Daily Archives: September 22, 2021

Space travel is no longer the dream of a few well-trained astronauts, but even if you did manage to bag yourself a spot on a spacecraft it could set you back 300,000

Image: Inspiration4/AFP via Getty Image)

Since Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space in 1961, space travel has captured the imagination of so many from across the globe.

Technology has advanced far beyond the point of the creaking silver shell of Vostok 1, Gagarin's trusted but flawed space capsule.

Space travel also relied upon highly trained astronauts, who typically had a background in various fields of science or were experienced air force pilots. First person on the moon Neil Armstrong was originally a test pilot, for instance.

Now we have the means and ways of travelling up into orbit and returning safely to earth and it is no longer a dream that is completely out of reach.

On September 18 Elon Musk's SpaceX company returned safely to Earth. Those aboard the Inspiration4 mission became the first crew to become astronauts in a non-professional capacity. But how can you do it?

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We are still perhaps a little way off a Ryanair flight to the moon - it would be hard even for Michael O'Leary to charge extra for heavy luggage in the weightless void of space - but the basics of regular space travel now seem doable.

You will need a sizeable chunk of spare cash, however. A place aboard Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic programme will currently set you back a cool 330,000 at least. So, unless you're willing to sell your house, it is unlikely for most of us just yet.

It currently only takes a limited number of passengers too and a there is flight time of just under two hours.

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When air travel first became popular, it was generally only available to those in the upper echelons of wealth and prosperity. Soon after, though, entrepreneurs came in and drove costs down.

The same will likely happen for space travel, but by how much and when is still unclear.

Space hotels are planned for the future as well. The SpaceX flight differed from Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin by sending crew members to space for three days, rather than a few minutes and is a step in the right direction in that regard.

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SpaceX are also planning a mission to the moon in 2023, but onboard are billionaire investors.

A company called Space Perspective is aiming to undercut the billionaire club of Bezos, Musk and Branson by using a pressurised capsule hoisted by several balloons.

Over 450 seats are already reserved and spaceflights are sold out for 2024. But if you have around 90,000 and a few days off in 2025, then you can enquire here.

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How much does it cost to travel to space and how can you do it? - The Mirror

Majd Mayyasi (GRS09,13), a BU Center for Space Physics senior research scientist, discusses the future of civilian space travel and how it would impact the study of space with BU Today editor Doug Most. She also shares her experience training for suborbital flight as part of an inaugural program for scientists.

You can also find this episode onApple Podcasts,Spotify,Google Podcasts, andother podcast platforms.

Dana Ferrante: This is Question of the Week, from BU Today.

With space tourism now a reality, will civilians travel to space, and when? This summer, billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson each took a suborbital flight in their respective supersonic rockets, launching a new era of space travel, where a ticket to space is available to anyone who can afford it.

In this episode, Doug Most asked Majd Mayyasi, a senior research scientist at the Center for Space Physics at Boston University, about the future of civilian space travel. Mayyasi also shares her experience training for suborbital flight as part of an inaugural program for scientists.

Doug Most: Hi, Majd. Okay, lets talk space.

So when I read the stories about Bezos and Branson, I admit that I wondered, if given the opportunity, would I want to go up to space? Seeing Earth from above and experiencing weightlessness would be incredible, thats not really debatable, but is that enough? What do you think? Will space tourism become a real thing?

Majd Mayyasi: Well, Doug, this is a really good question. And one that Ive been thinking about for a long time, way before Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson made interesting flights. About 11 years or so ago, there was an opportunity for scientists to train for suborbital flight. And the reason they were doing this was because they knew that ultimately this would become a reality, space tourism and space travel.

And also they wanted to get scientists engaged in this opportunity, so its been a project that has been in the workings for a very long time. And I actually partnered up with a group that was training scientists to do these suborbital flights. And so I was lucky to be a member of one of the first groups of scientists that got the train for this.

And we trained for the Virgin Galactic module, so its been something Ive been thinking about for a long time. And since that time, you know, would I actually go to space if I had the opportunity? And the answer is most definitely yes. It is by far one of the coolest things Ive ever done.

Its extremely engaging to talk about with other people, especially when I do outreach to communities. And in talking to children about what you can do as an astronomer, or how to engage them in astronomy, its super fun to tell them that you can potentially go to space somedayif thats something that youre interested inwithout having to go through all the rigorous training that an astronaut would go through [to become] a full-fledged astronaut.

And so theres a lot of cool opportunities, and Im happy to see that this is starting to become more and more of a tangible reality.

Most: Can you just take us inside that training? What was that like? How hard was it and sort of what were you doing?

Mayyasi: It was about a week long or so. It involved a lot of technical background that we first needed to be aware of before we engaged in any of the actual physical training. The physical part involved going into an altitude chamber and seeing what would happen when oxygen levels dropped to a certain level.

With a lot of tests that we needed to undergo or to take, mental tests to see what our thinking capacity would look like with less oxygen. Another test was in the centrifugewe got to go into the centrifuge, and I think that center has one of the only centrifuges meant for this kind of training in the country.

We got to experience three times the force of gravity going down, which is what people would experience going into space and suborbital flight for the Virgin Galactic module. And we also got to experience six times the force of gravity and going inwards into our chest. And that is to simulate what we would feel going back down during reentry.

Most: What were those like? What was it like to experience the three times and the six times?

Mayyasi: The three times the force of gravity was challenging; we didnt have any special suits on, which is I think what a lot of fighter pilots would typically wear. And they undergo this kind of challenge with different times the force of gravity and sometimes more than three.

For the purposes of three, the challenge was not to pass out, because at three times the force of gravity, the blood is more challenged and being pumped up to your head. And say youre more likely to start seeing stars before you actually get to them, physically. And so there are maneuvers that you try to basically activate the larger muscles in your body to constrict the blood to enforce it basically to stay up in the upper half of your body.

And that will help you not pass out ultimately, which works, I have to say. The six times the force of gravity on GX, so going into your chest, was really fun and I think a lot of people see that sometimes on TV. When someone has just plastered to their chair and their skin on their cheek is rippling back, thats a lot of exactly what it looks like and feels like.

Its pretty interesting, its like getting, its actually kind of soothing, because your bodys just plastered up against this chair. And it feels like an interesting kind of full body massage.

Most: Almost sounds like a supersonic roller coaster?

Mayyasi: Yeah, thats really close to it. The challenge is not to turn your head, because that will make you extremely dizzy.

There are cells in your ear that are very sensitive to that kind of force, and it can make people very dizzy for a few days after the fact if they accidentally gets stimulated in the wrong way. So there are some challenges, some restrictions, but it is so much fun, and it was so exciting to be able to train with that program.

And more interestingly, it was very, I think it was very convenient, to be able to be given that opportunity to be able to go into space. And when were talking about scientists going into space, were not going for the ride; I mean, thats in and of itself, very cool, obviously. But were also going to able to do some science. And youre gonna be in zero gravity or in that part where you feel weightless for about four minutes. And so the challenges are in being able to design an experiment that you can do in four minutes: designing something that you can debug potentially in four minutes, if anything should go wrong, understanding how to mitigate those issues because youre gonna be in microgravity.

So youre gonna be flying around and then your pencil is gonna be in one place and your notebook is in another place. So, mitigating all of that should you have to debug anything is also something to keep in mind. And we did have training for that as well.

Most: It sounds like you think that there will be a day when civilians may actually get a chance to travel into space? You sound somewhat confidenthow far out is that?

Mayyasi: Thats a great question. I think that depends on the business model of these companies.

Because currently, as I understand it, the ticket is about a quarter of a million dollars. And so its definitely beyond my budget, both personally and professionally. If I were to put this on a science grant to fund my project, for example, it would have to be 10 times less than that, something closer to the $25,000 range.

And if it becomes more commercial, I would say, the prices need to be competitive and something that a person can reasonably afford to spend on a trip like this. Its definitely super exciting, its definitely something that is unique for us today, and I think its definitely tangible. And I think its just a matter of time until the businesses get to a point where they can facilitate these kinds of trips in an affordable way.

Currently, people have gone to the edge of space with this program. So just at that time cutoff, Im gonna use SI units here, its 100 kilometers, that defines the edge of space more or less. And so thats where these spacecraft have gone to. To go beyond that, there are other factors to take into consideration also.

A bit higher than that you start going into low Earth orbit, where you have satellites, and how high do you wanna go basically? Are you gonna start interacting with space debris? Are you going to start maybe orbiting alongside a spacecraft? What is the goal for that basically? Are you gonna go pass by the International Space Station, wave at the astronauts, and come back?

It all depends on what the application is. And there are also certain guidelines I think one should be aware of, in terms of whats already out there at different altitudes. When I was given the opportunity to join this team, it was through a competitive process at BU. They had offered us one seat at BU, the group that was organizing this, and the scientists that ultimately got chosen were from all over the US.

And so, this one seat given at BU was offered by competition and I proposed a certain experiment that I could do at that altitude. I also have a young child and when I talked to him about this, hes like, No, you should never go into space, thats too scary, its too risky, and so on.

But so is driving in your car and so is going on a plane, right? Those are all risky things. I would most definitely go, because its so exciting. And because, for me, as a scientist, it offers a lot of opportunities that are not accessible through other means.

This 100-kilometer altitude, its not easily accessible by many other methods; I mean, there are maybe sounding rockets that can go up that high. And you can maybe look down at that region from spacecraft that are higher up, but actually physically be there, in situ, and to be able to do your experiment at that altitude, I think, is a remarkable opportunity, and I would take it without hesitation.

Ferrante: Thanks to Majd Mayyasi for joining us on Question of the Week.

If you liked the show, please remember to rate, share, and review us on your podcast app of choice. Im Dana Ferrante; see you next week.

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With space tourism a reality, will civilians travel to space? And when? - BU Today

Associated Press

Space, we have a problem of fairness.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that when three billion millionaires jumped into space this summer, they did more than escape the unfriendly bonds of the Earth and plagued the hungry world. He said he helped spread the illness.

In his opening speech to the General Assembly, Guterres slammed the gap between the rich and the poor, saying, Millionaires are joyful in space while millions are hungry on Earth. I emphasized.

In July, billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos jumped into space with their private rockets and gained worldwide attention on a short trip that didnt go into orbit. Both are funding the space travel business from fellow space fans with large wallets.

After returning to Earth, Branson, 71, Spray GH Mumm Champagne Stir it over his crew and then from the jar.

Billionaires Jared Isaacman led the first all-private orbital mission that splattered on Saturday in three-day orbit. His flight was a dragon capsule and a SpaceX rocket made by Elon Musk, the fourth billionaire who is obsessed with space. Unlike the other two missions, Isaacmans ride raised more than $ 200 million at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. This includes $ 100 million from Isaacman and $ 50 million from Musk.

Guterres has put together a millionaire space hop with despair, corruption, diminished personal freedom, and the illness of when parents see the future of children who look even darker than todays struggle.

After Branson and Bezos made a space flight and it was revealed that the worlds wealthiest Bezos did not pay federal income tax in 2007 and 2011, critics wanted to tax from the 10-digit income level. I asked the millionaires to tax. So far, these proposals, unlike millionaires, are not on track.

Billionaires jumping into space attract the red glare of UN chiefs

Source link Billionaires jumping into space attract the red glare of UN chiefs

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Billionaires jumping into space attract the red glare of UN chiefs - Floridanewstimes.com

Elon Musk has always envisioned space travel to be as economical as air travel, though naturally still more expensive. SpaceXs mission is to make that true not just for government-funded missions and research but also for commercial space tourism. The company has already gotten most launches and landings down to a T, but there are still some goals to be checked off from its list. At least two of those have been completed now that the Inspiration4 mission is underway, transporting four civilians around the Earth for about three days at a record-breaking altitude.

The Crew Dragon carrying these four non-professional astronauts successfully took off from the Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:02 pm EDT on September 15. For the next three days, it will be circling the Earth before finally splashing down somewhere along the Florida coast, hopefully safely as well. At this point, however, SpaceX already achieved some historical firsts, putting it once again at the top of the space race.

This mission has been billed as the first to involve only civilians without any trained astronaut onboard. Of course, civilian can mean different things, and at least two of the four passengers are trained pilots. They are, of course, professionals in their own fields, including mission commander Jared Isaacman, the CEO of a payment processing company.

The other historical milestone is the Dragon capsules altitude of 575km (360mi) above the Earths surface, the highest that a crewed mission has ever gone in over a decade. Thats higher than the Hubble Telescope at 540 km where the last record-setting crewed mission went in 2019. That mission naturally involved NASAs retired Space Shuttle, which the space agency is working to replace with private commissions from companies like SpaceX.

While the Inspiration4 mission is focused on research, particularly on the effects of spending days in orbit on the body, it also paves the ground for less noble pursuits. In the near future, SpaceX plans on providing commercial space travel to similarly untrained passengers. In fact, the company is scheduled to take a Russian movie director and an actress to the International Space Station in October as its next private mission.

Originally posted here:

SpaceX Inspiration4 launch reaches another space travel milestone - SlashGear

Humans are bags of fragile bones and organs that need to be kept in precisely the right conditions to flourish. But we push at the limits of those conditions all the time, daring to see how far we can go: the hottest, the coldest, the lowest, the highest we can bear, using our ingenuity to design ways to survive.

Fungi doesnt need to be so clever. Some fungi can survive in extreme temperatures and without oxygen.

They can lie dormant and wait for the right conditions to wake up, warm up, spread. They can grow in soil, in wood, on plastic, on pollution. Why wouldnt they be able to survive space?

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We already know that they can at least, within the confines of human-built space stations, where many types of fungi have successfully grown, sometimes in a monitored capacity as part of experiments to ascertain the viability of different kinds of life in those conditions, and sometimes . . . not.

Mir, the first modular space station, was built in low orbit around the Earth in 1986 what a feat of science and engineering and it operated as a research laboratory until its orbit decayed in 2001. In my mind, when I think of it, I picture Mir as a perfect, clean environment, innovative and experimental. But this was not so; those who visited Mir commented on first being hit by the smell. British chemist Steve Pearce described it as a mixture of sweaty feet, nail-polish remover, body odor and vodka, among other things. He later attempted to recreate the smell as part of a NASA experiment. This unique scent could be due, in part, to the stowaways on board Mir that came as a shock to the astronauts: bacteria and fungi, found living happily behind panels, on spacesuits, on cables and around window frames. The discovery led to a flurry of news articles at the time. If you ever wondered if fearmongering in the media has extended to fungi, then take a look back at the BBC News article of Thursday, 8 March 2001, entitled Mutant Fungus from Space. All it lacks is an exclamation mark or two to turn it into a 1950s science-fiction movie. With Mir about to return to Earth, the article moots the idea that the fungi on board will have mutated to the point where they can do "serious damage to humanity."

The International Space Station, first launched in 1998, has had similar fungal issues, and study suggests that those fungi with high quantities of melanin thrive in space-station conditions, being better suited to resist high radiation levels. The genera of fungi that have been found surviving in the ruins of the reactor of Chernobyl, such as Cladosporium, have also been discovered on board the ISS, along with Penicillium and Aspergillus. The possibility of mutation, caused by the effect of radiation, remains under investigation, although the real area of concern continues to be fungi that can survive outside craft, exposed to open space, rather than within the human-friendly confines of a space station. An organism that grows over solar panels, say, or gets into the exterior sections of a multi-million-dollar craft, to cause havoc right in those very places that cannot be reached without extreme difficulty, could jeopardize the future of space travel.

This is not purely a theoretical area of concern. There are fungi that, amazingly, survive in open space. A 2009 Russian experiment into space exposure called Biorisk revealed that both Aspergillus versicolor and Penicillium expansum underwent changes while exposed for seven months that helped them to survive, increasing their layers of melanin to resist radiation.

If a space station makes for happy fungi, and even open space doesnt necessarily present a problem, then where next? NASA has been investigating the possibility of using mycelia to create living shelters on Mars using melanin-rich fungi to absorb radiation and protect the human inhabitants within. If mycelia can create strong, flexible structures on Earth then they might well offer such possibilities elsewhere, and they could be constructed, effectively grown, on location, making them easier to transport. They also offer the proposal of easy, organic disposal after use, putting little strain on the alien environment.

A mycelial home on Mars a magnificent achievement for both man and fungi, if the success of a species lies in its ability to adapt to the most challenging of conditions. We have both done just that: we erupt from our planet, in our rockets, with our plans. We are both destined to spread. And we will, eventually and inevitably, decay.

Excerpted from The Secret Life of Fungi: Discoveries From a Hidden World by Aliya Whiteley (Pegasus Books).

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The Stowaways That Made the First Space Station Stink - Daily Beast

Nuclear thermal spaceflight might be a lot closer than you think. DARPA's DemonstrationRocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program is underway with the U.S. Pentagon agency having recently announced its three prime contractors:General Atomics, Blue Origin, and Lockheed Martin.

The goal of the DRACO program is to demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system above low Earth orbit in 2025, DARPA explains in a press statement. With mission success, DARPA would have built the first rocket using a technology that could halve our travel time across the Solar System.

The limitations of electric and chemical space propulsion systems mean they are unable to achieve the speeds required to travel to thedistant reaches of the universe. DRACO's nuclear thermal propulsion system may change as it has the potential to achieve high thrust-to-weight ratios comparable to in-space chemical propulsion at the same time as match the high propellent efficiency of electric systems. The program is focused on rapid transit between the Earth and the Moon, though it would likely be further developed to also reach Mars and beyond.

In a press release, the Sierra Nevada Corporation announced that it will be working with General Atomics on the NTP program. The company stated that "NTP offers a high thrust-to-weight ratio around 10,000 times greater than electric propulsion and two to five times greater specific propellant efficiency than chemical propulsion." It also explained that the nuclear thermal propulsion system will use a liquid hydrogen propellant heated by a nuclear fission reactor. This will provide double the energy output of today's most advanced liquid propellant rocket engine.

"The NTP technology we seek to develop and demonstrate under the DRACO program aims to be foundational to future operations in space,"said Maj Nathan Greiner, USAF, program manager for DRACO. The DRACO program is currently in Phase 1. This will last 18 months, during which the recently-announced contractors will design the nuclear thermal propulsion reactor and propulsion subsystem concept. The contractors will also produce an "Operational System (OS) spacecraft concept to meet mission objectives and design a Demonstration System (DS) spacecraft concept," DARPA says. According to Greiner, the"first phase of the DRACO program is a risk reduction effort that will enable us to sprint toward an on-orbit demonstration in later phases."

All going according to plan, Phase 1 will inform follow-up phases, which will include the fabrication and on-orbit demonstration of the rocket. DARPA's project isn't the only one trying to improve the efficiency and speed of space travel via nuclear propulsion. In March, radiation detection firm U.S. Nuclear Corp called on NASA to sign a contract to develop a nuclear fusion-powered spacecraft for crewed flight to Mars. The UK Space Agency also announced in January that it is collaborating withRolls Royce to develop a nuclear propulsion systemthat it estimates will reduce the travel time to Mars by half.

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DARPA Wants to Have Nuclear Thermal Rockets Ready by 2025 - Interesting Engineering

TheInspiration4crew has lifted off onboard aSpaceX Crew Dragon. By the time the gentle reader sees that it will likely have already returned to Earth after one of the most unusual and heartwarming space missions ever undertaken.

Most people have seen thoseSt. Judes Research Hospitalcommercials. The children many with hair gone from chemotherapy, their voices halt and raspy from the struggle to stay alive before their lives have well begun have the ability to tear out the heart. Cancer, next to Alzheimers, is the cruelest of diseases. It takes life slowly, painfully, with the treatment at times almost as bad as the disease. It is horrible for anyone to have to endure it and doubly horrible when the patient is a child.

Inspiration4 is the brainchild of Jared Isaacman, who made his billions by founding a company called Shift4 Payments, which processes retail payments. His idea was to buy a space mission from SpaceX, including the use of a SpaceX Dragon, to raise money for St. Judes. Isaacman is also an accomplished pilot.

Isaacman is joined by Chris Sembroski, a data engineer who acquired a seat because a friend, who had won it in a lottery of doners transferred it to him. They are joined by Dr. Sian Proctor, a geology professor and science communicator, and Haley Arceneaux, a physicians assistant at St. Judes.

Arceneauxs backstory is especially poignant. Arceneaux was once herself a patient at St. Judes, suffering from bone cancer. The hospital and its staff of health care professionals saved her life so that she could grow up to help other children to live and now to fly in space.

The crew represents the qualities of leadership (Isaacman), generosity (Sembroski), prosperity (Proctor) and hope (Arceneaux.) They lifted off with the plan to fly in Earth orbit for three days, before splashing down in the Atlantic.

The praise for Inspiration4 has been near universal. The spaceflight is one of the few feel-good stories in a news cycle filled with disaster and mendacity. However, an exception likely exists.

It should be noted that Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersPelosi says House members would not vote on spending bill topline higher than Senate's Groups push lawmakers to use defense bill to end support for Saudis in Yemen civil war Congress must address the looming debt crisis MORE (I-Vt.) has not, to anyones knowledge, offered any snarky comments about the flight of Inspiration 4. His silence is telling despite his well-known disdain for billionaires flying in space. Isaacman, who bought the space flight, and Elon MuskElon Reeve MuskElon Musk mocks Biden for ignoring his company's historic space flight Inspiration4 and the quest to cure childhood cancer SpaceX all-civilian crew returns to Earth, successfully completing 3-day mission MORE, who sold it to him, are both billionaires.

Sanders likely has another objection to Inspiration4.According to the Washington Examiner, Sanders has expressed opposition to private charity going back to his days as mayor of Burlington, Vt., in the early 1980s. As a democratic socialist Sanders believes that government should be the purveyor of all social services, including health care. Under his preferred system, not only would the money the wealthy use to fund private philanthropybe taxed awaybut hospitals like St. Judes, which largely subsists on private donations, would be nationalized into Medicare for All(it should be noted he has not singled out St. Jude in particular).That development would be a tragedy. Parents of children who are treated at St. Judes do not have to pay anything, a better deal than any government-run healthcare.

Since capitalism persists as Americas economic system, the flight of Inspiration4 took place. The mission will not only raise money for childrens cancer research, but it will also providesome valuable medical dataon the effects of space flight on the human body. The crew of the Inspiration4 did not spend all their time looking out at the glories of heaven and Earth through the transparent cupola SpaceX has installed on the Crew Dragon.

Each of the astronauts wore an Apple watch that collected biomedical data such as EKGs, heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, as well as external data such as light and cabin noise. The astronauts used a Butterfly IQ ultrasound device connected to an iPhone to scan their internal organs during the spaceflight. Finally, the crew used an app stored on an iPad to take cognitive tests before, during and after the mission.

The ultrasound test will determine whether an ordinary person with minimal training can take ultrasound images that can then be transmitted to a physician for evaluation. Ordinarily, ultrasounds are taken by a highly trained technician at a clinic or hospital. A home ultrasound device would be a boon for remote medicine.

Inspiration4 proves that space travel can provide solutions to problems on Earth. If the mission advances the day when all childhood cancers can be cured, billionaires flying in space proved that they could address problems on Earth with more alacrity than virtue-signaling politicians.

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

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Inspiration4 and the quest to cure childhood cancer | TheHill - The Hill