Category Archives: Space Travel

Spacing Out

To the Editor:

I found it surprising, and profoundly distressing, that none of the accomplished authors and reviewers of the four books on space travel (Walter Isaacson on Elon Musk, Elliot Ackerman on Richard Branson, and Mark Atwood Lawrence on John Glenn and John Kennedy, July 25) questioned the delusion that the future of humanity lies in space.

It doesnt. It lies on Earth. Space may be fun for a few. But for the rest of us, there is no Plan(et) B. Tragedy awaits us unless we devote all our efforts to preserving our habitat a far more profound challenge than the conquest of space. All these authors and reviewers know that. They owed it to us to acknowledge it.

Richard L. Abel Santa Monica, Calif.

To the Editor:

While reading through the fascinating collection of reviews on the theme of space exploration, which largely ignored ecology, inequality and what economists call opportunity cost, I kept playing two classic songs in my head from half a century ago, still sadly more relevant than ever: Gil Scott-Herons Whitey on the Moon and the opening lines of Marvin Gayes immortal Inner City Blues: Rockets, moon shots / Spend it on the have-nots.

Sometimes poets and songwriters raise questions even the most brilliant scientists and businessmen might well ponder. As for space aliens, they likely took a long look at us, turned around and went back home long ago.

Steve HeiligSan Francisco

To the Editor:

In his review of Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy (Aug. 1), Joseph Dorman states that Ethel not only knew of her husband Juliuss spying for the Soviet Union but aided him at times, including in the recruitment of her brother [David Greenglass] and sister-in-law [Ruth].

For this claim, Dorman relies on strong evidence from Soviet archives. But this evidence is problematic at best. It consists of a cable written by a Soviet intelligence agent on Sept. 20, 1944, two versions of which exist. One, intercepted by U.S. intelligence, was decrypted and translated as part of the top-secret Venona project. It says that Julius and his wife recommend Ruth as an intelligent and clever girl. The other, a translation of the same cable made directly from the copy in the Soviet archives, does not refer to Ethel at all.

The full texts of both versions are reprinted in Final Verdict: What Really Happened in the Rosenberg Case, by Walter Schneir, with a preface and afterword written by me.

Miriam SchneirMontclair, N.J.

To the Editor:

When Laurie Colwin, the subject of Lisa Zeidners essay (July 25), died in 1992, I was 32. I was 16 years younger than she was, with a baby daughter and a marriage that unbeknown to me was about to implode. She was my friend, even though she never knew it.

I longed to sit with her at her tiny apartment table and eat her famous roasted chicken. Her voice was so conversational, so direct and funny and true; her fictional friends were like the friends I had, loyal and exasperating and there for you through thick or thin. I felt her loss like that of a longtime pen pal, even though our correspondence was one-sided. I came to her food writing after her death, leafing through my mothers old issues of Gourmet magazine.

My baby daughter is a grown woman of 30 now, a writer and a cook who just bought her first home. I found a second copy of Home Cooking on my bookshelves and am going to give it to her along with a copy of Zeidners essay. I hope Colwins writing will speak to her as it did to me about cooking, about family and about joy.

Alison LawrenceToronto

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Marvin Gaye, the Venona Project and Other Letters to the Editor - The New York Times

The North America space robotics market is currently a highly profitable growth ground owing to the presence of substantially funded organizations like NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. The region is also witnessing several ongoing and upcoming space missions that are anticipated to generate considerable demand for space robots, further strengthening the regions space robotics industry size.

According to a research report by Global Market Insights, Inc., space robotics market is estimated to surpass $3.5 billion by 2025.

Global space robotics market is estimated to procure commendable returns in the ensuing years, primarily owing to the increasing investments and efforts dedicated toward space research and exploration in countries such as the United States, India, and Russia. Space robotics is significant in the development of machines that are capable of expanding the human capacities in space by facilitating abilities beyond human limitations in extreme space environments.

Request for a sample copy of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/3219

Increasing investments in space programs will also have significance in driving demand for space robots in the coming years. Recently, SpaceX was awarded a $50.3 million contract by NASA to launch its X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer mission. Major funding toward potential space missions will provide a huge scope for space robotics engineering, thereby augmenting space robotics market share in the future.

Space explorations have always attracted the interests of several private companies. Case in point, Boeing has built the Saturn V rocket, the 363-foot booster rocket capable of lifting the entire apparatus to the edge of space. In the last few years, the space exploration arena has witnessed the emergence of multiple competitors such as Blue Origin, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and more. The introduction of new technologies by key players, would positively influence space robotics market trends over the forecast period.

A farfetched but plausible idea that has begun surfacing the international space industry is the possibility of space travel for recreational purposes. With numerous firms embarking on a quest to launch spaceflights for civilians, space travel is starting to seem less like a dream. Possibilities of recreational space travel could present a major opportunity for space robotics companies, thus augmenting the space robotics market share in the future.

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Although government funding to organizations like NASA is facing a slump, the space industry is slowly moving to the private sector, with Elon Musks SpaceX and Jeff Bezos Blue Origin signing more contracts. SpaceX is reportedly gearing up to launch its eighteenth contracted CRS mission to the International Space Station through its Cargo Dragon spacecraft. The mission will also use the Space Stations robotic arm Canadarm 2 to extract IDA-3 from the Dragons trunk. Increasing collaborations between established space stations and emerging private firms will present space robotics companies with major growth prospects in the ensuing years.

In terms of segmental growth, the robotic arms segment is slated to witness immense demand over the coming years. Robotic arms have proved to be one of the most reliable machines in space missions. Recently, NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory finished installing a 2.1-meter-long robot arm on the Mars 2020 rover. The new arm has been designed to perform much more complex activities. Increasing penetration of robotic arms for advanced space mission will result in segmental growth for the global space robotics market.

A perfect example is the partnership between Tokyos ispace and Elon Musks SpaceX to send a series of robots to the moon. The Lunar Lander will orbit the moon in this mission thats scheduled in mid-2020. A rise in the integration of robotics technology for future space missions will substantially drive space robotics market outlook in the future.

Browse complete table of content (TOC) of this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/toc/detail/space-robotics-market

The Asia Pacific market is also likely to emerge as a strong contender due to increasing implementation of major space projects. For example, the Indian Space Research Organizations second moon mission Chandrayaan 2 is the nations first attempt at robotic space explorations. Increasing adoption of space robotics engineering for upcoming space programs and explorations would primarily contribute to expanding Asia Pacific space robotics market size.

The numerous benefits depicted by these technologies will accelerate the adoption of space robots in the coming years. Products like space probes are capable of exploring areas that are beyond human accessibility. Moreover, space robots can also withstand extreme temperatures and perform programmed tasks for longer durations. These advantages will play a major role in further accelerating the adoption of space robotics.

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Space Robotics Market Growth Prospects by Regions, Trends and Key Players to 2025 - The AltcoinBeacon

Did you hear about SpaceXs acquisition last week?

Most investors didnt.

Thats because the press largely yawned at the news. After all, whats the big deal?

Well, as our macro specialist, Eric Fry, points out below,whySpaceX made this acquisition is very telling.

The answer points toward a massive technological trend that will define this decade, and generate enormous wealth for investor portfolios that are well-positioned.

Today, lets hear more from Eric about SpaceXs acquisition, this megatrend, and a leading space technology and intelligence company thats poised for huge growth over the next two to three years.

Ill let Eric take it from here.

Have a good weekend,

Jeff Remsburg

Elon Musks Quiet Acquisition Has Everything to Do With 5G

By Eric Fry

When SpaceX does something, you know about it.

Whenever one of its rockets launches or lands, media outlets everywhere plaster it all over our screens.

Scroll YouTube for a while, and you can find thousands of Elon Musk fans cheering SpaceXs admittedly impressive launches and landings.

SpaceX crashes get blanket coverage as well and they bring out Musk haters full of schadenfreude.

Earlier this week, however, SpaceX did something very quietly.

When it acquired Swarm Technologies, a small satellite connectivity startup, it didnt issue a press release. Musk didnt tweet about it.

Instead, SpaceX pencil pushers filed some paperwork with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and enterprising reporters dug it up.

Of course, once we found out about it, the SpaceX-Swarm deal got the same amount of attention that everything Musk-related receives.

However, the deals surreptitiousness ended up receiving most of the attention. (As did the fact that this is SpaceXs first acquisition during its 19-year life.)

And that means you could have missed out on learningwhySpaceX bought Swarm and how that ties into the 5G megatrend.

Lets take a look

No IoT Without 5G

Swarm operates a constellation of 120 smartphone-sized satellites and a ground station network. In the deal, SpaceX gets all that plus various space licenses and patents.

Of course, the deal makes sense for Swarm. It gets this tiny 30-person company the resources it needs to take on similar smallsat companies.

While SpaceX prefers to develop technology internally, this deal puts it in one quick move into the Internet of Things (IoT) business.

Swarms SpaceBEE satellites communicate with its ground station network of antennas with a Swarm Tile. All those devices on the ground are then part of the global IoT network.

The IoT is a vibrant, high-speed network of physical objects things that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of exchanging data and communicating with other devices, systems, and/or people.

The global IoT market is expected to reach a value of $1.39 trillion by 2026, up from $761.4 billion in 2020, according to Mordor Intelligence.

At this point, youre likely asking what all this has to do with 5G.

Heres the thing: The IoT cannot reach its true potential without the next generation of mobile broadband that will replace or augment existing 4G LTE connections.

5G technology drastically improves upload and download speeds, while also improving latency, which is the time it takes devices to communicate with wireless networks.

The current 4G network delivers around 100 megabits per second. But once 5G rolls out, that number jumps to 10,000 megabits per second or 100 times faster than the current speed.

That means an entirely new generation of technologies may become feasible and flourish.

Whereas 4G provided the network speeds necessary to run online apps and mobile streaming, 5G represents a monumental leap forward. It provides the foundation for a whole host of gee-whiz technologies including the IoT and dozens of other innovations now waiting at the starting gate.

Qualcomm estimates that 5G networks will generate a whopping $13.2 trillion in global sales activity by 2035. Other estimates say 5G is about to unleash an economic tsunami worth at least $56 trillion.

You cant invest in SpaceX or in Swarm.

But you can do this

A Competitive Constellation

Currently, around 100 satellites are launched every year.

But by the end of the decade, Euroconsult estimates, well be launching nearly1,000 satellites every year.

By 2028, there could be 15,000 satellites in orbit.

According to Euroconsult, by 2028, there could be 15,000 satellites in orbit.

Morgan Stanley predicts that the global space industry could generate over $1 trillion by 2040, up from $350 billion today.

Moreover, these non-terrestrial networks will become a vital link in the global 5G network deployment.

Thats a high-growth sector we want to be in.

And I like one particular play right now

Warren Buffett advises buying companies that possess a competitive moat an advantage that secures their market share and growth potential.

A space company that I recommended to members of my trading service,The Speculator, possesses what I call a competitive constellation.

That company is a leading space technology and intelligence company that traces its roots to the early days of space exploration.

Today, dozens of its satellites are orbiting Earth, and this constellation is gathering reams of data and delivering it in various forms to its government and corporate customers. As a result, nearly 4 billion people interact with this companys technology every month.

Clearly, it has constructed an impressive competitive constellation.

But the company does face competitive threats from the likes of other established satellite companies as well as upstarts like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic.

In addition to these corporate threats, it must also grapple with the ongoing technological challenges of space travel and exploration. As astronaut Scott Kelly famously quipped after a SpaceX rocket explosion in 2015, Space is hard.

Space exploration failures can lead to charges in the tens of millions against earnings.

In fact, despite delivering a strong quarterly report earlier this month that topped analyst estimates for both revenues and earnings, the companys shares dipped due to a worse-than-expected announcement about its next-generation fleet of satellites.

Despite this setback, however, the companys brass maintained its revenue and earnings guidance for the rest of the year.

Bottom line: That selloff seemed like a major overreaction to the satellite delay.

And following that report, I reiterated my belief in the company to Speculator members, stating that this company has compiled a long-term track record of success, despite intermittent setbacks, and I believe it will do so again and reap sizable earnings growth as a result.

The company, I said, remains a leading space technology and intelligence company that possesses substantial earnings growth potential over the next two to three years.

And I said that I believed the selloff is affording investors a second opportunity to invest in outstanding speculation.

To learn how to get this outstanding speculation as aSpeculatormember,click here.

Regards,

Read the rest here:

SpaceXs Telling Acquisition This Week - InvestorPlace

Its been 52 years since the artist Jeff Gates made a reservation to go to the Moon. Like many who gathered around their TV sets to watch the first lunar landing on July 20, 1969, Gatesthen a 20-year-old college student home for summer vacationwalked outside immediately afterward and looked skyward.

I kept saying, there are human beings on that Moon!, says Gates, now 72. It was unbelievable, and I wasnt quite sure what to do with that feeling. But I wanted to be a part of that shared moment of exhilaration and amazement Its just human nature to want to be part of that.

Gates, a longtime reader of sci-fi and fantasy books, had seen some media coverage of Pan Ams First Moon Flights Club, a marketing stunt from the now-defunct airline offering lunar passage by the year 2000. He called an agent at the airline and made a reservation for himself and Mrs. Gates, the wife he assumed he would have by then. His membership card, numbered 1,043 out of 93,000 such tickets issued between 1968 and 1971, has been in the collection of the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. since 2016.

This Pan Am "First Moon Flights" Club card, number 1043, was issued by the airline to Jeffrey Gates in the late 1960s. Gates acquired the card (as well as reservations for himself and his wife-of-the-future) when he was 20 years old.

Courtesy Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum

Like so many other hopeful would-be astronauts, Gates never got his chance to go to space. In fact, after booking his flight, he didnt think much about the card at all until the space shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. What I did realize was we are not at the point where commercial space travel is going to be normalized anytime soon, he says of that incident, which killed all seven aboard. But five decades after booking his never-used tickets, Gatesand his wife, Susie, who he married in 1991has been watching in recent weeks as a series of civilian space missions are bringing his dreams ever closer to reality. Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic flight and Jeff Bezoss Blue Origin launch made headlines with their short suborbital jaunts, while the upcoming Inspiration4 mission plans to put an all-civilian crew into orbit for the first time. (TIME Studios is producing a documentary series on the Inspiration4 mission.)

The Branson, Bezos and Inspiration4 missions, while historic in their own rights, also represent new landmarks in a long-evolving effort to open space up to non-professionals. Indeed, private citizens have been joining astronauts in space for nearly four decades, a mixture of experts picked to handle specialized equipment being launched into space, members of Congress who had power over NASAs budget, people selected as publicity stunts or in the name of diplomacy, and billionaires who could afford outrageous sums for the privilege to strap themselves into a Russian Soyuz rocket.

To whom the honor of first civilian in space belongs depends on your point of view. Back in the heyday of the Cold War and the 1960s Space Race, NASA recruited its astronauts almost exclusively from the ranks of military test pilots. Diversity at that point meant how many candidates were drawn from the Air Force versus the Navy (with some Marine pilots thrown in). So when Neil Armstrong was selected for the astronaut program in 1962, the choice was notable. Armstrong had served as a Naval aviator in Korea, returned to Purdue to complete his degree, and then joined NASAs predecessor agency as a test pilot. Given that Armstrong was no longer in the military and that NASA was a civilian agency, he was dubbed the first civilian astronaut to fly at the time of his 1966 Gemini 8 mission. Of course, Armstrongs flight test experience and NASA training made the distinction mainly technical.

In the mid-1980s, NASA began picking payload specialistspeople with specialized experience on a particular piece of hardwareto join space shuttle missions. While most in the space community now agree that these specialists deserve to be called astronauts as much as anyone else who flew on the shuttle, they were among the first people to travel to space who werent on a government payroll. McDonnell Douglas test engineer Charlie Walker, who flew on three different shuttle missions between 1984 and 1985, was the first such specialist, and ran an experiment designed to help pharmaceutical research.

Politicians who held sway over the U.S. space program soon followed. In 1985, Senator Jake Garn (R-UT), then chair of the subcommittee charged with overseeing NASAs budget, joked that the agency wouldnt get another cent unless they let him go to space. NASA granted his wish, giving him a spot aboard the space shuttle Discoverys fourth flight in 1985. In its coverage, TIME noted that the decision to send Garn to space came a few months after then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced that the first truly private citizen in space would be a teacher. When the shuttle lifts off, all of America will be reminded of the crucial role teachers and education play in the life of our nation, Reagan said in a 1984 speech to schoolworkers. I cant think of a better lesson for our children and our country. When TIME asked Garn whether he was taking a spot away from a teacher (in an April 22, 1985 story headlined Jake Skywalker), Garn characterized his request as part of his oversight function. I am a public official, he said. I am concerned. I even flew the B-1 bomber years ago, to decide whether that was something I ought to vote for or not, and Ive driven the M-1 tank for the same reason. A Salt Lake City newspaper poll showed 69% of participants supported sending Garnwho was up for re-election the following yearto space. (Bill Nelson, who this year became NASA administrator, similarly flew on a shuttle mission in 1986, when he was a congressperson.)

In June 1985, NASA invited another public figure on a shuttle mission, this time a foreign dignitary: the then-28-year-old Sultan ibn Salman Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, who went up to photograph the launch of a Saudi communications satellite. His trip marked a number of firsts: he was the first Saudi, the first Arab, the first Muslim and the first member of a royal family to travel into space. He was also the youngest space shuttle passenger to date. His selection, says Margaret Weitekamp, chair of the National Air and Space Museums space history division, also had a diplomatic angle. The flight of the Saudi prince was a way of demonstrating, materially, some loyalty to a political partner and technological partner in this project, she says. The Saudis were paying NASA to launch the satellites onboard their launch vehicle and so then they got the chance to have a payload specialist [on board].

Reagans earlier promise to send a teacher to space materialized in the mid-1980s as the Space Flight Participant program, an effort to send private citizens into space who could tell great stories or inspire others when they returned, like journalists and teachers. Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire social studies educator, was selected as the first teacher in the program. I watched the Space Age being born and I would like to participate, she wrote in her application.

The Participant program was all about communicating, says former Alan Ladwig, a former NASA official who once ran the initiative. Part of that was because it was felt that astronauts were not the greatest communicators. Some of them were, but there was a feeling that we want to hear more about what space is like except that its neat. [The goal] was trying to get a more unfiltered look. Tell us what you really felt and why this is all important.

The larger goal, says Ladwig, was to inspire people to pursue what are now called STEM careersscience, technology, engineering and mathto firm up a talent pipeline upon which NASA could draw. My hope was this would inspire students to want to study science and math, he says. Not enough students were getting into science and math, especially young women, and even today thats getting better, but its still not where it should be. But the program came to a tragic halt when the Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff on Jan. 28, 1986, killing all those aboardincluding McAuliffe.

Over the next decade or so, the Russians picked up the civilian space travel ball where the Americans had dropped it. Throughout the 1990s, private citizens like Japanese journalist Toyohiro Akiyama and British chemist Helen Sharman blasted off aboard Soyuz rockets for Russias Mir space station, which was deorbited in 2001, a few years after the International Space Station (ISS) was launched. Akiyama was sent as a promotional stunt for his television station, while Sharman was sponsored by a consortium of British companies seeking to put the first Briton in space.

That the turn-of-the-century dot-com era created a bevy of new millionaires and billionaires with money to burn was opportune for Russias space program, which at the time was hemorrhaging cash. The Russian program badly needed money, and was willing to fly paying customers, says John Logsdon, founder of George Washington Universitys Space Policy Institute. Space Adventures, a Virginia-based space tourism company that launched in 1998, brokered seats aboard the Soyuz for those with enough money to make the trip. First among them was Dennis Tito, founder of investment firm Wilshire Associates, who reportedly paid $20 million in 2001 dollars for a trip to the ISS, thus becoming the worlds first true space tourist. Titos trip, says Ladwig, got the dreamers excited about private space travel again.

Space Adventures has since launched six other space tourists to the ISS, including telecom entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari (the first female space tourist, the first of Iranian descent and the first Muslim woman in space, and who now heads the X-Prize Foundation), video game developer Richard Garriott (the first son of an astronaut to pay his own way) and Charles Simonyi (a tech billionaire who helped create Microsoft Word and Excel and the only space tourist to make repeat trips, in 2007 and 2009).

Now, with the rise of U.S.-based private space companies, like Bransons Virgin Galactic, Bezoss Blue Origin and Elon Musks SpaceX, prospective space tourists no longer need to travel to the remote desert steppe of Baikonur, Kazakhstan for a ride aboard a Russian rocket. Its still early days for all three companies. But for civilians dreaming of a trip to the stars, their ship may come inand blast offsoon enough. Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Elon Musk, [they] should make good on my ticket to the Moon, says Gates, whose wife Susie is game to join him. That would be a great honeymoon, she says.

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Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com.

Originally posted here:

How the Inspiration4 Mission Fits Into the Long History of Civilian Space Travel - TIME

With Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson both flying to space in craft made by their own private companies, July 2021 was perhaps the highest-profile month for space in years. But these events have been met with a mix of opinion.

I am an associate professor of public relations and study how opinions on topics like politics, entertainment and even space launches vary between different groups of people. I worked with colleagues at The Harris Poll to find out what U.S. residents think of these launches and the broader topic of private spaceflight.

The poll found that most U.S. residents are interested in and have a positive attitude toward the private space industry. One outlier was younger people, who are less hopeful about the benefits of galactic journeys. Overall though and rather interestingly these positive feelings are widely held across political and demographic lines. Its rare to see such agreement on any issue these days, so the results suggest space may be a unifying topic in future years.

A total of 2,011 U.S. residents responded to the survey questions between July 23 and July 25, 2021, just a couple weeks after Branson and Bezos went to space. The survey asked people to agree or disagree with a number of statements about the potential value of these launches, the motivation behind the launches and who will have access to space. In response to every question, people were supportive of space travel and the technological developments that come from it. Yet, respondents also viewed these events as ego trips generally limited to rich people.

To understand whether people think these endeavors are important, one statement was: Space travel and research are important for the future development of humanity. Seventy-four percent of respondents agreed, with similar results across all political parties. Similarly, over twothirds of people agreed with the idea The recent space launches by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are important for the future development of space travel and technology.

Despite this support, results also reflected recent chatter about space being the playground of the super-rich. In response to the statement The launches make me believe that one day soon ordinary people will be able to go to space, 58% of people agreed. Yet about 80% felt The launches make me believe that only rich people will be able to go to space anytime soon, as well as agreed with the statement The recent space launches by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic were billionaire ego trips.

Finally, about 3 in 4 felt Money spent on space could better be spent addressing todays issues on Earth, though partisan divides were a bit higher here.

According to Rob Jekielek, managing director at The Harris Poll, Space travel has captured our imagination about the future of humanity, but people are concerned about taking resources away from addressing todays pressing challenges. This feeling was mirrored across most demographics and political parties a rare thing in an age when partisanship on most issues is quite high.

While the survey found a lot of agreement across partisan lines, there were higher levels of disagreement between age groups young people in particular stood out.

Respondents 18 to 24 years old were less supportive when it came to believing that spending money on space or on Earth would have as much of a positive effect.

Of the youngest group, 59% said space travel is important for humanity, and only 63% thought the money could be better spent on Earth. Meanwhile, 78% of people aged 41 to 56 thought space travel is important for humanity, and 80% think money spent on space travel could be better spent on Earth. Young peoples lower trust in the ability of money to solve problems compared to older groups is not new, though. Younger Americans tend to have less faith in political systems in general.

Another demographic difference of note was between those willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine versus those who were not. Of people interested in vaccines, 79% think space travel is important versus 60% of those opposed to vaccines. While both groups still agree that space travel is important, the gap was one of the largest in the sample. I believe this could reflect differing views on science in general.

Despite the mix of headlines and tweets alternatively bashing or praising Bezos, Branson and Elon Musk, this survey shows that, for now, U.S. residents are generally in agreement that space is still an exciting frontier. The future of space includes satellite internet, missions to Mars and space tourism, but it also involves high costs, the problems of space junk and climate concerns.

It will be interesting to see if this broad support continues or if partisanship and the less optimistic views of the younger generations take hold.

[Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week. Subscribe to The Conversations science newsletter.]

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Space travel for billionaires is the surprise topic with bipartisan American support but not from Gen Z - The Conversation US

Its just as well that Valentina Tereshkova was not around to get her hands on a copy of the June 17, 1963 edition of The New York Times. Tereshkova would not likely have been able to read the Times no matter what, since Western papers didnt much circulate in the Soviet Unionor anywhere else in the Eastern bloc for that matter. But even if they had, Tereshkova would have missed that Times edition: Just the day before, she had lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in what is today the nation of Kazakhstan, aboard her Vostok 6 spacecraft, becoming the 12th personand the first femalein space.

SOVIET ORBITS WOMAN ASTRONAUT, the Times headline read, respectfully enough. The first paragraph maintained the businesslike tone, identifying her as a Junior Lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force. So did the next paragraph, describing how Tereshkova was communicating by radio with fellow cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky, who was also aloft in his Vostok 5 spacecraft. But then things turned sour.

Sovfoto/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

There was the reference to her in the third paragraph as a heavyset parachutist. There was that business later on about the elegant blue linen dress and stiletto heels she wore when she met the Soviet presswith no corresponding mention of Bykovskys ensemble. There were the quotes from everyday New Yorkers who were asked to respond to Tereshkovas accomplishment.

It only proves one thingthat you cant get away from women no matter where you go, said one passengerglamorously described as an air travelerat New York International Airport, in the days before it was JFK.

They shouldnt send a woman up there alone, said one woman in Times Square. She should have a man with her.

David Pollack/Corbis via Getty Images

History would note that Tereshkova very much did not need a man to circle the Earth 28 times in her own spacecraft, remaining aloft for nearly three days. But that didnt stop tongues from wagging and people from disapproving of the whole idea of a lady astronaut. History would note too that it would be another 20 years, almost to the day, before the U.S. would follow the lead of the U.S.S.R., when Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.

But that was then and this is nowsort of. Just shy of 600 human beings have flown in space, but as of this spring, only 65 of them have been women, according to NASA. Thats not nothing. Women have commanded the space shuttle, commanded the space station; in 2020, astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch conducted the first all-female spacewalk. Whats more, NASAs Artemis lunar program is very explicit in its goal to land the first woman and the next man on the moon by the mid-2020s. And if NASA knows whats smartand NASA usually does know whats smartthe betting here is that that woman will also command the mission.

Sergei Savostyanov

While space explorations past has been largely a male enterpriseespecially in the earliest days, defined by rocket-jock test pilots with their sports cars and groupies and taste for hard-drinkingthe future is likely to be female. NASA tapped 18 astronauts as candidates for the Artemis program and took care to divide them evenly between nine men and nine women. Some of the best-known astronauts of the shuttle and space station era have been women: Americas Peggy Whitsonwho has accumulated 665 days in space over the course of her three missions, the equivalent of a round-trip to Mars; Chiaki Mukai, the first Japanese woman in space; Yi So-yeon, the first Korean woman; Mae Jemison, the first African American woman.

It ought not have to be saidthough in some quarters it is perhaps a necessary reminderthat these and the other five dozen women in space are every bit the cosmic equivalent of their male counterparts. But might they in some ways be better? Might they bring qualities men lack?

Twenty-four men have seen the moon up close and came back to tell us about it. What different perspective might a woman have carried home?

Space Frontiers

I thought so (and still think so) when I was writing my new novel Holdout, about Walli Beckwith, an American astronaut who refuses to come home from the International Space Station when an emergency forces her crewmates to evacuate. Beckwith risks her careerand her lifeto make a stand in space in order to right a grievous wrong taking place on Earth. For the first chapter of the book, Walli was Wally, she was a he. But when I finished writing that chapter I felt oddly dissatisfied, oddly limited; my lead character wanted to be a womanneeded to be a woman, I felt.

I wanted a character who reminded me of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, women who stood up for human rightsand did so without the structural advantages of access to power and influence that men have historically enjoyed. When Wally became Walli, she became richer, more complex, more nuanced, more humane. Her defiant stand became bravermade, as it was, against a system that remains far more patriarchal than matriarchal. And I foundfair or notthat her relationships with the other characters became more layered.

AFP

These same traits might even make women a better choice for long-duration space missions than men are. Emotional intelligence is not the exclusive province of females, but it is often expressed more fully, more consistently by them than it is by men. And thats a quality that will be in deep need as humans try the hard and collaborative business of homesteading the moon or, even more remotely and challengingly, Mars.

There is a certain kind of reverse bias in framing women as the more compassionate, intuitive, interpersonally adept gender. There are obtuse women and empathic men; selfish women and selfless men. There is cowardice in both genders and courage in both. And all of this is just assigned-at-birth gender. None of it even takes into consideration the rainbow of traits found across the arc of more fluid genders.

Still, as with so many other things, space has been an overwhelmingly mens game long enough. It was a mens game this summer in the bro-billionaire competition between Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos to be the first to make their suborbital jaunts. It was a mans game when space was a proxy war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., fighting for the celestial high ground. It was a mans game in the decades after. Neil Armstrong, bless him, gave us his historic but stilted One small step statement. Might there have been something more lyrical from a woman? Twenty-four men have seen the moon up close and came back to tell us about it. What different perspectiveabout the nature of humanity, the imperative to exploremight a woman have carried home with her?

Were finding out slowly, and well find out more as ever greater numbers of women take their place inand stake their claim tospace. From my small earthbound perspective, I can only say Im glad I made Wally a Walli. I had more to give the character than I otherwise would haveand I learned more from her, too.

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Women Are the Future of Space Travel - ELLE.com

A mission to Mars is just one of the many out-of-this-world pit stops for USC Roski School of Art and Design alum Richelle Gribble.

I am an expeditionary artist, and my art is my passport, she said. I travel to far-reaching and unassuming places to reflect where humanity, technology and the environment collide.

Gribble was one of a select group of people chosen to experience the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS. Its an analog habitat for human spaceflight to Mars that is located in an isolated area near the Mauna Loa volcano on the island of Hawaii. The area has Mars-like features and resides at an elevation of approximately 8,200 feet above sea level.

USC Roski alum Richelle Gribble on her mission to Mars. (Photo/Courtesy of Richelle Gribble)

As soon as the crew arrives at the habitat and the airlock door is shut behind us, the Mars analog simulation begins, Gribble said. I was the vice commander and creative research specialist on a crew with five other women.

The first HI-SEAS study was in 2013, and NASAs Human Research Program continues to fund and sponsor follow-up studies. The missions are of extended duration from four months to a year and replicate isolated and confined environments, such as Mars500, Concordia and the International Space Station.

The purpose of the missions is to determine whats required to keep a spaceflight crew physically and mentally sound while on extended missions. The simulated Mars missions conduct research into food, crew dynamics, performance and other aspects of space flight. In addition, the HI-SEAS researchers carry out studies through a variety of daily activities.

Gribbles work, a convergence of art and science, is the type of solutions-based endeavor USC Roski School Dean Haven Lin-Kirk sees as a result of artists unique insight.

Artists tend to have a great deal of empathy and understanding of the human spirit, she said. I am immensely proud of how far our former artists and designers have gone and to see the tremendous impact they provide to society on Earth and perhaps beyond.

The HI-SEAS analog habitat location is surrounded by red, rocky terrain much like the iron oxide dust and regolith of Mars as well as a network of caves where the crew can carry out research during their simulated spacewalks, as seen in a video diary by Gribble and her all-female crew.

Our days are quite busy with packed schedules and a lot to be done in a short amount of time, mimicking the experience of astronauts in the International Space Station, Gribble said. We wear a full body spacesuit with a built-in communication system and oxygen machine. We cook with all dehydrated ingredients and track our food and water supply to correlate with the missions duration. We undergo daily exercise, sleep in small enclosures, have access to a science research laboratory, grow plants under grow lights, track daily medical reports and pursue both individual and team research and projects.

In addition, the HI-SEAS study by NASA is trying to understand crew dynamics such as morale, stress management and problem-solving. While working together as a group, each crew member is assigned a specific task to aid in the overall success of the mission.

Together, we delegate tasks to maintain the health and well-being of each other as well as oversee the systems and operations of the habitat, Gribble said. We each have daily activities and reports that are submitted each night, complete with a 20-minute communications delay, like Mars to our Mission Control.

Gribble said she wanted to join the HI-SEAS simulated mission to Mars as part of a multiyear voyage to broaden her artistic perspective by witnessing different places firsthand.

It led me to make art in unassuming yet far-reaching places, Gribble said. Ive traveled atop glaciers near the North Pole, in a traditional Japanese paper mill in rural Japan, underwater and within the Amazon jungle, in the Biosphere 2 in Arizona and inside a habitat on an analog Mars mission with NASA.

Gribble is currently developing an entire collection of art inspired by her journey to Mars. Works of art that stemmed from the HI-SEAS Mars simulation include the following:

Animated paintings of Martian rocks

(Images/Courtesy of Richelle Gribble)

Cave Paintings of the 21st Century

(Images/Courtesy of Richelle Gribble)

Eco-Footprints

(Images/Courtesy of Richelle Gribble)

To Space, From Earth: A space art DNA time capsule

(Images/Courtesy of Richelle Gribble)

Living Light

(Images/Courtesy of Richelle Gribble)

Crew members selected to take part in the HI-SEAS study are chosen based on the research projects proposed as well as the position for habitat operations and systems.

I encourage people from all backgrounds and disciplines to attend a space analog mission, especially as we extend our reach through commercial space travel, Gribble said. My hope is that analog missions can help accelerate our understanding of our social and environmental responsibilities on Earth and in the greater cosmos.

More stories about: Alumni, Roski School of Art and Design, Visual Arts

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From artist to astronaut, this USC alum is on a mission to Mars - USC News

A space capsule with a hole in it. A rocket that failed 31 miles over Earths surface. An orbital lab with misfiring thrusters.

Thats the short list of the most dramatic mishaps involving the International Space Station in the last three years. The missteps have one thing in common: They all involve Russian spacecraft traveling to, or already attached to, the stationor station modules that recently arrived from Earth.

There was a time, 60 years ago, when the Soviet Union was the worlds indisputable leader in space. The USSR had the first space probes, the most ingenious manned spacecraft, and the luckiest astronautser, cosmonauts.

Today, the Soviet Union is no more. Russia inherited most of the old Soviet space infrastructureincluding what became the Roscosmos space agencybut Moscow has struggled to maintain it.

Far from being a leader in space, Russia is quickly becoming a liability, several experts told The Daily Beast.

That has serious implications not just for an increasingly isolated, militaristic Russia, but also for all the countries that work with Russia in orbit, especially on the International Space Station. The United States, for one, might cut Roscosmos loose as it organizes ambitious new manned missions to the moon and maybe eventually Mars.

The Russians have a worse record than any other major space power, David Burbach, a space expert at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island, told The Daily Beast. China landed a rover on Mars on its first try, while every Russian attempt to reach Mars since 1990 has failed.

With every year that passes, NASA has more options for productive and safe space partnerships. With every year that passes, it needsand probably trustsRoscosmos less and less.

The competition has become much strongerSpaceX, but also other Western firms and Chinas improving rocketsand Russia seems likely to keep losing market share if it cant improve its product, Burbach said.

The most recent Russian space mishap was arguably the most dramatic. On July 29, a Russian Proton rocket blasted off from Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan, a new science lab attached to its top.

The long overdue Nauka labthats Russian for sciencesafely docked with the International Space Station. For a while, everything seemed fine aboard the 22-year-old station, which currently houses seven crew: three Americans, two Russians, and one member each from the European and Japanese space agencies.

Generally speaking, the NASA astronauts command the ISS and conduct science experiments. The visiting Europeans and Japanese are usually scientists. Roscosmos meanwhile sends skilled cosmonauts to maintain the stations hardware.

There are actually two separate neighborhoods in the ISS. One for the Russians. Another for everyone else.

A few hours after docking last week, Nauka abruptlyand totally on its ownfired its maneuvering rockets. The malfunction set the 356-foot station spinning around its axis, 250 miles above Earth. NASA controllers on the ground in Houston were powerless to intervene. Only controllers in Russia had access to Naukas remote controls.

But the radio link required a direct line of sight. It was half an hour before the ISSs orbit took it over Russia, and Roscosmos could turn off the thrusters. Yeehaw! tweeted Zebulon Scoville, the flight director in Houston. That. Was. A. Day.

NASA at first announced that the ISS spun just 45 degrees before the Russians regained control. Five days later, NASA admitted it was wrong. In fact, in its half-hour spin, the thin-skinned stationwhich is festooned with modules, solar panels, and heat-venting radiatorsrotated 540 degrees, in essence turning around one and a half times.

To restore the station to its normal position, NASA turned on thrusters for another half-turn. Station is in good shape and operating normally, NASA tweeted. The space agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NASA told Space.com the ISS crew was never in danger. But Scoville tweeted that hed never been so happy to see all solar arrays and radiators still attached.

Maybe the ISS was in no danger of disintegrating. But NASA and Roscosmos are lucky the station didnt suffer extensiveand expensivedamage to vital systems. Roscosmos did not respond to a request for comment.

Worse, the July mishap is just the most recent screwup for Roscosmos. Most famously, back in August 2018, a Russian Soyuz capsule,which helps shuttle people and supplies to the station,somehow escaped the attention of Roscosmos quality-controls and arrived at the ISS with a 2-millimeter-diameter hole in it.

Once the Soyuz docked with the ISS, it began sharing the ISSs breathable atmosphere and started slowly venting that atmosphere into space.

Controllers in Houston and Moscow eventually noticed the drop in air pressure and sent the station crew on a hunt for the source. The crew patched the capsule and sent it back down to Earth.

Inspections turned up chilling details. There were several attempts at drilling, Dmitry Rogozin, the controversial head of Roscosmos space agency, said in televised comments. What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions?

A separate Soyuz was involved in another close call two months later. A sensor malfunctioned on the rocket boosting two ISS crewan American and a Russiantoward the station. The rocket failed. The capsule containing the passengers ejected at an altitude of 31 miles and parachuted safely back down to Kazakhstan.

A year later, Roscosmos had completed its investigation of the hole on the first Soyuz. But the Russians refused to say publicly what they found out. We know exactly what happened, but we will not tell you anything, Rogozin reportedly said at a science conference for kids in September 2019.

In the meantime, NASA and Roscosmos detected another slow air leak aboard the ISS. Efforts by the crew in late 2020 narrowed the location of the leak down to, you guessed it, one of two Russian-made modules.

If youre sensing a trend, youre not wrong.

When properly assembled and operated, the Soyuz is perhaps the safest spacecraft ever. But its not hard to conclude that Roscosmos cant be trusted to build and run the cone-shaped craft.

As for newer Russian space hardware such as Nauka its as often as not badly designed, badly built and badly run. The pattern of poor quality control in new hardware in the Russian space program has been around for many years, John Logsdon, a professor emeritus at George Washington Universitys Space Policy Institute, told The Daily Beast.

To be clear, space travel is hard and risky. NASA knows this all too well. The Space Shuttle, which NASA decommissioned back in 2011, was actually the most dangerous spacecraft ever. The bulky, fragile space-planes two fatal crashes in 1986 and 2003 accounted for 14 of the 19 fatalities that have occurred during space missions since 1961.

The worlds space agencies are eager to avoid adding to this grim figure, which helps to explain why relations between NASA and Roscosmos have gotten chillier.

The Russians used to enjoy a reputation for building old-fashioned, but rugged and safe, space tech. Today that tech is no less old-fashionedthe Soyuz capsule has been in use since 1966but a lot of its also looking less and less safe.

Pavel Luzin, an independent expert on the Russian military and space program, has a theory. There is a huge problem with human capital, he told The Daily Beast. Most people who worked during the Soviet and early post-Soviet times and knew how the Soviet technologies really workedwith all their pitfallsare retired.

The new generations of engineers and workers suffer from the personnel turnover, he added. Young professionals prefer not to stay too long within the Russian space industry because of over-regulation and lack of salaries. Even if they work according to all the instructions, they just dont know the pitfalls.

A lack of money is the toxic thread weaving through Roscosmoss problems. For a decade between the Space Shuttles retirement and the introduction of new American capsules, Roscosmos earned billions of dollars renting rides to the ISS on its Soyuz capsules.

The importance of those rentals belied the Russian space programs funding problems. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian space program has been chronically underfunded, Chris Impey, a University of Arizona astronomer, told The Daily Beast.

Its also possible Roscosmos, and specifically Rogozin, is a bit ... distracted. By movies, of all things.

In a surprise move in May 2020, NASA announced a plan to send actor Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman to the ISS to shoot a movie. We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists, tweeted Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator at the time.

But the Russians are determined to get there first with their own movie. Shortly after Bridenstines announcement, Rogozin threw together his own plan to send actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shepenko to the ISS to shoot a thriller that Rogozin would co-produce.

That production is scheduled to kick off in October, right before Cruise and Liman arrive. Rogozins fixation on making a movie in space, and doing it first, was reportedly the final straw for Sergei Krikalyov, a famous former cosmonaut who was working under Rogozin at Roscosmos but objected to his boss filmmaking ambitions.

So Rogozin demoted him, according to the newspaper Novaya Gazeta. If Rogozin is worried about the safety and reliability of his spacecraft, hes certainly not showing it. But if the reporting is accurate, hes not shy about punishing dissent.

NASA needs Roscosmos on the ISS. The Russians effectively own half of the station and still provide vital services to the other half. But the ISS wont last forever. The Biden administration wants to extend the aging station out to 2030 before turning it over to private operators.

After that, NASA plans to shift its attention to a new station, the Lunar Gateway, which would fly around the moon in a wide orbit that would allow it to both support a new generation of lunar explorers and function as a staging base for a possible future mission to Mars.

NASA is enlisting the usual foreign space agencies to help out with Lunar Gatewaywith one big possible exception. Its looking likelier that Roscosmos wont be aboard.

Its not that NASA wouldnt love to keep working with the Russians, all things being equal. Its one of the rare areas where Washington and Moscow arent rivals. We are partners in space, and I dont want that to cease, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said following a June meeting with Rogozin.

But the sad state of affairs at the Russian agency, and Rogozins refusal to admit there are problems and fix them, might force Nelsons hand. Going forward the stresses in the partnership suggest that it will not last in coming years, Logsdon said.

And even if the Russians do join the moon station, they wont occupy half of it like they do on the ISS. If Russian hardware isnt reliable, or even safe, that probably reduces their leverage, Burbach said.

Its not just that U.S.-Russian relations are fraying as Russia descends deeper into authoritarianism, invades its neighbors, and interferes in foreign elections. For the United States, breaking up with Russia in space is also a matter of safety.

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Inside the Dangerous Consequences of Russia's Space Screwups - The Daily Beast

Wally funk, who boarded the blue origin flight on july 20, was honored with a parade in her native grapevine, tx | image: blue origin

Shes a woman in space. Shes now the oldest person to ever go to space. Shes crossed two eras of space travel in a span of ten minutes. Shes a Grapevine local.

And now, shes being celebrated as a hometown hero.

Wally Funk, 82, boarded the New Shepard rocket from Blue Origin with Jeff Bezos and a crew of two other tourists (Mark Bezos and Oliver Daemen) to take off from Van Horn, TX for a ten-minute flight that the world watched on July 20.

Her native city Grapevine hosted a parade in her honor on August 7, 2021. Funk rode in a white convertible down Main Street lined by a few hundred observers seated with a mannequin in her Blue Origin flight suit. August 7th was hence proclaimed Wally Funk Day.

Surrounded my the businessmen (and the teenage son of a Dutch millionaire) aboard, Funk was the oddity of the crew in the best possible way. Besides being the only woman crew member, the oldest crew member, and the actual aviator of the group, she represented the embodiment of two eras converging. following her streak of meeting every you cant with an I can.

She got her pilots license at 17, and participated in Dr. William Lovelaces short-lived Women In Space program at NASA in the early 1960s, an initiative designed to test womens capabilities for space travel. Funk, at 23, was the youngest candidate among the 13 finalists of women who participated in the program (now known as the Mercury 13 or the FLATs: First Lady Astronaut Trainees).

None of those women ever made it to space, for being women and for not having engineering degrees.

Except now, 60 years later Wally Funk.

The whole thing was so fantastic, she said of the flight to the gathered crowd in Grapevine. She described small bump before she went up to float in space for three minutes.

I had done that in Russia for about 15-20 minutes, so I knew what to do when I was taking the Cosmonaut test. So that was pretty easy for me. But Ive been a lot of places, and this was the most fabulous thing of my life.

Click here to read about another local hero in space: Commander Victor Glover Jr.from Prosper, TX!

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Blue Origins Wally Funk honored with parade in Grapevine, TX - Local Profile

Space tourism is human space travel for recreational, leisure, or business purposes. It provides an opportunity for non-astronauts to go to space.

Are you interested in travelling to space? Do outer space and its mysteries entice you? Then here's your golden chance to see the outer world from a very close distance. But then for this, you have to be prepared to shell outa hefty amount from your pocket. Space tourism is human space travel forrecreational, leisure, or business purposes.There are different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital, and lunar space tourism.The whole idea behind this is that those who are not astronauts but want to go to space for non-scientific purposes can get an opportunity to do so.

So to get a seat aboard one of Virgin Galactic's upcoming spaceflights you have to pay an enormous sum of USD450,000. However, it is still less than what a winning bidder paid for in June to fly with Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos inhis rocket ship, New Shepard. Through a winning bid of USD28 million, the bidder booked a seat for himself in therocket ship.Over 7,600 people had registered from 159 countries to bid for this seat. However, it did not go down too well with the common public and more than 50,000 people signed online petitions urging Bezos to not return to Earth after he took his space flight on July 20.

Earlier, Richard Branson, the billionaire owner of Virgin Galactic, himself reached the edge of space on July 11 along with three employees from his company who also boarded SpaceShipTwo. Apart from Virgin Galactic, companies including Virgin Atlantic, SpaceX, XCOR Aerospace, Blue Origin and Armadillo Aerospace are working on providing space tourism services to people.

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DNA Explainer: Want to become 'private astronaut' and try your hands on space travel, here's your chance - DNA India