Category Archives: Space Travel

Our goal for this section: Take the entirety of business news that happened over the last three months and distill it into the 5 stories that truly mattered. Heres what we came up with.

Its hard to say just yet, but this summer could be considered a Wright brothers moment for commercial space travel. Billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson blasted off to space in homegrown rockets. And while he didnt go to space himself, Elon Musk did something even more impressiveSpaceX sent the first all-civilian crew into orbit on the Inspiration4.

Something the industry still needs to figure out: literally astronomical costs. Tickets for Virgin Galactic space flights start at $450,000 a seat.

Chinas government tightened the screws on numerous industries as it tries to center the countrys culture around an ideal of common prosperity.

In no particular order, Beijing has a) expanded its ban on crypto-related transactions b) limited the amount of time kids can play video games c) stopped ride-hailing giant Didi from signing up new customers d) banned effeminate men from appearing on TV e) blocked tutoring companies from taking profits, and much more.

The new regulations amount to one of Chinas most dramatic attempts to reset the relationship between business and culture in recent memory.

From record-shattering temps in Oregon to Hurricane Ida in the East, weather disasters affected nearly 1 in 3 Americans this summer. These weather events, plus a new UN report that deemed climate change a code red for humanity, sparked more conversation around climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Will it lead to action? Democrats cited failures of our current system (like the NYC subway flooding) as justification for the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill theyre hoping to pass this week.

Hot Vax Summer fizzled out as the highly contagious Delta variant sent Covid cases soaring once again. The wave also created more urgency from the government and businesses to get employees vaccinated.

While some large corporations mandated vaccinations early on, the Biden administration turned the volume up to 11 when it said that all companies with 100 or more employees need to ensure their workers are vaccinated, or otherwise present a weekly negative Covid test. Good news is, the Delta wave appears to have peaked in many pockets of the US.

Turns out, the Ever Given being stuck in the Suez Canal was the least of our supply chain worries this year. Factory closures in Asia due to Covid-19 have prolonged bottlenecks, driving inflation higher and delaying your new couch from arriving.

Some stats that illustrate the brokenness of the global supply chain:

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The Top 5 Business Stories From the Third Quarter - Morning Brew

The U.S. Air Force and emergingSpace Force are venturing into previously uncharted territory. The two branches areexploring the conceptual and technological parameters of more fully weaponizing space with offensive attack technologies.

Space travel has of course long been crucial to Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) flight and Missile Defense efforts to track and destroy incoming ICBMs in the mid-course phase of flight.Now,the prospect of sending new technologies into space to operate offensively as attack weapons is now very much under exploration by the Pentagon.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall confirmed that the possibilities were indeed being explored as what he referred to as global strikes from space. Kendall did not go into much detail,whichis not surprising given the obvious security sensitivities surrounding the issues.Buthe did articulate a few significant parameters regarding how space weapons might operate in the future.

There is potential to put weapons in space and potential for a weapon to be launched into space as a system that goes into orbit, then de-orbits to hit a target, Kendall said.

This latter possibility, Kendall further explained, might prove to be a more survivablemethod of attackas newly engineered space-traveling weapons might be able to operate with an ability to adjust trajectory to avoid a more traditional ICBM flight path. This could enable an offensive weapon to potentially avoid missile warning systems and function with a greater likelihood of traveling through to hit a target.

While Kendall himself did not elaborate much beyond those few remarks, the possibility of further weaponizing space certainly inspires the imagination in several key respects. Technologies such as Ground-Based Interceptors, ground-launched anti-satellite weapons, kill vehicles for missile defense, decoys and countermeasures, and of course, ICBMs have been well known as space weapons systems for many years. What could be new? Couldarmed dronestravel beyond the earths atmosphere to track and destroy enemy ICBMs, hypersonic missiles, or even spacecraft and satellites? What about laser weapons, as they are widely known to be well suited for space operations given that beam attenuation is much less of a factor beyond the earths atmosphere? What about arming satellites themselves with interceptors able to launch from space? Orperhaps integratinglong-range missiles and launch systems into satellites to destroy enemy satellites, spacecraft or even ground-based targets should the range and precision accuracy be sufficient. This kind of possibility seems entirely realistic given how close existing space-based sensors can zoom in on the earths surface. The Missile Defense Agency, for example, is already working on power scaling to assess the feasibility of using space or even surface-ship-fired lasers for ICBM defense and attack operations beyond the earths atmosphere.

Interestingly, one of Kendalls most significant and telling remarks was that he said when it comes to possibilities for space weapons, there is no question about the technical feasibility.

Kendalls remarks on space war were closely mirrored by U.S. Space Force Commander Gen. John Raymond, who made it clear that space is a warzone.

If you look at what China is doing and what Russia is doing. They will not take us on in the air, because they know we will kick their butt, so the only way they think they can challenge us is to take out our space assets. They are developing capabilities to rival us in space, Raymond said at the Air Force Associationsymposium.

Kris Osborn is the defense editor for theNational Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the ArmyAcquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Master's Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

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The U.S. Air and Space Forces Are Ready to "Fully" Weaponize Space - The National Interest

Think about what VR actually is. In the literal sense VR, of course, stands for virtual reality. Lets examine that phrase for a moment, shall we? Without getting too philosophical, we can all agree on what reality is. But, its worth remembering that virtual has a double meaning. While it means existing digitally, not physically, it also means almost. Nearly. Very close. We promise this is going somewhere, and youve actually landed on Space.com and not Dictionary.com.

The idea of doing in an alternate almost reality what you cannot in the real world is very appealing. Thats why people seek out VR headsets like the PlayStation VR or Oculus Quest 2. Were not talking about things like soaring through the sky as a bird or going on an adventure on an alien planet with futuristic weapons (although VR does allow you to do these things). Rather, were thinking about things that you theoretically could do in the real world, but for various reasons may never get the chance to. Mountain climbing, visiting a rainforest, racing at extreme speeds, going into space things like that.

Virtual reality presents an opportunity to experience a wide range of otherwise unobtainable experiences quickly, easily, safely, and often for free. Its not the real thing, of course, but its much closer than you could otherwise get.

One thing that the vast majority of people will never get the chance to do, but that a significant percentage of those same people would love to do, is become an astronaut and visit space. Without the years of mental and physical training necessary (or just being a billionaire), the next best thing we have is virtual reality. For example, Mission: ISS offers a tantalizing taste of astronaut life, and its free. You can get it from the Oculus store for the Oculus Quest 2 system.

Made with help from NASA, Mission: ISS gives you a little corner of the International Space Station to explore. Youre able to navigate tight spaces in zero gravity, look outside to see the Earth hanging below, and gently bat floating items out of your way the full astronaut experience!

Theres an educational component to the experience, most explicitly in terms of the optional pop-ups to be found. If something is highlighted in yellow when you point at it a spacesuit, say, or a control console you can hold the trigger to reveal text and a photo or sometimes a video. Here, a NASA astronaut will talk briefly about their experiences. Its not all dry technical stuff, either. Have you ever wondered how an astronaut washes their hair in zero gravity? Well, if you havent before, you certainly are now. Thats one mystery that Mission: ISS can clear up for you.

Nonetheless, youre free to completely ignore these if you wish, and concentrate on playing astronaut yourself. As we mentioned, this is a zero-gravity experience. You can use the left stick to push yourself forwards and backwards to make things a little easier, but you can (and will) also need to grab onto handholds to push and pull yourself along in every direction. It can take a little while to master moving around in this way. But then, of course it can, this isnt something most people are accustomed to.

You can even go on a simulated spacewalk. Typing this, we can still remember gingerly using our propulsion unit in conjunction with the hand-led navigation wed practiced using while inside. With the Earth looming large below us, we carefully made our way to the area we were asked to check and back, noticing a release of tension once wed reached the airlock. Its alarmingly easy to drift off course or to go too far, and the tether attached to an astronauts spacesuit isnt indestructible

Theres another, safer, but equally tricky mission. From the safety of the inside of the ISS, youll be able to operate the Canadarm 2 which is a giant robotic arm. Its not nearly as simple as you might expect. Operating the arm involves using two sticks while observing it on two separate monitors. Its slow, demanding, and really makes you feel like youre doing proper astronaut work.

Simulating some of the work done on the ISS is very cool, but theres a simple joy to be had just making your way around. The interior is packed full of detail. While its a shame that you cant open up the labeled boxes of astronaut food, youll love taking in the fine detail added to screens, and rewarding yourself with a tricky zero-g journey through the entirety of the available area.

There are plenty of other apps and games that emulate space travel or take place in space (like these best PSVR space games), as well as a huge variety of other bucket list experiences. Many cost money, albeit not that much. However, if youre on a tight budget now that youve got your VR headset, another option is VR video. Again, some of these need to be paid for, but there are a huge number of free ones on YouTube (such as this spacewalk, this skydive experience, or the David Blaine balloon stunt) and within certain apps and VR storefronts.

When it comes to 360 degree VR videos, downloading is always the best option, as streaming them tends to provide a fairly low resolution. Thanks to free streaming VR videos we have (virtually) skydived, ridden a motorbike at terrifying speed, accompanied a solo explorer to the South Pole, flown above world-famous cities, traveled deep below the surface of the ocean, and much more all this without ever having to leave your house (well, once youve learnt how to set up your room for VR). While VR videos arent strictly speaking interactive, they do allow you to look all around you while enjoying the extra immersion that VR offers by default.

VR cant give you the money, knowledge, physique, or equipment that you may be missing for your dream experience. However, it can instantly bypass all those requirements to bring you very, very close. Why wouldnt you take advantage of that? Things will, after all, be virtually the same.

Today's best VR headset deals

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This International Space Station VR experience lets you explore the ISS and its as amazing as it sounds - Space.com

Very few things in life are as predictable as sunsets. No matter what the day brings- you can always count on it to end. Likewise, you can always count on the sun to be there in our sky.

To us its bright, never changing. But 93 million miles away, its actually so much more dynamic. Its seething, says Alex Young, Dr. Alex Young, the Associate Director for Science in the Heliophysics Science Division atNASAsGoddard Space Flight Center.

Its constantly changing, theres huge amounts of energy moving out, creating these huge blasts of energy called solar flares. And it can also burp these huge blobs of billions of tons of solar material and magnetic fields. We call these coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

Heliophysists, or sun scientists, like Young monitor these solar flares and coronal mass ejections through the eyes of numerous spacecraft, watching in various filters which paint the sun in a myriad of colors- searching for any significant expulsions of electromagnetic radiation that could cause trouble here on Earth.

These solar storms have caused widespread power outages, communication blackouts, and in the worst cases we can even lose a satellite. And its happened in a few extreme cases

The good news is that were protected here on Earth, the atmosphere is very thick, says Young. So a lot of the things like x rays and gamma rays, the things that would be really bad for us, dont make it through the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, thats not the case everywhere.

Astronauts heading to the moon, mars, and beyond travel dont have this protection we have on the Earths surface and could be hit with a lethal dose of radiation traveling at the speed of light. Thankfully for future space travel, and our current technologically connected world, scientists with the Space Weather Prediction Center continuously watch for solar storm activity, just like how their counterparts within NOAA watch tropical storms!

Im just scratching the surface of this incredibly complicated but fascinating branch of science that often results in more questions than you started off with, but thats really the exciting part of science in general. Its not just answering questions, its getting new questions which takes us another step forward.

Storm Team 2 Meteorologist David Dickson

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Solar flares & more- an introduction to space weather - WCBD News 2

Paul M. Sutteris an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of "Ask a Spaceman" and "Space Radio," and author of "How to Die in Space."

The universe is pretty good at smashing things together. All kinds of stuff collides stars, black holes and ultradense objects called neutron stars.

And when neutron stars do it, the collisions release a flood of elements necessary for life.

Let's explore how astronomers used subtle ripples in the fabric of space-time to confirm that colliding neutron stars make life as we know it possible.

Related: When neutron stars collide: Scientists spot kilonova explosion from epic 2016 crash

Just about everything has collided at one point or another in the history of the universe, so astronomers had long figured that neutron stars superdense objects born in the explosive deaths of large stars smashed together, too. But starting about a decade ago, astronomers realized that the collision of neutron stars would be particularly interesting.

For one, a neutron star collision would go out with a flash. It wouldn't be as bright as a typical supernova, which happens when large stars explode. But astronomers predicted that an explosion generated from a neutron star collision would be roughly a thousand times brighter than a typical nova, so they dubbed it a kilonova and the name stuck.

As the name suggests, neutron stars are made of a lot of neutrons. And when you put a bunch of neutrons in a high-energy environment, they start to combine, transform, splinter off and do all sorts of other wild nuclear reaction things.

With all the neutrons flying around and combining with each other, and all the energy needed to power the nuclear reactions, kilonovas are responsible for producing enormous amounts of heavy elements, including gold, silver and xenon. Together with their cousins, supernovas, kilonovas fill out the periodic table and generate all the elements necessary to make rocky planets ready to host living organisms.

In 2017, astronomers witnessed their first kilonova. The event occurred about 140 million light-years from Earth and was first heralded by the appearance of a certain pattern of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time, washing over Earth.

These gravitational waves were detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo observatory, which immediately notified the astronomical community that they had seen the distinct ripple in space-time that could only mean that two neutron stars had collided. Less than 2 seconds later, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a gamma-ray burst a brief, bright flash of gamma-rays.

A flurry of scientific interest followed, as astronomers around the world trained their telescopes, antennas and orbiting observatories at the kilonova event, scanning it in every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum. All told, about one-third of the entire astronomical community around the globe participated in the effort. It was perhaps the most widely described astronomical event in human history, with over 100 papers on the subject appearing within the first two months.

Kilonovas had long been predicted, but with an occurrence rate of 1 every 100,000 years per galaxy, astronomers weren't really expecting to see one so soon. (In comparison, supernovas occur once every few decades in each galaxy.)

And the addition of gravitational wave signals provided an unprecedented glimpse inside the event itself. Between gravitational waves and traditional electromagnetic observations, astronomers got a complete picture from the moment the merger began.

That kilonova alone produced more than 100 Earths' worth of pure, solid precious metals, confirming that these explosions are fantastic at creating heavy elements.

In short, the gold in your jewelry was forged from two neutron stars that collided long before the birth of the solar system.

But that wasn't the only reason the kilonova observations were so fascinating. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicted that gravitational waves travel at the speed of light. But astronomers have long been trying to develop extensions and modifications to general relativity, and the vast majority of those extensions and modifications predicted different speeds for gravitational waves.

With that single kilonova event, the universe gave us the perfect place to test this. The gravitational wave signal and the gamma-ray burst signal from the kilonova arrived within 1.7 seconds of each other. But that was after traveling over 140 million miles (225 million kilometers). To arrive at Earth that close to each other over such a long journey, the gravitational waves and electromagnetic waves would have had to travel at the same speed to one part in a million billion.

That single measurement was a billion times more precise than any previous observation, and thus wiped out the vast majority of modified theories of gravity.

No wonder a third of astronomers worldwide found it interesting.

Learn more by listening to the episode "What's so groovy about gravitational waves? (Part 2)" on the "Ask A Spaceman" podcast, available oniTunesand askaspaceman.com. Ask your own question on Twitter using #AskASpaceman or by following Paul @PaulMattSutter and facebook.com/PaulMattSutter. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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How neutron star collisions flooded Earth with gold and other precious metals - Space.com

Over 150 participants from Romania have registered for NASA Space Apps Challenge, the largest space and science hackathon in the world, which will take place on October 2-3., online. The grand award of the global competition is the chance to participate in the launch of a space shuttle in 2022.

Those who want to register can complete the application available on the pages dedicated to the virtual event organized in Romania in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timioara and Iai.

The teams will have to solve one of the 28 proposed challenges in areas such as Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning, Apps, Data Organization, Game, Hardware, Knowledge, Lunar Surface Operations, Risk, Science Applications, Space Travel.

Participants can create their own challenge, but it will not enter the final jury.

The two winning teams from each city will qualify for the global stage and enter the competition for the grand award: the chance to witness a space shuttle launch in 2022. In addition, NASA offers ten other awards. The winning teams will upload their solutions on Sunday, October 3, to the global platform for the next stage.

During the hackathon in Romania, the competitors will receive help and advice from dedicated mentorsand a team of experts from Romania will judge the projects. The teams will be assisted during the 48 hours of competition by representatives of Vodafone Romania, Bosch, Google, Thales, Profi, Endava, Tradesilvania and Cloud Software Development.

NASA Awards for the winners

The winning teams from Romania will be evaluated together with the other winning projects globally by the experts of the space agency.

The ten global awards are: Best Use of Science, Best Use of Data, Best Use of Technology, Galactic Impact, Best Mission Concept, Most Inspirational, Best Storytelling Award (new), Global Connection Award (new), Art & Technology Award (new), Local Impact Award (new).

In 2020, Space Apps enjoyed internationally approximately 26,000 participants who created 2,303 projects. The full list of 2020 hackathon finalists can be accessed here. Last year, four teams from Romania qualified for the international judging stage of the competition.

The NASA Space Apps Challenge International Hackathon is an innovative NASA incubation program organized annually. The program gathers thousands of people worldwide who work with NASAs open data in a 48-hour sprint. Since its launch in 2012, NASA Space Apps Challenge has engaged over 150,000 people from over 150 countries and territories.

The Space Apps concept relies on collaboration, creativity and critical thinking, stimulates interest in science and space and Earth exploration, and encourages growth and diversity among the next generation of scientists, technologists, designers and engineers. Space Apps is managed by the Division of Earth Sciences, Science Mission Directorate, at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

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Over 150 participants from Romania enter the NASA Space Apps Challenge competition, the largest space and science hackathon in the world - Business...

There is almost no knowledge about the physiological and psychological effects on women in this research area, said Angelique Van Ombergen, the Esa scientist leading the experiment at the Medes space clinic in Toulouse. We really hope that this study could help address some of the knowledge gaps of how people react to this extreme environment. The weightlessness experienced by astronauts can have striking effects on the body in a short space of time. Without gravity to load the spine, water and other molecules are able to move into the discs between vertebrae, meaning that astronauts tend to become taller in space but also weaker as supporting muscles and ligaments are doing less work.

The absence of gravity also leads to fluids shifting towards the head, which has been linked to hearing and vision problems. Previous studies have found the immune system can go quiet in the sterile environment of a spaceship, which can lead to a reactivation of old viruses. Many of these effects are likely to vary significantly between men and women. Based on previous dry immersion experiments a Russian cohort spent 21 days in a similar setup Van Ombergen said the experience was likely to be quite challenging for the volunteers, rather than relaxing. It requires dedication from the volunteers to stick to it, she said.

In the latest study, the volunteers will first be swathed in a cotton sheet and then a waterproof tarp, before being suspended in an immersion tank with only their arms and head left outside. The volunteers will remain in their tank for five days in a monotonous environment, only coming out for brief hygiene breaks to shower and go to the toilet, while remaining in a horizontal position to minimise fluid shifts in the body. The scientists will collect blood and urine samples, while making continuous measurements to see how the body is adapting. The proportion of female astronauts has slowly increased over the past decade, with the first all-female spacewalk in 2019, Nasa having announced its goal to put the first woman on the moon and China expected to include a female astronaut on next months mission to its new Tiangong space station.

Until now, though, there has been a dearth of data making it difficult to tailor exercise programmes during missions and rehabilitation on return to Earth for female astronauts. Women seem less susceptible to vision impairment than men, related to headward fluid shifts, but women are more susceptible to fainting when they come back to Earth, said Prof Alan Hargens, who researches the impact of microgravity on the human body at Surgery University of California San Diego.

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Immersion tank study will explore the impact of space travel on the female body | Space - BollyInside

Like the speed of an advancing race car driver, the winds in the outermost "lane" of Jupiter's Great Red Spot are accelerating a discovery only made possible by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, which has monitored the planet for more than a decade.

Researchers analyzing Hubble's regular "storm reports" found that the average wind speed just within the boundaries of the storm, known as a high-speed ring, has increased by up to 8 percent from 2009 to 2020. In contrast, the winds near the red spots innermost region are moving significantly more slowly, like someone cruising lazily on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

The massive storm's crimson-colored clouds spin counterclockwise at speeds that exceed 400 miles per hour and the vortex is bigger than Earth itself. The red spot is legendary in part because humans have observed it for more than 150 years.

When I initially saw the results, I asked 'Does this make sense?' No one has ever seen this before," said Michael Wong of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the analysis published today in Geophysical Research Letters. "But this is something only Hubble can do. Hubble's longevity and ongoing observations make this revelation possible."

We use Earth-orbiting satellites and airplanes to track major storms on Earth closely in real time. "Since we don't have a storm chaser plane at Jupiter, we can't continuously measure the winds on site," explained Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who contributed to the research. "Hubble is the only telescope that has the kind of temporal coverage and spatial resolution that can capture Jupiters winds in this detail."

The change in wind speeds they have measured with Hubble amount to less than 1.6 miles per hour per Earth year. "We're talking about such a small change that if you didnt have eleven years of Hubble data, we wouldn't know it happened," said Simon. "With Hubble we have the precision we need to spot a trend." Hubble's ongoing monitoring allows researchers to revisit and analyze its data very precisely as they keep adding to it. The smallest features Hubble can reveal in the storm are a mere 105 miles across, about twice the length of the state of Rhode Island.

"We find that the average wind speed in the Great Red Spot has been slightly increasing over the past decade," Wong added. "We have one example where our analysis of the two-dimensional wind map found abrupt changes in 2017 when there was a major convective storm nearby."

To better analyze Hubble's bounty of data, Wong took a new approach to his data analysis. He used software to track tens to hundreds of thousands of wind vectors (directions and speeds) each time Jupiter was observed by Hubble. "It gave me a much more consistent set of velocity measurements," Wong explained. "I also ran a battery of statistical tests to confirm if it was justified to call this an increase in wind speed. It is."

What does the increase in speed mean? "That's hard to diagnose, since Hubble can't see the bottom of the storm very well. Anything below the cloud tops is invisible in the data," explained Wong. "But it's an interesting piece of data that can help us understand what's fueling the Great Red Spot and how it's maintaining energy." There's still a lot of work to do to fully understand it.

Astronomers have pursued ongoing studies of the "king" of solar system storms since the 1870s. The Great Red Spot is an upwelling of material from Jupiter's interior. If seen from the side, the storm would have a tiered wedding cake structure with high clouds at the center cascading down to its outer layers. Astronomers have noted that it is shrinking in size and becoming more circular than oval in observations spanning more than a century. The current diameter is 10,000 miles across, meaning that Earth could still fit inside it.

In addition to observing this legendary, long-lived storm, researchers have observed storms on other planets, including Neptune, where they tend to travel across the planets surface and disappear over only a few years. Research like this helps scientists not only learn about the individual planets, but also draw conclusions about the underlying physics that drive and maintain planets' storms.

The majority of the data to support this research came from Hubble's Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, which provides annual Hubble global views of the outer planets that allow astronomers to look for changes in the planets' storms, winds, and clouds.

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Hubble Shows Winds in Jupiter's Great Red Spot Are Speeding Up - HubbleSite

From Star Treklike medical scanners to concepts for off-planet agriculture like in The Expanse, science fiction has often inspired actual research at NASA and other space agencies. This week, researchers are meeting at a virtual conference for the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to brainstorm and investigate sci-fi-like ideas, some of which may very well shape the missions of the next 20 years.

A drone helicopter hopping about a Martian crater or a lunar rover that maps moon ice might have seemed far-fetched a decade ago, but the copter actually flew earlier this year, and the rover is in the planning stages. Now the conference organizers have solicited proposals for more exploratory projects, a few of which the agency might eventually fund. We invest in long-term, far-out technologies, and most of them probably wont work. The ones that do might change everything. Its high risk, high payoff, almost like a venture capital investment portfolio, says Jason Derleth, the NIAC program executive.

The program isnt focused on incremental developments but instead seeks game-changing technologies, ones that are 10 times better than the state of the art, Derleth says. He likens it to the Pentagons Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which also explores extremely speculative concepts but developed the precursor to the modern internet, among other innovations.

The annual conference, which continues through Thursday, September 23, is publicly viewable on NIACs livestream. Some of the proposals discussed so farsuch as for new ways to launch foldable space stations or astronaut habitats, or to extract resources from other worldsrevolve around the understanding that, for lengthy space voyages, you have to make the most of every rocket launch.

The next generation of space travelers will need resources for survival, for protective structures, and to fuel the journey further or return home. This leaves us with two options: Take everything with us, like if you were going on a hiking trip in the desert. Or find new and creative ways to use whatever is already there, says Amelia Greig, an aerospace engineer at University of Texas at El Paso, who presented at the conference on Tuesday.

To aid creative reuse of lunar resources, Greig and her colleagues propose a technology called ablative arc mining, which would slurp up water ice and the kinds of metals that could be used as building materials. Its like using controlled lightning bolts to mine the moon, she said during her presentation. Her concept describes a van-sized moon crawlernamed after the Jawa sandcrawlers of Star Warsthat picks a spot, and then places a ringed device that it carries on its front end parallel to the ground. Electric arcs zap across the ring, which can be made as large as a meter in diameter, ripping particles from the moons surface. Those particles, now charged, can then be moved and sorted by the machines electromagnetic fields. That way, rather than scoping just one resource, a single piece of equipment could fill one container with water, another with oxygen attached to other elements, and others with silicon, aluminum, or other metal particles.

An artistic representation of the ablative arc mining system deployed into a crater near the lunar south pole.

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NASA's NIAC Program Gives a Sneak Peek at the Future of Space Travel - WIRED

Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969 and delivered his pre-prepared line that became famous: Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Except he misspoke. What Armstrong said was nonsense. He meant to say a man rather than just man.

Whatever. Armstrongs statement rang true. From the start of the space age in 1957 when the Soviet Unions Sputnik satellite orbited the Earth, six-plus decades of mainly US government-funded, -designed and -staffed space exploration has brought many rewards. Apart from stirring national pride and showcasing bravery, space exploration has boosted knowledge of the universe and led to much innovation related to satellites, global positioning and weather forecasting.

Even if Armstrong blew his line, he was more profound than Jeff Bezos on his return to Earth on July 20 after being blasted into the atmosphere just past the Karman line that, 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Earth, generally marks outer space. Best day ever, was Bezoss verdict on flying for 10 minutes in a pilotless rocket built by Blue Origin, a company he founded in 2000.

Perhaps Bezos should have said something more Armstrong-like as did Richard Branson when, nine days before Bezos, he zoomed to an altitude of 80 kilometres in a piloted space plane built by Virgin Galactic, which Branson set up in 2004. We are at the vanguard of a new space age, Branson said.

Whats new is that an entrepreneur-led drive into space is underway. Bezos and Branson joined soon perhaps by other private companies are vying with Boeing and Elon Musks Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to commercialise space.

SpaceX, as Musks creation of 2002 is known, is ahead. The companys most notable feat is that in 2015 it pioneered reusable rockets, which is regarded as the single transformative technology shift driving todays space race because it has slashed launch costs.

Many benefits are likely to flow from the commercialisation of space that already amounts to a US$350 billion industry. Space tourism is likely to grow, after commencing on September 15 when SpaceX launched its first privately funded three-day spaceflight of just tourists. The standard offering (at US$450,000 a pop with Virgin Galactic) will be orbiting the Earth to experience weightlessness and gain an astronauts view of the world. Another prospect is vacations on commercial space stations. A later step could be tourist trips to the moon.

A second, and bigger, commercial motivator is adding to the more than 5,000 satellites already orbiting the Earth. SpaceX, for instance, plans to add another 11,000 satellites via its Starlink mega-constellation and has filed for US permission for another 30,000.

Private enterprise heading into the cosmos is rekindling and aiding government space efforts. Nasa, as well as employing SpaceX to return to the moon under its Artemis Program, plans more voyages to Mars and intends to search Jupiters moon Europa for life. China in May landed a vehicle on Mars for the first time, two years after the country became the first to land a craft on the far side of the moon. Beijing and Moscow in June announced plans for a permanent base on the moon.

Commercial space efforts are bound to advance scientific knowledge. The hope is that microgravity will allow for unique research that could lead to discoveries previously kept hidden by gravity. Another motive is to enable people to live beyond Earth. Bezos sees a future where millions of people are living and working in space. Musk talks of terraforming Mars, by which he means nuking Mars to make the planet habitable for humans.

The commercialisation of space comes with risks and disadvantages that could limit such exploration (ignoring complaints about the cost). The biggest risk is that space travel is dangerous. Much can go wrong with rockets, and fatal events could derail space exploration, as they have in the past.

Another problem is space exploration is likely to intensify global political tensions. Whoever rules space controls an avenue to deliver thermonuclear weapons via ballistic missiles and much else. Chinas moves into space look likely to intensify Chinese-US rivalry. The US in 2019 created a Space Command as its sixth military sphere to thwart China in space. A third drawback is the space race will come with environmental damage, especially with respect to climate change from fossil-fuelled rockets.

Whatever the doubts or drawbacks about the question, the better economics of space exploration are overriding them. A privately led space adventure has begun that has already notched achievements and, amid controversy and setbacks, is likely to post many more.

To be pedantic, private companies have long helped Nasa while the commercialisation of space could be dated to the turn of the century, so its not new, just intensifying. The role of Nasa and other government agencies in this private quest shouldnt be underestimated. These private companies will need to be willing to lose much money. A techno-utopian element bordering on the unbelievable pervades the private space quest. Some, perhaps much, disappointment lies ahead.

No doubt. But the entrepreneurs pioneering todays drive into space are wealthy visionaries who wont be deterred easily. Get set for a space race pursued by people who think they are on a philanthropic mission.

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