Daily Archives: June 15, 2021

(NASA/Cory Huston)

Nasa has finally assembled its first Space Launch System (SLS), a massive rocket that will carry humans to the Moon once again.

Engineers at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida finished the 65m tall core rocket stage - the same height as Londons Tower Bridge - in between the smaller booster rockets on Friday. It is the first time that all three components have been unified.

The boosters attach at the engine and intertank sections of the core stage, which is essentially the backbone of the rocket. The core stage has to support the weight of the payload, upper stage, and crew vehicle as well as four engines, and two five-segment rocket boosters.

The SLS rocket core stage lift operations photographed in the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Nasas Kennedy Centre (Nasa)

The rocket will be used as a part of Nasas Artemis-1 mission, during which the SLS will carry the Orion crew vehicle to the Moon at a speed of 24,500 miles per hour later this year. Humans will not be on board this flight, but it will eventually send the first woman and the next man to the Moon in 2024 as part of the Artemis-3 mission.

The SLS is designed for deep space missions to send Orion, or other cargo, to the Moon. This is over 1000 times the distance than a trip to the International Space Station, but one that will be necessary is humans are to set up a community on other spheres.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has predicted that, following humans landing on the moon in three years, a potential Mars landing could happen in 2026, leading to a colony on the Red Planet by 2050.

But the path of the Space Launch System has not gone smooth; In January 2021, Nasa had to stop a test of all four of the rockets engines after an apparent problem, and has been criticised for going billions of dollars over budget.

That said, should the SLS successfully complete its mission, it could be a valuable tool in Nasas arsenal. The rocket is designed to be flexible and evolvable, Nasa says, and could be a key component in missions to Saturn and Jupiter in the future.

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Nasa shows off massive SLS megarocket to take humans to the Moon, Mars, and Jupiter as it is fully assembled - Yahoo Finance UK

This week, discover the Mars Science City project in Dubai! Outside of Dubai, in the desert, the United Arab Emirates wants to build a 177,000 square meter city that will replicate living conditions on Mars. To build the houses, the architects used 3D printing and desert sand. Next, we will introduce you to Relativity Spaces latest project, which aims to create the first fully 3D printed rocket, even larger than their previous attempts. Finally, check out Anycubics newest machine, Vyper, which has new and improved features, like auto-leveling, that make it excellent for both pros and beginners. Happy Sunday and enjoy the top 5 3D printing videos from the week!

As part of the Emirates Mars 2117 plan to establish a colony on Mars within a century, architecture firm BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) has unveiled the Mars Science City project. Located in the desert outside of Dubai, the 177,000-square-meter city simulating life on Mars is equipped with cutting-edge technology and innovative features. The citys modular homes were 3D printed with desert sand and their construction was facilitated by advanced robotic arms.

Elon Musks Space X is getting competition: Relativity Space recently raised over $600 million and is using it to develop and manufacture 3D-printed rockets. The Terran R rockets are said to be on par with Musks Falcon 9 in terms of size and speed, but could be manufactured with fewer components and in a fast production time. This is possible thanks to the use of metal 3D printing, he said, and also offers the possibility of being more cost-effective than the competition. Find out how many components are needed for the Terran R and how high the production costs are compared to the Falcon 9 in the video.

Popular 3D printer manufacturer, Anycubic, has announced the launch of their latest machine named Vyper. Like all of Anycubics printers, it requires a bit of assembly but that keeps the price cheaper than many of its competitors, perfect for anyone on a budget. Additionally, it is a great machine for anyone starting off in 3D printing thanks to incredible features like Auto-Leveling, 4.3 inch touch screen, and quick installation. The company also claims that the printing speed is up to 30% faster than its previous Mega series.

In the following video we will learn in which cases 3D printing is suitable for the manufacture of jigs and fixtures. Above all, it is important to understand how the technology differs from other production methods, such as CNC milling or injection molding. In terms of design, material selection, production time and costs, the methods differ significantly from each other. The number of parts to be created also has a significant impact on decision making get expert advice from leading 3D printing manufacturers, Essentium!

In this video, the German company igus shows the difference between conventional ABS material and the iglidur I3 for the production of screw nuts in 3D printing. The material has a much lower wear rate and is suitable for private 3D printing at home. Customers also have the option of having these manufactured by the experts. You can see how much more resistant the iglidur materials are in the video.

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Top 5 Videos: Dubais 3D Printed Martian City in the Desert - 3Dnatives

Jeff BezosJeffrey (Jeff) Preston BezosOn The Money: House Democrats line up .5T in spending without budget | GOP takes aim at IRS | House Democrat mulls wealth tax What will Elon Musk and Richard Branson do about Jeff Bezos flying into space? Republicans open new line of attack on IRS MORE, the founder of Amazon and the CEO of the space launch company Blue Origin, caused a social media sensation when he made the following announcement of Instagram:

Ever since I was five years old, Ive dreamed of traveling to space. On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend.

Bezos proposes to achieve several things besides fulfilling a childhood dream shared by uncounted people on planet Earth. He will prove the safety of the New Shepard rocket ship by betting his and his brothers lives on it. The Amazon founder will change his personal brand from that of a monopolist into a private astronaut pushing back the envelope of the final frontier. Finally, Bezos will show up his rival, Elon Musk, whose rockets regularly go into orbit, but who has not yet personally flown into space. However, Virgin Galactics Richard Branson may steal a march on Bezos.

The New Shepard rocket, which has flown unpiloted over a dozen times in the skies over Texas, is due to make its first flight with humans on board on the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. One of the seats will be occupied by the winner of an auction, the proceeds to which will go to charity. Bezos and his brother will occupy two of the other seats. The New Shepard passengers will fly just past the edge of space to experience a few minutes of microgravity and the greatest view of Earth ever before descending back to soft land on Earth.

Bezos will not be the first rich guy to fly into space on his own dime. Dennis Tito has that honor, thanks to a flight in 2001 to the ISS arranged by Space Adventures on board a Russian Soyuz. Since then, a number of the well-heeled and adventurous, including Iranian American businesswoman Anousheh Ansari and computer gaming magnate Richard Garriott, have taken similar rides. But Bezos will be the first to ride in a rocket ship he developed and owns.

What shall SpaceX CEO Musk do in response? The bitter rivalry between the two space entrepreneurs is no secret. Thus far, Musk has been beating Bezos hands down on both business and personal branding. SpaceX rockets regularly take both cargo and people into low Earth orbit. Musk has won the NASA contract to build the first crewed lunar lander in over 50 years. Musk has proven to be pretty endearing and cool with his recent stint as a Saturday Night Live guest host.

Musk has used the Crew Dragon to start a space tourism service. A fundraising flight, called Inspiration 4, will be the first off the launch pad. Meanwhile, Axiom has arranged for four private space flights to the International Space Station on board the Crew Dragon. A few minutes suborbital hop is one thing. A week-long or longer voyage to the International Space Station (ISS) is quite another. In theory, Musk could grab a seat on one of those flights and thus do Bezos one better in the rich space adventurer game.

Does Musk have the time to take a week off (or more, including preparation and training) for a space-faring vacation? He is, after all, running both a space launch company and an electric car company, among other enterprises. Will adding private astronaut to Musks personal brand be enough to take him away for a while from the serious job of disrupting both the aerospace and automotive industries?

Then again, Musk also has harbored dreams of space flight from childhood. He plans to build a Mars colony and spend his later years there. Musk is building a rocket called the Starship that will fulfill that ambition. Perhaps a ride to-and-from the ISS will be a practice run for the months-long interplanetary voyage to Mars, followed by the rest of his life on the Red Planet. Musk might think, what is the point of being one of the richest humans on the planet if one does not indulge oneself with the ultimate adventure vacation?

Musk cannot pull such a flight off before Bezos. However, Richard Branson might, perhaps on July 4. The private sector space race has just gotten personal.

Mark Whittington, who writes frequently about space and politics, has published a political study of space exploration entitled Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? as well as The Moon, Mars and Beyond, and, most recently, Why is America going back to the Moon. He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. He is published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Hill, USA Today, the LA Times and the Washington Post, among other venues.

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What will Elon Musk and Richard Branson do about Jeff Bezos flying into space? | TheHill - The Hill

Its important that you have some idea of where you want to go, some kind of dream, says Rutger Bregman, 33, a Dutch historian and author who has written about utopian thinking. Dont underestimate the power of outlandish ideas. Throughout history, many significant milestones democracy, the abolition of slavery, equal rights for men and women began as utopian dreams. It always starts with people who are first dismissed as unreasonable and unrealistic, Bregman says.

To engage in utopian thinking, you cant be myopically focused on the present. Theres nothing inherent about our current political, economic and social realities; people made these systems and can make them anew. To envision something novel, read more history and less news. A sensationalistic daily news cycle can constrict your ability to see the world as anything but dangerous, violent and mean. Theres nothing as anti-utopian as the product that we call the news, Bregman says. Let your interests be expansive. Read philosophy and psychology. Look around and think, It doesnt have to be this way. Take something like poverty; why does it exist? he says. Weve heard things like the poor will always be with us, but is that really true? What if poverty werent taken as a given? Sometimes it helps to imagine what future historians will make of us. What will they see? How will they judge us?

Utopianism doesnt require you to be optimistic. In fact, that kind of dont worry, everything will work out view can lead to complacency. Instead, be hopeful in a way that moves you toward action. To be a utopian takes grand, ambitious thinking. But when it comes to implementing these ideas into policies and practice, Bregman suggests a humble, tinkering approach; overzealous attachment to utopian blueprints can be dangerous.

You can be a utopian and still enjoy dystopian fictional narratives. Dystopias tend to be much better entertainment, Bregman says. Notice, though, if those plotlines start eroding your view of human nature. To think like a utopian, it helps to believe that humans are fundamentally decent. Be cautious if your utopias all involve technological fixes or escapist colonies on Mars. The work of imagining futures is hard. In this era of climate breakdown and the extinction of species, its obviously easier to think of how it all could end than how it could become much, much better, Bregman says. That better world, that is the work.

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How to Think Like a Utopian - The New York Times

If youre looking for a sign of the End Times, heres one: Las Vegas, the city where seemingly anything and everything is condoned, has made grass the ornamental kind illegal.

Much of the West is experiencing the worst drought in decades, a megadrought that has kindled early wildfires and severe water shortages and the seasonal heat has hardly begun. Theres a 100 percent chance that it gets worse before it gets better, Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, tells the graphics editor Nadja Popovich in The Times today. We have the whole long, dry summer to get through.

Lake Mead, which sits on the Colorado River (behind the Hoover Dam) and provides 90 percent of the water supply for Las Vegas and southern Nevada, this week reached its lowest capacity since its creation in the 1930s. And several states that draw their water, in strict allotments, from the Colorado River must absorb stark restrictions on its use in cities and for farming.

Were kind of at an existential point right now in the West, said Kyle Roerink, executive director of the nonprofit Great Basin Water Network, in a phone conversation. Even basic terminology that once was a given now were seeing a shift in the nomenclature toward saying, well, were not in a period of drought, were in a period of aridification.

Enter aridification, exit grass. Gov. Steve Sisolak of Nevada just signed into law bill AB356, which requires the removal of all nonfunctional turf from the Las Vegas Valley by the year 2027. The effort will conserve about 10 percent of the regions annual allotment of water from the Colorado River. Its a really good time to have put forth something like this, said Mr. Roerink, whose organization was part of a bipartisan coalition, including the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, that supported the bill.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority has not yet formed the committee that will actually define nonfunctional turf. For now, the category loosely describes the few thousand acres of grass carpeting the regions street meridians, office parks and housing developments, and amounts to roughly one-third of all the grass in the region.

The best way to describe it is, its the type of grass thats only used when someone is pushing a lawn mower over it, Mr. Roerink said. Other shorthand that became commonspeak during this legislative session was useless grass. (That other ostensibly useful grass at parks, schools, golf courses and single-family lawns is still allowed, at least for now.)

Nonfunctional turf the very phrase is an existential knot. Is it redundant, or an oxymoron? Either way, it perfectly encapsulates our contorted relationship to nature: Some grass is good, some grass is bad, and all of it (except the kind that grows wild in meadows) is engineered and curated by us.

The challenge isnt excess grass so much as excess people. Southern Nevada has had explosive growth in recent years, and water usage has increased by more than 9 percent since 2018. Eliminating useless grass was a good first step, Mr. Roerink said, but he worried that the water savings would simply be translated into an argument for new development (doubtless with more useful grass).

What are the Mojave Deserts limits? he said. You know, in some of the areas where Vegas wants to develop is desert tortoise habitat, and theres not a lot of good desert tortoise habitat left. Whats the future of that going to be?

The fundamental question is: What counts as a functional or non-useless species? Humanity seems dead-set on finding out. We have a knack for seeking out the harshest environments and trying to plant ourselves there, from the Amazon to Antarctica. Lately its outer space, with Mars as the ultimate destination. On Monday the billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos announced that he would soon be venturing into space, beating the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to the punch (unless the billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson gets there even sooner).

It bears noting that Mars has no grass, functional or otherwise, nor discernible life of any kind. (Earths deserts, including the Mojave, are where Mars rovers go for practice.) If Martian colonists are fortunate, they might dig up something akin to the microscopic, multicellular rotifers that scientists recently retrieved from Siberian permafrost. The tiny animals resistant to radiation, extreme acidity, starvation, low oxygen and dehydration had been effectively frozen for 24,000 years, yet they bounced right back to life and began to multiply.

Theyre the worlds most resistant animal to just about any form of torture, Matthew Meselson, a molecular biologist at Harvard, told The Times. Theyre probably the only animals we know that could do pretty well in outer space.

The last time the rotifers were up and about, woolly mammoths roamed the planet, including in what is now the Las Vegas Valley. To the extent that mammoths thought anything, they probably held very strong opinions about who was and was not a functional species. Alas, well never know.

Science in The Times, 90 years ago today

MALINTA, Ohio A terrific shock jarred six Ohio counties today, rocked houses in dozens of towns in this state and Indiana and roused thousands of sleeping persons. Tonight the crowds of people who came to Malinta as the center of the shock were mystified as to whether it was caused by an explosion or by the fall of a giant meteor.

Sensing that something far out of the ordinary had happened, hordes of motorists drove from many places to find out the cause. A strange hole, half a mile from Malinta on State Route 109 was the focus of the crowd.

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Where the Grass is Greener, Except When Its Nonfunctional Turf - The New York Times

Doja Cat dropped her new single and music video, called Need To Know, with an appearance by featured friend and fellow musician Grimes. Given the futuristic nature of the music video, it only makes sense to bring in an artist who seems like theyre from another planet.

In the Need To Know video, the evening starts with lounging around, drinking, and playing video games. Grimes joins Doja Cat with her other friends, Jazelle Straka-Braxton, Josephine Pearl Lee, and Ryan Destiny on an intergalactic girls night out. In a far away city reminiscent of the NYC in The Fifth Element, the gang zips around in a floating Uber, on their way to an underground, outer-space club.

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Grimes sports her signature elven ears and hot pink top knots, not needing else to blend in with the aliens surrounding her. She and a blue-tinted Doja grab drinks together at the bar, and sway on the dance floor until the radioactive juice theyre drinking kicks in. The Need To Know video is all just practice for Grimes for when she and Elon go off to Mars in a few years and start a technocrat colony.

In a 2020 interview with Business Insider, when asked whether shed rather upload her consciousness to the Cloud or go to Mars, Grimes said going to the red planet was one of her main goals.

WOW, what a question. Ummmmm.. I would very much like to do both of these things. Like, these are the main things Im trying to do Grimes said at the time. I guess Id like to upload my consciousness, and then when its technologically possible, have my consciousness live in some kind of humanoid vessel that can speak and move freely, and then that body can go to Mars and other planets with my mind inside it.

Okay Grimes, yeah sure, whatever you want to do. Planet Her from Doja Cat lands on June 25th.

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Grimes, preparing for her life on Mars with Elon probably, appears as an alien in Doja Cat's new video - Yahoo Lifestyle

Electric Gamebox, which has a single U.S. venue in the Dallas area, will have locations in major metropolitan regions around the country over the next five years.

The company announced that it raised $11 million in its latest funding round, bringing its total capital raised to date to $25 million. Electric Gamebox plans to use that funding for a bold expansion that will see more than 1,000 Electric Gamebox venues open around the world by 2026.

It expects more than 100 of those venues to land in major U.S. metro areas over the next five years, and it plans to open locations in San Antonio, Houston and Austin by the end of this year. The company also has three venues in the U.K., where its headquartered globally.

Electric Gamebox is an immersive group gaming platform where as many as six people can play as a team to overcome challenges and solve puzzles. But there are no clunky virtual reality headsets the entire game takes place in a private, white room in which the game environment is projection-mapped across the walls. Players wear small visors that track their motion and location in relation to objects in the game.

Game sessions must be booked ahead and can last 60 minutes and range from $10 to $35 per person.

The company is also searching for a corporate headquarters location in Dallas to support its growth. It expects to expand its team of 50 employees to a few hundred by the end of 2021.

Why North Texas? The region is the home of U.S. location-based entertainment, founder and CEO Will Dean said. Its home to movie theater chain Cinemark as well as other experiential entertainment companies like Dave & Busters, Main Event and Topgolf.

Dean, who co-founded the world famous Tough Mudder team obstacle race, started Electric Gamebox with the idea of creating an experience that challenged people of all ages.

My criteria for my next business after Tough Mudder was kind of twofold. It didnt have to be curing cancer, but I had to believe it was making a positive difference in the world ... and you know, I really like the idea of using technology to bring people together, Dean said.

Dean likens the mechanics and setup of Electric Gamebox to an escape room, but the company is also developing other games. It has six different game scenarios and plans to have at least 100 over the next five years. In one of the current games, tech billionaires start a colony on Mars and players have to mine Elonomium a clever play on Elon Musks name to build the largest colony possible.

Dean said the company was pleasantly surprised to learn recently that Electric Gamebox has been a hit with families that have children on the autism spectrum.

Its quite humbling when you have a family come in ... and youll have a mother say, Theres nothing that we as a family can all enjoy together; this has been quite game-changing for us as a family. And, This is something we look forward to all week.

The Electric Gamebox venue in The Colonys Grandscape has been fully booked on weekends since it opened in December, Dean said. And thats despite the pandemic.

Its very socially distant, Dean said.

The games are targeted toward all age groups and are family friendly, but theyve also been popular for corporate team-building events. Dean said he expects to see even more corporate event bookings in September as companies return to in-person work.

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Dallas Electric Gamebox is the digital escape roomlike experience youre about to see everywhere - The Dallas Morning News