Category Archives: Mars Colony

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Read next: These are the plastic items that most kill marine animals

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This 27-course bundle can help you learn to code this new year for just $60 - The Next Web

Space movies are usually about hope. Usually, if a character heads off into the harsh vacuum of space, its because theyre exploring, or learning, making contact with aliens, or transforming into StarBabies, or trying to create a far-flung future for humanity. Because of that, I find it fascinating that The Midnight Sky, an adaptation of Lily Brooks-Daltons novel, Good Morning, Midnight, becomes a rare example of a bleak space movie. Its an interesting, and often moving, addition to the space movie canon that never quite figures out what it wants to be.

The book is a quiet meditation on family, loneliness, and the sort of choices that people make without fully realizing that theyre defining their lives. It has a couple of plot twists that I thought worked pretty well, because Brooks-Dalton was able to build states of mind, sudden reveals, and emotional epiphanies in ways that novels are uniquely equipped to do. I was intrigued to see how the movie would handle them, and I was surprised at how well they worked. Unfortunately, the film has a few other problems and plot holes that make this an uneven experience.

While keeping the main structure of the book, the film tries to make the story a bit more of a tense race against time, while keeping as much of the meditation on loneliness as possible. It ends up feeling like something of a mishmash of other astronaut films. Theres the sense of lost time and climate catastrophe that marked Interstellar, a tense spacewalk a la Gravity, the mournful quiet of Moon, and the lone human against an implacable wilderness of The Martian. Since it tries to do a few different things, however, I never felt like the threads quite locked together the way I hoped they would. There are also some logistical things that pushed me out of the movie that I talk about in a spoiler section below, but only go there if youve seen the film! (I give the whole thing away down there, seriously.)

Dr. Augustine Lofthouse is terminally illthis is revealed in the second line of dialogueand decides to stay behind at an Arctic research station when his colleagues evacuate due to a possibly extinction level climate eventthats about the fourth line of dialogue. He doesnt have long to live, and hed rather stay behind to keep working up to the end, basically.

The people hes trying to connect with are the crew of The Aether. Commander Gordon Adewole, Mission Specialist Sullivan, Maya, Sanchez, and Mitchell were sent into space to research K23, a planet that was theorized might sustain human life some thirty years earlier. Theyre on their way back to Earth with samples and research, happy to report that K23 is a great choice for a colony. In fact, there was supposed to be a colony ship ready to go? And a lot more contact with Earth in general? But no ones answering their comms, and theyre starting to worry.

The film spins from there, with Dr. Lofthouse racing to get a warning to The Aether, and the crew trying to navigate home with dwindling hope.

As might be evident by now, while Sol appears in many shots, this is not a sunny film.

Screenshot: Netflix

Many of the scenes of life in the space station are great, as is a trek across the Arctic tundra. All the sections aboard The Aether are solid space movie stuff, especially the tense spacewalk I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, I dont think the two sections work as mirrors for each other as well as they do in the book. Instead its often jarring when we jump from Dr. Lofthouse trudging through snow out to Sully excitedly hauling herself into one of The Aethers zero G hallways so she can float rather than waddle. The other clunkiness comes when the film whisks us back to Dr. Lofthouses past, so we can get a sense of how he came to be this eminent scientist working in the Arctic. The tension between The Work! and A Personal Life! are a little overdone, which undercuts the genuine pathos of his current situation.

George Clooney is great as usual, but in a slightly different way than usual. The scenes of him alone, shuffling through the station and trying to get a message out to the last of Earths space shuttles, would be affecting even in a regular year. (This year, I confess, I had to pause the movie a couple times.) I dont know if Ive ever seen Clooney this desolate? But he captures Lofthouses deep sadness and determination extremely well. Newcomer Caoilinn Springall is luminous as a little girl in the station, Tiffany Boone is vibrant as Maya, and Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo imbue Sully and Adewole with the exact mix of stoicism and deadpan humor you want in an astronaut. Demin Bichir and Kyle Chandler are also solid as Sanchez and Mitchell, but theyre not given as much to do, and since we dont spend much time learning about their lives its harder to invest in them.

Now having said all of thatthere are a few points where the film stretches credulity. Just as Mark Watneys ability to survive on Mars got a little unbelievable a few times, here Dr. Lofthouses trek across the Arctic goes in some directions that work well in an action movie, but are a little harder to buy in this context. Theres also my usual problem with these storiesthis film is set in 2049. For all that this year seems to have stretched into ten years, it is still only just turning 2021 in a week. That means that the main action of this film is nearly thirty years in the future. Dr. Lofthouse, Mitchell, and Sanchez are all just getting rolling in their careers. Sully and Adewole are both still children. Maya hasnt started elementary school yet. AND YET. The one pop culture reference I noticed was a (sweet, funny) bit about a song that is right now currently fifty-one years old. And yes, Maya explicitly says she doesnt know the song, but everyone else knows every lyric! Meanwhile, songs that are popular right now, the ones that would have soundtracked most of these characters youths, never pop up. No Old Town Road, no Good as Hell, no Watermelon Sugarthis always bugs me in near-future stories. Map out your characters lives! Are they 30-ish twenty years from now? Then what did their moms have on the Spotify list when they were ten? Cause thats what they imprinted on.

But the main thing that doesnt quite work for me in the movie lies in the spoiler section, so only head there if youve seen the movie.

Screenshot: Netflix

SPOILERS AHOY!

The Good!

OK, about the twist. I think the movie does pretty well with how they reveal Iris, and how she appears and disappears throughout the film. Its just interesting to me that despite the fact that the film includes a moment hinting that a kid might have been left in the station, seeing her in the film is much less believable than reading her was in Brooks-Daltons novel. Shes much more obviously a construct of his mind in the film, which I think works extremely well. Ditto the reveal at the end of the film! I think Clooney and Jones turn their final dialogue into something truly beautiful.

The Bad!

Anyone who has ever seen a space movie knows that Maya is doomed as soon as she says its her first spacewalk. Its the I have three days until retirement! of space movies. The execution of her doom is wonderfully done. I actually thought the movie had let her off the hook for a few minutes until her injuries revealed themselves.

Her death solves one problem, but creates a new one.

You see, the whole point here, the driving tension of the film (which is different than that of the book) is this idea that if Dr. Lofthouse can get in touch with The Aether, he can warn them, and they can slingshot back to the safety of the K23 Colony. Except.

This crew is made up of three men: Mitchell, who is married to a woman and has a family back home, Sanchez, who is revealed to have a daughter but whose romantic status is never revealed, and Adewole, who is the father of Sullys baby, though their current state of partnership is left a little ambiguous. Then there are two women: Sully and Maya. Sully is pregnant, Maya is young enough to be the other mens daughter, and her own inclinations are never discussed. So if Maya had lived, and all of them had headed back to K23, you end up in a scenario where there are two somewhat older men, both of them grieving their dead families, a couple with a baby, and a younger woman with no potential partners, living out their lives together with whatever supplies were sent by Earth before The Event.

Not fun.

Instead, Maya dies, and then Mitchell and Sanchez decide to return to Earth and certain (possibly immediate) death. Mitchell because he wants to go back to his family and Sanchez because he wants to bring Mayas body back to home. Which is noble, and beautiful on a certain level. But it also means that rather than going back to K23 to live out the rest of their lives as a makeshift family with Adewole, Sully, and their child, the other men are dooming the couple to return alone, deal with Sullys delivery alone, raise the child alone, and, if they live long enough, eventually be cared for by a child who will then watch both of its parents die, live out the rest of its life on K23, alone, and then die, alone.

At least with two more able-bodied men life in the colony would have been a little easier. At least for a while.

Now it could be that Ive been in isolation too long, or that Ive seen too many space movies, or that Im thinking too hard rather than allowing the movie to wash over me. But I got the sense that the filmmakers wanted me to feel a sort of swell of emotion or grief or something when Mitchell and Sanchez make their decision, and instead I ran through all of these scenarios and just got mad at these two fictional men.

Screenshot: Netflix

END OF SPOILERS!

Now for those who didnt read the spoilersis The Midnight Sky worth a watch? Im honestly on the fence here. After everything, and even with all of my issues with the film, there are a few scenes at the end that were simply gorgeous, raw, emotional work from everyone involved, and I dont want to diminish that. I think that if you liked all of the space canon I mentioned at the beginning of this review, you might get a lot out of The Midnight Sky. (Im also still mulling whether people who like Ad Astra might enjoy this one? For the record, I hated Ad Astra.) I also found myself thinking about First Man quite a bit. That was also a slow, sad film, but I left that one wanting to talk about it and watch it again. And while there are lovely moments in this film, The Midnight Sky is desolate in a way that, for me at least, wont invite repeat viewing.

Leah Schnelbach still doesnt want to go into spacebut this movie did make it look pretty as heck. Come talk about pop culture of the future on Twitter!

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The Midnight Sky Takes Us Into Spaceand a Bleak Near-Future - tor.com

Bulgarian blind Baba Vanga, who predicted 9/11 attacks, had also made some predictions for the upcoming year 2021. According to Blind Baba, the world will face cataclysms, disasters in 2021 and a strong dragon will seize humanity.

For the uninitiated, Baba Vangas real name was Vangelia Gushterova. She was nicknamed as the Nostradamus of the Balkans for making bizarre claims. Baba Vanga, who lost her vision at the age of 12 during a massive storm, had claimed that she was given a very rare gift from God to see into the future.

Her claims about the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the death of Princess Diana and the Chernobyl disaster have all become true. She was believed to have got 85 per cent of her predictions right.

Strangely, Baba Vanga, a blind psychic, who died in 1996 at the age of 85, has rightly predicted the September 11 terror attack and Brexit. Now her predictions for the year 2021 have been revealed.

The world will suffer from a lot of cataclysms and great disasters. The consciousness of people will change. Difficult times will come. People will be divided by their faith. We are witnessing devastating events that will change the fate and destiny of humanity, she had claimed.

The Nostradamus of the Balkans had also predicted that 2021 will be when a cure for cancer is found. At the beginning of the 21st century, humanity will get rid of cancer. The day will come when cancer will get tied with iron chains, Baba Vanga had claimed.

The Bulgarian mystic has also prophesied that US President Trump will apparently suffer from a mysterious disease. She had claimed that the 45th President of the United State will get infected with a mysterious disease that will leave him deaf, and cause brain trauma.

Baba Vanga had also claimed that Europes economy will fall, an assassination attempt will be carried out against Russian President Vladimir Putin by someone within his own country and Islamic terrorists will stage an attack in Europe.

She had predicted doom for Trump and Putin in 2019 and 2020. However, both of them have survived although Trump contracted coronavirus in October this year and an attempt to assassinate Putin was stopped in 2012.

Baba Vanga had also said, The extremists will use an arsenal of chemical weapons against Europeans. The deceased prediction maker had also added, The petrol production will stop, and the Earth will rest and trains will fly by using sunlight.

One of the most bizarre predictions by Baba Vanga for the year 2021 is that a dragon will take over the planet. A strong dragon will seize humanity. The three giants will unite. Some people will have red money. I see the numbers 100, 5, and many zeros.

Some people belive that the dragon Baba Vanga referred to is China. The three giants may be Russia, India and China. They interpret that the money could be the Yuan or Ruble notes, which are red in colour.

She had also predicted an end to world hunger by 2028, Mars colonies acquiring nuclear weapons by 2256 and that Earth will become uninhabitable by 2341. Her prophesies run until the year 5079 when she said the world will come to an end.

However, only time will tell whether Baba Vanga has predicted right or not. It is also interesting to see how many of these prophesies of Baba Vanga will turn out to be true.

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Trump will suffer from a mysterious disease, assassination attempt on Putin: Here are Bulgarian Blind Baba Vangas predictions for 2021 - OpIndia

Though often only lightly touched upon in the games, the history leading up to the events of Mass Effect 1 is among the most interesting lore in the entire franchise, and some of the best backstory to know before playing Mass Effect: Legendary Edition when it comes out next year. The remaster of the original trilogy was announced on N7 Day back in November after years of speculation.

The Mass Effect timeline will be newly relevant as Mass Effect: Legendary Edition throws players back to the start of the series to battle the Reapers once again.

RELATED:Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Has a Unique Opportunity After ME4 Teaser

The best place to start with the Mass Effect lore isnt with the humans or the Asari, but with the Milky Way Galaxy itself. Billions of years ago, a race known as the Leviathans dominated the galaxy. These giant cuttlefish-like beings would indoctrinate the alien species they encountered, just as the Reapers who later took forms based on the Leviathans would.

The Leviathans would ostensibly protect the alien species they enthralled in return for tribute, but it wasnt long before their ostensibly benevolent aims gave way to their true character. As more and more of the Leviathans thrall species began to rebel, they created the Intelligence, an AI with one goal: figuring out how to preserve life throughout the galaxy.

However, the Intelligence would eventually perform its job too well. The AI concluded that a cycle of destruction was necessary for the preservation of organic life, destroying all space-faring civilizations every 50,000 years and preventing organics from ever surpassing a certain technological horizon. Harbinger, the first Reaper, was created using Leviathan DNA. These new synthetic organic beings destroy their creators and spread out across the galaxy, creating the Mass Relays and the Citadel.

50,000 years before the start of Mass Effect,the last race to be wiped out by the Reapers the Protheans took their last stand. As the Reaper threat became increasingly apparent, the Protheans became more militaristic, forcibly assimilating the other advanced species into the Prothean empire to try and stop the tide of destruction. They failed. Much of the technology the Reapers left behind would be ascribed to the Protheans, especially by the jellyfish-like Hanar, who consider them the enkindlers who gave their kind language and technology.

Millenia later, around 1900 BC, the Krogan discover nuclear weaponry. It isnt long before Tuchankas warlike race has blown their civilization back to the stone age, devolving into a warring factions. The Asari become the first species since the Protheans to discover a Mass Relay, making their find around 580 BC and quickly exploring the Mass Relay network. At its heart they discover the Citadel, while the newly spacefaring Salarians arent far behind.

Unbeknownst to them, the Citadel was a trap. As the heart of the Mass Relay network, it formed the natural base of any galactic community. However, it was also another huge Mass Relay connected to dark space, allowing the Reapers to come through and wipe out the heart of any new galactic empire to have arisen in their 50,000 year slumber.

In 500 BC, the Citadel Council was created by the Asari and the Salarians. 200 years later, they are joined by the Volus. Around the same time, first contact is made with the Elcor, Hanar, Quarians, and Batarians, but these species are given embassies on the Citadel rather than a seat on the council.

In 1 AD, the Racnhi Wars start. A group of Salarian scientists travel through a Mass Relay leading to Rachni space, where they are quickly taken prisoner and their tech reverse engineered. The war is devastating, and the huge number of Rachni makes it very difficult for the Citadel Council to see an end in sight.

However, around 80 AD, the Salarians uplift the Krogan, granting them new technology in exchange for their help fighting the Rachni. Hardy, warlike, and able to produce up to 1000 eggs at a time, the Krogan prove the perfect match for the insectoid Rachni. By 300 AD, the war is declared over, and the Rachni eradicated. The Krogan population, however, continues to boom.

In 700 AD, the Krogan Rebellion begins, and the Citadel Council reaches out to the Turians, a newly discovered species they hope can curb the the Krogan threat. The Salarians, alongside the Turians, are ultimately able to pacify the Krogan with the help of a bioweapon known as the Genophage which renders them almost infertile, though an individual Krogan can still live over 1000 years. The Turians are then accepted into the Citadel Council.

RELATED:5 Parts of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition That Won't Age Well

Around 1895 AD,the Quarians labor machines the Geth gain self-awareness and revolt, leaving the Quarians to drift on the Migrant Fleet between worlds. Although expected to expand, the Geth remain on the worlds they originally inhabited. The Citadel expels the Quarian embassy, angry that the Geth were created at all. Humanity begins to expand rapidly around this time:

In 2183, the events of Mass Effect 1 begin, with the Geth, Rachni, and Citadel races all making appearances. Humanitys place in the galaxy is newly formed and vulnerable, not to mention lower down than the Citadel Council races. Its a starting point many fans will be excited to dive back into when Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is released.

Mass Effect: Legendary Editionis set to release in 2021 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

MORE:Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Doesn't Mention Multiplayer, and That's a Good Thing

Weird Pokemon Sword and Shield Glitch Sends Snorlax Flying

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Everything You Need to Know About the Mass Effect Timeline Before ME: Legendary Edition - GameRant

With the holidays on the horizon, it's time to start shopping. For those loved ones in your life who love both space and game nights, Space.com has you covered. The Space.com staff (most of whom are also game lovers!) has kept their eyes peeled for the best space-related board games.

Some of the games in this guide take a cosmic twist on classic games, like Monopoly and Trouble, and some are brand new space adventures (one that involves butts).

Check out our space games gift guide below. And for more out-of-this-world gift ideas, check out our other buying guides:

Terraforming Mars: $69.95 $41.99 on TargetIt's smart, challenging and beautifully crafted and now you can get the Terraforming Mars base game with a huge 40% discount, saving you $27.96 on the usual price.View Deal

We can't live on Mars yet, but you can try and make the Red Planet a New Earth in the amazing Terraforming Mars board game from Stronghold Games. At $41.99 on Target, the game is a whopping 40% off its normal $70 price, which is a great deal for even the stingiest space agencies.

Terraforming Mars challenges two to four players to transform the Red Planet in a game that's at once cooperative and competitive. The first to get Mars past the tipping point of habitability with their megacorporation wins the 24th century. You'll need to raise the planet's temperature, make some air, build cities and oceans while managing your resources.

Terraforming Mars: Venus Next: $29.95 $23.05 on Amazon Venus is a deadly world, but one full of potential. Can your corporation succeed in building huge flying cities and introducing life in an inhospitable environment?

Venus Next adds a side game board as well as new tiles, tokens and Venus cards to the deck.View Deal

Terraforming Mars: The Colonies: $29.95 $25.39 on AmazonThe pursuit of resources has expanded to all corners of the solar system. Help your corporation colonies the clouds of Jupiter and trade with faraway moons in this expansion.

Colonies adds Colony tiles and includes new cards and corporations.View Deal

Terraforming Mars: Turmoil: $34.95 $29.74 on AmazonAll is not well on Mars. This expansion lets you struggle for control of the transforming Council and influencing the politics that have developed.

Turmoil includes new corporations, projects, and new global events cards that can throw anything from dust storms to uprisings at the players.View Deal

And if Mars is not enough, several expansions are on sale for Black Friday, too. In Venus Next available from Amazon, you'll match wits with competitors to make Venus the next home for humanity. It's on sale for about $23, down from $40. Terraforming Mars: The Colonies (on sale for $25.39 on Amazon) takes aim at the outer solar system, while the expansion Terraforming Mars: Turmoil (on sale for $29.74 on Amazon) returns to the Red Planet, where political tensions, civil uprisings and more make Martian life a challenge!

Star Trek Catan: $65 $50.15 at AmazonThe final frontier gets the Catan treatment, as players set out to settle strange new worlds beyond Federation territory. Including original series Enterprise characters on playable cards, right now you can begin your own Star Trek adventure with 23% off.View Deal

Catan may be an enthralling settlement strategy game, but if you want to reach the final frontier, you need to go Star Trek. And right now, the game is 23% off at Amazon, where it's available for just over $50 (down from $65).

This incarnation of the popular Catan franchise send you out across the many worlds of the Federation to seek out (and build) new civilizations. You can build starbases, outposts and use starships to establish vital trade and supply routes to keep your footholds on the galaxy stocked with gear.

Just watch out for Klingons as you try to go bodly where no one has gone before.

Space-opoly: $24.99 $20.99 at Amazon

Save 16% on Space-opoly, which takes a cosmic twist on the classic Monopoly. Each player picks a spaceship to travel the universe and stake their claim on the planets in our solar system.View Deal

Space-opoly takes on the classic Monopoly format and puts it in space. Instead of racing around buying up property, youll be rocketing around the galaxy, buying up planets and collecting stars and trading them in for orbs. Of course, traveling through space can be dangerous. Youll encounter obstacles like a failed launch or a leak in your spacesuit.

Fly, or fly not with "Star Wars: X-Wing - The Force Awakens", which is streaking out of stock fast at Amazon at 32% off. This dogfighting game will pit your skill against different fighters from the "Star Wars" universe. Templates and maneuvering styles make your ship-flying as easy as using the Force. You can dive into your Resistance squad-building with strategy-focused expansions, too.

This game takes the classic Battleship out of the water and into the cosmos. Instead of trying to sink ships, you'll be trying to vaporize spaceships. And while the old game was 2D, this game is in 3D. Opponents will have to search for enemy spaceships in three coordinates: row, column, and sector. The game spans three vertical sectors, with five spaceships hiding out for each team. Each fleet includes the same five types of spaceships: the Dueler, Tricorn Fighter, Celestial Crawler, Rocket Raider, and the mighty Quadron.

To make a hit, a player calls out two of the three coordinates (the sector and either the row or column). If an enemy spaceship occupies any part of that space, it gets hit. Once an opponent has found every part of the ship, it's "vaporized" and out of play.

With a little more complexity and a modern space theme, Battleship Outer Space is a fun time for the whole family.

Ages 7+

This isn't the Monopoly you remember as a kid. Instead of racing around collecting properties like Boardwalk and Park Place, you'll be racing around collecting bits of the planets in our solar system and their moons. Monopoly Space is a race to own the universe.

The pieces are astronauts, rovers, spaceships, and satellites. Of course, the game's most classic spaces passing Go, going to jail, chance, and community chests, are all the same. It wouldn't be Monopoly without them.

Ages 8+

Another classic turned cosmic, Trouble on the Moon makes some space-themed updates. Instead of trying to get several blob-shaped pieces "home," you're trying to get a group of astronauts exploring the moon safely into their airlocks. For the most part, playing this version is similar to playing the original Trouble. You pop a bubble in the middle of the board to roll two dice, which tell you how to move.

But in Trouble on the Moon, one of those die has a series of actions instead of numbers. Depending on the roll of that die, your astronauts might be afforded extra safety (like if you get fresh oxygen) or put into danger (like when you run into low fuel). The game also has a series of space tethers, which allow players to move more quickly around the board.

As with the original, the first player to get all four astronauts safely into their designated airlock wins the game.

Ages 5+

If you're looking for a game that's fun for the older space nerds in your life, The Crew is a perfect option. The Crew is a cooperative strategy game. Each player is on a team of astronauts traveling through the solar system in search of the mysterious Planet Nine. With cards and tokens, players need to complete 50 different missions on their journey, getting more and more difficult as the game progresses.

Each mission takes five to 10 minutes, and the game can be picked up over several different game plays (as long as you have the same team).

With a truly unique plot and challenges that require cooperation, The Crew makes for a fun game-night adventure.

Ages 10+

Once again, you and the other players in Spaceteam act together to save your crew. The premise of Spaceteam is that three to six astronauts (ie, players) are on a spaceship hurtling through space. But the ship is falling apart. In order to save yourselves, you have to work with the other members of your team to rebuild faster than it breaks.

Each player has a set of blue "space tool" cards with ridiculous names like "centrifugal dispenser" and a set of orange "malfunction" cards. When it's time to play, you flip your first malfunction card face up on the table. And then you start shouting. Each malfunction care has a set of space tools that will fix it you might have those tools in your hand, or they might be in someone else's hand. In order to get the tools you need, you have to yell and hope someone on your team passes you the right card.

What makes this difficult (and a bunch of fun!) is that everyone else is trying to fix their own malfunction. And so, this becomes a game of yelling over, and listening to, each other to work together and fix the ship.

Anomaly cards thrown into the deck provide extra challenges, and "systems go" cards (6 of them, which represent different parts of the ship) need to be collected before time runs out to win the game.

Take it from Space.com staff, who are big fans of Spaceteam this is a bundle of fun at any nerdy game night.

Ages 12+

As you might be able to guess, Butts in Space is hardly the most serious space game. As the story goes, Evil Butt has stolen all of the toilet paper in the universe and destroyed your toilet-shaped spaceship. Two to four players join the game as "Bow Butt," "Hairy Butt," "Classy Butt," or "Butt Butt."

This team of butts takes off on a quest throughout the universe to take the toilet paper back. These are, of course, no ordinary toilet papers. You have toilet paper that looks like a gumball machine, toilet paper that looks like a cupcake, like a pineapple, like a unicorn, and many more.

Throughout your quest, you're dodging obstacles like "Power Farts" and gaining safety cards like a lucky pair of underpants. Whoever has the most sets of toilet paper cards at the end of the game wins.

This colorful, cartoony, hilarious game is a fun time for any space nerd who doesn't take themselves too seriously.

Ages 9+

Follow Kasandra Brabaw on Twitter @KassieBrabaw. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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The best space board games of 2020 - Space.com

SPACEX has completed a key test of its new Starship rocket that the firm hopes will one day carry astronauts to the Moon and Mars.

The California company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, fired up three Raptor engines attached to its latest Starship prototype on Tuesday evening.

The "static fire" was the fourth such test performed by SpaceX's eighth prototype, called SN8.

Static fires involve lighting the engines up while the spacecraft remains stationary on the ground to collect vital data ahead of full flights.

Following the not-so-lift-off, Musk, 49, said SN8 could go on to make its maiden flight, blasting up to nine miles high as soon as next week.

Describing the manoeuvres the spacecraft will perform during the unmanned voyage, he tweeted on Tuesday: "Goals are to test 3 engine ascent, body flaps, transition from main to header tanks & landing flip."

2

Starship is the next generation of SpaceX rocket designed for long-distance trip to faraway worlds.

Musk hopes to use the rocket to launch astronauts to the Moon and Mars within the next decade, and to set up a Martian colony by 2050.

It's still in the early stages of development, and trial "launches" throughout this year have taken the form of short hops of a few hundred feet.

These tests involve a single trash can-shaped engine but the final spacecraft will look a lot more like a traditional rocket, sporting a cone-shaped nose.

The rocket's next trial will involve a full flight launched from SpaceX's Starship facility near Boca Chica in South Texas.

The SN8 prototype will fire 15km (9.3-mile) into the air under three Raptor engines before touching back down on Earth.

Writing on Twitter on Tuesday, Musk said there was only a one-in-three chance the rocket will make it back to Texas in one piece.

"Lot of things need to go right," he said. "But thats why we have SN9 & SN10."

What is SpaceX?

Here's what you need to know...

SpaceX is a cash-flushed rocket company that wants to take man to Mars.

It was set up by eccentric billionaire Elon Musk in 2002 and is based in Hawthorne, California.

SpaceX's first aim was to build rockets that could autonomously land back on Earth and be re-used.

Musk hoped the technology would make flying and operating space flights far cheaper.

SpaceX currently uses its reusable rockets to fly cargo to the International Space Station for Nasa.

It also carries satellites and other space tech into orbit for various international governments and companies.

The company took astronauts up to the ISS for the first time in 2020.

Other future missions involve carrying tourists and astronauts to the Moon.

Musk has repeatedly said he believes humanity must colonise Mars to save itself from extinction.

He plans to get a SpaceX rocket to the Red Planet sometime in the 2030s.

Billionaire Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla, hopes to send a million people to Mars in his lifetime using a 1,000-strong fleet of the powerful rockets.

The finished product will stand 165ft (50 metres) tall and boast six of SpaceX's powerful Raptor engines.

According to SpaceX, the contraption will hit speeds of 15,000mph (25,000kph), making it the world's most powerful spacecraft.

In a series of tweets earlier this year, Musk outlined how his Starlink plans would open up space travel to anyone, regardless of their income.

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"Needs to be such that anyone can go if they want, with loans available for those who don't have money," he wrote.

Musk's plan involves building an expansive fleet of Starship vehicles, which comprise a huge rocket topped by a bullet-shaped spacecraft.

SpaceX says reusable rockets that can land and take off again make space travel more cost effective, accessible and sustainable.

However, the team has a long way to go before they can conduct Starship's first manned flight.

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In other news, SpaceX completed its secondsuccessful Starship booster test flightin Setpember.

Muskwants to send humans to Marsas early as 2024 aboard one of the huge rockets.

And, Nasaset a hillside on fireduring a recent testof the "most powerful rocket ever built".

What do you think of Musk's plans for Starship? Let us know in the comments!

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk

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SpaceX tests rocket that will 'SAVE humanity' by shuttling us to Mars - The Sun

As humans explore worlds beyond Earth on longer missions in the future, it's crucial to understand how our bodies may react to a sustained lack of gravity and radiation exposure.

The 2019 NASA Twins Study provided an all-encompassing look at the effects of spending nearly a year in space on the human body when NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent 340 days on the International Space Station while his identical twin Mark (now a US Senator-elect from Arizona) was on Earth.

Now, scientists have gathered the largest set of data about space biology to date based on astronauts including the Kelly twins, mice and insects that have flown on the space station.

The 30 studies, authored by more than 200 researchers from around the world, represent the largest body of information on the risks of space flight to the human body.

The studies identify six key molecular changes that may have a significant impact on astronaut health. Understanding these changes is key for preparing for long-term spaceflight missions to the moon and Mars in the future.

The Biology of Spaceflight collection of 30 studies published Wednesday in the journals Cell, Cell Reports, Cell Systems, Patterns and iScience.

The six molecular changes that occur during spaceflight include DNA damage, oxidative stress, alterations of telomere length, shifts in the microbiome, mitochondrial dysfunction and gene regulation.

Oxidative stress happens when free radicals overwhelm antioxidants in a cell, encouraged by the space environment. This type of stress was found to be largely connected to the other molecular changes the researchers observed.

These changes on a cellular and molecular level can have a significant impact on astronaut health, both during and after their missions. These impacts have been observed on the cardiovascular, central nervous, musculoskeletal, immune and gastrointestinal systems, as well as causing disruptions to circadian rhythms and changes in vision.

Increased cancer risks have also been associated with these changes.

One of the new studies also identified clonal hematopoiesis, when blood cells carrying mutations spread more quickly than others, as a potential risk among astronauts for cardiovascular disease, lymphoma and leukemia. Clonal hematopoiesis was identified in blood samples from astronauts 20 years before the average age when it is normally detected at age 70, compared to 157 cancer patients.

So far, missions to the space station have not exceeded a year, but deep space missions to Mars could last up to five years.

"Understanding the health implications from the (6) features and developing effective countermeasures and health systems are key steps in enabling humanity to reach the next stage of space exploration," the authors wrote at the conclusion of their study spanning the effects of spaceflight.

Telomeres act like caps at the ends of chromosomes to protect them and they shorten as people age.

During the Twins Study, the telomeres in Scott's white blood cells actually grew longer in space and returned to a normal length after he returned to Earth.

In a new study, the blood samples of 10 astronauts collected before and after spaceflight were studied and compared with the results of the Twins Study.

Although these astronauts were shielded from some space radiation during their six-month stays on the space station since it's in low-Earth orbit, the researchers still spotted evidence of damage to their DNA.

The astronauts' telomeres elongated in space due to chronic oxidative stress sustained during spaceflight. Once they returned to Earth, their telomeres were shorter than before spaceflight.

"We now have a foundation to build on - things we know to look for in future astronauts, including telomere length changes and DNA damage responses," said Susan Bailey, author on three of the studies and Colorado State University professor, said in a statement.

"Going forward, our goal is to get a better idea of underlying mechanisms, of what's going on during long-duration space flight in the human body, and how it varies between people."

Bailey, an expert on radiation damage to DNA and telomeres, was also an investigator for the Twins Study.

While longer telomeres may sound like an advantage of space travel, Bailey suspects this effect could lead to other risks rather than serving as a fountain of youth.

"Extended lifespan, or immortality, of cells that have suffered space radiation-induced DNA damage, such as chromosomal inversions, is a recipe for increased cancer risk," Bailey said. "Telomeres really are reflective of our lifestyles - whether on or off the planet. Our choices do make a difference in how quickly or how well we are aging. It's important to take care of your telomeres."

Health issues specific to astronauts include muscle and bone loss, heart and liver problems and immune system dysfunction.

Now, researchers believe these issues are rooted in a broader issue called mitochondrial dysfunction.

Mitochondria are the powerhouses that generate chemical energy required for cells. And when they're exposed to altered gravity or radiation, they essentially malfunction.

"We started by asking whether there is some kind of universal mechanism happening in the body in space that could explain what we've observed," said Afshin Beheshti, senior study author and a principal investigator and bioinformatician at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, in a statement.

"What we found over and over was that something is happening with the mitochondria regulation that throws everything out of whack."

Their study included data from the Twins Study, animal studies and samples from 59 astronauts.

When the mitochondria are suppressed, ripple effects can be observed across the liver, other organs and in the immune system. The researchers believe this dysfunction could also explain the issues astronauts have with disrupted circadian rhythms (body clock) and even cardiovascular issues.

Understanding the root of the problem could help researchers target it.

"There are already many approved drugs for various mitochondrial disorders, which would make it easier to move them toward this application," Beheshti said. "The low-hanging fruit now would be to test some of these drugs with animal and cell models in space."

A study using fruit flies born on the space station, which means they spent half of their lives in space, showed that their hearts were smaller and less efficient at pumping blood. And if astronauts live on the moon or the surface of Mars for a lengthy mission, they may experience something similar.

"For the first time, we can see the cellular and molecular changes that may underlie the heart conditions seen in astronaut studies," said Karen Ocorr, co-senior author of the study and assistant professor in the Development, Aging and Regeneration Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, in a statement.

"We initiated this study to understand the effects of microgravity on the heart, and now we have a roadmap we can use to start to develop strategies to keep astronaut hearts strong and healthy."

Fruit fly hearts are similar to those of humans when we're in the womb. The flies were returned to Earth and had their heart function tested by seeing how they fared when climbing up the side of a test tube.

"In the normal fly heart, the muscle fibers work like your fingers when they squeeze a tube of toothpaste. In the space flies, the contraction was like trying to get toothpaste out by pressing down instead of squeezing," Ocorr said. "For humans, this could become a big problem."

The benefits of understanding how the human heart functions in space could help those with heart issues on Earth -- and those planning on future space missions.

"As we continue our work to establish a colony on the moon and send the first astronauts to Mars, understanding the effects of extended time in microgravity on the human body is imperative," said Sharmila Bhattacharya, study author and senior scientist at NASA, in a statement.

"Today's results show that microgravity can have dramatic effects on the heart, suggesting that medical intervention may be needed for long-duration space travel, and point to several directions for therapeutic development."

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Astronauts experience these key changes in space that could impact their health, new research shows - WAAY

How are we gonna move around on the Moon and Mars when Nasas and Elon Musks expedition will have established new space colonies? Why with a motorbike, of course! Thats at least the futuristic and appealing idea of two different designers, who came up with two concepts designs for two promising versions of a space-bike.Andrew Fabishevskiys electric LMV v1 bike is designed to be lightweight and easy to be transported as payload on a future Lunar mission.

The all-terrain wheels with pivoting suspensions would make it easier to drive around the Moons uneven terrain, while mylar foil protects the battery compartment and other components.

Simon Gryttens Mars rover-bike, instead, is not just a simple space cafe-racer: when plugged into its base station, the bike lifts up to use one of the wheels as a wind turbine, taking advantage of the many storms happening on the Red Planets surface.

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Two motorbike concepts for riding on the Moon and Mars - Domus

No one would deny the risks of living in space. Although floating around in microgravity looks like a safe environment, astronauts living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are susceptible to a number of health problems.

While the causes of things like muscle wasting and bone density loss are known, other conditions remain a mystery. Researchers now think they have an answer thanks to recent discoveries uncovered by NASAs open-source GeneLab platform.

The results show that the mitochondria found in human cells may malfunction in microgravity. This discovery has plenty of implications for future long-distance space travel as well as the health of current ISS astronauts.

Anyone thats gone through the public school system knows that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. However, scientists have long wondered what else it does. As it happens, the mitochondria might play a role in the maintenance of several body systems.

Researchers found that mice with mitochondrial dysfunctions were also prone to problems with their eyes and liver. Meanwhile, they hypothesize that NASA astronaut Scott Kelly struggled with immune system problems during his time aboard the ISS for the same reason.

The team published its research in the journal Cell. It includes data collected from decades of studies conducted on the ISS. Samples from 59 astronauts are also part of the data.

Afshin Beheshti, the lead author of the study, says, Weve found a universal mechanism that explains the kinds of changes we see to the body in space, and in a place we didnt expect. Everything gets thrown out of whack and it all starts with the mitochondria.

It appears that living in space alters the mitochondrias ability to produce energy. As that process is disrupted, other organs in the body (as well as the immune system) are susceptible to damage.

The space sector is working hard to pioneer ways that allow astronauts to travel further away from Earth and live off-world for longer periods of time. This discovery highlights a key challenge presented by those ambitions. Living away from Earth is hard on the body. Now that scientists might know why they can start to address it.

Beheshti says, This is a big step toward figuring out how our bodies can live healthily off-world. And the good news is, this is a problem we can already start to tackle. We can look at countermeasures and drugs we already use to deal with mitochondrial disorders on Earth to see how they might work in space, to start.

Indeed, researchers can start studying whether or not mitochondria are responsible for a variety of problematic health conditions that astronauts often experience. They can also work towards solutions that will make it possible for humans to travel to Mars and even establish a permanent colony on the moon.

It will be interesting to see what new research stems from this study. Likewise, keep an eye on how it impacts the space industry in the coming years.

Continued here:

Mitochondria may be responsible for astronauts' health woes - The Burn-In

My science magazine made an off-handed comment this month about whether aliens might pass up Earth because weve made such a mess of the environment.

It is the kind of comment you hear once in a while from the sci-fi clique. From the pop-culture we know for a fact that aliens would openly land and stay in order to force us to solve our worlds problems. Otherwise we get obliterated. Its about as simple as that.

We love to speculate what aliens would do. And we love to speculate what or how we might benefit or not from their actions.

In my usual curmudgeon style, I reversed the magazines assessment. Aliens would love it here, perhaps as a vacation spot, because our polluted environment matches their own. After all, why do we think aliens are neat freaks? I am entertained by the idea of Martians being sloppy and fat and burp a lot.

One image is the commander of the alien ship that has just landed in East Tennessee who inspects a house by running his (its) finger along the top of the door lintel looking for dust buildup. I can see where his appendage is of a slightly soluble material and he leaves a ghastly streak through too much waxy buildup! From that one analysis the Commander determines earthlings are going to have to do better, or else. But, gee whiz, wouldnt you just hate an uppity alien telling us how to live?

In the past, we were always threatened with annihilation if we didnt clean up our act. Nowadays maybe theyll just take away our cell phones.

Stay tuned, of course, the commanders space maids (with a new guest star team member) will reinspect and make new demands again next week, same time, same station.

Because we are a failed and sinful but noble race, aliens are challenged to provoke us to do better and correct our sins. They also never seemed to appreciate Beethoven or Jeff Beck. Except, of course, as humans we cant do better because we are human. Arent we destined to sin? Which leads me to speculate if the likes of Idi Amin or Pol Pot or Hitler were never threatened by an alien?

Which means if the Martians or Uranus-ians wished to tour Iris Glen instead of Roan Mountain we ought not be offended.

If Iris Glen would be an alien attraction, with hundreds of likes, doesnt that explain why Ray Bradbury in his Martian Chronicles didnt include some kind of dump site on Mars? All those beautiful outer-space paintings and colonies never seem to have a pile of garbage or spare parts.

NASA has a priority in keeping germs out of the Mars environment using the capsule as a garbage hauler, too, which seems to also suggest very strong and sturdy garbage bags for such an extended voyage. We can only presume that any form of life we pick up on Mars wont survive the trip much less the croaky environments here. If that stowed-aboard life form can survive, then what happens? We tend to think of alien life forms as fully-functioning beings instead of germs.

Mostly, we avoid that image in the popular culture because germs would be hard for the famous alien-scientist, living a life of leisure in the quiet mountains of Carter County, to communicate with.

But then, another possibility of alien sightings is that we have already been visited and are still being visited.

This is the most newsworthy, of course. Might I even suggest we are the visitor? More than a few theologians and authors have found good reason to muse at the absurdities of self-indulgence and self-destruction. God must be laughing, some say. William Kent Krueger, a Minnesota writer of some acclaim, tells his grandkids he is as old as the universe. Well, obviously we scoff at such nonsense. Robert Fulghum is famous for saying were all made of star stuff. But if Krueger and Fulghum are right, in a wise-old-folks way, then it follows we can say with a straight face that we are still being visited by visitors from outer space.

My pal Pogo Possum said it best and I paraphrase, with apologies: I have met the alien and they is us.

Charles Moore lives in Johnson City.

Charles Moore Lives in Johnson City.

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Gee whiz! An uppity-alien tells us how to live. - Johnson City Press (subscription)