Daily Archives: November 28, 2021

Explore the solar system with the Playz Solar System for Kids Exploration kit, now on sale for Cyber Monday!

This set is the perfect STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) gift for the kids in your life ready to explore outer space.

Playz Solar System for Kids Exploration Kit is 65% off right now at Amazon for $24.48.

This is a serious price drop from the kit's usual price of $69.95. And there's quite a bit that's included in this STEM kit. For kids obsessed with outer space, the kit includes 17 different space exploration experiments and activities, 34 different tools and pieces along with a colorful 36-page guide that includes a whole lot of space information and trivia.

For the young, curious people in your life, this interactive kit will allow them to explore outer space, build a spiral galaxy, tour through our solar system and more. With this kit, they will even be able to build their own rocket ship, drive a space rover and more.

Between experiments, activities and STEM crafts, this kit has it all. Whether the young ones in your life dream of being astronauts or are always asking questions, there will be something in this kit for every kid.

In search of more family-friendly deals? Check out this year's best telescopes for kids.

Be sure to check out Space.com's Cyber Monday Space deals for more.

Today's best space board game deals

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Explore the solar system with this STEM kit for 65% off this Cyber Monday! - Space.com

The nation's pioneering vision has been at the core of its outstanding achievements

By Sherouk Zakaria

Published: Fri 26 Nov 2021, 12:35 PM

Last updated: Fri 26 Nov 2021, 12:36 PM

Unesco's declaration to adopt the UAEs National Day, December 2, as the World Futures Day comes at a momentous time when the Emirates gears up to mark its 50th anniversary.

Founded on the solid basis of progress and advancement, the UAE has launched proactive policies and strategies to shape a prosperous future for generations to come.

The country's futuristic vision has been at the core of its outstanding achievements over the last five decades, placing it as a global inspiring model and an active player on the world map.

Here are 10 ways in which the UAE is shaping people's future:

1. Digital transformation since 2001

The UAE Government adopted digital transformation early on by introducing the eDirham in 2001, launching the eGovernment in 2011 and the smart Government in 2013.

To lead the post-pandemic era, the UAE launched the National Digital Government Strategy 2025 to employ advanced technologies in better serving people.

2. Projects of the 50

The UAE is setting firm footsteps towards the next five decades. After launching the UAE Centennial 2071 back in 2017 to pave a long-term roadmap into the country's 100th anniversary, the UAE Government announced the Projects of the 50 earlier in September 2021 to drive the UAE's new era of political, economic and social development.

3. Early vision to space

Sights to space was not new to the UAE. In fact, it started when the UAEs late founder Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan met three Apollo 17 astronauts back in 1976.

The Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) was formed in 2006 before evolving, nine years later, into the present Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.

Besides manufacturing satellites, the centre supervised the design, manufacturing and launch of the Hope Probe, which made a historic arrival to Mars on February 9, 2021, placing the UAE as the first Arab nation to reach Mars. The Centre is currently working on the Emirates Lunar Mission in 2022 and a five-year mission to explore the planet Venus and the solar systems asteroid belt by 2028.

4. Hosting Expo 2020

The UAE transformed a desert spot in Jebel Ali into a futuristic city to host Expo 2020 under the slogan Connecting Minds, Creating the Future. Over six months, 192 countries are gathering in one place to create sustainable solutions and develop inventions for a better future. Dubai won the Expo bid back in 2013.

5. Driverless transport

To keep pace with emerging technologies, the UAE is developing legislative frameworks to regulate autonomous transport.

Shortly after the cabinet approved a temporary license to test self-driving vehicles on UAE roads earlier this month, Abu Dhabi unveiled its first driverless taxi. Dubai plans to convert 25 per cent of its transport to autonomous trips by 2030, and a fleet of self-driving shuttles were tested in Sharjah last year. Flying cars are also being tested in Dubai.

6. Creating new ministries

The UAE regularly adapts its agile structure to the rapidly-changing world. A cabinet reshuffle in 2020 saw the merging and creation of new ministries to lead the post-pandemic era including the formation of a new ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology, the expansion of the ministry of artificial intelligence to oversee the digital economy and remote work applications, and the appointment of three ministers to oversee different facets of the Ministry of Economy.

The UAE was the first in the world to appoint ministers for happiness, tolerance and coexistence, and youth affairs.

7. Future as a strategy

Strategic planning is a key element of the UAE Government to achieve sustainable development across all sectors.

In 2016, the government launched UAE Strategy for the Future to forecast opportunities, trends and challenges, and develop responsive solutions. Since then, a series of strategies and plans were announced to support a comprehensive journey into the future, including the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, National Climate Change Plan of the UAE 20172050, National Strategy for Higher Education 2030, National Space Strategy 2030 and National Strategy for Wellbeing 2031, among others.

8. Active response to climate change

Last month, the government was the first in the region to adopt the goal of decarbonizing its economy and reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as part of the strategic initiative UAE Net Zero 2050.

Earlier this month, the UAE won the bid to host the COP28 climate conference in 2030, reinforcing its global contribution to combating climate change.

9. Accelerating the future

In 2016, the UAE launched the Government Accelerators as a platform for cross-sectoral government teams to address challenges and achieve ambitious goals in short periods.

The initiative was expanded to other emirates including Abu Dhabis Ghadan 21 and the Dubai Future Accelerators. The country also saw the establishment of future-centric institutions like Abu Dhabis Masdar, which has been leading the UAEs efforts in renewable energy since 2006, and headquartering of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi since 2009.

10. Sharing futuristic model

The UAE provides a platform for world governments to explore the future and share successful experiences.

In collaboration with the World Economic Forum (WEF), the UAE hosts the Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils, bringing together more than 700 experts from 70 countries in 41 specialized councils to prepare a clear future agenda to tackle pressing challenges.

The UAE also signed strategic experience exchange partnerships with several countries like Jordan, Costa Rica, Greece, Egypt, Columbia, Uzbekistan and Sudan.

sherouk@khaleejtimes.com

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UAE: Space exploration, flying cars; 10 ways the country is shaping the future - Khaleej Times

In a few weeks, the most ambitious, costly robot probe ever built, the 6.8bn James Webb space telescope, will be blasted into space on top of a giant European Ariane 5 rocket. The launch of the observatory which has been plagued by decades of delays and massive cost overruns promises to be the most nervously watched liftoff in the history of unmanned space exploration.

The observatory built by Nasa with European and Canadian space agency collaboration has been designed to revolutionise our study of the early universe and to pinpoint possible life-supporting planets inside our galaxy. However, its planning and construction have taken more than 30 years, with the project suffering cancellation threats, political controversies and further tribulations. In the process, several other scientific projects had to be cancelled to meet the massive, swelling price tag of the observatory. As the journal Nature put it, this is the telescope that ate astronomy.

Now scientists are about to discover if those sacrifices and soaring costs are justified when, according to current schedules, the telescope is fired into space on 22 December. Its the launch of a generation, says Daniel De Chambure of the European Space Agency (Esa).

Designed as a replacement for the Hubble space telescope still in operation after its 1990 launch the James Webb is a far bigger, much more complex instrument with many more ambitious goals. For a start, it will not study the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum as does the Hubble and most ground-based telescopes but will gather only infrared radiation.

There are many reasons for this, says Prof Gillian Wright, director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh. For a start, infrared is the perfect part of the spectrum for looking through dust, and that is important because stars and planets form in regions full of dust. So if you want to understand where and how other solar systems are being created, the James Webb should provide crucial data.

In addition, atmospheres of planets that might contain chemicals such as methane a gas associated with biological processes are also best studied by gathering infrared radiation and could indicate if they are capable of supporting life.

Spectroscopy is an important way of looking at the formation of promising planets in our own galaxy, adds Wright, who is the European principal investigator for the team that built one of the Webbs four main instruments: the MIRI or Mid-infrared instrument. (The other three devices will also study the infrared spectrum but at differing wavelengths.)

This part of the James Webbs operations is essentially a local affair and will involve looking at stars in our own galaxy. However, astronomers also want to study the very early universe in the period that followed the birth of the cosmos in the big bang 13.8bn years ago. That means focusing on very, very distant galaxies. And again studying infrared radiation provides key advantages.

A telescope is a time machine. It lets you see what the universe was like in the past because light takes a finite time to reach us from a distant object, says Prof Martin Ward of Durham University, who is a member of the MIRI science consortium. However, light gets fainter and redder the further back you look into the universe until its wavelength reaches the infrared part of the spectrum. So if we want to study how the first stars, black holes and galaxies formed, you also need an infrared telescope.

Ground observatories can operate at infrared wavelengths but for prime-quality observations telescopes really need to be lifted above Earths warm, wet atmosphere, which blocks much of the infrared radiation that reaches us from space. Unfortunately, putting such a telescope into orbit has been so demanding it has led to countless delays as thousands of scientists and engineers have struggled to overcome the technical hurdles thrown up by the James Webbs ambitious design.

One problem has been the simple fact that the telescope will not be able to rely on human aid once launched. Hubble still flies in low Earth orbit, where astronauts on the space shuttle were able to repair and service it. But the shuttle was grounded a decade ago and so the James Webb has been designed to operate without any prospect of hands-on help from humans.

Instead, it will be fired on a trajectory that will take it into orbit round the sun to a region known as the second Lagrange point (L2), where, 1m miles from the Earth, the gravity of our planet and the gravity of the sun cancel each other out. Here the telescope can be kept stationary in roughly the same position, where it can operate continuously for 24 hours a day. In addition, small gas engines will be burned to ensure the craft remains at L2.

At Lagrange 2, it will also be easier to keep the James Webb cold. The telescope has been designed to operate at around 40C above absolute zero (about -233C) so that its instruments do not generate spurious heat signals that could swamp the faint infrared radiation it receives from the other end of the universe. Far away from its warm home planet, the telescope will be protected by a five-layer-thick shield that will block out radiation from the sun and Earth, and its MIRI will also be chilled by a liquid helium refrigerator, the James Webb should be able to keep its cool for up to a decade, its designers hope.

But first the observatory will have to overcome a journey riddled with risk. For a start there is the danger of launcher failure. The Ariane 5 has notched up a total 111 liftoffs since 1996, 106 of which were successful. More importantly, its failures occurred early in the rockets development schedule and it is now rated as a highly reliable launcher. Nevertheless there is a chance it could fail as it lifts off from Esas space port at Kourou in French Guiana. And given the amount of money, time and effort already expended on the project, that is still a scary prospect.

And that is just the beginning. On its months-long journey to its new home at Lagrange 2, the telescope will be slowly unfurled as it cruises across space. First to be released will be huge sheets of wafer-thin foil that will act like giant parasols for keeping the telescope cool. Next to appear will be James Webbs main mirror, the heart of the telescope that will collect that infrared radiation from across the universe. It is seven times bigger than Hubbles mirror far too large to be accommodated as a single item. As Wright says: It is a simple fact that putting large objects in space is a lot harder than launching small ones. That has been a key technical challenge for the telescope.

To get round the size issue, the James Webbs designers have built a mirror that is constructed of 18 hexagons of gold-coated beryllium mirror. These will unfurl like a blooming flower and slot together automatically to create a 6.5-metre (21ft) mirror.

Everything to do with this unfolding, this unprecedented automated self-assembly, will have to work flawlessly, a process that will take around six months to complete. Only then will astronomers find out if the James Webb is going to be one of the great technological triumphs of the 21st century or a dollar-devouring disaster. As Thomas Zurbuchen, Nasas associate administrator for science missions, puts it: Those who are not worried or even terrified about this are not understanding what we are trying to do.

A different perspective on the caution and delay that has affected the telescope is provided by Faye Hunter of Airbus, who acted as project manager for the MIRI instrument 10 years ago. I was just going into secondary school when the idea of the James Webb telescope was agreed, she says. Now I am a mother, and a successful project manager and the telescope still has not been launched.

However, Hunter stresses the care and attention that has been taken to make sure the observatory operates perfectly once in orbit, a process that has involved more than 200 engineers and scientists working on MIRI alone. A European consortium provided the components and MIRI was assembled from these at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, she adds.

Then it was put in test chambers, which had all air sucked from them, and temperatures were reduced to levels that the telescope will experience in space. After it passed these tests, MIRI was sent to Nasa, integrated with the telescopes other three infrared detectors and again put through more cyrovac tests. It takes a long time to do this sort of thing but it will be worth the effort.

The decades-long delay inflicted on the James Webb has had other consequences, however. Since it was originally named in 2002, politics has moved on. In 2021, many scientists regard the name as inappropriate since they accuse James Webb a former Nasa administrator of purging gay and lesbian people from jobs in Nasa in the 1950s and 1960s and have pressed for the telescope to be given another name. The space agency has refused such demands, though the controversy is likely to linger.

It also remains to be seen what the James Webb will discover. In its three decades of operations, Hubble helped pin down the age of the universe to 13.8bn years ago; determined the rate at which the universe is expanding; and showed that nearly every major galaxy is anchored by a black hole at its core.

This time, astronomers will be expecting even more. Among their hopes is the prospect of imaging the first galaxies to form after the big bang, understanding how stars are born and evolve, and investigating the potential for life to appear in planetary systems. All this will have to be done in a decade, the maximum likely lifetime of the James Webb. After 10 years, it is expected that it will run out of fuel and the telescope will no longer be able to keep itself located at L2. Then it will drift off course to become the most expensive piece of space junk ever built.

It is unlikely an observatory as costly and complex as the James Webb will be constructed again for a very long time, says Ward. Big observatories like these are like Christmas trees. They are fitted with so many different instruments that are attached like baubles. In future, we can expect that smaller and cheaper telescopes with more specific roles will be preferred by space agencies. So yes, in a sense, this could be the last Christmas for space astronomy.

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The James Webb space telescope: in search of the secrets of the Milky Way - The Guardian

Jancy McPhee kept meeting people who did not know about the International Space Station. At the time, humans had been living in space for nearly 10 years. How could people not know?

Her day job was managing scientific research for NASAs Human Research Program, but McPhee couldnt let go of this question.

I was getting more and more interested in how we talk about space, McPhee said. They have to be motivated. They have to care in order to remember the details given to them about the future of space exploration.

MARS INITIATIVE: Pearland nonprofits pitch: $100 equals one mile to Mars

So McPhee, whose hobbies have always revolved around music and theater, created a student art competition to motivate a younger generation. This contest accompanied an international human spaceflight symposium held in Houston in 2011, and she received 550 entries from 22 countries.

This contest was followed by another, and another, until the program became too large to be included with her day job at the nonprofit research corporation Universities Space Research Association.

McPhee created the SciArt Exchange nonprofit in 2015. And this year, it was one of 19 nonprofits to each be offered $1 million in grant money from Blue Origins Club for the Future, its foundation focused on STEM education.

Now we have a little bit of seed funding that will allow us to increase our capabilities, McPhee said, and, ideally, to really have a greater impact and start moving even further into our ultimate vision.

That vision starts by getting people excited about space exploration; making them feel welcome and inviting them to contribute to the future in space. Then SciArt Exchange wants to train people on communication, creative problem solving and collaboration. Ultimately, it hopes to get people from a variety of backgrounds scientists, engineers, painters, musicians, etc. to work together to solve future challenges on Earth and in space.

Today, SciArt Exchange creates competitions that ask children and adults to create paintings, music, films and stories around broad questions about the future of space. This creativity is shared through live performances and displays around the world, which helps engage an even broader audience about whats happening in space.

The questions vary, with past competitions focused on the International Space Station and the emerging commercial space sector, exploring and colonizing the moon, Mars and beyond, and using space, science and technology to benefit humanity.

But artists often echo the same themes: protecting the Earth from strife and climate change, building cities on other planets and exploring space as one international community.

In 2012, Arundhati Chowdhury entered a contest with her story titled Back to Home. Its about a child growing up on another planet who learns that Earth was destroyed by pollution and world wars. Shes then inspired to become a scientist to reverse the destruction her ancestors caused on Earth.

Chowdhury is from India and submitted this story when she was 13. She won first place for Overall Literature ages 10 to 13 and first place for Short Story Non-Native English Literature ages 10 to 13. She was flown to Cologne, Germany, for an award ceremony in July 2013, where she met rocket engineers, scientists and researchers who changed her life.

The moment I put my feet onto the soil, I knew that I wanted to be here and I knew that I wanted to study physics, Chowdhury said. I found a goal that I could work toward. And I knew in my mind, Hey, I won a competition hosted by NASA. I could do this too.

Chowdhury, now 22, is at the University of Cologne working on a masters degree in physics.

In 2018, Ricardo Bernardini entered an adult competition called Project Mars. Gareth Edwards, director of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, was among the judges.

Bernardini had been a graphic designer in Orlando, Fla., who made a living by creating websites and logos. He wanted to work in special effects and animation, but he couldnt get his foot in the door.

The competition was a chance to meet Edwards, so Bernardini wrote and directed a five-minute short film about the first mother on Mars. His film encapsulated the mothers guilt knowing her daughter would never see Earth and her pride knowing what her daughter could explore and accomplish on Mars.

The movie was selected by judges as the most inspirational film, and Bernardini began submitting it to film contests around the world. This got him work with Netflix, Disney, Hulu and EA Sports.

It affected his family, too. Bernardinis daughter Vicky, who acted in the film, became fascinated with math and science previously two of her least-favorite subjects. His daughter Emilia and son Leo, also in the film, can point out constellations and have spread their love of space to their friends (Bernardini cant take Leo to a rocket launch without also bringing his sons two best friends).

This contest was the door, the gateway to all of this he said. All of the sudden, things started to happen because of this short film.

The grant money from Blue Origins foundation will help SciArt Exchange grow and reach more people.

BLUE ORIGIN NEWS: Blue Origin's next space flight to include Alan Shepard's daughter, NFL legend Michael Strahan

McPhee, who has a doctorate in biophysics, has been the only employee since it opened in 2015, and she currently splits her time between SciArt Exchange and NASA. Through her affiliation with The Aerospace Corp., McPhee is associate chief scientist for the Human Research Program at the Johnson Space Center.

McPhee would like to hire three to four people who can help SciArt Exchange maintain sustainable funding, communicate to a broader audience and host activities, training and events that promote art-science collaborations that benefit humanity on Earth and in space.

This nonprofit is definitely an important outgrowth of myself, she said, but its time for me to step back and let a larger group of people help shape its next phase.

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

twitter.com/a_leinfelder

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Houston nonprofit to use $1M from Blue Origin foundation toward 'ultimate vision' of space and art - Houston Chronicle