Daily Archives: June 15, 2021

(Reuters) - Trail-blazing space reproduction research that yielded healthy baby mice produced using freeze-dried sperm stored for years in orbit is showing the possibilities of procreation beyond Earth, with future implications for humans exploring the cosmos.

Healthy mice produced from sperm cells that were freeze-dried, stored in a sealed capsule and preserved on the orbiting International Space Station are seen in a laboratory in Japan in this undated handout image. Teruhiko Wakayama, University of Yamanashi/Handout via REUTERS

Scientists said they produced 168 offspring using mouse sperm cells that were stored aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for five years and 10 months and then rehydrated back on Earth, injected into unfertilized egg cells and transferred into female mice at a Japanese laboratory.

The sperm cells were exposed to radiation 170 times greater than sperm kept in ground storage for comparative purposes at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agencys (JAXA) Tsukuba Space Center. The higher radiation levels present in space are attenuated by Earths atmosphere.

University of Yamanashi developmental biologist Teruhiko Wakayama, who helped lead the study published in the journal Science Advances, said the space radiation did not damage the sperms DNA or reduce its fertilization ability compared to the ground-stored sperm.

The baby mice were just as healthy as those produced using ground-stored sperm, with normal appearance and no abnormalities in gene functioning, Wakayama added. Their offspring - and even their grandchildren - also were healthy, Wakayama said.

Scientists are seeking a greater understanding of how space conditions affect reproduction. There is concern that greater radiation levels could foster harmful mutations and that reduced or zero gravity conditions could impede embryonic development. Previous research in orbit has involved animals such as fruit flies and fish.

The study examined radiations effect on the male reproductive cell - or gamete - but not the issue of gravity. It was the first space study involving mammalian reproductive cells.

If space radiation results in mutations, maybe the next generation would be changed a little bit. However, if animals live in space for many generations, the mutations would accumulate, Wakayama said. We have to know how to protect against this.

Wakayama said that in August researchers will send frozen early-stage mouse embryos to the ISS, where they will be thawed and cultured under zero-gravity conditions.

By this experiment, we will know whether gravity is essential for mammalian embryo development or not, Wakayama said.

These issues might be of concern if humankind in the future establishes off-world colonies - perhaps on the moon or Mars or in large space stations - or develops technology here to send astronauts on lengthy missions to destinations beyond our solar system such as the closest star, Proxima Centauri.

Wakayama said the findings regarding freeze-dried mouse sperm suggest that this method could be used for human reproduction in space if such long missions are realized.

The freeze-dried sperm was sent to the ISS in 2013 inside lightweight capsules, then was stored in a freezer aboard the space station and sent back to Earth in 2019 in the longest biological research involving the orbiting laboratory.

The researchers estimated that freeze-dried sperm could be safely stored in the ISS for about 200 years. Because it is small and lightweight - and thus inexpensive to transport - animal reproductive cells could be stored in this manner as easily as plant seeds, they added.

In order for humans to thrive in space, we would need to maintain the genetic diversity not only of people but also of livestock and even pets, Wakayama said.

Genetic diversity protects against the accumulation of harmful mutations seen in inbreeding.

Carrying freeze-dried reproductive cells from large numbers of individuals would be easier than transporting the animals themselves and could enable space colonies to have animals for food and companionship, Wakayama added.

Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington, Editing by Rosalba OBrien

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Pioneering space reproduction research yields healthy baby mice - Reuters

Brazil has signed on to the NASA-led Artemis Accords initiative to explore the moon responsibly.

The country became the first South American nation to sign the Artemis Accords, a guideline for the responsible exploration of the moon, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Tuesday (June 15). The nations on board with these exploration principles include the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and now, Brazil.

Agreeing to these guidelines, these nations are also signing on to participate in NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon in 2024 and establish a sustainable human presence by the end of the decade.

Related: 8 nations sign US-led Artemis Accords for moon exploration and beyond

"Under the Artemis program, the United States will land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon and we're going to do that together with our international partners and commercial partners," Nelson said during a news conference announcing Brazil's commitment to the Artemis Accords.

"While we prepare for these bold and ambitious missions, it's important that the United States and our partners commit to conducting ourselves responsibly and transparently for the benefit of all," Nelson added. "That is to ensure a safe and sustainable environment for outer space activities."

Brazil's involvement in the accords comes after, in December 2020, former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine and Marcos Pontes, Brazil's Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) signed a joint statement of intent describing the nation's intention to be the first South American nation to sign the accords.

"In undertaking this important commitment, Brazil shows the global impact of the Artemis Accords. Your decision to join the community of nations committed to explore space peacefully, safely and transparently demonstrates Brazil's leadership on the international stage," Nelson said. "The Artemis Accords belong to our partners as much as they do to us, and we thank Brazil for its commitment to establishing peaceful norms of behavior in space."

Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Brazil makes history in signing the Artemis Accords for moon exploration - Space.com

"The Outer Worlds 2," the sequel to the beloved video game "The Outer Worlds," is in production, but the lighthearted teaser trailer from Microsoft Xbox says developers aren't ready to talk about anything else but its name.

The surprise successor to the popular 2019 action role-playing game in space was announced Sunday (June 13) at E3, a large industry gaming conference held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The over-the-top 90-second trailer pokes fun at how early-stage gaming announcements, like that of "The Outer Worlds 2," refuse to disclose many details.

"Now, we see our hero, but only their silhouette, because the developers haven't finished the design," a malicious-sounding voice intones during the satirical trailer. "Or finished the story. Or finished any gameplay that's actually ready to show. In fact, the only thing they have finished is the title."

Related from PC Gamer:The Outer Worlds Review

So we can't tell you anything about the game's release date, plot, the platforms it will be available on or really anything else. But we can point to what Xbox Wire said about the project:

"Taking place in a new star system with a new crew, we are excited to bring everyone back to 'The Outer Worlds' franchise. And, fans of 'The Outer Worlds' should always remember it's not the best choice. It's Spacer's Choice," Feargus Urquhart, studio head of game developer Obsidian Entertainment, said in the Xbox Wire statement.

While you're waiting for more news on the sequel, the 2019 original game "The Outer Worlds" is still available to play on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch. Many 2021 E3 releases are exclusive to Microsoft platforms, however, "The Outer Worlds 2" may not be as widely available as its predecessor.

The original game is set in the year 2355 in an alternate future in which huge corporations dominate Earth and extend their reach to other star systems. Starring in "The Outer Worlds" is a fictional six-planet system called Halcyon, which is so far away that the crews need to hibernate for a 10-year journey. In real life, astronaut hibernation has also been studied in NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program that gives early stage funding for far-future space exploration ideas.

The universe of "The Outer Worlds" features faster-than-light (FTL) travel, which is called Skip Space in the franchise. Unfortunately for long-time fans of FTL travel in franchises like "Star Wars", "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Galactica", however, fresh research published in April 2021 suggests real-life warp drives might be limited by energy problems and contradictions with Einstein's theories of relativity and space-time, among other issues.

"The Outer Worlds" also features numerous types of weapons, including a shrink ray gun that hearkens back to concepts in other space franchises. Perhaps the most notorious use of a shrink ray was in the 1996 comedy "Mars Attacks!" in which the Martian Leader uses a shrink ray against General Decker, a fictional prominent military official representing the President of the United States.

Today's best The Outer Worlds deals

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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'The Outer Worlds 2' is happening and here's the 1st trailer - Space.com

The human race is still years away from landing the first people on Mars, and remains decades, if not centuries, from becoming a true interplanetary species with permanent, habitable colonies beyond Earth. In other words, the human race is stuck on a planet vulnerable to the extraterrestrial threats that have reinvented life before, as recent as 66 millions years ago, when the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid collision off what is now present-day Mexico.

Fast-forward to the present day, where 66 million years is a snapshot in geologic time. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has approved development of a new telescope to detect such threats and thwart the repeated fate of the dinosaurs.

On Friday, NASA gave the green light for the Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope, or NEO surveyor, to scan the cosmos for asteroids and comets with the potential to hit Earth by coming within 30 million miles of our planet. The new telescope will use infrared light to pick up dangerous objects flying through the solar system that are unable to be seen by telescopes on Earth with the same goals.

NEO Surveyor will have the capability to rapidly accelerate the rate at which NASA is able to discover asteroids and comets that could pose a hazard to the Earth, and it is being designed to discover 90 percent of asteroids 140 meters (459 feet) in size or larger within a decade of being launched, said NASAs NEO Surveyor program scientist in a statement.

While NASA finished its goal of finding 90 percent of objects larger than 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) in 2010, the agency was ordered in 2005 to find 90 percent of objects larger than 140 meters (459 feet), which NASAs Center for Near-Earth Object Studies still considers potentially hazardous and to carry Armageddon. NASA has only found 40 percent of these objects.

Before the launch of NASAs latest infrared telescope, however, which will follow an orbit beyond the moon scheduled for sometime within the first six months of 2026, cosmic threats coming from the direction of the sun have gone undetected, as optical telescopes on the ground have only been able to operate at night.

One such lapse in detection wrought havoc on Russia in 2013, when the Chelyabinsk meteor exploded over the southern Ural region at 40,000 miles per hour with the force of 30 to 40 times more energy than the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima. The blast damaged more than 7,000 buildings in the area and injured a Guardian-estimated 1,100 people, primarily from the shattered glass. It sent communities scrambling to clean up in the middle of the harsh Russian winter. Some scientists say the fireball outshone the sun. The asteroid was less than 20 meters in diameter, according to Canadian Physics Professor Peter Brown.

The impact blast 0f another asteroid collision 100 years prior was far greater. The Tunguska meteor hit Siberia and reportedly flattened 800 square miles of remote forest.

The relatively recent impacts illustrate the importance of NASAs latest space telescope, managed by the agencys Planetary Missions Program at Marshall Space Flight Center, and the projects urgency to stave off an unpredicted Armageddon.

Equally important to detection is collision prevention. NASA is currently developing technology to deflect an object from hitting the planet and will test one mode of deflection later this year with DART, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test. The mission will target the binary near-Earth asteroid system Didymos, the Greek word for twin, detected in 1996, and will feature a spacecraft crashing into the objects smaller moon to change its orbit further from Earth next year.

In May, the Independent reported simulations from the worlds leading space agencies found that no such technology yet exists to conclusively prevent a world-ending collision, even with six months notice, highlighting the urgency of innovation and detection needed to save the human race on its one and only home.

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NASA's Project To Save The Planet Shows Urgency Of Space Exploration - The Federalist

This Week In Space brings you whats new and exciting in space exploration and astronomy once a week, every week. From supernovae to SpaceX or Mars missions to black holesif its out of this world, its covered here.

It's like space! But wet!

The largest indoor swimming pool in the world will be built in 2023, but to splash around in its deep end, you may have to be an astronautor at least a movie star. Called Blue Abyss, the 150 million facility was recently announced as a training ground for astronauts that will also double as a film set and research center.

The aquatic center will be as big as 17 Olympic swimming pools. Future astronauts will work under 150 feet of water to simulate the low gravity and extreme conditions of space, practicing with mock space stations and other setups that will be lowered into the pool via crane through a sliding roof.

As needed, the crane will be able to switch out the astronaut training modules for fake cave systems that would test experimental submersible robots and deep sea divers. Or, if Hollywood so desires, Blue Abyss suggests that its high-tech setups can be replaced by film sets for taping blockbusters.

As of yet, no producer has come forward to take them up on their offer.

If a sun winks at you, do you wink back?

We often think of stars as immutable: unchanging, fixed points of light hanging in the night sky. A group of astronomers have challenged that view with reports that they observed a star blink." Over a few months, the star VVV-WIT-08 slowly darkened to nothingness, then gradually reignited again.

Humankind is no stranger to eclipses, but no one has seen anything like this before. Astronomers know that some stars get momentarily darker when planets pass in front of them (and have used that fact to detect thousands of planets), but typically, such eclipses dim a star by somewhere around a fraction of a percent. Though bigger planets that eclipse smaller stars effectively block more of their light, VVV-WIT-08 is a huge star, almost as big as the distance between the Earth and the Sun. If something blocked its light, it must have been huge, too.

The scientists who reported the discovery dont know what it is, but they have theories. It could be a disk of gas and dust surrounding a newborn planet, or, more exotically, it could be a black hole surrounded by material that it is gradually pulling in. Such a black hole, the authors claim, would have to be at least ten times the mass of the Sun.

Although this is the first star of its kind ever discovered, we may hear of others in the near future, as future telescopes designed to monitor billions of stars come online.

Two planets from the same system with vastly different rates of atmospheric degeneration are perplexing scientists.

At some point in the last four billion years, Mars lost nearly all of its atmosphere. Now, the discovery of a planet that is currently boiling away into spaceand one thats notcould provide a key to understanding why some planets end up like Mars and others like Earth.

In a recently released paper, an international group of astronomers reported that the planet HD 63433 c is losing the equivalent of the entire weight of Earth from its atmosphere every few billion years. At this rate, its atmosphere will be completely stripped away in less than one billion years.

This in itself would be a noteworthy discovery, as only a handful of planets with evaporating atmospheres have ever been found. But the HD 63433 system also hosts another planet, HD 63433 b, which is all the more interesting because its not losing its atmosphere. According to their calculations, the astronomers say it should be boiling off three times as fast as planet c.

Planet b could be something unusual, like the rocky core of a gas giant that never grew to be the size of Jupiter. Or, there could be something missing from our understanding of how planets lose their atmospheres. Until the planet is studied closely with a space telescope like the Hubble or James Webb, we cant know for sure.

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This Week in Space: A 'blinking' star and exploring space in world's deepest pool - Chron

An artists conception shows a spacecraft firing up its nuclear thermal propulsion system. (DARPA Illlustration)

The idea of putting nukes in space may sound like a national security nightmare, but the right kind of nukes are likely to be a must-have for long-term space exploration.

At least thats the way a panel of experts at the intersection of the space industry and the nuclear industry described the state of things this week during the American Nuclear Societys virtual annual meeting.

In order to do significant activity in space, you need power. And in order to get that power its complicated, said Paolo Venneri, CEO of a Seattle-based nuclear power venture called USNC-Tech.

Even if you build a hydrogen fuel production plant on the moon, or a methane production plant on Mars, the power to run those plants has to come from somewhere. And studies suggest that solar power alone wont be enough.

The sun, its great, but only within a certain region of the solar system, Venneri said. And so if you want to have sustained high-power applications, you need a nuclear power system.

George Sowers, a space industry veteran whos now an engineering professor at the Colorado School of Mines, has run the numbers on the power requirements for a lunar operation that would mine polar ice to produce fuel as well as drinkable water and breathable air for future astronauts. He figures it would take a 2-megawatt nuclear power plant to convert the H2O into hydrogen and oxygen.

Nuclear power is also being studied for in-space propulsion: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos Blue Origin is one of the companies working on a Pentagon project aimed at demonstrating a nuclear thermal propulsion system beyond low Earth orbit in 2025. (Nuclear thermal propulsion systems generate heat to drive rocket propellant, while nuclear electric propulsion systems generate electricity for ion thrusters.)

The project is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, and is known as the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO. Blue Origins commercial partners in DRACO are General Atomics, which will design the nuclear reactor; and Lockheed Martin, which will work with Blue Origin on the spacecraft concept.

During DRACOs initial 18-month design phase, General Atomics is due to get $22.2 million, while Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin have been awarded $2.5 million and $2.9 million respectively. DARPA will issue separate solicitations for future phases.

DARPA is interested in nuclear thermal propulsion because it promises to be as much as five times more efficient than traditional chemical propulsion, with a thrust-to-weight ratio thats 10,000 times greater than electric propulsion systems.

Venneri said USNC-Tech is helping out Blue Origin and General Atomics on DRACO. Were also working with Blue Origin on a few other things, but thats a TBD [to be determined] in terms of information, he added.

USNC-Tech is also partnering on nuclear thermal propulsion research with Aerojet Rocketdyne, which has facilities in Redmond, Wash. Venneri said his company is involved in yet another collaboration with Seattle-based First Mode to develop a new type of chargeable atomic battery for space missions. Just in the past few months, USNC-Tech has received NASA grants totaling $250,000 for studies focusing on atomic batteries and an ultra-high-temperature facility for testing materials that could be used in space for nuclear reactors.

In a sense, space nuclear power has been around for decades: Plutonium-powered radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or RTGs, have provided electrical power for NASA missions ranging from the Apollo moon landings and the Voyager deep-space probes to the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on Mars.

Putting a full-fledged nuclear reactor on a spacecraft, or on the surface of the moon or Mars, would kick things up a notch. Back in 2004, NASA laid out a plan to put a small-scale reactor on a probe that would have studied Jupiter and its moons but the mission was canceled the following year, due to technical challenges as well as budget limitations.

NASA and the Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration successfully completed ground tests of a next-generation nuclear reactor nicknamed KRUSTY in 2018 for NASAs Kilopower space reactor program.

The programs goal is to put a 10-kilowatt demonstration reactor on the lunar surface by as soon as 2027. But Dave Poston who designed the Kilopower reactor at Los Alamos National Laboratory and is the chief technology officer for a Los Alamos spin-off called Space Nuclear Power Corp. said progress has been slow.

Nothing has really happened for the past three years, he said. NASA says its still working on a request for proposals for a moon-based nuclear power system.

When it comes to nukes in space, safety is a big issue: Under the current regulatory system, each launch of a plutonium-powered generator has to be given presidential approval. Next-generation atomic batteries that use uranium instead of plutonium may not face limits that strict. Nevertheless, any projects that call for launching nuclear material into space will get close scrutiny.

Even within the nuclear industry, theres a debate over the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) vs. low-enrichment uranium (LEU) in space. Safety concerns are among the reasons why NASAs nuclear plans have gotten bogged down.

Im not going to debate HEU vs. LEU here, said Ron Faibish, senior director of business development for General Atomics Nuclear Technologies and Materials Division. I think every system has its merits. Im just going to say its a design issue, and you can design for safety.

A space policy directive that was issued during the final days of the Trump administration could help smooth the way for nuclear power to become an accepted part of Americas space effort. But Rick Tumlinson, a longtime advocate of space commercialization whos the founding partner of a space-centric venture capital firm called SpaceFund, said theres no room for missteps.

Its a very confused area, because its new, and so thats going to have to be worked out very carefully, Tumlinson said. The other challenge is that there are a couple of countries very interested in space that dont have to worry about public sentiment when it comes to launching nukes. And I could see them getting a jump, while were all wrestling around who regulates this and who does that.

Will nuclear power become a factor in Americas rising space rivalry with China? That really does sound like a national security nightmare.

Contributing editor Alan Boyle served as the moderator for the Per Nuclear Ad Astra panel discussion during this weeks annual meeting of the American Nuclear Society.

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Space nuclear power is nearing critical mass as the final frontiers next frontier - GeekWire

The UAE has urged heads of the world's space agencies to co-operate and bring success to their exploration programmes.

Maj Hazza Al Mansouri, the UAEs first astronaut, called for more joint efforts in his address to a conference in St Petersburg, Russia.

The Global Space Exploration Conference runs from Monday to Friday, June 14 to 18.

It brings together engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, educators, space agency representatives and policymakers.

Its really important that we work together. Despite our backgrounds and beliefs, space exploration will always unite us

Maj Hazza Al Mansouri

The first major gathering of space agencies since the start of the coronavirus pandemic is organised by the International Astronautical Federation and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos.

Maj Al Mansouri also spoke of the importance of the involvement of the youth in space programmes.

As a newcomer to the space sector, the UAE has relied heavily on international partnerships to reach major milestones.

Maj Al Mansouri went into space on board a Russian rocket, and the UAEs Hope probe reached Mars through a collaboration with several institutions including three US universities.

For its lunar mission, the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre is using a Japanese lander to send its Rashid rover to the Moon's surface.

Its really important that we work together, Maj Al Mansouri said during a plenary session.

"Despite our backgrounds and beliefs, space exploration will always unite us. We speak one common language, which is science.

We successfully reached Mars and now were taking pictures for the entire scientific community. Without international partnerships and young minds, we couldnt have done this.

The International Space Station has been an example of countries working together, despite their political differences.

However, Russia now plans to leave the project and build its own station.

Dmitry Rogozin, Roscosmos chief, said they would not build a Russian station if the US lifted sanctions on the agency.

Mr Rogozin has also described the Nasa-led Artemis Accords, an international treaty that outlines peaceful Moon exploration, as too US-centric.

Instead, Roscosmos has partnered with China to build the International Lunar Research Station and is encouraging other nations to join.

The UAE, Japan, Australia and several other nations have signed the accords.

For years, Nasa relied on Russian Soyuz craft to take its astronauts into space and to the space station.

But the US' latest commercial space model has revived its programme, with astronauts now travelling on SpaceX rockets and Nasa planning to send humans to the Moon.

Sergey Krikalev, an adviser at Roscosmos and a former cosmonaut, said the UAE and other countries that are new in space could benefit from the growth of space technology being built by nations such as Russia, Europe and the US.

It could help the countries that want to launch their astronauts to space, he said at the conference.

Russia is also trying to modernise its space programme and is building a commercial model.

An agreement between the UAE, Russia and Kazakhstan to upgrade and commercialise the Gagarins Start launch pad in Kazakhstan is in discussions, which could give the UAE access to Soyuz rockets.

Sarah Al Amiri, the Minister of State for Advanced Technology and chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency, confirmed to The National during an interview in April that the agreement was in discussion.

On Tuesday, the heads of space agencies will speak during the conference.

Mr Rogozin, Nasa administrator Bill Nelson, UAE astronaut programme chief and deputy director-general of MBRSC Salem Al Marri will speak to the conference online.

Mr Rogozin said Roscosmos will hold discussions on Moon exploration partnerships with Chinese officials on the sidelines of the conference.

On June 16, a Chinese official will present a blueprint for a lunar research station.

The International Space Station, pictured with Russia's ISS Progress 77 cargo craft attached to the Pirs docking compartment, orbits into a sunset 270 miles above the South Pacific on February 21, 2021. Nasa

The ISS Progress 76 resupply ship backs away from the International Space Station after it had undocked moments earlier from the Pirs docking compartment on February 9, 2021. In the foreground is the Soyuz MS-17 crew ship docked to the Rassvet module. Nasa

Astronauts Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover, Jr. finish a four-year effort to upgrade the International Space Stations power system during a spacewalk on February 1, 2021. AFP

The SpaceX Crew Dragon, centre right, the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle-9 resupply ship, centre bottom, and Europe's Columbus laboratory module as they figure prominently in this photograph taken during a spacewalk conducted by astronauts Bob Behnken and Chris Cassidy on July 1, 2020. Nasa

The Cygnus resupply ship, with its prominent cymbal-shaped UltraFlex solar arrays, from Northrop Grumman pictured on March 28, 2021 attached to the International Space Station's Unity module. AFP

A View of the Destiny US Laboratory aboard the International Space Station. The US Laboratory Module, called Destiny, is the primary research laboratory for US payloads, supporting a wide range of experiments and studies contributing to health, safety, and quality of life for people all over the world. Nasa

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UAE's first astronaut tells global summit in Russia: 'We're all speaking the same language when it comes to space' - The National

NASA is finally headed back to Venus. On June 2, 2021, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced that the agency had selected two winners of its latest Discovery class spacecraft mission competition, and both are headed to the second planet from the Sun.

Im a planetary scientist and a self-confessed Venus evangelist, and heres why Im so excited that humanity is going back to Venus.

This is the first time since the Magellan mission in 1989 that NASA has committed to sending spacecraft to study the shrouded planet just next door. With the data these two Venus missions called VERITAS and DAVINCI+ will collect, planetary scientists can start tackling one of the biggest mysteries in the solar system: Why is Venus, a planet almost the same size, density and age of Earth, so very different from the world humanity calls home?

Venus might once have been covered in oceans and clouds and could have supported life. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ames

Venus is a rocky planet about the same size as Earth, but despite these similarities, it is a brutal place. Although only a little closer to the Sun than Earth, a runaway greenhouse effect means that its extremely hot at the surface about 870 F (465 C), roughly the temperature of a self-cleaning oven. The pressure at the surface is a crushing 90 times the pressure at sea level on Earth. And to top it off, there are sulfuric acid clouds covering the entire planet that corrode anything passing through them.

But perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Venus is that it may have once looked a lot like Earth. Recent climate models suggest that in the past the planet could have had liquid water oceans and a mild climate. It may have been habitable for as long as 3 billion years before succumbing to some sort of climate catastrophe that triggered the runaway greenhouse. The goal of these two new missions to Venus is to try to determine if Venus really was Earths twin, why it changed and whether, in general, large rocky planets become habitable oases like Earth or scorched wastelands like Venus.

The VERITAS mission will send a craft carrying a powerful radar system into orbit above Venus. NASA/JPLCaltech

What might come as a surprise is that in the 1960s and 1970s Venus was the central focus of space exploration like Mars is today. The U.S. and Soviet Union sent more than 30 spacecraft in total to the second planet from the Sun. But since 1989, only two missions have gone to Venus, and both were focused on studying the atmosphere the European Space Agencys Venus Express and Japans Akatsuki.

In contrast, the VERITAS and DAVINCI+ missions will take a holistic view by exploring the geological and climatological history of Venus as a whole, in two very different but complementary ways.

The thick, global layer of sulfuric acid clouds covering Venus make it almost impossible to see the surface with normal cameras. Thats why the VERITAS orbiter short for Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy will carry a powerful radar system. This radar can peer through the clouds and gather images and topographic data up to 10 times higher-resolution than any previous mission to Venus. This will allow scientists to look for clues about Venus earlier climate that may be preserved in rock formations on the surface and might also answer whether the planet is geologically active today. And, finally, this exciting mission will use a special, infrared camera to peer through the atmosphere at very specific wavelengths to take the first global measurements of what Venus rocks are made of something scientists know very little about.

The DAVINCI+ probe will fall through the Venus atmosphere collecting samples and snapping photos before it ultimately collides with the Alpha Regio region. NASA GSFC visualization by CI Labs Michael Lentz and others

VERITAS stablemate is DAVINCI+, or Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry and Imaging. The DAVINCI+ mission also involves an orbiter, but the real star of the show will be the meter-wide atmospheric probe. The probe will drop into Venus atmosphere and free-fall through the thick clouds for about an hour before reaching the surface.

On the way down, it will take samples of the atmosphere, specifically measuring a variety of gases including argon, krypton and xenon. Different climate histories for Venus would lead to different ratios of these noble gases in the atmosphere and so by analyzing these ratios, scientists will be able to work out how much water the planet formed with, and even how much water it has lost over the past 4.5 billion years.

But thats not all the probe will do. Just before impacting crash landing into an area called Alpha Regio that has some of the oldest rocks on the planet, the probe will take infrared images of the surface as it comes into view through the gloom of the lower atmosphere. Those images will be the first ever taken from above the surface but below the cloud deck, showing planetary scientists Venus as never before.

Studying Venus can offer valuable insight into how other rocky, potentially habitable planets in the galaxy like Kepler-186f, seen here in an artists rendition might evolve. NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-Caltech

I have argued before for returning to Venus, so to say Im enthusiastic about these missions is an understatement. Venus may hold the key to understanding the past and possibly the future of Earth. As astronomers discover more and more Earth-size worlds around other stars, they need to understand whether the outcome we see on Earth blue skies, water oceans and even a thriving biosphere is the norm, or if the hellish, barren wastelands of Venus are the rule.

Several decades of sustained Mars exploration have shown that each mission answers earlier questions and also raises new ones. I dont know what surprises VERITAS and DAVINCI+, scheduled to launch in the late 2020s, will uncover at Venus, but I do know theyll discover aspects of the planet that no one had ever imagined. Scientists and mission teams across the world have worked hard to realize a Decade of Venus, and its starting to pay off. In fact, only a week after NASAs announcement, the European Space Agency declared its plans for a Venus mission, too. With these new missions, its my guess my hope that were at the start of a new, golden age of Venus exploration.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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NASA is returning to Venus to learn how it became a hot poisonous wasteland - PBS NewsHour

Starfield is a deep story-driven RPG built on hope, deep-space voyages across the stars, and a message of interstellar optimism.

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Starfield, Bethesda Game Studios' first new singleplayer RPG since Fallout 4, has an almost mystical quality about it. The project invokes themes of deep space travel in futuristic, yet somehow-janky ships, bringing to mind a mix of Star Trek's sophisticated tech with Star Wars' gritty style. Add in a spark of hope and Bethesda-level depth and you have Starfield.

We haven't seen Starfield in action just yet, but the developers have given us lots of clues on what to expect. Starfield is a grand sci-fi space fantasy built on the same kind of hope and optimism that led to NASA's moon landing. The fictional Constellation is a celebration of the golden age of spacefaring, bringing to mind NASA's expeditious spirit. Constellation's messaging is a clear callback to Armstrong's legendary quote: "For all, into the Starfield."

Like futuristic Marco Polos, gamers are propelled into the far-away black of deep space to explore, find, and uncover in a universe set 300 years into the future. Freedom is a big part of Starfield--freedom to both explore and choose--and gamers will get lots of customization options that, like Mass Effect, will have a direct impact on gameplay.

The themes are and images also reflective of that age of optimism. A quick look at Starfield's concept art reveals nods to beloved sci-fi artists like John Berkey's exotic deep-future paintings, Star Wars visionary Ralph McQuarrie, and even Syd Mead's more visceral cyberpunk style. There's also shades of the 1970s thrown in with its vibrant Atari-like color scheme.

"When you look up in the sky, there is this drive to know 'what is out there? Are we alone? What are the origins of space and time and all of those things? What role does religion play in some of that as well?' So, we do get into some big questions. I think a game like this is a good place to do that," Howard said in the interview.

Mechanically, Starfield may not be a departure from previous games. "It's like Skyrim in space," he tells The Washington Post.

"For me, Starfield is the Han Solo simulator. Get in a ship, explore the galaxy, do fun stuff," Bethesda managing director Ashley Cheng told WaPo.

And like Han Solo's Millennium Falcon, player ships feel decidedly lived in and worn. There's no gleaming-clean spaceships or glimmering alien technology here.

"This is our first new IP in 25 years. It's a game we've dreamt of playing, and it's only now when we have the hardware, the technology, and the experience to push our creative boundaries even further," Howard said in a recent video.

"It's a next-generation roleplaying game where you'll be who you want, go where you want, experience our stories and forge your own. More than that, Starfield is about hope, about shared humanity, and searching for answers to life's greatest mystery,"Howard said.

Starfield is the first new universe in 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity's greatest mystery.

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Starfield is built on hope, nods to golden age of space exploration - TweakTown

Interest in space has grown fast in recent years in many countries. Especially in the United Arab Emirates who has set ambitious plans for the next 10 years with missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. An opportunity to shine in the field of sciences and also to diversify its economy.

Space industry could become one of the UAEs most promising sectors and a key pillar of economic growth over the next 50 years. A white paper released by Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry even identified several areas of the space economy that offers the country a big investment potential, ranging from space mining to stations, settlements, law, sustainability, tourism, and space academies which include preparing astronauts for commercial flights and developing and manufacturing spacecraft components.

In 2016, the country developed its first National Space Policy with the mission of crafting the future of the UAE as a leader in space and in september 2019, the first Emirati was sent into Mars as part of a three-member crew that blasted off on a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan for an eight-day mission, thus becoming the first Arab country and fifth nation to reach the Red Planet. A success that has been a vehicle for economic and societal transformation and paves the way for new investment opportunities and public-private sector partnerships that could enhance the countrys economic competitiveness and position as a global innovation leader.

This UAEs mission to Mars plans to offer the global science community new and useful insights about Mars in order to understand better how and why the planet is uninhabitable for humans, In addition to attracting foreign investments, the UAE expect to see the mission Hope Probe will also help enhance the countrys competitive capabilities across various economic sectors, especially in innovation, technology and advanced scientific fields, something which will strengthen the UAEs global reputation and position in the space industry among other vital fields. The Hope probe or Al-Amal in Arabic, is a $200 million project that was launched on July 20th 2020 from Japans Tanegashima Space Station in order to study and gather data on the red planets atmosphere with the help of three highly specialized instruments developed by the Emirati team: a camera to photograph Mars and study its lower atmosphere, an ultraviolet spectrometer that will detect the planets levels of carbon monoxide and oxygen, and an infrared spectrometer that will measure Martian dust, ice clouds and water. It also includes overseeing the realisation of the first scientific city on the Red Planet as part of the 2117 Mars programme. But this space conquest doesnt stop there since the UAEs Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre plans to send the first Arab mission with Emirati astronauts to the moon by 2024, a project which is part of the country new 2021-2031 strategy and includes plans related to space missions and satellites.

The UAE government has launched various campaigns to expand the countrys science, technology, engineering and math sector, its even the first country to have a minister of artificial intelligence and its growing space program is an important part of that. Emirati officials see the Mars mission as helping drive interest in science and space exploration among the countrys youth, enabling growth in sectors that will be crucial for a post-oil future. One of the key area of the program is also to launch the Arab Space Discovery Programme, which intends to transfer knowledge and expertise in space sciences in collaboration with the Arab universities and institutions. A way to prevent the brain drain and encourage young emirati scientists to stay in their country and participate to the development of the Arab space discovery.

Read more from the original source:

Space discovery: the future of the UAE? - KAWA - Kawa News