Daily Archives: August 4, 2021

When Gene Cernan and Harrison Jack Schmitt climbed into their lunar module nearly 50 years ago at the end of the Apollo 17 mission, it marked the end of an era. The Apollo 17 crew would splash down in the Pacific Ocean a few days later, marking the end of humanitys presence on the Moon for the foreseeable future. A new age of space exploration was ushered in with the launch of the first space shuttle in 1981. The shuttle program had its own set of triumphs, notably the launch and subsequent repairs of the Hubble Space Telescope. But the pursuit of so-called deep space exploration via crewed missions including a return to the Moon did not seem imminent, replaced instead with a series of missions involving uncrewed probes in deep space and crewed missions closer to Earth.

The idea of returning humankind to the Moon dawned again in 2017 with the official unveiling of NASAs Artemis program. In mythology, Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo. As the programs namesake implies, a chief goal of Artemis is to see humans once again on the surface of the Moon, including the first woman and first person of color. NASA believes Artemis is a monumental shift in deep space exploration that, along with subsequent missions, will culminate with an achievement well beyond the lunar surface: landing humans on the surface of Mars.

But first, the Moon, and to get back there, NASA is developing an ambitious series of components designed to expand exploration of the lunar surface. Its called the Gateway, and a Notre Dame alumnus is helping to get the lunar outpost literally off the ground.

To read the full story, clickhere.

More here:

Gate Maker: Alumnus plays critical role in NASA's effort to return to the Moon - ND Newswire

Netflix has greenlighted Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, a near real-time docuseries following the September launch and mission of the first all-civilian flight crew aboard the SpaceX capsule. The docuseries hails from Time Studios (Black Gold, Big Vape), The Last Dance director Jason Hehir, Known and Connor Schell and Chernin Entertainments Words & Pictures. Additionally, Netflix will premiere StoryBots Space Adventure, a hybrid live-action animation special for kids and families to watch together before the mission.

The privately chartered space flight funded, led and commanded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, is also intended to support St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. Isaacman, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, will be joined by Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. Jude and pediatric cancer survivor; Christopher Sembroski, a former member of the U.S. Air Force who served in Iraq and now works as a Lockheed Martin engineer, and Sian Proctor, a professor of geosciences and two-time NASA astronaut candidate.

The docuseries will follow the four civilians as they launch into space on a three-day trip orbiting Earth and reaching an altitude higher than that of the International Space Station (ISS). The SpaceX Dragon mission, dubbed Inspiration4, is the most ambitious step to date in the rapidly-developing age of civilian space exploration, making history as the first all-civilian mission to orbit.

Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission To Space, the first Netflix documentary series to cover an event in near real-time, will premiere in five parts leading up to and following the mission beginning with the first two episodes on September 6, followed by episodes 3 and 4 on September 13. Inspiration4s launch is scheduled for September 15 and the feature-length finale episode will air at the end of the month.

The quick-turnaround series will take viewers behind the scenes with the four crew members from their unconventional selection and intensive months-long commercial astronaut training, through the intimate and emotional moments leading up to liftoff. The final episode, which premieres just days after the mission is completed, will feature unprecedented access inside the spacecraft capturing the launch and the crew.

Hehir (The Last Dance) will direct the docuseries and executive produce with Schell (30 for 30, The Last Dance), Libby Geist (O.J.: Made in America, The Last Dance), and Aaron Cohen for Words & Pictures; Ian Orefice, Alexa Conway, and Rebecca Gitlitz for Time Studios; Ross Martin, Brad Roth, and Mark Feldstein for Known.

The docuseries is produced by Jonathan D. Woods (A Year in Space) and Jake Rogal (The Last Dance).

In A StoryBots Space Adventure hybrid live-action animation special, the civilian space travelers from Inspiration4 will help the StoryBots answer some of kids most pressing questions like how does a rocket work, how do they train, and how do they eat and sleep in space.

The special is scripted by veteran StoryBots writer Erik Weiner and features a new original song performed by Big Freedia.

Time Studios recent projects include, Black Gold (Paramount+), Big Vape (Netflix), John Lewis: Good Trouble (CNN Films), among others.

Marketing company Known is currently producing Hulus first-ever after-show for The Handmaids Tale and has produced original series and specials for NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia and Discovery Networks.

Words & Pictures, founded by Schell and Chernin Entertainment in 2021, is a production studio with a mission to produce high-end, culturally relevant nonfiction content. The Words & Pictures team, which includes producers Libby Geist and Aaron Cohen, is led by the creators and producers of the 30 for 30 series, Michael Jordan docuseries The Last Dance, and the Oscar-winning O.J.: Made in America.

The rest is here:

Netflix Greenlights Inspiration4 All Civilian Space Mission Docuseries From The Last Dance Team - Deadline

The White Houses core space policy body will be led by Chirag Parikh, a veteran intelligence official and senior director for Microsofts space-based cloud services, Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Monday. Harris, chair of the National Space Council, tapped the seasoned national security official to lead the councils day-to-day activities as the Biden administration sees global competition mount in space.

Parikhs appointment, coming three months after the White House confirmed Harris would chair its space council, gets the ball rolling for the Biden administrations coordinated priorities in space. Harris aims to put her own personal stamp on the council that could include a heightened focus on cybersecurity for space assets and ways to leverage satellites in Bidens push to fight climate change, senior administration officials said in May.

In 2017, the Trump administration revived the space council, which had been disbanded since 1993, four years after it was formed by George H. W. Bush. Parikh will succeed Trumps space council executive secretary Scott Pace, whose space policy directives sought to craft standards of international behavior in space and retooled an Obama-era space exploration program into a commercial-focused sprint to land humans on the Moon, whats now called the Artemis program.

Parikh served two years as deputy national intelligence officer for science and technology for the US intelligence community, and later led the National Security Councils space policy wing for six years under the Obama administration, when the National Space Council was defunct. Before his appointment to helm Bidens space council operations, he was a senior director for Azure Space, Microsofts cloud platform that links with satellites in space.

Parikhs appointment was welcomed by space analysts, who say his experience leading an array of space-related bureaucracies makes him a good fit for his new role. The space council bundles a number of cabinet-level officials together, from NASA administrator to the director of national intelligence, for quarterly or biannual meetings to discuss civil and international space issues.

He was almost like an interagency coordinator, which is very similar to the role that he will be playing as the executive secretary of the National Space Council, said Victoria Samson, space policy analyst and Washington director for the Secure World Foundation. So hell be bringing years of expertise to do a lot of the same sort of things that hell be doing in his new job.

In the two months before the Biden administration confirmed Harris would helm the space council, it wasnt immediately clear whether the White House would even keep it after the Trump administration. The Obama administration crafted its space policy through the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Security Council under Parikhs space tenure. But the vice presidents commitment to lead the council in May became one of a few rare instances where Bidens White House aligned with Trump-era initiatives.

Biden has embraced NASAs Artemis program, the Trump-branded effort to land humans on the Moon by 2024 and use its surface as a training ground for future missions to Mars. And under Biden, NASA is keeping its preference for commercially focused projects in space, like its Commercial Crew Program which began under Obama and core elements of the Artemis program, which was created under Paces space council.

They certainly have different backgrounds, space policy analyst Brian Weeden of the Secure World Foundation, said on Pace and Parikhs resumes. It might be the case that Chirag [Parikh] is a little more focused early on in the national security side of space, rather than the civil side, because thats his background ... but the Biden admin as also expressed strong support for the Artemis program, and for Gateway, and for commercial cargo and crew, so I dont expect that to just be ignored.

Continue reading here:

Microsoft director with intelligence background will lead the White Houses space council - The Verge

Transcript

Alyssa Hurst:

You're listening to RadioEd.

Nicole Militello:

A University of Denver podcast.

Lorne Fultonberg:

We're your hosts, Lorne Fultonberg.

Alyssa Hurst:

Alyssa Hurst.

Nicole Militello:

And I'm Nicole Militello. We've now entered a new chapter in space exploration, billionaires in space, where some of the world's wealthiest men are launching themselves in their private rockets to new heights. Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, just took an 11 minute joy ride to space on a rocket from his private company, Blue Origin. The company has lofty goals to one day offer an option to leave this earth and have habitable space stations where people can live and work. But a trip to escape the confines of gravity comes with a hefty price tag, one winning bidder paid $28 million for their ticket to space, and Bezos says the company is nearing $100 million in sales for seats on future flights.

Nicole Militello:

So, what are the ethics of private space travel for billionaires? Bezos has received significant blowback after his trip for not using his vast wealth on the multitude of problems facing Earth, along with the jarring criticism of the reported grueling conditions for Amazon workers, while he turns his attention to the stars. Joining us to discuss it all is Michael Nalick. He's an assistant professor of management at the University of Denver who focuses on corporate misconduct and CEO activism.

Nicole Militello:

So, let's start with the optics of billionaires in space. Why do you think this strikes a chord with so many people?

Michael Nalick:

Well, I think it strikes a chord because of what space is. Space, the history of NASA and the space program it's really seen as institutional civilization accomplishments, right? It's the United States, it's mankind, it's those sorts of accomplishments to go to space. And given that, and the fact that, we like to at least again, with the history of the space program, it's the best, it's the brightest that have made it to that caliber. It's the pilots, it's the engineers and then we've had... NASA certainly diversified to teachers and to other types of civilians that have gone to space. But now you have these people that are circumventing all of that and buying their way into an area that has really, in the past been reserved for just governments and the enhancing of science and civilization and society in general. And so the fact that's occurring, I think that's why it hurts so many people. It's kind of what space has represented in the past.

Nicole Militello:

Right. So a lot of people have criticized Bezos and Branson for just not reading the room, we have COVID cases rising, wildfires are burning. One Atlantic writer wrote, "The world is drowning and scorching and two of the wealthiest men decided to race in their private rocket ships to see who can get to space a few days before the other." What should go into making a decision like this for a business leader, and is there ever really a right time to do it?

Michael Nalick:

You know, if it's something that's going to be perceived negatively, like I said, due to the aforementioned reasons before, there's probably not a right time, right? I mean, it's always going to be perceived negatively due to the institutional environment, with that said, of course doing it during a pandemic at a time when there is a lot of world strife and all, you named, other things that are going on. Obviously it's not good optics as well. And so that, that does play with it. And that does factor into business decisions.

Michael Nalick:

However, they have consciously made the decision that this likely will not affect their reputation or their business's reputation. And they probably do have a good point. This is something where it's... People will perceive it negatively, but as far as their companies go, I doubt that many people will stop shopping at Amazon or stop flying Virgin Atlantic or one of his other enterprises. And so I seriously doubt there's a whole lot of blowback onto their organizations, but there is some negative publicity associated with it, especially given the time.

Nicole Militello:

Yeah, and another major criticism is just how frivolous space travel seems when that money could be going towards fighting some of the major challenges we're experiencing on Earth. So, I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are on when you have that much money, what is your ethical responsibility as a business leader?

Michael Nalick:

Well, and I think this has really magnified Jeff Bezos especially, because Jeff Bezos, not only is he one, if not the richest man in the world, it kind of depends, or person in the world, it kind of depends on the timing of that report. But he's also been criticized in the past for not being as charitable as others.

Michael Nalick:

Comparatively, if you look at Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, that he is not as charitable, and then you even have kind of this side by side comparison with his wife, his ex wife. Where his ex wife has given away a lot of her money, if not most of her money and he has really not risen to that occasion. And then now he's spending a lot of this money on, or at least a lot of money, what she attributed to Amazon and his customers, to fly to space. And so I do think it does represent something that is very, at this point in time can be seen as very frivolous and the whole venture, as far as I know, is catered towards the wealthy rather than any sort of, again, benefit to humanity like we have seen the space paradigm in the past.

Nicole Militello:

Yeah, and I want to get into some of that criticism of Bezos related to Amazon, but I want to hit on something that you just said about how this is kind of catered the wealthy. So the glaring divide with this is that Blue Origin's hope for life in space is really a ticket away from Earth's problems, but it's only an option for the ultra rich. So, what does that mean for the growing wealth gap?

Michael Nalick:

Yeah, I mean, we've kind of seen it in the movies, right? There's been several movies, I think Elysium was one of them where they had this planet full of these gigantic mansions and everything, and Earth was just rotting, decaying and falling apart. And people trying to go to this other civilization with the most advanced tech and science and space, and so it really paints a kind of a dire picture, right? That's the goal of this company. The goal of this company is to leave the home planet to establish civilizations for the wealthy, while not addressing the needs of everyone else.

Michael Nalick:

While I think that is the ultimate goal, obviously the most immediate goal was just to take wealthy people into space, to give them a thrill ride. I do think that has a bad connotation to it, it does leave a bad taste in people's mouths. Of course, it's a business and if there is a business need and a market for it, we do have rights in this country that allow individuals and entities and organizations to pursue whatever businesses they want, as long as it's within certain regulations and confines. And of course, if it's a market void, so you're filling some more sort of market void. Even if it, the optics don't look good.

Nicole Militello:

And we've seen people are willing to pay for it.

Michael Nalick:

Yeah, you know I just read an article today. It said Ashton Kutcher had a ticket on it and at the urging of his wife, after his daughter was born, sold the ticket. And so there's obviously a demand for it because it's a thrill sport, right? But we know, we like to think of billionaires and billionaires, especially if you talk about Richard Branson. Richard Branson has this persona attached to him that he's a thrill seeker. He goes bungee jumping and does all these... that he uses his wealth in a cool, sort of, kind of exotic means in a lot of ways. And this is just that next frontier for the billionaires. It's not safaris anymore, it's not mega yachts, it's not these huge mansions or islands. Now space is the latest trend.

Nicole Militello:

So, I want to talk a little bit about the criticism related to Amazon. So was this a good business move for somebody that has been so publicly criticized for not doing enough when it comes to his other ventures like Amazon?

Michael Nalick:

I don't think he cares that much, to be honest. He is honestly trying to detach himself from Amazon. That's why he stepped down as CEO, while he's still chairman and still very much runs the company, I think that this is all part of that move is he's trying to move away from, "I'm the guy that created Amazon." To doing other things. And this is part of the other things he wants to focus on, he has said that in the past. So I don't think he cares all that much whether this was a good business decision or not. I think he feels that Amazon is somewhat insulated due to its position in the market, from having a whole lot of reputational blowback from his decisions at this point. And at the same time, he is personally trying to distance himself from Amazon and detach while... By doing other things.

Nicole Militello:

Yeah. I was going to ask you if he's done anything to recover from that criticism, or if he even feels like he needs to do anything, but it sounds like you would say that he would say that he doesn't have to.

Michael Nalick:

I would say he would hire public relations people and maybe do some media stuff. But besides more symbolic things, strategically I'd feel like he doesn't at least believe that he needs to do something strategically.

Nicole Militello:

Yeah, and he got a lot of criticism because after his trip, he thanked every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because, "You guys paid for all this." What was your reaction when you heard that?

Michael Nalick:

Yeah, that was not his finest moments, of course. I think that statement does rub a lot of people the wrong way, as you've said, for the various reasons we have mentioned. And so I was kind of taken aback, I... He was in the moment, I think he was jubilant and he was just more free willing and not as handled as he normally is in his public statements. And oops, it came out and now it's not wrong, of course. It was his customers, it was his shareholders, it was his employees that all helped him get to that point, so he is not wrong. It's just not something you want to publicly say.

Nicole Militello:

Right. Do you see any upsides of this move from a business standpoint?

Michael Nalick:

No. I mean the only upsides could be if they use, if they lever the technology. And you never know, who knows in 50, 75, 100 years. But if they levered the technology from this endeavor, from Blue Origin's to the primary business of Amazon, or that would be the only long-term upside I would see. Of course, short term, I don't see much upside. Long-term? Of course, there could be some technological breakthroughs that help the primary business.

Nicole Militello:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). One of the counter-arguments that I've seen is that this should actually be viewed as a major leap forward for space travel in that companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX is essentially an essential contribution to our existing publicly sanctioned space program, and that's from an op-ed in Politico. So, what are your thoughts on that, kind of it being seen as a public service for our space exploration?

Michael Nalick:

You know, it's this kind of the same thing I said before. Well, SpaceX is a different thing, I don't think you can compare this to SpaceX because SpaceX is... Has contracts with the government and wants to develop government vehicles to space. This is not the same thing. At the same time though, it's not... these breakthroughs that these companies are developing, again, could be used in the future with more public means. What if there is a station that's developed on the moon, and instead of taking, again, the big rockets, they want to take these small sort of more personal spaceships up there.

Michael Nalick:

So, that could... In the future, it could serve some public benefit. So I don't want to say they're wrong. It's just in immediate term, it does not. But in the medium or long-term, it certainly could. And you do see that in other companies and other programs where the initial product is not the end product. The initial product at Amazon was certainly, was not what Amazon is today. And you can say that with 95% of the public companies out there. So, it could change at one point, and it's likely to change at what point where you could see a breakthrough public benefit that does cross into other areas.

Nicole Militello:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). And Bezos has talked a lot about how space has just been such a personal interest to him for a long time. And we were just curious how, when you're a business leader and you're also a celebrity, how do you manage the balance of focusing on building your brand and your interests versus what you need to do as a business leader?

Michael Nalick:

Well, research has shown there's... It's intertwined, to be honest. But being a celebrity or having personal feelings about something or thoughts or ideologies, does transcend into the outcomes and actions of the business. Whether that's right or wrong. But that's kind of what you get into when you know you're hiring someone and that's why you put checks and balances by the board of directors or the other stakeholders that are involved in the company or the shareholders. And so that's what they're supposed to serve, is the checks and balances, but it's inseparable, the persona of the individual, whether it is a CEO celebrity to the outcomes of the company, you do see that intertwined.

Nicole Militello:

And so right now we're seeing three of the most prominent billionaires kind of in this race for space. And another high level of concern is that with billionaires entering this area, now we have the wealthiest individuals getting to set the agenda and make decisions about how we're navigating space exploration. So, what values does a business leader like Bezos need to keep in mind when managing such an enormous responsibility?

Michael Nalick:

Well, I mean, Bezos can't get there without the government. I mean, that's just a fact at this point. And so, he always has to be mindful of what's going on within the government, what regulations are in place, what regulations are going to be in place. If this is an area in which there's a regulation gap, I can certainly guarantee you that U.S. Congress will take this up at some point. Now it might not be next year, it might not be five years, but at some point it will be taken up. And so, he needs just to be cognizant of what are the opportunities that this involves and what's the regulatory threats to him as well as a business leader. And he has to be proactive and responding to this.

Nicole Militello:

Is there anything that we haven't talked about on this topic that you think is just interesting or people might like learning about?

Michael Nalick:

Well, I think though, looking at the two individuals involved, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson and comparing them. I also feel comparing their explorations is like apples and oranges, because Richard Branson, as I've mentioned before, has this persona of a thrill-seeker. He's done this in the past, he's done a lot of test flights, he does racing, he does these sort of things. So, this is kind of the next area, thrill-seeking for him. But if you look at Jeff Bezos, he doesn't have that track record. And so I actually think that Jeff Bezos, again, because of his persona and his background, has deviated more in his exploration than Richard Branson. And as such, I actually think he's getting more negative press as an individual than Richard Branson is.

Nicole Militello:

To read more of Michael Nalick's work, visit our show notes at du.edu/radioed. Alyssa Hurst is our executive producer, Tamar Chapman is our managing editor and James Swearingen arranged our theme. I'm Nicole Militello, and this is RadioEd

Read the original here:

Billionaires in Space: Equity and Ethics in Orbit - University of Denver Newsroom

All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now. Watch now.

This post was written by Scott Castle, VP & general manager of products at Sisense

The new space race is grabbing headlines and driving public interest in the potential of space exploration. For tech innovators, it opens the doors to a world of possibilities. It has brought in a fast-moving, Silicon Valley- and product-led paradigm to a sector that was previously the governments domain. As a product leader with more than 25 years experience in software development and product management in both technology and analytics, I believe there are some big takeaways for product innovators and business leaders in this exciting technology milestone.

The advent of SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic generated a highly entrepreneurial, private sector-led new space technology ecosystem, with startups offering services and applications that are highly innovative and customer-focused. Morgan Stanley, which predicts the global space industry will generate revenue upwards of $1 trillion in 2040, identifies this as a big investment opportunity for venture capital and private equity.

In Q2 of 2021, new space exploration received an infusion of $4.5B, setting it on track to beat 2020s total investment of $9.1B, reports Space Capital, a venture capital firm focused on the sector. The report estimates a total of $199.8B of equity investment across 1,533 companies in the new space ecosystem over the last decade. By factoring in the product innovations downstream that impact our daily life on Earth thanks to technology transfer, there is good reason for this optimism.

In many ways, the new space ecosystem and its constellation of space tech startups and unicorns ready to boldly go where no one has gone before follow three of the golden rules of product innovation that we strive toward:

SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic have ushered in radical and disruptive innovation into the aerospace and space technology sector. SpaceX was listed as the top disrupter on the CNBC Disruptor 50 List in 2018, upending both aerospace leader Boeing and the rocket industry with its reusable rockets, becoming one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Product leaders might typically be inclined to go for incremental innovation because it appears sustainable. However, your product could miss the mark, lose product/market fit, and eventually, customers if you dont innovate quickly. During a crisis recovery period, this is of critical importance, reports McKinsey. Their recent survey of more than 200 executives revealed that over 85% think that the pandemic will have a lasting impact on customer needs over the next five years, but only 21% report they have the commitment and resources to face the challenge.

By following agile, data-informed methods, product leaders can test and iterate while keeping management informed with a high-level road map. By moving fast, with analytics at speed and reduced time to insights, product leaders can innovate to stay ahead of the competition.

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have said they want to lower barriers to mass adoption of space travel. Space X has stated its single vision of reducing the cost to launch. While these sound like lofty aims, they follow the right questions and have an impact on technological progress on the ground. Cost of launch is the crucial barrier to product innovation in space technology, and reusable rockets pave the way for new space pioneers to experiment, test, iterate, and launch products and technology more frequently.

Product leaders are equally focused on mass adoption of their products. A key reduction of cost to launch on that path is with the use of white-labeled embedded analytics. Think about how you can make it easier for your customers to interact with their data on your app. What if they could simply ask a question using plain language and have your app present analyzed insights in a user-friendly format? That is now an attainable differentiator and value proposition for customers to keep returning to your product.

Virgin Galactic leader Richard Branson and Blue Origin chief Jeff Bezos are bringing their famous customer and data obsession to a sector that traditionally focused on technology first, and the user experience next, with little incentive for change. New space startups and their backers, however, expect profitability from innovation, and have a laser-sharp focus on customer-centric innovation. For example, Virgin Galactics stated customer goal for its fully crewed test flight on July 11 was to assess everything from the seat comfort to the weightlessness experience, aiming to ensure the customer experience of the complete wonder and awe of space travel.

Product leaders are customer-obsessed but often rely on instinct rather than quantifiable data to drive their innovation decisions, missing opportunities to win customers. Bring that back into your court by using data derived from continuous testing so you can arrive at a solution that meets customer needs and ensures product stickiness.

For example, offering traditional reporting tools to your customers with static visualizations and dashboards simply dumps metrics onto your customers rather than providing actionable insights, leading to dissatisfaction and poor engagement. Instead serve contextual insights to your customers in a revolutionary way, by embedding them into your products to achieve a seamless and intuitive user experience. At Sisense, we call this infused analytics, and it empowers your customers with actionable insights where they spend the most time, in their communication apps or CRMs.

You can further enhance user experience with native app visual interfaces that help customers take action on their insights without jumping to and from workflows. By going beyond data delivery to make analytics an intuitive and integral part of decision making, product leaders can innovate to make a difference.

The new space race brings home Captain Picards famous line from Star Trek: The Next Generation. As a product leader, I am always excited to see innovations lead the way to more discoveries. Product innovation is arguably rocket science. Just as they did with the new space race, scientists must think big, ask the right questions, and constantly test. And product leaders must aim beyond the stars to create visionary products with long-lasting and universal impact.

Scott Castle is an analytics infusion pioneer bringing more than 25 years of software development and product management experience to his role as VP & GM of products at Sisense. Castle previously held technology positions at companies including Adobe, Electric Cloud, and FileNet.

See the article here:

The new space race: Big takeaways for software and product innovators - VentureBeat

About the author: John Austin is director of the Michigan Economic Center and a nonresident senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Brookings Institution.

The three billionaire space-exploration amigos Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk are getting some critical reactions to their uber-expensive space flight projects.

While some lament the vanity, others point to the lack of scientific merit. But the criticism hasnt yet mined the vein of deepest irony, as well as the looming danger that makes their space games such a distraction from our most fundamental challenges. As they race to space, back on earth the global economic system created by democratic regimes that allowed them to get rich in the first place is under assault from without and within. And these winners in globalization arent doing much to preserve it, but instead funding their own ego-driven projects.

The threat from without comes as China uses its corrupting, dependency-building Belt and Road development initiative, surveillance state, restrictions on free speech, and attacks on democratic institutions and norms as tools to replace the open, rules-based, economic and trade regime organized by the U.S. and its democratic allies, with its own closed model of authoritarian politics and economic development.

The threat to democracy from within comes from our failure to diminish yawning geographic economic disparities and opportunity gaps. Gaps individuals like our space billionaires have too often exacerbated, what with their own wealth-hoarding, alleged nonpayment of taxes, and resistance to providing decent pay, working conditions and bargaining power for their employees. These wealth differentials are politically dangerous as the gap grows between thriving global city regions and struggling communities in heartland regions of our democraciesenabling anti-democratic populism that poses an imminent challenge to the stability of our political order here and abroad .

Unless wealthy elites in Europe and North America, including these space cowboys who have profited so enormously from the West-led international capitalist system, put their money and influence to work to reduce wealth inequalities at homeand partner to strengthen the economies and polities of democracies abroadthey may soon witness the death of the goose that has laid their golden eggs.

These billionaires were made because of the West and democracies principles for organizing the world economy: freedom to innovate and create businesses with disruptive new ideas and technologies; to have these ideas and technology protected by laws and patents; to benefit from a very light touch of state regulation and control; to take advantage of a relatively free and mobile market for labor; as well as the unencumbered free flow of goods and information across the globe. These are all tenets of the post-World War II liberal trade and political order constructed purposefully by the U.S. and our democratic partners.

All of these conditions are imperiled by the rise of authoritarian anti-democratic leaders and models like Chinas, which empowers corrupt leaders, actively dismantles democratic institutions, throws up barriers to the free flow of ideas, people and trade in favor of self-service and obeisance to autocrats and hollow nationalist sentiments.

In their 2012 book Why Nations Fail, economists Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson argue that even prosperous civilizations can fail when exploitive elites keep grabbing the spoils for themselves versus redistributing wealth in the form of opportunity-building investments like education and infrastructure, which benefit all and build a healthy middle class. They also argue that when you combine rotten regimes, exploitative elites and self-serving institutions, it is a national recipe for disaster.

Unfortunately, that is what we have seen recently in the U.S., and even among once strong and West-leaning allies like Turkey, Hungary, Poland and Brazil. Support for parties with disturbing anti-democratic tendencies has grown and become alarmingly high even in democratic stalwarts like Germany with its Alternative for Germany right-wing party, and in France with Marine Le Pens nationalist movement.

The tragi-comic race to space among billionaire business elites is not really that funny. These elites could use their outsized influence on our culture, our politics, and their big bucks to fight for democracy and capitalism. Look at what Bill Gates, with a similarly sized ego and pocketbook has accomplished in the arena of global health.

And we know what we need to do to help democracies win.

Yes, we must work together as allies, as President Biden has been urging, to focus on winning the strategic competition with China for global political and economic high ground..

But a major priority lies at hometo attack the root causes of anti-democratic populism with a people and place-focused economic development policy within our own democracies. These moguls and other global business leaders should be at the front of the parade seeking a minimum corporate international tax, a hike in the tax rates for millionaires and billionaires, and expansive national investments in education, child care, infrastructure and clean energy and higher education, akin to those proposed by Biden here in the U.S.

Closing gaps in wealth and opportunity also need to have an important focus, with particular attention to the once mighty older industrial regions of our Western democracies.As I have written before, these are the geopolitically significant places where many residents feel ignored or, even worse, looked down upon and patronized. As we learned at a recent trans-Atlantic symposium on populism and place, this, coupled with economic anxiety, concern about losing ones place in a changing world and perceptions that their communities are in decline, leads proud residents of industrial regions to embrace messages of nativism, nationalism, isolationism and economic nostalgia that are peddled by right-wing populist leaders. These movements encourage anti-democratic behaviors, such as distrust of institutions, the press and a breakdown in support for the civil rights of others. This nurtures the fierce political polarization that is undermining Western democracies.

These anti-elite and anti-democratic populist sentiments will not change until their root causes are addressed:the real and perceived decline of once-thriving industrial communities. There is good evidence demonstrating that when older industrial communities continue to decline, residents are receptive to the polarizing messages of populists and nativists. At the same time, accumulating evidence suggests that when older industrial communities secure new economic footing, anxiety and fear among their inhabitants give way to optimism and hope for the future.

After World War II, Western government and business leaders worked hand-in-glove to invest in and rebuild economies, many broken by war, in part to fend off communist movements and the then seeming appeal of the since-discredited Soviet economic and political model.International-minded business leaders supported political leaders in building the open, rules-based, international economic and trade regime that brought decades of relative peace and more prosperity for more people around that world than ever before. It is this regime that made it possible for Branson, Bezos, and Musk to innovate and fly.

Our democracies could use their help on the ground.

Guest commentaries like this one are written by authors outside the Barrons and MarketWatch newsroom. They reflect the perspective and opinions of the authors. Submit commentary proposals and other feedback toideas@barrons.com.

View post:

Bezos, Musk, and Branson Should Boost Democracy on Earth, Not Flee to Space - Barron's

Every wondered why SpaceX is called so? It literally does not have a meaning. Here is Elon Musk, the CEO of the commercial spaceflight organisation, to clear the cloud surrounding its name. Read to find out.

SpaceX is actually called Space Exploration Technologies Corporation. Yes, heard it right! SpaceX is the acronym for its broader full name. Elon Musk took to the microblogging site, Twitter to share this information about SpaceX official name. He informed that SpaceX is the abbreviation of the"official name"Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.

According to Britannica, SpaceX is an American commercial aerospace company founded in 2020. It maneuvres space aerospace transportation services and communications. The company has its headquarters in Hawthorne, California. The goal of SpaceX, as stated by Musk is "reducing space transportation cost to enable the colonisation of Mars."

The company entered the spacecraft-making business with Falcon 1 rocket, a two-stage-fuelled craft designed to send small satellites into orbit. As per reports, the Falcon Rocket was much cheaper to build and operate in comparison to its competitors. The company also developed the Merlin engine, a compact, energy-efficient system that enabled an inexpensive budget for the spacecraft. In the coming times, the company also looks forward to making reusable space launch vehicles for more sustainable space travel.

In a milestone, SpaceX launched its first crewed flight in a Dragon Capsule on May 30, 2020. Astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken were the first humans to travel to space in commercial spaceflight.

The company began with Flacon 1, which made its first attempt to space in March 2006. However, it failed due to a fuel leak. Subsequently, it made two more attempts in vain, in March 2007 and August 2008. Nevertheless, in September 2008, it made its first successful attempt to send a liquid-fuelled rocket to orbit. Following this, the commercial spaceflight company bagged a $1.5 billion contract from the National Aeronautics and Space and Space Administration (NASA).

The journey from Falcon 1 to Falcon 9 was a milestone for SpaceX. In December 2010, the company became the first commercial spaceflight company to launch the Dragon capsule into orbit successfully and return it to Earth. Interestingly, Falcon 9 was designed so that it could be reused. When the first rocket stage returned to Earth, it was reused during a re-launch in 2017. Meanwhile, the company developed a Falcon Heavy Rocket, which took its first test flight to space in 2018. It placed into orbit around the Sun a Tesla Roadster with a mannequin in a spacesuit. The company now aims to shoot settlers to Mars by 2023.

View post:

What is SpaceX's official name? Elon Musk just revealed space company's real name & goal - Republic World

Amoako Boafo Courtesy of Mariane Ibrahim gallery and the artist

The 37-year-old Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo's rise at auction has been meteoric.

And now, he is actually going into space. Or at least, his painting will be.

To launch its new art program, the Utah-based company Uplift Aerospace has asked Boafo to paint three exterior panels of a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket that will launch on a roundtrip space mission this autumn. This is the same type of rocket that carried the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (also a big art collector) into space earlier this month.

Boafo will travel out to Texas in the autumn to paint his work, titled the Suborbital Triptych, on three removable panels which will be attached to the apex of the rocket. "There are special paints. I cant say more at this stage about the materials but soon!", Boafo tells The Art Newspaper.

"I am drawn to the idea of my works going into a new orbit, literally," Boafo says. "This will further push my vision for my practice. I am honoured to be one of the first Black men to have my work sent to space. Im very excited to be a part of this from a historical standpoint."

Boafo is conscious of his home country's attitude towards space exploration in creating this piece: "Ghanaian people are interested in learning and observing faraway galaxies... and I think more importantly we are interested in relating it back to earth, by solving local problems. Ghana has one of the most advanced research programs, our national space agencys history stretches back over a decade."

The Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launches earlier this month Courtesy of Blue Origin and Uplift Aerospace

For now, Boafo says he cannot give much away about the work he is creating, other than to say: "When we think of space exploration and space research, we think of the future. So, it is important to me that this joyful representation of Blackness is honoured, and in this way will be cemented in history. This will be clear in the work I am creating, for future generations."

Being a part of the Uplift art project, Boafo says, "signals to the rest of the world that Africa, African art and African artists are valuable enough to be a part of that [space travel] history. Also, it means a lot to me that my message of Black joy and self-determination is a part of it."

Boafo's gallerist Mariane Ibrahim, who has galleries in Chicago and Paris, was involved in the project from the start, "coordinating logistical aspects and making sure the artist's vision is fully preserved in the project," Ibrahim says. "Since this is the first project of this kind, there are no precedents, no road map, so we worked with Amoako Boafo, Uplift and Blue Origin to align our goals for the success of the 'mission'."

Ibrahim is interested in the meeting point of art, exploration and science: "Much like science and exploration, art is also about solving problems, whether through the evolution of techniques and materials, or through new aspects or representation. Amoako, is involved in both."

Uplift will make a charitable donation to some (yet to be announced) non-profits, chosen by Boafo, that support "conservation and healthcare", according to a statement.

Read this article:

'I am honoured to be one of the first Black men to have my work sent to space': Amoako Boafo to paint triptych on rocket - Art Newspaper

Scott Parazynski, who has completed five spaceflights and even summitted Mt. Everest, joined Everett's OceanGate to travel to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

EVERETT, Wash. Former NASA astronaut Dr. Scott Parazynski loves to explore.

"I'm driven to go to places that are difficult to reach, that really involve commitment," he said.

After completing five spaceflights, traveling across Antarctica and even summitting Mt. Everest, Parazynski's newest adventure took him to the ocean floor to document the world's most famous shipwreck.

"Everyone around the world knows the Titanic. And the fact that it's 12,800 feet beneath the ocean and really inaccessible, it's sort of the Everest of submersible diving," Parazynski told KING 5.

Parazynski joined OceanGate, an Everett company which owns and operates submersibles, to travel to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean with a team of mission specialists to capture new images and video of the shipwreck.

The company has already completed four expeditions to the Titanic this summer and is currently on the last one for this season.

"There's so many things under water to explore, and by taking people to the Titanic and getting the awareness of what can be done underwater, I hope we'll get a cadre of mission specialists that say, 'look, I want to go every year,'" said Stockton Rush, who is the CEO and founder of OceanGate.

The most recent footage from OceanGate shows the ship is rapidly deteriorating. The video shows what's left of a first class balcony and the telemotor where the ship's wheel once was. There is also footage of the collapsed forward mast and the Titanic's bow.

Click below to view the footage:

On the most recent mission, Parazynski was also joined by his wife, Professor Meenakshi Wadhwa, who is the director of Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration, and the NASA Mars Sample Return program scientist. Wadhwa is in charge of making sure the samples being collected by NASA's Perseverance Rover are brought back to earth in good condition.

"Robotic exploration is incredible at being able to do that, but the human experience is something that's totally different, and being able to see it with your own eyes is going to be transformational," said Wadhwa about the Titanic expedition.

The mission also included P.H. Nargeolet, who is on OceanGate's team of experts. Nargeolet was the leader of six expeditions to the Titanic wreck site between 1987 and 2010 and was in charge of retrieving more than 5,500 Titanic artifacts.

OceanGate is embarking on its final expedition to the Titanic this week to continue gathering footage. The goal is to make a precise 3D image of the Titanic to better track the ship's decay and possibly predict how long it will be there.

See the article here:

Former NASA astronaut joins Everett company in expedition to the Titanic - KING5.com

For Dr. Bernard Kokenge, PHD 66, Ohio University isnt just the place where he earned a doctoral degree he never intended to get. Its the community where he and his wife started their family and continue to make memories. And its where some sage advice from a professor led to a career that took his workand his nameto the moon and beyond.

The older you get, the more you look back, says Kokenge, who resides in Springboro, Ohio, with his wife, Joy. We look back on our days at Ohio University and how it was so formative for usnot just the academic part but the living. It helped us to prepare for the future.

The newlywed couple arrived in Athens 60 years ago this month, with Joy expecting their first child and Kokenge accepted for graduate studies in the Department of Chemistry. They moved into old military barracks on East State Street that had been converted into married student housing14 units total, each housing eight families, and all without air conditioning.

Kokenge came to campus with a goal of earning a masters degree and becoming a college professor. A qualifying exam given to graduate students at the time instead landed him in the chemistry departments doctorate programOHIOs first PhD program, established in 1956.

There might have a been a little bit of disappointment in the sense that it looked like I was going to be there a little longer, Kokenge remembers. Joy chimed in right way, saying, Lets stick it out. We were there, and we wanted to make the most of it.

Kokenge was one of approximately 15 graduate students in the program that yearall men and only two of them married. He studied under the direction of the now late Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Dr. James Tong whose research was supported by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. It was research that not only proved valuable in his future career but provided Kokenge a summer grant that supplemented the $1,800 stipend he earned during the rest of the academic year.

We didnt have much, and we really had to scrape by, Kokenge says. But it was the best years of our life.

The Kokenges were there in 1963 when comedian Bob Hope touched down at the Ohio University Airportthen located near their military barracks apartment off East State Streetfor a performance on campus. They watched as President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered his Great Society speech on The College Green in May 1964. And, like all Athens Campus students in those days, their OHIO years were marked by regular flooding of the Hocking River, which the Kokenges remembered turned Peden Stadium into a lake and buckled the floors of Grover Center.

Their fondest memories, however, were of OHIOs annual Homecoming festivitiesand those of 1964 in particular. That was the year that Joy, seven months pregnant with their second child, was named Mrs. Ohio University through the Universitys chapter of the National Association of University Dames, an organization for the wives of married students. Joy served as president of OHIOs affiliate of the National Association of University Dames from 1963-64.

Homecomings were always a big thing, and we always enjoyed them, Joy says. We got to ride in the Homecoming Parade in 1964, so that was a real highlight. We were also invited to President Aldens home for the National Association of University Dames Putting Hubby Through program.

Indeed, Joy did help get her husband not only through, but to Ohio University, where, Kokenge proudly says, We pursued my PhD.

It was Joy and a professor at the University of Dayton, where Kokenge earned his bachelors degree in chemistry, who convinced him to pursue graduate studies. And it was Joy who took to the typewriter, using two sheets of onionskin paper separated by carbon paper, to compile all the chemical formulas and research in her husbands 126-page dissertation.

When it came time for Kokenge to look for jobs, the now late Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Dr. Robert Kline steered the soon-to-be OHIO graduate in a life-changing direction. With several job offers in hand, Kokenge came to Kline for his advice.

Having worked with the U.S. Department of Energys Los Alamos National Laboratory, Kline recommended that Kokenge accept an offer from the Monsanto Research Corp.s Mound Laboratory in Miamisburg, Ohio, a facility operated by the Atomic Energy Commission.

He said, Bernie, I can only recommend what I know about, Kokenge remembers of his conversation with Kline. He had an idea of what Mound was doing, and he said, Youre going to have a unique opportunityone that not too many people will haveif you work there.

Kokenge started his career as a senior research chemist at the Mound Laboratory, which at the time was engaged in the development of nuclear weapon componentsas an offshoot of the Manhattan Projectand the creation of a new way of generating power. Scientists at Mound had invented what was known as radioisotopic thermoelectric generators (RTGs), a type of nuclear battery fueled by plutonium-238. Kokenges work at Mound focused on the RTG batteries and, most notably, improving and refining plutonium-238 fuels, a task and a challenge he successfully completed, earning him a patent on the modified fuel form in 1972.

I was fortunate to join Mound at a time when this concept of plutonium-238 heat sources was just starting, Kokenge says. Dr. Kline told me Id have a chance to do some things that are very unique, and, boy, was he right on.

Some of the plutonium-238 RTGs produced at Mound, and later fueled by Kokenges improved plutonium-238, powered spacecrafts and scientific instruments of several NASA missions. RTGs used during the Apollo missions and moon landingand still on the lunar surfacestudied everything from the bodys atmosphere to its seismic activity. 1975s Viking Mars Landers, the first missions to land on Mars, included RTGs that operated for four to six years. And Pioneer 10, NASAs first mission to the outer planets, continued to send signals back to Earth for more than 30 years, powered by Kokenges plutonium-238 fuel.

Kokenges achievements at Mound literally launched his name into space. His signaturealongside those of NASA workers and contractorscan be found on scientific instruments on the moon and on the Galileo spacecraft, which plunged into Jupiters atmosphere in 2003.

None of this would have been possible without those RTGs, Kokenge says. They were the sources of power, the onboard power utility if you will, for all these scientific probes. We were only one small part of an overall effort, but you feel good about contributing to what the United States has been able to do over the years in space exploration. Youve done something thats left a footprint on our scientific endeavors.

Kokenge moved into management at Mound, eventually becoming associate director of the laboratory, responsible not only for the space program but also for the research, development and production of nuclear weapon components.

In 1986, Kokenge finally landed the career he had set out for when he enrolled at OHIO. He accepted a position as vice president of strategic planning and program development at Kentucky Christian College, where he was also afforded the opportunity to teach chemistry and physics. He went on to become a consultant for the U.S. Departments of Energy and Labor, using his college education and work at the Mound Laboratory to help index the chemicals and toxic materials workers had been exposed to over the years.

Kokenge retired in April 2020, and as the couple embarked on a new chapter in their lives, they couldnt help but think back to where it all began.

It was a sad day when we moved out of the barracks, Joy recalls. We had such great friends down there. Wed do limbo in the yards and have parties in the evenings. We just had a great time, and it was like a big familyand great memories.

Those memories have continued over the years. The Kokenges stayed in touch with some of the friends they made in Athens and with Dr. Tong, last visiting with him in October 2010 when they returned to campus for a football game. And theyve kept up with visits to their first home as a family.

In May, they participated in the OHIO @ home series, taking a virtual tour of the new Chemistry Building on the Athens Campus. The couple returned to campus this summer to see the new 34,000-square-foot facilitythe 21st-century version of the research labs and classrooms Kokenge experienced back in the 1960s when the chemistry program was housed in a building across from Bentley Hall.

Im personally grateful to Ohio University and its professors for the training, the encouragement and the recommendations I received over the years, Kokenge says. Joy and I have been blessed to be able to do a lot of things over the years, and we are so grateful to Ohio University for the experience we had. It was the best experience.

See the original post here:

60 years later, Bobcats reflect on OHIO learning, living and 'the best years of our life' - Ohio University