Daily Archives: June 11, 2021

Space exploration has been a long-term goal for the Peoples Republic ever since the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 in 1957. Chairman Mao lamented at the time that we cannot even put a potato into space, andthe Communist Party leadership vowed to produce two bombs and a satellite: an atomic bomb, a hydrogen bomb, and a satellite.

China did not launch its first satellite until 1970, but since the 1980s it has been catching up fast with the major spacefaring nations. Its space programme really announced itself to the world in 2003, when Yang Liwei became its first taikonaut (as China calls its astronauts), orbiting the Earth 14 times during a 21-hour flight aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. China thus became the third nation to independently send astronauts into space.

Under President Xi Jinping, plans for Chinas space dream, as he calls it, have gone into overdrive. It aims not only to pass the milestones achieved by other nations, notably the US, but to overtake them as the leading space power by 2045.

The China National Space Administration had an annual budget of about $8.9bn last year, second only to Nasas (of around $23bn). It has landed rovers on the Moon and, more recently, on Mars (see box). Last year, it completed the BeiDou satellite constellation, a rival to the US Global Positioning System. This year, it launched the first part of a permanent space station into orbit (debris from a Long March-5b launch rocket fell back into Earths atmosphere on an undirected dive, crashing into the Indian Ocean).

The first mission in Chinas lunar exploration programme, Change 1, reached the Moons orbit in 2007. Six years later, it landed a robotic rover on the lunar surface, which operated for 31 months. Other nations had achieved such feats before, but China has pioneered too: in 2019, Change 4 became the first spacecraft to land on the far side of the Moon which faces away from the Earth, making it difficult to communicate with space-craft there.

At the end of 2020, the fifth Change mission scooped up a few kilograms of rock and brought them back to Earth the first lunar sample-return mission since the final Soviet Moon mission in 1976. Three more lunar missions are planned by 2027, to prepare the ground for a future Chinese base (potentially built in collaboration with the Russian space agency, Roscosmos) that would be permanently inhabited by taikonauts.

In late April, China launched Tianhe, the first module of what will become a new space station, Tiangong (Heavenly Palace). Two further modules will be added to Tianhe next year, which will provide laboratory space for research on everything from the long-term impacts of living in microgravity to studying how fluids and materials behave beyond Earth.

Alongside its space station, China also wants to launch a space telescope, similar in size to Nasas Hubble telescope. When complete, Tiangong will be able to accommodate three taikonauts for long-term missions or six for shorter trips. Astronauts from other countries would also be allowed to visit the space station; Tiangong will become operational by 2023, just as the International Space Station comes to the end of its operational life.

China is determined to be the worlds science and technology superpower. A space programme is a tried-and-tested way for a nation to enhance its industrial and economic strength, and also project prestige and technical competence to its own citizens and to the rest of the world. China sees its space capability as important for economic and diplomatic leverage: it is trying, for instance, to persuade countries to dump the USs GPS satellite navigation in favour of its BeiDou system.

From Chinas perspective, it has little choice but to build its own ambitious space programme: concerns about technology theft mean its scientists have been banned by the US Congress since 2011 from working with Nasa, and shut out from projects such as the International Space Station. And in todays networked world, space technology is critical not just to the financial system, for example, but to national security.

Space is already an arena of great power competition, Lloyd J. Austin III, the new US secretary of defence, declared recently. Satellite networks are used to keep military information systems running; both the US and China have the capacity to knock out enemy satellites in the event of a conflict. The situation is made more complex because most space technologies are dual-use: they can be used to perform civilian or military tasks.

Understanding Chinas aims is made difficult by the countrys opaque policy-making apparatus, and by President Xis military-civil fusion development strategy, which purposely blurs the lines between military and civilian technology development on everything from semiconductors and 5G to aerospace and AI.

China wants to send a second lander to Mars by 2028 and, eventually, to bring samples back from the red planet. That next phase of Mars exploration could become a genuine race with Nasa and the European Space Agency, which are working together on an ambitious sample-return mission of their own. Future missions could also include a sample-return mission from an asteroid, a fly-by of a comet, and orbiting observatories for Venus and Jupiter.

China is continuing to develop new spacecraft too. There are rumours that it is working on a reusable space plane. And Chinas space administration reportedly wants to beat Nasa in the race to take astronauts to Mars.

In a matter of months, Chinas Mars mission, Tianwen (meaning Heavenly Questions), has completed a stunning trio of achievements: it entered orbit in February, landed on the surface of the red planet (at Utopia Planitia) on 14 May and, a few days later, sent its Zhurong rover (named after a Chinese god of fire) trundling onto the rocky ground.

Getting to Mars is hard, but landing is much harder: Nasa calls the descent through its super-thin atmosphere the seven minutes of terror. The Soviet Union landed a craft on Mars in 1971, but it stopped communicating shortly after it reached the surface. Only the US had previously managed successful Mars landings the most recent being the Perseverance rover in February.

Zhurong weighs in at around 240kg, a quarter of the mass of Nasas Perseverance, but similar to the Spirit and Opportunity rovers that landed on Mars in 2004. Like those older Nasa rovers, Zhurong is powered by solar panels (Perseverance uses nuclear-powered batteries). Its instruments, including cameras, ground-penetrating radar and a magnetic field detector, will study the planets surface, topography, atmosphere and geology, and in particular the distribution of ice which could be a useful resource for human visitors.

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Everything you need to know about Chinas space race - The Week UK

Astroscale's ELSA-d mission will demonstrate the technology required for commercial space debris removal

As head of space situational awareness, Toby Harris job at Astroscale UK involves analysing computational models of the orbital environment and quantifying risk to help his company select missions and develop spacecraft.

When his five-year-old son asks, hes got a simpler answer ready: Im the rubbish man in space.

Its a humble way to describe a colossal mission: to keep Earths low orbit clean and safe for a new age of space exploration.

With new technology, plummeting costs and fresh players (such as China and India), space is exciting again. Companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are building a new commercial industry that, by some estimates, will be worth nearly $1 trillion by 2030. From tourism to communication, from mineral exploitation to Mars missions, space is going to get busier. And demand for rubbish man missions to grab and bring down debris is expected to grow.

Toby (40) didnt study engineering but has so far spent his career engineering solutions to the kind of problems they make Hollywood films about.

For more than a decade, he supported the UK governments nuclear defence strategy. Then came the UK Space Agency, where he and a team of engineers inspected and licensed spacecraft. Leading delegations to the United Nations, hes often been the link between engineers solving technical problems and politicians negotiating policy.

Now at a company where seven out of every 10 employees are engineers, Toby, a father of two, spends his days thinking about how to clean up old space junk and prevent new junk from appearing. He also figures out how to bring better governance to a place that everyone wants to use, but no one is really responsible for. A place where a pea-sized object flying at more than 25,000mph can destroy a satellite. Where hunks the size of double-decker buses have been hurtling through the silence for decades.

People want to use space, says Toby. But theres more and more risk.

There are more than 3,000 active satellites orbiting Earth today. Thousands more are defunct. Nasa tracks half a million pieces of debris. Big collisions are, thankfully, rare, but one such crash in 2009 created thousands of pieces of junk, each a bullet threatening other objects. Satellites on opposite sides of the Earth can be on top of each other in under an hour. Its an extreme environment, becoming more extreme with every launch. And, with the arrival of large constellations of satellites, these launches are more frequent than ever.

For Toby and companies like Astroscale the focus is on prevention and removal.

Preventing space junk involves complex liability laws and better control over spacecraft, being able to manoeuvre them, predict the movement of other objects, communicate with other operators, and get out of the way if need be.

Removal is just as tough. Dead satellites tumble violently at ridiculous speeds. Top stages of rockets weigh tonnes. Getting close to these objects requires aligning a new spacecraft with their orbits, while avoiding all the space junk already up there. Not to mention actually catching them and pulling them down into the atmosphere, where they can burn up or land safely.

You have to juggle a whole bunch of operations at the same time, Toby explains.

But difficult problems offer exciting challenges to mechanical engineers. These engineers test the weight of spacecraft against the power of their thrusters, design solar panels to withstand projectiles, figure out the best ways to grab pieces of debris or broken satellites, and solve endless other puzzles.

Its how we get the job done, explains Toby, whos had a hand in all kinds of engineering work, from aeronautical to software. He believes mechanical engineering is a fundamental part of space exploration.

Apart from understanding the space environment, part of Tobys juggling act involves thinking about space sustainability and preparing demonstrations, like Astroscales ELSA-d mission, which launched in March. The mission is aimed at demonstrating technologies needed for docking with space debris and removing it. With an outdated treaty from the 1960s, the rules of space are, at best, murky, and countries are not responsible for cleaning up. So, just like with carbon emissions, Toby and others in his field are trying to get ahead of the problem. To get decision makers to realise that space pollution could make entire orbital highways too dangerous for use and that no single country can solve the problem alone.

To escape these kinds of deep questions and things like the Kessler effect the cascading of space collisions Toby paints the cosmos or reads sci-fi books by Stephen Baxter, one of his favourite authors. He runs and plays golf. And he spends time with his two kids, who may one day thank the rubbish man of space for his efforts.

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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

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Engineering Extremes: Keeping Earth's orbit safe by clearing up space junk - Professional Engineering

A section of prostate cancer tissue overlaid with data from the Visium Spatial Gene Expression for ... [+] FFPE with each cluster representing a different gene expression profile.

Understanding the relationship between cells and their locations inside tissues is an important part of learning more about biology and potentially curing multiple diseases, such as cancer. Spatialomics is the research method that allows scientists to measure gene activity from the cells inside tissues and to map where the activity is happening.

Named the method of the year by Nature in 2020, spatialomics, also called spatially resolved transcriptomics or spatial transcriptomics, is transforming research in many areas, like cancer, neurology, and immunology. Now, 10x Genomics, a life science technology company, has announced a new way to study spatialomics in preserved tissue samples.

10x has an advanced platform for spatial transcriptomics called Visium Spatial Gene Expression that visually maps gene expression in a tissue sample. It helps researchers study the relationship between cells and their organization within tissues.

Understanding this relationship is critical for understanding both normal development and disease pathology. Visium measures total mRNAthe message-carrying instruction molecules for DNAin intact tissue sections and maps where gene activity is happening.

Although Visium is already being used by many researchers, 10x discovered an opportunity to make it even more useful for scientists. In general, tissue samples that come from a biopsy are immediately placed in formalin (formaldehyde) or another solution to preserve them. However, studying gene activity in preserved tissues is difficult, so 10x found a way to change this.

"One of the first things that happens to tissues is putting them in a fixative," says Ben Hindson, co-founder and CSO of 10x. "The previous limitation was that a lot of the tissues being used by researchers were preserved or frozen, so you get these formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded blocks. This destroys most of the RNA, which is the good stuff you are trying to look for in the sample."

Ben Hindson, Chief Scientific Officer and Director of 10x Genomics

Now, 10x has released Visium Spatial Gene Expression for FFPE (formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded) assay. The platform can now handle spatial analyses in preserved tissue samples. Researchers can easily add the "where" to the "what" in their genomics research and map out where gene activity is happening in a tissue specimen, whether it is frozen or preserved.

"Visium Spatial Gene Expression for FFPE is one of the products that our customers have been asking for because it opens up new research opportunities that they could not do before," says Shernaz Daver, Global Communications Head at 10x.

The fragments created by formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue blocks used to be difficult to analyze and not compatible with most molecular biology techniques. They would not produce useful results for researchers trying to study them using common approaches.

Visium for FFPE has many potential applications, such as studying samples from biobanks with preserved tissues or from imperfect samples taken from patients during surgery. The platform creates the opportunity to study cellular states from more samples that are linked to treatment response and outcomes.

But spatialomics is not only making waves in research on Earth. Now scientists are wondering if they can use the technology to study how the extreme environment of outer space affects living organisms.

As we continue to learn more about biology, new opportunities to study it in different ways are becoming possible. When bioengineering and space exploration combine, the ability to test new ideas in a microgravity environment becomes possible.

10x is collaborating with Axiom Space on a new mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission will include life science research in orbit, specifically using single-cell genomics technology developed by 10x.

"One of our early investors, John Shoffner, who is going on the mission with astronaut Peggy Whitson, helped us connect with Axiom," says Hindson. "Biology changes in space quite significantly, so this research is important."

Studying single-cell technologies in a microgravity environment could help life science companies advance their research. Gene expression in microgravity could teach us more about human diseases and conditions both for future space missions and back here on Earth.

Thank you to Lana Bandoim for additional research and reporting in this article. Im the founder of SynBioBeta, and some of the companies that I write about are sponsors of the SynBioBeta conference and weekly digest.

After a year of digital meetings, were bringing synthetic biologys leading community of ... [+] innovators, investors, engineers, entrepreneurs, scientists, thought leaders, policy makers and academics together to Build Back Better With Biology!

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Mapping Gene Activity In Tissues Just Got Easier And Why It Matters For Space Travel - Forbes

Russian officials threatened to pull out of the International Space Station project, Reuters reported on Monday.

The International Space Station launched in 1998 as a collaborative project for outer space research. The orbiting lab has two segments: one operated by Russia and one operated by the U.S., Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency, Reuters said.

The sanctions Russia wants to be lifted were implemented in December from former U.S. President Donald Trump, reported CNBC. Trump designated Russias JSC Rocket and Space Center Progress and JSC Central Research Institute of Machine Building as having connections with the Russian military.

We have spacecraft that are nearly assembled but they lack one specific microchip set that we have no way of purchasing because of the sanctions, Rogozin explained via Reuters.

Either we work together, in which case the sanctions are lifted immediately, or we will not work together and we will deploy our own station, Rogozin said per CNBC.

The U.S. plans to continue the ISS program through 2030, says CNN. If it follows through on threats to leave, Russia could withdraw from the ISS program as soon as 2024.

If Russia starts just depending on China, then, I expect we would have a whole new race to the moon with China and Russia against the U.S., Nelson, chief NASA director, said to CNN.

Maintaining a strong relationship with Russia in space exploration will be key to keeping space a neutral territory, according to a CNN report.

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Could Russia threat to leave ISS launch another space race? - Deseret News

A bill that aims to reinvigorate Americas technological footprint has passed the Senate. The Innovation and Competition Act aims directly at keeping pace with Chinas global economic influence. Billions of dollars will pay for research, making the United States a more competitive global market. And a big chunk of that money could be available in Cincinnati.Greater Cincinnati is a great place to make an investment in research, Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman said. Portman sees the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act as a big step in the future of our country and keeping American innovation moving forward. This is a bill about responding to the threat we face from places like China where our research is both behind in some cases, but also being taken by China and other countries, Portman said. 5G technology, supporting space exploration, developing regional technology hubs like Cincinnati and more are on the table.Vice President Kamala Harris recently visited the University of Cincinnati Innovation Center which could see some of this funding.I brought the vice president to Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago to look at what Cincinnati's doing. It's up to us to make it a little bit easier for people in the community, Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown said. Brown says the money will be left up to leaders in the city to request and the Brent Spence Bridge may benefit. On the other side, Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was one of the 32 no votes. He calls it wasteful spending. He was able to add a late amendment to make sure funding doesn't go to China. For many years we worried about Russia this, Russia that. It turns out after the Cold War ended, they were behind 20 years and weren't good at technology because communism and socialism doesn't work well. So, I guess I don't see it as sort of as imminent threat as others do, Paul said. Portman agrees money shouldnt be allowed to go to China. This bill should benefit the American people.In particular, he says, reducing our reliance on foreign products like the current semiconductor shortage. He sees becoming a major producer for those parts as a good fit for Ohio. If you try to go buy a car today, even a used car, youll find that the prices are pretty high and a lot of its because the semiconductors that we rely on for our vehicles, as well as a lot of the electronics and other things, are in short supply right now. So, it helps in this bill because it establishes some incentives to create fabrication here in this country so we're not relying on countries like Taiwan, or Korea or China for semiconductors, Portman said. This bill has only passed the Senate and does need to clear the house but is expected to have the votes to pass.President Biden says he looks forward to signing it into law as soon as possible.Kentucky Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voted yes on the bill, as did Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young, who was one of the authors of the bill. Indiana Republican Sen. Mike Braun voted no.

A bill that aims to reinvigorate Americas technological footprint has passed the Senate.

The Innovation and Competition Act aims directly at keeping pace with Chinas global economic influence.

Billions of dollars will pay for research, making the United States a more competitive global market. And a big chunk of that money could be available in Cincinnati.

Greater Cincinnati is a great place to make an investment in research, Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman said.

Portman sees the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act as a big step in the future of our country and keeping American innovation moving forward.

This is a bill about responding to the threat we face from places like China where our research is both behind in some cases, but also being taken by China and other countries, Portman said.

5G technology, supporting space exploration, developing regional technology hubs like Cincinnati and more are on the table.

Vice President Kamala Harris recently visited the University of Cincinnati Innovation Center which could see some of this funding.

I brought the vice president to Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago to look at what Cincinnati's doing. It's up to us to make it a little bit easier for people in the community, Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown said.

Brown says the money will be left up to leaders in the city to request and the Brent Spence Bridge may benefit.

On the other side, Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was one of the 32 no votes. He calls it wasteful spending. He was able to add a late amendment to make sure funding doesn't go to China.

For many years we worried about Russia this, Russia that. It turns out after the Cold War ended, they were behind 20 years and weren't good at technology because communism and socialism doesn't work well. So, I guess I don't see it as sort of as imminent threat as others do, Paul said.

Portman agrees money shouldnt be allowed to go to China. This bill should benefit the American people.

In particular, he says, reducing our reliance on foreign products like the current semiconductor shortage. He sees becoming a major producer for those parts as a good fit for Ohio.

If you try to go buy a car today, even a used car, youll find that the prices are pretty high and a lot of its because the semiconductors that we rely on for our vehicles, as well as a lot of the electronics and other things, are in short supply right now. So, it helps in this bill because it establishes some incentives to create fabrication here in this country so we're not relying on countries like Taiwan, or Korea or China for semiconductors, Portman said.

This bill has only passed the Senate and does need to clear the house but is expected to have the votes to pass.

President Biden says he looks forward to signing it into law as soon as possible.

Kentucky Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voted yes on the bill, as did Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young, who was one of the authors of the bill. Indiana Republican Sen. Mike Braun voted no.

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Bill to boost US tech innovation could bring big bucks to Cincinnati - WLWT Cincinnati

An artist's rendering of D-Orbit's ION Satellite Carrier.

If you need to move a lot of things around here on earth, there are countless ways to make that happen. Trucks, railcars, airplanes, and container ships (just watch out for the banks of the Suez Canal!)theres a good option regardless what youre moving and where. On earth, we take logistics for granted, said Luca Rossettini, founder and CEO of D-Orbit.

The distinction thats important for Rossettinis company is that doing the same in space is far more difficult. Heres what we do: we created the first space logistics company, he explained. Without us, it will be difficult for the space economy to continue growing.

Headquartered on the shores of stunning Lake Como near Milan, Italy, D-Orbit is a private new space company thats raised a total of about $26 million in funding, the latest via a venture debt financing round with the European Investment Bank (EIB) that raised about $18 million last August. The company was founded in 2011 and has 115 employees.

Luca Rossettini, D-Orbit's founder and CEO.

Think about shipping and travel, and then imagine inventing how they happen on your own, said Rossettini. Thats what weve done for satellite delivery. With the old method, even if you managed to get a satellite into space, you could only go to a very specific location. And it would take at least six months. Weve solved that: we get you into space, where you want to go, in a short time.

D-Orbits invention is their cargo space truck, the ION Satellite Carrier. Its loaded with small satellites that the company puts into orbit for its customers. D-Orbit contracts out the launch of its loaded vehicle, most recently to SpaceX on the Falcon 9 rocket it launched this past January, which carried the companys PULSE mission on its way to launch 20 satellites. Once were in orbit, we switch on our engine and go deliver the satellites, Rossettini said. After we deliver our cargo, we still have a very good asset in space. We can deliver other kinds of services with that. We could, for example, warehouse satellites and deploy them later, while carrying data centers to provide space cloud edge computing to other satellite operators. In the future, we will also be able to reposition or remove existing satellites.

Having been around a decade now, D-Orbit has lived through some of the challenges of being one of the first private space companies, and part of its mission is to help others based on its experiences. The space economy is still very young, Rossettini said. Most of the companies were started in the last five years. They can get partial investment to develop, but its hard to do proof-of-concept. We allocate one or two slots for young companies so they can do proof-of-concept, generate jobs, and get additional investment.

In addition to its satellite delivery service, D-Orbit sees other big opportunities on the horizon. NASA is planning for a base on the moon and a mission to Mars, Rossettini explained. Theyll need infrastructure to support those missions. Another important market is to go to the next level and manufacture in space. It seems like science fiction today, but what were doing now seemed like sci-fi ten years ago.

Mission support is another area of opportunity. When we started, no one would invest, said Rossettini. So at the beginning, we decided that whatever we do today, well sell to support others tomorrow. We can manufacture satellites for our customers. And we can offer our Aurora software, our cloud-based mission control suite that can control a single satellite, or a constellation of satelliteshundreds or even thousands of satellites, plus it can control ground operations. We developed it for ourselves, but our customers began asking for it, so now we license it. D-Orbit also sees an eventual need for services to deal with space debris and pollution. You used to have to destroy space junk to remove it. Now were working to remove it with our systems.

ION SCV Dauntless David, which will take part in the upcoming WILD RIDE mission.

Part of the companys challenge will be keeping up with a volatile marketplace. The space market is changing, Rossettini said. Its not driven by very large satellites and government spending so much anymore90% of our revenue is private. Most of the market now is not for space exploration, but for services. 80% of the technology we all use now relies on space. We see our future as a society expanding into space more and more, so there will be an ever-greater need for space logistics and management.

D-Orbit certainly isnt slowing down. While the PULSE mission is still ongoing (currently performing in-orbit demonstration of customers payloads, after the successful execution of orbital maneuvers and subsequent release of customers satellites in the past months), just last week the company announced its next mission, WILD RIDE, which will launch later this month with six satellites and three payloads from eleven different nations. The mission will also feature a SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) experiment, and will bring the total number of payloads launched by the company to 54.

For Rossettini, its about more than just the space business, however. Were the first space company to achieve B Corporation certification, he said. I strongly believe companies should satisfy their shareholders, but serve the entire community too. Were way more resilient in the marketplace that way.

Originally posted here:

Space Truckin: Thanks To D-Orbit, Its Not Just A Great Old Deep Purple Song Anymore - Forbes

An international research network, exploring solutions to asteroids and space debris, has announced a competition for students and researchers around the world.

The EU H2020 MCSA ETN Stardust-Reloaded (Stardust-R) led by Prof Massimiliano Vasile at the University of Strathclyde, has launched the Andrea Milani Challenge in collaboration with the European Space Agencys Advanced Concepts Team (ESA ACT).

Teams are invited to address two problems in the fields of asteroid deflection and space debris monitoring and detection. The problems are closely linked to urgent global challenges.

Professor Massimiliano Vasile, Director of the Aerospace Centre of Excellence in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and coordinator of Stardust-R, had a prominent role in conceiving the challenge. He said: This challenge was conceived to stimulate research on space environment management and space sustainability, one of the cornerstones of the Stardust-R project.

This challenge makes a fascinating preview of what we will see from Earth after DART does its work.

Professor Christos Efthymiopoulos of Padua University, a member of the team which developed the challenges, said: " Contestants will have to use their skills in math, physics, engineering and computer science but also to look at the sky".

The topics are part of a wider effort by Stardust-R and others which is critical for the long-term safety of Earth from space threats and the long-term sustainability of human presence in space.

The first competition involves tracing the source of hazardous space debris drifting around Earth, while the second asks teams to decipher the precise circumstances of a distant collision between a spacecraft and an asteroid a scenario which is set to be enacted later this decade by NASAs DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) and ESAs Hera spacecraft.

The challenge is being held in memory of Professor Andrea Milani, a mathematician and astronomer who was a world authority in asteroid impact and deflection and who died in 2018.

The first stage of the challenges is open to all. All participating teams will be given a score, updated after each submission of a solution, and the teams with the best score will be invited to participate in Stardust-R's Global Virtual Workshop on Space Traffic Management and Resilient Space Environment in September 2021.

In the second stage, the top three of the teams involving only students in each competition will be invited to present their approach to a panel of experts at the workshop. One winner for each category will be announced at the workshop closing ceremony, based on their technical approach and innovation in solving the challenge.

Stardust-R is the only Scottish-led international network on space environment management and asteroid exploration.

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International competition on asteroid and space debris launched - University of Strathclyde

The bill, which bans the procedure based on race, sex or a Down syndrome diagnosis, may be vetoed when it reaches the governor's desk. Rising flu in Texas, dog attacks on mail deliverers and Louisiana ending jobless benefits are also in the news.

AP:N. Carolina Ban On Down Syndrome Abortions Goes To GovernorNorth Carolina senators approved a bill on Thursday to bar women from getting abortions on the basis of race, sex or a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. With the Senates party-line vote, the prohibition Republicans are seeking now heads to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is likely to veto it, having rejected previous anti-abortion restrictions. (Anderson, 6/10)

Houston Chronicle:After Abbott Lifted Texas' Mask Mandate, COVID Has Waned - But The Flu Hasn'tHouston has seen a rapid increase in respiratory illnesses since Gov. Greg Abbott ended Texas mask mandate nearly three months ago, according to new research from Houston Methodist Hospital epidemiologists. In a study published last week, Methodist researchers documented a marked increase in cases of rhinovirus/enterovirus, an upper respiratory infection, in the weeks after mask mandates were lifted in Texas. The report found similar upticks of influenza cases over the same period. Influenza, the papers authors said, typically peaks during winter months before dropping to low levels in the summer. (Downen, 6/10)

Houston Chronicle:Houston Is No. 1 In The US For Dog Attacks On Postal Workers, New USPS Report ShowsThe City of Houston is known for so many things great food, birthing world-renowned artists, the world capital of space exploration and international energy, the most diverse city in the U.S. and the fourth largest city in the country. And, it's the city with the most dog attacks on postal workers.The United States Postal Service released its dog attack national rankings showing the Bayou City as No. 1, with 73 attacks reported in 2020.(Welch, 6/10)

Rome News-Tribune:Nonprofit: 1 In 6 Ga. Children Aren't Sure Where Their Next Meal Is Coming FromFood insecurity is a much greater problem than most Georgians would ever imagine. Carla Harward, an attorney who retired and moved to Trion several years ago, took it on herself to do something about the combination of food waste in schools and making sure that children across the state dont go hungry. An estimated one in six children across Georgia, more than 400,000, are considered food insecure, according to Harward. At the same time, schools across the state have been throwing away thousands of tons of food. (Walker, 6/10)

The Advocate:Louisiana Could Become Latest State To End $300 Federal Unemployment Benefit In 11th-Hour DealLouisiana is poised to soon stop accepting the federal $300-a-week boost to jobless benefits a month early under a deal passed by lawmakers in the waning hours of the legislative session Thursday, a move that would make the state the latest to end the benefits over concerns from business groups that they are causing a worker shortage. Lawmakers approved a bill to boost the states unemployment benefits by $28 a week starting next year. But it would only take effect if Gov. John Bel Edwards ended the states participation in the federal program by July 31, which appears likely. That program is giving thousands of laid-off workers $300 a week in addition to whatever they get from the state, which currently is a maximum of $247 a week. (Karlin, 6/10)

KHN:Colorado Bill Aims To Give Farmworkers Easier Access To Medical CareA woman with pregnancy complications needed permission from her boss to visit a doctor. Community health volunteers were turned away from delivering food and covid information to worker housing. A farmworker had a serious allergic reaction but was afraid to seek treatment. To Nicole Civita, policy director with Colorado advocacy group Project Protect Food Systems Workers, such stories encapsulate an entrenched power dynamic that covid-19 has brought into focus: Farmworkers are essential but treated as expendable, including when it comes to accessing health care. (Honig and Bichell, 6/11)

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North Carolina Advances Abortion Ban; Governor Likely To Veto - Kaiser Health News

Russian Space Secretary threatens to leave International Space Station The 2025 (ISS) program unless the United States lifts sanctions on Russias space sector.

Roscosmos Executive Secretary Dmitry Rogozin told the Russian parliamentary hearing on Monday (June 7), If sanctions remain and will not be lifted in the near future, the issue of Russias withdrawal from the ISS will be a matter of American partners. It will be a responsibility. , According to NBC News..

We will work together, or in that case, the sanctions will be lifted immediately. If not, we will not work together and will deploy our own station, Rogozin added.Russia is coming soon Launch a new docking module On the ISS this summer Independent complex hub..

Relation: International Space Station: Inside and Outside (Infographic)

Rogozin also claimed that Russia could not launch some satellites because U.S. sanctions banned his country from importing some of the microchips needed for Russias programs, Reuters reports. It was. (There is also a global shortage of microchips related to production outages in the coronavirus pandemic.)

We have enough rockets, but nothing to launch them, Rogozin said. According to Reuters.. I have a nearly assembled spacecraft, but Im missing one particular microchipset that I have no way to buy because of sanctions.

In 2014, Rogozin famously stated: NASA must use trampoline Take astronauts to the ISS instead of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Comments were made after the United States and other Western nations imposed sanctions on Russian authorities, including Rogozin himself, in connection with Russias military operations in Crimea. (Soyuz was the only orbital astronaut taxi available after NASAs Space Shuttle fleet landed in 2011, but when SpaceX began flying crew to and from the ISS, the situation was It changed last year.)

Other recent sanctions have been triggered by what US officials have described as Russia-led cyberattacks and election interference, according to Reuters. In December, President Donald Trumps administration claimed that the Russian space entity TsNIIMash (Central Research Institute for Machinery Manufacturing) and the Rocket Space Center Progress had a connection with the armed forces, NBC reported. Such a designation means that US companies must obtain a license before selling to these organizations.

These entities were among the dozens monitored by the US Department of Commerce during Trumps tenure, both in Russia and China. New tensions have risen after new US President Joe Biden called Russias President Vladimir Putin a murderer earlier this year and then imposed further sanctions on Russia, according to Reuters. ..

Rogozin made an introduction call with new NASA administrator Bill Nelson on Friday (June 4th), NASA said the same day. In the statement, Assemble the conversation as a productive discussion of ongoing cooperation with NASA RoscosmosA statement citing Nelson also said NASA promises to continue its highly effective ISS partnership.

Still Statement of Roscosmos On Friday, he said the lack of official information on sanctions and the future of the ISS substantially hindered cooperation between Russia and the United States in the space territory dating back to the 1975s. Apollo-Soyuz Test Project Mission. The current ISS agreement is expected to end in 2024, but many partners are negotiating an extension until at least 2028.

Russia said more guarantees were needed to move forward after 2024. This concerns the sanctions introduced by the US government on Russian space industry companies and the lack of official information from US partners in Roscosmos. We plan to further manage and operate the ISS. Told.

Relation: Construction of the International Space Station (photo)

Both NASA and Roscosmos said they plan to continue discussions, including face-to-face discussions. Nelson is expected to come to Russia soon and will continue to negotiate with Europeans until end of June 2021, Roscosmos said.

One of the opportunities for discussion is the Global Space Exploration Conference in St. Petersburg from June 14th to June 18th. The conference is co-sponsored by Roscosmos and the International Astronomical Union.

Americans and Russians have been major partners in the ISS program since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and the change of the space station agreement to bring Russias participation. Go in the midst of the collapse of the Soviet Union. One of the reasons NASA offered to ferry Americans to Soviet-Russia was also to prepare for the long-term mission of the ISS. Mir Space Station In the 1990s.

When Russia was invited to the ISS project, Europe, Japan and Canada were working on another NASA-led program called Space Station Freedom. Freedom never landed on the ground It is due to complex technology, funding and policy issues under development.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @ howellspace.follow us On Twitter @ Spacedotcom And on Facebook.

Russia threatens to leave the International Space Station program over US sanctions: Report

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Russia threatens to leave the International Space Station program over US sanctions: Report - Eminetra