Category Archives: Space Exploration

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) visited Loudoun County Wednesday, attending the Virginia Aviation and Aerospace Summit, held at the Northrop Grumman Campus in Sterling.

The Governors Aerospace Advisory Council, which hosted the event, serves as advisor to the governor regarding policy and funding priorities to promote aerospace and space exploration industry in Virginia.

Technology is only going to keep advancing at breakneck speed, Northam said.

Our future will be as much about what is taking place in the sky, as it is what is taking place on the ground and luckily, due to outstanding work and collaboration between government and private industry, Virginia is prepared to meet and lean on the opportunities of our future, he said.

Northam shared a number of Virginias initiatives and milestones in the field of aviation during the visit. He said the commonwealth has 66 airports most of which are in rural areas and have been provided opportunities to apply for grants towards helping with improvements to attract and retain business in their communities.

The governor also said that the commonwealth has benefitted economically from the Virginia Space and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in his hometown on the eastern shore.

Northam said with the councils interest in promoting the industry, there is an opportunity to develop air mobility that is designed to move people and goods from urban and suburban areas.

Space-related business development opportunities will require state action and support, according to a report from Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

Virginia must continue to support space-related state players including NASA Langley, Virginia Space and MARS, and partner with them on business development opportunities, the report states.

Additionally, VEDP urges further investment be made around the space port, and markets Virginias supporting assets for the sector to space-related companies such as the commonwealths pipeline of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent, federal agencies and other government customers.

Loudoun County has access to at least three international airports Dulles International, but also Leesburg Executive Airport, which serves a variety of aircrafts, including corporate jets.

Secretary of Labor Megan Healy and Secretary of Transportation Shannon Valentine were joined by a couple dozen people for the summit including local and state leaders from Fairfax.

Shortly before Northams arrival to Sterling, actor William Shatner, known for his role on the science-fiction television series Star Trek, flew up to space along with three other passengers on the Blue Origin rocket.

Northam, exiting the summit to attend two more events on Wednesday, was asked about what it would take for him to consider flying in space.

We fly a lot, Northam said.

We flew up here today, but were going to keep in the relative airspace, he said. I dont have any intentions of going up any higher.

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Northam visits Sterling to promote aerospace, space exploration industry - Loudoun Times-Mirror

Assistant Professor Nicholas Szczecinski will investigate how animals, particularly stick-insects and cockroaches, measure and respond to forces acting on their legs as they walk. (WVU Photo/Paige Nesbit)

A West Virginia University engineer is combining the study of neuroscience and robotics to better understand the nervous system and motor output of insects to create animal-like robots for potential use in agriculture, mining and space exploration.

In order to create more mobile robots,Nicholas Szczecinski, assistant professor in theDepartment of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineeringin theStatler College, will investigate how animals, particularly stick-insects and cockroaches, measure and respond to forces acting on their legs as they walk.

Humans and other animals are graceful and agile, in part because they are very good at regulating the amount of force exerted when performing a task, Szczecinski said. However, most robots deployed in the field are not as good as regulating force, and many unfortunate accidents have happened when people have been struck by robots with very high force inside factories.

With the aid of a $630,000 award from the National Science Foundation, Szczecinski and co-principal investigator, Sasha Zill from Marshall University, will work with a six-legged robot model whose control system is based on the nervous system of an insect, enabling the researchers to integrate dynamic force sensing into the robots control system.

According to Szczecinski, robots with wheels arent going anywhere anytime soon; however, when faced with difficult terrains like those found on the moon and Mars, robots with legs would enable space agencies to scale mountains or canyon walls across the solar system. And on Earth, robots with legs would enable farmers to grow crops more densely and naturally on inclined terrains.

With more sensitive and dynamic force sensing, robots may be better equipped to sense when they come in contact with people and limit their force output to avoid hurting people, Szczecinski explained. Such a capability could lead to robots that operate safely around people or even move people around, for example, in elder care.

Szczecinski hopes that rather than replacing people from these jobs, more agile robots could supplement the workforce.

The investigators will take two approaches to detect how dynamic force sensing affects muscle control one experimental and the other based in robotics. The experimental approach will involve inserting electrodes into the muscles of insects legs to measure the electrical activity of the force sensors. The second approach will incorporate dynamic load into existing robot control systems to measure the robots energy expenditure and agility as it walks over different terrains at different speeds.

The end result of this research that excites me the most is to give robots a more naturalistic sense of force detection and touch, Szczecinski said.

As part of the project, the researchers will carry out various outreach events in West Virginia schools by using Lego Mindstorm kits to expose students to the mechanics and programming behind robotics.

We hope that our outreach workshops will teach students how to boil tasks down into a set of logical instructions, which underlies all of robotics and automation, Szczecinski said.

-WVU-

om/10/12/21

CONTACT: Paige NesbitStatler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources304-293-4135; Paige.Nesbit@mail.wvu.edu

Call 1-855-WVU-NEWS for the latest West Virginia University news and information from WVUToday.

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WVU Today | WVU researcher's insect-inspired robots could advance space exploration, agriculture and mining - WVU Today

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 10 October 2021, 05:10 am

The UK should invest more heavily in space exploration, especially after Brexit, according to Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn.

(Photo : Hugh R Hastings/Getty Images)NEWQUAY, ENGLAND - AUGUST 10: The Virgin Orbit Launcher One rocket in its hanger at Newquay Airport on August 10, 2021 in Newquay, England. Spaceport Cornwall is aiming to launch its first satellites in spring of 2022.

Whitehorn's comments made headlines after the UK's new Science Minister, George Freeman, revealed the British government's National Space Strategy and considered the UK a "science superpower," reports The Express.

With the revelation of the UK government's roadmap for the space exploration industry, Virgin Galactic's Whitehorn believes that the nation is in a good position to achieve its lofty objectives despite a few "challenges."

Lastly, the UK could also benefit heavily on investing more in the space exploration industry, according to Whitehorn, in financial terms.

That's because by 2030, the global space market is predicted to almost double in value to an insane $660 billion, with the likes of Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, and of course, NASA leading the charge.

A Way To Fight Off The Environmental Crisis

Furthermore, Whitehorn also stated that the UK government's space exploration program roadmap can also put forward its importance in the fight against the global climate crisis.

As such, there is now confidence that the British government can bring so-called "dirty industries" into space so their negative effects on Earth can be lessened.

These industries, Whitehorn believes, could include anything from massive data centers to cryptocurrency mining operations, which by themselves alone can consume so much power.

The environmental effects of these two industries largely rely on them being power-hungry, as the world is still trying to wean itself off from fossil fuels and into using renewable energy sources.

Read also: NASA Perseverance Rover's New Mission-Critical Images as Latest Evidence of Water's Existence on Mars

Britain's space program has flown largely under the radar since their most recent large-scale efforts, and likely for good reason.

(Photo : Getty Images )

Around 50 years ago, the UK space program encountered a massive problem when they tried to launch a satellite amidst the Soviet and American space race of the 50s and 60s.

According to The Big Issue, this satellite launch program depended on the development of the Black Arrow rocket. But just a month before NASA's Saturn V rocket sent the first humans into the moon, Black Arrow's launch failed, with the rocket falling apart and crashing back to Earth in pieces just a minute into its flight.

The UK space program made two more launches after Black Arrow: the suborbital Launch Two in March 1970, which was a success, and its predecessor Launch Three failing once again, six months later.

Since the UK space program's struggles, the space exploration race has been largely led by North America until the British government reorganized their space efforts with the UK Space Agency (UKSA) in 2010, writes Inverse.

Now, after India and China, the UK is bolstering its space efforts once more. As such, the most recent plan is for the Brits to be the first country to perform a rocket launch on European soil, with the launch planned for late next year, reports The Express.

Related: Space Exploration Without Space Jobs is just a Vanity Project By Tim Chrisman, Founder of Foundation for the Future

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce

2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

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UK Should Invest More Heavily in The Space Exploration Industry: Virgin Galactic President - Tech Times

Representational Image.

The curse of gender inequality has prevailed upon humanity for many centuries and is, unfortunately, still a very relevant problem even in 2021. As a woman, making a name for yourself is challenging, especially in male-dominated sectors. However, we see women overcoming numerous roadblocks, fighting the internalised misogyny prevalent around us every day. These women defy all odds presented to them and emerge victoriously.

Wondering how this has anything to do with World Space Week? Well, the theme this year is to celebrate women in space. This year, we shall commemorate the women who have made significant contributions to the field of space exploration. The Weather Channel India brings to you six women who transcended boundaries and unwittingly opened doors for countless little girls who dare to dream big.

As an African-American physicist and mathematician, Katherine defied all barriers of race and gender. She helped pioneer digital electronic computers in NASA, and her technical work at NASA spanned three decades. During this period, she made significant contributions to many flights like Project Mercury and the early NASA missions of John Glenn and Alan Shepard, the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon, the Space Shuttle programme, and even early plans for the Mission to Mars. Johnson co-authored 26 scientific papers throughout her career. Her story inspired the movie Hidden Figures (2016).

Valentina Tereshkova.

Valentina made history when she became the first woman to ever go to space. This textile mill-worker-turned-cosmonaut had no prior experience in space or engineering, but this did not stop her from qualifying to go aboard the Vostok 6 mission launched in 1963 by the Soviet space program. She orbited the Earth 48 times during her three-day mission. Tereshkova's voyage nearly ended in disaster owing to a glitch in the spacecraft's navigation software, but thankfully, Tereshkova noticed it, made modifications, and returned home safe and sound.

Margaret Hamilton in action.

Margaret was the software engineer behind the development of on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo Moon missions. Hamilton developed the term "software engineer" because she believed that the job she and her colleagues were doing was as vital as the engineering that went into the rest of the Apollo spacecraft. She focused on the software that detects system problems and recovers data in the event of a computer crash. These factors were critical during the Apollo 11 mission (1969), which sent Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the Moon.

Sally became the first American woman to travel to space when she orbited aboard the Challenger for the STS-7 mission on June 18, 1983. Following her historic voyage, Ride returned to space for the final time a year later, aboard Challenger for STS-41G. She is the only individual who has served on the investigative boards in the aftermath of the Challenger and Columbia disasters. Sally diligently advocated for women in STEM. Her legacy continues to inspire the next generation of female explorers to shoot for the skies.

Chiaki Mukai.

Chiaki, also a physician, was the first Japanese woman to travel into space. On July 8, 1994, she travelled into space for the first time as a payload specialist on the space shuttle Columbia on the STS-65 mission. Mukai took part in several scientific and medical experiments, which were stored in a Spacelab module in the cargo bay of Columbia. She went into space for the second time aboard the Discovery space shuttle on October 29, 1998, as a payload specialist on the STS-95 mission.

Any article about female astronauts would be incomplete without mentioning Kalpana Chawla, the first woman of Indian origin to go into space. Her first space flight was in November 1997, onboard the space shuttle Columbia on flight STS-87. On its journey, a Spartan satellite was launched by Chawla from the shuttle. Her second voyage happened in 2003 when, during the 16-day flight, the crew completed more than 80 experiments. However, disaster struck, and the entire crew died aboard the Columbia as their spacecraft disintegrated during re-entry to the Earths atmosphere. It was a profound loss that left the entire world mourning.

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World Space Week: Commemorating Six Women Who Spearheaded Space Exploration | The Weather Channel - Articles from The Weather Channel | weather.com -...

Australia has signed a deal with Nasa to send an Australian-built rover to the moon, supporting a mission to collect lunar soil and examine how its oxygen could support human life in space.

The $50m project will be supported by the federal governments Moon to Mars program, with the rover to be launched as early as 2026, provided it meets a range of Nasas conditions during development.

The partnership comes after Australia signed up to Nasas Artemis Accords late last year, an agreement that outlines principles to guide space exploration cooperation between nations and allows Australia to work with the space agency.

Under Nasas Artemis exploration plan, the agency hopes to land the first woman and person of colour on the moon, and establish the first long-term presence on the moon at the Artemis base camp. It then wants to send astronauts to Mars.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, will announce on Wednesday that the Australian-made foundation services rover would be part of a future lunar mission once developed.

This is an incredible opportunity for Australia to succeed in the global space sector, and is central to our governments vision to secure more jobs and a larger share of the growing space economy, the prime minister said. This mission to the moon is just one exciting way that we can create opportunity and jobs for the future.

The semi-autonomous rover will be used to collect lunar soil, known as regolith, which contains oxygen in the form of oxides.

Nasa wants to extract oxygen from the regolith in what it regards as a key step towards establishing a sustainable human presence on the moon and supporting its future missions to Mars.

The brief for the rover to support foundation services means it would underpin operational activities for exploration missions to build towards a sustained off-earth presence and will ultimately support permanent outposts.

Australian industry and research organisations will be able to apply for up to $50m to develop the rover through the governments Trailblazer program, potentially supported by international partners.

The government says a key objective is to build Australian space industry capability and capacity so the investment would be focused in Australia, with the successful consortium expected to co-fund the project.

The rover will need to be capable of operating on the moon to collect and provide lunar regolith to a Nasa payload with a high level of autonomy and weigh less than 20kg.

The head of the Australian space agency, Enrico Palermo, said the mission would draw on Australias world-leading skills and experience in remote operations and expertise in the resources and mining sector.

Australia is at the cutting-edge of robotics technology and systems for remote operations, which are going to be central to setting up a sustainable presence on the moon and eventually supporting human exploration of Mars, Palermo said.

This agreement will leverage our expertise in remote operations to grow our space sector here at home, while developments that come from preparing for space will make sure our resources sector keeps powering ahead too.

The Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, said the agreement would strengthen the relationship between the United States and Australia in areas related to space exploration.

The recent signing of the Aukus defence agreement also included a commitment to greater collaboration on space technology.

By working together with the Australian Space Agency and our partners around the world, Nasa will uncover more discoveries and accomplish more research through the Artemis program, Nelson said.

Australias industry and science minister, Melissa Price, said the partnership would create lunar history and boost the countrys space industry, which is expected to grow at 8.3% a year to 2026.

It will build the Australian space sectors capability and capacity and showcase Australias strengths to the world, as well as inspire a whole new generation of young people to enter careers in science, technology, engineering and maths, Price said.

Excerpt from:

Australia to build 20kg rover to head to moon in joint mission with Nasa - The Guardian

Risk is our business, James T. Kirkonce said.Thats what this starship is all about. Thats why were aboard her.

More than a half-century later, the performer who breathed life into the fabled Enterprise captain is, at age 90, making that kind of risk his own business andheading toward the starsunder dramatically different circumstances than his fictional counterpart. And in doing so, William Shatner is causing worlds to collide, or at least permitting parallel universes to coexist the utopian spacefaring vision of Star Trek and the evolving, increasingly commercial spot that space holds in the American psyche.

WhenShatnerboards Jeff Bezos Blue Origin NS-18 in Texas at around dawn Wednesday, his one small step into the craft creates one of the ultimate crossover stories of our era.

Its about space and exploration, sure, and certainly about capitalism and billionaires and questions of economic equity. But its also about popular culture and marketing and entertainment and nostalgia and hope and Manifest Destiny and, and, and well, you get the idea.

What will I see when Im out there? Shatner wondered last week,talking to Anderson Cooper on CNN.An equally valid question is this: What will WE see when hes out there?

It will be a complex blend of human dreams superimposed upon technology and hope, braggadocio and cash, and the notion that space travel elevates us all orchestrated by a company under criticism for what some call the decidedly un-utopian, tech-bro ways that it operates.

Is all that and Star Trek a good fit?

THE WORLD OF `STAR TREK

Since its 1966 premiere with one of the most diverse casts TV had ever seen, Trek has grown from Gene Roddenberrys fever dream of a Wagon Train to the stars into an intricate transmedia universe full of subtleties and traditions and rules.

Among them: Human beings avoid killing each other. Money is generally outdated, as are hunger and poverty. Greed is aberrant. Noninterference in other cultures is the most sacred principle of all. And within the United Federation of Planets, the spacefaring United Nations of Star Trek, exploration, not domination, is the coin of the realm. In short, unlike a lot of humanity right now.

That 1966-69 original series used allegory to evade network censors and tell stories about racism and xenophobia and even the Vietnam War. How could they get away with all that? Because the adventures of Kirk's Enterprise took place against a backdrop of 23rd-century space travel something directly relevant to the world as well, given that humansfirst set foot on the moon47 days after the original series final episode.

Over the next half century, backed by a vocal fan base, Star Trek roared back for more and, in the process, led the way in cementing space travel as an ideal canvas for relevant storytelling.

Even as NASA's Apollo era ebbed into the space shuttle program (wherean early craftwas named Enterprise) and eventually into uncertainty, Trek remained one of the cultures central vehicles for a spacefaring future.

Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura on the show, wasa particularly tireless advocate,working with NASA to recruit Americans of color and women and make sure they could occupy the center of such ambitions as the missions marched forward.

In the 1980s, movies about the original crew dealt with aging and regret. Star Trek: The Next Generation offered a more cerebral but still utopian vision. Another spinoff, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, set at an outpost preserving a delicate detente, presented a darker take but still one in which avarice was anomalous and worthy of scorn. And Enterprise, a 2001-2005 prequel, offered a season-long arc about the aftermath of a 9/11-style extraterrestrial attack on Earth.

Two of the latest iterations of the myth, Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, have dipped deeper into darkness than their predecessors and have toyed with the notion that not all humanity wants to be quite that utopian.

In all that varying storytelling, though, one constant remained: the notion that human space travel would become a vector of ethics and goodness that elevated the galaxy rather than plundered it.

Which brings us to companies like Blue Origin, Elon Musks SpaceX and Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic endeavors that build their brands not upon countries but corporations.

They offer the culture a late-stage capitalism variation on the theme a narrative that space travel isnt just for scientists and diplomats but for you and me, too. If, that is, you and me happen to have a few hundred thousand dollars or more of walking-around money on hand.

The United States always has had private people working for the public purpose, saysRavi S. Rajan,president of the California Institute for the Arts and a Trek fan since childhood. But how much is done privately and how much is done publicly, that changes.

But the motives of the Amazon founder himself remain unclear. It is evident, though, that the popular culture of space travel has influenced him deeply.

Bezos, who tells a story of exploring space to help ensure Earths continued prosperity, is a longtime Trek fan. He madea cameo as an alien Starfleet officialin the 2016 movie Star Trek Beyond. And according tobiographer Brad Stone,Bezos even fleetingly considered calling Amazon Makeitso.com, after Capt. Jean-Luc Picards favorite command in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The whole ethos of `Star Trek showed people who were different-looking, with different skills, working together. We are in the opening moments of something like that, saysRichard B. Cooper,vice president of the Space Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for the global space industry. People can look at this environment and say, `Hey I belong there, too.'"

Prohibitive costs aside (and thats a big aside), Cooper has a point. Though the likes of Shatner may not be regular people, the shift from the dominance of the test pilot and the scientist tracks with the populism of our era, where it must be said the exactitude of science is being called into question as never before. And as Cooper points out, it gives people hope. And if theres one thing the worlds in short supply of, its that essential payload.

That kind of storyline hope, heroism, competitive dominance and an unerring sense of competence that can at times overlap with testosterone could be one key reason why the commercial space outfits are thriving. At a moment when NASA and nation-focused space travel lacks a compelling Hollywood narrative, the entrepreneurs and their marketers step right in.

American dominance in space, nobody cares about it. Its Bezos who says, `We cant go on living like this. We have to save the planet, saysMary-Jane Rubenstein,a professor of religion and science in society at Wesleyan University. What results, she says, is a kinder, gentler colonialism in which humans take to orbit under premises that seem justifiable but require closer scrutiny.

Its the billionaires who have the utopian visions, says Rubenstein, author of the upcoming book Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race.

The states cant muster them, she says. They have no story.

We live in an era where the fictional and the real have an intricate relationship, and sometimes its hard to separate them. Something like this, a collision of dreams and real-life ambition and achievement, couldnt have a more effective ambassador than the outsized personality that is William Shatner.

I was there last week rehearsing, whatever they call it, Shatner told Anderson Cooper.

Training I think is what they call it, Cooper said, to which Shatner responded: I think of it as rehearsal.

And there it is again the storyline, compelling as ever, stealing oxygen from other important questions. Should we even be colonizing space? Dont we have enough going on here at home to worry about? Arent there people with problems more pressing than this who could use the cash?

And what if we encounter life thats not life as we know it, and harm it out of obliviousness or greed? Its not as if that hasnt happened countless times here on the ground, in the land that put a man on the moon but still grapples with a history brimming with horrors from slave markets to smallpox blankets. These are only some of the questions that will ascend and descend with Shatner on Wednesday.

Is it a stunt? Sure. Is it a genius marketing ploy? Absolutely. Is it cynical and self-aggrandizing and designed solely to make more money and grab more attention for the worlds richest man? Youre going to have to decide that one yourself.

In the meantime, consider the autobiographical song calledRealthat Shatner recorded in 2004 with country singer Brad Paisley.

Id love to help the world and all its problems. But Im an entertainer, and thats all, he says in it. So the next time theres an asteroid or a natural disaster, Im flattered that you thought of me but Im not the one to call.

Turns out, he is this time. But next time? In the future of the final frontier and the culture that has grown up around it in this unusual realm where risk IS the business thats eventually going to have to be addressed.

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As Shatner heads toward the stars, visions of space collide - Anchorage Press

This year, Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos with Blue Origin joined Elon Musks SpaceX in launching rockets into space or sub-orbit to be precise. Unlike in the 20th century, when space exploration was more of a governmental affair, this generation of the so-called New Space entrepreneurs reflects the corporate sectors new interest in space. How did this development from public to private space exploration come about?

We have this idea that space has primarily been governmental all the way through until now. But actually, we forget that in the 1990s, telecommunication satellites started being one of the biggest applications of space, as internet access and telephony were privatised. There was a group, an inter-governmental organisation called Intelsat, that was privatised in 2000. Afterwards, a commercial industry for satellite applications spawned, mostly in telecommunications.

So there have been commercial actors before. But I think what has happened over the past ten years is really a technological shift and lowering the cost of launching rockets into space. This meant that you dont need billions anymore to go to space. Nowadays, you can launch a satellite for less than a million dollars. This technological revolution allowed people to start thinking about what we can actually do in space.

For instance, weve been talking about space tourism for a really long time, for which the re-usability of rockets is crucial. How do we ensure that launch costs come down such that we can make it a regular thing for people to be going to space? For space enthusiasts, the reason why the Richard Branson flight was so exciting is that weve watched entrepreneurs for the past 20 years trying to do this. Weve had many deaths along the way.

Thats why, for me, it was shocking to see the way that the press took it. There werent even that many celebratory texts outside of the space community. The wider society was like: who cares? Weve just had Black Lives Matter and the IPCC Report saying that were really in a catastrophic place with climate change. So, that just seemed tone deaf.

It indeed seemed like a very sudden and badly timed event. And if youre not part of the space community, you just see it as a waste of resources, because we do have massive problems on earth to solve.

Indeed, the public thinks this cost billions of dollars that could have been spent on something else. In my opinion, thats an uneducated perspective because the amount spent on space, even if its in the billions, is really a drop in the ocean. And it doesnt take away from whats being spent in other areas. It doesnt follow that if you put the money being spent in space into poverty alleviation that we would actually alleviate poverty. What it would mean is that everyone is just focused on a few things, and we dont allow innovation to happen, we dont allow society to prosper.

I started my career at the Nigerian Space Agency, so you can imagine this was a question I always had to answer because we dont even have constant electricity supply. Theres often not even running water. And people were asking, why does Nigeria have a space agency? Why is Nigeria spending USD 100 million a year on space? And I said the truth of the matter is, the electricity generation department, they also have a budget.

Right, so it was interesting coming to America and seeing that the same debate exists here. And so, theres a real narrative problem in that people dont understand the benefits of space. They just see these big events they remember an astronaut has gone to the moon. But now they say, we never saw tangible benefits from that on a day-today level.

With Bezos, Branson, and Musk, I have the impression that theyre all personally enthusiastic about space exploration. But, as entrepreneurs, whats their commercial interest in doing this?

The irony is none of them are making any money from space.

Not yet, right?

Right, they just put in huge investments of personal money over decades. And even if they dont make money from space, they have bigger goals about unearthing a space economy and being the people that lay the foundation for us to become multi-planetary species. They are really taking on a role that goes beyond just money. Its about generation-building and moving humanity forward. I think at least thats how they see it.

How would such a space economy look like? What is the long-term economical perspective?

One vision of a space economy is centred around human beings becoming inter-planetary species, which means that we can move around the solar system. And to be able to do that, we need a launch pad from space. The moon is a good launch pad because if you try and go from earth to other galaxies, its going to be really difficult.

Its easier from the moon because the gravity is lower than on earth, so you need less energy and resources for launching rockets, right?

Yes, exactly. And its of course closer to everywhere else.

The big resource in space that everyone is after is water because you have hydrogen for fuel and oxygen to breathe. And if were now going to have the moon as a launch pad, you want to have stations. Because launch costs are still so prohibitive from earth, you dont want to carry all the things you need. In situ resource utilisation is the terminology we use to express thinking about how we can find out what resources are in space and start exploiting them. And thats going to be where the space economy starts.

Now, is it going to be mostly humans? In the US theyre talking about getting 1,000 people to live and work in space. But it makes more sense that its robotics doing all this stuff because were still trying to figure out how to do long-term human stays in space. So, well have to figure out how these robots will work, how they will be autonomous and self-replicating and fixing themselves.

Thats what the immediate space economy in the next five to ten years can look like.

Theres a line of critique by some space ethicists that want to draw lessons from the history of colonialism on earth and see what we learnt from it and how that informs our exploration of space. It gives a bit of an impression when you have three older white men launching private enterprises to go into space. What do you think could the lessons be from this, and how should we think about public participation and accountability when it comes to private space exploration?

The one thing that youll always hear these space explorers say is that theres no victim in space because theres literally no-one in space. But what scholars like Natalie Trevino argue is that its not about colonialism, which is certain practice, but its about coloniality, which is a certain mindset that you go somewhere with this idea that theres nothing there like its virgin territory. That precisely is the coloniality mindset because you think that theres no victim.

And the lesson that we have to learn from history is that when we were exploiting all these other territories, we also thought there was no victim. We did not see the people there as victims. So even though it seems obvious to you and me to say theres no victim in space because theres no-one there, we dont know what time is going to tell us.

This means that we have to go into it with the mentality that things may change. From day one, we have to go there with principles of sustainability in mind and be aware of the fact that we need the story to stand the test of time.

I suppose practically speaking that does relate to questions of governance. How would this be handled ideally? What should be the involvement of the public or governments?

Its a difficult question. Ive been in this game for 15 years. So, youd think by now I would have an answer. But the more I study international relations, unfortunately the more cynical I get about how complex it is to balance competing interests. Speaking of coloniality again, systems are based on hegemons, certain actors amassing as much as they can in their national interest. The idea of the common interest just looks like its for the weaker party.

I dont have this sense of constant first world guilt and third world victimhood, because I think that if those third-world countries could dominate, they probably would. Just look at India. When India started off its space programme, it was the model for sustainable development in space. Now that they are much more advanced, theyre launching anti-satellite tests which are space weapons designed to incapacitate or destroy satellites. India shows its dominance; its even going to Mars now, which has definitely got nothing to do with sustainable development.

There is no one organisation that coordinates space activity internationally. But there are clear practical problems like potential collisions and debris where there seems to me to be a shared interest in keeping space clean. Why is it still difficult to find international common solutions to this?

Because space is so strategic. And space has been historically of military interest. When its a strategic asset like that which you see in your national interest, you dont want to devolve power to some international body. Especially when youre a country like the US.

On the contrary, with the law of the sea, it was decided that the deep seabed is the common heritage of mankind. If you want to mine resources there that belong to everyone, you have to share the profits with the international community. Now, this is what the space entrepreneurs dont want. They dont want any kind of international benefit-sharing regime because this goes against the idea of capitalism.

I think that we should go somewhere in the middle because these resources are for the benefit of humanity. On earth, youre supposed to pay royalties when you exploit resources because they dont belong to you, they belong to the people. In space, because we say there are no people, should those who go there get to keep it all? Or should they share it? I think there could be some kind of pool of resources for the benefit of society. I dont think thats unreasonable.

When we think of space exploration, we usually consider the big players like the US, Russia, China, India, and perhaps Europe to some extent. As you mentioned, you started your career in Nigeria at the space agency. So whats the role of developing countries, and African states in particular, here?

Historically, African countries played an important role, for instance in the beginning of the space age, ensuring liability for damage that happened on earth; that there was the common heritage of mankind principle in the Moon Agreement; that space should be explored and used for the benefit and interest of all countries; that earth observation data should be shared.

But over time, when they tried to exert their rights, they were shut down by the established countries for instance, when they were pushing for a legally binding regime for what it means to benefit from space. Basically, from the 1980s onwards, we just saw silence in space governance. Then, around the 2000s, African countries in particular started ramping up their space activity. For instance, half the satellites that have been launched from Africa were launched within the past four years.

At the same time, Africa has a lot of relevant experience for space exploration. Just take three examples: space debris, space mining, and space settlement. They have experience with mining because many of the mines on earth are in Africa. They have a lot of experience with environmental degradation because many of the colonising states just came and left a big mess. And, of course, they have the experience of colonialism. So, they have a lot to add to these three areas, even if they are not technologically advanced.

At the very least, Africa can contribute to how people organise themselves and how people think about what the future is going to look like. If African countries just say, we have too many immediate problems or thats way into the future, everything is going to get carved up like it always has been and theyre going to be left behind. Once you get left behind in the space age, youre never catching up.

This interview was conducted by Daniel Kopp.

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'Once you get left behind in the space age, you're never catching up' - IPS Journal

Over 200 people from Romania participated in the annual edition of the NASA SpaceApps Challenge hackathon that took place, online, simultaneously in 162 countries and territories around the world, on the weekend of October 2nd -3rd. Among the winning projects are a greenhouse to provide nutritional supplements for a mission to Mars, space exploration games, and a virtual map showing the debris orbiting the Earth.

The 200 participants are aged between 16 and 56 years old and more than 80% had a technical background. 28 teams registered in the competition. Although the event took place online in the 4 cities, the creativity marathon brought together participants from Arad, Maramures, Sibiu, Constana, Timioara, Bucharest, Galai, Cluj, Iai, Harghita, Prahova, Dolj, Suceava, Arge, even Bulgaria Sofia and the Republic of Moldova Chisinau.

15 teams presented their projects in the final. 6 Romanian teams qualified for the international judging stage of the competition:

Bucharest

Cluj Napoca

Timioara

Iai

A special award was given to the A.M.C.G. team, from Bucharest, for their idea with potential in space creating a website that helps NASA share information with researchers.

The members of the jury were: Ulpia Elena Botezatu, Researcher la Romanian Space Agency; Cristian Roman, Senior Editor Revista tiin i Tehnic; Fabiola Cazan, SR Manager IT la Vodafone, Gabriel Preda, Principal Data Scientist la Endava; Bogdan Niculae, Enginerring Manager la Thales; Silvia Batorii, Space Software Engineer la Thales; Cristian Dasclu, Project Initiator NASA Space Apps Challenge; Indira Abdulvoap, General Manager al Logiscool Romnia; Ana Maria Stancu, CEO Bucharest Robots; Tudor Popescu, National Project Leader la EDISON.

The teams impressed me with the ingenuity they employed to create innovative, efficient and engaging products. The participants showed significant execution and delivery skills, worked passionately and constantly asked for feedback for their ideas. All this gives me confidence in the future because we are obviously dealing with true talents and gifted minds, with a great understanding of the present reality and who know how to think about the future , said Borislav Bliznatchki, Mentor, Endava.

Innovation, collaboration, technology, creativity and diversity are the words we could use to describe the projects that participated in this years NASA Space Apps Challenge. It is motivating and encouraging to see so many minds working together with so much passion, and their solutions to the planets problems have captivated us and confirm once again that it is essential to support such projects. We are constantly investing in the young generation that creates todays technology, especially now that Vodafone is going through a process of transformation, and we are evolving from a telecommunications company to a technology company , says Fabiola Cazan, Senior IT Manager, Vodafone Romania.

The solutions developed by the Romanian winning teams will be included in the international evaluation, coordinated by NASA. The winners of Space Apps will be announced in January 2022 and will be invited to present their projects to NASA (and to the space agency partners, if applicable). International winners will also be invited to visit a NASA station, together with the global organization team, the Space Apps Challenge, and witness the launch of a shuttle.

The theme of this years event was The Power of Ten, and the ten global awards are Best Use of Science, Best Use of Data, Best Use of Technology, Galactic Impact, Best Mission Concept, Most Inspirational, Best Storytelling Award (new award), Global Connection Award (new award), Art & Technology Award (new award), Local Impact Award (new award).

This year, NASA Space Apps Challenge has brought together ten space agency partners: ESA (European Space Agency), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, The Canadian Space Agency, the Australian Space Agency, the Brazilian Space Agency, the Argentine National Space Activities Commission, the Paraguayan Space Agency, the South African National Space Agency, and the Bahrain National Space Agency will be joining NASA.

NASA SpaceApps Challenge is an innovative incubation program, held annually in hubs around the world, since 2012. In 2020 Space Apps had approximately 26,000 participants, who created 2,303 projects, internationally. The full list of the 2020 hackathon finalists can be accessed here. Last year, four Romanian teams qualified for the international judging stage of the competition.

Next years edition, NASA SpaceApps Challenge 2022, will take place between 1 and 2 October 2022.

The official partners at this years event have been: Vodafone, Endava, Bosch, Thales, Grow with Google, Profi, Tradesilvania, Cloud Software Development, ROTSA, DiFine PR, Techcelerator, Growceanu, tiin i Tehnic, Space Hub.

Link:

200 participants and 6 winning teams of the NASA Space Apps Challenge Romania 2021 hackathon - Business Review - Business Review

Large government organizations require lots of people to run them. NASA is no exception. Americas space agency has long been under pressure to organizationally support its ongoing Artemis program to return to the moon. Now, it has taken a step in that direction by announcing that its Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate will split into two new ones: the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate and the Space Operations Missions Directorate.

The announcement came on September 21st from Bill Nelson, NASAs administration, who also announced a press conference to discuss the changes further. In that press conference, NASAs leadership team outlined some of the reasons for the change.

A big one was a strong recommendation from President Joe Biden. That suggestion stemmed from politicians frustrations in dealing with the agencys budgetary processes. With the same directorate handling both the Artemis program and ongoing work in the ISS, it was difficult for the people who control the purse strings to understand what that money was going towards.

Expanding a bureaucracy isnt always the most efficient way to do something, however. That will be no exception with this transition. Pam Melroy, NASAs deputy administrator, pointed out that Were actually not adding a whole new layer of people, but that the challenges that we have in coordinating across organizations is exactly the same as it is today.

Those challenges include managing NASAs increasingly complex human spaceflight programs. With two separate directorates headed by two competent leaders, those programs will garner more specific attention. The leaders they picked will have a significant impact how the success or failure of those programs.

NASA did select two very qualified individuals for those roles Kathy Lueders was the current head of the predecessor directorate, where she was promoted to June of 2020. She previously had a leading role in the Commercial Crew Program, though she began her career in 1992 as a depot manager at the White Sands Test Facility after earning her B.S. in Industrial Engineering. Shell now lead the Space Operations Mission Directorate, taking over the ISS and other ongoing human spaceflight operations.

To lead the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, NASA brought back Jim Free, a former employee who had retired in 2017 as the technical deputy associate administrator for the directorate that is being separated. After a stint in private industry, including as an Executive Vice President at Peerless Aerospace, Jim came back to the agency to help develop the Artemis program. His career started back in 1990 as a propulsion engineer, and he has worked at a variety of NASA facilities in his almost 30-year career at the agency.

Critics point out that the added bureaucracy will now require these two leaders to communicate effectively to maintain the same leadership present under Ms. Lueders leadership previously. According to the agency, no changes will impact the various NASA centers located around the country, and the personnel switching will be primarily focused on the headquarters in Washington. With luck, this organizational shake-up will be a way to prioritize goals correctly and allow Congress and the American public to see more directly what their space exploration money is being spent on.

Learn More:NASA NASA Leadership Positions Agency for FutureSpaceNews.com NASA splits human spaceflight directorate into two organizationsSpacePolicyOnline.com NASA SPLITS HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT DIRECTORATE INTO TWO

Lead Image:Artemis program graphicCredit NASA

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NASAs Human Space Exploration Division is Being Split in Two - Universe Today

As it turns out, even with these virtual tools, some old manual habits are hard to break and apparently spacefaring specialists make mistakes just like the rest of us.

Astronaut Scott Kelly wearing a HoloLens headset on the International Space Station.

Image: NASA

Across industries, augmented and virtual reality are adding a 21st-century twist on standard operations and redefining business as usual. This ranges from mixed reality manufacturing to a more literal take on modern medicine, but AR and VR are also being implemented well beyond our Earthly confines, as NASA and JPL tap these capabilities to reimagine space exploration and mission procedures. Sometimes with these tools, as the saying goes, seeing is believing, as engineers and project scientists take a dive into the digital ether to bring tomorrow's spacecraft to life in 3D. But, as it turns out, some old manual habits are hard to break and apparently spacefaring specialists make mistakes just like the rest of us.

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In a recent post, NASA detailed a number of ways the agency taps AR and VR capabilities aboard the space station, ranging from remotely controlling robots to AR maintenance procedures. At the same time, JPL is using mixed reality to create an immersive Martian experience, allowing scientists to take a virtual stroll on our cosmic neighbor.

In one particular project, dubbed Sidekick, astronaut Scott Kelly used a Microsoft HoloLens headset to conduct ISS training and future mission prep. During these tests, a member of mission control on Earth could stream Kelly's field of view via the headset and also draw visuals the astronaut could visualize in 3D on the HoloLens display, explained Benjamin Nuernberger, an AR specialist at JPL.

"So instead of just talking about something spatially, just verbally, now you can give some more spatial 3D instructions drawing into his field of view," he said.

Situationally, Nuernberger discussed the benefits of these VR and AR capabilities alongside NASA's detailed step-by-step iPad instructions the astronauts have at their disposal. While he gave the agency its props, stating NASA does a "great job" of providing detailed procedures, in some instances, such as "unforeseen repairs" or if the instructions are particularly complicated, "it's hard to write up these procedures."

"This kind of technology can help, especially in those situations and unforeseen circumstances, because you could see their perspective, and you can draw on the screen, and those screen drawings can then be displayed in 3D for the astronaut," he said.

A NASA concept image related to the Sidekick project.

Image: NASA

These astronauts may be conducting mission operations on an orbiting space laboratory hundreds of miles overhead, but the conundrum associated with implementing a plan or following a set of instructions isn't necessarily so different from a familiar mundane experience here on Earth.

"Just imagine building IKEA furniture at home. You read the instructions, and you try to build it. Many times we mess up on a certain step," Nuernberger said. "Astronauts, they're extremely smart, and they know how to transfer the instructions from the paper or the iPad into the spatial realm, but still everyone's human in the end."

Scandinavian furniture snafus aside, he said these AR and VR capabilities can help save time, reduce risk and decrease the "cognitive load" on astronauts.

Over time, this project transformed into the ProtoSpace project Nuernberger currently works on, an undertaking that transforms spacecraft designs into 3D interactive visuals using uploaded CAD files.

"Basically, we want to visualize the spacecraft before it's built, while it's being built [and] maybe even after it's built," he said.

To understand the real value-add of these spatial visualizations, it's helpful to take a look at the way scientists and engineers would approach design and assembly before the days of AR and VR headsets. Prior to ProtoSpace, Nuernberger said this planning phase could involve building mockups with costs pushing "tens of thousands of dollars," lots of cabling to support the craft and several day's time putting it all together.

"Now, you can virtually see that almost instantaneously," he said. "You have a CAD model. You upload it with those cables, and then you put on the headset and you're ready to go."

During the design process, Nuernberger said members of the team would "go back and forth over email or show PowerPoints to each other for a long time," adding that he's heard anecdotes where these scientists will put on one of the AR/VR headsets and "almost immediately" come up with the answer to a design or assembly question.

A screenshot of an OpsLab JPL video highlighting these AR and VR uses.

Image: YouTube/OpsLab JPL

SEE:Juggling remote work with kids' education is a mammoth task. Here's how employers can help (free PDF)(TechRepublic)

A lot of these AR and VR-enabled capabilities and new efficiencies comes back to one critical point: NASA builds very specific spacecraft for a very specific environment and purpose. This means the team is in-essence reinventing the roving wheel with each new mission; essentially creating an exploration recipe from scratch with each go-around.

"We're not like a car manufacturer where we're doing the same thing over and over and over again," he said. "We're building one rover, maybe two [...] and if we get something wrong, the risk is very high, especially, in the assembly phase because there's eventually a launch window."

Interestingly, there are also AR and VR workplace safety benefits at play. While NASA may routinely tackle extraterrestrial feats and maneuvers on distant planetary bodies, the agency must still abide by OSHA standards here on terra firma.

In one instance, Nuernberger said the NASA team was planning spacecraft and support equipment configurations when a Microsoft HoloLens revealed a critical flaw in their approach.

"They realized that if [they arranged the craft] in this configuration, someone's going to have to be working under a suspended load, which is a very risky and dangerous thing, which is not allowed under OSHA standards," Nuernberger said.

A screenshot of an OpsLab JPL video highlighting these AR and VR uses.

Image: YouTube/OpsLab JPL

When it comes to the advantages of these tools, Nuernberger said the engineers have "seen that it's not just a toy." As the headset slides on and the visual capabilities take hold, there's often this moment of realization that these AR and VR tools have real functionality, he explained.

"Typically it's when someone puts on the headset for the first time and they look at these massive spacecraft, not just like a little augmented reality experience on your tabletop, but they look at this full-scale spacecraft and they're like, 'Oh my goodness, how big is this?!'"

Self-admittedly, this experience even surprises Nuernberger sometimes, as he slides on the headset and sees the Mars Rover in a living room or conference room and realizes just how large the craft is in a stereoscopic augmented reality as opposed to a pixelated vehicle framed on a computer screen.

Watching the NASA and JPL videos highlighting this technique can be a somewhat surreal experience: A team of JPL employees huddled around a seemingly massive yet-invisible object, each donning virtual reality headsets, manipulating components within a multi-million dollar craft that currently exists as mere digital ether in the middle of it all.

Situationally, sometimes the virtual and the physical worlds blend for the members of the team in this mixed reality mashup and old manual habits can be hard to break.

"We've had people come in with physical tools and put the physical tool on the virtual model, which is kind of cool," Nuernberger said.

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Seeing is believing: AR and VR bring the future of space exploration to life in 3D - TechRepublic