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In an attempt to make human beings a multi-planetary species, space agencies like NASA have long been trying to create a permanent colony on Mars. However, the journey to Mars will not be very easy, as astronauts will face several challenges that include space radiation and the supply of food. In an attempt to overcome the challenges associated with food supply, NASA in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency and the Privy Council Office (PCO) has launched the Deep Space Food Challenge.

NASA offers prize money of$500,000

Under the Deep Space Food Challenge program, scientific foodies have the opportunity to win prize money of$500,000, if they find a way to feed astronauts more efficiently in deep space.

Representative imagePixabay Images (Collage using Photoscape X)

According to the Deep Space Food Challenge website, scientific foodies from all over the world can provide their ideas or systems that ''require minimal inputs and maximize safe, nutritious, and palatable food outputs for long-duration space missions, and which have potential to benefit people on Earth."

With this program, the space agency is trying to find an effective way to provide nutritious food in the challenging space environment. The new technique should produce less waste, and it should not increase the weight of the spacecraft.

Food scientists have the opportunity to register until May 28, 2021. After analyzing the inputs provided by the participants,NASAwill award $25,000 to up to 20 teams.

Advancement in technology could catalyze future space missions

"NASA has knowledge and capabilities in this area, but we know that technologies and ideas exist outside of the agency.Raising awareness will help us reach people in a variety of disciplines that may hold the key to developing these new technologies,"Grace Douglas, NASA lead scientist for advanced food technology at Johnson Space Center told UPI.

NASA is currently gearing up with the Artemis missionaimed at landing humans on the moon to set up a colony on the lunar surface. According to space experts, setting up a human colony on the moon is very vital to achieve the ultimate aim of human colonization on Mars.

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Attention foodies: $500,000 on offer if you find a way to feed astronauts [details] - IBTimes India

For most of its two decades of existence, Blue Origin was like Willy Wonkas chocolate factory in the childrens book by Roald Dahl.

It was a rocket company founded by Jeffrey P. Bezos, the billionaire who had created Amazon. That much was known. What the company was actually doing was shrouded in mystery.

But everyone wanted to get in, laughed Carissa Christensen, founder and chief executive of Bryce Space and Technology, an aerospace consulting firm.

Mr. Bezos announced on Tuesday that he would be stepping down as chief executive of Amazon this summer and becoming executive chairman. In his letter to Amazon employees, he said he wanted to put time and energy into other passions and listed Blue Origin among them.

The coming years for Blue Origin promise to be busy flying tourists on short suborbital jaunts, launching satellites on a new rocket, developing a lunar lander for NASA.

Does that mean Mr. Bezos will take a bigger day-to-day role at his rocket company?

If Jeff chose to spend more time at Blue Origin during the next phase of his career, that would be a very good thing for Blue, said Rob Meyerson, who was president of Blue Origin from 2003 to 2017. He brings great intelligence, great operational expertise and great mission passion to the business.

Mr. Meyerson noted that Mr. Bezos other ventures include the Bezos Earth Fund, which last year gave a $100 million grant to the Environmental Defense Fund to build and operate a methane-detecting satellite. Amazon, where Mr. Bezos will continue to be involved, is developing Project Kuiper, a constellation of satellites to beam internet service to Earth.

Its clear that space will be a prominent theme, Mr. Meyerson said.

Mr. Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 two years before Elon Musk started the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX.

But while Mr. Musk and SpaceX have already built a thriving business launching satellites and NASA astronauts to orbit and developing a huge rocket named Starship that is intended to take people to Mars someday Blue Origin seems to lag.

In its early days, the company only occasionally offered drips of news. Reporters would call Blue Origins public relations firm to obtain a perfunctory declined to comment from the company.

In November 2006, a gumdrop-shaped test craft successfully rose a modest 285 feet into the air and then returned gently back to the ground at a test site in West Texas. Mr. Bezos reported the success in a blog post on the Blue Origin website one and a half months later.

There were no other updates for four and a half years until Mr. Bezos acknowledged that a test vehicle had crashed, but only after The Wall Street Journal had reported the failure.

Over the years, Blue Origin became less secretive. Five years ago, Mr. Bezos welcomed a group of reporters for a tour of the companys headquarters in Kent, Wash., a few miles south of Seattle. During lunch, he happily answered questions. Its my total pleasure, he said then. I hope you can sense that I like this.

Since then, Blue Origin has grown quickly. It has a NASA contract for developing a lander that might take astronauts to the surface of the moon in a few years. It sells rocket engines to another rocket company, United Launch Alliance. It charges customers to fly science experiments on New Shepard, a suborbital spacecraft.

But those are so far modest in scope. Blue Origin has yet to start sales for New Shepards primary business taking tourists on short rides to the edge of space or even had people aboard on any of the test flights so far.

New Glenn, a larger rocket that would compete with SpaceXs Falcon 9 workhorse, will not take off on its maiden flight until at least later this year.

They have grand plans, but they have yet to actually launch any humans aboard any of their craft, said Laura Seward Forczyk, owner of Astralytical, a space consulting firm.

Mr. Musk and Mr. Bezos have periodically sparred about their rockets and whether humans should aim for Mars Mr. Musks ultimate destination or build free-floating colonies as Mr. Bezos envisions.

In an interview with Maureen Dowd last year, Mr. Musk offered faint praise for Mr. Bezos and Blue Origin: The rate of progress is too slow and the amount of years he has left is not enough, but Im still glad hes doing what hes doing with Blue Origin.

That does not necessarily mean Blue Origin is far behind.

During his tour with reporters in 2016, Mr. Bezos pointed to an image in the headquarters central area. It showed two tortoises holding an hourglass and gazing upward toward the cosmos. Below was Blue Origins motto: Gradatim ferociter, which is Latin for step by step, ferociously.

Blue Origin may hope to turn out to be the tortoise of the fable where slow and steady eventually wins over the speedy hare. Mr. Bezos wealth he has been selling billions of dollars in Amazon stock to help finance Blue Origin has allowed Blue Origin to follow a methodical, long-term plan without needing to generate much revenue in the short term.

Mr. Bezos has spoken in more detail about a future where millions of people live and work in space. The aim of Blue Origin, he said, is to help people get there.

We are going to build a road to space, Mr. Bezos said during a presentation in 2019 when he unveiled a design for a lunar lander. And then amazing things will happen.

Blue Origin now has a rocket engine factory in Huntsville, Ala., and huge facilities just outside NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida for assembling the New Glenn rockets.

In 2016, Mr. Bezos said he spent one day a week at Blue Origin. Although he majored in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton as an undergraduate, Mr. Bezos let his engineers talk about the technical aspects of the Blue Origin spacecraft to reporters.

By contrast, Mr. Musk, with the title of chief engineer, is deeply involved with engineering details at SpaceX, although Gwynne Shotwell, the president and chief operating officer, handles much of the companys day-to-day details.

Thus, as Blue Origin shifts from research and development to a pursuit of revenue and profits, now may be an ideal time to bring in someone with the business successes of Amazon.

He is a business person who knows how to make money, Ms. Christensen said. Maybe this is the moment in time where its just too enticing for him to stay away.

She added: Amazon was like no other company before it. If Jeff Bezos is truly going to devote more time to Blue, I wonder if it is going to become like no other launch company before it.

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Jeff Bezos Renews Focus on Blue Origin, Which Has Been Slower to Launch - The New York Times

After the highly-anticipated return of man to the moon, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as well as private space company SpaceX headed by Elon Musk, is planning to finally step on Martian soil for the first time and maybe even create a colony that could thrive in the Red Planet--but how will they do that?

(Photo : Pexels)A trip to Mars might become faster with the new concept fusion rocket thrusters.

Although space travel is rather common, what with astronauts going to and fro the International Space Station (ISS), a trip to Mars would take a long time, given our current technology.

In a previous report byTech Times, studies have found that prolonged space flight can be dangerous for humans, so a trip to Mars could even be deadly, and that is one of the problems scientists are trying to solve before any human could step to Mars.

However, a new invention by a scientist may solve the problem.

Read More: Elon Musk Shares Photos of SN9, SN10 Starships But Not Launching, Calls FAA Regulations 'Broken'

In a report bySky News, Dr. Fatima Ebrahimi, a physicist with the US Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has designed a fusion rocket thruster that could make space travel faster than it currently is.

According to the report, the rocket will be using magnetic fields that will shoot plasma particles, which are electrically charged gas, to go further into the vacuum of space.

The speed of the said rocket would be ten times faster than any comparable devices we have now.

There are currently plasma propulsion engines that have been used in space missions, but they use electric fields to propel the particles, but the rocket designed by Dr. Ebrahimi would be using magnetic reconnection.

The process is actually rather common in our universe, but it's mostly observed on the surface of the sun, whenever magnetic fields converge in the surface of our host star before separating and reconnecting yet again, they produce a massive amount of energy.

The same concept would be found in the physicist's design.

Similar energy would be created by within the rocket's torus-shaped machines, which are called tokamaks, a magnetic confinement device.

According to the scientist behind the concept design, the tokamak produces plasmoids, or magnetic bubbles, during its operation.

The plasmoids move at around 20 kilometers per second, which the physicist believe is a lot of thrust.

"I've been cooking this concept for a while," Dr. Ebrahimi said. "I had the idea in 2017 while sitting on a deck and thinking about the similarities between a car's exhaust and the high-velocity exhaust particles created by PPPL's National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX)."

In computer simulations, Dr. Ebrahimi's rocket thrusters outperformed existing plasma thrusters we currently have as it's able to generate an exhaust with velocities of hundreds of kilometers per second.

With that, a trip to Mars would be achievable, but more than Mars, we might soon reach more distant planets within our solar system.

This may also partially solve the problems with prolonged space travel since astronauts will be in the vacuum of space for a shorter time, but as of now, the design is still a concept, although the scientist is planning to create the prototype.

Related Article: NASA Develops Mars Rover Landing Simulatior for Mobiles and Desktops

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Written by: Nhx Tingson

2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

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Newly Invented Fusion Rocket Thruster Concept Might be Our Ticket to Mars and Beyond! - Tech Times

Moreover, Russias space program required increased funding that China could provide in exchange for the Russian expertise it craved. The pair even announced they were considering building a lunar research base together. Nevertheless, it is clear this new friendship will create a destabilizing counter-system in space.

To be fair, there is good reason for the United States to pursue the Artemis Accords without Russia and China. Chinas official policy is to become the preeminent space power by 2045. This means a nuclear-powered space fleet, space transport for humans, and mining colonies on the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. President Xi Jinping described the Chinese space program as part of the dream to make China stronger. Furthermore, for nearly a decade the annual Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bills included the Wolf Amendment, which has prohibited NASA from cooperating with China to prevent technology theft.

Russia also represents a serious threat in space and the need for a counter-coalition. In November 2019, Russia launched a single satellite that subsequently and unexpectedly birthed a twin. In January 2020, the pair floated near KH-11, a multi-billion-dollar U.S. military reconnaissance satellite. After the United States complained, Moscow moved the satellites away from KH-11.

However, on July 15, 2020, the birthed satellite launched a missile into outer space. Russia claimed the satellites were non-military, but these Nesting Doll satellites demonstrate the dual nature of space technology: that Russia and China can readily turn allegedly benign infrastructure into military weapons to threaten the United States. Thus, although the Artemis Accords govern commercial space activities, assembling a like-minded coalition ready to challenge American foes seems prudent.

The Sino-Russo partnership not only undermines national security, but also risks the very aim of the Artemis Accords: the expansion of space commerce. A competing alliance in space will prevent the Artemis Accords from developing into customary international law that would increase stability.

For example, under the Artemis Accords, nations agree to increase transparency and employ safety zones for activities like lunar mining. As nations and corporations compete over the best locations on the moon to extract lunar ice to create rocket fuel, it is important that a single system govern who may operate where. Otherwise, potential conflicts lack peaceful means of resolution.

The incoming Biden Administration will have to decide how to proceed under the Artemis Accords. As political commitments, they could readily be abandoned. However, this would be unwise. After four years of the Trump Administration undermining alliances and sowing international distrust of the United States, withdrawal would only continue this course. Additionally, so long as Russia and China continue to challenge the United States in space, smart policy necessitates a NATO-like alliance to check and confront them. Accordingly, the Artemis Accords are not so unlike the Obama Administrations goal to surround China economically via the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The Artemis Accords represent a rare opportunity for diplomacy with two of Americas archrivals. True, tensions with Russia and China remain high and little diplomatic progress has been achieved recently. But progress must start from somewhere. Ultimately, Russia, China, and the United States all want to commercialize space. A single legal system will decrease uncertainty and benefit all three nations. Moreover, American technology and investment outstrips both rivals combined. The United States may currently engage from a position of strength.

Fortunately, the United States and Russia have a long history of working together in outer space. The fact that the Outer Space Treaty was negotiated and ratified at the height of the Cold War demonstrates that diplomacy is possible and can even strengthen national security. More recently, the United States and Russia worked together on the International Space Station (ISS). The trust gained from the ISS is, perhaps, a path forward. In fact, Rogozin recently explained, The most important thing would be to base [lunar exploration] on the principles of international cooperation that were used in order to fly the ISS program. If we could get back to considering making these principles as the foundation of the program then Roscomos would also consider its participation.

Clearly, the door is not shut. At minimum, the United States should use this opening to drive a wedge between a blossoming Sino-Russo space relationship. Diplomacy may fail. But not trying accomplishes nothing. The Biden Administration should engage both Russia and China in space diplomacy while continuing to assemble a strong and durable Artemis Accords coalition that is prepared to counter Americas outer space adversaries should diplomacy fail or the need arise.

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Opinion | Why Biden must pursue space diplomacy with Russia and China - Politico

If youve ever had the feeling that youd like to step off the planet and live somewhere far, far away as in some distant world a top scientist is suggesting that it could become reality for humans, in as little as 15 years.

According to a report in The Sun, that vision was published in a research paper earlier this month by Dr. Janhunen, an astrophysicist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki.

Dr. Janhunens blueprint moved in a different direction from the vast majority of conceptions regarding space settlement, the report said.

Unlike most plots for distant world settlement, which choose the Moon or Mars, due to their closer proximity to Earth, the report noted that Dr. Janhunen laid out the blueprint for floating mega-satellites around the dwarf planet Ceres, which is about 325 million miles from Earth.

The Sun reported that Dr. Janhunen laid out a plan which includes a disk-shaped habitat boasting thousands of cylindrical structures, each home to more than 50,000 people, linked by powerful magnets, and generating artificial gravity by slowly rotating.

Dr. Janhunen said in his paper that, Residents would mine resources from Ceres 600 miles below the settlement and haul them back up using space elevators, the report cited.

Lifting the materials from Ceres is energetically cheap compared to processing them into habitats, if a space elevator is used, he wrote.

Dr. Janhunen added, Because Ceres has low gravity and rotates relatively fast, the space elevator is feasible.

Why Ceres and not Mars?

Dr. Janhunen added, Ceres the largest object in the asteroid belt is the best destination for off-world settlements due to its Nitrogen-rich atmosphere, which would allow settlers to more easily create Earth-like conditions, compared to Mars carbon dioxide-rich environment.

What about the threats of rogue asteroids or space radiation?

The report noted, that to address outside threats, Dr. Janhunen, who worked with a number of Finnish researchers on the paper, proposed that giant, cylindrical mirrors placed around the mega-satellite could protect it from bombardment of all kinds.

The mirrors would play a dual role - in addition to protection, they would focus sunlight onto the habitat for the growth of crops and other plantlife, the report said.

There are a number of issues with the plans.

In his paper, Janhunen also highlighted a number of issues with the plans.

For starters, theres the not-so-small hurdle of actually flying people to Ceres, the report noted.

The Sun stated that a probe sent to Ceres in 2015, by NASA, took a staggering eight years to get there - far too long to sustain hundreds of people using current technology.

Also, Dr. Janhunen admitted that the energy required to lift building materials from Ceres to orbit would represent a major obstacle, the report revealed.

Dr. Janhunens research, which was published Jan. 6 in the pre-print journal Arxiv, has not yet been peer-reviewed by scientists, the The Sun reported.

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Humans could move to a floating asteroid belt colony within 15 years, top scientist suggests - pennlive.com

Over the years, Elon Musk has been rather open about how he (and the company he founded) plan to make space more accessible and allow humanity to become an interplanetary species. A key element to this plan is the Starship and Super-Heavy launch system, which will allow for regular trips to the Moon as well as the eventual creation of the first human colony on Mars.

Another key part of Musks plan is the creation of spaceports at sea that will allow for greater flexibility with launches and landings. To that end, SpaceX recently acquired two former oil drilling rigs off the coast of Texas. These spaceports have been dubbed Phobos and Deimos (after Mars two satellites) and are currently undergoing modifications to conduct Starship launches in the near future.

For years, Elon Musk has been up front about his plans to use floating spaceports for future Starship launches. But the first hints that they were close to realizing this goal came last summer when SpaceX indicated on their website that it was looking for experienced offshore crane operators, electricians, and engineers. The postings also indicated that the jobs were related to the development of the Starship.

More importantly, the posting specified that the positions were located in Brownsville, Texas, the closest town to SpaceXs Boca Chica Launch Facility. News of this was shared via Twitter back in June by Gavin Cornwell (@SpaceXFleet), who originally learned of it from photographer Dan Paasch (who regularly makes takes aerial photographs of Boca Chica to show the Starships progress).

Musk confirmed this from his own account shortly thereafter, saying that: SpaceX is building floating, superheavy-class spaceports for Mars, moon & hypersonic travel around Earth, later adding, We need to be far enough away so as not to bother heavily populated areas. The launch & landing are not subtle. But you could get within a few miles of the spaceport in a boat.

Two days later (Jan. 18th), aerospace and launch photographer Jack Beyer (@thejackbeyer) announced that while exploring around the port of Brownsville, he had picked up on some scuttlebutt regarding the platforms. According to what he heard, the platforms would be named Phobos and Deimos the twin children of Ares, the god of war (Mars in the Roman pantheon) and the names of Mars two moons.

This was confirmed a day later by NASA Spaceflights own Michael Baylor (@nextspaceflight), who indicated that the nearly-identical rigs formerly known as Valaris ENSCO 8500 and ENSCO 8501 would fittingly be named after Mars twins. Whereas SpaceX has been recovering spent first stages at sea for years with their drone ships, these platforms will allow the company to conduct launches at sea for the first time.

And SpaceX is hardly alone in seeking offshore launch facilities. China has also been working on its own floating spaceport, which is located off the coast of Haiyang city in the eastern province of Shandong. Once it is fully operational, the Eastern Aerospace Port (as theyve named it), will be Chinas fourth spaceport and the only one that is not located inland.

Spaceports at sea offer a number of advantages over inland launch facilities. For starters, launches for inland facilities often result in spent stages falling back to Earth, which can pose significant damage to populated areas and result in hazardous chemicals and unspent propellant leaking into the ground. As such, inland facilities require extensive safety procedures and cleanup operations.

While SpaceX circumvents much of this danger by launching from Boca Chica and Cape Canaveral, SpaceX hopes to conduct regular launches with the Starship and Super Heavy. On top of that, this launch system poses a significant noise problem. Once complete, each Super Heavy will have no less than 28 Raptor engines, thought Musk has hinted that initial flights will have less (Musk has estimated that it might be around 20).

With regular launches taking place, this will mean that the blast areas around the launch pads will need to be wide, and noise concerns will also need to be taken into account. Similarly, Musks long-term plan for making regular trips to Mars call for orbital refueling, where a tanker version of the Starship modified to carry propellant will meet with and refuel a passenger/payload version of the Starship after they have reach orbit.

Musk has also hinted in the past that SpaceX could be conducting intercontinental flights with the Starship someday. According to an animation released by the company in 2017 (see below), this would involve having spaceports off the coast of major cities that would be serviced by passenger boats. Clearly, launches and landing at sea has been a part of Musk long-term vision for SpaceX for awhile.

Further Reading: NASA SpaceFlight

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Starships Will be Launching From These Oil Drilling Platforms Bought by SpaceX - Universe Today

In a series of tweets, Mr Musk revealed plans to colonise the Red Planet by building a one-million-strong city by 2050. He said he hoped to produce 1,000 of SpaceX's Starship spacecrafts over 10 years and launch three a day. The rockets would blast off from Earth, each carrying roughly 100 tonnes of equipment, as well as 100 people in the hope of building a permanent settlement on Mars.

And author Joseph Pisenti revealed on his YouTube channel RealLifeLore how Mr Musk plans to do it.

He said: The key component for this migration of people to happen revolves around SpaceXs latest rocket ship known as Starship.

It is a fully-reusable heavy-lift vehicle that has been under development since 2018.

Still in the prototype stage today, the rocket consists of two stages the Super Heavy Booster for the first and the Starship for the second.

The rocket will be fully reusable. As soon as it takes off and is boosted into space, the first stage will descend back to Earth and land much like Falcon 9.

But once launched from Earth, Starship will need to be refuelled before beginning its journey to Mars."

Mr Pisenti went on to outline some of the issues that could arise.

He added: Although it is a massively powerful rocket, it will still take the majority of its fuel just to break free from Earths gravity.

For every rocket heading to Mars, a subsequent rocket will need to be launched to fuel each ship.

READ MORE:Elon Musks Terminator warning over 'concerning' AI technology tested in USAF spy plane

But the complications dont stop there. Travelling home wouldnt be possible at all, because all the fuel would have been expended during the journey.

This is why the first settlers will have to set up a fuel production facility straight away.

Otherwise, good luck ever coming home or making use of the rockets again.

But Mr Pisenti outlined how the new settlers could play a vital part in boosting the project's potential.

He continued: The fuel that will most-likely power Starship on its journey to Mars is something known as Deep Cryo Methalox its essentially methane and liquid oxygen.

The trouble, however, will be producing these on Mars and finding an efficient way to do so.

A likely solution is using the ice melt found on Mars for water as well as a large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Together, along with a complex chemical conversion process, the propellant can be produced. But it will take an enormous amount of energy to do so.

To fill the 1,200-tonne fuel tank of Starship it is expected that roughly 16 gigawatts hours of locally Martian produced power will be required.

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Elon Musk's plan to send one million people to Mars boosted with colonisation 'solution' - Daily Express

Lifestyle

25 Jan, 2021 05:42 AM3 minutes to read

Dwarf planet Ceres is located in the main asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, as illustrated in this artist's conception. Photo / Nasa

An astrophysicist has claimed that humans could be living in a mega-colony in space in as little as 15 years' time.

The stunning timeframe has been suggested by Dr Pekka Janhunen, an astrophysicist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, in Helsinki.

In a research paper published this month, Dr Janhunen says humans could be living on floating orbs in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter within the next 15 years.

According to the scientist, humans will be able to settle on floating "mega-satellites" around the dwarf planet Ceres, about 325 million miles from Earth (which some may not see as far enough away).

"The motivation is to have a settlement with artificial gravity that allows growth beyond Earth's living area," Dr Janhunen wrote in his research paper, in which he lays out the blueprint for these "mega-satellites".

While most previous theories about human settlements in space pointed towards Mars or the moon - mostly due to distance from Earth - Dr Janhunen's theory is different, in which it would see humans settling a lot further out.

The astrophysicist proposes disk-shaped settlements, with thousands of cylindrical structures, able to house 50,000 people.

The floating mega-satellites would be linked by powerful magnets and, according to the scientist, would be able to generate gravity with their own slow rotation.

He also says those inhabitants would potentially be able to mine resources from the dwarf planet Ceres and use "space elevators" to carry them back to their "pods".

"Lifting the materials from Ceres is energetically cheap compared to processing them into habitats, if a space elevator is used," he wrote in his paper.

"Because Ceres has low gravity and rotates relatively fast, the space elevator is feasible."

He believes the area is the best location for a human settlement, due to its nitrogen-rich atmosphere.

In his research paper, published earlier this month and yet to be peer-reviewed, Dr Janhunen looks into the obstacles to his theory, including the time it takes to travel to Ceres - a Nasa probe sent in 2015 took eight years to get there - and the energy needed to lift building materials from the dwarf planet.

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Humans could be living in a 'floating asteroid belt colony' in 15 years' time, scientist says - New Zealand Herald

In the Mass Effect universe, humanity has come together, at last, united in the endeavor to explore the stars and create a civilization in all of known space. This is the Systems Alliance andit features everything from diplomats and ship engineers toa mighty (space) navy. Fans will remember that people considered Commander Shepard an Alliance hero even before becoming a Spectre.

RELATED:Mass Effect: Everything You Didnt Know About The Geth

The Alliance is not alone, however. Humanity is taking its first steps onto a vast and complex galactic landscape complete with centuries-old political alliances, interstellar nations, and more than a few rogue pirates and bloodthirsty mercenaries. How will the united humanity rise to the challenge? And what key features or events define the Systems Alliance as a whole?

Humanity has made a strong impression on the other alien races with some impressions being more flattering than others. The Batarians hate humanity and the Turian people are a bit cold toward them. But the Salarian people are eager to form strong ties with the Alliance. Why is that?

Like humanity, the Salarians have a can-do attitude.Due to theirdriven by scientific curiosity and a strong eye for detail, they see potential in just about everything. Ideologically, the Alliance and Salarians have a decent amount in common. So, the Alliance earned itself an ally in the Salarians.

Unfortunately, inequality and extreme wealth disparities are still a fact of life in the 2100s. Overall, the Systems Alliance has made huge gains in medical and military technology, as well as science and engineering overall. But some parts of Earth's citizens reaped the benefits more than others.

At its best, the Alliance is a true sci-fi wonderland complete with sparkling steel cities, high-tech spaceships, and robots. But poorer parts of the Earth still exist in the early 21st century, lagging far behind the apex of the Alliance. For some of Earth's citizens, outer space is still very far away.

Even in the 2180s, the Systems Alliance is quite aware of the achievements of the 1900s and 2000s. They named many cities and space stations after major figuresduring humanity's efforts to colonize outer space. For example, the moon's capital city is Armstrong and it's easy to guess where that name came from.

RELATED: Mass Effect: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Javik

Similarly, the outer Solar System is home to Gagarin Station named after Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut who became the first human being to reach outer space. Mars, meanwhile, is home to Lowell City and named after Percival Lowell.He once thought that Mars was home to irrigation canals and fields of crops that came and went with the seasons. It turned out that he was actually observing dust storms.

The Systems Alliance innovated many wondrous things in its time, but humanity needed outside help for some projects. For example, the Alliance was baffled when people started using biotic powers-- the telekinetic powers exhibited by characters like Miranda and Jack. It took time for humans to even realize that element zero (eezo) plays a role at all.

So, the Alliance reached out to the aliens, mainly the Turians, to figure out how to train biotics (for public image reasons, the Alliance didn't ask the Asari people). Even now, humanity lags behind the other races when it comes to understanding and using biotic power.

Mars has always captured humanity's imagination, such as picturing terrifying three-legged war machines invading Earth or just little green men. In reality, the ancient Protheans had observed humanity from that world, and the remains of their Mars colonies unlocked the secrets of FTL travel for humanity.

RELATED:Mass Effect: 15 Quotes That Will Stay With Us Forever

This critical discovery allowed humanity to expand beyond the Solar System. Up to the current time in the games, Mars is home to vital archives, secret blueprints, and Prothean relics. This is why the Cerberus organization raided the planet early in the Reaper invasion.

Should the Alliance get help from the older alien civilizations and accept all the strings that are attached? Would humanity look weak or put itself deep into debt to the Turians or Asari if they did? This is a matter of debate.

Some members of the Alliance are ready to work together with alien races to establish new colonies, create political ties, set up trade routes, learn new technological secrets, and more. Others, such as the Terra Firma party's members, don't trust the aliens and want humanity to expand strictly on its own terms. Cerberus is the ultimate expression of that sentiment.

Humanity has mixed views on its many alien neighbors, and in return, many aliens are cautious about the Alliance, or downright afraid of it. Why? Humanity is expanding quickly and recklessly claiming new resources and worlds. Some aliens fear that humanity will react poorly if it is denied anything that the Alliance wants. Will humanity throw a violent tantrum if the Alliance is denied certain trade deals or worlds for colonization?

RELATED:15 Games To Play If You Like Mass Effect

The aliens are not yet sure, since they have not known the Alliance for long. No one is fully sure how the Alliance tends to handle its problems. It follows that some of the other species see humanity as a powder keg. The Alliance is young and fledgling which makes it a wild card.

By this point in human development, the concepts of race and ethnicity are changing. After all, the human race is now just one race of the Milky Way Galaxy.But the Systems Alliance is calledso for a reason; all of humanity, regardless of ethnicity, gender, or class, is united in its attempts to move society forward and colonize the stars.

Fortunately for the Alliance, the feuds and clashes of old Earthseem to be gone. Earth's denizens have blurred the gene pool a great deal. Most people have two or more major ethnicities to their name. What's important is that an Alliance citizen is humanwhether they are part Canadian, Korean, Filipino, Nigerian, or otherwise.

In the late 2150s, the human colony world of Shanxi came under alien attack. The Turians had arrived and the panicking Alliance officials thought that the extinct Protheans had returned. All of humanity's "alien invader" nightmares came true, but the war was a short one.

Humanity calls it the First Contact War since these Turians were the first aliens the Alliance had ever met. Meanwhile, the Citadel races called that conflict the Relay 314 Incident which puts things into a different perspective.

It was merely a misunderstanding in one obscure neck of the galaxy according to them, and they had a name for the mass relay involved. For the Alliance, that conflict was a big deal; for other aliens, it's more like "Oh right, didn't the Turians accidentally attack some humans that one time?" But not all Turians or humans are so cavalier about the incident as many fans will remember.

Some militaries in the galaxy are noted for having a particular style. The famed Turian military is based on rigid discipline and order while Asari Commandos are like elite space ninjas. The Salarians take the initiative and win via superior spying and planning while the Krogans have impressive numbers and redundant organ systems. The Alliance military, in contrast, does a bit of everything.

It's true that the Alliance can't stand up to the Turians in a straight fight. However, given the Alliance's youth, it's impressive that the Alliance military is already so powerful and advanced. Its ships and soldiers can adapt to nearly any type of battle or campaign by making use of battle fleets, infantry battalions, mobile tanks, some biotics, and more.

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The Week

"Republicans have a Marjorie Taylor Greene problem. Again," The Associated Press reports. House GOP leaders urged voters in Georgia's 14th Congressional District to pick someone else in the primary, wary of Greene's QAnon allegiance and documented history of racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Muslim comments. After she prevailed in the primary, they pushed for her victory in the general election. She won. Calls for Greene's ouster from the House started days after she was seated. And Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) said Wednesday he will introduce a measure to expel her, following new scrutiny of her social media history. CNN's KFILE got that ball rolling Tuesday. Then the floodgates opened. Greene has called various deadly school shootings and the Las Vegas music festival massacre "false flag" events, questioned 9/11, and endorsed some foul QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories. Marjorie Taylor Greene is into some seriously disturbed stuff here. The conspiracy theory she's promoting, "Frazzledrip," is about Hillary Clinton torturing a baby and wearing its face as a mask. https://t.co/TpW382v9Bg Will Sommer (@willsommer) January 26, 2021 Republican leaders are, once again, appalled. Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Greene's posts are "disgusting," have "no place in our party" and "should be looked into," adding that "QAnon is beyond fringe. I think it's dangerous." Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) called Greene "a RINO," or Republican in Name Only. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said through a spokesman that her comments are "deeply disturbing" and he "plans to have a conversation with the congresswoman about them." In 2019, McCarthy stripped former Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) of all his committee assignments after he expressed support for white supremacists, AP reports. "Greene was named this week to the House Education and Labor Committee." CNN's Erin Burnett called that assignment doubly disturbing, given Greene's dismissal of school shootings, but said McCarthy knows some of the money Greene is raising off her outrages will go to the House GOP campaign committee. Greene issued a weak and incredible non-denial denial of her social media activity, but the "steady stream of revelations" plus "Greene's puzzling defense of herself should make Republicans wonder how long they can put up with this," Aaron Blake writes at The Washington Post. "We tend to overestimate how much a politician like that can drag down their national party, but Greene's lack of remorse and candor reinforces how much of a loose cannon she could be moving forward." More stories from theweek.com5 brutally funny cartoons about the GOP's Trump problemHow to make perfect French toast in 4 simple stepsDemocrats plan to make every House Republican take a vote on GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

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