Update: You can watch the launch in the embedded livestream below, or at Spacex.com/webcast.

SpaceX is hitting a number of milestones this weekend. On Friday, Elon Musks space transportation company launched and landed a used rocket for the second time in its history a sign that the company could be nearing its goal to cut the costs of space travel.

On Sunday, the company expects to launch yet another rocket. Itll be the first time SpaceX has attempted to launch two rockets within the span of 48 hours.

It wasnt exactly intentional. The company pushed back the launch of its reused Falcon 9 from last weekend to this to give its crew time to replace a valve. But the double header, if successful, is a significant step toward the companys goal of shooting rockets every two to three weeks.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told Reuters in February that she hoped the company would get to a point where it was launching rockets at that pace.

The launch will position a second batch of Iridium satellites into space using an entirely new Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket used for the first batch, which was launched in January, was the one the company launched again on Friday.

This will be the companys seventh launch in 2017.

Of course, this is all in an effort to eventually go to Mars. Musk, who wants to eventually help colonize the planet, said he expects to send his first robotic mission to Mars in 2020. Four years after that, the famously ambitious executive predicted SpaceX will send its first manned mission Mars.

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Watch live as SpaceX launches its second rocket in 48 hours - Recode

The space flight is dark and full of terrors: Syfy on Friday officially issued a pilot order toNightflyers, a sci-fi drama based on a novella by Game of Thrones scribe George R. R. Martin.

The story takes place aboard The Nightflyer, a ship with a small, tightknit crew and a reclusive captain, per the series official logline.

The craft staffed by eight maverick scientists and a powerful telepath travels to the outer reaches of the solar system to find new alien life. Cool! Because that usually goes so swimmingly, right? Nope. But when terrifying events begin to take place, the description continues, the crew beigns to question each other, and surviving the journey proves harder than anyone thought.

Martins novella was previously made into a film; James Avery (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) was among that cast. A rep for Syfy confirms to TVLine that the author is not a producer or consultant on the potential series.

Nightflyers will be executive-produced bySuits Gene Klein and David Bartis, among others. Jeff Buhler (Jacobs Ladder) wrote the TV adaptation.

We are looking forward to diving deeper into George R.R. Martins chilling world ofNightflyer, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment exec Bill McGoldrick said via statement. The script that Jeff delivered encapsulates this classic sci-fi horror story and adapts it to a platform where we can truly explore the depths of madness.

Where to stream Game of Thrones

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Syfy Orders George RR Martin's Space-Travel Novella 'Nightflyers' To Pilot - Decider

One of the biggest problems with space travel is that its freaking expensive. In the past, it has cost around $10,000 to send a single pound of material into space. If humans are ever going to become a spacefaring species, with colonies on the moon and Mars as big thinkers like physicist Stephen Hawking insist we should space travel is going to have to get a lot cheaper.

"We have to figure out how to improve the cost [of traveling to Mars] by 5 million percent," Elon Musk said last year, announcing his personal dream to establish a human colony on Mars. "This is not easy."

Its not easy, but Musk is taking baby steps. And you can watch one of those baby steps via live stream today.

Around 2 pm Eastern, Musks company SpaceX is planning to launch a Bulgarian TV satellite into space from Cape Canaveral. (The launch window is two hours long, so it could happen closer to 4 pm. The live stream begins at 2.) Heres whats remarkable: The Falcon 9 rocket it will be hitching a ride on has been used before. The rocket was previously used in January to launch an array of satellites. When the 14-story rocket booster had finished its task, it fell back to Earth and landed neatly on a ship in the Pacific Ocean.

If the launch today is successful, it will mark the second time SpaceX has reused a Falcon 9 rocket, and will place another paver stone on the road to a future in which spaceflight is more affordable.

SpaceX still charges around $60 million to companies to use its Falcon 9s, The Verges Loren Grush explains. But in the future, the company told Grush, customers that fly on a used Falcon 9 could eventually get discounts of up to 30 percent.

This future of (relatively) cheaper spaceflight is still far from certain. The company has a spotted history of successfully landing its spent rockets (and it will try to land this reused one on a platform in the Pacific.) And refurbishing costs for the rockets may stand in the way of truly affordable spaceflight. As youll recall, NASA designed the space shuttle program for reuse, but it didnt save much money.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Today we can live-stream a rocket blasting off into space. Thats pretty cool all on its own.

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Watch: SpaceX is launching a reused rocket, hoping to prove spaceflight can get cheaper - Vox

Mother Nature has delayed the launch of a KFC sandwich into the stratosphere. World View Enterprises, the stratospheric exploration company that is hosting theZinger 1 Space Missiona mission to take KFCs new spicy, crispy Zinger chicken sandwich to new heightsblamed wind for the grounding of its high-altitude Stratollite balloon system.

The companywill send updates once officials have confirmed the date and time for the next launch attempt. Those who really want to know when the sammy is headed to the skiesshould tune into KFC and World View social channels. According to World Views Facebook page, the next launch attempt will likely occur on Saturday.

An artist's rendering of the KFC Zinger Stratollite. KFC

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The KFC bucket satellite will be carried into the skies for a four-day flight via a specially designed high-altitude hot air balloon. These balloons can serve other slightly more grounded purposes, such as weather monitoring and tourism. According to Space.com, the balloon will reach an altitude of 60,000 to 75,000 feet above Earth, where nearly 20,000 KFC franchises currently reside.

KFC insists the mission isnt just an attention-grabbing marketing ploy. Funding a mission to send its deep-fried sensation out into near-space will provide useful information toWorld View for future, more serious expeditions such as taking real mammals for a ride.

Animalsthe living kindare no strangers to space exploration. Since the 1950s, a variety of companions have joined human astronauts aboard critical missions. The historical list reads like a page out of the biblical tale of Noahs ark. Geckos, monkeys, dogs, mice, rats, frogs, turtles, fish, silkworms, spiders, ants, fruit flies, bees and single-celled organisms have all made their way onto missions. Sadly, many have not survived. In 1989, NASA sent chicken embryos out into the great unknown.

But sending live animals to space is sooo 20th century.

The only crew member that will be (barely) alive on this mission is crisp lettuce that accompanies the fried chicken patty, mayo and sesame bun. Unfortunately, there is limited room in the satellite, which means the potato wedges, cookie and sugar-sweetened beverage that typically comes with the Zinger will be staying home.

But fear not! The moment will not be lost since the souped (sandwiched?) up satellite comes equipped with a custom robotic selfie arm. Even a chicken fillet wants to preserve special memories. The spacecraft has other features that likely have Neil Armstrong rolling around in his grave, including a space tweet module that will broadcast tweets from fans with the hashtags #ZingerSpaceTweet and #Pickme. Theres also a trap door from which the Zinger will drop the first-ever coupons for a chicken sandwich.

And finally, in the tradition of 1970s space travel, aboard the satellite also will be a gold cassette tape to broadcast Colonel Harland Sanders waxing poeticabout his chicken. You know, just in case extraterrestrial lifeforms turn out to be listening.

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Don't Worry, KFC's Mission to Send a Zinger Chicken Sandwich to Near Space Will Still Happen - Newsweek

All Images: Chris Davidson

Hutchinson, Kansas isnt the kind of place youd wind up if you werent looking to. The placid prairie town sits a solid hours drive south of I-70, the interstate that most travelers use to blow across 425 miles of Kansas cornfield and cattle pasture as quickly as possible. But as soon as I entered the silver-roofed museum, which is flanked by an authentic Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle and a Gemini-Titan II rocket, I knew the extra hours of driving were going to be worth it. After all, how often is one greeted at the door by a Blackbird spy plane?

For fans of spaceflight, military history, and standing awestruck next to the most powerful flying machines ever built, the Cosmosphere, home to the largest international collection of Cold War space artifacts on the planet, just gets better from there. The museums expansive entryway not only houses a flown SR-71 Blackbird from 1966the year the famous spy plane officially joined the US Air Forcebut also a scale replica of the Space Shuttle Endeavor, and the twisted remains of an engine thrust chamber from the Saturn V rocket that launched the Apollo 11 astronauts to the Moon. Oh, and a planetarium, and a live rocket science demonstration lab. Its Disney World for space nerds before youve even hit the main exhibits.

With an eight hour drive to the Rocky Mountains ahead of me, I decided to forgo that afternoons planetarium showa documentary on black holes narrated by Liam Neesonand head straight downstairs to the Hall of Space Museum, which kicks off its tour of space history right at the beginning, in the clandestine laboratories of the Third Reich.

In the age of commercial space tourism and missions to Pluto, its easy to forget that humanitys interest in the final frontier sprung out of a desire to kill one another. At the Cosmosphere, youll become palpably aware of that fact as youre walked through the history of Nazi Germanys infamous vengeance weapons, the V1 and V2 rockets. It was these fast-flying missiles, developed to terrorize cities like London, that laid the groundwork for future space travel, including rockets that sent humans to the Moon.

Rockets werent enough to win Nazi Germany the war, but in the years after the Axis powers surrendered, aerospace technology continued to leap forward.

From the dust of World War II, the museum launches visitors into the Cold War, where once again, a need to project military might spurred innovation in rockets, satellites, and eventually, human spaceflight.

A lot of people dont realize that out of the military came the space program, Jim Remar, COO of the Cosmosphere, told me in a phone interview. These rockets, on both sides, American and Soviet, were being developed for military purposes.

A flight-ready backup of Sputnik 1the Soviet satellite that became the first to reach orbit, demoralizing Americans and kickstarting the decades-long Space Racefeatures prominently, alongside an engineering model of Sputnik 2, the second spacecraft into orbit and the first to carry a living creature, the famous space dog Laika. Of course, the United States didnt stay beat for long. The collection is replete with early American space age innovation, including a replica of the Bell X-1 rocket plane, the first manned airplane to break the sound barrier, and the Gemini X spacecraft that slingshotted astronauts John Young and Michael Collins around the Earth 43 times in 1966. Having often considered the risk that modern astronauts take on by venturing off Earth inside giant metal tubes of fire, a glimpse of the cramped, primitive capsules the first space pioneers willingly climbed into to bring glory to their countries made my skin crawl.

By the time I arrived in the museums Apollo gallery, I felt like Id absorbed a college semesters worth of knowledge about early space history. It didnt stop there. Worn American space suits, a Moon rock collected during the Apollo 11 mission, and the command module from the Apollo 13 spacecraft are just a few of the famous artifacts that are unassumingly set on display, inviting visitors to solemnly appreciate their historical significance while inwardly freaking out. (At least, that was me. The rowdy middle school class I happened to be trailing had other ideas.)

From Apollo, the collection peters off into more modern times, with its final gallery showcasing artifacts of the Shuttle era, Russias Mir space station, and the International Space Station. Looking forward, Remar says, the museum would like to continue expanding its collection of new aerospace technology, including commercial innovations from SpaceX and others, because thats obviously the wave of the future.

I think [future] space exploration will be driven in part by the private sector, he said. Museums like us are in a position to tell that story.

The Cosmosphere was founded as a small planetarium in 1962, by lifelong space enthusiast Patty Carey, who grew up in Oklahoma city before marrying and moving to her husbands home town of Hutchinson. Feeling that the central US had a distinct lack of spaceflight-themed entertainment options, she repurposed the poultry building on Hutchinsons state fair grounds to share her love of the stars with the community. By 1966, it had gained popularity, and moved into its present location, on the grounds of Hutchinson Community College, where it became one of the first planetariums associated with a community college in the nation.

Then, Patty started thinking about what other educational opportunities they could provide, Remar said. Science education centers and space museums were starting to develop in larger metropolitan areas, but there wasnt as much serving central US.

Eventually, through partnerships with the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and NASA, the Cosmosphere was able to acquire several thousand space artifacts in the late 1970s, enough to launch a museum. In the 1980s, it began acquiring Soviet artifacts too, putting it in a position to tell the story of the space race from both countries perspectives.

The Cosmosphere has had its share of hiccups over the years, most notably a scandal in the early 2000s in which a former director was indicted on charges of stealing precious artifacts. But today, it appears to be thriving, sustaining itself off ticket sales, restoration and conservation work, and educational programs that see more than 10,000 school kids walk through its doors each year.

My only personal complaint with my trip to the Cosmosphere is that I didnt budget enough time to properly take everything in. Within two hours, I was back in my overheated rental car, sipping a strawberry limeade from the local burger joint and fueling up for a very long drive.

I couldve easily burned an entire day there.

Maddie is the science editor at Gizmodo

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This Space Museum in Central Kansas Was Worth the 30 Hour Drive - Gizmodo

There are so many places in the universe to explore, but with current rocket technology, it would take millions of years to reach some of the most interesting planets, moons and stars. Unless we hitch a ride on a beam of light.

Physicist Stephen Hawking is one of the people trying to turn that science-fiction concept into reality and he stumped for it while speaking at a festival earlier this week. During a talk at the science and art festival Starmus in Norway, where Hawking was part of a group of speakers that included Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, he called on humans to leave Earth and explore areas beyond our solar system in a search for a habitable replacement we can colonize. But that would require some new spaceships.

He specifically pointed to Proxima Centauri b, a planet that could be a good candidate but is 4.5 light years from Earth more than 26 trillion miles away. To reach it and sniff it out as a potential new home for Earthlings would take millions of years if we used rocket propulsion technology that exists today. But Live Sciencereportedhe offered alternative transportation: a light beam.

Read: The Coolest Habitable Exoplanets

The method of space travel theoretically works with a ship first being launched into space, after which a laser light, or an array of laser lights, would be beamed from a location on Earth onto the back end of a lightsail on the ship to move it forward.

Hawking is part of a project called Breakthrough Starshot that is looking to create the first of such transport systems but with a small and lightweight craft rather than the kind of large one that would be needed to ferry a human population and all thesupplies needed to another planet. The goal is to get the spacecraft up to 100 million mph.

To go faster would require a much higher exhaust speed than chemical rockets can provide that of light itself, Hawking said. A powerful beam of light from the rear could drive the spaceship forward and bring it up to speed, perhaps reaching a tenth oreven a fifth of lights velocity.

That is many thousands of times faster than the maximum speed humans currently can achieve.

Although it would take quite a bit to advance space travel that much, going any faster would require technology beyond current imagination.

Read: The Aliens Out There Are Probably Swimming, Not Walking

Why is Hawking pushing for this technology? The physicist has made it clear he thinks life on Earth is doomed. During his Starmus talk, he said humans will have to colonize Mars or another location within the next 100 years if we want to survive extinction. That wasnt the first time he has made that claim. Hawking has listed climate change, nuclear war and disease as possible calamities that would kill off the human species on Earth.

Shouldnt we be content to be cosmic sloths, enjoying the universe from the comfort of Earth? The answer is, no, Hawking said at Starmus. The Earth is under threat from so many areas that it is difficult for me to be positive.

The moon and Mars are not viable options for long-term human living because in addition to them being barren and devoid of water, the lack of atmosphere on those worlds would expose people to intense radiation. Even the head of the European Space Agency says living on Mars or the moon would be an awful idea.

Human colonization on other planets is no longer science fiction. It can be science fact, he said. If humanity is to continue for another million years, our future lies in boldly going where no one else has gone before.

Scientists are working on a spaceship concept that would use a laser light beamed from Earth to propel a ship with a lightsail. Photo: Breakthrough Starshot

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Stephen Hawking On Space Travel: Light Beams Will Help Humans Colonize Other Planets - International Business Times

Before school was out for the summer, Cleveland students heard about spaceship travel from someone who once roamed the same school hallways as they do and is now a go-to expert on space travel.

On Tuesday, May 9, Jonathan Ritchie visited with Cleveland Schools fifth grade and middle school students. Ritchie is Chief Engineer of the Virgin Galactic SpaceshipTWO project.

Ritchie, son of retired educators Jack and Dadreon Ritchie, was raised in Cleveland, graduating from Cleveland High School. He attended Oklahoma State University where he obtained his degree in aerospace and mechanical engineering.

In 2011 Ritchie moved to Mojave, Calif. with his family to work at The Spaceship Company owned by Richard Branson, of Virgin Galactic. The companys aim is to not only provide commercial space tourism to regular people, but to be the first to do so. There is a new space race going on, Ritchie explained.

He pointed out that only 550 people have EVER been to space! The touristic experience that The Spaceship Company is striving to offer is a two-hour round-trip from Spaceport America in Mojave, Calif. The space ship will carry two pilots and six passengers. The WhiteKnight airplane also has two pilots onboard. It brings the space ship to 50,000 feet where the SpaceshipTwo and WhiteKnight will separate. Then the rocket engine ignites, burning for 60 seconds, bringing SpaceshipTwo into space at 360,000 ft. The Spaceship Two is fueled by burning rubber and nitrous oxide (laughing gas) lots of it! The passengers would be in space for five minutes and get to unbuckle their seat belts and experience weightlessness. To fully enjoy this experience passengers must go through three days of training before embarking on the two hour flight. The pilots are all specifically trained experimental test pilots. According to plan, Spaceship Two and WhiteKnight would both land separately back at Spaceport.

The new space race is currently running neck-to-neck. Ritchies team has three successful test flights under their belts and working with the best of the best in the industry. Ritchie is confident commercial space travel will be a reality very soon. The whole experience will cost space tourists $250,000 and there are already over 700 people on a waiting list.

Passengers must be 18 years old for legal consent. Height restrictions are between 5 ft. to 6.4 ft. and passengers most weigh less than 260 pounds.

Ritchie concluded by saying, I hope you have a great summer and never lose your curiosity and imagination. Imagination and desire joined with action are what make dreams come true.

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Cleveland Grad Engineering Commercial Space Travel - Cleveland American

the Irish News

Space travel from UK ports coming soon, says government the Irish News Legislation aimed at making the UK the most attractive place in Europe for commercial space flight will be introduced over the next two years, the British government has announced. The Space Industry Bill will feature new powers to license space ports, ... and more »

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Space travel from UK ports coming soon, says government - the Irish News

Stephen Hawking is saying we need to colonize the Moon and Mars and fast.

"We are running out of space and the only places to go to are other worlds. It is time to explore other solar systems. Spreading out may be the only thing that saves us from ourselves. I am convinced that humans need to leave Earth," Hawking said, according to BBC.

The world renowned theoretical physicist noted that fighting climate change and global warming are still important goals, but that human space travel is key to "elevate humanity."

Hawking said that leading nations should send astronauts to the Moon by 2020, and plan to build a lunar base within 30 years. He added that people should be going to Mars by 2025.

"Spreading out into space will completely change the future of humanity," Hawking said. "I hope it would unite competitive nations in a single goal, to face the common challenge for us all."

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Stephen Hawking: 'I Am Convinced That Humans Need to Leave Earth' - Fortune

Since its inception in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has affected consumers everyday lives without many of us knowing. In fact, the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 ensured this quiet influence by including the stipulation "that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind."

Developments in space travel remain crucial to the technological advances we enjoy daily. Long-distance communications, solar energy, artificial limbs, memory foam and household smoke detectors all were first used in space. The smartphones we carry in our pockets are up to a million times more powerful than all of NASA's computers combined in 1969. Imagine what well hold in our hands20 years from now.

Related:20 Unforgettable Moments in Space Exploration

All this advancement brings a different set of challenges. Among these: overheating. Its a critical operations problem for electronic devices because it can lead to poor performance and -- in some cases -- dangerous situations.

Samsungmade the unprecedented decision to recall all Galaxy 7 phones after 35 of them overheated. Some exploded, rupturing their cases. The number of overheating incidents reported quadrupled after Samsung announced the recall.

Another example focuses on the hoverboard, of the past few years most popular toys. The hoverboard also fell victim to the perils of overheating and posed a safety threat to consumers. Its since been recalled and is illegal to operate in many cities.

Related:Elon Musk Says We're Living in a Video Game. Are We?

KULR Technology is among the companies looking to leverage what it's learned in space and apply those lessons to innovations here on Earth. Michael Mo and Timothy Knowles cofounded KULR (pronounced cooler) in 2013. Their basic premise: solve the challenges to keep electronics cooler, lighter and safer in an ethical and environmentally sustainable manner.

KULRs technology traces its beginnings tothe high-performance aerospace industry. The San Diego-based firm has won more than 500 contracts with agencies and companies including NASA, Raytheon, Boeing and JPL. KULR also provided the carbon-fiber-based thermal-management solutions used in the International Space Station, Mars Rover and Mercury Messenger.

KULR and other groups will find a robust marketplace as they translate the knowledge gained from interstellar successes. Thermal management already is an $11 billion annual business,and the opportunities only will grow exponentially as technology develops.

Related:The Next Big Opportunity for Tech Entrepreneurs? 'Smart' Homes.

On a larger scale, the advances made during the past decade require tremendous computing power. Over the next 5, 10 and 15 years, these and other emerging technologies will change how we live.

Related:Would You Fly on an AI-Backed Plane Without a Pilot?

Over time, these technologies will increase in consumer base -- and consumers will focus more and more on performance. As a devices number of transistors multiplies, its computing power increases exponentially. In turn, its form factors shrink. But increased density of transistors on a chip has led to performance issues including overheating. That can cause slowed or even broken-down connections.

The cycle feeds the need for continued evolution. KULRs proprietary carbon-fiber-based architecture replaces older aluminum- and copper-based head spreaders and exchanges that were the standard for years. Unfortunately, those earlier particle-based thermal-interface materials are inefficient as well as energy-intensive and less environmentally friendly to produce. KULRs newer versions offer lower contact pressure and longer reliability, making devices higher-performing and higher-compliance.

KULR has given environmental impacts a large role in another part of its strategy, too. Corporations require increasing electricity to operate their facilities, and they spend staggering sums to keep their data centers cool. Technology that lowers the temperature from the inside reduces the amount of energy needed to cool these components from the outside in.

Related:New Strain of Malware Can Take Power Stations Offline

Elena Titova is a serial entrepreneur and user experience expert based in New York City. Shehas been working in fintech, web and app development startups. Her areas of interest includeVirtual Reality, business strategy and creat...

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A Different Kind of Space Race: How Far-Out Tech Changes the Way You Live - Entrepreneur

Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides talks to PCMag about floating in Zero Gs, preparing for Virgin Galactic's first suborbital flight, and how The Force informs her space travel philosophy.

Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides has had her share of adventures. She's floated in Zero G hundreds of times; traveled to the bottom of the ocean with Titanic director James Cameron; expanded her Yuri's Night world space parties to seven continents; and will be onboard a Virgin Galactic space plane when it takes to the skies at Mach 3.

Until then, Whitesides will spend her summer in Ireland as a visiting lecturer at the International Space University, where she'll train graduate students as part of the organization's Space Studies Program. We caught up with the LA-based Whitesides before her journey across the pond.

You did 85 weightless flights while a member of the crew at the Zero Gravity Corporation. Can you describe what that's like? It's amazing. What I love about it, as a physics geek, is your basic understanding of the world no longer applies. Thingswater, pens, hairfloat around [and] you become hyper-aware. What you're seeing doesn't follow the rules anymore; it's like being a little kid again.

What inspired you to study astrobiology [undergrad at Stanford and Masters at Caltech] in the first place? I was always interested in space exploration as the next step in human evolution, and I knew that astrobiologists would be needed in space; whereas other scientists and engineers were ground-based. I wanted to work on bioregenerative life support systems that grew our food and recycled our air and water.

My initial passion, however, was physics. I had a great physics teacher when I was at high school, who inspired me, and made physics magical and beautiful, climbing up on the physics bench, reading us a reflection from the mystic Thomas Merton before we started the day's lessons. So cool. I wanted to find the Grand Unified Theory.

But then, as I got older, there was more calculus and less Merton, the romance had gone. Initially at Stanford, I studied a wide range of things, including Earth systems and international relations, because I wanted to use space to bring the world together. But then I interned on [Capitol] Hill in Washington D.C., on the space subcommittee of the House, and the advice I got there was to get a technical degree. So I returned to Stanford, and got a degree in biology, and eventually went on to Caltech and got my Masters.

Was there a Sheldon Cooper in your crew at Caltech? (Laughs) I felt like I lived in an enchanted bubble in the biology department and in the sub-basement of the Geological and Planetary Sciences building, a world away from the experimental physicists. So no, my Caltech years weren't The Big Bang Theory. I had an awesome crew who were as good with people as they were with research.

What are you most proud of concerning Yuri's Night, the World Space Party you co-founded in 2001? That we put the magic and romance back into spaceflight. I came of age in the 90s, and was worried because it felt like space had gone out of fashion. There was pressure to make it strictly business, just about the scientific return, and I was crushed. So we started Yuri's Night [named after Yuri Gagarin, the first person to travel to outer space] to return the humanity into space exploration. It's grown to 234 events, in 56 countries, on seven continents.

As a lecturer, training future astronauts at the International Space University, how do you inspire the next generation of space leaders? Is it true you like to quote Yoda? As Yoda says: 'Anger, Fear, Aggression, the Dark Side of the Force are they.' So, in order to be extraordinary, you have to face everything and walk through it; burying it doesn't work, it will resurface. This is why I wrote my book, The New Right Stuff, I strive to become a better person every day and to help all of us become the people we want to be.

It's really the sacredness of the Jedi which appeals most to me. The Force is a way for secular societies, particularly in our tech community, to be able to talk about the infinite in a way that isn't divisive, as we work towards a future where any of us would be proud to send our species to the nearest star system.

Finally, you're a Founder Astronaut and will be on one of Virgin Galactic's first suborbital flights. How are you preparing for that trip: both physically and philosophically? There are 3Gs on boost while the rocket is firing, which feels like having three people on top of you, for about 10 seconds. It's not too bad; like a carnival ride. But, on the way back, for re-entry, there'll be a transient 6Gs coming back through the atmosphere. We'll take that lying downthe seats move in the spacecraftso you take the force in the chest at that point because you don't want the G-forces pulling the blood down out of your head. I've done the centrifuge training6G is not funbut you can handle it, especially when it's for less than a second.

I'm profoundly excited for the experience and have been preparing for years. But at the same time, you can't ever really be prepared to see the Earth from space for the first time. I can't wait.

Sophia Stuart is an award-winning digital strategist and technology columnist. Voted one of the "Top 21 Social Media Superstars" by Min Online in 2009, Sophia was an executive at Hearst from 2006 - 2013, winning a Webby Award for Cosmo Mobile and an MVA for Cosmo International Digital Strategy. Sophia now lives in Los Angeles and runs TheDigitalCheckUp.com consultancy. She was a judge for both the SheSays global awards (2014) and the Bookmarks, South Africa (2013). She has written for many publications including Esquire Mexico, Harpers... More

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How This 'Founder Astronaut' Is Prepping for Space Travel - PCMag

When Elon Musks company SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket on March 30 this year, it made history. It was the first time the same rocket had been propelled into orbit, returned to Earth and been launched again. It also landed safely for a second time, and provided further support for Musks thesis that the combination of reusable rockets and private companies will be at the heart of the new spaceindustry.

I think its an amazing day for space, he said after the launch. It means you can fly and re-fly an orbit-class booster, which is the most expensive part of the rocket. This is going to be, hopefully, a huge revolution in spaceflight.

Of course, he would say that. Its his company, which faces competition from several others, including Jeff Bezos Blue Origin, and wobbles with his other ventures, such as Tesla and Solar City, have illustrated just how important public opinion can be when youre chasing ambitious goals.

SpaceX faced a severe setback in September 2016 when another Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test. On board was a $200-million satellite that was intended to provide internet connectivity to parts of Africa in Facebooks Internet.org project. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg issued a statement that made one thing clear he was notamused.

A busy calendar brings a different dynamic and some new project management challenges

But others at the forefront of the new space industry agree with Musks assessment. Its a great technical milestone, says Mike Lawton, chief executive of Oxford Space Systems. Its an incredible achievement, especially when you consider that when SpaceX started talking about the vision and the timeframe, lots of people dismissed it. One large US space contractor said to us, We got thatwrong.

For Musk and SpaceX, though, proving that reusable rockets work is only one step on a longer journey. Now, they have to work out how to turn it into a profitable business, says MrLawton.

If everything goes to plan, this will partly be achieved thanks to an increase in the number of launches and missions. Company president Gwynne Shotwell said there would be one launch every two or three weeks from early this year thanks to the completion of a third launch site in Florida; there were only eight launches in the whole of 2016. A fourth launch site in Texas is currently under construction and should further increase the frequency offlights.

But thats easier said than done. A busy calendar brings a different dynamic and some new project management challenges. SpaceX does a lot of activity in-house, which is helpful from a project management perspective, says Dr Renaud Durand, managing consultant and aerospace specialist at supply chain firm Vendigital. But, as operations grow, it will become less efficient to invest in in-house capabilities. There will be a strong push to outsource or the company will have to create an additional layer of management, which could slow down the decisionloop.

As the company launches more and more reused rockets, it will also need to manage a shift from production to MRO [maintenance, repair and operations] activities, which requires a different set of skills and operational know-how.

But, in Mr Lawtons view, the project management challenges that SpaceX faces are not so different from the ones that confront other companies in the new space industry. And the answer is to go as fast and hard as you can, hesays.

Musk has been open about the fact that SpaceXs overarching aim is to make humanity an interplanetary species, something that he hopes will be achieved by sending people to Mars by 2022. However, undertaking manned missions should give him pause to reassess the way projects are managed. Its one thing to destroy a fellow billionaires $200-million satellite, but the equation changes when theres human life atrisk.

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Private space travel could soon be a reality - Raconteur

The landmark transport bill will be announced on Wednesday

COMMERCIAL space flights will move a step closer as the Government unveils three landmark transport bills in the Queens Speech.

A space industry bill will allow firms to launch satellites from the UK for the first time putting Britain at the heart of new spaceflight technology.

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It will also enable regional spaceports to be set up across the UK, allow horizontal flights to the edge of space for scientific experiments and end our dependence on foreign launch services.

The space bill will also introduce new powers to license a range of cutting-edge technology including vertically-launched rockets, spaceplanes and spaceports.

A second bill will rip up red tape that prevent drivers switching to plug-in vehicles.

VIRGIN GALACTIC/EPA

Those wanting to use publicly accessible charging points currently need to register with several different firms that run them but the new law will ensure drivers will only need to register once.

A third transport bill will finally give the go-ahead for the northern leg of HS2 - bring high speed rail between the Midlands and North West England.

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Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: We are absolutely determined to give Britain the transport infrastructure it needs so that we can thrive and grow as we leave the European Union.

The measures we outline this week will ensure our legal structures are ready for the high skill, highly paid jobs of the future, while backing the transport projects that will make journeys better for ordinary working people.

Its only by backing infrastructure through our Modern Industrial Strategy that we can spread prosperity and opportunity around the country.

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Space travel set to take off as Government unveils plans to build ... - The Sun

Exploring the Past and Future of Space Travel

Credit: NASA

We choose to go to the moon in this decade not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win. -John F.Kennedy

Such was the case after WW2 when America claimed many of Germanys stockpile of V-2 ballistic missiles. Tests began using this arsenal as a means of assuring American leadership in technology.

Atlas launch complex, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Credit: RolandMiller

Not the hot, aggressive variety but a war of espionage, counterintelligence and competing ideologies. This was the Cold War. A war to determine which superpower would inherit the world.

During this period, space exploration emerged as a major area of contest and became known as the space race. NASA was born in response to this race out of the simple preamble;

An Act to provide for research into the problems of flight within and outside the Earths atmosphere, and for other purposes.

V-2 Launch Complex, 33 White Sands Missile Range Credit: RolandMiller

Monkeys, our close genetic companion, went up first. Many perished. They paved the way for humans to follow. Albert II became the first monkey in space as his flight reached 134 kmpast the Krmn line of 100 km, taken to designate the beginning of space.

A confident Ham the monkey perhaps a bit peeved about the rocket flight. Credit:Life

Satellites went up next as part of an international effort to gather scientific data about Earth. Advances here paved the way for our current GPS systems. Then on September 12, 1962, President Kennedy proclaimed Americas intention to send a man to the moon by the end of the 1960s.

Launch control room. Vandenberg Air Force Base. Credit: RolandMiller

Russia took the lead. First satellite with Sputnik 1. Then first man in space when Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin first passed the Krmn line and later completed the first orbit of Earth.

Sputnik-1 spacecraft Credit:NASA

America quickly caught up in both cases with Alan B. Shepard Jr. reaching space, followed by John H. Glenn Jr. reaching orbit.

In 1969 America won the race. Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the surface of the Moon. This marked the end of what Kennedy would call;

the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.

Iconic. Credit:NASA

In 1981 America returned to manned spaceflight with the Space Shuttle. STS-1 took offdemonstrating that it could take off vertically and glide to an unpowered airplane-like landing. Sally K. Ride became the first American woman to fly in space when STS-7 lifted off on June 18, 1983.

Then tragedy struck. On January 28, 1986 a leak in the joints of one of two Solid Rocket Boosters attached to the Space Shuttle Challenger caused the main liquid fuel tank to explode 73 seconds after launch, killing all 7 crew members.

In 1988 the shuttle returned to service. Going on to fly a total of 87 missions. Then tragedy struck again in 2003. A breach in the heat dispersion system lead the Space Shuttle Columbia to fill with hot gas causing catastrophic failure and the loss of all 7 crew-members. Evidence hints these brave men and women may have been alive during the fall.

From left to right: Brown, Husband, Clark, Chawla, Anderson, McCool, Ramon. Credit:NASA

The Shuttle was primarily used to launch the pieces for the next period of space travel, orbiting laboratories. First Skylab in 1973, then in 1998 construction on the International Space Station officially began.

The ISS Programs greatest accomplishment is as much a human achievement as it is a technological one. The ISS only exists because of the cooperation of the United States, Russia, the European Union, Japan, and Canada. It has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever.

The ISS. Credit: NASA

Excess fuel will push it into a descending orbit over the Pacific Ocean. Most will burn up, with the remainder plummeting to the watery depths.

In 2004 the rover Spirit landed on the Martian surface. Its mission was to find evidence of life. It collected samples, and showed us life had quite likely existed off our familiar pale blue dot. We werent alone.

Mosaic of the Mars surface taken by Spirit. Credit:NASA

Then in 2012 Spirits follow-up Curiosity successfully reached the Martian surface. In an area near Yellowknife Bay Curiosity discovered evidence of an old lakebed.

Radiometric dating and chemical analysis led researchers to determine this lakebed had a habitability window of 700 million years, ending 3.1 billion years ago. There almost definitely had been microbial life on Mars.

This revelation stunned the world.

Yellowknife Bay, on the Martian surface. Credit:NASA

SETI is an international mission to discover extraterrestrial life. Using space and ground telescopes like Hubble to scour distant solar systems for traces of habitable planets. Recent findings like the TRAPPIST-1 series of exoplanets has revealed habitable planets are very common in our universe.

Could one of these planets host our cosmic neighbors? Credit:NASA

The forthcoming James Webb Telescope will give us even greater detail. Primed to be launched to Earths L2 Lagrange point it will operate 1.5 million km from Earth, locked to an orbit 3x beyond that of the Moons. Its viewing instruments will give it a 100x better view of the universe than its predeccesor Hubble.

The soon to be quite distant James Webb Telescope. Credit: TheFullDome

The newest space race seems to be heating up; JAXA, Roscosmos, the CSA, the ESA, NASA, UAESA and the newest player Chinas CNSA are all to various degrees cooperating and competing to reach the next milestone of spacea manned mission to Mars.

Artists interpretation of Mars colony, Mars Base Credit: DavidShrock

Various agencies including private ones like SpaceX all peg our landing date on Mars in the 2030s sometime. At first it will be scientific, then perhaps a colony.

2033 seems to be the ideal date. A period of low sun activity coincides with an ideal alignment of Mars and the Earth. The next generation of NASA astronauts wont be the ones to go. With their training finished in 2015, theyll be the ones winding down the ISS program.

Optimal Earth-Mars alignment for a manned mission (Photo:NASA)

The Mars wave will consist of iconic young men and women like Alyssa Carson, Abigail Harrison and Ryan MacDonald. Today theyre in high school and university. But by 2033, theyll be around NASAs average astronaut age of 34 and primed to explore the newest world.

Netflix special The Mars Generation introduces us to our 2033 candidates Credit:Netflix

When Europe colonized the modern world, they did so first funded by milestone driven governments. Then economics set in and exploration became profitable. With asteroid mining, microgravity manufacturing and offworld power generation this cycle will conceivably repeat itself.

Coming to an asteroid near you Credit: FactorMagazine

The outer space economy will follow the maxim; energy outward, resources inward. The sun will pulse and provide the inner system with its energy, while outward itll be diffused more and of less use. Whereas the beyond Mars asteroid belt, and Kuiper belt even further will provide the rich mineral resources our hungry civilization will crave.

The Gas Giants will provide our gaseous resources and together theyll build our new civilization. One stretching from one end of the solar system to the other.

Globalization didnt stop Credit: Inspiration Seek

Peoples bodies will change out there. Reduced gravity offplanet will cause some peoples spines to lengthen and bone density to decrease. Our bodies will become more vestigial than today. Opposing that well begin merging with machines and AI.

Devices like the Neuralink or artifical augmentation will change the paradigm of being human. Different planets and bodies will have unique cultures and customs. There will be clashes, perhaps wars. Humanity will get smarter, well likely never kill ourselves fully. But like our ancestors well posture and clash over change.

Humanity may never leave conflict behind Credit: KarenWhimsy

Proxima Centauri lies a mere 4.24 light years away, our nearest stellar neighbor. With technological advances, perhaps generation ships, cryogenic freezing, modified biology or robotic substitutes well begin venturing beyond our homely solar system.

Our first faltering steps will resemble our gradual progress towards other celestial bodies from Earth. People will argue about the value, the cost. Others will value the mission over their lives. Fights will occur, there will be setbacks and then eventually well go.

Humanity may never leave conflict behind Credit: KarenWhimsy

By this point our vast power systems will extract the majority of what our sun can offer. This system will be replicated on our nearest star systems, and then their nearest. The colonization wave will take a million years to spread throughout the Milky Way galaxy.

Like a bacteria well gradually spread to every cell of our 100,000 light year home. Then the cycle will repeat. Why go to other galaxies? What would be the point? We press on.

Von Neumann machines are one method of colonizing other worlds Credit:Smash

By this point humanity has extinguished the existential threat. Were not going anywhere. Even if a supernova were to wipe out multiple star systems wed be too deeply ingrained to lose.

Galaxy by galaxy we spread. Our unending conquest spanning many millions of generations. Age may be irrelevant by now, humanitys collective concousness stored in a hard drive which we all draw from. Indistinguishable from the machines we once feared, death has been irradicated.

Von Neumann machines are one method of colonizing other worlds Credit:Smash

Humanity will be the supreme being in the universe. Our cradle Earth long forgotten we will seek new frontiers. Perhaps well encounter rival intelligences, they may outcompete us. They may not be us, but their trajectory will resemble ours.

Intelligent species must follow the same trajectory Credit: ScienceMag

The stark reality isa civilization must either expand or collapse. As populations expand, resources must be introduced into the system to offset the increased demand. Known as a colonization bubble it could be the Great Filter that stops universal domination.

As the bubble expands the interior beings run out of resources and are consumed and destroyed by civil wars. This inner wave spreads out and consumes the bubble whole. Perhaps humanity will overcome this.

Chesley Bonestell may have an alien competitor to his space art greatness Credit: Bonestell

Whatever intelligent species it is, one will eventually come to dominate the universe. Then an interesting situation occurs. Either they run out the clock and pass along with the universe, as in Asimovs The Last Question.

Or they find a way to escape to the next layer, what you could call the Multiverse. In this layer they discover they can manipulate other universes at will and create different universal constants in different universes. Their tinkering destroys many universes and creates life in others. They are the simulators theorized to be running our universe.

Each bubble another universe Credit: YayoiKusama

The multiverse begins to close in on these beings and so they must solve the same problem again. Transcend their environment or be annihilated alongside it. With infinite possibilities one species escapes. The layer above the multiverse. This repeats, ad infinitum.

The great paradox, that there are turtles all the way down.

Naturally everything after NASAs Mars dates was speculation but its a chilling thought. Our universe will end. Hundreds of trillions of years will have passed and we wont be alive. But intellectually its intimidating. Non existence is scary. For all our intelligence we cant escape the fundamental nature of a distinct existence.

Life is so vast, beautiful and unnerving. This great paradox of our universes end resembles the reality our distant ancestors had to contend with as they scanned the night sky. What were those bright lights up there? Why are we here? But they pressed on in their search for truth and today we know infinitely more than they do.

This trend will continue. Well keep turning over vast rocks to see the unimaginable truths hidden below. Its not in humanity to give up, despite the great uncertainty surrounding our universe and our place within it.

One thing is certainhumanity has never stopped progressing to its future amongst the stars. Hopefully we never will.

Voyager 1s historic Pale Blue Dot image of Earth from 6 billion km away Credit:NASA

For more of Andrews writing visit his widely published space and entrepreneurship blog Landing Attempts. Or support his writing with a few dollars on Patreon, it means the world.

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Exploring the Past and Future of Space Travel | TheTechNews - The TechNews

LOS ANGELES -

Weve figured out how to put a man on the moon, but a sandwich in space is another story.

Back in 1965, NASA astronauts snuck a corned beef sandwich into the pocket of a spacesuit. That was the first and probably last time a sandwich orbited the planet.

For the most part, astronauts aboard the International Space Station eat dehydrated space food, but Bake In Space wants to change that. The German-based company has developed a dough that creates crumbless bread, plus several oven designs, and its a potential game changer.

Founder Sebastian Marcu told New Scientist, As space tourism takes off and people spend more time in space, we need to allow bread to be made from scratch.

The ovens will be tested on the International Space Station next year. So get ready astronauts, you may soon be washing down a sandwich with your Tang.

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Company creating bread for space travel - FOX 13 News, Tampa Bay

Genetic biotechnology is usually discussed in the context of current and emerging applications here on Earth, and rightly so, since we still live exclusively in our planetary cradle. But as humanity looks outward, we ponder what kind of life we ought to take with us to support outposts and eventually colonies off the Earth.

While the International Space Station (ISS) and the various spacecraft that ferry astronauts on short bouts through space depend on consumables brought up from Earth to maintain life support, this approach will not be practical for extensive lunar missions, much less long term occupation of more distant sites. If were to build permanent bases, and eventually colonies, on the Moon, Mars, asteroids, moons of outer planets or in free space, well need recycling life support systems. This means air, water, and food replenished through microorganisms and plants, and its not a new idea.

Space exploration enthusiasts have been talking about it for decades, and its the most obvious application of microorganisms and plants transplanted from Earth. What is new, however, is the prospect of a comprehensive use ofsynthetic biology for a wide range of off-Earth outpost and colonization applications.

To this end, considering human outposts on the Moon and Mars, astudyfrom scientists basedat NASA Ames Research Center and the University of California at Berkeley examined the potential of genetic technology, not only to achieve biologically based life support systems, but also to facilitate other activities that must be sustained on colony worlds. Not discussed as often with biotechnology and space exploration in the same conversation, these other activities include creation of rocket propellant, synthesis of polymers, and production of pharmaceuticals. Together with the life support system, they paint a picture of the beckoning era of space activity that puts synthetic biology at center stage.

Although written specifically in the context of lunar and Martian outposts, the proposed biologically based technical infrastructure is just as applicable to a colony on less frequently discussed worlds, such as the dwarf planet Ceres or an outer planet moon, or to a colony that orbits in the Earth moon system.

Rocket fuel and life support

As well discuss a little later in connection with rocket fuel, the chemical elements needed oxygen and nitrogen are available in and in the vicinity of the places we might put outposts. Its just that the atoms of these elements are not in a breathable form. Rather theyre combined with atoms of other chemical elements. On Mars, for instance, theres plenty of oxygen, but not a drop is useful either to mix with propellant in rocket engines, or for humans to breath. Thats because Martian oxygen atoms are bound with carbon atoms in molecules of carbon dioxide (CO2). For humans, CO2 is a waste product; instead, we need to breathe molecular oxygen (O2) to support life functions. But, in the presence of light, photosynthetic organisms, such as plants, algae, and certain bacteria take in CO2 and water (H2O) in and release O2. In the process, they make food.

The moon also has oxygen, but in the form of silicon dioxide (SiO2) in rocks, and both the moon and Mars have sources of water. While there are chemical and electrical methods that can split up and rearrange atoms of some of these compounds without the help of living things, the gist of the NASA/Berkeley conclusion was that using life forms, especially certain microorganisms, the amount of energy and effort needed to produce a given amount of oxygen can be reduced substantially. The same is true for the production of rocket propellant and for nitrogen, which is needed both for human breathing (as N2 gas to dilute O2), to support plants (with the help of bacteria), and for certain types of rocket fuel.

Emphasizing the utility of microorganisms, the study also noted that genetic methods can increase the yields of the needed chemicals. One important example involves a type of microorganism known as cyanobacteria. Descendants of ancient bacteria that are thought to have been the first major suppliers of oxygen gas to Earths oceans and atmosphere, cyanobacteria are photosynthetic. Like plants, they consume CO2 and water, releasing O2. The genomes the collection of genes of various strains of cyanobacteria are small and their sequences are well known, making the capabilities of these organisms easy to manipulate with genetic engineering. In addition to already being able to use nitrogen directly, they can be enhanced with genes from other microbes with novel energy systems, including those with the capability of generating methane and hydrogen (both useful as rocket fuel).

Food and drug production

The NASA/Berkeley study included an economic analysis showing the power of synthetic biology to produce food mass. Natures most famous method for this, photosynthesis, is extremely efficient; thus, colonies on the Moon, Mars, other bodies, or free space colonies will emphasis plant farming, and probably algae-based nutrition as well. Youre unlikely to see big farm animals, such as cows or pigs. They take up far too much land. But, due to their high protein to mass ration, its been suggested that space colonists might learn to farm and enjoy insects such as grasshoppers. Furthermore, possibly timed appropriately for space colonization, the technology for synthetic meat beckons. Since, colonists will largely on their own, the NASA/Berkeley report also discussed using synthetic biology for pharmaceutical production.

Adapting life to its new home

Certain regions of Earth feature environments similar to those on planets and moons that humans might colonize. Especially with a division of Earth life known as the Archaea domain, there are various microorganisms that can survive in extreme cold, high salinity (thought to characterized sources of underground Martian water, or ancient water on Mars), and certain Archaea are also methane produces. Thus, while not mentioned specifically in the recent report, researchers looking at applying biological methods to space exploration are also looking into the prospect of modifying certain bacteria, such as cyanobacteria with Archaea genes.

All that mentioned above is but the tip of the iceberg. On Earth, there are organisms that resist radiation, heat, cold, and drying, even to the point of being able to live in the space vacuum. Considering potential space colonization environments compared with our homeworld in terms of gravity, radiation, and various other parameters, there are a lot of traits we might eventually genetically engineer into life forms that we bring to help them survive while they perform their task, whether circulating life support gasses, producing rocket fuel, eating up rock, or even terraforming changing the colonys entire environment to make it like Earth.

David Warmflash is an astrobiologist, physician, and science writer. Follow @CosmicEvolution to read what hes saying on Twitter.

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Deep-space travel, colonization may rely on genetically engineered ... - Genetic Literacy Project

The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle will be the first spacecraft capable of taking a human crew to multiple deep space destinations. On Thursday at Promontory Point, Utah, the crafts launch abort motor was put to the test.

Orbital ATK is the company that designed and manufactured the launch abort motor for NASA and executed the test. According to Charles Precourt, vice president and generalmanager of Propulsion Systems at Orbital ATK, the test that took place on Thursday at Promontory Point is an important step in proving that the launch abort system will work.

This is a key milestone on the way to validating our capability to field those systems, Precourt said.

According to Orbital ATK, the launch abort system will help to save astronauts in the event of a malfunction during launch. If something goes wrong, the launch abort system is activated within milliseconds igniting the boosters in the abort module and pulling the crew capsule off and away from the rocket. Capable of producing about 400,000 pounds of thrust, the abort motor will carry astronauts far away, and fast, positioning them for a safe landing.

Once complete, the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle will be the first spacecraft of its kind, capable of bringing its crew to more than one destination in deep space. It will carry up to six occupants, twice as many as the Apollo capsule did. The launch abort system will sit atop the craft, a safety feature that will, under the best circumstances, never see use.

Utah facilities continue to play a role in creating components of the spacecrafts launch abort system. Orbital ATK is producing the abort motor at its facility in Magna, and the composite case for the motor at its Clearfield facility.

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How Utah Is Contributing To Safer Space Travel - Utah Public Radio

In Brief While studying the effects of space on a species of regenerating flatworm, scientists noticed that one of the subjects ended up growing two heads. Space travel is hypothesized to have facilitated this aberration. Space Hydra

The International Space Station (ISS) is an invaluable tool that helps us understand how our Earth-based technologies and biology operates in space. It has been confirmed that space travel does indeed impact human biology, even down to the genetic level. Even so, researchers looking into how a species of flatworms fare in space were not prepared forwhat they found.

To the great shock of the team, one of the fifteen amputated planarian flatworms that spent five weeks aboard the ISS ended up growing back two heads once back on Earth. These findings have been published in the journal Regeneration.

Planarian flatworms have remarkable regeneration abilities. They are able to regenerate complex body systems even from a tiny piece of their bodies. After their all-inclusive stay upon the ISS, the worms were brought back to Earth and observed for an additional 20 months. During this time, researchers noticed that one of the worms was regenerating its head, along with another. The scientists then amputated the two heads and the worm once again grew back two heads.

They may not have been able to pinpoint the exact changes that allowed for this phenomenon to occur, but the scientists had never seen this happen in eighteen years of studying these worms. This lead the team to hypothesize that space travel is what caused the change.

With humanity gearing up to launch the first humans to Mars, discovering how biology changes as a result of space travel is of the utmost importance. As humans continue to spend longer periods of time in space, we need to know what to expect so we can prepare for these changes or maybe even take steps to prevent them.

One possible implication of these findings is that once we figure out the mechanisms of space travel that triggered this change, we may be able to harness them to achieve desired results, like giving humans the ability to regenerate, for example. As the paper notes, it could be used to trigger desired morphological, neurological, physiological, and bacteriomic changes for various regenerative and bioengineering applications.

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Scientists Hypothesize That Space Travel Caused This Worm To Grow Two Heads - Futurism

Thursday June 15, 2017

Biologists at Tufts University in Massachusetts sent a bunch of flatworms to space for five weeks just to see what would happen, and were taken aback by the results.

"This one worm, due to its space travel experience, the cells got confused, and grew a head at the posterior end," biologist Michael Levin, co-author of the study, told As It Happens host Carol Off.

The researchers sent a group of planarian flatworms some amputated and some whole to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX commercial resupply vessel on Jan. 10, 2015, to find out how the experience would affect their regenerative abilities.

One of the dissected worms came back with an extra pair of googly eyes.

"We were extremely surprised," Levin said. "It's quite a change to their normal regenerative pattern, so we knew something important had happened to it up in space."

While flatworms are known for the ability to re-growtheir heads and tails,the spontaneous generation a second head is so rare it's almost unheardof. Under normal circumstances, the worm would have simply generated a new tail.

Levin says he's seen two-headed worms before. In fact, he's made some in his lab. But it's not something that occurs naturally.

"So we knew it was possible," he said. "We had no idea this would happen from space travel."

The change appears to be permanent. The scientists have since cut off both the creature's heads, andit grew them both back.

The flatworms lived on the International Space Station for five weeks inside sealed tubes filled with water and air. (NASA)

"As it turns out, the two-headedness is just the tip of the iceberg, because we also found out that these worms were different with respect to their microbiomes, their behaviour, and so on," he said.

When the wormsreturned to Earth, scientists took them out of their five-week-old water and put them in apetri dish with fresh water.

The worms went into "water shock,"curling up and refusing to move for about two hours something that would normally only happen if they'd been placed in an unfamiliar solution.

"So something happened to that water in space, which they obviously got used to," Levin said.

They also got over their natural fear of light.

Levin's team observed the space worms in their lab 20 months after they returned toEarth,comparing their bodies and behaviours to a group of worms that never left the planet.

When exposed to light in the petri dish, the space worms did not seek out darker corners, asother worms did.

"So their behaviour had changed and enabled them to spend more time in the light, Levin said.

When transferred to a petri dish of fresh water after returning from a five-week space voyage, these flatworms curled up and wouldn't move. (Junji Morokuma/Allen Discovery Center, Tufts University)

"This we measured about a year and a half after the worms had come back. So they had already been in our lab, eating the same foods and living in the same environment as the Earth-bound controls for well over a year, and still their behaviour was still altered."

The worms had also changed on a fundamental, biological level.

"We found out that even a year-and-a-half later, the complement of bacteria and the profile of different bacterial species that live in these worms is now quite a bit different between the ones that had been to space and the ones that had been left behind," Levin said.

It's not entirely clear what caused these changes, but there are numerous possibilities.

"I mean these worms have been through basically the space travel experience, and the space travel experience is not one thing," Levin said, noting they expected changes in vibrations, thegravitational field, the geomagnetic field and more.

While it would be unwise to compare worms to astronauts so far, Christ Hadfield has not grown any new limbs that we know of the results of the study could shed some light on how space travel affects us on a cellular level, Levin said.

What's more, the team's findings could have implications a little closer to home.

"Part of the importance of these kinds of experiments is not just for space travel, but for learning about how physical factors like geomagnetic fields, like gravitational forces and so on, how these affect cell behaviours," Levin said.

"We may be able to exploit those for regenerative medicine applications here on Earth."

The study was published Tuesday in the journal Regeneration.

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Scientists 'extremely surprised' after flatworm grows 2nd head in space - CBC.ca

In BriefA company funded by NASA is proposing the development and useof fusion rockets, which are propelled by the same nuclearprocesses that power stars. Nuclear Powered Rockets

Princeton Satellite Systems, which is funded by NASA, has announced the possibility of fusion reactor rockets which could according to the companys president Michael Paluszekenable new and exciting science missions that are too expensive and difficult to do with todays technology. Such missions could include propelling spaceships towards planets and stars, exploring space deeper than we ever have before, and deflecting asteroids.

Fusion rockets are propelled by the same nuclear processes that power stars. They can produce more energy and do so more efficiently than traditionalchemical propellant or ion drive designs. Princeton Satellite Systems design uses nuclear fusion by heating a mix of deuterium and helium-3 with low-frequency radio waves, then harnessesthe energy produced with magnetic fields. This technique confinesthe resulting plasma in a ring. As theplasma spirals out of the ring, it can be directed towards the blasters.

While this system would prove expensive for bigger projects (around $20 billion), the smaller rocket estimated to be 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in diameter and 4 to 8 meters (13 to 26 feet) long would only cost about$20million per generator; ten times cheaper than the larger model.

Cost aside, there are still two other significantobstacles:first, the system would emit so much radiation that it would preclude the propulsion of any spacecraft with humans aboard, and second, while one generator may only cost the relatively small sum of $20 million, each ship would have to contain multiple generators to ensure both the stability of the plasma, andto make them capable of achieving thespeeds the rockets aspire to.

Space travel has become a trend among the worlds tech elite, with many big names intechnology working to develop canny ways explore the final frontier further,ideallyby sending humans into outer space to guide those expeditions.

Paul Allen recently revealed the worlds largest plane, which aims to take spacecraft to the atmosphere, thereby reducing the amount of energy required to launch spacecraft from Earth.

Elon Musk has had a series of successful test runs for reusable rockets, including the Dragon spacecrafts second landing at the International Space Station. He plans to test the Falcon Heavy rocket, designed totake people to the moon,in the next few months.

Related to one of the fission rockets goals of transporting robots to make observations of never-before seen parts of the galaxy is NASAs mission to touch the sun with its Parker Solar Probe. The probe will investigate solar wind and gather more data on our closest star thanweve ever had before.

Gaining a deeper understanding ofand visiting space has never been closer in our reach.Ideas like these are endlessly exciting and may be a sign that we may beentering the golden age of space travel.

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NASA-Funded Company Wants to Redefine Space Travel With ... - Futurism