Daily Archives: March 25, 2021

When did we first start exploring space?

The first human-made object to go into space was a German V2 missile, launched on a test flight in 1942. Although uncrewed, it reached an altitude of 189km (117 miles).

Former Nazi rocket scientists were later recruited by both America and Russia (often at gunpoint in the latter case), where they were instrumental in developing Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) rockets capable of carrying nuclear weapons from one side of the planet to the other.

A captured German V-2 rocket, the worlds first guided missile, launched at the US Army testing base at White Sands, in New Mexico Getty Images

It was these super-missiles that formed the basis for the space programmes of both post-war superpowers. As it happened, Russia was the first to reach Earth orbit, when it launched the uncrewed Sputnik 1 in October 1957, followed a month later by Sputnik 2, carrying the dog Laika the first live animal in space.

The USA sent its first uncrewed satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit soon after, in January 1958. A slew of robotic spaceflights followed, from both sides of the Atlantic, before Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin piloted Vostok 1 into orbit on 12 April 1961, to become the first human being in space. And from there the space race proper began, culminating in Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin becoming the first people to walk on the Moon as part of NASAs Apollo programme.

Space exploration is the future. It satisfies the human urge to explore and to travel, and in the years and decades to come it could even provide our species with new places to call home especially relevant now, as Earth becomes increasingly crowded.

Extending our reach into space is also necessary for the advancement of science. Space telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope and probes to the distant worlds of the Solar System are continually updating, and occasionally revolutionising, our understanding of astronomy and physics.

But there are also some very practical reasons, such as mining asteroids for materials that are extremely rare here on Earth.

One example is the huge reserve of the chemical isotope helium-3 thought to be locked away in the soil on the surface of the Moon. This isotope is a potential fuel for future nuclear fusion reactors power stations that tap into the same source of energy as the Sun. Unlike other fusion fuels, helium-3 gives off no hard-to-contain and deadly neutron radiation.

However, for this to happen the first challenge to overcome is how to build a base on the Moon. In 2019, Chinas Change 4 mission marked the beginning of a new space race to conquer the Moon, signalling their intent to build a permanent lunar base, while the NASA Artemis mission plans to build a space station, called Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, providing a platform to ferry astronauts to the Moons surface.

Its entirely feasible that human explorers will visit the furthest reaches of our Solar System. The stars, however, are another matter. Interstellar space is so vast that it takes light the fastest thing we know of in the Universe years, centuries and millennia to traverse it. Faster-than-light travel may be possible one day, but is unlikely to become a reality in our lifetimes.

Its not impossible that humans might one day cross this cosmic gulf, though it wont be easy. The combustion-powered rocket engines of today certainly arent up to the job they just dont use fuel efficiently enough. Instead, interstellar spacecraft may create a rocket-like propulsion jet using electric and magnetic fields. This so-called ion drive technology has already been tested aboard uncrewed Solar System probes.

Star Treks USS Enterprise, the iconic warp-capable ship Alamy

Another possibility is to push spacecraft off towards the stars using the light from a high-powered laser. A consortium of scientists calling themselves Breakthrough Starshot is already planning to send a flotilla of tiny robotic probes to our nearest star, Proxima Centauri, using just this method.

Though whether human astronauts could survive such punishing acceleration, or the decades-long journey through deep space, remains to be seen.

Pushing forward the frontiers of science is the stated goal of many space missions. But even the development of space travel technology itself can lead to unintended yet beneficial spin-off technologies with some very down-to-earth applications.

Notable spin-offs from the US space programme, NASA, include memory foam mattresses, artificial hearts, and the lubricant spray WD-40. Doubtless, there are many more to come.

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Space exploration also instils a sense of wonder, it reminds us that there are issues beyond our humdrum planet and its petty squabbles, and without doubt it helps to inspire each new generation of young scientists. Its also an insurance policy. Were now all too aware that global calamities can and do happen for instance, climate change and the giant asteroid that smashed into the Earth 65 million years ago, leading to the total extinction of the dinosaurs.

The lesson for the human species is that we keep all our eggs in one basket at our peril. On the other hand, a healthy space programme, and the means to travel to other worlds, gives us an out.

In short, yes very. Reaching orbit means accelerating up to around 28,000kph (17,000mph, or 22 times the speed of sound). If anything goes wrong at that speed, its seldom good news.

Then theres the growing cloud of space junk to contend with in Earths orbit defunct satellites, discarded rocket stages and other detritus all moving just as fast. A five-gram bolt hitting at orbital speed packs as much energy as a 200kg weight dropped from the top of an 18-storey building.

The movie Gravity highlighted the dangers of space debris Warner Brothers

And getting to space is just the start of the danger. The principal hazard once there is cancer-producing radiation the typical dose from one day in space is equivalent to what youd receive over an entire year back on Earth, thanks to the planets atmosphere and protective magnetic field.

Add to that the icy cold airless vacuum, the need to bring all your own food and water, plus the effects of long-duration weightlessness on bone density, the brain and muscular condition including that of the heart and it soon becomes clear that venturing into space really isnt for the faint-hearted.

Its already happening that is, assuming your pockets are deep enough. The first self-funded space tourist was US businessman Dennis Tito, who in 2001 spent a week aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for the cool sum of $20m (15m).

Virgin Galactic has long been promising to take customers on short sub-orbital hops into space where passengers get to experience rocket propulsion and several minutes of weightlessness, before gliding back to a runway landing on Earth, all for $250k (190k). In late July 2020, the company unveiled the finished cabin in its SpaceShipTwo vehicle, suggesting that commercial spaceflights may begin shortly.

SpaceX expects that one day their Starship could carry passengers to the Moon SpaceX/Flickr

Meanwhile, Elon Musks SpaceX, which in May 2020 became the first private company to launch a human crew to Earth orbit aboard the Crew Dragon, plans to offer stays on the ISS for $35k (27k) per night. SpaceX is now prototyping its huge Starship vehicle, which is designed to take 100 passengers from Earth to as far afield as Mars for around $20k (15k) per head. Musk stated in January that he hoped to be operating 1,000 Starships by 2050.

10 Short Lessons in Space Travel by Paul Parsons is out now (9.99, Michael OMara)

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Space travel: (almost) everything you need to know about ...

The first earthling to orbit our planet was just two years old, plucked from the streets of Moscow barely more than a week before her historic launch. Her name was Laika. She was a terrier mutt and by all accounts a good dog. Her 1957 flight paved the way for space exploration back when scientists didnt know if spaceflight was lethal for living things.

Humans are explorers. Since before the dawn of civilization, weve been lured over the horizon to find food or more space, to make a profit, or just to see whats beyond those trees or mountains or oceans. Our ability to explore reached new heightsliterallyin the last hundred years. Airplanes shortened distances, simplified travel, and showed us Earth from a new perspective. By the middle of the last century, we aimed even higher.

Our first steps into space began as a race between the United States and the former Soviet Union, rivals in a global struggle for power. Laika was followed into orbit four years later by the first human, Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin. With Earth orbit achieved, we turned our sights on the moon. The United States landed two astronauts on its stark surface in 1969, and five more manned missions followed. The U.S.s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched probes to study the solar system. Manned space stations began glittering in the sky. NASA developed reusable spacecraftspace shuttle orbitersto ferry astronauts and satellites to orbit. Space-travel technology had advanced light-years in just three decades. Gagarin had to parachute from his spaceship after reentry from orbit. The space shuttle leaves orbit at 16,465 miles an hour (26,498 kilometers an hour) and glides to a stop on a runway without using an engine.

Space travel is nothing like in the movies. Getting from A to B requires complex calculations involving inertia and gravityliterally, rocket scienceto "slingshot" from planet to planet (or moon) across the solar system. The Voyager mission of the 1970s took advantage of a rare alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune to shave off nearly 20 years of travel time. Space is also dangerous. More than 20 astronauts have died doing their job.

That hasnt stopped people from signing up and blasting off. NASAs shuttle program has ended, but private companies are readying their own space programs. A company called Planetary Resources plans to send robot astronauts to the Asteroid Belt to mine for precious metals. Another company named SpaceX is hoping to land civilian astronauts on Marsthe next human step into the solar systemin 20 years. NASA and other civilian companies are planning their own Mars missions. Maybe youll be a member of one? Dont forget to bring your dog.

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History of Space Travel

We human beings have been venturing into space since October 4, 1957, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth. This happened during the period of political hostility between the Soviet Union and the United States known as the Cold War. For several years, the two superpowers had been competing to develop missiles, called intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), to carry nuclear weapons between continents. In the U.S.S.R., the rocket designer Sergei Korolev had developed the first ICBM, a rocket called the R7, which would begin the space race.

This competition came to a head with the launch of Sputnik. Carried atop an R7 rocket, the Sputnik satellite was able to send out beeps from a radio transmitter. After reaching space, Sputnik orbited Earth once every 96 minutes. The radio beeps could be detected on the ground as the satellite passed overhead, so people all around the world knew that it was really in orbit. Realizing that the U.S.S.R. had capabilities that exceeded U.S. technologies that could endanger Americans, the United States grew worried. Then, a month later, on November 3, 1957, the Soviets achieved an even more impressive space venture. This was Sputnik II, a satellite that carried a living creature, a dog named Laika.

Prior to the launch of Sputnik, the United States had been working on its own capability to launch a satellite. The United States made two failed attempts to launch a satellite into space before succeeding with a rocket that carried a satellite called Explorer on January 31, 1958. The team that achieved this first U.S. satellite launch consisted largely of German rocket engineers who had once developed ballistic missiles for Nazi Germany. Working for the U.S. Army at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, the German rocket engineers were led by Wernher von Braun and had developed the German V2 rocket into a more powerful rocket, called the Jupiter C, or Juno. Explorer carried several instruments into space for conducting science experiments. One instrument was a Geiger counter for detecting cosmic rays. This was for an experiment operated by researcher James Van Allen, which, together with measurements from later satellites, proved the existence of what are now called the Van Allen radiation belts around Earth.

In 1958, space exploration activities in the United States were consolidated into a new government agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). When it began operations in October of 1958, NASA absorbed what had been called the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and several other research and military facilities, including the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (the Redstone Arsenal) in Huntsville.

The first human in space was the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who made one orbit around Earth on April 12, 1961, on a flight that lasted 108 minutes. A little more than three weeks later, NASA launched astronaut Alan Shepard into space, not on an orbital flight, but on a suborbital trajectorya flight that goes into space but does not go all the way around Earth. Shepards suborbital flight lasted just over 15 minutes. Three weeks later, on May 25, President John F. Kennedy challenged the United States to an ambitious goal, declaring: I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth."

In addition to launching the first artificial satellite, the first dog in space, and the first human in space, the Soviet Union achieved other space milestones ahead of the United States. These milestones included Luna 2, which became the first human-made object to hit the Moon in 1959. Soon after that, the U.S.S.R. launched Luna 3. Less than four months after Gagarins flight in 1961, a second Soviet human mission orbited a cosmonaut around Earth for a full day. The U.S.S.R. also achieved the first spacewalk and launched the Vostok 6 mission, which made Valentina Tereshkova the first woman to travel to space.

During the 1960s, NASA made progress toward President Kennedys goal of landing a human on the moon with a program called Project Gemini, in which astronauts tested technology needed for future flights to the moon, and tested their own ability to endure many days in spaceflight. Project Gemini was followed by Project Apollo, which took astronauts into orbit around the moon and to the lunar surface between 1968 and 1972. In 1969, on Apollo 11, the United States sent the first astronauts to the Moon, and Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on its surface. During the landed missions, astronauts collected samples of rocks and lunar dust that scientists still study to learn about the moon. During the 1960s and 1970s, NASA also launched a series of space probes called Mariner, which studied Venus, Mars, and Mercury.

Space stations marked the next phase of space exploration. The first space station in Earth orbit was the Soviet Salyut 1 station, which was launched in 1971. This was followed by NASAs Skylab space station, the first orbital laboratory in which astronauts and scientists studied Earth and the effects of spaceflight on the human body. During the 1970s, NASA also carried out Project Viking in which two probes landed on Mars, took numerous photographs, examined the chemistry of the Martian surface environment, and tested the Martian dirt (called regolith) for the presence of microorganisms.

Since the Apollo lunar program ended in 1972, human space exploration has been limited to low-Earth orbit, where many countries participate and conduct research on the International Space Station. However, unpiloted probes have traveled throughout our solar system. In recent years, probes have made a range of discoveries, including that a moon of Jupiter, called Europa, and a moon of Saturn, called Enceladus, have oceans under their surface ice that scientists think may harbor life. Meanwhile, instruments in space, such as the Kepler Space Telescope, and instruments on the ground have discovered thousands of exoplanets, planets orbiting other stars. This era of exoplanet discovery began in 1995, and advanced technology now allows instruments in space to characterize the atmospheres of some of these exoplanets.

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The History of Space Exploration | National Geographic Society

The Short Answer:

Although humans can't hop into a time machine and go back in time, we do know that clocks on airplanes and satellites travel at a different speed than those on Earth.

We all travel in time! We travel one year in time between birthdays, for example. And we are all traveling in time at approximately the same speed: 1 second per second.

We typically experience time at one second per second. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's space telescopes also give us a way to look back in time. Telescopes help us see stars and galaxies that are very far away. It takes a long time for the light from faraway galaxies to reach us. So, when we look into the sky with a telescope, we are seeing what those stars and galaxies looked like a very long time ago.

However, when we think of the phrase "time travel," we are usually thinking of traveling faster than 1 second per second. That kind of time travel sounds like something you'd only see in movies or science fiction books. Could it be real? Science says yes!

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows galaxies that are very far away as they existed a very long time ago. Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Thompson (Univ. Arizona)

More than 100 years ago, a famous scientist named Albert Einstein came up with an idea about how time works. He called it relativity. This theory says that time and space are linked together. Einstein also said our universe has a speed limit: nothing can travel faster than the speed of light (186,000 miles per second).

Einstein's theory of relativity says that space and time are linked together. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

What does this mean for time travel? Well, according to this theory, the faster you travel, the slower you experience time. Scientists have done some experiments to show that this is true.

For example, there was an experiment that used two clocks set to the exact same time. One clock stayed on Earth, while the other flew in an airplane (going in the same direction Earth rotates).

After the airplane flew around the world, scientists compared the two clocks. The clock on the fast-moving airplane was slightly behind the clock on the ground. So, the clock on the airplane was traveling slightly slower in time than 1 second per second.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

We can't use a time machine to travel hundreds of years into the past or future. That kind of time travel only happens in books and movies. But the math of time travel does affect the things we use every day.

For example, we use GPS satellites to help us figure out how to get to new places. (Check out our video about how GPS satellites work.) NASA scientists also use a high-accuracy version of GPS to keep track of where satellites are in space. But did you know that GPS relies on time-travel calculations to help you get around town?

GPS satellites orbit around Earth very quickly at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. This slows down GPS satellite clocks by a small fraction of a second (similar to the airplane example above).

GPS satellites orbit around Earth at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. Credit: GPS.gov

However, the satellites are also orbiting Earth about 12,550 miles (20,200 km) above the surface. This actually speeds up GPS satellite clocks by a slighter larger fraction of a second.

Here's how: Einstein's theory also says that gravity curves space and time, causing the passage of time to slow down. High up where the satellites orbit, Earth's gravity is much weaker. This causes the clocks on GPS satellites to run faster than clocks on the ground.

The combined result is that the clocks on GPS satellites experience time at a rate slightly faster than 1 second per second. Luckily, scientists can use math to correct these differences in time.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

If scientists didn't correct the GPS clocks, there would be big problems. GPS satellites wouldn't be able to correctly calculate their position or yours. The errors would add up to a few miles each day, which is a big deal. GPS maps might think your home is nowhere near where it actually is!

Yes, time travel is indeed a real thing. But it's not quite what you've probably seen in the movies. Under certain conditions, it is possible to experience time passing at a different rate than 1 second per second. And there are important reasons why we need to understand this real-world form of time travel.

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Is Time Travel Possible? | NASA Space Place NASA Science ...

Meanwhile, companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin plan to run much less expensive trips into suborbital space, allowing customers to experience microgravity and a view of Earth for a few minutes. Virgin Galactic eventually plans to runmore than 400 flights a yeara mix of tourist trips and missions for scientists running experiments and research in microgravity.

All these new opportunities will make us rethink what astronaut training means. And it means almost anyone will be able to go to space, if youre rich enough.

Once upon a time, getting a launch ready was a two-year process. The first astronauts selected for the Mercury program had to be military test pilots with college degrees and 1,500 hours of flying time under their belts. They also had to be younger than 40 and shorter than 5 feet 11 inches. The Gemini and Apollo programs were opened up to civilian applicants, raised the height barrier to 6 feet, took applicants no older than 35, and put a bigger emphasis on educational background.

As part of the training for these programs, recruits had to take classes on literal rocket science and spacecraft engineering. They had to learn medical procedures. They had to take public speaking courses and become media ready. Oh, and there was also a bunch of training in the air, on the ground, and underwater designed to physically and mentally prepare astronauts for the stresses and experiences they were about to face.

Even just a couple of decades ago, you needed an almost totally clean medical history to qualify for NASA training. If you said I get migraine headaches occasionally, something benign like that, it was an automatic disqualificationperiod, says Glenn King, the director of spaceflight training at the National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center, which has trained over 600 people for both orbital and suborbital missions operated by companies like Virgin Galactic.

Future generations of private astronauts wont have to jump through half as many hoops. The right stuff has changed. The FAA has onlylight safety guidelines around training private astronauts. Its really up to the companies to approach things as they see fit.

What we're looking at now is basically a paradigm shift in space training, says King. The private sector is looking at basically everybody in the general public that has a desire and the finances to fly into space to have the opportunity to go.

Even to be a NASA astronaut these days, you dont have to be a finely tuned athletic specimen, says Derek Hassmann, the director of operations and training for Axiom Space. The agencys physical requirements are looser than theyve ever been.

Private companies have taken cues from NASA. King says the NASTAR Center has already started training some private astronauts who have disabilities (something the European Space Agency wants to begin doing for its own astronaut corps). One of Inspiration 4s confirmed crew members is Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old physician assistant at St. Judes hospital who survived bone cancer as a child. Her treatment included a dozen rounds of chemotherapy as well as the placement of a titanium rod in her left thigh bone. It wont stop her from going into space this fall.

Inspiration 4s other two travelers will be selected through a raffle and an entrepreneurial contest. People who signed up for the raffle had to attest to being less than six and a half feet tall and under 250 pounds. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has likened a trip into orbit to an intense roller coaster ride, and he says anyone who can handle that should be fine for flying on Dragon.

Thats definitely a bit glib. When a giant rocket propels you out of Earths atmosphere, you will experience elevated g-forces for several minutes that will cause your body to rattle nonstop, and you probably wont be able to do anything but stay strapped in with your teeth clenched. But for the most part, what groups like NASA, Axiom, and others consider disqualifying health conditions are things like arrhythmia that could cause heart failure, or high blood pressure that puts you at elevated risk for a brain aneurysm.

These arent problems you can treat in spacewhich could mean severe complications or death. If theres any kind of medical conditions that could cause a crew member to get sick or incapacitated on orbit, we try to screen for those things, Hassmann says. But if flight doctors feel those risks can be properly addressed before flight, they may not be disqualifying.

In June 2019, NASA and its partners announced that the ISS would be opened up tovisits from private citizens. For Axiom, this was the opportunity for its astronauts to learn what its like to travel into space and live and work in an orbital space station. It plans to launch its own in 2024.

These missions will allow us to practice all the things well need for the Axiom station down the road, says Hassmann. Ax-1 will be led by former NASA astronaut Michael Lpez-Alegra. Hell be joined by three businessmen: Eytan Stibbe from Israel, Larry Connor from the US, and Mark Pathy from Canada.

Lpez-Alegra will be taking his fifth trip into space. Hes had years of professional astronaut training under NASA. The other three are total newbies to space, though Stibbe is a former fighter pilot and Connor (whos 71) has training as a private pilot. They are paying $55 million each for the ticket.

These three will start training six to seven months before launch. NASA contractors will teach them how to live and work on the ISS, running drills on how to respond to emergencies like a loss of cabin pressure. Certain facilities at NASA and elsewhere can simulate what a decompressed chamber feels like for people in spacesuits. But much of this training is to make sure the astronauts are used to the look and feel of their new habitat. Theyll learn how to do normal day-to-day functions, like preparing meals, brushing their teeth, using the bathroom, and getting ready for bed. It will still take time to adjust to microgravity, but at least theyll be armed with strategies to make the transition smoother.

Its all about the simple stuff that is very different when youre in microgravity, says Hassmann. Ive worked with a lot of NASA astronauts over the years, and all of them talk about this adaptation period, physically and emotionally, when they first arrive in space. Our crew is only on a 10-day mission. So its in everybodys best interest to prepare them as much as we possibly can on the ground, so that they adapt quickly, and they get down to the things that are important to them.

The Ax-1 crew will be trained for this environment at Johnson Space Center, where NASA has a full mockup of the ISS interior. Theyll also go on parabolic flights that simulate weightlessness. In the future, Axiom wants to move this type of training in house, and center it specifically on the companys own space station environment. Other training centers, like NASTAR, run human centrifuge facilities that expose trainees to the elevated g-forces experienced during launch and reentry.

The second part of Ax-1 training will aim to familiarize the astronauts with the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which will take them to the ISS. Theyll get accustomed to what its like to sit inside, interact with the panels that control functionality and monitor data, and so forth. This is run by SpaceX primarily out of its facilities in Hawthorne, California. Crew Dragon mostly works autonomously, so the crew members should have to take only a few direct actions on their own. But if anything goes awry, they do need to be prepared to step in. On Ax-1, Lpez-Alegra and Connor will act as the commander and pilot for the mission, respectively, and lead the flight to the ISS. Theyll need to be most familiar with how Crew Dragon works.

About a month before launch, training will move to Florida, closer to the launch pad. The crew will go through a series of dry runs for what launch day will be like, as well as what to expect when they take Crew Dragon back down to Earth and splash down in the ocean.

And finally, theres mission-specific training, conducted by Axiom. Each member of the crew is looking to do a slew of things while on the ISSscience experiments, social media stunts, publicity activities, and more. Weve got a group here at Axiom that works with each of the crew members to design their own orbit plan, says Hassmann. A lot of times these individuals dont know what they can do up there, much less what theyd want to do.

This doesnt differ too much from what NASA itself doesbut its compressed into a much shorter time frame, without a wholesale education in spaceflight. And eventually, Axiom hopes to run most of this training on its own, without any assistance from NASA.

The training regime the Axiom astronauts will be put through is less intense than that for NASA astronauts, but its still pretty full-on. But as private spaceflight becomes more common, astronaut training should become more relaxed. Thatll be thanks in large part to spacecraftthat basically fly themselvesthere are simply not as many systems crews have to interact with. I would expect that training to continue to evolve and get more efficient, says Hassmann.

That will also mean more time is devoted to training people for very specific activities and goals during the missionsuch as running a certain science experiment or recording a choreographed video. Training programs have evolved to cover the needs that were not historically present in astronaut training, says Beth Moses, the chief astronaut instructor for Virgin Galactic. Today people are buying time in space, selecting what they will do there, and they need bespoke training to enable that.

These things should help encourage another important trend: shorter and shorter training. Right now were starting to shift away from the old paradigm of gigantic NASA-style two years of training to qualify as an astronaut, says King. I think the commercial industry can get this down to days of training. I think thats where the industry is going to start heading. That will be practically a requirement if companies like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX are serious about conducting dozens or hundreds or crewed missions into space every year.

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This is how (almost) anyone can train to be an astronaut - MIT Technology Review

A tiny piece of the Wright brothers' history-making plane will take to the skies on Mars a few weeks from now, if all goes according to plan.

NASA's Mars Helicopter Ingenuity, which could lift off on the Red Planet as soon as April 8, bears a tiny swatch of fabric from one wing of Flyer 1, the plane that in December 1903 made the first powered flights on Earth, agency officials announced Tuesday (March 23).

The Wright brothers ushered in "aerial mobility as a dimension for us to be able to travel here on Earth," Bob Balaram, Ingenuity chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, said during a news conference Tuesday. "In the same way, we are hoping that Ingenuity also allows us to expand and open up aerial mobility on Mars."

The Flyer 1 swatch, which is about the size of a postage stamp, is attached to a small cable beneath Ingenuity's solar panel, Balaram added.

Related: NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity explained

Ingenuity traveled to Mars with NASA's car-sized Perseverance rover, which touched down inside the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater on Feb. 18. Perseverance's main jobs are to hunt for signs of ancient life inside Jezero, which hosted a big lake and a river delta billions of years ago, and to collect and cache dozens of samples for future return to Earth. But the rover's first big task is to help get the technology-demonstrating Ingenuity off the ground, and (if possible) to document the 4-lb. (1.8 kilograms) chopper's flights for posterity.

The Ingenuity team aims to make five short flights during a monthlong window, which will open when Perseverance deploys the helicopter from its belly onto the red dirt. That deployment will be a long and involved process that takes about six Earth days to complete, mission team members said during Tuesday's press conference.

If Ingenuity's flights are successful, aerial exploration could be a common feature of Mars missions in the coming years. Helicopters could scout terrain for rovers and gather data on their own, especially in hard-to-reach places, NASA officials have said. (Ingenuity doesn't carry any scientific instruments, though it does sport two cameras.)

Other alien skies will soon host flying robots as well. NASA is developing a mission called Dragonfly, which will send a big, instrument-laden drone to Saturn's biggest moon, Titan. Dragonfly is scheduled to launch in 2027 and land on Titan in 2036.

"The future of powered flight in space exploration is solid and strong," Bobby Braun, director for planetary science at JPL, said during Tuesday's news conference.

Ingenuity isn't the first pioneering NASA craft to carry a piece of Flyer 1 beyond Earth.

"A different piece of the [fabric] material, along with a small splinter of wood, from the Flyer 1 was flown to the moon and back aboard Apollo 11," NASA officials wrote in a statement.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Mars helicopter Ingenuity carries piece of Wright brothers' famous plane - Space.com

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(Bloomberg) -- Tugs and diggers have so far failed to dislodge a massive container ship stuck in the Suez Canal for a third day, increasing the chances of prolonged delays in what is arguably the worlds most important waterway.Work to re-float the Ever Given was suspended until Thursday morning in Egypt, shipping agent Inchcape said, citing the Suez Canal Authority. Dredgers are still trying to loosen the vessel before any attempt to pull it out, the ships manager said.Its taxing to even grasp how big this ship is. About a quarter mile long (400 meters) and weighing in at 200,000 metric tons, its sheer size is overwhelming the efforts to dig it out. A huge yellow excavator, itself about twice as tall as its driver, looked like childs toy parked next to the ships bulking bow.The situation has gotten so desperate that an elite salvage squad is due to arrive Thursday to work on prising the Ever Given from the bank of the canal, where its blocking oceangoing carriers that haul everything from oil to consumer goods.Still, the best chance for freeing the ship may not come until Sunday or Monday, when the tide will reach a peak, according to Nick Sloane, the salvage master responsible for refloating the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that capsized on the coast of Italy in 2012. Sloane works as the senior salvage master for Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Resolve Marine Group.About 12% of global trade goes through the canal, making it so strategic that world powers have fought over the waterway since it was completed in 1869. For now, all that traffic is backed up with the Ever Given aground in the southern part of the canal, creating another setback for global supply chains already strained by the e-commerce boom linked to the pandemic.The Suez Canal blockage comes at a particularly unhelpful time, said Greg Knowler, European editor at JOC Group, which is part of IHS Markit Ltd. Even a two-day delay would further add to the supply chain disruption slowing the delivery of cargo to businesses across the U.K. and Europe.A rough estimate shows the blockage is costing about $400 million an hour, based on calculations from Lloyds List that suggest westbound traffic is worth around $5.1 billion a day and eastbound traffic is approximately $4.5 billion. On Wednesday, 185 vessels were waiting to cross the canal, according to shipping data compiled by Bloomberg, while Lloyds estimates theres 165.About 34 container vessels chartered by Maersk and other shipping lines are either stuck in the canal or en route, according to supply-chain tracking company project44. Preliminary reports show 10 crude tankers carrying a total of 13 million barrels could be affected by the disruption, according to Vortexa Senior Freight Analyst Arthur Richier.The incident began on Tuesday when strong winds blasted through the region and kicked up sands along the banks of the 120-mile-long canal, which connects the Mediterranean in the north with the Red Sea in the south. The waterway is narrow -- less than 675 feet wide (205 meters) in some places -- and can be difficult to navigate when theres poor visibility.But Ever Given stayed its course through the canal, on its way to Rotterdam from China. As gusts that reached as high as 46 miles an hour swept up dust around it, the crew lost control of ship and it careened sideways into a sandy embankment, blocking nearly the entirety of the channel. Its still in the same position as when it ran aground, according to Inchcape.Two canal pilots were onboard when the ship went aground at about 5:40 a.m. The ships last known speed was 13.5 knots at about 5:30 a.m.At the heart of all of this is the ships massive scale.Container vessels have nearly doubled in size in the past decade as global trade expanded, making the job of moving such ships much harder when they get stuck.Even while key routes -- including the Suez Canal -- have been widened and deepened over the years to accommodate the mega-sized vessels, the work to dig them out after they get stuck takes enormous power.The struggle to dislodge the ship is now falling to SMIT Salvage, a legendary Dutch firm whose employees parachute themselves from one ship wreckage to the next, saving vessels often during violent storms. This ship is so heavy that the salvors may have to lighten it by removing things like the ballast water, which helps keep ships steady when theyre at sea. Fuel could also be unloaded.How to Dislodge a 200,000-Ton Ship From a Canal WallThe Suez Canal Authority hasnt commented on the work or given any indication of when traffic could resume.The canal is among the most trafficked waterways in the world, used by tankers shipping crude from the Middle East to Europe and North America, as well as in the opposite direction.The blockage highlights a major risk faced by the shipping industry as more and more ships transit maritime choke points including the Suez, Panama Canal, the Strait of Hormuz and Southeast Asias Malacca Strait. Such occurrences could become more common as ships get bigger and waterways get more congested.Every hour, more vessels -- including container ships, oil tankers, RoRo vessels, and bulk carriers -- are being backed up in the Mediterranean to the north and the Red Sea to the south, said p44s chief executive officer, Jett McCandless. Its another big blow to global trade in an already back-logged and battered supply chain year.Oil companies are starting to prepare for the worst. On Wednesday, there was an uptick in interest from oil companies looking to book tankers with options to avoid the canal, according to a broker, and several bid for space on the pipelines that allow bypass of the waterway completely. For now, thats a just-in-case move. Container ships will most likely have to wait it out, as the main alternative is the unattractive option of sailing around the southern tip of Africa.The disruption comes at a time when oil prices were already volatile. Crude surged above $70 a barrel earlier this month on Saudi production cuts, only to slump close to $60 this week due to setbacks in Europes coronavirus vaccine program. Brent crude rose more than 5% on Wednesday.Ever Givens crew are safe and accounted for, and there have been no reports of injuries or pollution, according to the ships manager, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement. The vessel is also carrying cargo for logistics company Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd., according to Mark Wong, a spokesman for OOCL.(Adds cost estimate in eight paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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Bernie Sanders, Elon Musk Feud Over Income Inequality (and Space Travel) Right Now, We Need to Focus on Earth - Yahoo Finance

It tastes like rose petals. It smells like a campfire. It glistens with a burnt-orange hue. What is it? A 5,000-euro bottle of Petrus Pomerol wine that spent a year in space.

Researchers in Bordeaux are analyzing a dozen bottles of the precious liquid along with 320 snippets of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapevines that returned to Earth in January after a sojourn aboard the International Space Station.

They announced their preliminary impressions Wednesday mainly, that weightlessness didnt ruin the wine and it seemed to energize the vines.

Organizers say its part of a longer-term effort to make plants on Earth more resilient to climate change and disease by exposing them to new stresses, and to better understand the aging process, fermentation and bubbles in wine.

At a one-of-a-kind tasting this month, 12 connoisseurs sampled one of the space-traveled wines, blindly tasting it alongside a bottle from the same vintage that had stayed in a cellar.

A special pressurized device delicately uncorked the bottles at the Institute for Wine and Vine Research in Bordeaux. The tasters solemnly sniffed, stared and eventually, sipped.

I have tears in my eyes, Nicolas Gaume, CEO and co-founder of the company that arranged the experiment, Space Cargo Unlimited, said.

Alcohol and glass are normally prohibited on the International Space Station, so each bottle was packed inside a special steel cylinder during the journey.

At a news conference Wednesday, Gaume said the experiment focused on studying the lack of gravity which creates tremendous stress on any living species on the wine and vines.

We are only at the beginning, he said, calling the preliminary results encouraging.

Jane Anson, a wine expert and writer with the wine publication Decanter, said the wine that remained on Earth tasted a little younger than the one that had been to space.

Chemical and biological analysis of the wines aging process could allow scientists to find a way to artificially age fine vintages, said Dr. Michael Lebert, a biologist at Germanys Friedrich-Alexander-University who was consulted on the project.

The vine snippets known as canes in the grape-growing world not only survived the journey but also grew faster than vines on Earth, despite limited light and water.

Once the researchers determine why, Lebert said that could help scientists develop sturdier vines on Earth and pave the way for grape-growing and wine-making in space.

Stephanie Cluzet, Head of Vine Researcher Institute for Wine and Vine Research (ISVV) holds up a snippet of grapevines, left, that spent a year orbiting the world, in the International Space Station, (Associated Press)

Christophe Chateau of the Bordeaux Wine-Makers' Council welcomed the research as a good thing for the industry," but predicted it would take a decade or more to lead to practical applications. Chateau, who was not involved in the project, described ongoing efforts to adjust grape choices and techniques to adapt to ever-warmer temperatures.

The wine of Bordeaux is a wine that gets its singularity from its history but also from its innovations," he said. And we should never stop innovating.

Private investors helped fund the project, which the researchers hope to continue on further space missions. The cost wasnt disclosed.

For the average earthling, the main question is: What does cosmic wine taste like?

For me, the difference between the space and earth wine ... it wasnt easy to define, said Franck Dubourdieu, a Bordeaux-based agronomist and oenologist, an expert in the study of wine and wine-making.

Researchers said each of the 12 panelists had an individual reaction. Some observed burnt-orange reflections. Others evoked aromas of cured leather or a campfire.

The one that had remained on Earth, for me, was still a bit more closed, a bit more tannic, a bit younger. And the one that had been up into space, the tannins had softened, the side of more floral aromatics came out, Anson said.

But whether the vintage was space-flying or earthbound, she said, They were both beautiful.

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Space travel and zero gravity matured this wine - Livemint

Brian Binnie is a former United States Navy officer and test pilot for SpaceShipOne, the experimental space plane created by aeronautical pioneer, Burt Rutan, and his innovative company, Scaled Composites. SpaceShipOne was the product of a joint venture between entrepreneur Paul Allen and Scaled Composites.

On Oct. 4, 2004, SpaceShipOne was released from its White Knight mothership, and with Binnie at the controls, he made the second suborbital flight in one week's time to snag the $10 million Ansari X Prize flight purse. That pioneering passage of space and time marked a new era of commercial space flight.

Less than a year later, Sir Richard Branson and Rutan announced a joint venture between Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites called The SpaceShip Company. Jointly, they would go on to build SpaceShipTwo, now being tested to haul paying passengers on suborbital sojourns from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Binnie recently authored the engrossing book, "The Magic and Menace of SpaceShipOne" (Black Sky Enterprise, Oct. 4, 2020, available at: https://brianbinnie.net/ and at Amazon.)

"Spaceships are dangerous things. There are no intentions implied to suggest otherwise," Binnie writes, also noting his early copiloting experience in flying Rotary Rocket's Roton vehicle, built to be a single stage to orbit spaceship.

Space.com recently talked with Binnie about his forty years of what he tags as "wrestling with recalcitrant machinery" - flying vehicles that are doing their best to be lethal, but proving to be useful training.

Related: How SpaceShipOne and X Prize Launched Commercial Spaceflight

The Magic and Menace of SpaceShipOne by Brian Binnie: $55 at Amazon.Test pilot Brian Binnie shares what it was like to fly the first privately built reusable spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, to win the Ansari X Prize in 2004 and recalls his decades of flying.View Deal

Space.com: Your X Prize winning flight moved the needle forward on the prospect for public space travel. But here we are in 2021 and it has taken time for that promise to evolve. Why so long?

Binnie: From Virgin's perspective, Scaled Composite suffered two major accidents. In their wake, every anomaly or unexpected result was thoroughly scrutinized. Virgin really had no other option. With some 200 hundred astronaut founders already signed up after the X Prize flights, they needed the confidence that the ship was upright and not taking on water. I suppose it didn't help that expectations were always misaligned with real progress and the number of "this will be the year" could cloud everyone's judgment. I will say that under any other investor the program would likely have been cancelled. The fact that Branson presses on gives great credibility to their commitment of bringing space to the common man and woman. As they say, if it was easy ...

How involved were you in the decision-making about designing and then flying SpaceShipOne (SS1)?

Binnie: Pilots and engineers are closely joined at the hip. Engineers, however, can be like lawyers. They can keep a program in development for longer than it should, with "better being the enemy of good enough."

Burt Rutan had great judgment when looking at an issue or problem. His risk management skills, in my opinion, were rather extraordinary, and while others fretted, he would often suggest buttoning the vehicle up and go fly.

It remains in my mind a feat of such unlikely odds that in two-and-a-half years, the program developed and tested a mothership, rocket motor, avionics, simulator and a spaceship that went into that black sky on three of its six powered flights. And Burt was at the helm of all of it.

I believe the single most important attribute of Burt's was that in his mind he wasn't really building a spaceship, but rather another airplane that happened to have a rocket motor on it for part of the journey. Burt was very adverse to bells and whistles and that kept the program moving along. And since we didnt handicap ourselves with detailed documentation of processes or paperwork, the team could make uncanny progress.

To your question, pilots come at the vehicle from the perspective of the cockpit. They want to know what can be affected, and by the same token, what cannot. From that standpoint, Burt was open to ideas and suggestions.

Space.com: If trouble arose in flying SS1, how could you get out?

Binnie: There were two choices. One of those was a little hatch door at your left side. The other was, if you got into trouble, youd feather the vehicle, assuming the feather worked, and that puts it into stable attitude and pitch. Then you could unlatch the nose cone, push it away, unbuckle your seat and roll forward. Then youre free and clear of the vehicle. I thought that was pretty novel thinking. All you have to worry about then is making sure the parachute works.

Space.com: After your winning X Prize flight, there seemed to be shop talk about more SS1 flights, pushing the envelope of the vehicle. Why didnt that happen?

Binnie: Burt had set up a sensible plan for the vehicle. There were 21 tasks and the first 20 tasks involved getting to the X Prize flights. After that, he had task 21. He wanted to fly the vehicle, something like once a week for 20 weeks. In doing that, he could get a really good baseline on the operational costs of utilizing the vehicle. Perhaps along the way, you could make modifications to enhance the vehicles handling qualities and actually get more than one person in the cockpit. When the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum chimed in, more flights came screeching to a halt. Paul Allen didnt want to risk the vehicle he had funded.

The last time I was there [at the museum], SS1 remained in-between the Bell X-1 and Spirit of St. Louis, but in its feathered configuration.

In Pictures: Breaking the Sound Barrier

Space.com: Back in 1999, you were one of the two person crew that flew Rotary Rocket's Atmospheric Test Vehicle (ATV), a unique craft using helicopter-style rotors for landing. What was that experience like?

Binnie: It was certainly a good experience and appealed to me. The Roton started out as an unmanned, small vehicle, but I joined when that concept was abandoned for a full-scaled manned demonstrator of a single stage to orbit design. Rotary did not lack for big dreams. My focus was on the cockpit and the flight controls, the simulator, and all the things that went into managing the propellant.

The other half of the company was designing a massive rotating engine with something like seventy six thrusters that would be spun up by centrifugal pumping of the propellants. You might say there were a lot of things spinning on that vehicle. But their effort was on building just one of these thrusters to be put on a whirl test stand. Alas, Rotary's money ran out before it was demonstrated.

The ATV ended up making three flights with five takeoffs and landings. The first flight was rather frightening and I was certainly quite happy to hand it back over to Gary Hudson, Rotary's CEO. But more money came in and two more flights were made with the last one having the vehicle fly down the runway at Mojave around seventy five feet and sixty knots. So we did what we said we were going to do demonstrate control of the vehicle in the landing pattern.

Space.com: There's always talk about having space vehicles demonstrate "airline-like" operation. How far are we from that often-said saying?

Binnie: I've heard that line several times too. I'm thinking I don't see it. You look at the frequency of flight in general, manned or unmanned. They are onesie-twosies for the most part. Elon Musk is a kind of outlier in the business. I say good for him. Space is so demanding in terms of managing the power thats required to get out of Earths gravity well. I dont see any clever things that are going to change that. I keep waiting for the aliens to come back and show us how to do anti-gravity.

Photos: Amazing X-Planes from the X-1 to XV-15

Space.com: Speaking of Musk, he recently encountered static from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about his Starship flight program. Howd the FAA treat the SS1 program?

Binnie: I have a couple chapters in the book about this. It was tortuous. We were the pathfinder for commercial reusable spaceships. As Elon said, the FAA has the wrong kind of people managing these programs, those that are used to big boosters that launch and never come back. They dont have the mindset about reusable spaceships, whether they are suborbital or orbital. For SS1, the FAA just drove Burt completely nuts. There were sparks flying all the time. They came up with a set of whacky rules and Burt practically rejected all of them. When it was all said and done, the bureaucracy won. What they wanted is basically what they got. I think theres a long ways to go in terms of having a relationship with the government that promotes this kind of activity. It just raises the bar of entry for most people that they cant get in. Id hate to see it intrude much with SpaceShipTwo.

Space.com: In putting you back in the pilots seat for that winning X Prize SS1 flight, was there anything surprising given all the training?

Binnie: Three days before I flew that flight, we completely changed the way we were going to fly the vehicle. So all the simulator work we had done for the past year was pretty much out the window. A new maneuver was invented, and we basically crossed our fingers and hoped it was good.

That flight not my words people called it the perfect flight. In leaving the atmosphere, as I kept the motor running to 215,000 feet, the ship had zero roll, pitch, yaw rates. It was rock solid and continued on up past the X-15 altitude, Burts grand plan. Wowthe fact that it all came together in that one flight. We certainly got a pretty good apogee out of itnearly 70 miles up. The reentry was smooth as butter. It was just noisy. It was a wonderful experience. If you consider that through most of the SS1 program we had trials and difficulties, it all came together in that one flight, the final flight.

Space.com: Any other thoughts regarding your piloting of SS1?

Binnie: Im a single-seat pilot kind of guy. I flew A7 Corsairs for 10 years in the Navy, and then transitioned to Hornets for another 10 years all single-seat flying. SS1 was single-seat and thats an environment in which I am comfortable with and like and have gotten used to. The experience for me going to space, I didnt have to spoil it by having passengers or a co-pilot or whatever to kind of defocus my attention at things that I wanted to soak up.

Also being out at the Mojave Air and Space Port, you are really spoiled by the views. You had the Pacific, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, the coast line, the Sierra Nevada mountains. You could see Edwards Air Force Base and all its history. That was all awesome to take in.

I dont see any single-seat spaceships in the near-future. So maybe I am the last guy that has gone to space by himself.

Leonard David is author of the recently released book, Moon Rush: The New Space Race published by National Geographic in May 2019. A longtime writer for SPACE.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us @Space dotcom, Facebook or Google+. This version of the story published on Space.com.

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Test pilot Brian Binnie recounts his historic flight on SpaceShipOne and the future of private space travel in new book - Space.com

Space tourism used to be a far away dream for virtually everyone.

Well, SpaceX appears to be making it a fast approaching reality. SpaceX is the leader in the drive to popularize space tourism. Competitors like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are also getting hopes up that everyday folks can experience space for themselves. Sr. Analyst for Northern Sky Research, Dallas Kasaboski says, Based on the ticket prices that weve seen today, the pace of development that we see and the supplies that NASA projects that the revenue sizing represents a $14 billion cumulative opportunity, assuming that launches start within the next one or two years and continuing through 2028.

SpaceX successfully launched and landed its prototype Starship. Its designed to be entirely reusable, requiring only maintenance and refueling between trips to space. But unlike competitors Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic space, Xs starship is an orbital class rocket, which means it could go up. It can maintain enough speed to orbit the Earth. And it can come back down when it wants to. Now, a web based survey suggested 88% of people want to space walk and many of those surveyed are willing to pay a premium for the experience. And thats good news because space travel for the masses still wont be cheap. SpaceX comes in with the lowest projected price, around a $20,000 to $50,000 per person.

If youre able to scale and [prove] reliability, then you can bring prices down. More competition comes in offering different services, and you will eventually democratize. But despite anyones ambition to truly democratize the industry, it will take time. And in order to survive during that time, you are likely going to have to either focus on the government or a very small niche market until you can expect several organizations have been formed to promote the space tourism industry, Kasaboski commented. Now only time will tell how soon. And how much SpaceX will charge to launch us into a galaxy far, far away.

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Why Space Tourism May be a Reality Sooner Rather Than Later - MarketScale