Category Archives: Space Travel

By Jonny Lupsha, Current Events WriterBeing unloaded from a US Air Force Douglas C-133B-DL Cargomaster, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, this first Atlas launch vehicle was intended to launch an unmanned Mercury spacecraft into orbit, but it exploded at launch. Photo by NASA / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

For the first time in its history, Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum in downtown Washington, D.C. will soon feature a full-size aircraft not based on real-life air or space travel. An X-wing, one of the fighter spaceships from George Lucass Star Wars universe, will be exhibited at the world-famous museum alongside historical artifacts like Neil Armstrongs Apollo 11 spacesuit.

The National Air and Space Museum makes for a crucial stop when visiting the nations capital. In his video series Experiencing America: A Smithsonian Tour through American History, Dr. Richard Kurin, the Smithsonians Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture, said that exhibits include several capsules from NASAs Mercury missions.

Visitors to the Air and Space Museums sister site, the Steven F. UdvarHazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, are bound to see a real capsule from NASAs Mercury missions. How did they come about?

President Dwight D. Eisenhower formed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)as a civilian government agency on October 1, 1958, Dr. Kurin said. Its first mission, Project Mercury, was to put an American into orbit. NASA designed and built a small nose-cone capsule that would be launched into space atop a rocketthe challenge, aside from achieving a successful launch and orbit, would be to return the astronaut to Earth alive.

According to Dr. Kurin, NASA engineers came up with the idea of a conical spacecraft with a cylindrical nose. On the other end, a broad, flat base was covered by a fiberglass and resin heat shield. This would create a shock wave to slow down the spacecraft during re-entry.

NASA recruited astronauts from the military, especially test pilots, who helped work on the Mercury designs and make them more operator-friendly; and in 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to enter space.

Downtown at the Air and Space Museum, another historic item from the Mercury missions is on display in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall: the space capsule Friendship 7.

On February 20, 1962, 41-year-old former jet fighter pilot John Glenn was propelled into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Dr. Kurin said. Glenns space capsule, the Friendship 7, was fabricated by McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. Its skin and structure were made of titanium, with nickel-steel alloy and beryllium shingles.

Dr. Kurin said it was a small aircraftjust 11 feet along and six feet across at its base. It was so small, in fact, that astronauts would joke that you dont get in the Friendship 7 so much as you put it on. Glenn orbited the Earth three times in approximately five hours, communicating by radio with NASAs Mercury Mission Control and taking pictures with two cameras and a rigged pistol grip that helped accommodate his bulky gloves. It splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean and Glenn was retrieved by the USS Noa.

Friendship 7 went on what became known as the fourth orbit, which is really a goodwill tour around the world, Dr. Kurin said. It arrived at the Smithsonian in November 1962 and was placed on display; in 1976, the space capsule was moved into the National Air and Space Museum, which opened up on the National Mall for the Bicentennial of the United States.

It was a testament to Americas spirit of discovery.

Edited by Angela Shoemaker, The Great Courses Daily

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Air and Space Museum in Spotlight as X-wing Exhibition Announced - The Great Courses Daily News

The report claims China wants to create destructive antisatellite weapons.Low-Orbit Security Threat

The US Director of National Intelligence released a report last month claiming Chinas upcoming space station poses a threat to national security.

China intends to launch a space station into low-Earth orbit in order to gain the military, economic, and prestige benefits that Washington has accrued from space leadership, according to the Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Communityreport released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The report said that its a part of Beijings bigger effort to compromise US security.

[The Peoples Liberation Army] will continue to integrate space services such as satellite reconnaissance and positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) and satellite communications into its weapons and command-and-control systems to erode the US militarys information advantage, the report said.

The report also said that China is readying counterspace weapons to target US satellites.

Beijing continues to train its military space elements and field new destructive and nondestructive ground- and space-based antisatellite (ASAT) weapons, the report said.

That means theyre developing things such as spacecraft that can intercept and capture US satellites and/or Earth-based lasers that can disrupt them.

The report continued, China has already fielded ground-based ASAT missiles intended to destroy satellites in LEO and ground-based ASAT lasers probably intended to blind or damage sensitive space-based optical sensors on LEO satellites.

This is part of a growing call from experts for the US to prepare a space defense system. In fact, many claim that the USs current satellite infrastructure is very vulnerable to attacks from opposing nations.

Researchers at the Center for Strategic and International Studies released a report titled Defense Against the Dark Arts in Space: Protecting Space Systems from Counterspace Weapons in February. It details countermeasures the US can take to defend against antisatellite weapons.

As technologies surrounding space travel become more sophisticated, its only a matter of time before we figure out a way to weaponize them. It wouldnt be a bad idea then if we figured out a few defense systems while were at it.

READ MORE: Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community [The Office of the Director of National Intelligence]

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US Intel Chief: Chinese Space Station is a Threat to National Security - Futurism

View larger. | Artists concept of faster-than-light travel through a wormhole. If it were possible, it would enable humans to reach other stars in a reasonable amount of time. Image via Les Bossinas/ NASA/ Wikimedia Commons.

Mario Borunda, Oklahoma State University

The closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri. It is about 4.25 light-years away, or about 25 trillion miles (40 trillion km). The fastest ever spacecraft, the now-in-space Parker Solar Probe will reach a top speed of 450,000 miles (724,000 km) per hour. It would take just 20 seconds to go from Los Angeles to New York City at that speed, but it would take the solar probe about 6,633 years to reach Earths nearest neighboring solar system.

If humanity ever wants to travel easily between stars, people will need to go faster than light. But so far, faster-than-light travel is possible only in science fiction.

In Isaac Asimovs Foundation series, humanity can travel from planet to planet, star to star or across the universe using jump drives. As a kid, I read as many of those stories as I could get my hands on. I am now a theoretical physicist and study nanotechnology, but I am still fascinated by the ways humanity could one day travel in space.

Some characters like the astronauts in the movies Interstellar and Thor use wormholes to travel between solar systems in seconds. Another approach familiar to Star Trek fans is warp drive technology. Warp drives are theoretically possible if still far-fetched technology. Two recent papers made headlines in March when researchers claimed to have overcome one of the many challenges that stand between the theory of warp drives and reality.

But how do these theoretical warp drives really work? And will humans be making the jump to warp speed anytime soon?

This 2-dimensional representation shows the flat, unwarped bubble of spacetime in the center where a warp drive would sit surrounded by compressed spacetime to the right (downward curve) and expanded spacetime to the left (upward curve). Image via AllenMcC/ Wikimedia Commons.

Compression and expansion

Physicists current understanding of spacetime comes from Albert Einsteins theory of General Relativity. General Relativity states that space and time are fused and that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. General relativity also describes how mass and energy warp spacetime hefty objects like stars and black holes curve spacetime around them. This curvature is what you feel as gravity and why many spacefaring heroes worry about getting stuck in or falling into a gravity well. Early science fiction writers John Campbell and Asimov saw this warping as a way to skirt the speed limit.

What if a starship could compress space in front of it while expanding spacetime behind it? Star Trek took this idea and named it the warp drive.

In 1994, Miguel Alcubierre, a Mexican theoretical physicist, showed that compressing spacetime in front of the spaceship while expanding it behind was mathematically possible within the laws of General Relativity. So, what does that mean? Imagine the distance between two points is 10 meters (33 feet). If you are standing at point A and can travel one meter per second, it would take 10 seconds to get to point B. However, lets say you could somehow compress the space between you and point B so that the interval is now just one meter. Then, moving through spacetime at your maximum speed of one meter per second, you would be able to reach point B in about one second. In theory, this approach does not contradict the laws of relativity since you are not moving faster than light in the space around you. Alcubierre showed that the warp drive from Star Trek was in fact theoretically possible.

Proxima Centauri here we come, right? Unfortunately, Alcubierres method of compressing spacetime had one problem: it requires negative energy or negative mass.

This 2dimensional representation shows how positive mass curves spacetime (left side, blue earth) and negative mass curves spacetime in an opposite direction (right side, red earth). Image via Tokamac/ Wikimedia Commons.

A negative energy problem

Alcubierres warp drive would work by creating a bubble of flat spacetime around the spaceship and curving spacetime around that bubble to reduce distances. The warp drive would require either negative mass a theorized type of matter or a ring of negative energy density to work. Physicists have never observed negative mass, so that leaves negative energy as the only option.

To create negative energy, a warp drive would use a huge amount of mass to create an imbalance between particles and antiparticles. For example, if an electron and an antielectron appear near the warp drive, one of the particles would get trapped by the mass and this results in an imbalance. This imbalance results in negative energy density. Alcubierres warp drive would use this negative energy to create the spacetime bubble.

But for a warp drive to generate enough negative energy, you would need a lot of matter. Alcubierre estimated that a warp drive with a 100-meter bubble would require the mass of the entire visible universe.

In 1999, physicist Chris Van Den Broeck showed that expanding the volume inside the bubble but keeping the surface area constant would reduce the energy requirements significantly, to just about the mass of the sun. A significant improvement, but still far beyond all practical possibilities.

A sci-fi future?

Two recent papers one by Alexey Bobrick and Gianni Martire and another by Erik Lentz provide solutions that seem to bring warp drives closer to reality.

Bobrick and Martire realized that by modifying spacetime within the bubble in a certain way, they could remove the need to use negative energy. This solution, though, does not produce a warp drive that can go faster than light.

Independently, Lentz also proposed a solution that does not require negative energy. He used a different geometric approach to solve the equations of General Relativity, and by doing so, he found that a warp drive wouldnt need to use negative energy. Lentzs solution would allow the bubble to travel faster than the speed of light.

It is essential to point out that these exciting developments are mathematical models. As a physicist, I wont fully trust models until we have experimental proof. Yet, the science of warp drives is coming into view. As a science fiction fan, I welcome all this innovative thinking. In the words of Captain Picard:

Things are only impossible until they are not.

Mario Borunda, Associate Professor of Physics, Oklahoma State University

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

Bottom line: If humanity wants to travel between stars, people are going to need to travel faster than light. New research suggests that it might be possible to build warp drives and beat the galactic speed limit.

Source: Introducing physical warp drivesSource: Breaking the warp barrier: hyper-fast solitons in EinsteinMaxwell-plasma theory

Via The Conversation

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Warp drives: Physicists give chances of faster-than-light space travel a boost - EarthSky

Sixty years ago, on May 5, 1961, a Redstone rocket hurled Alan Shepards Mercury capsule, Freedom 7, 116 miles (187 km) high and 302 miles (486 km) downrange from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Freedom 7 parachuted into the Atlantic just 15 minutes and 22 seconds later, after attaining a maximum velocity of 5,180 mph (8,336 km/h). Shepard, a Navy test pilot and NASA astronaut, became the first American to fly in space.

Shepards flight was a triumph, not least because it had been conducted live on national television and in front of the world press. It was a notable contrast to the secretive ways of the Communist-led Soviet Union. But 25 days earlier on April 12, 1961, Soviet Air Force pilot Yuri Gagarin had made a single orbit of the Earth, becoming the first human to travel beyond the atmosphere. It was just the latest Soviet space first, going back to Sputnik, the first artificial Earth satellite, in October 1957. Gagarins flight was yet another stunning propaganda success in the Cold War Space Race.

Earlier in 1961, however, it was not at all clear that the Soviets would come first. The Eisenhower Administration and Congress had created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958, a year after Sputnik, in part to overtake the Soviet Union in space. The new agencys Project Mercury hoped to launch an astronaut by 1960, which seemed possible because Mercury would have two launch vehicles. The smaller Army Redstone missile could send astronauts on short, suborbital journeys; the larger Air Force Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) would launch them into orbitthe projects prime objective. The reliable Redstone was available many months earlier than the troubled Atlas, which was blowing up regularly. NASA officials also saw suborbital flights as valuable spaceflight experience; at one point they thought all seven astronauts picked in April 1959 would fly such missions. But technical delays piled up. The first uncrewed Mercury-Redstone flight only got off in December 1960. Mercury-Redstone 2 on January 31, 1961, carrying the chimpanzee Ham, was mostly successful, but the booster did not cut off in time, triggering the capsules escape system and sending it higher and farther than intended. NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, which had grown out of the Army and was still situated at Redstone Arsenal, wanted an additional test. That meant another delay for the crewed Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) launch, which could have happened in March of 1961 were it not for the extra test.

Alan Shepard became the first American in space in this Mercury capsule. He named it "Freedom 7," the number signifying the seven Mercury astronauts. Now on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. (NASM)

That delay brought tensions inside NASA to a boiling point. Mercury was run by the Space Task Group, an organization led by Robert Gilruth and situated at the Langley Research Center in tidewater Virginia. Gilruths group would soon become the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas. Marshall was led by the famous German-American rocket engineer Wernher von Braun. Gilruth already disliked von Braun for being German and changing sides and his subordinates and the astronauts saw von Brauns demand for a new test as timidity and German overengineering. NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, ultimately decided in favor of Marshall because losing an astronaut was worse than losing the race. MR-BD (for Booster Development) flew successfully on March 24, 1961. That same month, the Soviets flew two successful orbital tests of their spacecraft. When Gagarin launched, they named it Vostok (East).

NASA had announced that three astronauts were candidates for MR-3: John Glenn, Virgil Gus Grissom, and Alan Shepard. A lot of things about that crew selection were never repeated, and for good reason. Highlighting those three implicitly diminished the other four: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, Walter Schirra, and Donald Deke Slayton. Moreover, Shepard was Gilruths choice from the outset, yet NASA concealed this until after the cancellation of the first launch attempt on May 2, 1961, due to bad weather. The press also learned that Shepard had named his capsule Freedom and added a 7 for the seven astronautsa gesture of solidarity to the others. (Freedom 7 was also the seventh spacecraft built by the contractor, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri.)

Alan Shepard looks into Freedom 7, which is sitting on the deck of the carrier USS Lake Champlain, after his flight. (NASA)

In the early morning darkness of May 5, 1961, Shepard climbed into his capsule atop the Redstone. Born in 1923 in Derry, New Hampshire, he had graduated from the Naval Academy in 1944, served on a destroyer in the last year of the war, took flight training, flew off carriers, and tested Navy jets. He entered Freedom 7 about two hours before scheduled launch at 7:20 am. Yet, technical delays dragged ontwo stories about that wait were later made famous by Tom Wolfes book The Right Stuff. Shepard had to urinate in his spacesuit because no provision had been made for the astronaut to relieve himself, and when he became irritated with the delays, he allegedly told launch controllers: Why dont you fix your little problem and light this candle? Shortly after that, at 9:34 am, they finally did.

The launch of the Mercury-Redstone (MR-3), with Freedom 7 capsule, on May 5, 1961. (NASA)

The rocket burned for a little over two minutes with the acceleration ramming him into his couch with a force of over six Gs (six times Earths gravity). After separating, the capsule turned around and pointed the heatshield forward for reentry. During the five minutes of weightlessness, Shepard tested Freedom 7s attitude control systems and extended the periscope to see back to Florida. (His capsule did not have the overhead window built into later vehicles.) Once over the top, it was time to fire the retrorocketsnot needed for his flight, but a test of how to get out of orbit. The brief reentry was brutal, with peak G loads of over 11. Parachute deployment was normal, and his spacecraft hit the ocean with a jarring impact he compared to landing on an aircraft carrier. A Marine helicopter picked him up and took him to the USS Lake Champlain.

Alan Shepard picked-up by a U. S. Marine helicopter at the end of his sub-orbital flight. (NASA)

Alan Shepard onboard a helicopter as he is transported from the aircraft carrier to meet NASA officials on Grand Bahama Island. (NASA)

Now a national hero, Alan Shepard was decorated by President John F. Kennedy at the White House on May 8. Less than three weeks later, on May 25, 1961, Kennedy asked Congress to approve a program to land humans on the Moon, a direct response to Gagarins flight. If Shepards mission had failed, the president likely could not have made that announcement.

President John F. Kennedy presented the NASA's Distinguished Service Medal Award to Alan Shepard in a Rose Garden ceremony on May 8, 1961. (NASA)

There were ironies in the aftermath of Shepards flight. Grissom flew a near-repeat on July 21, 1961, and then NASA cancelled further suborbital missions to concentrate on getting into orbit. When John Glenn circled the Earth three times in Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962, it eclipsed Shepard and Grissom in the public mind. Glenn was not only more charismatic; his mission finally equaled what the Soviets had done twice (Gherman Titov spent a day in space in August 1961). In 1963, Shepard was knocked off flight status for six years because of an inner-ear condition, but then, in the final irony, he became the only Mercury astronaut to go the Moon, commanding the Apollo 14 landing. He died in 1998, a legend. He will always be the first American, and second human, to fly in space, and the fifth to walk on the Moon.

Michael J. Neufeld is a senior curator in the Museums Space History Department and is responsible for Mercury and Gemini spacecraft, among other collections.

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First American In Space: The Flight of Alan B. Shepard - National Air and Space Museum

Barring any unexpected setbacks, SpaceX expects to launch its Falcon 9 rocket this coming January from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The target: The International Space Station; hovering some 275 miles above our heads and traveling through space at approximately 17,000 mph. SpaceXs own Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft will catch a ride aboard the rockets, carrying 4 extremely excited passengers, including among them, Israeli pilot and businessman Eytan Stibbe. He will be the second Israeli leaving the atmosphere, following the tragic loss of the Columbia space shuttle and its 7 astronauts, including pilot and national hero, the late Ilan Ramon.

The launch will mark the first ever private space mission to the International Space Station, leading many of the organizations involved to refrain from referring to Stibbe as an astronaut. Nevertheless, space tourism is not what you think, Stibbes role won't be limited to selfie stick duties; and even though he staked nearly $50 million, taking on most of the missions expenses on his own, Stibbe will use his 10 days in space to carry out over 40 different scientific experiments, which were determined by a scientific committee from the Ramon Foundation. Stibbe will also conduct experiments and research for Israeli startups, Israeli academic institutions, and other educational and research centers in the country.

Among the planned experiments, we find one from the Electric Company and Israeli battery powerhouse Storedot, which will test innovative lithium-ion batteries in a micro-gravitational environment. Another experiment on Stibbes docket comes from the oncological center at Schneider Children's Medical Center, who are looking to characterize leukemia cells at low gravity, and without chemotherapy present. According to the scientific committee, Stibbes space findings will be crossed with a comparable controlled experiment done on earth; monitoring cancer cells and their genetic expression, which could lead to innovative new treatments with less painful side-effects.

Another interesting experiment comes from collaboration between NASA and the Technion University, where Stibbe will investigate leveraging the micro-g environment to solidify a liquid polymer, creating a lens, 10X bigger than existing ones, for telescopes used in space exploration. Winning the award for the most Israeli experiment, Stibbe will attempt to sprout chickpeas at low gravity. Obviously, as preparation for the first wave of hungry Israeli tourists touching down on Mars after a long flight.

In an interview with Geektime, Stibbe shares the origin story behind his space trip, schedule, his vision for the future of space tourism, as well as the fears that accompany his journey to the great beyond.

Where did the idea come from? Has it always been a dream to be an astronaut?

When I was a kid, NASA landed on the moon, and it ignited my imagination to think of humans in other places in the galaxy. But then for years it was hidden, and for me only became a reality again when I met Ilan (Ramon, who was Stibbes former commander in the Air Force) at the space center during his preparation for the mission; when I saw people running back and forth, shuttles taking off and landing, and astronauts training, it was real. Not just on TV. Thats when I saw it was possible.

Tell us about the moment when you got the OK for the mission

Just recently, after Elon Musk privatized the industry, and opened up the race to space beyond governments and administrations; private companies are innovating in space travel, new space infrastructure, and they're even planning on returning to the moon Once he made it possible, then it became a reality. I was on standby, and once they gave me the green light, I immediately said yes.

Describe your day-to-day up in space...

The space station goes by London time. Everyone goes to sleep at the same time, wakes up at the same time, and we eat all our meals together. There are specialists and experts who plan our day, they know where everyone is located at all times. Whos going to the gym, whos in the lab, whos taking pictures with Earth, and all these different variables need to be coordinated There are passengers from Japan, Europe, and Russia. They cant all determine their own schedule. That task is up to the International Space Stations team, ensuring ten people are occupied and accommodated at all times. Of course there are experiments that need to be done live with the team on the ground. I expect surprises.

Youre going to conduct dozens of experiments from cosmic radiations impact on electronics to growing chickpeas. Which experiment do you find most fascinating?

Im more fascinated by the variety of research. Ill be conducting medical device experiments, as well as experiments in materials, communications, cosmic radiation measurements, and more. I cant tell you I have a preferred one. Anything that will hurt though, is definitely going to the bottom of the list The coolest ones are the experiments that kids sent. Experimenting through their rich imagination is going to be super interesting for me. Anyways, most of my time will be dedicated to educational aspects, including live broadcasts, recordings, and a rich curriculum full of lessons. We are trying to get as much live feed as possible.

Tell us a bit about the training and preparation for a mission like this one. Have you met your shuttle mates yet?

Ive met the other people on my mission, with one of them being Michael Lpez-Alegra (a veteran NASA astronaut, the current mission commander and VP at Axiom, the company responsible for the mission) who already has 4 trips to space under his belt, including a 7-month stay at the International Space Station. We met at the SpaceX headquarters during pressure-suite measurements and custom seat adjustments. Well meet again at the next phase, 10 months from now at the G simulator, and in a month the whole team is going bonding in Alaska Trekking through the Alaskan mountains with packs on our backs, and then 4 months of training in Houston, then SpaceX headquarters and the Dragon models But flying is a small part, the big thing is living at the space station; An amazing center of sustainability, a body living in extreme conditions, feeding off solar energy, and recycling anything it can - including over 90% of liquids. Everyone there is energetic and efficient, and its going to be quite interesting to live in a bubble of sustainability.

Where do you see space tourism in the future? The space station orbits nearly 250 miles above us. Can we go any further?

In space, theres no real difference between cruising 250 miles from the Earth or at 25,000 miles, where the satellites roam. The most interesting thing is the possibility of life on other planets. If we can establish a settlement on the moon, if we can grow food there, extract water somehow, and energy is abundant with advanced technology, everything is possible, then Mars you cant take 3 years worth of food with you. Just think of the concept of cultivating meat - just one of many potential ways of producing food on another planet, all incredibly fascinating. Even in extreme conditions - with sun or without, with water or no water - I truly believe we will find life outside of our planet.

Following the announcement of the mission, an argument erupted over you being a space tourist and private individual, and still receiving the Israeli hug as your mission to space has been nationalized. What are your thoughts on this? How do you define your mission?

Im Israeli. And I intend to go to space. These are the facts. However, since the announcement, everybody wants to jump on board: Universities, hospitals, the scientific community, the Ministry of Technology & Science, the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health. All of them sit on different committees For example, sitting on the scientific committee we have the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science, the Israel Space Agency, and they all want something. Different institutions like schools, youth groups, municipalities, startups, and others, all want to try and get a chance to send their experiments up to space. So, I see in all of this as a small example of where Elon Musk is leading us; the global inclusion of the private space sector, where everyone can jump on.

I have the resources and the dream, and mostly, for me, its about the mission and its contribution to science, education, and whoever I can help.

And you have no issues becoming a nationally recognized figure, like some kind of Olympic athlete?

I have no problems with that. Its not my goal. I didnt do this to become famous. I do it for the rush, the experience, to fulfill my dreams, and because of the mission's importance Something I learned in the last 6 months is that space drives people crazy. It ignites their imagination, creativity, I meet kids who go "crazy" talking about space. We have some familiarity with the oceans on Earth, but up in space it's really like leaving our comfort zone, leaving what protects us; from the home of humanity to an unknown and scary place. Its inspiring, and not just for scientists, but also for artists, philosophers, and for the spiritual I didnt expect so many to get behind this mission - everyone wants to contribute someway, somehow, and its really fun to see.

Earlier you mentioned the late Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli in space. Arent you afraid of malfunctions?... As a veteran Air Force pilot and technical individual, you must be quite aware that technology sometimes fails?

Of course, even with my knowledge, theres still fear. But visiting the space center, and meeting the people behind the technology really helped. When youre flying on a 747 or 787, youre trusting Boeing. Its not like youre sitting eating breakfast wondering if the Boeing engineer attached the wing on right. SpaceX has had dozens of successful launches, and even after a few experiments and failures - now everything is working fine. I visited the Crew-2 launching site 2 weeks ago, and it really got the adrenaline rushing, and I was thinking to myself how am I gonna wait 10 months now?... Im definitely aware of the risks, but Im not afraid of the dangers.

No scenarios running through your head?

No.

So for you its just like another combat mission?

I think the Air Force is more dangerous Theyre trying to shoot you down but here, everyone wants to help you succeed. In the F16 its on you but here everything is autonomous.

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The second Israeli in space: "I'm aware of the risks, but not afraid of the dangers" - Geektime

SMITHSONIANMAG.COM | May 10, 2021, 4:28 p.m.

As visitors observe the work of museum conservators in the Mary Baker Engen Restoration Hangar, they may hear the echoing refrain Use The Force, Luke. Let go! in the background of the cavernous facility, part of the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, which recently reopened after being closed due to Covid-19. It might not be the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but rather a wisecracking visitor staring at the Smithsonians newest artifact: an X-Wing Starfighter.

The famous but fictional spacecraft of the blockbuster Star Wars film franchise is on long-term loan to the Smithsonian from Lucasfilm Ltd. Fans can now watch while the X-Wing undergoes conservation at the Restoration Hangar alongside World War II aircraft and other historic airplanes and space vehicles. Late next year, the famed film prop will go on display outside the Albert Einstein Planetarium at the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

We are thrilled to have an X-Wing on exhibit, says Margaret Weitekamp, space history chair at the museum. It is a real screen-used vehicle from the 2019 film Rise of Skywalker. This display speaks to that crossover connection between people who are excited about space flight and have been inspired by the visions Star Wars has been putting out since 1977.

The massive movie prop, which has a wingspan of 37 feet, is being cleaned and checked closely for any damage that may have occurred while in transit from Industrial Light & Magic, the LucasFilm division that created and built the X-Wing Starfighter. The full-size model was shipped in pieces and is being reassembled so it can be hung by rigging from the ceiling at the National Air and Space Museum building in Washington, D.C., in 2022.

Star Wars is a lived-in universe, Weitekamps says. This is a battle-scarred X-Wing fighter. We want to distinguish between any scratches that occurred during shipping versus something that was built into the vehicle.

I was on the floor looking at it and I pointed out a place where it looked like it had what pilots would call hangar rash. Thats where you get scrape marks on the side of aircraft when they are moved around. I pointed it out to the conservator, who had a big smile and said, No, thats simulated. Its part of the detail by the artist!

This is not the first time a Star Wars artifact has been displayed at the Smithsonian. In 1997, the museum exhibited props and costumes in the Star Wars: The Magic of Myth exhibition, which also explored the legendary themes of George Lucas, director, producer and screenwriter of the film franchise.

In 2016, the Star Trek television series and movies were featured in the Boldly Go 50 display, which included the studio model of the Starship Enterprise. Other exhibitions have included displays on the publics fascination with space travel through science fiction, including early literary works, film and television series.

The X-Wing Starfighter made its debut in the very first film in 1977, which has been redubbed Star Wars: Episode IVA New Hope. Pilots used the spacecraft to battle Imperial TIE Fighters and attack the Death Star before it could deliver a lethal blow to a rebel base.

It has since been reprised in various forms in eight other Star Wars films, including the last one in 2019, The Rise of Skywalker. This model is a more advanced version of the first X-Wing Starfighter that zoomed across the big screen nearly 35 years ago. Apparently, even fictional attack spacecraft have to have technological improvements.

This is a T-70 X-Wing, Weitekamp says. Its the next generation. The one Luke Skywalker flew in the original trilogy was a T-65B. The big visible difference is the X-foils that split apart. Each had an engine. The T-70 was designed to include one large engine on each wing. When X-attack formation is deployed, the engine splits into two semi-hemispheres.

There was even a third-generation X-Wing Starfighter: the T-85, which appeared in the Star Wars Resistance television series in 2018.

No matter which model is displayed, Star Wars fans are likely to recall the X-Wing Starfighter in the climactic battle scene of the very first movie. Luke Skywalker, portrayed by Mark Hamill, is leading a suicidal attack to disable the Death Stars superlaser, which is preparing to destroy the planet Yarvin.

The Rebel Alliance is trying to exploit a weakness in the Death Stars design by dropping proton torpedoes in a thermal exhaust port. Several attempts have already failed and many pilots have been killed in the process.

Luke decides to lead a desperate final assault on the Death Star as time ticks down. With archvillain Darth Vader ready to blast our hero into nanoparticles, Luke suddenly feels the presence of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the deceased Jedi Knight who was once his mentor. He speaks to Luke from another dimension, urging him to forgo technology and rely on The Force, the supernatural Power of the Cosmos that can guide him to success:

Use the force, Luke. Let go!

Luke flips up his blast visor, turns off his targeting sensor, closes his eyes and lets The Force lead him to victory from the cockpit of his X-Wing Starfighter.

And if you close your eyes again while standing near this fabled spacecraft in the Restoration Hangar, you just might see this scene play out once more a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

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Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter Lands at the National Air and Space Museum - Smithsonian Magazine

Billionaire Jeff Bezoss space launch company Blue Origin has announced it will sell its first flights into microgravity to the highest bidder.

Blue Origin and its two greatest competitors in the space tourism field, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, claim to be advancing humanity through the democratisation of space. But these joyrides arent opening up access to space for all.

At face value, the prospect of a space tourism industry is exciting.

It promises an easier path to space than the one followed by astronauts, who must go through higher education, intense training and extremely competitive selection processes. Astronauts must also have the right nationality, because few countries have access to human spaceflight programs.

In theory, the opening up of a commercial spaceflight industry should make space more accessible and democratic. But this is only partly the case; what was once the domain of only the richest countries is now an industry headed predominantly by commercial entities.

Adding to this, these companies are prepared to take more risks than government programs because they dont have to justify their spending or failures to the public. Blue Origin and SpaceX have seen many explosions in past tests, yet fans watch with excitement rather than dismay.

This has pushed the rapid development of space technologies. Reusable rockets particularly SpaceXs Falcon 9, which just made its tenth successful launch have reduced the cost of launching tenfold.

Besides driving down costs, reusable technology is also working to solve the problem of sustainability.

There have been thousands of launches since 1957, when the first human-made object (Sputnik I) was launched by the Soviets. Apart from Falcon 9, however, every single launch vehicle has been used once and disposed of immediately akin to throwing away an aeroplane after one flight.

Launch numbers are increasing each year, with 114 carried out in 2020 alone. Over the weekend, the uncontrolled reentry of debris from Chinas Long March 5B rocket made world news because of its sheer size and the risk of damage. It is just one example of the problems of space debris and traffic management.

Safety is a key issue for human spaceflight. Currently, there are about 3,400 operational satellites in orbit and about 128 million pieces of debris. There are are hundreds of collision risks each day, avoided by expensive and difficult manoeuvres or, if the risk is low enough, operators wait and hope for the best.

If we add more human spaceflight to this traffic, countries will need to adopt stricter requirements to de-orbit satellites at the end of their lives, so they burn up on reentry. Currently, its acceptable to de-orbit after 25 years, or to put a satellite into an unused orbit. But this only delays the problem for the future.

Nations will also need to implement the 2019 United Nations guidelines on the Long-term Sustainability of Activities in Outer Space.

Read more: Space can solve our looming resource crisis but the space industry itself must be sustainable

The environmental impact of launches are another important factor. SpaceXs Falcon 9 burns as much fuel as an average car would over 200 years, for a single launch.

On the ground there are impacts on terrain and waterways, which we have to keep in mind when building future launch sites in Australia. Launch permits currently require environmental impact statements, but these should include long-term effects and carbon footprints as well.

In the coming years, it will be crucial for independent spaceflight companies to be tightly regulated.

Virgin Galactic has long advocated a shirtsleeve environment wherein customers can experience the luxury of spaceflight unhindered by awkward spacesuits. But the death of one of its test pilots in 2014 is evidence spaceflight remains dangerous. High altitudes and pressure require more precaution and less concern for comfort.

Although regulators such as the US Federal Aviation Administration have strict safety requirements for space tourism, pressurised spacesuits are not among them but they should be. Also, space tourism operators can require passengers to sign legal waivers of liability, in case of accident.

And while its laudable SpaceX and Blue Origin are making technological leaps, there is little in their business plans that speaks to diversity, inclusivity and global accessibility. The first space tourists were all wealthy entrepreneurs.

In 2001 Dennis Tito paid his way to a seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket to visit the International Space Station (ISS). Since then, there have been eight more space tourists, each paying between US$20 million and US$30 million to fly through the Russian program.

In 2022, the Axiom crew is scheduled to fly on a SpaceX Dragon flight to the ISS. Each of the three wealthy, white, male passengers will have paid US$55 million for the privilege. Meanwhile, Blue Origins upcoming auction will last five weeks, the highest bidder winning a seat for a few minutes of microgravity.

Virgin Galactics 90-minute joyrides, also scheduled to fly as early as 2022, have already sold for US$250,000. Future tickets are expected to cost more.

Of course, conventional recreational air travel was also originally for the wealthy. Early cross-continental flights in the United States costed about half the price of a new car. But technological advances and commercial competition meant by 2019 (pre-COVID) there were nearly five million people flying daily.

Perhaps its only a matter of time before space tourism becomes similarly accessible. Ideally, this would mean being able to fly from Sydney to London in a matter of hours.

Then again, spaceflight carries much greater risks and much greater costs than airflight, even with reusable rockets. Its going to be a long time before these costs are driven down enough to allow the democratisation of space.

This is a compelling narrative which commercial spaceflight companies are eager to adopt. But there will always be a portion of society that wont have access to this future. Indeed, as many science-fiction stories predict, human spaceflight or habitation in space may only ever be accessible to the very wealthy.

We know there are benefits to space-based technologies from tracking climate change, to enabling global communications and health services, to learning from scientific experiments on the ISS. But when it comes to space tourism, the payback for the average person is less clear.

Read more: Yuri Gagarin's boomerang: the tale of the first person to return from space, and his brief encounter with Aussie culture

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Want to become a space tourist? You finally can if you have $250,000 and a will to sign your life away - The Conversation AU

For most people, getting to the stars is nothing more than a dream. But on May 5, 2021, the 60th anniversary of the first suborbital flight, that dream became a little bit more achievable.

The space company Blue Origin announced that it would start selling tickets for suborbital flights to the edge of space. The first flight is scheduled for July 20, and Jeff Bezos company is auctioning off one single ticket to the highest bidder.

But whoever places the winning bid wont be the first tourist in space.

On April 28, 2001, Dennis Tito, a wealthy businessman, paid US$20 million for a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to be the first tourist to visit the International Space Station. Only seven civilians have followed suit in the 20 years since, but that number is poised to double in the next 12 months alone.

NASA has long been hesitant to play host to space tourists, so Russia looking for sources of money post-Cold War in the 1990s and 2000s has been the only option available to those looking for this kind of extreme adventure. However, it seems the rise of private space companies is going to make it easier for regular people to experience space.

From my perspective as a space policy analyst, recent announcements from companies like Blue Origin and SpaceX are the opening of an era in which more people can experience space. Hoping to build a future for humanity in space, these companies are seeking to use space tourism as a way to demonstrate both the safety and reliability of space travel to the general public.

Flights to space like Dennis Titos are expensive for a reason. A rocket must burn a lot of costly fuel to travel high and fast enough to enter Earths orbit.

Another cheaper possibility is a suborbital launch, with the rocket going high enough to reach the edge of space and coming right back down. This is the kind of flight that Blue Origin is now offering. While passengers on a suborbital trip experience weightlessness and incredible views, these launches are more accessible.

The difficulty and expense of either option has meant that, traditionally, only nation-states have been able to explore space. This began to change in the 1990s as a series of entrepreneurs entered the space arena. Three companies led by billionaire CEOs have emerged as the major players: Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic. Though none have taken paying, private customers to space, all anticipate doing so in the very near future.

British billionaire Richard Branson has built his brand on not just business but also his love of adventure. In pursuing space tourism, Branson has brought both of those to bear. He established Virgin Galactic after buying SpaceShipOne a company that won the Ansari X-Prize by building the first reusable spaceship. Since then, Virgin Galactic has sought to design, build and fly a larger SpaceShipTwo that can carry up to six passengers in a suborbital flight.

The going has been harder than anticipated. While Branson predicted opening the business to tourists in 2009, Virgin Galactic has encountered some significant hurdles including the death of a pilot in a crash in 2014. After the crash, engineers found significant problems with the design of the vehicle, which required modifications.

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, respective leaders of SpaceX and Blue Origin, began their own ventures in the early 2000s.

Musk, fearing that a catastrophe of some sort could leave Earth uninhabitable, was frustrated at the lack of progress in making humanity a multiplanetary species. He founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of first developing reusable launch technology to decrease the cost of getting to space. Since then, SpaceX has found success with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. SpaceXs ultimate goal is human settlement of Mars; sending paying customers to space is an intermediate step. Musk says he hopes to show that space travel can be done easily and that tourism might provide a revenue stream to support development of the larger, Mars-focused Starship system.

Bezos, inspired by the vision of physicist Gerard ONeill, wants to expand humanity and industry not to Mars but to space itself. Blue Origin, established in 2004, has proceeded slowly and quietly in also developing reusable rockets. Its New Shepard rocket, first successfully flown in 2015, will be the spaceship taking tourists on suborbital trips to the edge of space this July. For Bezos, these launches represent an effort at making space travel routine, reliable and accessible as a first step to enabling further space exploration.

Blue Origin is not the only company offering passengers the opportunity to go into space and orbit the Earth.

SpaceX currently has two tourist launches planned. The first is scheduled for as early as September 2021, funded by billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman. The other trip, planned for 2022, is being organized by Axiom Space. These trips will be costly for wannabe space travelers, at $55 million for the flight and a stay on the International Space Station. The high cost has led some to warn that space tourism and private access to space more broadly might reinforce inequality between rich and poor.

While Blue Origin is already accepting bids for a seat on the first launch, it has not yet announced the cost of a ticket for future trips. Passengers will also need to meet several physical qualifications, including weighing 110 to 223 pounds (50 to 101 kg) and measuring between 5 feet and 6 feet, 4 inches (1.5 to 1.9 meters) in height. Virgin Galactic, which continues to test SpaceShipTwo, has no specific timetable, but its tickets are expected to be priced from $200,000 to $250,000.

Though these prices are high, it is worth considering that Dennis Titos $20 million ticket in 2001 could potentially pay for 100 flights on Blue Origin soon. The experience of viewing the Earth from space, though, may prove to be priceless for a whole new generation of space explorers.

This is an updated version of an article originally published on April 28, 2021. It has been updated to include the announcement by Blue Origin.

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Space tourism is here 20 years after the first stellar tourist, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin plans to send civilians to space - The Conversation US

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Southwesterns upcoming Physics and Astronomy Lecture spotlights the work of Southwesterns own Zinzi Konig, RN, assistant professor of nursing. The lecture, The Effects of Space Flight on Human Health and Infectious Agents will be presented Thursday, May 13, at 6:30 p.m. via Southwestern's Livestream at https://livestream.com/swocc/physicsandastronomy2020-21.

Konig will present results from her past work studying infectious agents in space, carried aboard two of the final missions of the Space Shuttle Program.

She shares the following as a preview, Conducting both short and long-term human space flight missions require investigating and understanding the effects of spaceflight on both infectious agents and the hosts immune system. In the first experiment described, (designated as Streptococcus pneumoniae Expression of Genes in Space or SPEGIS-2), changes in gene expression of the infectious bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae in response to culture during spaceflight were investigated. In the second experiment described, (designated as Mouse Immunology-2) parts of the immune system, particularly those within the respiratory tract, that leads to increased susceptibility to infection in spaceflight were challenged with spaceflight and a viral agent. Taken together, these applied research studies have helped to build our knowledge of how microorganisms interact with their host, other environments, both on earth and in spaceflight.

The Southwestern Physics and Astronomy Lecture Series is sponsored in part by the Southwestern Foundation. For further information about this month's lecture and future events, please contact Dr. Aaron Coyner, Associate Professor of Physics, at aaron.coyner@socc.edu. To learn more about physics and engineering degrees at Southwestern please visit https://physics.socc.edu/.

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An Israeli mission plans to send four astronauts on a SpaceX rocket early next year to test dozens of new technologies that could enable the next generation of space travel.

The Rakia Mission, which will include Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe, will test more than 40 locally developed technologies in the International Space Station, Israels Ministry of Science and Technology said in a statement on Wednesday. Technologies being tested include super-fast-charging batteries and viscous liquid telescope lenses that pack more magnifying power in a smaller, simpler package, it said.

The project is part of U.S. firm Axiom Spaces bigger ambition to operate the first commercial space station. Space travel is poised to get a boost with companies like Axiom, Elon Musks SpaceX and Jeff Bezoss Blue Origin trying to commercialize what was once reserved for government agencies. And a number of countries are angling to send astronauts to Mars in the coming decades. More than 100 people will fly into space over the next 10 years, according to Ran Livne, Chief Executive Officer of the Ramon Foundation and head of Rakia.

Read More: New Space Race Shoots for Moon and Mars on a Budget: QuickTake

The project is conditional on the missions ability to raise funds to cover the cost and NASAs approval of the technologies, the ministry said in the statement. The Israeli government will issue a call for assistance in fundraising once the states budget has been approved, and the Ramon Foundation, created in honor of the first Israeli astronaut, will look for alternative sources of funding, it said.

Developing more efficient ways to monitor astronaut health will be key to the growth of this industry as missions become more frequent and complex. About 75% of the experimental technologies on board will be life support systems, Livne said.

When people talk about going to Mars, its a two- to three-year mission, and we just dont know how the body will react, he said.

Among the technologies that will be tested are Healthy.ios urine diagnostic platform, which processes pictures of dipsticks taken by smartphones into clinical results within minutes, and is now in use in the U.K.

Our promise to the world is to turn any place with a limited bandwidth and a basic camera into a medical lab, said Healthy.io CEO Yonatan Adiri. Space offers an extreme test to our technology and an opportunity to serve humanitys bravest women and men.

The experiments could also have significant impact on terrestrial industries, too.

StoreDot Ltd., backed by investors such as Samsung Electronics Co. and BP Plc, is sending 10 fast-charging car batteries on the mission to replicate the process for charging and depleting them at zero gravity. This will improve understanding of the chemical reactions that cause the silicon used in StoreDots batteries to expand during the fast-charging process, CEO Doron Myersdorf said.

The time to recharge electric vehicles is one of the major impediments to the growth of that industry. Replacing the graphite on the batterys anode with silicon is a way to reduce the cost and StoreDot is working with samples that can be charged in five minutes, Myersdorf said. The drawback is that the silicon in the batteries needs to be replaced more quickly than other materials.

This is our number-one challenge, to really increase the life cycle dramatically, Myersdorf said. A breakthrough is needed on the material science level in order to really have a very sustainable, cost effective, reliable and safe product.

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

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Israeli Mission to Test Tech for Next Generation of Space Travel - Bloomberg