Daily Archives: October 8, 2022

This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: The race to reinvent the space station

Sonja HutsonGood morning from the Financial Times. Today is Monday, October 3rd, and this is your FT News Briefing.

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The UKs prime minister faces a growing backlash inside her own party. Meanwhile, Brits are taking to the streets to protest high energy bills. Plus, the International Space Station is being decommissioned and the US space agency Nasa is funding private companies to help continue its work.

Peggy HollingerIts not like were gonna start building another space station with Russia right now, are we?

Sonja HutsonIm Sonja Hutson, in for Marc Filippino, and heres the news you need to start your day.

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Today, UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will defend his controversial tax plan to members of his party at their annual conference. His plan unleashed havoc across financial markets. It would scrap the top tax rate of 45 per cent and take on a lot of debt. Many fear it would make inflation worse. The plan is stoking a rebellion inside the Tory party as prominent members speak out against the tax cuts and other measures. The UK prime minister, Liz Truss, is also not budging on the plan, even though shes been warned she could face defeat in the House of Commons.

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As Tory party members gathered in Birmingham this weekend, protesters gathered around the country to show their frustration with skyrocketing energy prices.

[AUDIO CLIP FROM DONT PAY PROTEST PLAYING]

Dont Pay protests like this one in central London are encouraging people to not pay their power bills.

Unnamed protesterWere still here because our prices are still double from last year. What are you gonna do with your bills?

CrowdBurn them!

Unnamed protesterWhat are you gonna do with your bills?

CrowdBurn them!

Sonja HutsonOne protester stepped forward and threw a mock electricity bill into a fire that was blazing out of a metal trash bin.

Cameron JoshiMy name is Cameron Joshi. Im 27. Ive been periodically disabled with a chronic illness since I was 18, so I cancelled mine last month because I couldnt afford to pay it.

Sonja HutsonThe government began capping energy bills this weekend, but protesters say its not enough.

Unnamed protester Its absolutely ludicrous that our energy bill price cap is double what it was last winter and theyre offering us only 400, 66 a month to try and help us with that.

Unnamed protester And I know many people that are working, but they cant afford the rent. They cannot afford a normal life.

Sonja HutsonDont Pay protests werent the only demonstration this weekend against the soaring cost of living in the UK. Train drivers and postal workers were on strike, and so were nurses, teachers and public defence lawyers.

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As much of the world struggles with high energy prices, Opec and its oil-producing allies plan to prop up prices with a substantial cut in production. The group meets on Wednesday and could cut more than a million barrels a day. Thats the largest cut since the early days of the pandemic. The group is led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, and sources told the FT that the Saudis are eager to lower output, not just to prop up prices but also to keep some production capacity in reserve. Theyre nervous about a sharp drop in Russian oil output later this year when western powers tighten sanctions.

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The greatest global collaboration in the history of technology has been the International Space Station, and the ISS is on its way out. After 22 years, hundreds of astronauts from 20 different countries and countless scientific advances, the ISS will be decommissioned by the end of the decade. The US space agency Nasa has already started awarding contracts to private companies to come up with a replacement. To talk more about this, Im joined by the FTs Peggy Hollinger. Hey, Peggy.

Peggy HollingerHi, how are you?

Sonja HutsonIm doing well. Thanks for asking. So, Peggy, can you remind us why the International Space Station is so important to begin with? You know, whats its value and whats its purpose?

Peggy Hollinger Thats a complicated question. Its value is not just in the fact that unique experiments can be conducted in microgravity, a sort of environment thats very difficult to replicate here on Earth, but its also in the international collaboration. In the space station, 450-80km above the earth, weve got Russians working with Europeans, working with Americans, working with Japanese. It truly is a sort of a properly working United Nations in space.

Sonja HutsonSo why is it being decommissioned then?

Peggy HollingerThe space station is already flying long beyond its expected life. Its life has been extended a few times. And really, there comes a point when technology has moved on and what youve got in the space station, you know, can be much better designed. The big question is because it costs so much to keep flying, it costs so much to build, it really did require international co-operation to build how do you replace it? Its not like were gonna start building another space station with Russia right now, are we? So whos gonna fund this?

Sonja HutsonWhy is Nasa moving towards privatisation and what would that actually look like?

Peggy Hollinger So, if youre not going to partner up with Russia again, how are you gonna fund it? And really the answer seems to be, in Nasas playbook, seems to be the private sector. So Nasa needs a low-Earth orbit capability for its own scientific experiments. The US government wants to ensure a permanent human presence in low-Earth orbit because the low-Earth orbit economy is developing so quickly. So why not bring the private sector in to help fund some of that? And why not rent space on private space stations rather than own it and have to foot the bill for the operating costs, which are, you know, 3-4bn a year.

Sonja Hutson So is this business model going to work? Nasa funding private companies to do what Nasa wants to do is that feasible?

Peggy HollingerWell, this is the big question, isnt it? Because if Nasa is going to rely on the private sector for its needs, you know, to have human presence in low-Earth orbit, it damn well better be sure that these companies it places its contracts with are viable. Its very, very clear that none of them can survive, certainly in the early years, without substantial government support, ie contracts from Nasa. And theyre all saying that they believe the contract from Nasa is likely to be around 1-1.5bn. So that will keep them going nicely until they can attract other customers for their space stations. But there are some who believe that, you know, ultimately, a) theres not much room for more than one private space station because the more you begin to spread Nasas needs across different stations, the more difficult it is to survive and build that commercial business. But then again, demand might appear from places that we cant envisage right now.

Sonja Hutson Peggy Hollinger is the FTs international business editor. Thanks, Peggy.

Peggy HollingerThank you very much.

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Sonja HutsonBefore we go, Apples made a big shift. Its producing its iPhone 14 in India. Its the first time Apple is manufacturing the newest phone outside China so soon after its release. Usually, Apple only manufacturers in India or other countries once its confident that production of the new device is going smoothly. India has been trying to become a bigger player in the global electronics supply chain, so this is a big win. Other countries are also benefiting as Apple shifts production outside China. The companys already tested out AirPod production in Vietnam and plans to build iPads and Apple Watches there too.

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You can read more on all these stories at FT.com. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Make sure you check back tomorrow for the latest business news.

This transcript has been automatically generated. If by any chance there is an error please send the details for a correction to: typo@ft.com. We will do our best to make the amendment as soon as possible.

More:
The race to reinvent the space station - Financial Times

Hurricane Ian is pictured approaching the west coast of Florida as a category 4 storm. The International Space Station was orbiting 259 miles above the Gulf of Mexico at the time of this photograph. Credit: NASA

Hurricane Ian is pictured above in a stunning photograph that was taken by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station (ISS). When this photograph was snapped, the ISS was orbiting 258 miles above the Caribbean Sea east of Belize. At the time, Ian was just south of Cuba gaining strength and heading toward Florida. In the foreground (from left), are the Soyuz MS-22 crew ship, docked to the Rassvet module, and the Soyuz MS-21 crew ship, docked to the Prichal module.

There were a couple of other stunning photographs released by NASA of Hurricane Ian from the ISS:

A crew member onboard the International Space Station took this photograph of Hurricane Ian on September 26 while orbiting more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Earths surface. At the time, the space station was located over the Caribbean Sea east of Belize, and Hurricane Ian was just south of Cuba. Over the course of the day, it grew from a tropical storm to a category-2 hurricane. Credit: NASA

Above is another photograph of Hurricane Ian captured by a crew member onboard the International Space Station. When the picture was taken, on September 26, the ISS was orbiting more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Earths surface. At the time, Hurricane Ian was just south of Cuba and the space station was located over the Caribbean Sea east of Belize. Over the course of that day, it grew from a tropical storm to a category-2 hurricane.

Hurricane Ian is pictured approaching the west coast of Florida as a category 4 storm. The International Space Station was orbiting 259 miles above the Gulf of Mexico at the time of this photograph. Credit: NASA

This picture of Hurricane Ian was photographed from the ISS while the orbiting lab was over 250 miles above the Gulf of Mexico. At the time this photograph was taken, Ian was approaching the west coast of Florida as a category 4 storm.

More:
Hurricane Ian Captured in Stunning Pictures From the International Space Station - SciTechDaily

Oct 3 (Reuters) - The first European female commander on the International Space Station, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, answered young girls' questions -- accompanied by a lookalike Barbie doll.

Cristoforetti recently took time to describe some of the experiments conducted aboard the ISS, as well as answer questions from five girls 8 to 11 years old from across Europe. She and her spacesuit-clad Barbie floated in zero gravity, as she spoke.

Asked why she became an astronaut, the 45-year-old said, "Growing up I was fascinated by the night sky, and the idea of flying to space, and the sense of adventure and exploration.

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"And then I became interested in science and technology; and then I really loved flying, I became a pilot. And being an astronaut kind of brings all those passions and interests of me together," she said.

A handout picture shows Europe's first female commander of the ISS, ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti with her lookalike Barbie doll at the International Space Station (ISS). ESA/Handout via REUTERS

The video conversation, excerpts of which were released on Monday, was part of a project aimed at inspiring young girls to start careers in STEM: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It also marks World Space Week, which begins on Tuesday

The initiative was organized by Inspiring Girls International, a charity which connects girls to international role models.

Mattel Inc MAT.O> designed a Cristoforetti lookalike Barbie doll in 2019 and put it on sale in 2021. The company donated some of the profits to the charity Women in Aerospace Europe.

The first Barbie wearing an astronaut suit was released in 1965 and was garbed in the outfits worn by astronauts in the 1960s Mercury program, which put the first American men into orbit and paved the way for future space missions.

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Reporting by Chiara Rodriguez; editing by Jonathan Oatis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Excerpt from:
Space station's Italian commander, with lookalike Barbie, tells girls about science in orbit - Reuters

By Prof. Gongling Sun and Dr. Yang Yang

ISU Space Studies Program (SSP) offers an intensive nine-week course hosted each year in the timeframe June-August in different locations in our planet earth since 1988. The SSP provides courses in all space disciplines, as well as hands-on education through workshops and professional visits for people working in space-related fields who wish to broaden their knowledge base. Particularly, participants spend more than 3 weeks working on 4 team projects to address current and future challenges in the space sector.

The Chinese space station is scheduled to be completed and put into operation by the end of 2022. This is not only a new attempt for China but also the beginning of a new era of international space cooperation for countries, organizations and individuals all over the world.

This year, Dr. Yang Yang and I, Prof. Gongling Sun, co-chaired the team project of International Cooperation on the Use of the China Space Station, which is sponsored by the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CSU, CAS).

We worked for two years for this team project preparation and invited various experts worldwide to provide the best insights into international cooperation and the utilization of a microgravity environment, especially that based on space stations.

This Team Project was completed by 23 participants from 17 countries with diverse backgrounds, ages, and experiences. Despite the varied cultural and professional origins, the team embraced the values of the ISU (International, Intercultural, Interdisciplinary), and we also offered our participants the opportunity to interact with our invited lecturers. They managed to create a cohesive team, who eagerly started the project, and quickly defined the mission statement and objectives according to the broad team project description.

The team endorsedthe UNstyleof leadership, avoiding hierarchies andfostering inclusivity. As is the nature ofthe spaceindustry, ideas were plentiful while time was limited. The team managed to overcome these challenges and finished the comprehensive report over a three-week period.

The team managed to satisfy most of the stakeholders by merging three areas of scientific and engineering exploration. Unique flight hardware was designed to satisfy a multitude of scientific objectives and an overarching outreach strategy was created which can be utilized for many other projects. The team picked up vital knowledge and skills learned in the program in the first 6 weeks and overcame multiple challenges due to the difficult climate, time pressures and last-minute curricular changes.

With the Main tasks to be accomplished including the Executive Summary of International Cooperation on the Use of the Chinese Space Station review, final report, and project presentation, our participants demonstrated their high levels of professionalism, discipline, and maturity. They have made great progress both as a team and as individuals, reinforcing the individual qualities and strengths of team members. We are looking forward to seeing what these promising future leaders of the space industry create in the future.

We organized a professional visit to a leading Portuguese space company, LusoSpace, which offers space hardware concept definition, and preliminary design, through the development, integration, testing and qualification.

Want to hear the experience of a SSP22 participant? Here you can listen to our interview with Madin Maseeh on the day of the final team project presentations.

Gongling is Professor of Space System Engineering and Space Policy at the International Space University (ISU), where he is also faculty lead to Business and Management in Masters of Space Studies Program (MSS). Mr. Sun held several senior executive positions both in China and Europe. He was a system engineer of launch vehicle design and project manager of international satellite launching services in China. He became a founding member of China Manned Space Agency in 1993 and worked as General Designer Assistant for China Manned Space Program until 2000. Then he worked as Managing Director of EurasSpace GmbH based in Munich, Germany. He played an important role in space business development, large project management, project financing and insurance, and export license management. As the founder of CASC European Office based in Paris in 2010, he served as the Chief representative for 7 years before he joints ISU in 2017.

Dr. Yang Yang is Director of international cooperation department of Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization, Chinese Academy of Sciences(CSU,CAS). He has been engaging the utilization mission of China Manned Space in TG-1, SZ-8, TZ-1 and China Space Station, and has been responsible for utilization mission planning and international cooperative project management. He is the commander and manager of tens of scientific utilization projects and experiments of CMS in cooperated with ESA, DLR and ASI etc. He is expert of HSTI of UNOOSA, member of IAF Microgravity Sciences and Processes Committee, member of International Microgravity Science planning group.

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#SpaceWatchGL Opinion: ISU SSP22 Special - Team Project International Cooperation on the Use of the China Space Station - SpaceWatch.Global

Ajax Axe has heard the apocalypse narrative: The world is on fire. The billionaires are going to space. And the rest of us are doomed.

But what if were not?

People want to take action to secure our best future and to protect the environment, she said. But you know, when it's all doom and gloom, and it's just such a bummer, then people they just disengage, they check out, and so I think when we make it playful, that brings people back to the table.

Thats the concept behind Kairos Futura, the mothership organization for conceptual art initiatives such as the Aspen Space Station that aim to convince people that Earth is still worth saving and that we still stand a chance to actually save it.

Axe, an artist based in Aspen, is director of Kairos Futura, which also involves other artists, scientists and community members.

Our goal is making it so that it's fun and exciting to engage around often very challenging and serious issues, and that's by using play, and by using crazy narratives, Axe said. We have this ability to make people want to participate and to make it easier for people to pay attention to an issue that otherwise might be ignored.

Locally, that effort looks like the Aspen Space Station project, which wraps up a second summer of art installations and live events this weekend.

Dinners, brainstorming sessions, book clubs and happy hours were part of the expanded slate of events this year.

Also featured are an NFT art show at a secret location in the woods, a party on the backside of Aspen Mountain where the theme was Solar Punk and a series of workshops where people carved messages for the future into clay tablets that will be buried for the next 200 years.

Axe said the plan is to register the project with the Aspen Historical Society so theres a record when it comes time to dig them up.

The burial is happening Sunday, by invitation only, along with a full moon future ritual led by local artist Nori Pao.

Pao said she saw a lot of optimism and some introspection in the workshops to make the tablets, where people shared ideas they hope will resonate two centuries from now.

I have always been able to see the joy in the moment in the future, even when things are pretty dark, Pao said.

She recognizes that there is some darkness to the idea of our climate future, but there is also a broad sense of hope, she said.

She encouraged workshop participants to channel that hope, returning to a feeling of childlike curiosity and being present and open.

That perspective can point people toward new solutions, she says.

Quite naturally, when people come together, they tend to have more of a positive outlook, and look at things as problem-solving and solution-oriented, she said, rather than when you're alone, and you feel alone, and you're just, like, ready to give up.

The community element of the Aspen Space Station project bolsters that, Pao said.

If you don't have the energy to keep going, but there's someone to the left of you that does, she said, you feed off each other's energy and kind of keep that high and that curiosity and just willingness to maybe approach things differently.

Axe said that willingness does exist and that she sees a positive outlook as a much more effective mechanism for change than a negative one.

As the Kairos Futura project moves forward, the focus is shifting from messaging to action, she said.

A lot of the programming we've done until now has been about building community and creating awareness around imagining the future and getting the community together to talk about challenges that we have here, Axe said. Now, we want to start to use the momentum we've created to catalyze action so that people are engaging in these issues in ways that are productive.

That was evident in some of this summers events, where attendees were strongly urged to sign petitions for climate initiatives before they could get a drink.

At the solar punk party, for instance, Axe says about 50 to 60 people signed a petition for the CORE Act that aims to protect 400,000 acres of public land in Colorado.

The action is also manifesting in a partnership with Wilderness Workshop, a conservation nonprofit based in Carbondale that is focused on advocacy for public lands.

We're essentially drawing attention to these really important projects that they're working on around conservation, Axe said. And we, as a group of artists, have the power to make these things sexy and sticky in a way that I think is more difficult without creativity.

Sticky, as in engaging, Axe said, at a time when people can get so overwhelmed by information that they end up tuning out rather than tuning in.

It's not that people don't know about these issues, Axe said. It's that they're so overwhelmed by the cascade of information and issues that they just switch off and they don't want to engage.

According to Axe, the strategy is working.

To get into some of the Aspen Space Station events this summer, people had to take a Future Proof exam that asked them how they think about their future and the future of our planet.

Click the most-optimistic, solutions-focused answers, and youll be deemed a Wild Futurist.

Nearly 80% to 90% of the respondents got that result, Axe said.

The apocalypse narrative is growing more and more uninspiring for people, Axe said. People are really starting to challenge the fact that the apocalypse narrative is just so cheap and so easy. And I think if we can find ways to make engagement fun and exciting, I think that that is a way to grow optimism.

She recognizes that not every idea sticks with everyone.

The really crazy stuff that appeals to the younger crowd might not click with older participants, she said.

Reconciling those things together is definitely an ongoing challenge, but one worth taking on, she said. I think bringing community together, though, in a creative way is the most amazing powerful thing.

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The Aspen Space Station keeps the future in its orbit - Aspen Public Radio

NASA's moon-bound CAPSTONE probe is coming under control.

The microwave oven-sized CAPSTONE, which has been in safe mode for a month since an engine burn Sept. 8, finally stopped tumbling in cislunar space following a command from ground control.

The command executed Friday (Oct. 7) resulted in "clearing a major hurdle in returning the spacecraft to normal operations," NASA wrote in an update (opens in new tab) to its Artemis blog. (CAPSTONE is a pathfinder for the planned NASA Gateway space station's orbit, which will support moon operations under the Artemis program.)

The 55-pound (25 kilogram) spacecraft initially entered trouble following "a valve-related issue in one of the spacecraft's eight thrusters," NASA added, noting one of those thrusters was partially open and causing a spin. The team is now moving further ahead on their recovery plan before the cubesat's expected arrival at the moon on Nov. 13.

Related: Why it'll take NASA's tiny CAPSTONE probe so long to reach the moon

After reviewing CAPSTONE's telemetry and other observational information, NASA and the Colorado company Advanced Space (which operates the spacecraft on behalf of the agency) said engineers now have command of yaw, pitch and roll (the three axes of a craft's orientation) to control the cubesat's position in space.

"CAPSTONE now has oriented its solar arrays to the sun and adjusted the pointing of its antennas to provide a better data connection to Earth," NASA said, which presumably will allow further commands to stabilize the spacecraft even further.

The agency hedged its success bets, however, noting the risks of this procedure alone were "significant" and that more tweaks might be needed to stop the partially open thruster valve from interfering again with CAPSTONE's position in space.

Nevertheless, the spacecraft "remains on track" to occupy and characterize a lunar near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), NASA emphasized, to test its stability ahead of Gateway's arrival in a few years.

Advanced Space did several spacecraft tests and ground simulations ahead of attempting the recovery, the company said in its own CAPSTONE update (opens in new tab) on Friday. The company added it is committed to helping the spacecraft along for "upcoming critical events" and to troubleshoot the valve closure "to further reduce the risk of future propulsive operations."

"The CAPSTONE mission team is grateful for the public and private support provided to the team during this challenging phase of the mission." added Advanced Space.

CAPSTONE, short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, launched atop a Rocket Lab Electron booster on June 28 and has already overcome another major glitch.

On July 4, the spacecraft went darkshortly after separation from Rocket Lab's Photon spacecraft bus. An improperly formatted command caused the issue and engineers addressed it successfully the next day.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter@howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcom (opens in new tab)orFacebook (opens in new tab).

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NASA's tiny CAPSTONE moon probe has finally stopped tumbling in space - Space.com

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

A 'cataclysmic' celestial couple gone wrong - a star eats its mate

Unlike the lonely sun, about half the stars in our Milky Way galaxy are in a long-term committed relationship with another star, orbiting each another in a celestial marriage called a binary system. Researchers this week described one of these marriages gone wrong - a twosome that borders on the extreme, with the pair whirling around each other every 51 minutes in the fastest such orbital period known for a rare class of binary stars. As part of the drama, one star is eating its companion.

Rugby-Research shows huge spike in MND risk among former international players

A new study looking at the impact of concussion on a group of former Scottish international rugby players has found that they were 15 times more likely to develop motor neurone disease (MND) than the general population. The figure is likely to send shock waves through the sport, which is already embroiled in a legal fight over the link between concussion and early onset dementia and which is scrambling to find ways of reducing incidences of concussion in matches and training at all levels.

Puny critter shows humble beginnings of magnificent flying reptiles

Pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that thrived during the age of dinosaurs, achieved great size - some with wingspans like a fighter jet - and displayed striking anatomy including exotic head crests and a hugely elongated finger to support their wings. While the ancestry and early evolution of these creatures have long puzzled scientists, a fresh examination of remains found in Scotland of a small reptile that lived about 230 million years ago during the Triassic Period is helping shed light on the humble origins of pterosaurs, researchers said on Wednesday.

Nobel prize goes to pioneers of Lego-like "click chemistry"

Scientists Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for discovering reactions that let molecules snap together to create new compounds and that offer insight into cell biology. The field of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry has been harnessed to improve the targeting of cancer pharmaceuticals now being tested in clinical trials, along with a host of health, agricultural and industrial applications.

SpaceX capsule heads to space station ferrying NASA crew and Russian

A SpaceX rocket soared into orbit from Florida on Wednesday carrying the next long-term International Space Station crew, with a Russian cosmonaut, two Americans and a Japanese astronaut flying together in a demonstration of U.S.-Russian teamwork in space despite Ukraine war tensions. A high-ranking official of the Russian space agency Roscosmos said shortly after the launch that the flight marked "a new phase of our cooperation" with the U.S. space agency NASA.

(With inputs from agencies.)

Originally posted here:
Science News Roundup: SpaceX capsule heads to space station ferrying NASA crew and Russian; Nobel prize goes to pioneers of Lego-like "click...