fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
These issues and questions are why we need to get some industry and people into space on a larger…
By: Tom Chizek
Tags: Space Exploration, Sailing, Space Technology

These issues and questions are why we need to get some industry and people into space on a larger scale. Until we are living and working in the environment, we will not solve the problems associated with the environment.

Right now we are the equivalent of a tribe of stone-age hunter-gatherers who have built a single raft that is anchored floating twenty meters offshore. Periodically when the tide is just right we put a couple of brave people onto a flattened log, give it a good hard shove, and they bring backpacks full of supplies to the people on the raft. Then they wait for the tide to be right, pack put the people going back to shore on the log, give it a good hard shove and ride the waves back to land.

There is a reason that full-on ocean-going ships were not designed and built for thousands of years after the first boats. There are steps to go through in understanding the sea, why do we think that understanding space would be any different. For the size of the projected universe, even my example of twenty meters is an exaggeration. Compared to the whole volume of space our physical explorations are smaller than wading into the Pacific ocean then saying you had it explored.

After all, you have looked out over it from the mountains with a telescope and waded enough to get your feet wet. Well, that is what our exploration of space has been, looking and wading. We need to build the functional equivalent of reed boats, canoes, row-boats, galleys, and in-shore sailing ships before we can even think about the Clippers, galleons, and other ocean-going sailing ships. These steps don’t even talk about the equivalent of steam and more modern equivalent propulsion systems. Sometimes it feels like people talking about space travel want to jump right over the early stages and talk about the level of understanding we are at with control of water travel currently. That’s not the way it works, and we can probably use some of our knowledge but not everything. Water, even underwater is not the same as space. We need to learn about working and living in space before we jump to interstellar ships.
Reusable rockets and the robots at sea: The SpaceX story
Tags: Robotics, Spacex, Space, Space Exploration, Entrepreneurship

Inside a SpaceX hanger.

NASA’s budget for 2019 is $21.5 billion.

Clearly, getting into space can be a very expensive business. There is an amazing community of amateur rocket engineers doing remarkable things, and today you can piggyback on a full size launch with a tiny ‘CubeSat’ satellite for around $40,000.

But to accelerate humanity’s ability to explore space, major launches need to be a lot cheaper. That was part of the vision that saw the infamous entrepreneur Elon Musk found SpaceX back in 2002. Musk had two aims for his company; to make space travel cheaper, and to enable the colonisation of Mars.

Part of the reason space travel is so expensive is that launches are incredibly wasteful. Millions of dollars of equipment are cast aside as space vehicles are put into orbit; much of which falls to the Earth with a destructive crash.

In 2015, SpaceX did something remarkable. The private company launched their Falcon 9, propelling an orbital launch mission, before guiding the rocket’s first stage back through the atmosphere and landing it back on solid ground. A reusable launch system? The wastefulness of space travel started to look like it could become a thing of the past.

SpaceX’s autonomous drone landing platform, named ‘Of Course I Still Love You’.

A few months later in 2016, SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 first stage on an autonomous platform waiting in the ocean. Why land far out at sea? Again, it’s about SpaceX’s effort to reduce the cost of space flight. Check out The Verge’s video below for a clear explanation.

What you don’t hear so much about SpaceX is that part of its 7,000-strong workforce are focused on robotics. That’s because the ocean-based landing pads — or ‘autonomous spaceport drone ships’ (ASDSs) — are guided to the landing site by an autonomous robot. The ASDSs are essentially robots themselves, capable of extremely precise positioning, even in stormy seas. Furthermore, as well as operating entirely autonomously, they can be guided through telerobotic control. That means that the platform functions semi-autonomously, with a distant human operator influencing a given ASDS from far away.

SpaceX is many things. It is a testament to the potential of entrepreneurship. It paints a thrilling vision of the future of space travel. It brings the human colonisation of space a little closer. And it demonstrates that as robots join us on that adventure, many of them will be serving us down here on Earth.
The invention and innovation of satellites have been a huge leap in technological advancement over…
By: Ayokunlemi Oladapo
Tags: Space, Space Exploration, Satellite Technology, Culture Change, Technology

The invention and innovation of satellites have been a huge leap in technological advancement over the years as they deliver a range of functions. Satellites are designed and programmed to do a specific task in space. While the first artificial satellite - Sputnik 1- was successfully launched on October 4, 1957, there have been over 8,900 satellite launching from over 40 countries, about 5,000 remain in the Earth’s orbit and about 1,900 were operational according to a 2018 estimate.

Satellites provide an array of functions but to the man who enjoys solitude, a night gaze at heavenly bodies, would he appreciate the nuisance artificial satellites create in spac? The big question is, how does the untrained eye tell stars apart from satellite’s lights?

After a decent meal, you lie face up on your porch with your curious son asking about the constellations, how sure are you that you are giving the youngster the right education?

Men of the ancient world found their way with starlights guiding their paths. The moon told time to the Ancient Romans, clans used stars to find their way home after tribal wars. Famous Bible story about three wise men following a star to find the new born Messiah records the importance of starlights. Thanks to technology, we no longer have to rely on primitive methods for navigatio, but what happens to a lost man in the jungle without smart devices? What happens to a crew marooned with all equipments for finding home on the ocean floor?

What happens to satellites that have outlived their functions? Well, many are left to roam Earth’s orbit aimlessly while some are driven farther into space to be blasted into debris. At present, Space X has launched 300 starlink satellites into space and plans to put a humongous 12,000 in space for the purpose of providing internet across the globe. As noble as this cause, also giving a beautiful chain of night light in the sky, astronomers are concerned it would mar the study of stars. Another important question, are humans simply just expanding their destructive territory with the launch of satellites into orbit in the thousands?

Traditionally and figuratively, can Simbas on African plains still look up to the clouds to commune with their ascended ancestors? This speaks for the conservative cultures who value their primordial ways of life, Polynesian and Tongan culture like Moana’s , the Dongans of Mali who measure time and season with astronomy and the nomadic pastoralists who navigate the plains and savannahs with stars. With satellites littering the spac, how will these cultural lifestyles be upheld?
MY FARSITE STORY
By: Josh Ivey
Tags: Farsite, Ethereum, Space Exploration, Matic Network, Farsite Online

Farsite a decentralised universe where the economics are run by the community, full of potential and so close to presale of crates.

My journey first started when i found the MCP2D this game was amazing at first sight but people kept calling it a SCAM and so on, These people have missed out on one of the biggest blockchain opportunities to date, the game itself took off to the stars not only as a project but after successful release of its $MEGA token it has proven all the critics wrong.

Now onto the latest project Farsite, this is taking the original project to new worlds, Literally! with plans for player owned stars and sectors to be owned by players this game has no limits and i would personally say this is the best investment on ethereum network so far, also capable with Ether 2.0 it is already looking towards the future.

AIRDROP/PRESALE CRATES

Farsite airdrop is currently live until the end of may, meaning there are 10 days left at time of writing this article by simple register your interest with your email address, you can claim a small reward or even free assets to get you started i have left links through-out this article for you to use dont miss this amazing opportunity the stars are the limit start your journey now and live through the excitement and wonder that is to come.

FARSITE AIRDROP LINK
Self-Isolation Lessons from a Scientist-Astronaut Candidate with Dr. Shawna Pandya
By: Clayming Space
Tags: Coronavirus, Self Isolation, Space, Space Exploration, Covid 19

In this episode we talk to Dr. Shawna Pandya.

Dr. Pandya is a scientist-astronaut candidate with Project PoSSUM, physician, aquanaut, speaker, martial artist, advanced diver, skydiver, pilot-in-training, VP Immersive Medicine with Luxsonic Technologies and Fellow of the Explorers’ Club. She holds degrees in neuroscience, space, entrepreneurship and medicine, and is currently completing a fellowship in Wilderness Medicine.

In 2015, Dr. Pandya completed scientist-astronaut candidate training with Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere) and was on the first crew to test a commercial spacesuit in zero-gravity. She has flown over 140 parabolas in microgravity to date. Dr. Pandya is the lead instructor for Project PoSSUM’s EVA 102: Operational Space Medicine course and Director for Project PoSSUM’s Space Medicine Group. Through Project PoSSUM, she completed hypobaric hypoxia training, centrifuge studies, aerobatic flight, basic and advanced emergency spacecraft egress and sea survival training, and high altitude noctilucent cloud research.
Stones from the sky — Curiosities about the meteorites fallen on Earth
By: S Medagli
Tags: NASA, Analysis, Space, Space Exploration, Data

Mass matters: how much do these meteorites weight?

So now we know they are quite a lot but they must be really small objects, right? Mmm… not quite! Let’s look at the mass of these objects.

Mass in kg for each meteorite

Ok, this scale doesn’t help too much even if… wait a minute! That one fallen over Russia must have been huge! And indeed it was. It turns out that there have been at least 4 more of them with a mass higher than 1 ton. The most recent of these huge guys fell in Turkmenistan in 1998.

Let us visualize the masses on the logarithmic scale (from grams). Then when you read the value 3, this means 10³g = 1kg, 4 means 10kg, 5 means100kg, and so on. Plus, let us use boxplot representation to have a better idea about what’s the most common mass for a meteorite.

But what’s a boxplot? Let’s say it represents a collection of numerical values. The “most common middle values” are distributed inside the box while values inside the interval delimited by the whisker are still quite “normal” even if a bit extreme. Values outside of the whisker’s area are explicitly depicted (here as diamonds) and represent what data-guys call outlier. Outliers are “extraordinary” values and because of their being “rare”, are usually the most interesting… or at least amazing, like the Sikhote-Alin meteorite.

This time we represent the mass on the logarithmic scale. We added also the distribution of values (from all the countries together) at the very bottom, to compare national data to worldwide data. In our case, it is funny to notice that what’s an outlier considering the worldwide distribution of masses, it’s an “ordinary” value for Russia and Mexico… huge rocks falling there!

Looking at the data, we can conclude that more than 69% of the meteorites hitting the Earth was heavier than 1kg. 1 over 10 of the total amount weighed more than 45kg… almost like a washing machine falling from the sky.

Where meteorites hit the most?

By no surprise, the list of countries mostly hit by meteorites involves mainly the largest countries on Earth.

Number of meteorites fell since 1900 per country

A fair comparison would need a normalization of these numbers by the surface of each of the corresponding countries. Since we are talking about sighting events, maybe other corrections involving population (density) should be taken into account…

… but I think that after too many manipulations, numbers start to lose their meaning for larger audiences, I think it is much more beneficial just to have a look at a geographical map of the impacts.
Israel to annex the West Side of the Moon after spacecraft crashes
By: The Palestine Project
Tags: Zionism, Moon, Space Exploration, Palestine, Israel

Israel to annex the West Side of the Moon after spacecraft crashes

Netanyahu blames “Anti-Semitism of the Third Kind” for the failed Israeli spacecraft that crashed on the moon just moments before touchdown. The Palestine Project Apr 12, 2019·2 min read

(Satire by The Palestine Project’s Jerusalem Correspondent)

SpaceIL, Israel Aerospace Industries, announced that the first Israeli lunar spacecraft, Beresheet, failed miserably. “We definitely crashed on the surface of the moon,” said Opher Doron of Israel Aerospace Industries.

Unconfirmed sources say the Beresheet (Hebrew for Genesis) spacecraft was carrying a box full of bones and DNA samples of Theodor Herzl and David Ben-Gurion so they can be buried there. This would’ve provided enough justification for the Israeli government to annex part of the moon as another land without a people.

King Bibi, (AKA Benjamin Netanyahu), has declared a month of mourning. “I was hoping the moon landing would be another victory for Zionism and Mankind, (providing they are from one specific religious group of course)”.

Bibi blamed “the Axis of Anti-Semitism of the Third Kind for this sabotage, and it will be recorded in history on par with the Mufti instigating the Holocaust,” a teary Bibi said today.

The Prime Minister added that given his recent victory in the election, he would start a process to annex the West Side of the Moon immediately. “Those who oppose Israel are nothing but Anti-Semites of the Third Kind,” Bibi emphasised in case you didn’t hear him the first time.

Those who say that Zionism created a fictional ‘Palestine, a land without a people’ should nonetheless hang their heads in shame. The moon is yet another example that Theodor Herzl was right despite this failed landing.

News of the failed Beresheet, and the ensuing annexation of the West Side, were met with celebrations across all Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon and Jordan.

“Ok.. so they failed, but they did find their own ‘land without a people’! Can they please give us our land back!?” said Leila, a 3rd generation Palestinian girl born in exile.
Day off
By: Jenna Matecki
Tags: Environment, Plant Based, Chocolate, Nature Writing, Space Exploration

“… Matecki? Matecki?”

Welcome to Down-To-Earth by Jenna, an online series about an offline world.

(substack • medium • youtube • instagram • spotify • apple • stitcher • jenna)

Today is one of my planned days off. While you’re reading this, I’m probably biking to the hardware store. Or sitting in the windowsill with a mug of tea and watching the starlings. Scribbling nonsense into my notebook.

Before I go, I wanted to say hi to you all (HI!) and send along some fun things. To all the people who just signed up -

Welcome. I hope you enjoy this. I’m a real human so feel free to write back to anything. Would always love to hear from you.

•

The way this special “day off” note works from here is to click on anything that interests you from this point onward, including Dizzy -

This is what I was up to last week.

You’ll recognize the interviewer. Guess which video already has 34K views? 😀 Keep an eye on Plant Based News for more.

Here are some recent hit DTE notes.

Sea turtles

Flippers and environmental nuance

They look at you. I’m not talking about a fleeting that-thing-may-have-looked-at-me kind of moment, but a real, eye-to-eye, “ I have calmly noted your existence and am thinking about you” stare.”

Silphium

The Atlantis of plants

They used the herb as a spice, perfume, or vegetable. It was applied as medicine for just about any illness you could imagine. It was even the go-to aphrodisiac on dates, AND an “extremely effective” form of birth control.

Nourishment

Delicious, yummy, tasty, mouth-watering

Him: Hey so what’s something that I can do to be better, er… environmentally speaking?

Me: You’re not going to like the answer. Especially being an Argentine.

Him: Come on I can take it.

Me: Mmmmmm…. * looks down at his steak*

Him: @#$%, really?

Me: Really.

I’ll gladly be your YouTuber friend. 🙈

Season 2 is just around the corner. In the meantime, the Dr. Esselstyn video keeps getting impassioned comments daily, Astronaut Jessica Meir’s resulted in a bunch of teens who want to be astronauts reading this newsletter (go get it) and I find myself constantly referencing my conversation with ethnobotanist Alejandro de Ávila — “Hey, did you know that there were pre-Columbian seafaring trade routes between modern Mexico and Peru?!” or “I’m drinking hot chocolate Ávila-style this morning!”

Also — pro tip: If you’re a podcast listener, all of these interviews can be found on Spotify and Apple too.

All right — it’s time for me to put on real clothes. I might just post stories for you of my hardware store excursion on my IG. Or maybe a mug of hot chocolate, come to think of it.

To your week checking your local hourly forecast with a raised eyebrow,

Jenna

P.S.
Cold Welding- Story of First Space Walk and Galileo Spacecraft
By: Rafay Qayyum
Tags: NASA, Space, Space Exploration, Space Travel, Cold Welding

The two Astronauts Gemini IV, Edward H. White II and command pilot James A. McDivitt, had difficulty first opening and then closing the hatch on 3 June 1965, on the mission of America’s first spacewalk. White found the hatch as hard to push up in zero g as it had been on the ground. They successfully managed to perform both tasks and returned safely to Earth after their successful spacewalk. However, what caused the hatch to stick? Initially, Cold Welding was thought to be the culprit.

Ed White, the first American to perform spacewalk outside of Gemini IV — Credits: NASA

Cold welding is a solid-state welding process which requires little or no heat to join two or more metals together. Two surfaces without an interposing oxide layer are brought together, the similar atoms of either side collapse into each other with some pressure. Richard Feynman explains the phenomena in his lectures as:

“The reason for this unexpected behavior is that when the atoms in contact are all of the same kind, there is no way for the atoms to “know” that they are in different pieces of copper. When there are other atoms, in the oxides and greases and more complicated thin surface layers of contaminants in between, the atoms “know” when they are not on the same part.” — Richard Feynman

On the earth, the surface layers of a metal reacts with oxygen in the air to form an oxide layer which can prevent two pieces of metal from joining together but in space those layers can be worn away from pieces of metal like by sliding over each other and due to lack of any oxygen those layers won’t form again. The pieces of metal can then fuse with a little bit of pressure.

Finally, the Gemini IV mission did not have a cold welding problem; instead, a spring had failed to compress causing all this mess. Although, This problem has not occurred often in missions since it can take a lot of time for dirt and oxygen layer to wear off, The European Space Agency published a paper detailing why cold welding is a significant issue that spacecraft designers need to carefully consider.

The only noticeable problem occurred with “Galileo” spacecraft. NASA launched “Galileo” spacecraft into space with the main aim of gathering data about Jupiter on October 9, 1989. Its high gain antenna was made to be opened like an Umbrella. When Galileo spacecraft reached Jupiter on April 10, 1991, NASA tried to open its high gain antenna but 3 ribs of antenna got cold welded to the body and they wouldn’t open which caused antenna failure. NASA had to use low gain antenna to receive information about Jupiter which reduced the efficiency.
Crew Dragon capsule to ISS docking: An easy way to understand how they get there
By: Joe Garber
Tags: NASA, Astronomy, Space Exploration, How It Works, Crew Dragon

Crew Dragon capsule to ISS docking: An easy way to understand how they get there Joe Garber Jun 2, 2020·2 min read

By Joe Garber / Chicago, June 2, 2020

After Saturday’s amazing DM-2 launch, I turned on the NASA podcast “Houston, We Have a Podcast.” Like NASA TV, the program is well-crafted. In Ep. 145, host Gary Jordan (@G2Nasa) interviewed DM-2 astronauts Bob and Doug in the first part of the program. For the second half, Jordan spoke to Zebulon Scoville (@Explorer_Flight), a Flight Director and DM-2 lead at Mission Control Center.

Scoville provided a great explanation for how the Crew Dragon, the Capsule Endeavor, made its way to dock with the International Space Station — which could be close or far from Florida:

“…on some days, it [ISS] may be very close and so, as you launch into that orbital plane, you will find that you don’t have that — the amount of distance you have to get to catch up to the space station is small. And you can get there quicker. In some cases, the space station may actually be on the other side of the world. And so, you have to phase to catch up.”

What Scoville means by phasing is a series of burns at lower altitudes to catch up with the station. But why go low?

Courtesy of https://pixabay.com/users/hans-2/

Scoville provided a good analogy: He said to envision a charity spiral wishing well, those funnel devices you might see at museums or malls, where a coin rolls down into a hole. Think of the hole as Earth. When you launch, say a quarter, it appears to orbit slower at the top and begins move faster and faster once it closes in on the center. The same idea applies to the spacecrafts moving toward the Space Station. The lower its orbit, the faster the craft moves and more distance it makes in less time and using less fuel. Then the Dragon makes a few burns to increase its altitude and catch up with the station. I thought this analogy was very helpful to provide a broad picture of how it works.

Did you see ISS fly over Chicago or other parts of the US on Sunday evening, the day it docked? It was a great view. My photo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/joegarber23/status/1267289064107114507

(a few of the burns on the way to the ISS allowed Bob and Doug to take full control and “test pilot” the normally autonomous vehicle…cool!)
Elon. And resilience.
By: Siddhesh Misale
Tags: NASA, Spacex, Space, Space Exploration, Elon Musk

April 2017

TED’s Head Curator Chris Anderson chats with Elon discussing his idiosyncratic ideas about Space Tech. Chris asks,

“Why, Elon? Why do we need to build a city on Mars with a million people on it… ?”.

The crowd breaks into a playful chuckle. To which Elon answers in a rather grave tone.

“…I just think there have to be reasons that you get up in the morning and you want to live. Like,”

“Why do you want to live? …What inspires you?”

…If the future does not include being out there among the stars and being a multi planetary species, I find that it’s incredibly depressing if that’s not the future that we’re going to have.”

Applause follows.

Chris iterates that amidst issues ranging from poverty to climate change, sustainability has been Elon’s stronghold. So

“…..Why not just do that ?”

Elon introspects and solemnly replies, “…If there was no Tesla, if Tesla never existed, it would have to happen out of necessity…. Then there’s becoming a multi planetary species and space-faring civilization. This is not inevitable…”
Direct Pictures of a Pair of Planets That Were Born — The Notitia
By: Arup Kumar Pattanayak
Tags: Astronomy, Space, Space Exploration, Stars, Planets

PDS 70b and PDS 70c

For the first time ever, astronomers took direct pictures of a pair of planets that were born. PDS 70, the star that gave us the first ever confirmed direct image of the birth of a planet last year, had an additional trick in its protoplanetary discs. Astronomers discovered a second planet in follow-up observations and were able to take pictures of both.

This provides it the added honor of being straight photographed only the second-ever multi-planet system. (The first was HR 8799, with its four exoplanets, one with water in its atmosphere, and the other with a stormy hell-world.)

The two PDS 70 orbiting planets are PDS 70b (the one discovered last year by astronomers) and PDS 70c. The fresh picture demonstrates that in the protoplanetary disk of gas and dust that surrounds the young star. An orange dwarfs only 370 light-years away, they carve out a huge cavity. And we got the first direct pictures of a pair of the planets that were born.

It’s a great technical accomplishment to see and an amazing thing to see. We understand there are tons of exoplanets out there. Thousands were identified, mostly by looking for the very slight dimming that takes place when a planet moves before a star. The very slight wobble triggered by the gravitational tug of the planet.

Also Read: Race to See the Edge of the Universe
Strange Ring of Gas Detected Around Our Galaxy’s Supermassive Black Hole
By: Arup Kumar Pattanayak
Tags: Science, Space, Space Exploration, Research, Milky Way

Astronomers looking into the dark core of our galaxy saw a large, rotating disc of cool gas surrounding the supermassive black hole that lives therein. A strange ring of gas detected around our galaxy’s supermassive black hole. This disc has been hypothesized for a long time. It is now disclosed in all its turbulent glory.

“We were the first to picture this elusive disk and study its rotation,” said Princeton University’s astrophysicist Elena Murchikova. There are many types of galactic nuclei at the center of most galaxies, the supermassive black holes. Some blaze brilliantly as they spin gas, spinning into space billions of light-years of electromagnetic radiation.

Some are much slower, as the Sagittarius A * core of the Milky Way, a supermassive black hole tipping the scales four million times the Sun’s mass. But that doesn’t imply that the region around it is still and calm. We understand that Sgr A * slowly accretes material from the space around it. That material is likely to swirl around like a disc of accretion, like water around a drain.

Also Read: Direct Pictures of a Pair of Planets That Were Born
Chandrayaan 2: Everything you need to know
By: Decode Staff
Tags: Moon, India, Space, Space Exploration, Technology

Chandrayaan 2 is India’s attempt to reach and explore the unexplored dark side (South Pole) of the Moon. No other space agency of the world has been successful at achieving this feat. India successfully launched Chandrayaan 2 mission the Moon from the second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 22 July 2019 at 2.43 PM IST by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III. Chandrayaan-2 is the second lunar exploration mission developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation, after Chandrayaan-1. As of today, the spacecraft’s landing module (a composite of the lunar lander Vikram, and rover Pragyan) separated and entered independent orbits around the moon. The spacecraft is expected to begin its descent towards the lunar surface at 1:40 am IST on 7th September. When the ‘Vikram’ lander will begin descent from the 30 KM orbit, it will use a 15-minute window till it lands on the surface. This window is fearfully termed the ‘window of terror’ by the good folks at ISRO. This 15-minute flight is one that ISRO has never attempted before, making Chandrayaan 2 the most complex mission ISRO has ever undertaken, in the view of ISRO’s Chairman Dr K Sivan.

Why explore the Lunar South Pole?

According to ISRO, Moon provides the best connection to Earth’s early history. It offers an undisturbed historical record of the inner Solar System environment. Extensive mapping of the lunar surface to study variations in lunar surface composition is essential to trace back the origin and evolution of the Moon. Evidence for water molecules discovered by Chandrayaan-1, requires further studies on the extent of water molecule distribution on the surface, below the surface and in the tenuous lunar exosphere.

The lunar South Pole is especially interesting because of the lunar surface area here that remains in shadow is much larger than that at the North Pole and is completely unexplored by the humankind. There is a possibility of the presence of water in permanently shadowed areas around it. In addition, South Pole region has craters that are cold traps and contain a fossil record of the early Solar System.

Chandrayaan-2 will attempt to soft land the lander -Vikram and rover- Pragyan in a high plain between two craters, Manzinus C and Simpelius N, at a latitude of about 70° south.

Where can you watch the landing live?

On ISRO’s YouTube channel, the stream will go live at 1.10 am IST on 7 September.

2. A Nat Geo Chandrayaan 2 Live special starring NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger, leading up to the live landing streaming on Nat Geo/Hotstar. This special goes live at 11.30 pm IST.
Elite Dangerous: new voices to keep you company
By: Jose Antunes
Tags: Star Trek, Space Exploration, Space Simulation, Elite Dangerous

Elite Dangerous can feel lonely when you’re out there in the Universe. That’s the reason why you should get a crew: Not Elite’s crew, but one that speaks with you. A crew from HCS Voice Packs! There is a new ASTRA voice pack coming.

This week I tried the Virtual Reality version of No Man’s Sky, and while it’s a promising step ahead for the game, I could not stop thinking that I prefer the more realistic approach of Elite Dangerous. So, despite the fact that Elite is now living in a kind of limbo (more about this another day), I opened it, to hear the familiar voice of Carina welcome me, while the grumpy Orion kept saying stuff in the background. These two, if you are familiar with the HCS Voice Packs, are the voices of Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation) and William Shatner (yes, Captain Kirk himself).

Having actors that we know from sci-fi series giving their time and voice to the crew you get to enlist in Elite Dangerous is one of the key aspects of interest of the space simulation, at least for me. I also have Eden (Idun Vik voice) and Vega (voice of Brent Spiner). Eden was my first voice pack acquisition, as I knew the actress voice from the TV series Aber Bergen. Brent Spiner, you all know: is Lieutenant Commander Data in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

One note: Brent Spiner’s voice pack Vega is half price until September 2019, so if you don’t already have him aboard, you might want to pick him up. I’ve Vega in my crew and I must say he is one of the most interesting and surprising characters you can have in the cockpit. Watch the demo of Vega that Obsidian Ant put together — Brent Spiner also performed a set of Stephen Hawking quotes that are included in his voice pack.
Late summer light show: We asked an astronomer about this week’s big Perseid meteor shower
By: Charles Russo
Tags: Meteor, Astronomy, Space, California, Space Exploration

To start, can you explain the basics of a meteor shower? What exactly is happening up in space when we watch a phenomenon such as Perseid?

What we’re seeing with the Perseid meteor shower (as with all other meteor showers) is the earth is passing through the trail of dust that was left behind by a comet at some time in the past. And since comet paths are looping through the inner solar system, Earth passes through them at the same time every year.

When a meteor shower occurs, you can see more meteors than you would on an ordinary night, [when] normally, you might see between 2–4 meteors per hour early in the evening, and maybe double that just before dawn. During a meteor shower—depending on which shower—you might see several dozen meteors per hour. For the Perseid meteor shower the typical average is usually given as 60–80 meteors per hour. Now, that is under ideal conditions, which means a moonless night, clear sky, away from city lights. This year is not ideal, because the moon will be almost full, so it’s light is going to wash the fainter meteors from view.

With that in mind, my understanding is that there is a range of days when this particular meteor shower can be seen?

Sure, because the moon is approaching full on the day of the peak [estimated to be August 12 to the 13th] it might be a good idea for people to watch a few nights before the peak, so say…starting on Friday or Saturday night. But usually it’s good to spend a couple of night’s watching, don’t just concentrate on one single night.

Do we know specifically which comet this meteor shower is derived from? And does the debris that causes these showers vary from different comets?

Yes, it is from a comet called Swift-Tuttle; named after its two main co-discoverers.

The materials may vary a little bit. These are tiny particles — it could be silicate material, or rock or tiny bits of metal. Because they are liberated by comets they are most commonly bits of rock that are the size of a grain of sand or a grain of rice. And they’re actually not falling through the atmosphere, but Earth is moving into them. Earth moves through its orbit at about 66,000 mph, so when it runs into a stream of dust particles that are just sitting out there, these particles find themselves smashing through the atmosphere at 66,000 mph. And depending on the direction the comet’s path is coming from, the speed of the meteor particles might even vary from that.

There are some meteors that are catching up to Earth and so they don’t move that fast through the atmosphere. Others are slamming into Earth’s orbit head-on, so they might be moving faster. The Perseid meteors, in particular, are typically said to be moving twice as fast, so the figure that is often given is around 60 kilometers per second..and that’s fast enough to heat up the particles as they slam through the atmosphere. And they can get up to a couple thousand degrees, which causes that streak of light that you see in the sky.
Celestial Citizen Ep. #203: More than a Moonage Daydream
By: Britt Duffy Adkins
Tags: Robotics, Space, Mars, Space Exploration, Entrepreneurship

On this week’s episode, we’re joined by Justin Cyrus and Dr. Forrest Meyen of Lunar Outpost — an emerging leader in the new Cislunar economy pushing the bounds of robotics in extreme environments, and enabling a sustainable presence on the Moon and Mars. We’ll discuss some exciting, recent announcements from Lunar Outpost, what a sustainable lunar presence looks like, and the challenges and rewards of being a space entrepreneur.

One of the guests on the show, Justin Cyrus, is the CEO of Lunar Outpost. Justin attended UC Boulder where he received his undergraduate degree in electrical and electronics engineering, and has a master’s degree in space resources and electrical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

I’m also joined by, Dr. Forrest Meyen, Chief Strategy Officer of Lunar Outpost. Previously, Forrest was the founder of Destiny Space Systems which was acquired by Lunar Outpost earlier this year. Forrest is also a member of NASA’s science team for the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, better known as MOXIE. Forrest received his undergraduate degree in mechanical and biological engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Aeronautics and Astronautics.
On the importance of analogue space missions
By: Globalshapers Cambridge
Tags: Space Exploration, Cambridgeglobalshapers, Global Shapers

Every fortnight, we hand over the blog to one of the Cambridge Shapers for their take on the biggest issues affecting young people in Cambridge and around the globe. This fortnight, we hear from Eleonore Poli. Eleonore is a PhD student in Materials & Metallurgy, a Global Shaper and an analogue astronaut.

Analogue space missions replicate (on Earth) certain aspects of space missions with the objective of evaluating feasibility, and then optimising missions. A typical example of an analogue mission subject of study, for example, would be the effects of isolation from the world with a tight schedule of activities to perform.

By being performed on Earth (sometimes underwater), both the costs and risks for those analogue space missions are vastly minimised. Although effects of microgravity are often not replicated in those missions, there is a large array of experiments that can be tested — from physiological and psychological responses, robot performances in extreme environment as well as habitat architecture.

Asclepios I crew scuba-diving under ice in Switzerland, February 2020. The weightlessness and harsh conditions are good replicas for extra-vehicular activities during space missions.

With the aim for humans to return to the Moon in 2024, and the next space objective being going to Mars with a possible human settlement, the last decade has given birth to an increasing number of analogue space missions. One of those analogue space missions is Asclepios. Based in Switzerland, it aims at simulating a lunar base for a duration of 10 days. Experiments from Universities across the world are performed by astronauts, and the mission takes place in a remote location. The astronauts can leave the base only for extra-vehicular activities (EVA) and must wear a spacesuit at all times during those events.

As an analogue astronaut and commander for the first mission of Asclepios, I had to undergo a tough selection that replicates (to a degree) the selection process from the European Space Agency. With my teammates, we then received leadership, radiocommunication, and extreme environment training (such as ice diving, sleeping by -7°C) . We were then taught how to perform the experiments for the Universities and how to transmit the data to the mission control centre during the mission, as well as how to interact with media. Examples of experiments are the geomapping of an unknown terrain for future exploration, the use of a robot for the monitoring and maintenance of plants, biological and physiological data (EEG, ECG, mood, fatigue levels).

Asclepios, as a student project, has taught hundreds of students how to create an analogue space mission, how to prepare astronauts, a base, manage medias. It is a wonderful opportunity for space lovers to prepare for a future that will see humans on Mars. I would recommend to anyone who has the opportunity and a passion for space to join such projects, as they bring humanity forward and push boundaries of the individuals involved.
Trump Says China “Probably Building A Big Wall” On Far Side Of Moon
By: Allan Ishac
Tags: China, NASA, Satire, Space Exploration, Donald Trump

Trump Says China “Probably Building A Big Wall” On Far Side Of Moon

The president pointed to the moon during a press conference. (Credit: slate.com)

President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that the Chinese landed a rover on the moon last week in order to build a wall to keep out invading aliens.

First photographs from the Chinese rover show no signs of wall building. (Credit: www.businessinsider.com)

“That was very sneaky what they did, landing on the hidden side of the moon, but also very smart,” said the president. “The Chinese don’t want us to see that they’re building a big wall up there to keep out the aliens, because they’re beating us to it. They understand what I’ve been saying all along, that only a beautiful wall can keep aliens out.”

President Trump seemed to be conflating two of his constant obsessions — building a physical wall on the southern border with Mexico to keep out illegal aliens here on earth and his often spoke about desire to send astronauts back to the moon.

NASA scientists issued a statement saying there is no evidence that landing on the far side of the moon was a “sneaky” move by the Chinese, as Mr. Trump claimed, or anything more than a well-publicized scientific mission to use their Yutu-2 rover to gather data about a side of the moon that has never been explored.

While speaking with reporters on Thursday, the president doubled-down saying that “American needs to build a wall up there first. That’s why I’ve ordered our NASA people to get a ship ready and to land on the moon by February with a nice payload of bricks so we can start putting up our own anti-alien moon wall. I consider this top priority stuff.”

According to NASA, there is no plan for a February moon launch.

*****

Thanks to all the many readers, fans, followers, and even my frenemies, for reading and commenting on my posts throughout the year as I continue my commitment to post every day, 7-days-a-week until the Orange Accident is out of our hair.

I read every comment. And I try to answer as many as possible.

Thank you.

–AI
Space Decentral’s SMAP 2019 deadline approaching
By: Suzi Bianco
Tags: Github, Space Decentral, Space Exploration, Open Source, Smap

The submission deadline for the Space Mission Activation Process (SMAP) is on January 6th, at 11pm (PST). We are expecting an eclectic batch of space mission proposals, and have gathered up quite a team of experts to evaluate them. If you’d like to participate as an expert, there is still time for you to join the Evaluation Committee: just send us an email to smap[at]spacedecentral.net with your resume or LinkedIn and we will get back to you.

Space Decentral uses GitHub as our collaborative project platform, and SMAP proposals will be submitted through the Space Decentral Missions repository. The process should be pretty straightforward to those of you familiar with Github, but for those who aren’t used to it, here is a helpful step-by-step video of the submission process. You might also find this link helpful for understanding how to contribute on GitHub in general.

Space Decentral aims to engage the community to contribute innovative, useful ideas to our cause. With this in mind, in order to submit SMAP proposals, participants need to sign the Individual Contributor License Agreement (found at the time of submission in GitHub), acknowledging and agreeing that the intellectual property they contribute must be open source.

We are very happy to reach this important SMAP milestone, and we look forward to sharing the outcome of this call for proposals with the community. Once the proposals are vetted and scored by our Evaluation Committee, they will be opened to public viewing before being submitted to the community vote. Valid proposals will be announced on March 17th, so there is plenty of time for you to earn a voting share by helping with Space Decentral’s open source tasks or with the Coral mission.

Image from Nasa.
Second Space Experiment for Aleph Zero
By: Aleph Farms
Tags: Food Security, Meat Growers, Aleph Farms, Space Exploration, Aleph Zero

Future private astronaut who will conduct our space experiment, Eytan Stibbe, visited our headquarters

We’re excited to share that an Aleph Farms experiment was selected to be part of ‘Rakia’ Mission to space, led by the Ramon Foundation and the Israel Ministry of Science and Technology. One of 44 experiments to be chosen, it will be launched to the International Space Station as part of Axiom Space Ax-1 Mission, pending NASA and Axiom approval, together with the second Israeli in space, Eytan Stibbe, at the beginning of 2022. This will be Aleph Farms’ second trip to space, following a successful ISS experiment in 2019. In this new experiment we will focus on tackling the challenge of cultivating the cells in microgravity.

Aleph’s space program, Aleph Zero, builds upon our mission to produce quality meat locally, even in the most remote places on Earth with minimal natural resources. When people live on the Moon or Mars, Aleph Farms will be there as well.

“Aleph Zero is helping us achieve our vision for secure and unconditional access to high-quality nutrition for anyone, anytime, and anywhere. We are thrilled to collaborate with Eytan and the whole team to advance game-changing food solutions for space and for Earth.”, says Didier Toubia, Co-Founder and CEO, Aleph Farms.

Access to fresh food is a key obstacle to long term space exploration. If we are to travel to and eventually colonize Mars or the Moon, we need food production systems that are bioregenerative and that can locally feed communities with quality nutrition.

The constraints of space unleash creativity and have already ignited many innovations we know and use today, such as solar panels, GPS navigation, and even hydroponic agriculture. Space is the next frontier. It’s a scarce and hostile environment where you don’t have the luxury of borrowing from future generations. We couldn’t imagine a more perfect environment to build our platform for efficient food production.
Space Colonization: Not Just for the Rich
By: Jordan Brandes
Tags: Equality, NASA, Space, Space Exploration, Elon Musk

We’re finally reaching a point where the concept of space colonization is coming out of the abstract. No longer will it remain the depths of science fiction and pulp comics. Within your lifetime man will have some kind of settlement either on the Moon or Mars or both.

That’s all it took for corporations and governments to start selling tickets to space and designing colonies. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it. We should be colonizing space, we should have done it decades ago. This new era of space travel is one of the best things to happen to mankind in a very long time. But, we need to be smart about this next step.

According to Elon Musk living on Mars will cost approximately $500,000. Given that it’s Musk I think he’s being generous with that estimate and trying to make it more accessible to everyone. But that’s still a crazy amount of money for the average household. At that price tag only about 25% of the population, the upper crust, will be able to afford it.

That is the heart of our problem. Generally speaking the upper crust tends to lead privileged lives. If you can afford $500,000 to move to a new planet you can probably afford a house with more than one bedroom and have no problems getting your basic necessities met on a daily basis. But space is hard. Space is dangerous. Space is unforgiving.

How well will the average 1% handle the rough, grueling, dangerous life of a space pioneer? While it is science fiction let’s take a look at the book The Martian as an example. In it, a stranded astronaut must on Mars for an unknown amount of time. Keep in mind he’s a NASA-trained biologist and engineer. Will the average colonizer have that advantage?

The best way to approach early-stage colonization is to bring in those that need it. Start with the scientists, engineers and grad students that have dreamed about living on another planet. Next bring in those that couldn’t normally afford to go. If you are willing to make the one-way trip to live on another planet where survival isn’t guaranteed then the trip (or at least most of it) should be free.

Israel, a country still relatively new, encourages settlement by offering benefits to those that want to move voluntarily. Those that qualify for the move get assistance with housing, health coverage, reduced taxes, heavily subsided schooling and more. This allows those that might not otherwise be able to move to different country the ability to do more easily.

If we are serious about colonizing the planets steps like this must be made to make space travel affordable for everyone. The rich have already carved out their stake on Earth there’s no reason for them to do the same thing to other planets. If the goal is to better humanity by traveling the stars this is one solution.