Category Archives: Mars Colony

When I openedthe linkto my first interview in themetaverse, theinterviewerappeared to be a monkey with heart-shaped glasses. He introduced himself as the avatar of the real interviewer, Club Metaverse podcast host Marc Fernandez, whose voice I could hear. Fernandez reasoned that this monkey is anon-fungible token(NFT) worth tens of thousands of dollars because it is part of a rare digital collection.

During the Q&A, I explained to the metaverse monkey with heart glasses that as a scientist, I am in love with the actual reality of the physical world, shared by all humans. And as a result of being in love with the physical reality, I want to know everything about it and not be distracted by fictitious notions of it. Just like cosmetic make-up, these notions hide true beauty along with any pimples. Naturally, Id prefer to see my real interviewers face and not the avatar, even if the latter is digital art worth a lot of money.

Metaverse assets could disappear as a result of a global electricity blackout. But other virtual realities are entrenched in our mind. For example, mainstream theoretical physicists dedicate their careers to exploring themultiversein the string theory landscape, without goggles attached to their heads. It is human nature to fly high on the wings of imagined narratives rather than be chained by the constraints of scientific evidence.

The metaverse interview focused on the question of whether`Oumuamua, the first interstellar object spotted near Earth by thePan-STARRSobservatory, might have been technological equipment sent by another civilization.

Three days later, I was interviewed by William Shatner who portrayed Captain James T. Kirk on the imagined USS Enterprise in Star Trek. I had never enjoyed Star Trek because its storyline violates the laws of physics and that bothers me as a physicist.

Following both interviews, I came to realize that the metaverse would be a fertile backdrop for science fiction narratives. However, in dealing with the reality we all share, we must separate science from fiction. And asGalileo Galileiadvocated, this is best done by subjecting ideas to experimental tests. In that vein, a science fiction idea such as the possibility thatan interstellar objectmight be technological equipment manufactured by an advanced technological civilization will be tested experimentally by theGalileo Projectthat I am leading.

Some extraterrestrial equipment that the Galileo Project finds might be defunct. NASA launched five spacecraft that will exit the solar system within tens ofthousands of years. They were intended to report back on what they probed in the solar system, but in a billion years they will be space trash. Most interstellar equipment might be like unusable plastic bottles on the surface of the ocean,accumulated over the billions of years of the cosmicstar formation history, during which most stars were born before the Sun.

The likelihood of success in finding mail within our mailbox the orbit of the Earth around the sun, depends on the abundance of artificial objects per unit volume. There may be many more small objects than large objects, and Pan-STARRS telescope is only able to detect reflected sunlight from objects bigger than a football field within the Earth-sun separation. NASA never sent out a craft that big but many smaller ones. Also, some spacecraft might move much faster than comets or asteroids and all the search algorithms employed by astronomers would miss very fast-moving objects.

The senders may not be alive at present. But even if we imagine electromagnetic communication of some probes with their senders, it would likely be done in brief, sporadic, directional, narrow-band transmissions to save power, and so we could easily miss them. The travel time of signals is very long, tens of thousands of years across the Milky Way disk. It, therefore, makes more sense for probes to pursue a task assigned to them by their senders without feedback, like a group of ants on a journey to a distant hill without the ability to communicate with their base colony in real time.

In an email correspondence I had with former NSF Director France Cordova, she noted insightfully that most of the exodus of probes might occur near the end in the life of the star hosting a civilization. The civilization from where probes were sent in a final act of distress might have died by now. In this case, it would be just the technological descendants that we will encounter.

Experimental data from the Galileo Project will serve as the meeting place between what is possible and what exists, similarly to my first interview in the metaverse. The metaverse allows a virtual reality, which violates the laws of physics. But when we take its goggles off, we must accept the pleasure and painof the real world in which the laws of physics do not budge. Pain because those laws dictate that humans cannot live a long life when exposed to cosmic-rays on the surface of Mars. Pleasure because the same laws allow humans to live long on Earth, where if they choose, they can pretend to be monkeys with sunglasses in the metaverse.

AviLoebis the head of theGalileo Project, founding director of Harvard University's Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011-2020). He chairs the advisory board for the Breakthrough Starshot project and is a former member of the Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of Extraterrestrial:The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth and a co-author of the textbook Life in the Cosmos, both published in 2021.

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An interview in the metaverse | TheHill - The Hill

Starfield represents a bold new frontier for Bethesda Game Studios. It's the developer's first new universe in 25 years, for starters. Starfield is also its first Xbox Series X console exclusive since becoming a part of the Xbox Game Studios collective, and the developer's first attempt at building a game set amongst the stars after work on The 10th Planet was scrapped in the '90s. Fallout and The Elder Scrolls are Bethesda's past. Starfield is its future.

It's an exciting time for action-RPG players eager to escape this reality for another, but it would be disingenuous for me not to admit that one comment from Todd Howard has given me pause: "It's like Skyrim in space." That's how Bethesda Game Studios' executive producer described Starfield to The Washington Post and I can't shake it. With Starfield aspiring to reach greater heights, I hope the studio has found an updated roadmap to help guide it through the unknown.

Key Info

GameStarfieldDeveloperBethesda Game StudiosPublisherXbox Game StudiosPlatformsPC, Xbox Series XRelease2022

Had Skyrim's flame been allowed to extinguish, just as the torches we once carried for Morrowind and Oblivion did so many years ago, then perhaps the idea of Elder Scrolls among the stars would be more alluring. As it is, Skyrim is undoubtedly a better game to play today than it ever was in 2011, thanks to Bethesda's insistence on updating and expanding its fantasy sandbox. I've had my fill of it, on three generations of console, no less, and it's time for something new.

Yet in spite of Howard's comparison, it does appear that the studio is steering Starfield toward new horizons. For years now, Bethesda has cycled between the wilds of Fallout and the wildness of The Elder Scrolls. But Starfield is something bigger by nature, an adventure unfurling across a small pocket of the Milky Way, one that's designed to let us explore the frontiers of the Settled Colonies and navigate fracturing alliances in the aftermath of a bloody Colony War.

Starfield takes place in the year 2330 and in an area that extends outward from our Solar System for 50 light years. What we'll find there is Bethesda's science-fiction universe, one that's grounded in an understanding of technology and humanity as we know it today. That's the backdrop to Starfield's action as we enter it as a new member of Constellation, a faction committed to uncovering the mysteries of the galaxy by exploring the deepest reaches of the Settled Systems.

What we have heard of Starfield so far indicates that hostile alien worlds should be expected, although it's the star systems controlled by the two largest factions the United Colonies, settled on New Atlantis, and Freestar Collective, based out of Akila City that may pose the greatest threat to your survival. Not to mention rogue outfits like the Ecliptic Mercenaries, Pirates of the Crimson Fleet, and the fanatical zealots of House Va'ruun who are tussling for control of the space in-between.

"Fallout and The Elder Scrolls are Bethesda's past. Starfield is its future"

It's difficult to get a true sense of the scale of Starfield. Todd Howard has been careful in this regard, saying very little about the playable space most likely to avoid falling into the same trap that once ensnared Hello Games' No Man's Sky. Perhaps it's easy to over-promise and under-deliver when you lose the ability to enclose a playground with mountainous fencing. What's clear at this juncture, however, is that Starfield will have a different structure to the adventures contained within The Commonwealth or Tamriel. Where Fallout and The Elder Scrolls have you emerge from captivity and then set out to explore one sprawling world, Starfield will be spread amongst many.

We've seen just three cities so far, although each is set in a different part of the Settled System. New Atlantis, the capital city of the U.C., a mecca which Bethesda has described as being "a true reflection of the future of our world." And then there's Akila City, the capital of the Freestar Collective, a loose confederation of three distinct star systems, walled-off from the world to protect its citizens from the Ashta "alien predators that are a cross between a wolf and a velociraptor." And then there's the pleasure city of Neon, which appears to be Starfield's very own wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Visually, these areas couldn't be more distinct. Tonally and thematically divergent too. Bethesda is bringing decades of experience to this RPG and the mind can only wander as you imagine the possibilities; of the characters we'll meet and the quests they'll send us out on across the galaxy. The authored stories we'll encounter and the ones we'll write all on our own, as the disparate elements of Bethesda's sandbox combine in weird and wonderful ways in tandem with deep, expressive character modeling and progression systems.

Comparing Starfield to Skyrim makes total sense from a marketing perspective; The Elder Scrolls 5 has sold over 30 million copies and is perhaps the most recognisable RPG of the modern era. But from the perspective of play, I hope that the expanded scope of Starfield invites change that the nine years Bethesda has sunk into Starfield's production leads to more than a 'Skyrim in space'. There is, after all, already a mod that can make that happen.

All throughout January, GamesRadar+ is exploring the biggest games of the new year with exclusive interviews, hands-on impressions, and in-depth editorials. For more, be sure to follow along with Big in 2022.

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I hope that Starfield is more than "Skyrim in Space" - Gamesradar

Beth Doyle (bdoyle@wickedlocal.com), Maryclare Himmel (Special to Old Colony Memorial)| Wicked Local

Oceanfront Victorian on Manters Point overlooks Plymouth Long Beach

Situated on nearly an acre of oceanfront land in Plymouth, this Victorian Farmhouse overlooks the spectacular expanse of Long Beach and the Eel River.

Wochit

Conveniently located close to historicdowntownPlymouth,theEel RiverBeachClub and PlimothPatuxet,this picturesque Victorian farmhouseenjoys a unique setting with easy access to two of the areas most scenic waterways. Long Beach is a3-mile-longbarrier beachthat is home to shorebirds and wildlife that roam the wave- and windswept shores. The 3.9-mile-long Eel River begins its journey to the sea at the cranberry bogs east of Long Pond Road, flowing along PlimothPatuxetand paralleling the beach before emptying into Plymouth Harbor between the beach and Manters Point. A private staircase from the backyard of the home leads down to the river, allowing easy access for tubing and beach activities during the warmer months.

The home is situatedon nearly an acre of waterfront land overlooking theriver and the spectacular expanse of Long Beachin a private, quiet enclaveon Manters Point,where a single, one-lane roadway circles past shingled homes with sweeping views of the Atlantic.

Built in 1905, thehome maintains all the charm and essence of a quintessentialturn-of-the-centurybeach cottage,completewith acovered, wraparound porchthat speaks of long summer afternoons spent in rocking chairs watching the waves roll against the shore as gulls circle overhead.

Company:Gibson Sothebys International Realty

Website:www.GibsonSothebysRealty.com

Listing agent:Ashley Brennan

Email:Ashley.Brennan@GibsonSIR.com

Telephone:781-844-5302

Price:$2,495,000

Style:Victorian

Bedrooms:Five

Bathrooms:Three full, one half

Living space:3,440 square feet

Lot size:0.94acre

Garage:Two-car, attached

Highlights:Located on a rise overlooking the Eel River and the spectacular expanse of Long Beach, this delightful Victorian farmhouse sits on nearly an acre of rare oceanfront land.The expansive homemaintainsall ofthe charm of a turn-of-the-century beach cottage, complete with a covered, wraparound porch with commanding views of the ocean. Abright, open floor plan encompasses a light-filled living room and dining roomand aspacious, inviting kitchenthathas been renovated toincludesoapstone counters, stainless appliances and clean-lined cabinetrythatpromote an up-to-date feel while maintaining the delightful charm of the original design.Five bedrooms arranged on the two upper floors offer abundant charm and plenty of room for a large family and out-of-town guests. Additional cozy roomspose possibilities for use as office, studio or studyspace.Aprivate staircasefrom the manicured yard offers easyaccessto the river for tubing and beachingin the summer months.

Taxes:$23,050

For more information about this home, and additional South Shore real estate news, read the South Shore Real Estate section in this weeks newspaper.

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Oceanfront retreat overlooks Plymouth Long Beach and the Eel River - Wicked Local

The past year has been a one long battle for Free Play Arcade's plans to open its fourth location in Denton.

The arcade chain opened a fourth branch in a small space on West Hickory Street in 2018. Things got complicated when the pandemic forced them to close, which lead to a dispute with the landlord that brought the two parties to court in 2020 at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

"It was the hardest thing of my professional career," says Free Play Arcade owner Corey Hyden. "I think that's why we were so adamant on getting back to Denton."

After an undisclosed settlement and months of searching and renovating, Free Play Arcade is back in Denton in a place that's even better than anyone could have imagined even with a global virus that could gum up the works at a moment's notice.

This time, Free Play took on a much larger location on West Hickory Street right on Denton's downtown square, and it had a soft opening of its fourth and most ambitious Dallas-Fort Worth arcade concept in the old Abbey Inn building.

A classic style arcade sign is now part of the Denton square skyline thanks to Free Play Arcade.

Corey Hyden

The massive space houses three floors of arcade games, a big kitchen and an expanded bar space that now allows them to sell cocktails.

"This used to be a big restaurant that served a ton of food," Hyden says. "So now we're able to turn out a ton of food at our Denton location. So we've basically broken every food record we've ever had."

The locale required an extensive amount of renovation to turn it into a useable space. The exterior needed work, but wasn't much of a problem compared with the interior. Hyden says almost every inch of wood had been rotted or gutted out by leaks or the elements.

"The stage had been rotten through," Hyden says. "There were probably whole ecosystems living in there."

Doing a renovation of a massive space during a pandemic presented even more challenges than those that already come with the opening of a a new business.

"Every time we'd try to tackle one task, it takes so much longer than it used to," Hyden says. "The place started to take shape, and we realized we were in a dream situation to be there on the Denton square. It's amazing. It's a really fun row to be on as an arcade. There's lots of really nerdy stuff there together with some Denton nightlife-type stuff.

"It seemed like it was gonna be a real addition to the square. It felt like we should've been there from the start and the pandemic took us there."

The bigger space allows for more games to be on the floor, but Hyden says they are focused on quality over quantity as they are with all their locations. He says Denton's arcade space can hold between 125 and 145 games, but they want to use the extra space to bring in larger games like Skee-Ball and basketball cabinets and provide more breathing room for larger arcade cabinets such as Killer Queen, a three-on-three, multi-goal platformer that's built a competitive gaming league across the Free Play chain and other arcade brands.

"It's so ridiculously big," says Free Play's community liaison Chris Delp. "I walk inside, and I see Killer Queen right there. Then you go downstairs and snake around the corner and another corner and the whole way is lined with games. It's crazy."

Local artists such as Jose "Skilz" May decorated Free Play Arcade's new Denton location with colorful game murals like this mashup of Dig-Dug and Q*Bert.

Corey Hyden

"They've been kind of the nomads jumping from event to event," Delp says. "A lot of the successes I had post-pandemic has to do with the Denton players supporting my events and making the communities thrive in Fort Worth and Richardson. I owe those players a lot, so when I see that the Denton arcade is the best arcade, it makes me smile."

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Free Play Arcade Is Home Again With a Massive Space in Denton - Dallas Observer

Plymouth Long Beach September 2016

Tranquil Plymouth Long Beach September 2016

Wicked Local

PLYMOUTH Plymouths innermost harbor is getting a long-awaited cleansing.

The inner basin, that small, but highly visible section of water between Water Street and Town Wharf, is one of the busiest parts of the harbor. Its docks are home to charter fishing boats, whale watch vessels, fishermen and the harbormaster, but, for decades now, it has slowly been filling with sediment.

At low tide, vast sections are exposed as flats, leaving some boats touching ground.

The town has been trying to dredge the basin for many years. But decades ago, a dangerous chemical settled there.

The town will never know for sure, but officials suspect that someone dumped the pesticide DDT into a storm drain that empties into the harbor.

The pesticide washed into the basin and, years ago, hot spots were identified in sediment samples.

More: State grant will help fund dredging of Town Wharf basin in Plymouth Harbor

More: Tall ships Harvey Gamage and Peacemaker visit Plymouth Harbor

Its presence changed the way the town could approach dredging. The sediment could not simply be scooped up and dumped out at sea.

It must be taken to an inland facility and treated in a way that makes it safe for disposal in a landfill.

The discovery of the pesticide added tremendously to the cost of proposed dredging operations and delayed removal of the material. But with help from the state, the town finally is clearing it out.

Town Meeting approved $1.3 million for the project last spring. The states executive office of Housing and Economic Development awarded a $1.3 million grant for the work as well.

AGM Marine Contractors Inc. of New Bedford has contracted to do the work. AGM completed the most recent dredging around other side of Town Wharf and, in addition to experience with the harbor, has dredges and barges that can fit into tight spaces if needed. And they are.

More: Time for maritime center

More: Whale and Dolphin Conservation responses vital to seals, whales, other marine animals

The project is small in comparison to other work in the harbor.

It will remove 6,000 cubic yards of material and ship it to a treatment plant in New Jersey, where it will be disposed of in a landfill after treatment.

The work is 1/50 of the size of the federally funded dredging project that cleared the harbor channel and and mooring field over the last few years. That project took 300,000 cubic yards of material.

Harbormaster Chad Hunter said AGM started dredging the basin Jan. 3 and has a permit to continue the work through January. The project should only require about seven days of actual dredging, but weather could be a factor in the timing.

The work will have a profound impact on the inner basin, which was last dredged nearly 60 years ago.

The dredging operation will dig out the basin to minus 8 feet. By comparison, the harbors main channel was recently dredged to minus 15 feet. Hunter said the inner basin had been at minus 4 feet, but was completely shoaled in some areas and appeared as mudflats at low tide.

This will basically restore the area to the way it once was, he said, explaining that work will protect usage of the basin and give boats space to maneuver.

The harbormaster cleared all boats from the area for the month to give workers room to dredge.

It is one of two dredging operations in the harbor this winter. A private dredging operation is also underway at the marina at the mouth of Town Brook.

A separate public project, also funded by a state grant, is restoring a section of Town Wharf this winter too.

The $1 million state Seaport Economic Council grant is funding the reconstruction of the bulkhead, timber pier construction and boardwalk on the section of the wharf between the Lobster Hut and Woods Seafood. The project will encase the existing bulkhead in concrete and add lighting to the new stretch of boardwalk.

The bulkhead was built in 1959 or 1960 and has never been repaired. The state grant required the town to contribute $331,000 toward the project. The town has contracted with New England Building and Bridge Co. for the work.

Hunter said the contractor plans to replace pilings in the next two weeks and expects to finish the project this spring.

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Dredging project will give boats room to maneuver in basin of Plymouth Harbor - Wicked Local

This year promises to be an important one for space exploration, with several major programmes reaching the launch pad over the next 12 months. The US is to return to the moon, undertaking a set of missions intended to establish a lunar colony there in a few years. China is expected to complete its Tiangong space station while Europe and Russia will attempt to land spacecraft on Mars, having failed at every previous attempt. India, South Korea and Japan are also scheduled to put a number of missions into space.

Particular interest is going to focus on Nasas mighty new space launch system (SLS). This is the most powerful rocket it has ever designed and has been built to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond as part of the agencys Artemis deep space exploration programme. With these missions, Nasa intends to reopen the solar system to investigation by humans rather than robot probes and regularly carry astronauts to the lunar surface.

The programmes first launch is scheduled for February when an SLS rocket standing more than 300ft high will carry an unmanned Orion capsule on a trajectory that will enter a highly elliptical orbit round the moon. At its closest, the spaceship will sweep within 62 miles of the lunar surface before soaring 40,000 miles above it, a distance that will take it further from Earth than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown.

Crucially, Orion designed to carry between four and six astronauts when fully operational will be fitted with a European service module that will provide the capsules power and propulsion for manoeuvring in orbit. This will give its manufacturer the European Space Agency the opportunity to become a key partner in future Artemis missions. If Februarys mission succeeds, a crewed trip around the moon will take place in 2024 and this will be followed by a lunar landing in 2025 a gap of 53 years since Apollo 17, the last crewed moon mission, touched down on the Taurus-Littrow valley in December 1972.

This time the crew will include at least one woman and the mission will mark the beginning of a programme aimed at establishing a lunar colony where astronauts would work on months-long missions and develop technologies that could be used by future colonies on Mars. A prime target for the first lunar outpost is Shackleton crater, near the moons south pole, which is believed to hold reservoirs of ice. Water will not only provide precious sustenance for astronauts, it can be exploited as a source of hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis that can be combined as rocket fuel.

As part of its preparations to establish a lunar colony, Nasa will also start a massive programme of robot missions through the agencys $2.6bn commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) initiative. This will involve sending a flotilla of robot spacecraft to the moon, with the first missions beginning this year. Built by private companies with Nasa backing, these probes will attempt to map underground water deposits, study the moons deep interior and release robot rovers to investigate the lunar surface. Fledgling space company Astrobotic will send its newly designed Peregrine lander to Lacus Mortis the lake of death a plain of basaltic rock in the north-eastern part of the moon. It will carry 11 different payloads of instruments and will be followed by another US company, Intuitive Machines, which is sending a spacecraft carrying six payloads to Oceanus Procellarum, the Ocean of Storms.

A further 12 CLPS missions are scheduled for the next three years, though head of Nasa science, Thomas Zurbuchen, has warned that these privately funded efforts each face a high risk of failure. As many as half could go wrong, he said recently.

For good measure, Russia and India are both planning to launch their own lunar landers next year, while South Korea is scheduled to place a satellite in moon orbit to study its mineral composition.

The hunt for alien life will take a step further this year with the launch of the joint European-Russian ExoMars mission, which will land a robot rover on the Oxia Planum, a 125-mile-wide clay-bearing plain in the planets northern hemisphere. The rover named after Rosalind Franklin, the British chemist and DNA pioneer will be fitted with a drill capable of probing several feet below the Martian surface, where it is hoped primitive lifeforms may survive or at least the remnants of extinct organisms. The 660lb rover was built by Airbus Defence and Space, at the companys UK facility in Stevenage. Launch is scheduled for 22 September and touchdown is expected on 10 June 2023.

Hopes of success for the mission are guarded, however, as neither Russia nor Europe has had any luck in landing on Mars. Nineteen Russian and Soviet missions and two European bids to land on the red planet have all failed including Europes Schiaparelli lander, which was intended to be a trial run for the current ExoMars mission but which crashed on the planet in 2016.

Easily the most spectacular mission to the asteroids will be Nasas bid to test an anti-asteroid defence system for Earth. Launched last year, the double asteroid redirection test (Dart) spacecraft will crash into the moonlet Dimorphos in September. Hurtling into its target at 15,000mph, the 1,340lb probe the size of a small car will try to change the orbit of Dimorphos, a lump of rock the size of a football stadium, around its parent asteroid, Didymos.

If successful, Nasa and other space agencies will be encouraged to follow up the mission by developing craft that could deflect a larger asteroid heading towards Earth and so avert an Armageddon-style impact, say astronomers. Should an asteroid the size of Dimorphos crash on Earth, it would trigger an explosion equivalent to 400-600 megatonnes of TNT. A city like Manhattan would be completely obliterated, Elena Adams, Darts systems engineer, told the journal Science. This is to demonstrate a technique to save the world.

Nasa has plans for several other asteroid missions next year, including the launch of the probe Psyche. Scheduled for lift-off in August, the spacecraft will visit an asteroid called 16 Psyche that is thought to be the leftover core of a planet. This vast chunk of nickel and iron is the remains of a violent collision with another astronomical object that stripped off the planets outer layers and left its metallic innards exposed. Studying 16 Psyche will give scientists an unprecedented opportunity to examine a planetary core. It will also afford them a chance to explore a new type of world one that is made of metal.

Boeing will attempt to get its Starliner crew capsule into orbit so that it can begin to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). A 2019 flight failed to reach the station and another attempt last year was called off at the last minute when fuel valves failed to open. Boeing now plans to launch a crewless Starliner in early 2022, followed by a test flight with astronauts later in the year. The capsule will then be used along with SpaceXs Crew Dragon spaceship on a rota to ferry astronauts to the ISS.

For its part, China is expected to complete its space station Tiangong Heavenly Palace after launching the first of its three main modules, Tianhe, in April. Modules Mengtian and Wentian will be added this year. China has said it hopes to keep its space station which is considerably smaller than the ISS inhabited continuously by three astronauts for at least a decade. A key task for crewmen will be to service the Xuntian space telescope, which will be launched in 2024 and which will orbit in formation with the Tiangong station. Fitted with a mirror roughly the same size as the Hubble space telescope, Xuntians tasks will include investigations of dark matter and dark energy as well as galaxy formation and evolution.

Blue Origin (founded by Jeff Bezos) and Virgin Galactic (set up by Richard Branson) both succeeded in launching maiden sub-orbital flights last year and both say they expect to begin regular missions in 2022, offering groups of tourists a few minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth.

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To the moon and beyond: what 2022 holds for space travel - The Guardian

Season 6, Episode 4 of Amazon Primes The Expanse, entitled Redoubt, is all about taking matters into your own hands.

Spoilers below!

As usual, the episode begins on Laconia, where we learn Caras brother was involved in a car accident and that the colony was not intended to be settlers. Then, in a rather odd way of distracting Cara from her brothers death, Admiral Duarte, a Mars nationalist, attempts to equate exile with losing a sibling. In truth, it felt a little heavy-handed to me, specifically his comments about how having something you love that you cant protect is terrifying, but their conversation has relevance to the rest of the episode.

We also see Cara carting her brother off to, presumably, those odd-faced dog creatures to bring him back from the dead. Hasnt she seen Pet Semetary?

Avasarala is still dealing with the situation on Ceres, complicated even more now by Belters unwilling to accept aid. Mars wants to abandon the Belters and make a hard run at Marco, but Avasarala refuses to agree. Unfortunately for their alliance, Mars is cool to go it alone.

Thankfully, Monica survived the explosions on Ceres and used the experience to create a hard-hitting piece featuring the old man and his cat, Lucky Earther. Avasarala claims it will make Earth look weak, to which Monica replies it makes everyone look weak and humanizes them. Avasarala is doubtful the Belters will ever sympathize with the Inners, but Monica states its not aimed at them. Is she implying its for Mars? Or as a trick to lull Marco into thinking he has the upper hand?

After the excitement of the last episode, the Roci takes a bit of a break on the action in exchange for drama. Everyone seems to have an opinion on what Holden should have done about the missile, though Bobbie is the only one who doesnt know Holden disarmed it. Holden and Naomi have an argument that makes it clear its not just about the missile but their shared (albeit different) traumas.

While Bobbie is always a badass, Ive never identified with her more than when she swears in utter frustration after dropping a tool while fixing her armor. Dont give her IKEA furniture.

While I knew Caminas attempts to relieve Marco of his cache was going to be cool, I didnt expect it to involve a gun battle, an arm amputation (its a good thing they kept Michio around), and that speech calling Marco a coward and a thief. We only get the first part initially, but I loved that they saved the last line for when we could see Marcos reaction. Lived shamed, and die empty is how Im going to end all my emails from now on.

Even before Camina dropped that nuclear-level burn on him, Marcos authority in the Free Navy was slipping. Guoliang disapproves of his draconian methods with his officers and tells him off again. We finally learn her deal: she wants to be the leader of Medina Station and isnt above manipulating Marco to get it.

Filip has been banished to the maintenance crew. Still, he learns a valuable lesson about loyalty and family (and it was also funny to see Tadeo play a classic prank on Filip). He also learns that someone (Im guessing he assumes his mom) deactivated the missile, which confuses him. And unfortunately, while its clear Filip is starting to see the error of his fathers ways, Caminas speech empassions him back to his fathers ideals. Or does it? Filip is being pulled in so many directions I wouldnt be surprised if he snaps.

Its clear why the episode is called Redoubt, which is the term for a fall-back position in warfare, as thats likely what Marco will do in the final two episodes. The question is whether he does this on Medina Station or if he has another place in mind.

Lived shamed, and die empty, everyone!

T. S. Beier is obsessed with science fiction, the ruins of industry, and Fallout. She is the author of What Branches Grow, a post-apocalyptic novel (which was a Top 5 Finalist in the 2020 Kindle Book Awards) and the Burnt Ship Trilogy (space opera). She is a book reviewer, editor, freelance writer, and co-owner of Rising Action Publishing Co. She currently lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband, two feral children, a one-eyed pug, and a Shepherd-Mastiff.

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The Expanse Season 6, Episode 4: Recap and Review - Post Apocalyptic Media

Scientists have explained why humans living on other worlds is inevitable but potentially dangerous (Picture: Getty)

Experts have warned that humans could end up eating each other if crops fail when we finally set up colonies in space.

Two leading scientists looking at how we could leave Earth have told Metro.co.uk about the challenges and opportunities that the inevitable prospect offers our species.

Ruling out the possibility of mankind moving to many of the planets in our solar system mainly on the grounds that their surfaces are uninhabitable they earmarked Jupiters moon Callisto and Saturns counterpart Titan as possible destinations.

But first, they suggested we should try out tester colonies on Mars or our own Moon where it would still be possible to send supplies from Earth relatively easily if unexpected problems arise.

The pair listed food shortages, disease and an inability to become self-sufficient as major threats on any far-away colonies, because help from home would be years away.

Charles Cockell, a professor of astrobiology at Edinburgh University, said the possibility that our planet becomes uninhabitable because of the climate crisis was a catastrophically bad reason to make a colony.

Instead, he believes it is sensible to spread the species out as an insurance policy against extinction, joking that one problem with the dinosaurs was that they didnt have a space programme.

He told Metro.co.uk: The systems have to be really reliable and thats why they need to be tested before.

Thats based on historical situations Franklins crew tried to find the north-west passage on ships in the late 19th century they were the most sophisticated pieces of technology available at that time.

They had tinned food, which was the new technology and yet, they got lost, stranded and they ended up degenerating into cannibalism.

Professor Cockell continued: So even with the best technology, isolated human communities can degenerate very quickly.

If you put a group of people on Callisto, things start going wrong and the plant growth module breaks down, they are going to eat each other if there is no other way to survive.

Dr Cameron Smith agreed that food supplies are a key issue.

One of the first things that they would have to do is establish a really good farming system and put in a lot of stored food, he explained.

A now familiar problem disease is also high on the Portland State University anthropologists list of challenges for the first generation or two.

He argued for a large population broken up into self-sustaining settlements that could quarantine if necessary.

Dr Smith, who researches ideas that make it technologically possible to leave Earth, also proposes Mars and the Moon as stepping stones but has earmarked the asteroid belt and the dwarf planet Ceres as other reasonable destinations.

He suggested that the economies on such locations would have to be trade-based to start with, and would be unlikely to have anything like the sort of economic activity western populations are used to under capitalism.

The academic branded 3D printing a game changer but still thinks a farming-style, almost medieval community is most likely.

He said: When people first started farming, people settled into small villages of several hundred people.

Those settlements had (minimal) contact with other farming villages a lot like an early colony.

They grew everything they ate, they made everything that they wore, everything was a self-sustained, local system.

They didnt have kings, they didnt have armies.

It is not a utopia, but somehow they managed for several thousand years. Presumably we can work something out like that as well.

Yet he was less certain that humans would eat each other if it all went wrong suggesting that historical examples show that our species can react positively or negatively to challenging conditions.

He cited the example of a Uruguyuan football team who worked together constructively after being stranded without food after a plane crash. The survivors did turn to cannibalism, but only among those who had already died.

Dr Smith added that any breakdown of order could be avoided by establishing pre-agreed rules to follow in the event of certain situations occurring.

Yet he was less optimistic about how quickly humans might be able to live in space than Professor Cockell.

The latter thinks it is inevitable at some stage and possible on Mars in just 30 40 years before being doable another 100 years after that on Callisto.

His American counterpart agreed that the timeline is hard to predict, but believes any attempt is only likely by the end of the century adding that it would take 60 years or so for a colony to become fully self-sustaining.

However, Professor Cockell believes the technology for us to live in space is already there.

He explains that developing a reliable oxygen supply is not that hard, and food and water solutions are well developed but those things must be tested for 10 to 20 years before being put into action.

The astrobiologist added: If you are going to dump 20 people several hundred million kms away from the Earth in an instantaneously lethal environment on a moon, you better be sure that is going to work because if it doesnt it is going to fall apart quite quickly.

But, he said mankind should embrace the worthwhile challenge of setting up a space colony which Dr Smith agreed should be justified as vital for human survival.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us atwebnews@metro.co.uk.

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Humans would probably start eating each other in space - Metro.co.uk

One hundred years from now, humans will be colonizing space. Since there will probably not be anything faster than light travel, colonization will be limited to the solar system, especially to near-Earth locations like Mars, the moon, asteroids, or stationary or orbiting stations.

Such colonies and stations will be a mixture of private, government, and public/private enterprises focused on mining, zero-gravity spacecraft and satellite production, research, and vacation resorts.

Payments made off-world will be grounded in the methods for payments systems on Earth in 2121.

Earth, one hundred years from now, will have a mixture of public and private currencies.

Nations will have their own sovereign digital currencies. These will be central bank digital currencies, national stablecoins, or a hybrid of the two models.

By 2035, some emerging countries will be issuing central bank stablecoins. These will be tokens that are a claim on the central bank (and thus the countrys taxing power) but have the added backing of a basket of US and/or Euro bonds with perhaps some gold or sovereign debt added in.

By 2070, the newly formed African Currency Union will introduce its own stablecoin based upon a collection of currency and sovereign debt of its members.

On the private side, there will be one or two global stablecoins that operate on their own networks and are built for speed in remittances and trade settlements.

They will fill a gap left by the multiple CBDCs. Some individuals and businesses will not want to incur the cost and time required to convert between multiple CBDCs when making long-distance payments. Instead, they will opt for ultra-fast stablecoins.

There will also be a myriad of proprietary currencies, built perhaps on a stablecoin model and issued by manufacturers, service providers, fintech, and, especially, those firms involved in the off-world economy.

These coins will be designed to attract and hold customers in enclosed lifestyle and payment systems, maximizing profits in the process.

For example, you will not only have Apple implants and wearables, but you will live in a world created by Apple, both physical and virtual. In these worlds, only Apple Bytes (its proprietary coin) are accepted. The same would apply in its off-world locations.

Off-world colonies built and run by particular countries will use the payment system based on the one used in that country on Earth.

So, a Mars colony built and run by Russia will use the Ruble CBDC. These public colonies will also have stores and shops either run by the founding state or by private enterprise.

While government stores will require payment in the official, off-world currency, private stores will accept their proprietary currency (like Apple Bytes at the Mars Genius Bar) or the official currency.

In any case, taxes will need to be paid in this official, off-world currency. This is because, even in space, there is no escape from the taxman.

Colonies established by private firms will use their proprietary currencies. For example, at Moon Base Disney, the currency of choice will be Digital Disney Dollars.

However, such a private colony may accept some sovereign digital currencies and perhaps one of the global stablecoins, which will be well suited to off-world use.

It will be safe to say that in any off-world location, there will be a mixture of currencies in circulation. Some colonies or space stations may allow for multiple forms of payment.

In this case, your AI payment wallet will automatically provide a mixture of your digital currencies for payment. However, some off-world areas may require payments in one specific currency.

In this case, your wallet will have to do a conversion (probably at a cost), or you will have to communicate with a currency broker to convert your leftover Digital Disney Dollars from your visit to Moon Base Disney into CBDC Rubles when you arrive at the Russian colony on Mars, during your extended space cruise vacation.

In any case, you will not be hauling around a smartphone anymore. In 2121, this will be ancient history, like the candlestick telephone.

Your communication and payment system used on Earth or off-world will be some sort of wearable device, either on your clothes or on your body, or you may opt for an implant.

You will always be connected to a network. Your connection plan will no longer be about how much data you want to move but about how much privacy you want. The less privacy you require, the less you will pay to receive services over the network.

The minimum plan, which will be the most expensive, will present you on the network as a human in an undisclosed location, providing you with a minimum of services: basic payments, emergency services, etc.

A full-service plan, which may be free, will give you every service available, but your whole identity is shared with the network along with your location and payment history.

The world or the solar system will be at your fingertips. That is unless something goes wrong and the network goes down.

On Earth, it will no longer be necessary to worry about being caught offline. Redundant power and network systems with the addition of numerous satellites have made it almost impossible to find a place on Earth that is not connected to a network all the time.

No doubt, retreats will pop up in corners of the world where the network does not reach, offering visitors the chance to experience being offline in luxurious surroundings.

Since the network is almost everywhere on Earth, there is no need for physical payment devices. For the Earth-bound, banknotes and credit cards exist only in museums.

In space, this will be a different matter. The payment and network infrastructure in the off-world colonies will be more fragile.

Solar storms, dust, and other phenomena can knock out the network regularly. Perhaps, you are in transit, and your ships ability to communicate with an interplanetary or intercolonial network is limited. Maybe, you are in a colony or station under construction with no or a limited network.

Alternatively, lets say you are living in or visiting an off-world location that is purposefully off the grid for the sake of concealment or just plain freedom.

In such offline (or potentially offline) environments, you will need a physical hybrid device to make payments. It would have to be light and durable and be able to function online or offline.

This will be a smart coin. A physical coin that has a clearly denominated value and that can pass hand to hand offline like coins do today.

However, when in a networked environment, it will be able to transfer its value over the network. You will be able to tell if the coin has a value at sight as it will glow if it has value. Something like this can be seen on the series, The Mandalorian, in the form of Calamari Flan.

Empty coins would be recharged privately or turned in to a broker for a small profit per coin. Also, why coins? Coins do not have any corners that could potentially damage a spacesuit.

The issuers of these smart coins will be mostly governments and private companies. The coins will represent whatever public or private currency the entity deals in, be they CBDC Rubles or Digital Disney Dollars. They will be sent to colonies and space stations under construction and be given to those doing business with poorly networked off-world locations.

Once construction of a public and private colony is complete and the network up and running, the smart coins will enter the informal economy. They will be bought and sold by brokers who deal with the black market or those who just want to operate off the grid. So, in the back corners of an off-world colony, you will always be able to find some smart coins circulating.

Of course, there may be other forms of physical payment in the informal economy. An off-world colony may have a cash shortage, especially if the network goes down a lot or is non-existent, removing the ability to use digital monies. In such cases, people may turn to commodities or obsolete currencies.

Again, if we look at the world depicted in The Mandalorian, there is a commodity, beskar steel ingots, and an obsolete currency, Imperial Credits. In Earths off-world locations, the commodity may be a material useful in manufacture (copper), a food source (calorie tablets), an item of entertainment (mood supplements), or something completely different. And, the obsolete currency might be something no longer useful on Earth-like banknotes.

There have always been money brokers. In the digital world, prices of the different currencies will be set in the virtual marketplace and communicated to your personal payment platformyour wearable or implant.

Your AI wallet makes all the calculations and conversions for you. However, there may be times off-world when you have to deal with physical currencies as described above.

Then, you will either have to be your own broker or find someone in a back alley who can change your money.

The value of most currencies will be tied to their issuers, be that a government or a private company. This valuation will follow the same rules that have existed since time immemorial: financial strength, profitability, tax base, etc.

You or your AI wallet will have to choose carefully.

Here, I have given you a small picture of the galaxy of payments that will occur in the off-world colonies 100 years from now.

However, these are just human-to-human transactions. Nothing has been said of machine-to-machine transactions or machine-to-human transactions. This last arrangement may well prove the most vital. After all, how are you going to pay for your android?

(Editors note: This article and the corresponding NFT (NFT#188) were produced as a part of BeInCryptos Star Edition NFT Series. This exciting NFT series consists of nine pieces of digital art by Exquisite Workers, all of which will be auctioned off alongside letters written by industry professionals sharing their thoughts on the future of NFTs. More on that below.)

To celebrate its third year as a globally trusted blockchain and cryptocurrency news platform, BeInCrypto is launching a non-fungible token (NFT) charity auction in collaboration with Exquisite Workers. All proceeds generated from the auction will go to the Open Earth Foundation, a non-profit on a mission to leverage the latest trends in digital technology to help increase planetary resilience.

The Star Edition NFT Series includes nine pieces of digital art by Exquisite Workers. Each of these NFTs will be auctioned off alongside letters written by industry professionals sharting their thoughts on the future of NFTs.

Pawnbroker by David Dur is the NFT#188 in the series.

With a sense of excellence, Exquisite Workers leading artist David Dur evokes in the viewer curiosity adorning this letter to the future by Dr. Franklin Noll, which is an unlockable content for the extraordinary 1/1 charity token.

The holographic projections of female characters, more cyborgs than real women, transport us into a reality that is not so far from ours, made of neon dreams. David Dur, AKA David Motion evokes in the viewer curiosity and seduces by sensual gazes of his beautiful protagonists hidden by the deep shadows.

Motion designer and computer graphics artist, David is based in The Netherlands. He fell in love with animation while studying design in the city of Barcelona. Animation allowed him to explore new worlds and techniques, focusing on light, color, and composition. David creates a unique poetic language and situates his stunning work halfway between the cyberworld and a human one.

Read the rest here:

Payments in the Off-World Colonies, 2121 - BeInCrypto - BeInCrypto

THE prophecies of a blind woman from Bulgaria have been used by conspiracy theorists as proof she was able to predict the future.

Baba Vanga's claims have been linked to events such as the September 11 attacks and the Syrian chemical attacks. Here is all you need to know.

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Baba Vanga, born Vangelia Pandeva Dimitrova, was raised in Strumica, a village located at the foot of a volcanic mountain range in what was then the Ottoman Empire.

She passed away in 1996, aged 85, and was dubbed the Nostradamus from the Balkans."

Baba led an ordinary life up until the age of 12, when she mysteriously lost her eyesight during a massive storm described as a freak tornado.

The youngster is said to have been flung into the air and then thrown to the ground by a powerful gust of wind.

Her family reportedly found her close to death several days later while her eyes were injured and sealed shut, encrusted with a thick layer of dust and dirt.

Vanga later said that she had experienced her first vision during the days she was missing and believed she had been instilled with the ability to heal people and predict the future.

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Baba Vanga's predictions, including those listed below, were said to have an 85 percent success rate.

The Mirror reported Vanga's predictions for the year ahead.

As 2021 contained a multitude of major events such as the second year of the coronavirus pandemic, the US insurrection, and more - it appears 2022 will bring much more drama according to Baba Vanga.

The following are her predictions for the coming year according to the Mirror:

Although Vanga passed away 25 years ago many people still believe her predictions have some truth to them.

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Who is Baba Vanga and what are her predictions for 2022?... - The Irish Sun