Category Archives: Moon Colonization

Settling on locations in the Solar System

The Solar System have been considered for colonization and terraforming. The main candidates for colonization in the inner Solar System are Mars[1] and Venus.[2] Other possible candidates for colonization include the Moon[3] and even Mercury.[4]

Many parts of the outer Solar System have been considered for possible future colonization. Most of the larger moons of the outer planets contain water ice, liquid water, and organic compounds that might be useful for sustaining human life.[5][6]

There have also been proposals to place robotic aerostats in the upper atmospheres of the Solar System's gas giant planets for exploration and possibly mining of helium-3, which could have a very high value per unit mass as a thermonuclear fuel.[7][8]

A number of government space agencies have periodically floated lunar plans such as Russia (2014),[citation needed] China (2012)[9][needs update] and[when?] the US[10] have made plans in constructing the first lunar outpost.

The European Space Agency (ESA) head Jan Woerner has proposed[when?] cooperation among countries and companies on lunar capabilities, a concept referred to as Moon Village.[11]

In a December 2017 directive, the Trump Administration steered NASA to include a lunar mission on the pathway to other beyond Earth orbit (BEO) destinations.[12][11]

In a May 2018 interview, Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos indicated Blue Origin would build and fly the Blue Moon lunar lander on its own, with private funding, but that they would build it a lot faster, and accomplish more, if it were done in a partnership with existing government space agencies. Bezos specifically mentioned the December 2017 NASA direction and the ESA Moon Village concepts.[11]

The hypothetical colonization of Mars has received interest from public space agencies and private corporations, and has received extensive treatment in science fiction writing, film, and art.

The most recent[when?] commitments to researching permanent settlement include those by public space agenciesNASA, ESA, Roscosmos, ISRO and the CNSAand private organizationsSpaceX, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing.[citation needed]

The colonization of Venus has been a subject of many works of science fiction since before the dawn of spaceflight, and is still discussed from both a fictional and a scientific standpoint. Proposals for Venus are focused on colonies floating in the upper-middle atmosphere[13] and on terraforming.

In addition to the aerostats that can be used on Earth, of all known planets and moons in the Solar system, only the Venusian atmosphere has a Lana Coefficient[clarification needed] that allows for the use of vacuum airships made of some composites (that will work up to an altitude of 15 km) and graphene (up to an altitude of 40 km). This could mean that Venus is safer to colonize than Mars.

With discoveries as of 2020 traces of possibly indigenous life in the atmosphere of Venus, attempts of any humanization of Venus have become an increased issue of planetary protection, since uncontrolled effects of human presence might endanger such life.[14]

Once thought to be a volatile depleted body like our Moon, Mercury is now known to be richer in minerals than any other terrestrial body in the inner solar system.[15] The planet also receives almost seven times the solar flux as the Earth/Moon system and also has a magnetosphere, the safest for colonisation are Mars and Venus.

Mercury is an ideal place (according to Geologist Stephen Gillett, suggested in 1996) to build and launch solar sail spacecraft, which could theoretically launch as folded up, by a mass driver from Mercury's surface.[clarification needed] This could also make Mercury an ideal place to acquire materials useful in building hardware to send to (and terraform) Venus.[16]

As Mercury has essentially no axial tilt, crater floors near its poles lie in eternal darkness, never seeing the Sun. They function as cold traps, trapping volatiles for geological periods. It is estimated that the poles of Mercury contain 10141015kg of water, likely covered by about 5.65109 m3 of hydrocarbons. This would make agriculture possible. It has been suggested that plant varieties could be developed to take advantage of the high light intensity and the long day of Mercury. The poles do not experience the significant day-night variations the rest of Mercury do, making them the best place on the planet to begin a colony.[17]

Asteroids, including those in the asteroid belt have been suggested as a possible site of human colonization.

The Jovian system in general has particular disadvantages for colonization, including its severe radiation environment[20] and its particularly deep gravity well. Its radiation would deliver about 36 Sv per day to unshielded colonists on Io and about 5.40 Sv per day to unshielded colonists on Europa. Exposure to about 0.75 Sv over a few days is enough to cause radiation poisoning, and about 5Sv over a few days is fatal.[21]

Jupiter itself, like the other gas giants, is not generally considered a good candidate for colonization.[citation needed] There is no accessible surface on which to land, and the light hydrogen atmosphere would not provide good buoyancy for some kind of aerial habitat as has been proposed for Venus.

Io is not ideal for colonization, due to its hostile environment. The moon is under influence of high tidal forces, causing high volcanic activity. Jupiter's strong radiation belt overshadows Io, delivering 36 Sv a day to the moon. The moon is also extremely dry. Io is the least ideal place for colonization of the four Galilean moons.Despite this, its volcanoes could be energy resources for the other moons, which are better suited to colonization.

The Artemis Project proposed a plan to colonize Europa.[22][23] Scientists would inhabit igloos and drill down into the Europan ice crust, exploring any subsurface ocean. The report also discusses use of air pockets for human habitation.

Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System. Ganymede is the only moon with a magnetosphere, albeit overshadowed by Jupiter's magnetic field. Because of this magnetic field, Ganymede is one of only two Jovian moons where surface settlements would be feasible because it receives about 0.08 Sv of radiation per day. Ganymede could be terraformed. [19]

Due to its distance from Jupiter's powerful radiation belt, Callisto is subject to only 0.0001Sv a day.[19] When NASA carried out a study called HOPE (Revolutionary Concepts for Human Outer Planet Exploration) regarding the future exploration of the Solar System, the target chosen was Callisto.[24] It might be possible to build a surface base that would produce fuel for further exploration of the Solar System.

The Keck Observatory announced in 2006 that the binary Jupiter trojan 617 Patroclus, and possibly many other Jupiter trojans, are likely composed of water ice, with a layer of dust. This suggests that mining water and other volatiles in this region and transporting them elsewhere in the Solar System, perhaps via the proposed Interplanetary Transport Network, may be feasible in the not-so-distant future. This could make colonization of the Moon, Mercury and main-belt asteroids more practical.

Robert Zubrin identified Saturn, Uranus and Neptune as "the Persian Gulf of the Solar System", as the largest sources of deuterium and helium-3 to drive a fusion economy, with Saturn the most important and most valuable of the three, because of its relative proximity, low radiation, and large system of moons.[25] On the other hand, planetary scientist John Lewis in his 1997 book Mining the Sky, insists that Uranus is the likeliest place to mine helium-3 because of its significantly shallower gravity well, which makes it easier for a laden tanker spacecraft to thrust itself out. Furthermore, Uranus is an Ice giant, which would likely make it easier to separate the helium out of the atmosphere.

Zubrin identified Titan as possessing an abundance of all the elements necessary to support life, making Titan perhaps the most advantageous locale in the outer Solar System for colonization. He said, "In certain ways, Titan is the most hospitable extraterrestrial world within the Solar System for human colonization."[26] A widely published expert on terraforming, Christopher McKay, is also a co-investigator on the Huygens probe that landed on Titan in January 2005.

The surface of Titan is mostly uncratered and thus inferred to be very young and active, and probably composed of mostly water ice, and lakes of liquid hydrocarbons (methane/ethane) in its polar regions. While the temperature is cryogenic (95 K) it should be able to support a base, but more information regarding Titan's surface and the activities on it is necessary. The thick atmosphere and the weather, such as potential flash floods, are also factors to consider.

On 9 March 2006, NASA's Cassini space probe found possible evidence of liquid water on Enceladus.[27] According to that article, "pockets of liquid water may be no more than tens of meters below the surface." These findings were confirmed in 2014 by NASA. This means liquid water could be collected much more easily and safely on Enceladus than, for instance, on Europa (see above). Discovery of water, especially liquid water, generally makes a celestial body a much more likely candidate for colonization. An alternative model of Enceladus's activity is the decomposition of methane/water clathrates a process requiring lower temperatures than liquid water eruptions. The higher density of Enceladus indicates a larger than Saturnian average silicate core that could provide materials for base operations.

Because Uranus has the lowest escape velocity of the four gas giants, it has been proposed as a mining site for helium-3.[8] If human supervision of the robotic activity proved necessary, one of Uranus's natural satellites might serve as a base.

It is hypothesized that one of Neptune's satellites could be used for colonization. Triton's surface shows signs of extensive geological activity that implies a subsurface ocean, perhaps composed of ammonia/water.[28] If technology advanced to the point that tapping such geothermal energy was possible, it could make colonizing a cryogenic world like Triton feasible, supplemented by nuclear fusion power.

The noted physicist Freeman Dyson identified comets, rather than planets, as the major potential habitat of life in space.[29]

There would be many problems in colonizing the outer Solar System. These include:

Read more from the original source:
Colonization of the Solar System - Wikipedia

In February 2022, the Adam Smith Institute published a report claiming that the Moon should be privatized to help wipe out poverty on Earth. According to the report, the Moon should be divided into parcels of land and assigned to various countries to rent out to businesses, which would boost space tourism, exploration, and discovery.

For now, thankfully, there is a treaty that stands in the way of such plans. The Outer Space Treaty was drawn up by the United Nations in 1967 with the idea to ban countries and individuals from owning property in space. It also forbids the militarization of outer space and bans weapons testing and military bases there.

The Adam Smith Institute maintains, however, that with more countries and companies competing in the space race than ever before its vital for us to move past the outdated thinking of the 1960s and tackle the question of extraterrestrial property rights sooner than later.

To some extent, this view is already a reality. In 2020, NASA launched an effort to allow companies to mine resources, announcing it would support private extraction of resources from the Moon.

That is one small step for space resources, but a giant leap for policy and precedent, said Mike Gold, NASAs former chief of international relations, summing up the new frontier of capitalism. In the meantime, similar legislation allowing privatization of extraterrestrial resources is being introduced in Luxembourg, India, China, Japan, and Russia.

Also in 2020, NASA changed its policy to allow private astronauts to go on the International Space Station. In April 2022, the first all-private team of astronauts began a weeklong mission hailed as a milestone in commercial spaceflight. Similarly, Elon Musks SpaceX and Jeff Bezoss Blue Origin have been launching their own private flights to space.

In short, the commercialization and privatization of space is accelerating. Space tourism, asteroid mining, and internet from satellites space are no longer science fiction. They have become a potential source for future growth and progress.

If there was one philosopher of the twentieth century who has turned his critical gaze to human space exploration, it is Gnther Anders.

Born as Gnther Stern in 1902 in Breslau, Poland (now Wrocaw), he was a student of Ernst Cassirer, Edmund Husserl, and Martin Heidegger, and first worked as a journalist (it was during this period that he started to sign his articles Anders meaning different in German instead of Stern). With his wife Hannah Arendt he came to realize the coming reality of Hitlerism. In 193132, he penned his prophetic dystopian and anti-fascist novel, The Molossian Catacomb (Die molussische Katakombe), which he completed while in exile in Paris in 1933 when Hitler came to power. (Yet it would only be published in 1992, the year of his death). Throughout his career, he wrote extensively on technology, the atomic age, Auschwitz, and Hiroshima and also the Moon.

In 1969, Anders was among the six hundred fifty million people who watched the moon landing the first truly global TV event of the twentieth century. While most were mesmerized by Neil Armstrongs famous declaration Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind he took a different view. In his book The View from the Moon: Philosophical Reflections on Space Travel, he commented that it was a giant leap for mankind only in so far as it leapt away from the road that leads to its better future.

Although it seems a new Cold War is being born, our future in the stars is today less defined by the race between countries (United States vs. USSR) than by private companies (SpaceX vs. Blue Origin, etc.).

It was Anders who warned us with his prophylactic catastrophism about the prospects of the appropriation of space. In the second volume of his The Obsolescence of Man:On the Destruction of Life in the Epoch of the Third Industrial Revolution, he made a claim about the shifting role of science. He argued that the mission of modern science is no longer to hunt down the secret that is, the secret or hidden essence of something but to discover the secret treasures that can be appropriated.

Anders poses the question, What use is the Moon? His answer is simple but terrifying: raw material. He goes further still, saying that being raw material is the criterium existendi today. It is a fundamental metaphysical thesis.

Anders argues that the lunar journey was not the destination, but the starting point. What was being presented as the human discovery of the Moon, was in fact a self-encounter with the Earth.

It was the recently invented James Webb telescopes images of the universe that sparked enthusiasm across the world. For Anders, the more sublime the universe appeared, the more tragic the contemporary destruction of our planet. The more technology advanced, the bigger the chances for destruction and self-destruction.

For Anders, the view from the telescope doesnt allow us as humans to look bigger. On the contrary, he writes, it is as if the universe were looking back at us through a tube as a punishment, shrinking us as much as it expanded with our telescopic view.

If we accept Anderss formulation about the self-encounter with the Earth, what do we see in the mirror today? What does our contemporary New Space Age represent?

Fifty years ago, Anders described the phenomenon of provincialism: men who fly to space in order to become famous or powerful on Earth. Its hard not to think of a figure like Jeff Bezos sending William Shatner (Star Treks Captain Kirk) in this context.

Through the exploration of space, man has become more provincial than himself, wrote Anders, because the space travels that were supposed to widen our world had exactly the opposite effect namely, even more fixation on Earth. In the near future, the occupied planets will most likely first serve as bases for the extraction of valuable resources that will make the richest on Earth even richer. The future has already begun, wrote Anders. But in the service of the past.

He claimed that he had considered giving Der Blick vom Mond (The View From the Moon) the alternative title of The Obsolescence of the Earth. He ultimately decided against it, however, because it would have implied that our planet is obsolete and that we would have to leave it and find other habitable planets. This was far from Anderss intention.

For figures like Musk and Bezos the new occupiers of space it is precisely this notion of the Earths obsolescence that has become the criterium existendi. In need of new resources for extraction, accumulation, and profit, they seek to colonize space, even if the price is the destruction of Earth.

The Apollo astronauts view from the Moon was simultaneously watched by millions of television viewers (approximately a fifth of the world population at the time), but Anders saw it as more than just a media spectacle. He recognized it as a globalizing and metaphysical event:

Not only did they encounter it, we experienced it as well. And since we remained back on the earth, and as earthly creatures are the earth, we may say in all fairness: for the first time and this is a historical event of a completely new kind the earth, standing before a mirror, became reflective, aroused to self-consciousness for the first time, or at least to self-perception.

After command module pilot Michael Collins returned to Earth after the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon, he famously said that future flights should include a poet, a priest and a philosopher, so we might get a much better idea of what we saw.

The perfect candidate for the philosopher on board would have been Gnther Anders. While most of his work (including The View From the Moon) still remains rather unknown and unpublished in English, it is precisely his work on technology, apocalypses, and space exploration that can guide us today.

Today, with high-resolution imagery of the origins of the universe, his pertinent question, What use is the Moon? is as important as ever, though it may be extended to ask: What use is the universe? Whats the use of discovering the magic of our universe, if we continue destroying planet Earth? What is the use of Mars if you plan to colonize it with the same capitalist logic of extraction and expansion?

Besides discovering the universe, we need to rediscover Earth again and protect it from the fatal logic of the new space explorers or self-proclaimed occupiers.

Although Gnther Anders would have been the perfect candidate for any mission to space, he didnt have to travel to the Moon in order to see Earth better. But he also saw the Moon.

Excerpt from:
Under Capitalism, the Colonization of Space Means the ... - Jacobin

Divine art in the Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 15001800 exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Oh heavens above! In a circular painting by 18th-century Mexican artist Antonio de Torres, aglorious Virgin hovers in heaven among a swirl of pastel clouds.As the Virgin looks up to God, she emanates divine light. A 12-starred halo crowns her head as she stands on a crescent moon, with a jolly sun peeking out from behind her; each of these motifs refers to Revelations 12:1 in the Bible. Saints surround her, with some gazing adoringly up at her, and others gazing out of the painting to encourage our faith.

De Torress jubilant painting is packed full of devout meaning, exquisite details, and a big surprise: Its only seven inches in diameter and is a Mexican nuns badge that Conceptionist and Hieronymite nuns pinned to their habits, at their throats. (Friars pinned similar badges to their capes.)

Nuns and friars badges are a unique Mexican tradition that began in the 17th century.Yet the badgespaintings connect to age-old European traditions. De Torress circular painting harks back to the popular Florentine Renaissance tradition of tondo (circular) painting, which was itself inspired by ancient medals. An artist needed to be a skilled draftsman to conquer the circular composition.

Mexicos eminent artists created badges that echoed the grandeur of their paintings. On each badge, the artist painted a central biblical scene, with popular choices being the Annunciation (where the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would have a son, Jesus)or the Immaculate Conception (the Catholic belief that Jesuss mother was born without sin). The artists then filled the edges with flowers, cherubs, angels, and saints according to the badge owners preference and religious order. For instance, Mexican painter Jos de Pez created a delightful rectangular friars badge of the Nativity, with God watching over the Holy Family.

These badges were one of the new arts born from the Spanish colonization of the New World,and both examples above are in The Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 15001800 exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The exhibition explores this complex yet fascinating period of art history through over 90 paintings, sculptures, textiles, and decorative arts from LACMAs collection.

In the late 15th century, Spain began colonizing the New World; subsequently, the art of the Americas altered. Local artists, while staying true to their traditions, were influenced by European, Asian, and African imports and styles, thus creating new styles and types of art.

The development of Catholic art in the Americas is one fascinating aspect of the exhibition.When the Spanish came to the New World, religious paintings and sculptures were important in converting the indigenous population to Catholicism. Wherever possible, Spanish artists passed on their Western techniques to local artists, resulting in Latin American devotional works acquiring a Spanish style.

Other European styles were also passed on. For instance, in the 1530s, after the Spanish colonized Cuzco, high in the Andean mountains of Peru, European artists shared their skills with locals. Indigenous and European artists working in the town from the 16th to the 18th century became known as the Cuzco School, which spread across the Andes and to Bolivia and Ecuador.

Often in early Spanish American paintings, theres a naivet to the artists techniques, but the divine message conveyed in those paintings is just as potent as any of the more technically accomplished High Renaissance religious works. Its an important reminder that the artists intent behind a painting is powerful.

A small icon titled The Holy Family by Mexican artist Nicols Rodrguez Jurez illustrates this point well. Jurez depicted Mary and the Christ child gazing directly at us, while Joseph gazes at Christ who raises his hand and blesses us. All three figures emanate divine light, and the call to connect to our faith shines so bright. We forget that these figures arent quite anatomically correct, with their wide eyes, chubby cheeks, and plump hands.

Hispanic artists took their inspiration fromEuropean compositions while staying true to their own artistic traditions. For instance, one member of Mexicos newly established (1722) academy of painters, the artist Nicols Enrquez, looked to the Jesuit book of engravings titled Evangelicae Historiae Imagines (Images of Evangelical History)by JernimoNadal for inspiration when he paintedThe Adoration of the Kings With Viceroy Pedro de Castro y Figueroa, Duke of La Conquista.In the same painting, Enrquezalso referenced a work in Mexico Citys cathedral by Mexican painter Juan Rodrguez Jurez.

A prime example of Spanish style converging with local sensibilities is de Torress painting Sacred Conversation With the Immaculate Conception and the Divine Shepherd. In the painting, a Conceptionistnun converses with the Spanish mystic Saint John of the Cross. She wears a sacred badge on her habit, and bows as she passes her divinely awakenedheart to the saint.

On the left side of the painting, the Virgin stands atop a white lily, a symbol of purity. Christ appears as the good shepherd standing on the middle of the bridge, in the center of the painting. According to the LACMA website, the bridge links all four figures in the painting and symbolizes that the nuns sacred communion with the saint could take place due only to the divine intervention of the Virgin and Christ.

De Torres painted the bridge from a birds-eye perspective, a view popular in Flemish paintings by the likes of Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

The familiar Our Lady of Guadalupe motif surrounded by four vignettes has been reproduced many times. Many of these paintings appear similar but their styles differ. This was due to the artists copying the paintings of famed artists. For instance, Mexican artist|Juan Correamade a wax template for painters to copy his works.

In the exhibition, Manuel de Arellanos and Antonio de Arellanos 1691 Virgin of Guadalupe painting is signed touched to the original to acknowledge the master copy. In the painting,four vignettes show how the Virgin appeared to Indian Juan Diego in 1531 asking him to request that the bishop build a church on the hill in her honor. Legend has it that the bishop didnt believe him. The Virgin appeared to Diego three times with the same request, but the bishop didnt budge. On her fourth visit, the Virgin told Diego to go to the hill and pick Castille roses and give them to the bishop. Diego gathered the roses in his cloak and then presented them to the shocked bishopCastille roses dont grow in the region. When Diego emptied all the roses from his cloak, miraculously the Virgins image was imprinted on it. The final vignette in the painting shows the miracle.

Miguel Gonzlez also depictedthe legend in using enconchado, a new technique that peaked around 1680 to 1700, whereby mother-of-pearl inlays enhanced a painting. The iridescent nature of mother-of-pearl adds a further touch of transcendence tohis Virgin of Guadalupe painting.

In the Hispanic world, sacred sculptures are polychromaticcolorfully painted.

Oftentimes, pieces by the same sculptor could appear very different, due to the involvement of different artisans. Patrons often received their commissioned statues unpainted. It was up to them to arrange for a painter to embellish the works and make the pieces as lifelike as possible. For naturalistic appeal, artists often added glass eyes, ivory teeth, and real eyelashes to the sculptures. In some cases, the works were dressed in costumes.

A small, late-18th century, private devotional sculpture of the Virgin of the Rosary from Guatemala is on display in the exhibition. The painter of the devotional sculpture,Felipe de Estrada, signed the work, which artists rarely did. He decorated the Virgins robes with fine fabric; such works of art were called estofados.

Hispanic artists adapted some Spanish decorative techniques, and the sculptures took on a distinctly local flair. For instance, in Spain gold was commonly used as a ground, a base layer on the sculptures to which paint was applied. Artists would then scratch designs through parts of the painted surface to reveal the gold beneath. Some of the gold remained concealed under the paint, which further enhanced the paint pigments. Artists in Quito, Ecuador, used gold and silver grounds for their statues. This practice had existed in Spain, but the Ecuadorian sculptors used it to more dramatic effect, frequently juxtaposing it with gold.

The sacred paintings and sculptures of Spanish America acted as instruments of faith: to inspire devotion. Believers developed intimate relationships with these sublime, functional pieces. Artists repainting pieces to align with popular sensibilities was a common practice in sculpture and in painting. Hispanic artists infused each of their works with intense emotions, gestures, and vitalityall explicitly designed to teach Scripture and to inspire contemplation and devotion to God.

The Archive of the World: Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 15001800 exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is curated by the museums head of Latin American art, Ilona Katzew. The exhibition runs until Oct. 30. To find out more, visit LACMA.org

Read the rest here:
A New World of Heavenly Art - The Epoch Times

A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers

In this wickedly whimsical Gothic murder mystery brimming with romance, betrayals, and chills, a fake spiritualist is summoned to hold a sance for a bride who died on the eve before her wedding, but as nefarious secrets are revealed, the line between hoax and haunting blurs.

Be careful what you conjure

In Victorian London, Genevieve Timmons poses as a spiritualist to swindle wealthy mourners until one misstep lands her in a jail cell awaiting the noose. Then a stranger arrives to make her a peculiar offer. The lord he serves, Mr. Pemberton, has been inconsolable since the tragic death of his beautiful bride-to-be. If Genevieve can perform a sance persuasive enough to bring the young lord peace, she will win her freedom.

Soothing a grieving nobleman should be easy for someone of Genevieves skill, but when she arrives at the grand Somerset Park estate, Mr. Pemberton is not the heartbroken lover she expected. The surly yet exceedingly handsome gentleman is certain that his fiance was murdered, even though there is no evidence. Only a confession can bring justice now, and Mr. Pemberton decides Genevieve will help him get it. With his knowledge of the household and her talent for illusion, they can stage a haunting so convincing it will coax the killer into the light. However, when frightful incidents befall the manor, Genevieve realizes her tricks arent required after all. She may be a fake, but Somersets ghost could be all too real

A Dreadful Splendor is delicious brew of mystery, spooky thrills, and intoxicating romance that makes for a ghoulishly fun and page-turning read.

Reasons to read it: Remember Penny Dreadful with Eva Green? Me too, and this book promises to fill the Victorian-era-sance-shaped void the show left in my heart. Its also bound to satisfy fans of other amateur Victorian sleuths, like in A Curious Beginning, with the added bonus of Genevieves roguish ways which obviously only make the journey more fun.

More here:
New Releases Tuesday: The Best Books Out This Week - Book Riot

SEA Fellows students and symposium hosts pose outside the Downeast Institute in Beals, Maine. Photo by Hannah Greene

Beals, Maine Twenty-five students from 15 universities nationwide presented their summer marine research at the sixth annual Science for Economic Impact and Application (SEA) Fellows Symposium, held this year at the Downeast Institute (DEI) in Beals, Maine. More than 50 people, including students and their family members; researchers; local municipal leaders and other community members; and marine professionals, attended the Aug. 9 symposium.

The SEA Fellows program encourages students in marine research to collaborate on climate-relevant science; network with other undergraduates; and develop science communication and presentation skills. The SEA Fellows posters from the symposium are online.

This is a celebration of marine science and young scientists. The reason we have SEA Fellows and this symposium is to connect these young scientists with one another and allow them to hear from like-minded individuals about the projects theyre developing, noted Heather Leslie, director of the University of Maine Darling Marine Center and professor of marine conservation science in the UMaine School of Marine Sciences.

Students from across the University of Maine System participated in the symposium. Their research related to a wide range of applied marine science themes. Lindsey Karwacki, a rising senior at the University of Maine at Machias, focused on the reproduction and culture of the moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita). While observing the jellyfish larvae in an aquaculture setting over many months, Karwacki set a goal to understand the life history and culture of such invertebrates to create displays for public and private aquaria. With her project, Karwacki hopes that jellyfish aquaculture may be one possible solution to diversify coastal economies in Down East Maine.

SEA Fellow Brady Kaelin, a rising junior at UMaine, is interested in how different types of fungal spores respond to saltwater immersion. He plans to conduct research on campus this fall to investigate how species of fungi fare in response to seawater. Kaelin hopes that his experiments will advance understanding of colonization and persistence dynamics of fungal populations on terrestrial islands.

Students from institutions beyond Maine also shared their work, all of which was conducted with researchers based in the state. Among them was Florida State University rising senior Lena Kury, who worked with UMaine professor Damian Brady at the UMaine Darling Marine Center this summer. Her independent research focused on Atlantic cod and one of the most important habitats for juveniles of the species: eelgrass beds. Using baited remote underwater video (BRUV), Kury investigated how well this technology can help researchers identify juvenile cod in eelgrass habitats.

University of New Hampshire 2021 graduate Owen Hamel worked in professor Robert Stenecks laboratory, also at the Darling Marine Center. Hamel investigated how American lobsters respond to low oxygen environments.

Understanding lobster behavior in response to hypoxic environments could help fisheries minimize lobster mortality in traps by changing fishery policies on trap placement in areas with higher oxygen levels, Hamel explained.

The symposium was hosted by the Downeast Institute, which serves as the marine science field station for UMaine Machias. DEI Director of Research Brian Beal welcomed the Fellows to the facility in Beals, noting that they had arrived at the easternmost marine laboratory in the U.S. The SEA Fellows then toured the lab, learning about the variety of research and education activities underway from the Fellows who were based at DEI all summer. Before lunch, Leslie and one of the Fellows, Meghan Nadzam, led a communication workshop, helping to prepare the students for the afternoon symposium.

During her poster presentations, Roger Williams University rising senior Emily Leonard reflected on her SEA Fellows experience: Meeting so many different people and how they go about their projects was amazing. Everyone had different ideas when it came to presenting their projects. Its fun to talk to people around your age about topics we are all passionate about, Leonard said.

For Evan Busch, a student at the University of Maine at Machias, SEA Fellows reinforced his interest in scientific research and his plans for the future.

I loved living here at DEI this summer. DEI was a place where I could conduct my own summer research, and as an undergraduate, that can be a very rare opportunity. I knew that research is something I want to pursue for a career, so I knew that working as a SEA Fellow was something that I wanted to jump on. I can now be more prepared for a job or graduate school, Busch said.

DEI Executive Director Dianne Tilton closed the student symposium, emphasizing how important it is that such solutions-oriented science is shared with members of the public. As a former state legislator, Tilton spoke from experience about the value of such research and its effective communication.

It is important that policy makers and leaders know how to use different types of research, and understand how to discern its quality. These undergraduates are helping to make that happen, Tilton says.

Contact: Matthew Norwood, matthew.norwood@maine.edu; Dianne Tilton, dtilton@downeastinstitute.org

Read this article:
Diving into student research at the Summer 2022 SEA Fellows Symposium - UMaine News - University of Maine - University of Maine

Skywatch Monday 8-22-2022.mp3

Mon Aug 22, 2022 RAY BRADBURY AND MARS

The science fiction and fantasy writer Ray Bradbury was born on August 22nd, 1920. He began his career by writing short stories for pulp magazines such as Weird Tales, Planet Stories and Galaxy Science Fiction. He also wrote, Fahrenheit 451, R is for Rocket, and The Golden Apples of the Sun. His book, The Martian Chronicles, came out in 1950; it was a series of related short stories about the colonization of the planet Mars, something which is very much in the news these days. Bradbury envisioned terraforming Mars, also being discussed lately. While building pressure domes and living underground on Mars is perhaps achievable, trying to restore a viable Martian atmosphere is still well beyond our current technology, and at the moment, Mars itself is only visible after midnight. Well, like Bradbury, we can dream!

Skywatch Tuesday 8-23-2022.mp3

Tue Aug 23, 2022 VOYAGER 2 REACHES NEPTUNE

On August 23, 1989, the Voyager 2 spacecraft sailed past the planet Neptune on its journey toward the stars. It is the only probe that has every taken close-up pictures of the eighth planet, and the images it sent back were amazing. It found an earth-sized hurricane the Great Dark Spot - blowing in Neptune's southern hemisphere. And there were great cirrus clouds zipping through its atmosphere at fifteen hundred miles an hour! Voyager saw three major rings orbiting Neptune, which were thicker in some spots than in others. It found several more satellites, all of them dark and irregularly shaped. It also sent back images of super-cold methane ice volcanoes erupting on the surface of its largest moon Triton. Then Voyager 2 sailed on, headed out into deep space; its expected to pass the star Sirius in another 300 thousand years.

Skywatch Wednesday 8-24-2022.mp3

Wed Aug 24, 2022 THE PLUTO VOTE

On August 24 2006, the International Astronomical Union voted Pluto out of the planet club. At the time the IAU had about 10,000 astronomers as members, but on the last day of their conference in Prague only 424 of them voted. And you had to be in the room to vote no mail-in ballots. Does this sound like scientists arent any different from your average politician? Yes it does. And thats because scientists are people too, and therefore can be just as mean, stubborn and stupid as anybody else on the planet. Members of the American Astronomical Society werent happy about the vote. Neither was Alan Stern, the principal scientist who oversaw the successful New Horizons mission to Pluto that took place in 2015, revealing an incredible world with nitrogen ice plains and great water ice mountains.

Skywatch Thursday 8-25-2022.mp3

Thu Aug 25, 2022 ORION AFTER MIDNIGHT

Orion the Hunter has been absent from our evening skies for a couple of months now. If you want to find him tonight, youll have to go out long after midnight. He rises out of the east around 3 am, and climbs up into the southeastern sky as dawn approaches. If youd rather see Orion during the evening hours, then youll have to wait until October, and even then it wont be just after sunset, but in the late evening. As the year and the seasons progress, the earths revolution carries us around the sun: stars behind the sun cannot be seen until the earth takes us a little farther along the orbital path, which changes the suns position against the background of stars. This summers evening skies feature such constellations as Scorpius and Sagittarius as well as Lyra the Harp, Aquila the Eagle and Cygnus the Swan.

Skywatch Friday 8-26-2022.mp3

Fri Aug 26, 2022 KRAKATOA

On August 27, 1883, the volcano called Krakatoa exploded, creating the loudest sound ever heard in recorded history. Australians, nearly 3,000 miles away, heard it. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives, either from the heat of the blast or from falling debris, or from the resulting tsunamis. Shock waves traveled around the world, and volcanic ash blanketed thousands of miles of our planet. For the next year, the earths average temperature dropped by over a couple of degrees Fahrenheit because of all the ash thrown into the upper atmosphere. It also brought months of colorful sunsets across the planet. Later, the shattered remnants of Krakatoa grew a new mountain, named Anak Krakatau, the child of Krakatoa. In December 2018, it also erupted, and more tsunamis caused more death and devastation throughout Indonesia.

Continue reading here:
Skywatch for the week of August 22, 2022 - WQCS

Do the laws of the land apply to space?

Thats a question without a definitive answer as human presence beyond the confines of Planet Earth is expected to grow in the years to come. How do we create laws that are applicable in orbit or beyond?

A graduate from the University of Calgarys Faculty of Law is channeling his career toward the growing field of space law in the hopes of helping find answers to these questions.

Initially interested in the fields of international security and cybersecurity law, Gregory Radisic, JD22, had the opportunity to intern with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Surprisingly, this opportunity introduced him to the up-and-coming field of space law.

I went to law school with the idea that I was going to really try the buffet of law, so to speak, a little bit of everything, and see what kind of meal I want for life, says Radisic.

Following his internship with UNODC, Radisic successfully completed an internship with the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), followed by an ongoing legal fellowship with the American National Space Society (NSS) and another internship with the European Space Agency (ESA).

Working for a space agency is probably one of the most exciting things that you can do as a young law student, he says. It has invigorated my time in law school and given me a lot of energy and excitement.

Space law may sound like something out of Star Trek, but it is based on down-to-Earth concepts. For Radisic, space law has been an interwoven experience of policy-making, law and diplomacy. The field is growing rapidly, and only time will tell what the world of space law will look like in the future as space is increasingly used not only for research and testing, but also for potential manufacturing, military applications and even in the long-term colonization. Several countries have their sights set on returning humans to the moon before the end of this decade, with human presence on Mars also a possibility in the foreseeable future.

It is a very fast-paced area of law, and, especially in this past year with international incidents occurring in low earth orbit and the outer space environment, it's brought up a lot of really interesting legal questions which is very interesting to not only read about, but to physically engage with.

Potential legal questions abound that may fall to people like Radisic to answer in the future: for example, if someone in space commits a crime, under whose jurisdiction does the crime fall? What happens if someone commits an act of industrial espionage in orbit? What are the diplomatic implications if two countries sharing a spacecraft halfway on a voyage to Mars go to war?

Some of these questions sound like science fiction today, but Radisic is helping to set the groundwork for addressing them.

I got to really understand, on a very granular level, what is going on in the space industry in different countries; countries like France and the U.K. with long-established space agencies and a massive space industry, but then [also] smaller ones, like Romania and Poland, that are making equally important impacts to the future of space, he says.

As to what comes next for Radisic, his goal is to focus his work domestically and have an impact on the aerospace and aviation industries in Canada.

Read the original here:
Law alum's career heads into orbit with unexpected passion for space law - University of Calgary

Hopes of one day making a lunar colony may have found some extra encouragement. Normally, the surface of the Moon reaches upwards of 260 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. Then, it drops to a chilling minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit at night. However, research shows some lunar pits stay around 63 degrees Fahrenheit, providing much-needed safety from the elements.

These stable temperatures could provide additional protection for a possible Moon-based colony. Additionally, access to caves and other formations that humans can shelter it may be found within such pits. If we were to create a lunar colony on the surface of the Moon, building it within such a pit may prove worthwhile in helping protect from intense temperatures.

We first discovered pits on the Moon in 2009. Since then, scientists have long wondered whether they might lead to caves or underground structures. While we cant say for sure, this new research proves that they have much more stable temperatures than other surface areas on the Moon.

These stable temperatures are important for the viability of a lunar colony for multiple reasons. First, if the temperatures are stable and stick around 63 degrees Fahrenheit, we could build systems that work well within those areas. Whereas if we built those same structures on the main surface, wed have to account for the wild temperature changes.

NASA is already planning to send humans back to the Moon in the next few years. However, being able to create a long-term lunar colony would be astounding. Additionally, doing so would allow us to open a new door to studying the Moon and its surface.

Not only could be test the long-term effects of the lower gravity on humans, but we might also be able to make some breakthroughs on creating artificial gravity. That would help combat any long-term effects the lower gravity of places like the Moon and Mars might have on the human body.

Additionally, building a lunar colony could allow us better on-site testing of growing plants in lunar soil. Growing plants in places that arent normally acclimated for it would be a huge breakthrough for space exploration ad colonization. The researchers published their findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Continued here:
Heres where we might really be able to set up a colony on the Moon - BGR

Elon Musk is a singular visionary driving humanity toward a better futureor at least thats what he and his admirers want us to believe. For the past two decades, supporters and news outlets have praised him for the bold narratives hes woven around Tesla and SpaceX, and by extension allowed him to evade scrutiny and become the worlds richest man. Any time Musk sends a tweet, you can check his replies to see the devotion of his millions of followers.

As his profile has been elevated by relentless media attention, Musk has become the figure everyone was looking for: a powerful man who sold the fantasy that faith in the combined power of technology and the market could change the world without needing a role for the government. (Just dont talk about the billions in subsidies that kept his companies going over the years.)

But that collective admiration has only served to bolster an unaccountable and increasingly hostile billionaire. The holes in those future visions, and the dangers of applauding billionaire visionaries, have only become harder to ignore.

As CEO of Tesla, Musks plan was to use luxury vehicles to fund a more affordable electric car. The Model 3 was supposed to be that vehicle, starting at $35,000. But the current starting price is $46,990, and most buyers end up paying even more. Teslas are supposed to be the model for green automobility, but the emissions required for the production of each individual vehicle are on the rise, and there are persistent problems with production quality which means theyre at risk of not lasting as long as vehicles from other carmakers.

More importantly, those vehicles dont have a clean, green supply chain. Around the world, mining companies are salivating at the opportunity presented by a shift to battery-powered vehicles because theyre so much more mineral-intensive than the ones we drive today. The International Energy Agency expects demand for battery minerals to soar by 2040, including up to 2,100 percent for cobalt and 4,200 percent for lithium.

But that extraction comes with serious consequences for local environments and nearby communities. In 2019, Tesla was named in a lawsuit over the deaths of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo who died mining cobalt at sites owned by British mining company Glencore. Despite talking about cobalt-free batteries, Musk proceeded to sign a deal with Glencore in 2020 to supply its Berlin and Shanghai factories. The lawsuit was dismissed in November 2021, but in April of this year, an investigation from Global Witness found that Tesla was among a number of companies that may be getting minerals from mines using child workers in the DRC.

It may be easy to overlook consequences that exist at the other end of Teslas supply chain, but these problems extend deep into the heart of its manufacturing operation. Black workers dubbed the companys Fremont factory the plantation after being subject to racist abuse and a number of women described sexual harassment at the facility as nightmarish. Meanwhile, workers at the Nevada Gigafactory are suing after a mass firing of over 500 people, following reports that Musk praised workers in Teslas Shanghai factory for burning the 3 am oil by working 12-hour shifts and six-day weeks while sleeping on the factory floor.

To top it off, Teslas customers are also being put in harms way. Its vehicles have slammed into highway medians, emergency vehicles, transport trucks, and more, while using its supposedly self-driving Autopilot feature. Musk continually misleads the public about how safe and capable the system really is, even as the U.S. traffic safety regulator is poised to recall hundreds of thousands of vehicles. And Tesla is just the tip of the iceberg.

Elon Musk has wielded a virtual monopoly on how we think about the future, but will his visions really deliver better lives for most people in our society? For all the tech industrys talk of disruption, keeping us all trapped in cars for decades into the future by equipping them with batteries or upgraded computers doesnt feel like much of a revolution.

A much more sustainable alternative to mass ownership of electric vehicles is to get people out of cars altogetherthat entails making serious investments to create more reliable public transit networks, building out cycling infrastructure so people can safely ride a bike, and revitalizing the rail network after decades of underinvestment. But Musk has continually tried to stand in the way of such alternatives.

He has a history of floating false solutions to the drawbacks of our over-reliance on cars that stifle efforts to give people other options. The Boring Company was supposed to solve traffic, not be the Las Vegas amusement ride it is now. As Ive written in my book, Musk admitted to his biographer Ashlee Vance that Hyperloop was all about trying to get legislators to cancel plans for high-speed rail in Californiaeven though he had no plans to build it.

Several years ago, Musk said that public transit was a pain in the ass where you were surrounded by strangers, including possible serial killers, to justify his opposition. But the futures sold to us by Musk and many others in Silicon Valley didnt just suit their personal preferences. They were designed to meet business needs, and were the cause of just as many problems as they claimed to solveif not more.

As Musk sets our collective sights on Mars, a town in south Texas and nearby wildlife reserve are being sacrificed on the altar of his personal ambition. SpaceX recently fired employees who wrote an open letter asking it to distance itself from its increasingly controversial CEO, while astronomers and Indigenous groups have expressed concern about what Starlink is doing to the night sky. Meanwhile, scientists will tell you living on Mars wont be an easy task. In service of his dreams, Musk is purposefully obscuring those challenges.

In crafting his future visions, Musk draws on the libertarian tendencies of Robert Heinlein and a technocratic longtermism inspired by Isaac Asimovs Foundation series, not to mention the dreams of Nazi-turned-NASA rocket engineer Wernher von Braun. Future visions cribbed from the pages of science fictionoften of the dystopian varietyand reshaped to fit the desires of the richest man in the world dont serve the broader public. But there are other authors who provide very different answers to the questions of technology and the future.

In 1985, Ursula K. Le Guin took aim at this imperialistic kind of science fiction that inspires Musk, in which space and the future are synonymous: they are a place we are going to get to, invade, colonize, exploit, and suburbanize. The renowned novelist explained that science fiction is not actually about the future; its about us and our thoughts and our dreams. But when we get confused about that, we succumb to wishful thinking and escapism, and our science fiction gets megalomania and thinks that instead of being fiction its prediction.

Thats exactly where we find ourselves now: having our future dictated by powerful people who seek to recreate the space colonies or dystopian virtual reality worlds they read about as kids without considering the consequences. Kim Stanley Robinson, whose Mars trilogy helped inspire some of the recent interest in colonizing the red planet, has called Musks plan the 1920s science-fiction clich of the boy who builds a rocket to the moon in his backyard and one thats dangerously distracting us from the real problems we face here on Earth.

For Le Guin, part of the problem is how we tell the human story: as one where a singular hero aggressively pushes it toward resolution, whether its the hunter with their bow or the Great Man driving society forward. It also infects our conception of technology, positioning it as a heroic undertaking, Herculean, Promethean, conceived as triumphor as a call to buildrather than the active human interface with the material world and the more mundane technologies we rely on every day.

Make no mistake: there is a need for people to think about the future and what a better one looks like, especially as we face serious challenges like the climate crisis. But we also need to question the idea of progress being sold to us and who it ultimately benefits. The tech industry enjoys casting itself as our savior, delivering empowerment and convenience, but along with it has come an unprecedented expansion of surveillance, an erosion of workers rights, and the empowerment of white nationalist and fascist groups.

For years, Elon Musk sold us fantasies to distract from the reality of the future hes trying to build, and to get people to accept his growing belligerence. What we really need right now is not more cars, colonization dreams, and technokings, but a collective project to improve the lives of billions of people around the world while taking on the immediate challenges we face regardless of whether it generates corporate profits. Thats something Elon Musk can never deliver.

More Must-Read Stories From TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com.

Read the original here:
Elon Musk's Flawed Vision and the Dangers of Trusting Billionaires - TIME

Living in Micronesia means youre just a quick plane ride away from experiencing the rich cultural and ecological diversity all over the region.

Palau is a popular destination thanks to its unparalleled diving but is it worth it for those of us who dont relish trying to breathe normally 60 feet underwater while surrounded by sharks?

As someone still working up the courage to get dive-certified, I can confidently tell you that yes, Palau is filled to the brim with beauty everywhere you look.

Though the flight is a brief two hours, a round trip flight to Koror, Palau, will run you just about $1,300 in the economy cabin. Pricey, yes, and so if you arent diving or visiting loved ones the cost may not be worth it to you.

For now flights from Guam are every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday night, and departures from Palau are very early as in 1 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Most hotels have a shuttle you can arrange for pickup, or you can opt to rent a car.

Palau, like Guam, is not designed to be particularly walkable. There are taxi services your hotel can connect you to but if you can rent a car, do. Your visit will be much more comfortable.

Good vibes abound at The Canoe House, where you can mingle with locals and visitors alike as they enjoy drinks and live music in Koror, Palau.

Three days is enough time to hit Korors highlights, though it wont leave much time for relaxation. If you can stay through Tuesday night and leave Wednesday morning, you wont need to rush your excursions, and it will leave you ample time for poolside lounging.

We stayed in Koror at Cove Resort Palau, which is near several other hotel properties and is a 45-minute walk into downtown. It has its own restaurant and bar, The Hungry Marlin, as well as a pool. The rooms are spacious and the showers are spectacular.

A reconstructed bai, or traditional meeting house, outside the Belau National Museum on July 16, 2022. The bai has been constructed using traditional methods, meaning it is fit together without using any nails, screws, or pegs.

There are also hotels closer to the city center, like the Palau Central Hotel, which allow for more walkability to restaurants and shopping or hotels off the beaten path that offer a touch of nature, like Ngellil Nature Island Resort.

It may not make much of a difference for your airfare, but booking your hotel well in advance can save you some money. Most rates in Koror span from $80 to $400 a night depending on location, amenities and timing.

A golden jellyfish beneath the surface of Jellyfish Lake in Palau on July 17, 2022.

Alright, so youre not into diving. I get it! But youd be a fool to visit Palau without at least snorkeling. Lucky for you, there are multiple companies offering day or half day trips that include a visit to the famed Jellyfish Lake and snorkeling spots throughout the Rock Islands.

You can poke around for one that suits your interests and schedule, but we booked a half day tour with Sams Tours that cost about $215, including lunch and the $100 permit to access Jellyfish Lake.

Bring your own snorkeling equipment or borrow from the company, and be warned that the trail to Jellyfish Lake includes a steep staircase.

For me, this was the absolute highlight of the trip. The journey via boat to Jellyfish Lake is magical in its own right sailing through rich, teal water amidst the verdant Rock Islands is hard to beat.

If youre unfamiliar, Jellyfish Lake is nothing short of a miracle. Thousands of years ago it was below sea level and as water levels receded, the jellyfish were left behind.

A golden jellyfish beneath the surface of Jellyfish Lake in Palau on July 17, 2022.

Now, an estimated 12,000 years later with no natural predator, they have evolved without the ability to sting. This allows visitors to serenely snorkel alongside thousands of stunning golden and moon jellyfish, who gracefully bob alongside you completely unbothered. Its unlike anything Ive ever experienced.

Following our Jellyfish Lake adventure, we headed to Cemetery Reef to snorkel with a wider variety of ocean life.

This area was teeming with vibrant fish, but the real delight for me was seeing the coral reef itself. To be so close to this elegant, natural architecture when so many around the world are disappearing feels sacred.

Goodies at the Q-Lala Snack House tent at the 680 Night Market in Airai on July 17, 2022.

Since we stuck to downtown Koror restaurants, I have to admit to not finding much in the way of authentic Palauan food. Learn from my mistakes and do some research on where to go! Otherwise youll be stuck with a surprising amount of pizza, pasta and burgers.

Standout restaurants included The Taj, an Indian restaurant downtown featuring an extensive, mouthwatering menu and warm atmosphere. I will be dreaming about their lamb vindaloo and kashmiri naan for weeks.

Koror mangrove clams in white wine and garlic at Elilai Seaside Dining on July 18, 2022.

Elilai Seaside Dining was also spectacular, both for its magnificent waterfront sunset views and for its food. The Koror mangrove clams were melt-in-your-mouth creamy, and the local white snapper served Korean style with red chili paste, leeks, and jasmine rice was divine.

If you find yourself in Palau on a Saturday night, make sure to visit the 680 Night Market if theyre on that week you can visit their Facebook page to check.

Located on the Airai side of the Japan-Palau Friendship Bridge connecting Koror and Babeldaob Islands, the market is often themed and features local dance groups, live music, food vendors and artisans.

You can also catch live music at The Drop Off or The Canoe House in Koror, both of which have lively weekend crowds enjoying drinks and dancing with family and friends.

A lover bag in the Searching for Indigenous Art exhibit, which highlights the indigenous people of Taiwan, at the Belau National Museum on July 16, 2022. This bag, carried by the Amis people, traditionally features patterns that reflect their family background and is used as part of a matchmaking ritual.

There are two major museums in Palau, and both are worth your time. Etpison Museum has a $10 entry fee and features a remarkable exhibit about the traditional first child birth ceremony in Palau. At the time of my visit, it also had an extensive collection of works by storyboard masters.

LAmarena, a charming gelato shop owned by an Italian family from Verona, is just up the street and is the perfect place to relax after an hour or two of learning. Their signature cherry gelato is not to be missed!

The Belau National Museum is much larger and costs $15 for nonresidents. You could easily spend two or more hours here, soaking up the wealth of information starting with the origin story of Palau and carrying visitors through the known history of the area pre-contact, through the colonization of the Spanish, German, and Japanese, through World War II, and finally as an independent nation.

Robiul Alam hard at work carving a storyboard at the Tebang Woodcarving Shop in Koror on July 19, 2022.

Among the treasures in this museum are many stories shared from locals about their experiences before, during and after World War II, drawings of daily life from Japanese artist Toshiko Akamatsu, and examples of Palauan glass money.

At the time of my visit there was also a beautiful exhibit focused on indigenous people of Taiwan, called Search for Indigenous Art.

The exhibit included examples of bright textiles, baskets, and tools from the 16 indigenous tribes recognized in Taiwan.

A lover bag in the Searching for Indigenous Art exhibit, which highlights the indigenous people of Taiwan, at the Belau National Museum on July 16, 2022. This bag, carried by the Amis people, traditionally features patterns that reflect their family background and is used as part of a matchmaking ritual.

Finally, if youre seeking a souvenir, storyboards are widely available in gift shops all over Koror but the cream of the crop is at the Tebang Woodcarving Shop.

Located just off the main road you can easily visit this shop to watch the woodcarvers at work, chat with owner Ling Inabo, and choose a handmade storyboard to bring home.

If you know youll be back to pick it up, you can even commission a piece with a story of your choice.

Read the original here:
Travel Bug: You don't have to be a diver to enjoy Palau - Pacific Daily News