Monthly Archives: January 2021

If youve ever had the feeling that youd like to step off the planet and live somewhere far, far away as in some distant world a top scientist is suggesting that it could become reality for humans, in as little as 15 years.

According to a report in The Sun, that vision was published in a research paper earlier this month by Dr. Janhunen, an astrophysicist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki.

Dr. Janhunens blueprint moved in a different direction from the vast majority of conceptions regarding space settlement, the report said.

Unlike most plots for distant world settlement, which choose the Moon or Mars, due to their closer proximity to Earth, the report noted that Dr. Janhunen laid out the blueprint for floating mega-satellites around the dwarf planet Ceres, which is about 325 million miles from Earth.

The Sun reported that Dr. Janhunen laid out a plan which includes a disk-shaped habitat boasting thousands of cylindrical structures, each home to more than 50,000 people, linked by powerful magnets, and generating artificial gravity by slowly rotating.

Dr. Janhunen said in his paper that, Residents would mine resources from Ceres 600 miles below the settlement and haul them back up using space elevators, the report cited.

Lifting the materials from Ceres is energetically cheap compared to processing them into habitats, if a space elevator is used, he wrote.

Dr. Janhunen added, Because Ceres has low gravity and rotates relatively fast, the space elevator is feasible.

Why Ceres and not Mars?

Dr. Janhunen added, Ceres the largest object in the asteroid belt is the best destination for off-world settlements due to its Nitrogen-rich atmosphere, which would allow settlers to more easily create Earth-like conditions, compared to Mars carbon dioxide-rich environment.

What about the threats of rogue asteroids or space radiation?

The report noted, that to address outside threats, Dr. Janhunen, who worked with a number of Finnish researchers on the paper, proposed that giant, cylindrical mirrors placed around the mega-satellite could protect it from bombardment of all kinds.

The mirrors would play a dual role - in addition to protection, they would focus sunlight onto the habitat for the growth of crops and other plantlife, the report said.

There are a number of issues with the plans.

In his paper, Janhunen also highlighted a number of issues with the plans.

For starters, theres the not-so-small hurdle of actually flying people to Ceres, the report noted.

The Sun stated that a probe sent to Ceres in 2015, by NASA, took a staggering eight years to get there - far too long to sustain hundreds of people using current technology.

Also, Dr. Janhunen admitted that the energy required to lift building materials from Ceres to orbit would represent a major obstacle, the report revealed.

Dr. Janhunens research, which was published Jan. 6 in the pre-print journal Arxiv, has not yet been peer-reviewed by scientists, the The Sun reported.

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Humans could move to a floating asteroid belt colony within 15 years, top scientist suggests - pennlive.com

Over the years, Elon Musk has been rather open about how he (and the company he founded) plan to make space more accessible and allow humanity to become an interplanetary species. A key element to this plan is the Starship and Super-Heavy launch system, which will allow for regular trips to the Moon as well as the eventual creation of the first human colony on Mars.

Another key part of Musks plan is the creation of spaceports at sea that will allow for greater flexibility with launches and landings. To that end, SpaceX recently acquired two former oil drilling rigs off the coast of Texas. These spaceports have been dubbed Phobos and Deimos (after Mars two satellites) and are currently undergoing modifications to conduct Starship launches in the near future.

For years, Elon Musk has been up front about his plans to use floating spaceports for future Starship launches. But the first hints that they were close to realizing this goal came last summer when SpaceX indicated on their website that it was looking for experienced offshore crane operators, electricians, and engineers. The postings also indicated that the jobs were related to the development of the Starship.

More importantly, the posting specified that the positions were located in Brownsville, Texas, the closest town to SpaceXs Boca Chica Launch Facility. News of this was shared via Twitter back in June by Gavin Cornwell (@SpaceXFleet), who originally learned of it from photographer Dan Paasch (who regularly makes takes aerial photographs of Boca Chica to show the Starships progress).

Musk confirmed this from his own account shortly thereafter, saying that: SpaceX is building floating, superheavy-class spaceports for Mars, moon & hypersonic travel around Earth, later adding, We need to be far enough away so as not to bother heavily populated areas. The launch & landing are not subtle. But you could get within a few miles of the spaceport in a boat.

Two days later (Jan. 18th), aerospace and launch photographer Jack Beyer (@thejackbeyer) announced that while exploring around the port of Brownsville, he had picked up on some scuttlebutt regarding the platforms. According to what he heard, the platforms would be named Phobos and Deimos the twin children of Ares, the god of war (Mars in the Roman pantheon) and the names of Mars two moons.

This was confirmed a day later by NASA Spaceflights own Michael Baylor (@nextspaceflight), who indicated that the nearly-identical rigs formerly known as Valaris ENSCO 8500 and ENSCO 8501 would fittingly be named after Mars twins. Whereas SpaceX has been recovering spent first stages at sea for years with their drone ships, these platforms will allow the company to conduct launches at sea for the first time.

And SpaceX is hardly alone in seeking offshore launch facilities. China has also been working on its own floating spaceport, which is located off the coast of Haiyang city in the eastern province of Shandong. Once it is fully operational, the Eastern Aerospace Port (as theyve named it), will be Chinas fourth spaceport and the only one that is not located inland.

Spaceports at sea offer a number of advantages over inland launch facilities. For starters, launches for inland facilities often result in spent stages falling back to Earth, which can pose significant damage to populated areas and result in hazardous chemicals and unspent propellant leaking into the ground. As such, inland facilities require extensive safety procedures and cleanup operations.

While SpaceX circumvents much of this danger by launching from Boca Chica and Cape Canaveral, SpaceX hopes to conduct regular launches with the Starship and Super Heavy. On top of that, this launch system poses a significant noise problem. Once complete, each Super Heavy will have no less than 28 Raptor engines, thought Musk has hinted that initial flights will have less (Musk has estimated that it might be around 20).

With regular launches taking place, this will mean that the blast areas around the launch pads will need to be wide, and noise concerns will also need to be taken into account. Similarly, Musks long-term plan for making regular trips to Mars call for orbital refueling, where a tanker version of the Starship modified to carry propellant will meet with and refuel a passenger/payload version of the Starship after they have reach orbit.

Musk has also hinted in the past that SpaceX could be conducting intercontinental flights with the Starship someday. According to an animation released by the company in 2017 (see below), this would involve having spaceports off the coast of major cities that would be serviced by passenger boats. Clearly, launches and landing at sea has been a part of Musk long-term vision for SpaceX for awhile.

Further Reading: NASA SpaceFlight

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Starships Will be Launching From These Oil Drilling Platforms Bought by SpaceX - Universe Today

In a series of tweets, Mr Musk revealed plans to colonise the Red Planet by building a one-million-strong city by 2050. He said he hoped to produce 1,000 of SpaceX's Starship spacecrafts over 10 years and launch three a day. The rockets would blast off from Earth, each carrying roughly 100 tonnes of equipment, as well as 100 people in the hope of building a permanent settlement on Mars.

And author Joseph Pisenti revealed on his YouTube channel RealLifeLore how Mr Musk plans to do it.

He said: The key component for this migration of people to happen revolves around SpaceXs latest rocket ship known as Starship.

It is a fully-reusable heavy-lift vehicle that has been under development since 2018.

Still in the prototype stage today, the rocket consists of two stages the Super Heavy Booster for the first and the Starship for the second.

The rocket will be fully reusable. As soon as it takes off and is boosted into space, the first stage will descend back to Earth and land much like Falcon 9.

But once launched from Earth, Starship will need to be refuelled before beginning its journey to Mars."

Mr Pisenti went on to outline some of the issues that could arise.

He added: Although it is a massively powerful rocket, it will still take the majority of its fuel just to break free from Earths gravity.

For every rocket heading to Mars, a subsequent rocket will need to be launched to fuel each ship.

READ MORE:Elon Musks Terminator warning over 'concerning' AI technology tested in USAF spy plane

But the complications dont stop there. Travelling home wouldnt be possible at all, because all the fuel would have been expended during the journey.

This is why the first settlers will have to set up a fuel production facility straight away.

Otherwise, good luck ever coming home or making use of the rockets again.

But Mr Pisenti outlined how the new settlers could play a vital part in boosting the project's potential.

He continued: The fuel that will most-likely power Starship on its journey to Mars is something known as Deep Cryo Methalox its essentially methane and liquid oxygen.

The trouble, however, will be producing these on Mars and finding an efficient way to do so.

A likely solution is using the ice melt found on Mars for water as well as a large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Together, along with a complex chemical conversion process, the propellant can be produced. But it will take an enormous amount of energy to do so.

To fill the 1,200-tonne fuel tank of Starship it is expected that roughly 16 gigawatts hours of locally Martian produced power will be required.

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Elon Musk's plan to send one million people to Mars boosted with colonisation 'solution' - Daily Express

Lifestyle

25 Jan, 2021 05:42 AM3 minutes to read

Dwarf planet Ceres is located in the main asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, as illustrated in this artist's conception. Photo / Nasa

An astrophysicist has claimed that humans could be living in a mega-colony in space in as little as 15 years' time.

The stunning timeframe has been suggested by Dr Pekka Janhunen, an astrophysicist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, in Helsinki.

In a research paper published this month, Dr Janhunen says humans could be living on floating orbs in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter within the next 15 years.

According to the scientist, humans will be able to settle on floating "mega-satellites" around the dwarf planet Ceres, about 325 million miles from Earth (which some may not see as far enough away).

"The motivation is to have a settlement with artificial gravity that allows growth beyond Earth's living area," Dr Janhunen wrote in his research paper, in which he lays out the blueprint for these "mega-satellites".

While most previous theories about human settlements in space pointed towards Mars or the moon - mostly due to distance from Earth - Dr Janhunen's theory is different, in which it would see humans settling a lot further out.

The astrophysicist proposes disk-shaped settlements, with thousands of cylindrical structures, able to house 50,000 people.

The floating mega-satellites would be linked by powerful magnets and, according to the scientist, would be able to generate gravity with their own slow rotation.

He also says those inhabitants would potentially be able to mine resources from the dwarf planet Ceres and use "space elevators" to carry them back to their "pods".

"Lifting the materials from Ceres is energetically cheap compared to processing them into habitats, if a space elevator is used," he wrote in his paper.

"Because Ceres has low gravity and rotates relatively fast, the space elevator is feasible."

He believes the area is the best location for a human settlement, due to its nitrogen-rich atmosphere.

In his research paper, published earlier this month and yet to be peer-reviewed, Dr Janhunen looks into the obstacles to his theory, including the time it takes to travel to Ceres - a Nasa probe sent in 2015 took eight years to get there - and the energy needed to lift building materials from the dwarf planet.

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Humans could be living in a 'floating asteroid belt colony' in 15 years' time, scientist says - New Zealand Herald

In the Mass Effect universe, humanity has come together, at last, united in the endeavor to explore the stars and create a civilization in all of known space. This is the Systems Alliance andit features everything from diplomats and ship engineers toa mighty (space) navy. Fans will remember that people considered Commander Shepard an Alliance hero even before becoming a Spectre.

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The Alliance is not alone, however. Humanity is taking its first steps onto a vast and complex galactic landscape complete with centuries-old political alliances, interstellar nations, and more than a few rogue pirates and bloodthirsty mercenaries. How will the united humanity rise to the challenge? And what key features or events define the Systems Alliance as a whole?

Humanity has made a strong impression on the other alien races with some impressions being more flattering than others. The Batarians hate humanity and the Turian people are a bit cold toward them. But the Salarian people are eager to form strong ties with the Alliance. Why is that?

Like humanity, the Salarians have a can-do attitude.Due to theirdriven by scientific curiosity and a strong eye for detail, they see potential in just about everything. Ideologically, the Alliance and Salarians have a decent amount in common. So, the Alliance earned itself an ally in the Salarians.

Unfortunately, inequality and extreme wealth disparities are still a fact of life in the 2100s. Overall, the Systems Alliance has made huge gains in medical and military technology, as well as science and engineering overall. But some parts of Earth's citizens reaped the benefits more than others.

At its best, the Alliance is a true sci-fi wonderland complete with sparkling steel cities, high-tech spaceships, and robots. But poorer parts of the Earth still exist in the early 21st century, lagging far behind the apex of the Alliance. For some of Earth's citizens, outer space is still very far away.

Even in the 2180s, the Systems Alliance is quite aware of the achievements of the 1900s and 2000s. They named many cities and space stations after major figuresduring humanity's efforts to colonize outer space. For example, the moon's capital city is Armstrong and it's easy to guess where that name came from.

RELATED: Mass Effect: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Javik

Similarly, the outer Solar System is home to Gagarin Station named after Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut who became the first human being to reach outer space. Mars, meanwhile, is home to Lowell City and named after Percival Lowell.He once thought that Mars was home to irrigation canals and fields of crops that came and went with the seasons. It turned out that he was actually observing dust storms.

The Systems Alliance innovated many wondrous things in its time, but humanity needed outside help for some projects. For example, the Alliance was baffled when people started using biotic powers-- the telekinetic powers exhibited by characters like Miranda and Jack. It took time for humans to even realize that element zero (eezo) plays a role at all.

So, the Alliance reached out to the aliens, mainly the Turians, to figure out how to train biotics (for public image reasons, the Alliance didn't ask the Asari people). Even now, humanity lags behind the other races when it comes to understanding and using biotic power.

Mars has always captured humanity's imagination, such as picturing terrifying three-legged war machines invading Earth or just little green men. In reality, the ancient Protheans had observed humanity from that world, and the remains of their Mars colonies unlocked the secrets of FTL travel for humanity.

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This critical discovery allowed humanity to expand beyond the Solar System. Up to the current time in the games, Mars is home to vital archives, secret blueprints, and Prothean relics. This is why the Cerberus organization raided the planet early in the Reaper invasion.

Should the Alliance get help from the older alien civilizations and accept all the strings that are attached? Would humanity look weak or put itself deep into debt to the Turians or Asari if they did? This is a matter of debate.

Some members of the Alliance are ready to work together with alien races to establish new colonies, create political ties, set up trade routes, learn new technological secrets, and more. Others, such as the Terra Firma party's members, don't trust the aliens and want humanity to expand strictly on its own terms. Cerberus is the ultimate expression of that sentiment.

Humanity has mixed views on its many alien neighbors, and in return, many aliens are cautious about the Alliance, or downright afraid of it. Why? Humanity is expanding quickly and recklessly claiming new resources and worlds. Some aliens fear that humanity will react poorly if it is denied anything that the Alliance wants. Will humanity throw a violent tantrum if the Alliance is denied certain trade deals or worlds for colonization?

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The aliens are not yet sure, since they have not known the Alliance for long. No one is fully sure how the Alliance tends to handle its problems. It follows that some of the other species see humanity as a powder keg. The Alliance is young and fledgling which makes it a wild card.

By this point in human development, the concepts of race and ethnicity are changing. After all, the human race is now just one race of the Milky Way Galaxy.But the Systems Alliance is calledso for a reason; all of humanity, regardless of ethnicity, gender, or class, is united in its attempts to move society forward and colonize the stars.

Fortunately for the Alliance, the feuds and clashes of old Earthseem to be gone. Earth's denizens have blurred the gene pool a great deal. Most people have two or more major ethnicities to their name. What's important is that an Alliance citizen is humanwhether they are part Canadian, Korean, Filipino, Nigerian, or otherwise.

In the late 2150s, the human colony world of Shanxi came under alien attack. The Turians had arrived and the panicking Alliance officials thought that the extinct Protheans had returned. All of humanity's "alien invader" nightmares came true, but the war was a short one.

Humanity calls it the First Contact War since these Turians were the first aliens the Alliance had ever met. Meanwhile, the Citadel races called that conflict the Relay 314 Incident which puts things into a different perspective.

It was merely a misunderstanding in one obscure neck of the galaxy according to them, and they had a name for the mass relay involved. For the Alliance, that conflict was a big deal; for other aliens, it's more like "Oh right, didn't the Turians accidentally attack some humans that one time?" But not all Turians or humans are so cavalier about the incident as many fans will remember.

Some militaries in the galaxy are noted for having a particular style. The famed Turian military is based on rigid discipline and order while Asari Commandos are like elite space ninjas. The Salarians take the initiative and win via superior spying and planning while the Krogans have impressive numbers and redundant organ systems. The Alliance military, in contrast, does a bit of everything.

It's true that the Alliance can't stand up to the Turians in a straight fight. However, given the Alliance's youth, it's impressive that the Alliance military is already so powerful and advanced. Its ships and soldiers can adapt to nearly any type of battle or campaign by making use of battle fleets, infantry battalions, mobile tanks, some biotics, and more.

KEEP READING: Mass Effect: 10 Things You Should Know About the Terminus Systems

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Mass Effect: 10 Things You Must Know About the Systems Alliance - TheGamer

The Week

"Republicans have a Marjorie Taylor Greene problem. Again," The Associated Press reports. House GOP leaders urged voters in Georgia's 14th Congressional District to pick someone else in the primary, wary of Greene's QAnon allegiance and documented history of racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Muslim comments. After she prevailed in the primary, they pushed for her victory in the general election. She won. Calls for Greene's ouster from the House started days after she was seated. And Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) said Wednesday he will introduce a measure to expel her, following new scrutiny of her social media history. CNN's KFILE got that ball rolling Tuesday. Then the floodgates opened. Greene has called various deadly school shootings and the Las Vegas music festival massacre "false flag" events, questioned 9/11, and endorsed some foul QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories. Marjorie Taylor Greene is into some seriously disturbed stuff here. The conspiracy theory she's promoting, "Frazzledrip," is about Hillary Clinton torturing a baby and wearing its face as a mask. https://t.co/TpW382v9Bg Will Sommer (@willsommer) January 26, 2021 Republican leaders are, once again, appalled. Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Greene's posts are "disgusting," have "no place in our party" and "should be looked into," adding that "QAnon is beyond fringe. I think it's dangerous." Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) called Greene "a RINO," or Republican in Name Only. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said through a spokesman that her comments are "deeply disturbing" and he "plans to have a conversation with the congresswoman about them." In 2019, McCarthy stripped former Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) of all his committee assignments after he expressed support for white supremacists, AP reports. "Greene was named this week to the House Education and Labor Committee." CNN's Erin Burnett called that assignment doubly disturbing, given Greene's dismissal of school shootings, but said McCarthy knows some of the money Greene is raising off her outrages will go to the House GOP campaign committee. Greene issued a weak and incredible non-denial denial of her social media activity, but the "steady stream of revelations" plus "Greene's puzzling defense of herself should make Republicans wonder how long they can put up with this," Aaron Blake writes at The Washington Post. "We tend to overestimate how much a politician like that can drag down their national party, but Greene's lack of remorse and candor reinforces how much of a loose cannon she could be moving forward." More stories from theweek.com5 brutally funny cartoons about the GOP's Trump problemHow to make perfect French toast in 4 simple stepsDemocrats plan to make every House Republican take a vote on GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

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Team Behind Space Probe Headed To Mars Includes Staff From CU Boulder - Yahoo News