alter cognitive function, reduce motor function and prompt behavioral changes. Moreover, the agency lists Isolation and confinement and Hostile/closed environments as two other prominent concerns, highlighting that space travel has significant impacts on mental and behavioral health, in addition to the physical toll.
The European Space Agency has teamed up with five particle accelerators in Europe that can recreate cosmic radiation by shooting atomic particles to speeds approaching the speed of light. Researchers have been bombarding biological cells and materials with radiation to understand how to best protect astronauts.
The research is paying off, according to physicist Marco Durante, who also explains that Lithium is standing out as a promising material for shielding in planetary missions.
NASAs Human Research Program (HRP) is another pioneer in the research arena. The agency partners with external entities in researching and developing innovative approaches to reduce risks to humans on long-duration exploration missions, including NASAs Journey to Mars.One of these partnerships is the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) []The mission of the TRISH is to lead a national effort in translating cutting edge emerging terrestrial biomedical research and technology development into applied space flight human risk mitigation strategies for human exploration missions.
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 9: Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, Blue Origin and owner of The Washington Post ... [+] via Getty Images, introduces the newly developed lunar lander "Blue Moon" and gives an update on Blue Origin and the progress and vision of going to space to benefit Earth at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. (Photo by Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
There are still so many intricacies to delve into and so much research yet to be done with regards to the effects of space travel on the human body. Indeed, as the new-age space race and interest in space tourism continues to accelerate, only time will tell as to how humanity will confront the challenges and experiences that this new frontier entails.
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As Interest In Space Tourism Booms, New Research Shows What May Happen To The Body In Space - Forbes
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Travelling Through a Wormhole in Space May Be Possible, New Research Suggests – Gadgets 360
Posted: at 8:18 pm
The favorite space travel maneuversin and out of a wormhole of science-fiction fables could be more real than we thought. Physicists initially did not know whether black holes existed in the real world. Over the years, they said black holes are very real and then showed they even exist in our galaxy, using the theory of general relativity, which predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to create a black hole. This same theory is now being used to suggest wormholes speculative tunnels that could create shortcuts for journeys across the universe could also be real, which would make it a lot easier to traverse the universe.
Physicists Juan Maldacenafrom the Institute for Advanced Study in the USand Alexey Milekhinfrom the Princeton Universityhave found a method that could produce large holes. The two physicists have argued that the Randall-Sundrum II model allows for traversable wormhole solutions, where the wormholes are big enough that a person could traverse them and survive.
Thoughtheir research, published in APS Physics journal, is progress on previous studies on wormholes, a special machine to allow humans to travel to a different point in the universe through wormholes still seems far away. The two physicists want the mysterious dark matter in our universe to behave in a particular way for their discovery to succeed.
We have a limited toolbox, says Brianna Grado-White, a physicist and wormhole researcher at Brandeis University. To get something to look the way we need it, there's only so many things we can do with that toolbox.
The idea of a wormhole to create a bridge between two universes was first described by physicists Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen in 1935. In theory, they discovered that a black hole's surface might work as a bridge to a second patch of space. Since then, many others imagined wormholes and said some of them might be traversable, meaning humans may be able to travel through them. But these ideas were limited by two challenges: fragility of these tubes and their tininess.
In late 2017, physicists found a breakthrough to prop open wormholes with quantum entanglement a kind of long-distance connection between quantum entities. This new approach inspired a stream of work aimed at creating bigger, longer-lasting holes.
Physicists Lisa Randall and Raman Sundrum had proposed the RandallSundrum models in 1999 to address the Higgs Hierarchy Problem in particle physics.
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A Serene Shore Resort, Except for the SpaceX Ball of Fire – The New York Times
Posted: at 8:18 pm
BOCA CHICA, Texas The text arrived late at night: For your own safety, leave home by morning, it read. Nancy and James Crawford, no longer surprised but still unsettled, raced away in their S.U.V. after sunrise, occasionally twisting their necks to catch a glimpse of the space rocket towering behind them.
Moments later, the Crawfords, who are in their 70s, watched from a 12th-floor balcony on South Padre Island, a few miles up the coast, as the rocket shattered on impact during an attempted landing, spreading fiery debris along the sand dunes and tidal flats. The building shook, Mr. Crawford recalled, and in the distance, there was a ball of fire.
It was exciting, echoed his wife, but too dangerous if we had stayed home.
Home for the Crawfords is a remote coastal community a stones throw from Mexico, a village so small that water has to be trucked in. With a single road in that ends at the shoreline, it has long attracted people eager to escape congested cities, and retirees eager to escape the harsh winters of the North and Midwest.
From the community tucked among lush wetlands, wildlife refuges and sandy beaches, the nearest supermarket is about 20 miles away, past long stretches of gravel roads and a Border Patrol checkpoint. Until a few years ago, the handful of residents could not have imagined that rockets designed for interplanetary travel would be as much a part of their view as the Rio Grande.
But ever since the billionaire Elon Musk brought his private space company, SpaceX, to the area, life has not been the same. A gargantuan gray rocket, surrounded by chain-link fencing less than a mile from the ranch-style brick homes, is a constant reminder that the Crawfords and their remaining neighbors live near a space launching pad.
SpaceX representatives usually give the 10 or so residents plenty of warning that a rocket is scheduled for launching. Other times, loud sirens warn them, and some, like the Crawfords, choose to put on heavy-duty headphones to block some of the noise. When a rocket engine is tested, the roar and trembling are so powerful that they can blow windows inward.
Humans are not the only species who cower. The earsplitting sound of rockets shrieking above the tidal flats has caused some, such as shorebirds, to flee in terror or to stop nesting in the area altogether. And heavy machinery brought in to retrieve whatever debris has scattered often damages the road and scares away other wildlife, environmentalists said.
While the Federal Aviation Administration has given SpaceX environmental clearance for the tests, environmentalists worry that recent explosions could have a lasting effect on the ecologically rich area, home to a number of endangered species, like ocelots and Kemps ridley sea turtles.
When youre testing brand-new technology and brand-new rockets, brand-new engines, stuff like that happens, said Jim Chapman, president of Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, a nonprofit group with a mission to protect the native habitats of the Rio Grande Valley. Well, our feeling is, that shouldnt be happening here.
But the story of how SpaceX came to Boca Chica, about 22 miles from Brownsville, Texas, begins with a promise of a much-needed economic boost to one of the poorest regions in the country.
For decades, Brownsville and the broader Rio Grande Valley have struggled with a lack of opportunities and a brain drain, with many college graduates opting to leave for careers elsewhere.
Before SpaceX became entrenched in Brownsvilles consciousness, the economy had relied heavily on jobs with the government, schools, health care and some low-paying retail stores, officials said.
Representatives for SpaceX, which is investing a fortune in its quest to send people to Mars, did not respond to a request for comment. But officials of Cameron County, which includes Boca Chica, said the company had infused hope and optimism into the region.
When the company announced plans to move to the area in 2014, it promised to create about 500 jobs, said Eddie Trevio Jr., the Cameron County judge, the countys top elected official. But as of late last year, he said, the actual figure was more than triple that, with more than 1,600 jobs in construction, clerical and other fields, most of them given to local residents, he said.
The benefits to the Brownsville area, where according to the U.S. Census Bureau at least 30 percent of the population lives in poverty, will eventually outweigh whatever tension and disruptions the company has brought, Mr. Trevio said.
We have to balance the good with the bad, he said.
The search for the ideal SpaceX launching pad began more than 10 years ago. Sites were considered in other states, including Georgia, California and Alaska, with engineers needing a mostly desolate area close to the ocean. Boca Chica, a retirement community with only a few year-round residents, fit the bill.
After SpaceX signed a deal to set up operations near the village, the testing of rockets that would one day reach outer space began a few years later in earnest, Mr. Trevio said. The company has taken a fail-fast, fix-fast approach, which essentially means that engineers use the tests to identify shortcomings in the design and then make adjustments before the next test.
Over the past year, those who still live in the community have had to flee before every launch. Four rockets have exploded, spreading debris across the area. (The most recent test, this month, did not result in an explosion, and an elated Mr. Musk took to Twitter to celebrate the milestone: Starship landing nominal!)
This was not the Crawfords idea of a peaceful retirement. Both worked in government jobs in Michigan, him in law enforcement and her with a deeds department. And though they still spend their summers in Michigan, they bought their home in Boca Chica 10 years ago in search of nature and some quiet.
Then came the knocks on their door, and on the doors of their neighbors. SpaceX wanted their homes. Representatives with the space giant had appraised the Crawfords single-story, three-bedroom brick house at $50,000 and was willing to pay three times that, they were told. The Crawfords dismissed what they considered to be a paltry offer from one of the richest men in the world.
We cant buy a new house with that money, Mr. Crawford said with a chuckle.
Last October, the offers finally stopped.
We are pretty certain that we will be able to remain in our home, Ms. Crawford said with a sigh of relief.
But many of their neighbors, who like them once found Boca Chica the perfect winter oasis, took the checks and left.
And one by one, the ranch homes have been replaced by modern white houses with solar-powered rooftops, the occupants younger space professionals who work for SpaceX, residents said.
You can tell which homes are SpaceX because they are the ones that look the same, a stale white and black, said Rosemary Workman, 72, who spends most of the year in Boca Chica and has turned down offers to sell her home.
One of her new neighbors has stood out. Mr. Musk has been spotted staying in an unassuming ranch-style house. Ms. Workman and her neighbors sometimes see him taking a stroll with two men they assume are part of his security detail.
He doesnt really make an effort to say hi or get to know us, said Jim Workman, 75, who lives across the street from the billionaire.
The feeling, he admitted, is mutual. He pointed to a flag on his front porch that reads Come and Take It below the image of a cannon, the flag fashioned for the Texas Revolution and long a symbol of defiance in the state.
I think he gets the message, Mr. Workman said.
Concerns over SpaceX extend beyond Boca Chica.
In downtown Brownsville, Elias Cantu, an activist with the League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Mexican-American civil rights organization in the country, stood beside a mural of Mr. Musk that read Boca Chica to Mars and shrugged. He said he feared it would be only a matter of time before Boca Chicas extreme redevelopment found itself encroaching into Brownsvilles poorest neighborhoods.
Its inevitable, Mr. Cantu said. Hell need homes to house all the people he wants to bring down here. Im afraid hes going to push out a lot of low-income families who have lived here for generations.
Xandra Trevio, a member of Fuera SpaceX, an organization pushing back on SpaceXs rapid expansion (its name translates as Leave SpaceX), said she and many other activists felt ignored by area policymakers.
I feel like people believe that SpaceX is going to be good for the community, when in fact, they are too large to control, too large to hold accountable, Ms. Trevio said. Local officials are only seeing money signs. Local officials are star struck.
But area officials said they could not turn away millions of dollars and the promise of high-paying jobs in a region that for decades has been starved for investment.
In the build it and they will come philosophy, the space giant has already attracted other employers to the region. Space Channel, an entertainment network devoted to covering space, recently announced that it would move part of its operations from Los Angeles to Brownsville, including six executives, with local positions to follow. Other companies are likely to do the same, said Rose Gowen, who sits on the city commission.
One of the very important things for me to support, and us to support, is growing the wealth, Ms. Gowen said.
Mr. Musk seems to agree. He recently announced on Twitter that he planned to donate $30 million for city revitalization projects and schools. The mayor of Brownsville, Trey Mendez, did not respond to a request for an interview. But in a statement, he said he supported money coming in. We look forward to a discussion about how this could help our community prosper as we take a front seat to the next chapter of space exploration and innovation, he said.
But that growth is no consolation for the holdout residents of Boca Chica. The Crawfords like to sit in their backyard and admire the several species of birds looking for respite, or the delightful sightings of those migrating.
But reminders that they live near a launchpad are never far away. Every now and then, loud sirens startle them, signaling that the testing of rocket engines is about to begin. Or they receive a text asking them to leave their home, a cue that a launch is imminent.
When a sheriffs vehicle drives by with its sirens on, the Crawfords know they are supposed to run to the street or at least leave their home. They know their windows could shatter. But the last time they heard the siren, on one afternoon this spring, the couple looked at each other and shrugged.
We grew tired of running out, Ms. Crawford said. This is life near SpaceX, after all.
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A Serene Shore Resort, Except for the SpaceX Ball of Fire - The New York Times
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Space exploration China lands a rover on Mars – The Economist
Posted: at 8:18 pm
May 22nd 2021
AT 17:17 GMT on May 14th Tianwen-1, a Chinese mission which had been orbiting Mars since February 10th, made a subtle adjustment to its trajectoryone that put it on course to hit the planets surface six hours later. After three hours, however, it broke itself in two. One part readjusted its path so as to skim past the planet and stay in orbit. The other, a sealed shell with a heatshield on the outside and a precious cargo within, plummeted on towards the surface at 17,000km an hour.
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It entered the atmosphere about 125km above the ground, blazing across the alien sky like a meteor. Once friction with the air had bled off most of its kinetic energy it deployed a parachute. The shell broke open, revealing a landing platform with four legs, a rocket engine and a six-wheeled rover fastened to its top. The engine ignited. When the platform had just 100 metres left to go it paused briefly, hovering as its sensors looked for obstacles that would impede a safe landing. Then it set itself down in a cloud of red dust on Utopia Planitia, one of the great flat plains of Marss northern hemisphere.
Entry, descent and landing (EDL) is historically the riskiest part of any mission to the Martian surface. Every engineering system has to work perfectly. And it all has to happen entirely on the basis of onboard data processing and programming, unsupervised by any human being. Mars is currently 320m kilometres from Earth, meaning radio signals between the planets take 18 minutes to travel each way. By the time the engineers, researchers and bigwigs gathered at the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre knew for sure that the spacecraft was entering the atmosphere, the dust had long since settled.
Once news of its arrival reached mission control, Chinese media lost little time in announcing the triumph to a waking nation which had, for the most part, been blissfully unaware of the drama playing out in the heavens. Aware of EDLs risks, the authorities had given little advance warning of the landing attempt. The details of Tianwen-1s orbital manoeuvres were worked out by amateurs monitoring Chinese telemetry using an Apollo-era radio dish in Germany.
The announcement stressed not just the landing itself, but the complete success of the mission it capped. By orbiting and landing on a planet China had never previously visited, Tianwen-1 had become the most successful first mission to Mars in history. America did not land on Mars until five years after first orbiting it.
That said, both Americas first orbiter and its subsequent Viking landers made their trips in the 1970s. The Soviet Union managed a landing then, too. But the European Space Agency (ESA) has twice failed at the task, in 2003 and 2016the second of those attempts a partnership with the Russian space agency, Roscosmos. Getting it right first time definitely ranks as an achievement, even half a century on. It is, moreover, one achievement among many. In January 2019 China became the first country to put a rover on the far side of the Moon. And last month it launched the first part of a new space station. A second part is due up shortly.
China still has some way to go, though. The capabilities of Perseverance, the one-tonne lander which Americas National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, deposited at a precisely chosen location in Jezero crater on February 18th, far outstrip those of the Chinese rover, Zhurong, which is a quarter of the size. And Perseverance has the benefit of established orbital infrastructure in the form of the Mars Relay Network, five satellites (three American, two European) that can send high-bandwidth data back to Earth. One of the reasons given for Zhurongs failure to send back pictures until May 19th was that the Tianwen-1 orbiter had to refine its orbit yet again in order to pass on messages.
When Zhurong does trundle off its platform and on to the plain, attention will focus on data from its ground-penetrating radar, which is designed to be able to detect ice at depths of up to 100 metres. The distribution of ice is of consuming interest to those who study Mars, defining as it does the limits of the planets potential habitability both in its less-arid past and, perhaps, its human-settled future.
The Mars Subsurface Water Ice Mapping project (SWIM), an attempt to synthesise results from many different approaches to the question, suggests that when Viking-2 scraped the surface at its landing site in another part of Utopia Planitia in the 1970s, its robotic arm may have been within centimetres of permafrost. But that was at 48N. Zhurongs landing site, at 25N, is within the Martian tropics, where underground ice is much less likely to persist close to the surface. Unlikelihood, though, is not impossibilityand it would make any icy discovery even more exciting.
How far Zhurong will be able to go in search of ice is hard to say. It is similar in size and design to Spirit and Opportunity, two rovers America landed in 2004, and like them it has an official life expectancy of 90 sols (a sol is a Martian day, 40 minutes longer than an Earthly one). Spirit ended up lasting six years, Opportunity 14, over which it travelled 45km. If Chinese engineering is of a similar calibre and its operation teams similarly canny, Zhurong may still have quite a journey ahead of it.
It may even last until the next landmark in Mars exploration: the return of samples to Earth. It is a goal NASA has spoken of for decades and now intends to realise. Part of Perserverances mission is to assemble a cache of samples to be picked up later by a joint NASA-ESA mission. Some years hence, the plan goes, America will land a package close to that cache. This will contain both a small European rover to retrieve the samples and a rocket capable of getting them into orbit, whence another European spacecraft will scoop them up and bring them back to Earth. It is the most ambitious planetary-science mission currently being planned.
China is reported to be planning a sample-return mission, too, for launch around the end of the decade. It showed some of the capabilities required for this by returning samples from the Moon last year. If it were to content itself with bringing back any old sample that could be reached from a lander with a rocket on board, that mission could conceivably be accomplished at about the same time as the more sophisticated NASA-ESA attempt. That really would be an interesting space race.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline "Welcome to Utopia"
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Space exploration China lands a rover on Mars - The Economist
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ETF Battles: Want to Invest in Space Travel and Exploration? Try these 3 ETFs – TheStreet
Posted: at 8:18 pm
Note: I'm excited to be partnering with ETF Guide to bring you their weekly web series, "ETF Battles".
ETF Guide founder, Ron DeLegge, explains that in a typical "battle", "each fund is judged against the other in key categories like cost, exposure strategy, performance and a mystery category."
Two industry experts are brought in to debate the ETFs and eventually declare a winner.
For financial professionals and active traders, ETF Guide offers premium research, including ETF trade alerts via text message delivered straight to your mobile device. They also offer a full suite of online financial education courses and, for ETF sponsors, customized research services, product education, and back-end marketing support.
Be sure to check out links to both ETF Guide and the judges down below! Enjoy the battle!
Are you ready to go to the moon? In this episode you'll see a TRIPLE HEADER between 3 space travel and exploration ETFs. It's the ARK Space Exploration ETF (ARKX) vs. the SPDR Kensho Final Frontiers ETF (ROKT) vs. the Procure Space ETF (UFO). Who wins?
Ron DeLegge @ETFguide referees this audience requested matchup with guest judges Dave Nadig from ETF Trends and Todd Rosenbluth at CFRA Research providing their research insights.
Each ETF is judged against the other in key categories like cost, exposure strategy, performance and a mystery category. Find out who wins the battle!
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What's your favorite space related movie or song?
TODD: Spaceballs Movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X0Tc...
DAVE: Space Odessy by David Bowie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH...
RON: Major Tom by Peter Schilling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO0A0...
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ETF Trends https://www.ETFtrends.com
CFRA Research http://www.CFRAResearch.com
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ETF Battles: Want to Invest in Space Travel and Exploration? Try these 3 ETFs - TheStreet
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