Category Archives: Space Exploration

U.S. and China: Will cooperation or competition define the coming century in space? Here, Chinese astronauts Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng, and Liu Boming participate in a ceremony before heading to Chinas Tiangong space station, now being constructed in low-Earth orbit. Image via Roman Pilipey/ EPA/ The Conversation.Space race? Or handshake?

Much has been said of political tensions between the U.S. and China in recent years. Meanwhile, one long-standing prohibition is attracting reconsideration, as space experts ask whether collaboration or competition will define Chinese-U.S. activities in space in the 21st century. Veteran space journalist Leonard David explored this subject in an article published August 2, 2021, in Scientific American. David, who has been reporting on space for over 50 years, wrote in Sci Am that the answer could come down to how the two nations choose to engage with one another in the next few years.

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David wrote that, by most metrics, the U.S. remains a global leader in space exploration. The Chinese government sat out the famous 1960s space race between the Soviet Union and the U.S., in which the U.S. ultimately landed the first humans on the moon in 1969.

But its been easy to see in recent years that China is advancing its space agenda at a quickening pace. Its plans currently include a permanent Chinese space station, Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) by 2022. And, with its Planetary Exploration of China program, it intends to send spacecraft into the solar system, starting with Mars (the ongoing Tianwen-1 mission to Mars is the first), then Jupiter and the asteroid belt.

According to Davids Sci Am article, China is already nearing a leadership position in space activities. For example, he quoted Jim Head, a Brown University planetary scientist and leading expert on space exploration, as saying that the one constant to Chinas space aspirations, whether in conflict or collaboration, is that they will not stop:

China is on the silk road to space. They are doing it; theres no question about that. Their space program is important to them, and it establishes national pride and prestige. It is not just good for science but for everything [the nation does]. If we sit and bury our heads in the sand and dont do anything ourselves, they are still going. They are not waiting for us.

And David also quoted Bill Nelson, NASAs 14th administrator, who was nominated by President Joe Biden. Nelson said of China:

They put it out there and then they usually follow through.

Here are more specifics about Chinas space program. The country promoted its partnership with Russia in March when announcing plans to build a research station on the moon to be tended by humans before 2031. Moreover, China has demonstrated that it can send sample-return spacecraft to both the moons near and far sides.

Closer to Earth, China is also working on constructing its multi-modular space station, Tiangong. As of this writing, a core segment is already aloft and operational; its three-person crew recently returned to Earth. Next year, a planned rapid-fire schedule will bring more Chinese astronauts to Tiangong, plus supply ships and module add-ons, thereby bringing its assembly to completion. According to David, the China Manned Space Agency has given provisional approval to load the station with more than 1,000 scientific experiments. And itll be inviting foreign participation via the United Nations. Nelson commented:

I think we have a very aggressive China They said theyd put up a space station, and they did. [They said they would] bring back lunar samples, and theyve done so. They are the second nation to robotically land and rove on Mars. They plan to put boots on the moon.

With its plans for outposts in Earth orbit and on the moon plus its Planetary Exploration of China program now heading farther into space one wonders if Chinese will someday become the lingua franca of our solar system.

Its impossible to know at this point if or how Chinas space ventures will affect the U.S. space program. David wrote:

But some experts suggest it might be time for the U.S. to search for common ground in shaping a more inclusive multination space agenda.

For now, however, restrictive legislation makes this far more easily said than done. In 2011 Congress passed a law that included an add-on known as the Wolf Amendment. Named after its mastermind, then-representative Frank Wolf of Virginia, the Wolf Amendment prohibits NASA from using federal funds to engage in direct, bilateral cooperation with the Chinese government. Ever since, a potential repeal of the amendment has been a political football, tossed between hawkish factions eager to paint China as an emerging adversary in space and less combative advocates wishing to leverage the countrys meteoric rise in that area to benefit the U.S.

Proponents of the prohibition argue that the Wolf Amendment protects the American government from Chinese espionage. Opponents believe that rethinking this approach would not only help build trust between the two superpowers, but could create a model for the next era of space exploration.

Is it time for the U.S. to work more closely with China, and should it start by repealing the Wolf Amendment? John Logsdon, a professor at George Washington Universitys Elliott School of International Affairs and founder of the universitys Space Policy Institute, thinks so. He told Leonard David:

I think were going to see a mixture of cooperation and competition, probably between two blocs: one led by the U.S. and one led by China. And thats not necessarily a bad thing.

On the other hand, the new NASA administrator Bill Nelson told David he believes NASA is very much into a space race with China already and that the U.S. must be wary. He warned:

The Chinese civilian space program is, in reality, their military space program. Thats why I think we are going into a space race with China.

Furthermore, Nelson appears to favor the philosophy that friendly competition can breed haste and passion. After all, it was the U.S. versus Soviet competition that got humanity to the moon in 1969, just 12 years after the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957. Nelson has previously referred to the Soviet Union as Americas mortal enemy. Yet despite such a strong opinion, hes pleased with the way things evolved following the space race. The two nations eventually reached a stalemate that extended into space, where cooperation rather than competition reigns today.

The jointly built International Space Station is a shining example, showcasing just what multinational collaboration can achieve. It has been crewed by both American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts alike, orbiting our planet every 90 minutes for more than two decades.

Thats the relationship Nelson would prefer the U.S. had with China. But for now, Chinas penchant for secrecy stands in the way of any similar partnership. More transparency is what it will take, he believes. He told David:

Things dont go swimmingly on terra firma but in space, they do. Leadership in space is leadership in a transparent way for all nations to join you. It calls for a certification from me that it does not affect our national security. So well take it on a case-by-case basis

David suggests that one case could be working with China to share some of the nations samples from its recent and highly successful Change-5 lunar-return mission. Per the Wolf Amendment, there is no prohibition on American researchers asking for and receiving those lunar samples, as long as they dont use NASA funding.

Similarly, Chinas Martian sample-return initiative is one future prospect. Nelson told David he considers it to be a great opportunity.

David ended his article with a final quote from Brown University planetary scientist and leading space expert Jim Head. He said:

The solar system is such a big place. If were all duplicating everything individually, that is just stupid. So collaboration, cooperation, coordination: I think thats absolutely the way to go

And that makes a lot of sense.

Bottom line: Will the U.S. and China collaborate or compete in space activities in the 21st century? EarthSky author Lia De La Cruz blogs on space journalist Leonard Davids recent article on this subject in Scientific American.

Via Scientific American

Excerpt from:

U.S. and China: Cooperation or competition in space? - EarthSky

A new two-hour documentary has an exclusive edge on the astronaut's view of space exploration, between a set of extensive international interviews and several minutes of rare footage from inside spacecraft.

"The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station" opened theatrically in New York and Los Angeles on Sept. 10 and is available on select streaming services beginning today (Sept. 17). If you prefer a digital download, that will also be available Sept. 17, a press release stated. More details are available on the film's official website.

"The Wonderful" is directed by Clare Lewins ("I Am Ali", "Kareem: Minority of One", "The Lost Tapes of Memphis") and produced by BAFTA and Emmy-nominee George Chignell ("Citizen K", "Searching for Sugar Man", "I Am Ali") with Dog Star Films in association with Fisheye Films. You can see an exclusive clip above with former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, the first woman every to command the space station, from the film.

A description from the film promises testimonials from the men and women who were involved in the International Space Station (ISS) from the beginning, with a heavy emphasis on those people who have visited the station and stayed there for long periods of time. You also will see space footage rarely shown on NASA TV or in documentaries, such as training facilities, the interiors of a Soyuz spacecraft during missions, or personal conversations between family members from ground to space.

Related: International Space Station at 20: A Photo Tour

The filmmakers include and narrate in detail notable ISS missions such as Expedition 1 (the first to spend a few months on the station), Expedition 3 (which happened during the 9/11 terrorist attacks that took place 20 years ago this weekend) and Expedition 6 (which had to switch return vehicles from a space shuttle to a Russian Soyuz after the fatal Columbia disaster of Feb. 1, 2003.)

For example: NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson, who famously wrote blog posts from space in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, recalls on camera "racing around the station" trying to find a video camera to zoom in on the New England coast, the site of the attacks. He spotted smoke coming from downtown Manhattan and noticed it intensifying before his eyes.

"It turned out later what I was seeing was the second tower collapse," he said, referring to the two towers of the World Trade Center that had each been deliberately impacted by planes. The next day, Culbertson added, he learned that long-time Navy friend Capt. Charles Burlingame III died; Burlingame was the pilot of the plane that another group of terrorists ultimately redirected deliberately into the Pentagon. We next see Culbertson playing the "taps" bugle call from orbit on his own trumpet, which he found room to bring to space with him.

It is in these personal reminisces that the documentary shines, especially because the filmmakers are careful to include a range of genders and international voices among the space travelers. You really feel like you know the personalities of the individuals through their lengthy interviews, which usually begin with a childhood story about how they were inspired by space, followed by an account of what it felt like to launch on one of their spacecraft, and then memorable moments from their mission.

For example, the Koichi Wakata interview an astronaut from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency is full of boundless joy. Dramatic shots of Wakata in space in the Japanese Kibo module show him gleefully cartwheeling and somersaulting in microgravity, demonstrating the energy that he is known to bring to space. Delightfully, the documentary takes a few moments to show Wakata chatting with the Kirobo space robot and doing calligraphy while he was in orbit, too.

There is a caveat, however; the documentary is not a thorough look at the International Space Station program, nor the key moments that led up to it; space historians will see large gaps in the narration. The documentary makers make a nod at the timeline by bringing former NASA Johnson Space Center director George Abbey on board, nicknamed "the astronaut maker" in a 2018 Michael Cassutt book of the same name for his behind-the-scenes role in shepherding crews to flight.

Abbey correctly points out that U.S. President John F. Kennedy suggested Soviet collaboration for future moon landings in 1963, just a few months before Kennedy's assassination an event that interrupted the effort. But the documentary does not give a thorough look at Soviet-U.S. or even Russian-U.S. relations in the years afterward, ignoring key ISS development moments such as the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project of 1975, the ultimately canceled Freedom Space Station program of the 1980s (which deliberately excluded Russia during difficult moments of the Cold War), and the Shuttle-Mir program of the 1990s that took place after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Another frustrating aspect of the documentary which frequently talks about peaceful international relations between the partners and how the ISS program promotes that was neglecting those moments when the partners have sparred, such as following the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014. It also ignores the years-long, multi-presidential-administration development of NASA's commercial crew a key space station program that had its own lengthy and troubled work to contend with. Commercial crew had international implications as NASA relied on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for nearly a decade to send crews into space, and paid Roscosmos by the seat for the opportunity. Development is also not complete yet given years of trouble with Boeing's Starliner program.

That said, the astronauts give some wonderful anecdotes in their interviews. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson laments that she cannot go to space anymore, because she maxed out her lifetime agency radiation allotment something she had complained about before retirement, as the allotments are lower for women than for men. But there might still be hope given the rise of space tourism and private space missions this summer; "I'll have to find somebody else that will fly me," Whitson says with a smile.

Related: Peggy Whitson is back! The record-breaking astronaut reveals why she chose to command a private space mission after leaving NASA.

We also get to know the family of NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, whose husband Josh Simpson is a glassblower; you see some of his creations flying in space with her. Her son, Jamey, watched her launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and recalled his bemused reaction while seeing the rocket lift off with a family member on board: "Wow, my mom is not on the planet anymore."

Speaking of Baikonur, the documentary shows incredible footage of the famous launch rollouts that take place at the former Soviet launch complex, now regularly used for International Space Station missions. Eerie shots of the Soyuz rocket rolling along its railway and rising in the fog accompany the narration, along with some explanation about how the Soyuz works. In fact, hearing the astronauts carefully describe, for example, the differences between the shuttle landing and the Soyuz landing gives the documentary a bit more depth than the usual questions of how an astronaut "feels" during launch or landing.

Other featured astronauts or cosmonauts include Samantha Cristoforetti (European Space Agency or ESA), Frank Culbertson (NASA), Mike Foale (NASA), Scott Kelly (NASA), Sergei Krikalev (Roscosmos), Tim Peake (ESA), Bill Shepherd (NASA) and Sergey Volkov (Roscosmos).

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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'The Wonderful' tells the story of the International Space Station through many astronauts' eyes (exclusive clip) - Space.com

Inspiration4 may be over, but a number of other missions are poised to follow in its pioneering footsteps.

Inspiration4 sent four private citizens on a three-day trip around Earth aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, in the first-ever crewed orbital mission that didn't include any professional astronauts.

The landmark flight wrapped up Saturday (Sept. 18) with an ocean splashdown off the Florida coast. But we won't have to wait long for more commercial trips to Earth orbit like Inspiration4. They're coming thick and fast over the next few months, potentially paving the way for a substantial private presence in the final frontier.

"Congratulations #Inspiration4! Low-Earth orbit is now more accessible for more people to experience the wonders of space. We look forward to the future one where @NASA is one of many customers in the commercial space market. Onward and upward!" NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said via Twitter on Wednesday (Sept. 15), just after Inspiration4 lifted off.

Video: Inspiration4's on-orbit tour of SpaceX Crew Dragon

Orbital space tourism existed before Inspiration4, which was booked, paid for and commanded by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman. From 2001 to 2009, seven people took eight trips to the International Space Station (ISS), getting to and from the orbiting outpost aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Those flights were brokered by Virginia-based company Space Adventures, and each put one paying customer on a Soyuz with two Russian cosmonauts. The private citizens spent about a week aboard the space station, then came back down to Earth.

No space tourist launched to orbit again until Inspiration4 took flight. But the gap this time will be measured in mere weeks rather than years.

On Oct. 5, for example, director Klim Shipenko and actor Yulia Peresild are scheduled to launch toward the ISS aboard a Soyuz that will be commanded by cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov. Once they get to the orbiting lab, Shipenko and Peresild will film scenes for a Russian movie called "The Challenge."

Russia's federal space agency, Roscosmos, is a partner on the film project, along with Russia's Channel One and the Moscow-based film studio Yellow, Black and White. So it's safe to assume that Shipenko and Peresild aren't footing the bill for their trip.

But another upcoming ISS visit fits the traditional space-tourism mold that of billionaire businessman Yusaku Maezawa, who will ride a Soyuz to the orbiting lab this December on a trip brokered by Space Adventures. Maezawa will fly with video producer Yozo Hirano, who will document the experience, and cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.

Then, in January 2022, a SpaceX Crew Dragon is scheduled to carry three paying customers to the ISS on a mission organized by Houston company Axiom Space. Axiom hired former NASA astronaut Michael Lpez-Alegra to command the mission, which is known as Ax-1.

Axiom also signed a deal with SpaceX for three additional such flights to the orbiting lab, which are expected to launch in the next two years. And two of those future missions will feature a crewmember chosen via a reality TV show contest "Space Hero" in one case and Discovery Channel's "Who Wants to Be an Astronaut?" for the other.

That's just a partial list. Last year, for example, Space Adventures announced plans to fly four paying customers to Earth orbit on a Crew Dragon. That mission, which is broadly similar to Inspiration4, was said to be targeted for late 2021 or early 2022. The Virginia company is also offering two seats on an ISS-bound Soyuz in 2023 and one of those two customers will get to make a spacewalk, the first ever performed by a private citizen.

And space tourism will soon go beyond Earth orbit, if all goes according to plan. Maezawa has booked a round-the-moon trip on Starship, SpaceX's new deep-space transportation system, which remains in development. Launch of that flight, which is called dearMoon, is targeted for 2023.

Related: The first space tourists in photos

Suborbital space tourism is ramping up now as well. The two major players in that arena, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, both have crewed spaceflights under their belts now and are gearing up to begin regular commercial flights in in the coming months.

You need pretty deep pockets to get to suborbital space. A seat aboard Virgin Galactic's six-passenger VSS Unity space plane currently sells for $450,000. Blue Origin has not yet revealed its ticket prices, but they're expected to be in the same general neighborhood, if not higher.

And getting to orbit is even more expensive. The folks who traveled to the ISS with Space Adventures reportedly paid between $20 million and $35 million for the experience, for example. SpaceX and Isaacman have not divulged how much the billionaire paid for Inspiration4, but it could be around $200 million, given that NASA pays about $55 million for each Crew Dragon seat on ISS missions.

Those prices are likely to go down as more and more private missions like Inspiration4 get off the ground, but it's hard to imagine a precipitous drop anytime soon. So orbital space tourism will probably remain the exclusive province of the megarich, the well-connected and/or the extremely fortunate or charismatic (depending on how you want to characterize the reality TV winners) for a while to come.

That doesn't mean the coming boom is irrelevant to the masses, however; a sustained and meaningful rise in private space activity could well have impacts that trickle down to the rest of us. For instance, Axiom aims to operate a commercial space station in Earth orbit in the coming years. Perhaps a pharmaceutical company makes a breakthrough on a cancer drug during microgravity trials on that station. Or maybe Redwire subsidiary Made In Space uses the outpost to perfect the manufacture of the optical fiber ZBLAN, helping to increase connectivity here on Earth.

Making specific predictions is a fool's errand, of course. But generally speaking, increased commercial activity in the final frontier provided it proceeds responsibly should excite fans of space exploration and space development, because advances tend to build on each other. The more space-tourism money SpaceX can rake in, for example, the more resources it may be able to devote to getting Starship up and running. And Starship may be the vehicle that finally gets humanity to Mars.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

Link:

SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission just opened a new era of private spaceflight - Space.com

Image via Wallpaperflare.com.

By Simon Dub, Concordia University; Dave Anctil, Universit Laval; Judith Lapierre, Universit Laval; Lisa Giaccari, Concordia University, and Maria Santaguida, Concordia University

Houston, we have a problem! Love and sex in space need to happen if we hope to travel long distances and become an interplanetary species, but space organizations are not ready.

National agencies and private space companies such as NASA and SpaceX aim to colonize Mars and send humans into space for long-term missions, but they have yet to address the intimate and sexual needs of astronauts or future space inhabitants.

This situation is untenable and needs to change if we hope to settle new worlds and continue our expansion in the cosmos. Well need to learn how to safely reproduce and build pleasurable intimate lives in space. To succeed, however, we also need space organizations to adopt a new perspective on space exploration: one that considers humans as whole beings with needs and desires.

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

Love and sex are central 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 plans to address human eroticism in space. Its one thing to land rovers on another planet or launch billionaires into orbit. Its another to send humans to live in space for extended periods of time.

In practice, rocket science may take us to outer space, but it will be human relations that determine if we survive and thrive as a spacefaring civilization. In that regard, we argue that limiting intimacy in space could jeopardize the mental and sexual health of astronauts, along with crew performance and mission success. On the other hand, enabling space eroticism could help humans adapt to spacelife and enhance the well-being of future space inhabitants.

After all, space remains a hostile environment, and life aboard spacecrafts, stations or settlements poses significant challenges for human intimacy. These include radiation exposure, gravitational changes, social isolation and the stress of living in remote, confined habitats. In the near future, life in space may also limit access to intimate partners, restrict privacy and augment tensions between crew members in hazardous conditions where cooperation is essential.

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

But human sexuality is about more than just reproduction. It includes complex psychological, emotional and relational dynamics. Love and sex are also pursued 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. On the contrary, facilitating masturbation or partnered sex could actually help astronauts relax, sleep and alleviate pain. It could also help them build and maintain romantic or sexual relationships and adapt to spacelife.

Importantly, addressing the sexological issues of human life in space could also help combat sexism, discrimination and sexual violence or harassment, which are unfortunately still pervasive in science and the military, two pillars of space programs.

Due to taboos and conservative sexual views, some organizations may choose to ignore the realities of space intimacy and sexuality. They may also think that this is a non-issue or that there are more pressing matters to attend to. But this attitude lacks foresight, since producing quality science takes time and resources, and sexual health including pleasure is increasingly recognized as a human right.

More and more, this means that space agencies and private companies may be held accountable for the sexual and reproductive wellbeing of those that they take into space.

Thus, space organizations who submit to their conservative funders will likely pay the price of their inaction in a very public and media-fueled way when disaster strikes. The hammer may fall particularly hard on the organizations who have not even tried addressing human eroticism in space, or when the world learns that they knowingly failed to conduct the proper research and take the necessary precautions that scientists have been requesting for more than 30 years.

To move forward, space organizations must stop avoiding sexual topics 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 design systems, habitats and training programs that allow intimacy to take place beyond our home planet, Earth.

We further propose that, given its expertise and the sociopolitical climate of Canada, 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 pleasurable space journey, as we continue to boldly go where no one has gone before.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Bottom line: Sex in space may be a taboo subject that not many are talking about, but it will be necessary for the survival of the human race.

Members of the EarthSky community - including scientists, as well as science and nature writers from across the globe - weigh in on what's important to them.

See the rest here:

Sex in space: Time to talk about it? - EarthSky

Spoiler alert: Tom Cruise lost.

In 2020, word got out that Tom Cruise, director Doug Liman and an unknown actress, with backing from NASA and SpaceX, would head out to the International Space Station (ISS) to shoot a movie there or, at the very least, scenes for a movie. Clearly, were in an age where no green screen will do anymore. At the end of the year, Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, announced that it too was working on a similar project.

Roscosmos and Channel One had partnered up to put together a team for a space-set movie, and they wanted an actress as lead. She was identified in May this year as Yulia Peresild, and Klim Shipenko, the countrys highest-grossing director, came on board to helm it. A tentative start date for the mission (its ok to still call it that) was set for October 5, 2021, and the name for the project was announced as The Challenge.

Roscosmos confirmed the launch date in a press conference last week, Variety reports. On October 5, on board a Soyuz spaceship, piloted by experienced space pilot Anton Shkaplerov, the team heads to the ISS to film for 12 full days. Peresild plays a doctor from Earth, sent to save a dying astronauts life, and the project is meant to highlight space progress and educate audiences on how space exploration is becoming more accessible to outsiders. Channel One will be broadcasting the project, which, at this point, looks more like a mockuseries than a proper film.

But its scripted programming shot in actual space, on board the ISS, and it means Russia has won the space race against the U.S. Speaking to the media outlet, Konstantin Ernst, CEO of Channel One, refuses to acknowledge the so-called space race, saying he would have loved it if his project shot on the ISS at the same time as Tom Cruises yet-to-be-titled film. We would have enjoyed shooting the film together much better, Ernst says.

Peresild and Shipenko have already passed medical reviews and received crash-course training in space exploration. At the same press conference, Peresild joked that menus in space tend to be diversified than restaurant menus, and said shed learned how to use a spoon in zero-gravity. She also received parachute and flights in zero-gravity training.

Meanwhile, Tom Cruise...

Read the original post:

Tom Cruise Loses Space Race: The Challenge Starts Shooting on the ISS Next Month - autoevolution

NASA

Engineers, medical students, ecologists, political scientists, ethicists, policymakers come one, come all to the Duke Space Initiative (DSI), the interdisciplinary home for all things space at Duke.

At Duke Polis Perspectives on Space: Introducing the Duke Space Initiative on Sept. 9, DSI co-founder and undergraduate student Ritika Saligram introduced the initiative and moderated a discussion on the current landscape of space studies both at Duke and beyond.

William R. & Thomas L. Perkins Professor of Law Jonathan Wiener began by expressing his excitement in the amount of interest hes observed in space at Duke.

One of these interested students was Spencer Kaplan. Kaplan, an undergraduate student studying public policy, couldnt attend Wieners Science & Society Dinner Dialogue about policy and risk in the settlement of Mars. Unwilling to miss the learning opportunity, Kaplan set up a one-on-one conversation with Wiener. One thing led to another: the two created a readings course on space law Wiener hired Kaplan as a research assistant and they worked together to compile materials for the syllabus then thought, Why stop there?

Wiener and Kaplan, together with Chase Hamilton, Jory Weintraub, Tyler Felgenhauer, Dan Buckland, and Somia Youssef, created the Bass Connections project Going to Mars: Science, Society, and Sustainability, through which a highly interdisciplinary team of faculty and studentsdiscussed problems ranging from the science and technology of getting to Mars, to the social and political reality of living on another planet.

The team produced a website, research papers, policy memos and recommendations, and a policy report for stakeholders including NASA and some prestigious actors in the private sector. According to Saligram, through their work, the team realized the need for a concerted space for space at Duke, and the DSI was born. The Initiative seeks to serve more immediately as a resource center for higher education on space, and eventually as the home of a space studies certificate program for undergraduates at Duke.

Wiener sees space as an opportunity to reflect on what weve learned from being on Earth to consider how we could avoid mistakes made here and try to do better if we settle another planet. He listed a few of the many problems that the Bass Connections examined.

The economics of space exploration have changed: once, national governments funded space exploration; now, private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic seek to run the show. Space debris, satellite and launch junk that could impair future launches, is the tragedy of the commons at work in space. How would we resolve international disputes on other planets and avoid conflict, especially when settlements have different missions? Can we develop technology to ward off asteroids? What if we unintentionally brought microorganisms from one planet to another? How will we make the rules for the settlement of other planets?

These questions are vast thereby reflecting the vastness of space, commented Saligram and werent answerable within the hour. However, cutting edge research and thinking around them can be found on the Bass Connections website.

Earth and Climate Sciences Senior Lecturer Alexander Glass added to Wieners list of problems: terraforming or creating a human habitat on Mars. According to Glass, oxygen isnt a huge issue: MOXIE can buzz Co2 with electricity to produce it. A greater concern is radiation. Without Earths magnetosphere, shielding of some sort will be necessary; it takes sixteen feet of rock to produce the same protection. Humans on Mars might have to live underground.

Glass noted that although we have the science to solve a lot of these problems, the science were lagging in is the human aspects of it: the psychological, of humanity living in conditions like isolation. The engineering could be rock solid. But the mission will fail because there will be a sociopath we couldnt predict beforehand.

Bass Connections project leader and PhD candidate in political science Somia Youssef discussed the need to examine deeply our laws, systems, and culture. Youssef emphasized that we humans have been on Earth for six million years. Like Wiener, she asked how we will apply what weve learned to space and what changes we should make. How, she mused, do prevailing ideas about humanity transform in the confines, the harsh environment of space? Youssef urged the balancing of unity with protection of the things that make us different, as well as consideration for voices that arent being represented.

Material Science Professor, Assistant Professor of Surgery, and NASA Human System Risk Manager Dr. Dan Buckland explained that automation has exciting potential in improving medical care in space. If robots can do the most dangerous aspects of mission medical care, humans wont have to. Offloading onto repeatable devices will reduce the amount of accidents and medical capabilities needed in space.

Multiple panelists also discussed the false dichotomy between spending resources on space and back home on Earth. Youssef pointed out that many innovations which have benefited (or will benefit) earthly humanity have come from the excitement and passion that comes from investing in space. Saligram stated that space is an extension of the same social and policy issues as the ones we face on Earth, just in a different context. This means that solutions we find in our attempt to settle Mars and explore the universe can be reverse engineered to help Earth-dwelling humans everywhere.

Saligram opened up the panel for discussion, and one guest asked Buckland how he ended up working for NASA. Buckland said his advice was to be in rooms youre not really supposed to be in, and eventually people will start thinking youre supposed to be there.

Youssef echoed this view, expressing the need for diverse perspectives in space exploration. Shes most excited by all the people who are interested in space, but dont know if theres enough space for them.

If this sounds like you, check out the Duke Space Initiative. Theyve got space.

Post by Zella Hanson

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Introducing: The Duke Space Initiative - Research Blog - Duke Today

The cosmic universe is full of unknown, exciting mysteries! Among all, a relatively recent phenomenon of Fast Radio Bursts, and its repeated detection, has attracted immense global attention. These are the intense bursts of radio emissions from unknown origins and last for only milliseconds, making it difficult to study them.

Astronomers observed the first traces of FRBs while examining archival data of Magellanic clouds pulsar survey in 2007. As per the data from the US space agency NASA, astronomers have recorded more than 1,000 FRBs originating from various sources since then. More than 15 of them have also been associated with galaxies other than our own.

To know more about this mysterious phenomenon, The Weather Channel spoke to Pragya Chawla, a research scholar at McGill University, Canada. She is among a few leading astronomers studying FRBs and rotating radio transients using Green Bank Telescope and CHIME (Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment). Heres what she had to say about the phenomenon:

Fast Radio Burst have attracted significant traction in recent years. Can you briefly explain what they are and what their scientific importance is?

An infographic showing the path of FRB 18112 passing through the halo of an intervening galaxy.

Fast radio bursts (or FRBs) are bright flashes of radio light, lasting for microseconds to milliseconds. These bursts are so bright that they can be detected on Earth even though they are located in galaxies billions of light-years away from us.

On their way to Earth, the radio waves emitted by FRBs interact with electrons and magnetic fields. These interactions get imprinted in the properties of FRBs. FRBs can thus be used as cosmological probes and help us study the material located between galaxies.

If FRBs last only a few milliseconds, how do scientists study these signals? What are the challenges?

We study these signals using radio telescopes located on Earth that can point to different locations in the sky. These telescopes have extremely sensitive antennas which can measure changes in the brightness of radio light every millisecond. The challenge lies in processing the large amounts of data recorded by these telescopes.

The antennas can detect signals produced by microwaves, cellphones, aeroplane transmitters and other devices. Our detection algorithms have to be carefully designed so that they can distinguish FRBs from terrestrial signals.

How does the CHIME telescope detect these strange signals? What is the working mechanism of such telescopes?

CHIME telescope

The CHIME telescope is made up of four half-cylinderseach 100 metres in length and 20 metres in diameter. Each cylinder is fitted with 256 antennas. Radio waves from the sky are reflected by the surface of these cylinders and directed towards the antennas. The signals from the antennas are processed by hundreds of GPUs and amount to a data rate of 7 Terabits per second. This data rate is about 5% of the global mobile data traffic.

In 2007, the discovery of FRBs came as a surprise for the scientific community. Why was such a phenomenon not predicted before?

The discovery came as a surprise because FRBs are a million times more energetic than any bursts of radio emission we had observed from neutron stars in our galaxy. There are so many known astrophysical explosions (supernovae, merging stars, flares from magnetars etc.) that it is hard to predict every phenomenon that these sources could show. It is common for theoretical predictions to inspire observations, but it is great that in the field of FRBs, observations lead to so many theories being proposed!

Despite years of research on the source of FRBs, theories range from neutron star circles to cataclysmic cosmic collisions. What is the current scientific consensus on the origin of FRBs? What are the lingering mysteries?

Artist's impression of SGR 1935+2154, a highly magnetised stellar remnant, also known as a magnetar.

We think that at least some fraction of FRBs is produced by highly magnetised neutron stars or magnetars. Neutron stars are the cores of massive stars that collapsed onto themselves. The consensus that magnetars could produce FRBs emerged after the detection of an FRB-like burst from a magnetar in our own Galaxy in April 2020. We still don't know whether magnetars produce all FRBs.

Also, some FRBs are observed to repeat, i.e. bursts are detected from the same sky location after several weeks or months. We don't yet know whether repeating, and non-repeating FRBs originate from the same type of astrophysical object. There are many more unanswered questions, which is why it is an exciting time to study these bursts!

Tell us a bit about your research on FRBs.

As a member of the CHIME/FRB collaboration, I study FRBs using the CHIME telescope. Specifically, I work on understanding the propagation effects, i.e. properties of FRBs that change as their signals travel through the intervening medium. This allows us to study the environments that FRBs are located in and the medium between galaxies in great detail. I also characterise the time CHIME spends on each sky position and use it to understand how often FRBs burst.

Recently, CHIME detected the largest cache of FRBs that could signify some of its distinct features. Could you tell us more about this?

Artist's impression of a magnetar in outburst, showing complex magnetic field structure and beamed emission, here imagined as following a crust cracking episode.

CHIME detected 535 bursts in its first year of operations. For comparison, the total number of FRBs discovered in the decade before CHIME started operating was 60. Such a large number of detections led us to calculate how often FRBs burst. We estimate that 800 FRBs are happening in the sky each day. We dont detect all of these bursts with CHIME as it only sees 1% of the sky at any time.

We also found that FRBs that repeat are different from those that burst only once. Repeating FRBs emit bursts of longer duration, and the radiation is detected in a narrower range of frequencies. This discovery could suggest that repeating and non-repeating FRBs are located in different astrophysical environments or are generated by different astrophysical objects.

As space exploration continues to gain very high importance this decade, especially in terms of space tourism, what should be of the highest priority for the scientific community?

With regards to space exploration, it's great that we are exploring our solar system with missions such as the recently launched Perseverance rover. It is also important to expand our research efforts to locate the nearest habitable planets beyond the solar system. As we explore our local neighbourhood, we shouldn't lose sight of the big picture and continue to develop an understanding of the evolution of the universe.

The interview is a part of a series titled Ask An Astronomer. Here is the last interview of this series:

Prof P Ajith Explains How Studying Gravitational Waves Can Enrich Our Understanding of Universe

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Ask an Astronomer: What Are Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts? Pragya Chawla Demystifies FRBs, CHIME Telescope, and More | The Weather Channel - Articles...

NASA is about to close an important chapter in its history. Chief Scientist Jim Green, who has worked at the agency for over 40 years, now plans to retire in early 2022. He started by developing NASA's equivalent to the internet (the Space Physics Analysis Network) shortly after he arrived in 1980, but he's best known for overseeing some of NASA's biggest space exploration projects in the past 15 years you're likely very aware of his work.

Green directed NASA's Planetary Science Division during the Curiosity landing in 2012, and played a key role in both promoting and explaining the Mars rover to the public. He further took leading roles during the Juno probe's investigation of Jupiter, Messenger's tour of Mercury, Dawn's visit to Ceres and New Horizons' historic flyby of Pluto. The scientist also greenlit plans for the Perseverance rover currently roaming Mars.

It's not yet clear who will succeed Green, although he will assist with the search for his replacement. However, it's safe to say he'll have a healthy legacy. He both nurtured missions and made them more accessible to the public he helped explain why Curiosity, New Horizons and other vehicles were exciting. If you're pursuing a career in space science, Green's work might well have served as an inspiration.

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NASA's chief scientist will retire in 2022 - Engadget

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After more than a decade of hosting launches of SpaceX's workhorse rocket, the Space Coast is finally getting a Falcon 9 booster to call its own.

Starting next year, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex guests will be able to explore the nineMerlin main engines, re-entry scorch marks,grid fins used for in-flight steering, and massive landing legs attached to the 156-foot booster built in California. All that hardware helped launch two missions: the Thaicom 8 communications satellite in 2016 and the three-core Falcon Heavy's premiere in 2018.

Unlikehistoric rockets in the complex's "Rocket Garden" like early Atlas and Mercury-Redstone, however, Falcon 9 will get special treatment: it will be mounted horizontally in a new attraction called "Gateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex." It was transported from SpaceX's spaceport facilities to the Visitor Complex on Tuesday.

"It will be hung in such a way that guests will be able to experience it from a 360 point of view," Howard Schwartz, senior director of marketing and sales for the Visitor Complex, told FLORIDA TODAY. "The facility itself is a multi-tiered facility, so guests will be able to see it from the ground floor and as they go up to the second floor."

Since it functioned as a side booster during Falcon Heavy's first flight, it includes the conical "cap" used for aerodynamic purposes. It will remain uncleaned, or "sooty" as space fans like to call it, and keepsthe buildup of black marks caused by its fiery re-entry and subsequent landing at Cape Canaveral's Landing Zone 1.

"This is the first of many different space partner artifacts that we'll have within the building, so our guests are going to have a full 360 visceral experience," Schwartz said of the 53,000-square-foot facility. "There's a lot of hands-on things, a lot of video stuffwe're going to have."

"In addition to that, we're also going to have a must-see space exploration ride within the facility" that will will be revealed closer to the attraction's 2022 opening, he said. The attraction is designed to feature the future of NASA and commercial spaceflight, whereas others like the space shuttle Atlantis exhibit and Apollo/Saturn V Center take on a more historic angle.

To date, the Falcon 9 family has become one of the most prolific and reliable rockets in history. It's flown more than 120 times from a mix of Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Since the first in late 2015, the rocket has also pulled off 90-plusautonomous landings on drone ships and land-based pads.

It currently is the only rocket used to send humans to space from U.S. soil.

The Space Coast hosted nearly all of Falcon 9's firstsincluding landings, debut flights, the first-ever re-flight of a landed booster, and more. Despite that, Space Center Houston in Texas put one of the rockets on display in late 2020, though its attraction is located outdoors and lacks encapsulation in a building like the one coming to the Visitor Complex. SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, also has one on display outside in a vertical orientation with its landing legs deployed.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launches from KSC, boosters land at Cape Canaveral

SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018 and landed two of the side boosters at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

That's not to say displaying used hardwareisn't an involved process from borrowing agreements to planning to permitting to actual construction, a significant amount of paperwork and hands-on effort goes into presentingspaceflight history.

"Everything has been done from a safety and hazard precaution point of view to make sure that this is able to be viewed from a guest perspective for a long period of time," Schwartz said. "So a lot of work has been done by our partners at SpaceX and our teams here to make sure it is guest-facing from a safety standards and hazards sense."

Schwartz was unable to provide information on pricing agreements, the length of time SpaceX agreed to lend the booster, and other details related to the new attraction. He did say, however, that the Visitor Complex was excited about the booster and in-the-works agreements with hardware from other companies.

Falcon 9'snext flight, meanwhile, is tentatively planned for no earlier than late September. A batch of Starlink satellites will fly from KSC's pad 39A or the Cape's Launch Complex 40 followed by a booster landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

For the latest, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly. Support space journalism by subscribing atfloridatoday.com/specialoffer/.

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The Space Coast is finally getting its own SpaceX Falcon 9 booster - Florida Today

As private companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic break new ground with fully crewed spaceflights, commercial space travel is beginning to feel less and less like fantasy.

For the time being, space exploration is reserved for scientists, engineers and billionaires, but its likely only a matter of time before advances in technology begin to democratize access. And the beneficiaries will include businesses, as well as intrepid tourists.

Its all too easy, however, to be seduced by the possibilities of space and lose sight of the multitude of risks. For example, a new report from security company Kaspersky asserts that the threat posed by cyberattacks against space infrastructure is in danger of being overlooked.

Although the threat level remains relatively low for now, the report predicts the volume of attacks against space infrastructure is set to skyrocket, with potentially catastrophic consequences.

In every new domain, people focus on the availability of a service before security. Space exploration is in that phase at the moment; there are a lot of systems with basic or no security, explained Maher Yamout, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky.

Maybe people think there is no risk for space stations and sensors, because they are out of reach, but attacks are already taking place.

The report divides space infrastructure into three categories - the user segment, ground segment and space layer - all of which are vulnerable to attack in their own specific ways.

The user segment is made up of the devices and networks used by administrators to monitor technologies deployed in space. The role of the ground segment, meanwhile, is to receive communications from the satellites and craft in the space layer, as well as to deliver instruction.

Already, intrusions have been identified that affect each of these layers. For example, in 2019, NASA discovered a threat actor had successfully compromised its network and deployed a hardware backdoor (in the form of a Raspberry Pi) to steal sensitive information. And in the ground segment, there is an opportunity for traffic interception, which could allow an attacker to snoop on satellite communication and inject traffic to communicate with a virus.

Although there are currently no known examples of cybercriminals hacking directly into satellites, vulnerabilities in the user and ground segments have been exploited in attempt to alter the flight path of satellites in orbit.

By design, every piece of infrastructure has entry points, each of which has the potential to create opportunities for attackers, said Yamout. On Earth, with all the advancements and new technologies, we have a relatively good level of security protection. But in space systems, the protections are much more basic.

With evolving technology and science, it is likely we will visit space more than we used to. Cybersecurity has to be considered when designing space systems in all layers and must integrate in all segments and phases of the space domain evolution.

No matter how well space infrastructure is protected, however, criminals will find a way to launch attacks. The question then becomes: who and why?

At the moment, the incentives for cyber actors to launch attacks against space infrastructure are relatively few. With little opportunity to generate revenue, only a minority of hackers are likely to be interested.

The current space cybercrime landscape is dominated by state-sponsored actors, Yamout told us. These individuals or groups are not in it for money, but rather information that might accelerate domestic space research or provide an intelligence advantage over a rival nation. At a stretch, cyber mercenaries employed by private businesses may also be involved in intelligence gathering activities at this stage.

However, as the number of private businesses operating in space increases (think space mining and telecommunications, as well as tourism), the door will open to a variety of different kinds of attack, from a wider range of actors.

Cybercriminals are only really interested in making money, explained Yamout. Once space is commercialized and technology becomes sophisticated enough to install malware, criminals will be able to deploy ransomware against critical infrastructure, for example.

This is a big deal, because infrastructure in space costs a lot of money and is not easy to replace, so criminals will have significant leverage in negotiations.

The fundamental principles of cybercrime are the same in space as they are on earth. As money floods into the sector, its likely that some of it will flow into the pockets of cybercriminals too.

Its even likely, he says, that hacktivists and script kiddies (amateur hackers looking to hone their craft) could cause problems, launching nuisance attacks that bypass the basic levels of protection, if only to prove that its possible.

In the worst case scenarios Yamout described, cyberattacks on space infrastructure will place human lives at risk, either by causing the loss of communication with Earth or the loss of control of space equipment.

Spacecraft (both manned and otherwise) are heavily reliant on communications to function. And its possible, at the whim of a nation-state or cybercriminal actor, that a shuttle could be set adrift with fatal consequences.

According to Yamout, cybercriminals that manage to infiltrate the ground segment could alsoestablish so-called kamikaze satellites, which could be instructed to crash into technology deployed at the space layer (and cut off a line of communication in the process).

In some scenarios, the consequences of cyberattacks will be felt most acutely on Earth itself. Imagine a scenario whereby a cybercriminal is able to jam signals emitted by GPS satellites, bringing journeys to a standstill, leaving ships lost at sea and more.

The best way to limit attacks of this kind, says Yamout, is to raise awareness early in the cycle, in the hope the industry will recognize the importance not just of breaking new ground in space, but of building security into infrastructure from the start.

History proves that new domains often begin with few resources and basic capabilities, opening the gate to a multitude of cyber threats, he added. The hope is that we wont repeat the same mistakes in space - the next cyber frontier.

See more here:

Kamikaze satellites and shuttles adrift: Why cyberattacks are a major threat to humanity's ambitions in space - TechRadar