Category Archives: Space Exploration

To highlightthis and other issues surrounding the pushforgender equality,Women in Space, has been chosen asthe theme for this yearsWorld Space Week, whichbegan on Monday.

The goal is to bring more awareness to the issue of gender diversity and identify the obstacles that women are facing when entering space-related careers and contribute to discussions onending disparities.

The UN also wants to show how women from different backgrounds and regions,facedifferent issuesand challengeswithin the industry.

Gender inequality is a long-standing and widespread issue in education and careers inScience, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics(STEM)fields,bothindeveloped and developing countries.

Recent research shows that women are still visibly underrepresented as researchers in STEM fields in all regions,averaging just28.8 percent, globally.

Overall, the number of women in the aerospace industry have fluctuated at around 20 percent for at least 30 years.Only 11 percentof astronautsso far,have been women.

To address some of those issues, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs(UNOOSA)launchedSpace4Women,to promote women's empowerment.

For Simonetta DiPippo, UNOOSAs Director, equality is the pre-condition for a better future.

Space for women means strengthened awareness, capacity, and skills, empowering young women and girls globally and promoting gender equality, shesays.

Over 560 people have traveled to space, butless than70of themare women.Ofthe 225 spacewalks that have been taken, only 15 were by women.

Women CEOsalsorepresent 19% of the leaders in aerospace anddefence, even though space tends to offer high earning jobs in afast growingsector, providing women with more financial freedomand empowerment.

In the future,90% ofalljobs will require STEM related skills and women mustpossessskills and education to be competitive in the future employment market,says UNOOSA.

According to the UN, to succeed in addressing the17Sustainable Development Goals,the worldmust ensure that the benefits of space reach women and girls and that women and girls play an active and equal role in space science, technology, innovation, and exploration.

On 4 October 1957, the launch of the first human-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1,pavedthe way for space exploration.

From the very beginning of the Space Age, theUN hasrecognized that outer spacerepresented a new frontier for all humanity.

In 1958, the General Assembly adopted itsfirst resolution related to outer space, resolution 1348 (XIII) entitled "Question of the Peaceful Use of Outer Space".

Almost adecade later, on 10 October 1967, theTreaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies,entered into force.

Space science and technology and their applications are increasingly being used to support a wide range of UNactivities, with atleast 25 entities,and the World Bank Group,routinelymaking use oftechnological breakthroughsbeing developed.

NASA

NASA astronauts Christina Koch (left) and Jessica Meir work on their spacesuits ahead of a spacewalk they are conducting.

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Only around 1 in 5 space industry workers are women - UN News

A space mission jointly launched by the European and Japanese space agencies has captured its first, up-close look at the planet Mercury.

A pair of linked orbiters known together as BepiColombo snapped several photos on Oct. 1 during a long-awaited flyby around the innermost planet of our Solar System. The images show Mercurys northern hemisphere and the dozens of craters that dot its surface, including one thats been the site of several volcanic explosions, according to a statement from the European Space Agency. Also captured in the shot are the spacecrafts antennas and magnetometer boom.

The ESA and the Japan Space Exploration Agency launched BepiColombo in 2018 to capture images of Mercury with the goal of uncovering more about its origin and evolution. Only two probes have ever traveled to the planet: Mariner 10, which flew by in 1974 and 1975, and MESSENGER, which orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015.

This weeks flyby marked BepiColombos first of six around Mercury. The space probes passed within 124 miles (199 km) of the planets surface.

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The flyby was flawless from the spacecraft point of view, and its incredible to finally see our target planet, said Elsa Montagnon, the missions spacecraft operations manager, in an ESA press release.

It was very exciting to see BepiColombos first images of Mercury, and to work out what we were seeing, added David Rothery, head of the ESAs Mercury Surface and Composition Working Group. It has made me even more enthusiastic to study the top quality science data that we should get when we are in orbit around Mercury, because this is a planet that we really do not yet fully understand.

The next Mercury flyby is set for June of next year, followed by four more in June 2023, September 2024, December 2024, and January 2025. If everything goes according to plan, BepiColombo will slow down enough to enter Mercurys orbit by the end of 2025. Then, the two orbiters will begin their main scientific mission: mapping the surface of Mercury to study its surface processes, composition, and magnetic field.

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Joint Europe-Japan Space Mission Captures Its First Flyby Photos of Mercury - Gizmodo

Georgia TechsColleges of SciencesandEngineeringhave long collaborated to launch successful joint space science research projects with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Researchers across both Colleges and theGeorgia Tech Research Institute(GTRI) are now hard at work on several ambitious projects related to NASAs planned return to Earths moon and beyond.

Lunar Flashlight to Search for Ice on the Moon

Thomas Orlandosays NASA is always looking for multidisciplinary research programs at the higher education level. He uses a recent win of a key NASA partnership, dubbed theLunar Flashlight Mission, as an example of whats been a very successful approach for the Institute.

Orlando is a professor in theSchool of Chemistry and Biochemistry, principal investigator for NASAREVEALS(Radiation Effects on Volatiles and Exploration of Asteroids and Lunar Surfaces), and former co-founder and director of Georgia TechsCenter for Space Technology and Research(C-STAR.)

REVEALS is researching ways to prepare NASA for the next generation of its crewed space missions, and is, itself, part of a larger NASAprogram,SSERVI (Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute).

The project includes designing spacesuits with radiation detection materials sewn into the suits and using the Moons natural resources (buried ice for water, minerals at or near the surface) to support astronaut habitats. That ice could also provide drinking water for astronauts and possibly help fuel engines built on site.

REVEALS is focusing on the water on the Moon issue. This involves understanding how it is made or delivered, how it is transported, and where it is. The work also involves developing technologies to extract it, a project lead byPeter Loutzenhiser(George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering). We obviously need to know how much is there and whether we can get it and utilize it. This is where Lunar Flashlight comes in, Orlando says.

The Lunar Flashlight project also focuses on deep collaboration and coordination across several agencies and teams.This past summer, theNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory(JPL) in Southern California shipped all spacecraft parts to Tech's Atlanta campus to begin assembly and testing. GTRI is now providing the clean room for assembly, and a team of researchers, led byJud Ready, is managing all the integration and testing of Lunar Flashlight before itisshipped to theMarshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for fueling, then on toKennedy Space Centerin Cape Canaveral, Florida, for launch in 2022.

Our new Center for Space Hardware Assembly, Fabrication and Testing will provide the cleanroom space to assemble Lunar Flashlight and put it through a rigorous series of tests, says Ready, who is principal investigator of the Lunar Flashlight project. Ready also serves as deputy director of Innovation Initiatives for theGeorgia Tech Institute for Materials(IMat), is an adjunct professor in theSchool of Materials Science and Engineering, and is a principal research engineer at GTRI.

Theres no instruction manual right now its our role to collaborate with the scientists and engineers at JPL and the other partners to write the test and integration procedures, do them, and at the same time to conclusively verify our work, Ready says.

Tiny CubeSats Take to the Sky

The Lunar Flashlight is aCubeSat a mini-satellite thats basically what its name implies: a 6U CubeSat (30 x 20 x 10cm), about the size of a desktop tower computer. CubeSatscan weigh anywhere from 3 to 20 pounds, and can be deployed much easier and at a lower cost than traditional satellites.

Since their introduction in 1999, CubeSats have becomepopularfor science and commercial satellite deployment, while allowing Engineering and Sciences students at schools such as Georgia Tech to design and deploy their own satellites.

Thats great in and of itself, for our students to have an opportunity to build a satellite and send it into space,Glenn Lightsey, David Lewis Professor of Space Systems Technology in theDaniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, and current C-STAR director, says. They can apply to a company with a resume that says, Ive already built a satellite and its in space talking to others. Twenty years ago, that just didnt happen.

Lunar Flashlight CubeSat willhave sensitive instrumentation for locating buried ice on the Moon, and Lightseysteam has already built its propulsion system. After launch from Kennedy Space Center, Lunar Flashlight will have its mission control operations run out of Lightseys lab.

Engineering hardware with scientific instrumentation Lightsey says you cant illustrate Georgia Techs strengths as a NASA partner any better thanwith interdisciplinary projects like the Lunar Flashlight.

I think Georgia Tech has a competitive advantage based on how it is really emphasizing interdisciplinary research from the beginning, from idea generation on. There arent many institutions like it in my opinion. Its in Georgia Techs bones.

Lunar Dust-Busting in NASAs BIGIdeas Challenge

The REVEALS program is also looking at ways to wipe out the problem of lunar dust, which can have an inherent electrical charge and can be more damaging to equipment than Earth dust. It can also be a health hazard if it sneaks into an astronauts habitat.

Its an engineering project, but a science problem, Orlando says. Heres an example of where engineering and science got together, and something great came out of it.

NASAsBIG (Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-Changing) Ideas Challenge, a competition for undergraduates and graduate students to brainstorm away problems for the space agency, was dedicated to lunar dust mitigation for the 2021 version. That project is led byJulie Linsey, a professor in theGeorge W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering who is mentored by Orlando and Lightsey, along with REVEALS researchscientistsMicah SchaibleandZach Seibers, a student team of engineering studentsVarun Bose,John Fitton,Zhen Liu,Dicky Silitonga,Kristoffer (Kris) Sjolund,andJeffery Zhang. The crew came up with a hybrid brush, which uses both an electrodynamic system (EDS) and ultraviolet (UV) technology to keep dust from building up on lunar spacesuits.

The team, which called itselfShoot For the Moon, is among sixBIG Ideas Challenge finalists. Shoot For the Moon will give a presentation on the hybrid brush at the BIG Ideas Forum in November.

Two members of the REVEALS team also recently presented their work on human space exploration.Faris Almatouq, a graduate student in theSchool of Physicsworking on novel radiation detectors, andKris Sjolund, a graduate research assistant in mechanical engineering working on the dust brush, both won first prize in the poster contest at the SSERVI/NASA Exploration Science Forum and European Lunar Workshop in July.

These students and co-investigators are all doing great and impactful work, Orlando says. Theres an interesting distribution of students working on BIG Ideas projects. Theyre mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and aerospace engineering students. And there were chemists and other scientists advising them. It was a multidisciplinary student team and a multidisciplinary advisory team.

From our State to our Solar System

Orlando and Lightsey also note that Techs graduates are already finding jobs withBlueOriginandSpaceX, two of the new commercial space businesses with successful crewed maiden flights earlier in the summer. Thats in addition to how Georgia Tech has seeded NASA and JPL, plus Lockheed, Boeing, and other established aerospace companies, with former students.

Almost half of my students are getting a graduate degree in engineeringanda graduate degree in science, Orlando says. They typically get a masters in engineering or materials science and a Ph.D. in chemistry or physics. It markets them much more for SpaceX or NASA. Its this hybrid training that people are looking for, and I cant think of a better place for it than Georgia Tech.

Lightsey and Orlando hope to one day welcome nearby universities, such as Emory University and the University of Georgia, as partners in some of these initiatives. The move would combine resources and expertise from all three institutions to create a first-of-its-kind statewide space science initiative or institute in Georgia.

That kind of collaboration could also help create a new powerhouse for planetary and space science research close to home research institutions and could help create more job opportunities to retain Georgia talent, with young alumni working in a range of aerospace-related industries with freshly minted Georgia-grown degrees in hand.

Theres a lot of interest, Lightsey says. Who doesnt want to work on space exploration? This is something that resonates with everyone in every discipline. I think all the institutions have different areas of expertise they can contribute. I think collectively we can be much more complete than just one institution by itself.

World Space Week 2021: Georgia Tech to Host Space Day Atlanta

The Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech will host Space Day Atlanta on October 9, 2021as an effort to launch local K-12 students interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The day-long event on campus, organized by NASAs Georgia Space Grant Consortium (GSGC), will allow local schoolchildren to see demonstrations of current aerospace research at Georgia Tech, as well as participate in various hands-on activities such as virtual flights to Mars and rocket building and launching. Learn more.

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Georgia Tech Sciences, Engineering, and Space: For a Longtime Campus Partnership, the Sky's Still The Limit | Research - Research Horizons

Georgia TechsColleges of SciencesandEngineeringhave long collaborated to launch successful joint space science research projects with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Researchers across both Colleges and theGeorgia Tech Research Institute(GTRI) are now hard at work on several ambitious projects related to NASAs planned return to Earths moon and beyond.

Lunar Flashlight to Search for Ice on the Moon

Thomas Orlandosays NASA is always looking for multidisciplinary research programs at the higher education level. He uses a recent win of a key NASA partnership, dubbed theLunar Flashlight Mission, as an example of whats been a very successful approach for the Institute.

Orlando is a professor in theSchool of Chemistry and Biochemistry, principal investigator for NASAREVEALS(Radiation Effects on Volatiles and Exploration of Asteroids and Lunar Surfaces), and former co-founder and director of Georgia TechsCenter for Space Technology and Research(C-STAR.)

REVEALS is researching ways to prepare NASA for the next generation of its crewed space missions, and is, itself, part of a larger NASAprogram,SSERVI (Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute).

The project includes designing spacesuits with radiation detection materials sewn into the suits and using the Moons natural resources (buried ice for water, minerals at or near the surface) to support astronaut habitats. That ice could also provide drinking water for astronauts and possibly help fuel engines built on site.

REVEALS is focusing on the water on the Moon issue. This involves understanding how it is made or delivered, how it is transported, and where it is. The work also involves developing technologies to extract it, a project lead byPeter Loutzenhiser(George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering). We obviously need to know how much is there and whether we can get it and utilize it. This is where Lunar Flashlight comes in, Orlando says.

The Lunar Flashlight project also focuses on deep collaboration and coordination across several agencies and teams.This past summer, theNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory(JPL) in Southern California shipped all spacecraft parts to Tech's Atlanta campus to begin assembly and testing. GTRI is now providing the clean room for assembly, and a team of researchers, led byJud Ready, is managing all the integration and testing of Lunar Flashlight before itisshipped to theMarshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for fueling, then on toKennedy Space Centerin Cape Canaveral, Florida, for launch in 2022.

Our new Center for Space Hardware Assembly, Fabrication and Testing will provide the cleanroom space to assemble Lunar Flashlight and put it through a rigorous series of tests, says Ready, who is principal investigator of the Lunar Flashlight project. Ready also serves as deputy director of Innovation Initiatives for theGeorgia Tech Institute for Materials(IMat), is an adjunct professor in theSchool of Materials Science and Engineering, and is a principal research engineer at GTRI.

Theres no instruction manual right now its our role to collaborate with the scientists and engineers at JPL and the other partners to write the test and integration procedures, do them, and at the same time to conclusively verify our work, Ready says.

Tiny CubeSats Take to the Sky

The Lunar Flashlight is aCubeSat a mini-satellite thats basically what its name implies: a 6U CubeSat (30 x 20 x 10cm), about the size of a desktop tower computer. CubeSatscan weigh anywhere from 3 to 20 pounds, and can be deployed much easier and at a lower cost than traditional satellites.

Since their introduction in 1999, CubeSats have becomepopularfor science and commercial satellite deployment, while allowing Engineering and Sciences students at schools such as Georgia Tech to design and deploy their own satellites.

Thats great in and of itself, for our students to have an opportunity to build a satellite and send it into space,Glenn Lightsey, David Lewis Professor of Space Systems Technology in theDaniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, and current C-STAR director, says. They can apply to a company with a resume that says, Ive already built a satellite and its in space talking to others. Twenty years ago, that just didnt happen.

Lunar Flashlight CubeSat willhave sensitive instrumentation for locating buried ice on the Moon, and Lightseysteam has already built its propulsion system. After launch from Kennedy Space Center, Lunar Flashlight will have its mission control operations run out of Lightseys lab.

Engineering hardware with scientific instrumentation Lightsey says you cant illustrate Georgia Techs strengths as a NASA partner any better thanwith interdisciplinary projects like the Lunar Flashlight.

I think Georgia Tech has a competitive advantage based on how it is really emphasizing interdisciplinary research from the beginning, from idea generation on. There arent many institutions like it in my opinion. Its in Georgia Techs bones.

Lunar Dust-Busting in NASAs BIGIdeas Challenge

The REVEALS program is also looking at ways to wipe out the problem of lunar dust, which can have an inherent electrical charge and can be more damaging to equipment than Earth dust. It can also be a health hazard if it sneaks into an astronauts habitat.

Its an engineering project, but a science problem, Orlando says. Heres an example of where engineering and science got together, and something great came out of it.

NASAsBIG (Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-Changing) Ideas Challenge, a competition for undergraduates and graduate students to brainstorm away problems for the space agency, was dedicated to lunar dust mitigation for the 2021 version. That project is led byJulie Linsey, a professor in theGeorge W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering who is mentored by Orlando and Lightsey, along with REVEALS researchscientistsMicah SchaibleandZach Seibers, a student team of engineering studentsVarun Bose,John Fitton,Zhen Liu,Dicky Silitonga,Kristoffer (Kris) Sjolund,andJeffery Zhang. The crew came up with a hybrid brush, which uses both an electrodynamic system (EDS) and ultraviolet (UV) technology to keep dust from building up on lunar spacesuits.

The team, which called itselfShoot For the Moon, is among sixBIG Ideas Challenge finalists. Shoot For the Moon will give a presentation on the hybrid brush at the BIG Ideas Forum in November.

Two members of the REVEALS team also recently presented their work on human space exploration.Faris Almatouq, a graduate student in theSchool of Physicsworking on novel radiation detectors, andKris Sjolund, a graduate research assistant in mechanical engineering working on the dust brush, both won first prize in the poster contest at the SSERVI/NASA Exploration Science Forum and European Lunar Workshop in July.

These students and co-investigators are all doing great and impactful work, Orlando says. Theres an interesting distribution of students working on BIG Ideas projects. Theyre mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and aerospace engineering students. And there were chemists and other scientists advising them. It was a multidisciplinary student team and a multidisciplinary advisory team.

From our State to our Solar System

Orlando and Lightsey also note that Techs graduates are already finding jobs withBlueOriginandSpaceX, two of the new commercial space businesses with successful crewed maiden flights earlier in the summer. Thats in addition to how Georgia Tech has seeded NASA and JPL, plus Lockheed, Boeing, and other established aerospace companies, with former students.

Almost half of my students are getting a graduate degree in engineeringanda graduate degree in science, Orlando says. They typically get a masters in engineering or materials science and a Ph.D. in chemistry or physics. It markets them much more for SpaceX or NASA. Its this hybrid training that people are looking for, and I cant think of a better place for it than Georgia Tech.

Lightsey and Orlando hope to one day welcome nearby universities, such as Emory University and the University of Georgia, as partners in some of these initiatives. The move would combine resources and expertise from all three institutions to create a first-of-its-kind statewide space science initiative or institute in Georgia.

That kind of collaboration could also help create a new powerhouse for planetary and space science research close to home research institutions and could help create more job opportunities to retain Georgia talent, with young alumni working in a range of aerospace-related industries with freshly minted Georgia-grown degrees in hand.

Theres a lot of interest, Lightsey says. Who doesnt want to work on space exploration? This is something that resonates with everyone in every discipline. I think all the institutions have different areas of expertise they can contribute. I think collectively we can be much more complete than just one institution by itself.

World Space Week 2021: Georgia Tech to Host Space Day Atlanta

The Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech will host Space Day Atlanta on October 9, 2021as an effort to launch local K-12 students interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The day-long event on campus, organized by NASAs Georgia Space Grant Consortium (GSGC), will allow local schoolchildren to see demonstrations of current aerospace research at Georgia Tech, as well as participate in various hands-on activities such as virtual flights to Mars and rocket building and launching. Learn more.

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Georgia Tech Sciences, Engineering, and Space: For a Longtime Campus Partnership, the Sky's Still The Limit | College of Sciences | Georgia Institute...

Artist depiction of a lunar lander utilizes the FAST landing pad deposition technology. Credit: Masten Space Systems

Space exploration requires all kinds of interesting solutions to complex problems. There is a branch of NASA designed to support the innovators trying to solve those problems the Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC). They occasionally hand out grant funding to worthy projects trying to tackle some of these challenges. The results from one of those grants are now in, and they are intriguing. A team from Masten Space Systems, supported by Honeybee Robotics, Texas A&M, and the University of Central Florida, came up with a way a lunar lander could deposit its own landing pad on the way down.

Lunar dust poses a significant problem to any powered landers on the surface. The retrograde rockets needed to land on the moons surface softly will also kick dust and rock up into the air, potentially damaging the lander itself or any surrounding human infrastructure. A landing pad would lessen the impact of this dust and provide a more stable place for the landing itself.

Graphic showing the difference between landing with or without the deposition system. Credit: Masten Space Systems

But constructing such a landing pad the traditional way would be prohibitively expensive. Current estimates put the cost of building a lunar landing pad using traditional materials at approximately $120 million. Any such mission also suffers from a chicken and egg problem. How to get the materials to build the landing pad land in place if there is no landing pad, to begin with?

The technology Masten has developed is an ingenious solution to both of those problems. Depositing a landing pad while descending would allow spacefarers to have a landing pad in place before a spacecraft ever touches down there. It would also cost much less to install as all that is needed is a relatively simple additive to the rocket exhaust already being blasted into the surface.

Graphic showing the whole system process of the FAST particle injector. Credit: Masten Space Systems

Mastens general idea is easy enough to understand. Adding solid pellets into the rocket exhaust would allow that material to partially liquefy and deposit onto the exhausts blast zone, potentially hardening it to a point where dust is no longer a factor as it is encapsulated in a hard external shell. Masten believed it could find the right material to add to rocket exhaust to do exactly that.

Success or failure would come down to the physical properties of the additive pellets. Any additive with too much heat tolerance wouldnt melt appropriately in the rocket exhaust, essentially bombarding the surface with tiny bullets. On the other hand, any additive with too little heat tolerance could be completely melted by the rocket exhaust and vaporized into a useless cloud.

Example of how much dust can be kicked up even on Earth as one of Mastens rockets is test fired. Credit: Masten Space Systems

To find the perfect balance, Masten developed a two-tiered system, with relatively large (.5mm) alumina particles used to create a base layer of 1mm of melted lunar surface combined with alumina. Then, as the lander got closer to the base layer, the additive would switch to a .024mm alumina particle, which would deposit at 650 m/s onto the base layer and create a 6m diameter landing pad that would cool in 2.5 seconds.

That all sounds like a pretty impressive idea, but it is still early days. Like many federal grants, the NIAC grant focused on developing this depositable landing pad idea takes a phased approach. Most of the Phase I, which has just been completed, focused on proving the idea is feasible, which Masten believes it is.

Example of the effects of an alumina plate, similar to what would be deposited on the moons surface in a fully scaled up system. An infrared image of the rocket exhaust can be seen to the right. Credit: Masten Space Systems

Feasible is not the same as functional, but that is precisely what NIAC grants are supposed to support wild ideas that might just fundamentally change some aspect of space exploration. If Masten is correct and the approach is possible and can be scaled up, landing pads might be seen cropping up all over the lunar surface. And eventually all over Mars as well.

Read more here:

Lunar Landers Could Blast Deposit Instant Landing Pads as They Arrive at the Moon - SciTechDaily

With Blue Origin's second crewed flight less than two weeks away, the company is facing scathing allegations about its culture and the safety of its suborbital launch system, New Shepard.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is now considering concerns related to vehicle safety that were raised in a detailed essay published by the Lioness on Thursday (Sept. 30). In the essay, 21 past and current Blue Origin employees, all but one of them remaining anonymous, raise a string of concerns about the company's culture, including allegations of sexism, corporate suppression of dissent, disdain for sustainability and a habit of prioritizing schedules above safety when it comes to New Shepard.

"The FAA takes every safety allegation seriously, and the agency is reviewing the information," an agency spokesperson told Space.com in an email.

In photos: Blue Origin's 1st New Shepard passenger launch with Jeff Bezos

The allegations come about two months after Blue Origin's founder, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, rode his company's suborbital launch system on an exultant 10-minute long flight, the vehicle's first ever crewed mission and just days after the company announced that its next crewed mission would launch on Oct. 12.

At the time, the company also identified two of the four passengers on the Oct. 12 flight: Chris Boshuizen, a co-founder of Earth-observation company Planet, and Glen de Vries, who is vice chair for life sciences and healthcare at a French software company. De Vries told The New York Times that he was not concerned about safety on the upcoming flight.

"I am confident in Blue Origin's safety program, spacecraft, and track record, and certainly wouldn't be flying with them if I wasn't," he told The New York Times. "I've been to the launch site, met people at every level of the company, and everything I've seen was indicative of a great team and culture."

In a statement, the company rejected the allegations aired in the Lioness piece. "Blue Origin has no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind," a company spokesperson told Space.com by email. "We provide numerous avenues for employees, including a 24/7 anonymous hotline, and will promptly investigate any new claims of misconduct. We stand by our safety record and believe that New Shepard is the safest space vehicle ever designed or built."

New Shepard, a reusable rocket-capsule combo, has flown 17 times without incident.

In an email to employees obtained by CNBC, CEO Bob Smith wrote to "reassure" workers. "First, the New Shepard team went through a methodical and pain-staking process to certify our vehicle for First Human Flight. Anyone that claims otherwise is uninformed and simply incorrect," he wrote, according to CNBC. "It should also be emphatically stated that we have no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind."

The essay, which reads as a scathing indictment of the company's culture, marks the second publication by Lioness, a company that bills itself as a "storytelling platform" and also works to arrange media coverage of its features. Only one of the 21 signatories is named publicly: Alexandra Abrams, who worked in Blue Origin's communications department from June 2017 to November 2019, according to her LinkedIn profile.

In the statement, the Blue Origin spokesperson wrote, "Ms. Abrams was dismissed for cause two years ago after repeated warnings for issues involving federal export control regulations"; Abrams has said that she was told leadership no longer trusted her.

In an interview with CBS Mornings, Abrams offered a little more detail about the group behind the essay, noting that 13 of the 21 people are or were "engineers or technical" personnel. "They span all the major programs of the company, and they also span different levels," Abrams said. Later in the interview, she noted that the group "includ[es] very senior people."

Blue Origin has been lucky that nothing has happened so far.

The essay touches on a range of issues, but the authors highlighted safety as their motivation, calling it "for many of us ... the driving force for coming forward with this essay." The essay paints a portrait of a corporate culture that devalues safety concerns and risk management.

"Some of us felt that with the resources and staff available, leaderships race to launch at such a breakneck speed was seriously compromising flight safety," the authors wrote, comparing the situation to the environment at NASA discovered after the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger 73 seconds after launch.

"Concerns related to flying New Shepard were consistently shut down, and women were demeaned for raising them," the authors wrote. "In the opinion of an engineer who has signed on to this essay, 'Blue Origin has been lucky that nothing has happened so far.' Many of this essay's authors say they would not fly on a Blue Origin vehicle."

The letter is sparse on specific allegations, but three items stand out as relatively detailed concerns.

One is a reference to a backlog of more than 1,000 unaddressed "problem reports" in 2018 regarding "the engines that power Blue Origin's rockets." The engine in question is likely the company's BE-3, which uses a mix of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen and made its first flight in 2015, according to the company's website. According to the website, the company is still testing a new model of BE-3 for use on its planned orbital vehicle, New Glenn. (Other engines Blue Origin is building include the much-delayed BE-4, which is in testing and slated for use on New Glenn and United Launch Alliance's Vulcan, and the BE-7, which is also still in development.)

In addition to the engine problem reports, the essay writers also pointed to insufficient staffing on an unspecified aspect of New Shepard. "In 2019, the team assigned to operate and maintain one of New Shepard's subsystems included only a few engineers working long hours," they wrote. "Their responsibilities, in some of our opinions, went far beyond what would be manageable for a team double the size, ranging from investigating the root cause of failures to conducting regular preventative maintenance on the rocket's systems."

And the essay writers also noted steps taken out of order in New Shepard's development. "Internally, many of us did not see leadership invest in prioritizing sound systems engineering practices," they wrote. "Systems engineering products were created for New Shepard after it was built and flying, rather than in the design phase; this impacted verification efforts."

Abrams told CBS Mornings that, while she was employed at Blue Origin, she approached management about safety concerns reported by technical staff and was rebuffed. "Oftentimes, when I would try to reconcile what I was hearing from the engineers who were close to the vehicle versus leadership about risk and safety, I would often go to leadership and say, 'OK, how am I supposed to think about this?'" Abrams said. "Often the response would be, 'Oh, well, that person in particular doesn't have a high enough risk tolerance.'"

According to the interview, the co-authors sent the essay to the FAA before publication in order to flag the safety concerns.

The essay and Abrams' interview with CBS both connect the downplaying of risks with the company's broader culture. "You cannot create a culture of safety and a culture of fear at the same time. They are incompatible," Abrams said.

In the opinion of Abrams and her co-authors, the company's blas safety philosophy developed primarily in response to the "billionaire space race" idea that developed between three rival private space companies: Bezos' Blue Origin, Elon Musk's SpaceX and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

Abrams told CBS Mornings that the company's atmosphere was pleasant when she first joined, but it quickly soured. "It was great that Blue Origin was smooth and steady and slow until Jeff [Bezos] started becoming impatient and Elon [Musk] and Branson were getting ahead," Abrams said. "Then we started to feel this increasing pressure and impatience that would definitely filter down from leadership."

When asked, Abrams agreed that, at the time, competition seemed to take precedence over safety in guiding Blue Origin's decisions.

The essay also ties safety lapses to competition and Bezos' personal priorities. "At Blue Origin, a common question during high-level meetings was, 'When will Elon or Branson fly?,'" the authors wrote. "Competing with other billionaires and 'making progress for Jeff' seemed to take precedence over safety concerns that would have slowed down the schedule."

(Bezos' rivalry with Musk may be especially intense, as the two billionaires have traded barbs repeatedly over the years.)

But the group notes other factors that they see as contributing to the deprioritization of safety as well.

They wrote of a budget-conscious culture and an emphasis on slim spending even when projects were made more ambitious. "Employees are often told to 'be careful with Jeff's money,' to 'not ask for more,' and to 'be grateful,'" they wrote. And both the essay and Abrams' remarks point to increasingly aggressive contract terms for employees, including pressuring existing employees to sign non-disclosure agreements.

The group also described diversity shortcomings and "a particular brand of sexism," including at high levels of the company despite its idealistic goals. "The workforce dedicated to establishing this future 'for all' is mostly male and overwhelmingly white," they wrote. "One-hundred percent of the senior technical and program leaders are men." They describe sexist remarks from two unnamed senior figures and leadership's "clear bias against women," manifested in situations like the treatment of departing employees.

The essay also accuses the company of dismissing environmental concerns and Bezos of acting counter to his public donations to environmental causes.

In general, the essay targets company leadership as a whole and the culture that leadership has created, with no specific allegations against Bezos, although Abrams mentioned him specifically in the CBS Mornings interview.

"I think I would say to Jeff that I really wish he was the person we all thought he was and that Blue Origin was the company we all thought it was going to be," she said.

The essay marks another publicity blow for Blue Origin, which appears to be deep into bickering with its rival billionaire-founded space companies.

The company is sparring with SpaceX over a hotly desired contract for NASA's Human Landing System (HLS), the component designed to ferry astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon's surface, perhaps as early as 2024.

NASA officials had previously said that they would like to select more than one concept for HLS funding. But in April 2021, after receiving much less funding for the project from Congress than the agency had requested, NASA decided to fund development work only from SpaceX, which had submitted a cheaper bid than the Blue Origin-led "National Team" or the third entrant in the competition, Dynetics. Blue Origin responded by filing a protest with the agency's internal Office of Inspector General (as Dynetics did as well). When that tactic failed, Blue Origin decided to sue NASA.

As a result, the agency and SpaceX cannot work on HLS until November. All told, the objections will mean minimal work completed even six months after the contract's announcement. Meanwhile, in July, Bezos penned an open letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson offering to cover some costs of a Blue Origin HLS program in-house and raising a host of complaints about the process behind the contract.

The company even raised eyebrows around its greatest success to date, Bezos' own flight. After Branson announced that he would fly on Virgin Galactic's suborbital tourism system just over a week before Bezos' announced flight date, Blue Origin dug into a bitter publicity push comparing the two flight systems.

Such efforts perhaps didn't come as much of a surprise to the Lioness essay authors.

"Billionaires may like to present themselves as altruistic, using their resources for the benefit of humanity; in our opinion, however, much of that image is an illusion created by public relations teams, underpinned by ego," the authors wrote.

The essay authors note that they're happy to have billionaires fund space exploration. But they argue that it's important to consider the wider implications that an environment like the one they claim Bezos has fostered has for the space community.

"In our experience, Blue Origins culture sits on a foundation that ignores the plight of our planet, turns a blind eye to sexism, is not sufficiently attuned to safety concerns, and silences those who seek to correct wrongs," the essay reads. "That's not the world we should be creating here on Earth, and certainly not as our springboard to a better one."

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin faces scathing criticism of safety and culture - Space.com

NUR-SULTAN Kazakh President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev congratulated the country with the 30th anniversary of its first space flight.

Toktar Aubakirov received For Merit in Space Exploration medal for outstanding contribution to the development of international cooperation in manned space flight. Photo credit: Twitter.

The countrys first astronaut Toktar Aubakirov flew into space 30 years ago. This event marked the beginning of the space exploration program of Kazakhstan. Today, space exploration serves the interests of our people and our national economy, said the President on his Twitter.

Oct. 2, 1991 has become a historic day both for Kazakhstan and Austria as the two countries sent their first people into space together for the first time.

On that day, Toktar Aubakirov as flight commander, Alexander Volkov and the Austrian research cosmonaut Franz Viehbck launched on board of the Soyuz TM-13 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch was not easy emotionally or technically there was a flight commander and two novice research astronauts for the first time instead of commander, flight engineer and researcher.

In fact it was the Soviet-Austrian crew: Volkov was the 60th cosmonaut in the USSR, Aubakirov was the 72nd, and as it turned out later, the last Soviet astronaut. Photo credit: sputnik.kz

Upon the invitation of Nursultan Nazarbaev, Kazakhstans First President, heads of the former Soviet Union countries as well as Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky arrived at the Baikonur cosmodrome to congratulate Kazakhstan with its space breakthrough.

Toktar Aubakirov, being a test pilot, was the first person to make a nonstop flight crossing the North Pole to take off from the Tbilisi aircraft-carrier on a MiG 29K in the Soviet Union. He is the last astronaut of the USSR and a retired Kazakh Air Force officer.

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Kazakhstan Celebrates 30th Anniversary Since Its First Flight Into Space - Astana Times

Opinion04 Oct 2021

Over the last few decades, we have seen space greatly contribute to technological and scientific progress. From the first footstep on the moon in 1969, to the most recent missions on the International Space Station, which has an Instagram account followed by no less than 7.8 million people, space has inspired generations of children and adults.

World Space week (4-10 October 2021) is a yearly celebration of science and technology, and their contribution to the betterment of the human condition and is another example of the excitement and interest that space sparks. During this celebration week we are seeing thousands of events and activities being organised to inspire citizens about science, technology, engineering, and other space-related fields. Last year alone, over 6000 events took place across more than 90 countries around the world.

Though it is evident that space is an exciting topic, one might wonder: how is space related to EIT Climate-KICs mission to support systemic change and climate action?

The answer is simple though not always known to the general public. While the word space covers activities related to space exploration, that is looking beyond the Earth to understand other planets and systems, a large part of space operations is dedicated to the study, monitoring, and understanding of our own planet for the benefit of its citizens. Indeed, a considerable number of satellites, as well as ground-based, airborne, and seaborne sensors, provide real-time measurements and information to service providers, public authorities, and organisations to improve citizens quality of life. One of the main applications of this information is climate change.

Giant cyclone on the planet Earth, extreme weather events will become more frequent with climate change.

The latest IPCC report, released in August 2021, highlighted that global climate change trends are worsening and that rapid and bold action is more important than ever. In 2019, the concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were higher than they have been in the past 2 million years, and the global surface temperatures have increased faster in the last 50 years than they ever have during the last 2000 years.

These changes result in increased frequency of extreme events such as heatwaves, flooding, and fires3 all over the world, and we have seen concrete examples of these events closer to home with the numerous floods and forest fires that happened in Europe over the summer of 2021. Now more than ever, it is crucial to monitor these events and forecast their impacts to protect local populations. Additionally, it is urgent to find ways to tackle climate change efficiently and rapidly and provide tools and information that citizens, organisations and public authorities can use to solve climate challenges. This is where space and more specifically Earth Observation and geographic information comes into play.

Earth observation is the gathering of information about the Earths physical, chemical and biological systems via remote sensing technologies, and geographic information is data and knowledge generated about specific places and locations on Earth. Earth observation and geographic information have the potential to provide tools, indicators and measurements to understand, forecast, mitigate, and tackle local and global climate change challenges.

In Europe, the Copernicus Programme managed by the European Commission is the main observation programme looking at our planet and its environment. Copernicus provides indicators and services related to atmospheric quality, land and marine monitoring, climate change, emergency service (including natural disasters), and a last service covering security. The data gathered by the programmes satellites and sensors can be used across many end-user sectors such as urban planning, agriculture, forestry, or marine to name a few.

Satellite images in false-color compositions showing crops between the ash and wood boundaries California USA. Geographic information systems allow users to analyse satellite and remote sensing data to monitor or arbitrate between different land uses such as forestry or agriculture.

Though this data has tremendous potential to support our efforts towards a zero-carbon economy and sustainable use of the Earths resources, end-users are sometimes missing specific skills to analyse the data, or the knowledge needed to interpret the information. To bridge this gap, EIT Climate-KICs Space and Earth Observation Programme was created in 2017 to promote user uptake of the Copernicus data via education and capability building. Since then, we have been working at various levels of education and training value chains to promote the use of Earth observation and geographic information in Europe. This allows citizens, businesses, organisations and local and national authorities to use and understand satellite data to tackle various challenges related to climate change.

We believe that shaping the future and creating systemic change starts with inspiring children. The Space and Earth observation Programme is therefore participating in the Our Space Our Future project to encourage children to pursue space-related careers. This Horizon 2020 funded project creates engaging learning activities for students, their schools, and families, from playful online videos to in-person breathtaking science shows. The resources developed also teach children that space careers are not only linked to space exploration but that they can also dream of becoming climatologists or earth observation scientists, for instance, and use space data to fight climate change.

ESRI international user conference held annually is the biggest GIS conference worldwide. June 18, 2007 in San Diego California. The Earth observation and geographic information sector offers a wide range of possibilities to tackle climate change but requires certain skills and knowledge.

Further along the education value chain, the Space and Earth observation programme of EIT Climate-KIC is working on upskilling and reskilling students, young graduates, and professionals. We partnered with specialists from the Earth observation and geographic information field, renowned universities, successful businesses and far-reaching associations and networks to bridge the gap between the supply and demand of Earth Observation and geoinformation skills in the EO4GEO project. The project has developed a Body of Knowledge for Earth observation and geographic information, gathering all the main concepts and definitions of the field. We have also developed a comprehensive training approach and state-of-the-art training materials to train European graduates and professionals to use Earth Observation and geographic information in application domains such as climate change mitigation.

Lastly, we are collaborating with research institutions across Europe on the Horizon 2020 project CERTO to produce indicators to monitor water quality from lakes trough deltas, coastal waters and to the open ocean. This is crucial, as water quality is a worldwide issue impacting food production, biodiversity, recreation and human wellbeing. In this respect, the project will contribute to build capability for businesses, cities, NGOs to assess water quality and the environmental impact of their activities.

We hope to continue our work in inspiring citizens, supporting strong and passionate professionals of the future and promoting the use of space and remote sensing data to tackle climate change. If you are interested in our projects or would like to collaborate with us in the future, please contact space@climate-kic.org.

Excerpt from:

How can we leverage space innovation to take climate action on Earth? - Daily Planet`

Love and sex must happen in space, if we hope to travel long distances, and become an interplanetary species. But space organizations are not thinking about it. National space agencies and private sector companies, such as NASA and SpaceX, aim to colonize Mars and send humans into space for long-term missions, but have yet to address the intimate and sexual needs of astronauts or future inhabitants outside from the earth.

This situation must change if we hope to establish new worlds and continue our expansion into the cosmos. We will have to learn to reproduce safely and to build pleasant intimate lives in space. However, to be successful, we also need these organizations to adopt a new perspective on space exploration: one that views humans as beings with needs and wants.

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As researchers exploring the psychology of human sexuality and studying the psychosocial aspects of human factors in space, we believe that it is time for space programs to embrace a new discipline: space sexology, the comprehensive scientific study of intimacy and extraterrestrial sexuality.

Love and sex are fundamental to human life. Despite this, national and private space organizations are moving forward with long-term missions to the International Space Station (ISS), the Moon and Mars without any concrete research and plan to address human eroticism in space.

It is one thing to land rovers on another planet or launch billionaires into orbit, and it is another to send humans to live in space for long periods of time. In practice, space science can take us into outer space, but it will be human relationships that determine whether we survive and prosper as a space civilization.

In that regard, we believe that limiting privacy in space could jeopardize the mental and sexual health of astronauts, along with crew performance and mission success. On the other hand, allowing space eroticism could help humans adapt to space life and improve the well-being of future space inhabitants.

After all, space is still a harsh environment, and life aboard spaceships, stations, or settlements poses significant challenges to human intimacy. These include radiation exposure, gravitational changes, social isolation, and the stress of living in remote and confined habitats.

In the near future, life in space may also limit access to intimate partners, restrict privacy, and increase tensions between crew members in dangerous conditions where cooperation is essential.

However, to date space programs have almost completely omitted the topic of sex in space. The few studies that are related to this topic focus mainly on the impacts of radiation and micro-gravity or hyper-gravity on animal reproduction (rodents, amphibians, and insects).

But human sexuality goes beyond reproduction. It includes complex psychological, emotional, and relational dynamics. Love and sex are also sought for fun and pleasure. As such, space exploration requires the courage to address the intimate needs of humans honestly and holistically.

Abstinence is not a viable option. Conversely, facilitating masturbation or partner sex could help astronauts relax, sleep, and ease pain. It could also help them build and maintain romantic or sexual relationships and adjust to space life.

Importantly, addressing the sexological issues of human life in space could also help combat sexism, discrimination and sexual violence or harassment, which unfortunately continues to be present in the scientific and military realms, 2 pillars of space programs.

Due to taboos and conservative sexual views, some organizations may choose to ignore the realities of spatial intimacy and sexuality. They may also think that this is not a problem or that there are more pressing matters to attend to.

But this attitude lacks foresight, as producing quality science takes time and resources, and sexual health, including pleasure, is increasingly recognized as a human right. This means that space agencies and private companies can be held accountable for the sexual and reproductive well-being of those who fly into space. Thus, space organizations that submit to their conservative backers will likely pay the price for their inaction in a very public and media-fueled way when disaster strikes.

The burden may particularly fall on organizations that have not even tried to address human eroticism in space, or when the world learns that they knowingly failed to conduct the proper research or take the necessary precautions that scientists have been calling for more than 30 years.

To move forward, space organizations must stop avoiding sexual themes and fully recognize the importance of love, sex, and intimate relationships in human life. Accordingly, we encourage them to develop space sexology as a scientific field and research program -one that not only aims to study sex in space, but also to design systems, habitats, and training programs that allow intimacy to have place beyond our home planet, Earth.

Furthermore, we believe that given its expertise and Canadas socio-political climate, the Canadian Space Agency is ideally positioned to become a world leader in space sexology. We have what it takes to pave the way for an ethical and enjoyable space journey, as we continue to boldly go where no one has gone before.

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What 'Space Sexology' Is and Why Experts Seek Space Missions - The Costa Rica News

This year's World Space Week kicks off today (Oct. 4), bringing people together from around the world to celebrate women in space with a variety of online events and interactive learning activities.

The international celebration commemorates the achievements and contributions of space science, technology and its applications. The events of World Space Week stretch from Oct. 4 the launch anniversary of the first human-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957 to Oct. 10, the anniversary of the signing of the Outer Space Treaty in 1967, which governs how to use space, such as the moon and other celestial bodies, peacefully.

Here are some of the events being held to celebrate World Space Week. Please check the links for exact times and locations of the live presentations closer to the date of your event, and if registration is required. You can find a full list of this year's events on WorldSpaceWeek.org.

Related: Pioneering women in space: a gallery of astronaut firsts

U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AlabamaDetails here.The museum is hosting daily activities, programs and giveaways, starting with "Women on a Mission" presentations on the past, present and future role of women at NASA.

The Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, GeorgiaDetails here.The museum is hosting a weeklong celebration, starting Oct. 2 through Oct. 9. Activities include Saturday STEM labs, stomp rocket launches, live virtual astronomy presentations, virtual presentations and workshops for teachers and educators, and social media trivia. Some activities require registration.

Space Is Better TogetherDetails here.The Space Foundation is hosting a weeklong celebration of the incredible impact women have had on the global space community, and how space is better when everyone is involved.

12th Annual Space Foundation International Student Art Contest Kick-OffStudent artists ages 318 are invited to participate in Space Foundation's annual art contest by creating and submitting original, space-oriented artwork based on the year's theme: "living, working and playing on the moon."

Build Your Own Model Satellite CompetitionDetails here.The Philippine Space Agency is hosting a "Build Your Own Model Satellite" lecture and competition for kids age 9-10, their parents and siblings. Ariston N. Gonzalez, of the Space Technology Applications Mastery, Innovation and Advancement (STAMINA4Space) Program, will hold an online workshop, demonstrating how to build a model satellite out of recyclable or edible materials. Winners will receive prizes during the World Space Week closing program on Oct. 9.

SSERD Outreach ProgramDetails here. Starting Oct. 4, through Oct. 17, you can participate in the Society for Space Education, Research and Development's (SSERD) outreach program, designed to connect space enthusiasts around the globe through webinars, workshops and competitions for all ages.

Oceaneering WSW Student Panel10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT)Register for free.Designed for younger viewers, this event will have panelists who work in the space industry and can share what their day-to-day is like, how they got into STEM and one of their favorite work experiences. Later in the week, Oceaneering International, Inc. will host a similar panel for adults.

Kids can download a fun coloring activity sheet to complete prior to the panel and share their artwork on social media, using the hashtags #Oceaneering4WSWand #Spaceisforeveryone and tagging @Oceaneering.

Small Steps, Giant Leap: STEM Adventures for Little Space Explorers11 a.m.12:30 p.m. EDT (1500-1630 GMT)Details here.This event is part of a monthly program designed by the Space Foundation Discovery Center, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to engage early learners (students up to the age of kindergarten) in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). It will feature a reading of the book "Mousetronaut" (Simon & Schuster, 2012), by astronaut Mark Kelly. Students will also train like an astronaut using worksheets, a pencil and a calculator.

Homeschool Days: World Space Week12-6 p.m. MDTDetails here.Homeschool Days is an in-person event held at the Space Foundation Discovery Center, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The event will feature two guest speakers from NASA to talk about the Lucy Mission to Jupiter and women in space. One of the presentations will also feature a Space Patch expert.

The Women in the Access to Space for All Initiative Webinar5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT)Register for free. The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs will host a discussion about the capacity-building activities under the Access to Space for All Initiative, including the different programs and the stories of the women that are part of it.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to work in human spaceflight?10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT)Register for free.This event features four women working in the space industry, who will discuss what inspired them to go into STEM and share one of their favorite work experiences. The panelists have supported the Space Shuttle Program and the International Space Station; helped astronauts train for spacewalks in underwater simulations, and aided in developing spacesuits.

Woman on the Moon: Bridging the Gender Gap1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT)Register for free.The World Space Week Association (WSWA) and Moon Village Association (MVA) will discuss the achievements of women in the space sector and the significance of the first woman stepping on the moon. During this virtual webinar, the panelists will talk about the impact empowering women in the space sector has for bridging the gender gap.

Space is Better Together: Tomorrow's Space Jobs are Here Today12 p.m. EDTRegister online.This event will showcase how working together is essential to space exploration and our future. Panelists will discuss the critical role of women like Katherine Johnson of "Hidden Figures" fame.

Lunar Starry Night56 p.m. and 67 p.m. local timeRSVP online for free.Girlstart's STEM Studio and Mini-Planetarium in Austin, Texas offers hands-on STEM activities. For this year's World Space Week, the Starry Night activities include how to build a telescope viewer, calculating how high you could jump on the moon, creating a LED Moon phase night light, and investigating crater formation while playing with Moon Sand. (RSVP required.)

Science Fest, Indiana University Bloomington9 a.m. 3 p.m. EDTIndiana University will host a number of space science activities for all ages. You can register online and view a full list of activities to add to your schedule.

EAA Aviation Museum Space Day10 a.m. 5 p.m. local timeThe Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin is hosting a Space Day event, focusing on space flight and getting kids of all ages engaged with aerospace through hands-on activities and guest speaker, veteran NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, (included with regular museum admission that day).

Along with the week's activities, Fisher-Price is releasing its new Little People Collector "Inspiring Women" figure set, which includes astronaut Sally Ride the first American woman in space and aviator Amelia Earhart, during World Space Week.

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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World Space Week 2021 honors women in space: How to join the celebration online and in person - Space.com