Category Archives: Space Exploration

In September, UAE's first Astronaut, major Hazza Al Mansouri, spent a week on board the ISS, putting his country on the space scale forever, and getting important work done. To build on this foundation, the country gets ready for a second mission, having opened a registration for Emirati willing to go to space, on Friday. The first four hours saw more than a thousand applications,according to Salem Al Marri, Director of UAE Astronaut Program

Dubai Media Officereports that this call for aspiring astronauts, according to an official statement, 'marks new phase of theUAE'sspace exploration journey.'

Dubai's Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum who with all enthusiasm joined the initiative, said in a tweet: 'We're looking for a new Emirati astronaut for the UAE's second space mission... to those among our sons and daughters who see in themselves the energy and determination, register through the Mohammed bin Rashed Space Center.'

The requirements for the applicants include fluent English and high literacy in native Arabic, and a university degree. Previous astronaut training is not required, and current occupation is unimportant.

Major Al Mansouri gave Emirati manned space flight a perfect start with just the right vibe that inspires people nationwide to become a part of what goes far beyond a mission or even a generation.

The high level of interest for the second mission among applicants means that theUAE that established its Space Agency only in 2014, is well on the way to realizing its space ambitions with strong support from its citizens.

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Emirati Astronaut Boom Breaks Out as Men and Women Apply for Next Mission - Asgardia Space News

2020 watch: The New Would-Be Obama

Pete Buttigiegs elevator pitch to American voters is essentially Obama but Gay, snarks National Reviews Kyle Smith. The way Buttigieg speaks is his real appeal. He gets the juices sap? of idealism flowing through liberal veins. Why is he doing well? Well, its mainly an indicator of the comically obvious weaknesses of the partys three stumblin septuagenarian front-runners. Buttigiegs problem, however, is that no one has ever gone directly from being mayor of a large city to the presidency before, much less mayor of a small city. He also faces a singular problem in that its easier to pronounce his name than it is to cite anything hes done.

From the right: The Crisis for Career Diplomats

Very important people with very important advanced degrees from very important universities are mad at President Trump for pressing our allies to honor their NATO defense-spending commitments, scoffs American Greatness Julie Kelly. Worse, Trumps using the force of his personality rather than relying on many white papers and think-tank conferences and pricey parties at well-appointed embassies. For Foggy Bottom bureaucrats, Trumps shake-ups of diplomatic norms constitute horror stories not because of legitimate foreign-policy concerns, but because he poses a legitimate threat to their professional sinecures. While those elites predicted global chaos once it became clear Trump would weed them out, the president has been fixing international fiascos almost single-handedly. Fact is, as Harry Truman observed, foreign-service officers act only as servants of the government, not the other way around no matter how much they might not like that reality.

Space desk: Set Controls for the Heart of the Sun

For one little NASA spacecraft, the weather outside is frightful, reports The Atlantics Marina Koren. The Parker Solar Probe has completed three scorching passes around the sun, and it will get even closer before taking a fiery plunge into the surface in 2025. No probe has ever gotten that close before, and Parker is already surprising scientists back at home with its findings. One surprise: The solar wind is so strong that it can cause magnetic forces to completely flip around for a few minutes at a time, which can in turn speed up the particles flowing away from the sun. Reaching the sun is one of the toughest feats of robotic space exploration but thanks to Parker, were unlocking the deepest secrets of our star.

Media beat: How US Papers Whitewash Corbyn

As long as Jeremy Corbyn remains its leader, James Kirchick predicts at Tablet, Britains Labour party will remain institutionally anti-Semitic. Even many Labour insiders admit this, so why cant Americas leading newspapers do the same? Polls show 94 percent of British Jews will vote for any party but Labour in the Dec. 12 election, yet multiple New York Times pieces pretend British Jews are torn over whether to back Labour. The Washington Post, meanwhile, declared that the party under investigation by Britains Equality and Human Rights Commission for anti-Jewish bias has been hit by claims of anti-Semitism because of strong statements on Palestinian rights. It seems the inability of highly educated, well-intentioned, decent people to recognize and acknowledge anti-Semitism that doesnt come dressed up in jackboots and a swastika is a transatlantic affliction.

Theologian: The High Cost of US Individualism

While the days news draws my attention to more elite concerns like impeachment, Chad Pecknold confesses at The Catholic Herald, I regularly witness drug addiction, poverty and familial collapse. The reason our cable- and Twitter-driven political theater misses these crises: Our politics have mostly centered on individual-rights claims or on the claims of commercial interests. In Washington, lobbyists look out for corporations, while liberals use state power to invent ever-new rights around ever-changing identities. Meanwhile, the family has been weakened over decades by myriad factors not just by court decisions about divorce, contraception, abortion and the neutering of marriage, but also by the demand for the two-income family. The predictable result: falling fertility rates and the failure of a generation to form strong bonds of marriage and family.

Compiled by The Post Editorial Board

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The new would-be Obama and other commentary - New York Post

The Centre has proposed Rs 33.3 crore for ISRO's 'Project Netra' for securing Indian satellites from space debris and other dangers, according to documents related to supplementary demand for grants. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had moved a resolution for the grants for which the Lok Sabha granted approval last week.

In Sep, India launched the early warning system Netra (Network for Space Objects, Tracking, and Analysis) to secure its satellites and other assets in space at an estimated to cost Rs 400 crore.

Scientists say 50 years of human space exploration has led to the creation of junk around Earth's orbit, posing serious traffic risks to man-made satellites.

Former director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre M Y S Prasad said India is a responsible space power and monitoring capability is necessary for protection of space assets.

"The NETRA project would provide India with the same capability as the US and Russia to assess threats from space debris and other hazards," he told -Bhasha.

Every year, there are many incidents of objects colliding in space. As a result, small pieces of debris rotate at extremely fast speeds. Dead satellites and other debris present in space exist in the Earth's orbit for many years and these debris can damage any active satellite. DR HDA ABH

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India government ready to spend 33 crore to fend off space debris - Business Insider India

Next year, the National Space Centre will be celebrating one of the biggest pop culture icons ever, the Starman himself, David Bowie as part of a new immersive live show.

The show will fully utilise the unique fulldome format of the UKs largest planetarium, with a stunning immersive 360 degree show. The National Space Centre has confirmed that theyre working with DAVID LIVE to host the first live performance of the illustrious music of David Bowie in the Sir Patrick Moore Planetarium.

Not many artists are as deeply connected with space exploration as David Bowie. Not only does his back-catalogue include songs like Starman, Space Oddity and Life on Mars but Elon Musk once sent a car into space playing Bowies tunes.

The show will be called Bowie: Oddity to Mars and will celebrate a significant period of Bowies career between 1969 and 1972. It sees the ers that Bowie moved from his epic debut, Space Oddity to taking on the role of the alien-rock star himself, Ziggy Stardust.

The National Space centre will be working with DAVID LIVE, a British five-piece band that has performed honest and insightful musical tributes to David Bowie since 2005. As part of the celebration, the visitor attraction has partnered with De Montfort University Leicester (DMU), Loughborough College and Leicester College to create a never before seen exhibition of fashion, textiles, art and photography inspired by Bowie.

Paul McNicoll, Associate Professor for Student Experience at DMU, said: Were thrilled to team up with the National Space Centre for this exciting event, which will provide an invaluable platform for our Fashion and Textiles MA students. Inspired by the Apollo missions and the work of David Bowie, they will be showcasing innovative designs across fashion, textiles, intimates, footwear and accessories.

Malika Andress, Head of Marketing at the National Space Centre, added: Were really excited to be hosting the Bowie: Oddity to Mars event at the Centre. Following the success of our sold out Darkside of the Moon shows, in January and July 2019, we knew we had to follow it up with something equally spectacular and who better than Bowie with his fascination with space?! David Live is a fantastic tribute act and will really bring Bowies music to life in our planetarium.

Were also delighted to be working with some extremely talented students at DMU and Loughborough and Leicester colleges. Each student had been inspired by Bowie in very different ways, exploring his music, style and personas and were proud to help showcase their amazing work.

You can find tickets to next years event right here.

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The National Space Centre will pay tribute to David Bowie in an immersive live show - Far Out Magazine

Emirati students are getting a once in a lifetime chance to work with the Emirates Mars Mission.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre is now accepting applications for its elite research experience for undergraduates programme", or REU.

It runs for several months in the summer and successful students will gain critical experience in programming and data analysis under the supervision of the MBRSC team, along with the chance to work in the United States and France.

The handful of Emiratis selected who must be studying science or engineering will conduct research that could prove vital for the landmark mission that will see a probe named Amal, translated from Arabic as Hope, blast off in July next year and reach the surface of Mars by 2021.

It will be the first mission to Mars by any Arab or Muslim majority country and will fall in the same year the UAE celebrates its 50th birthday.

More than 100 Emirati engineers have been working on the project in partnership with universities in the US.

The students' participation in the Hope Probe's scientific mission, through the REU 2020, will help them acquire the necessary skills in analysing data on the Red Planet, said Hessa Al Matrooshi of the MBRSC.

It is hoped that some of those who participate in the programme will go on to forge careers in the UAE's rapidly expanding space sector. Hazza Al Mansoori became the first Emirati in space this year and a second astronaut programme was launched a few days ago.

Maj Al Mansooris achievement followed a series of successful satellite launches over the past few years that put the UAE in the worlds vanguard of space exploration.

Over the past years the [REU] programme has proven successful in preparing highly-qualified Emirati cadres to participate in the Hope Probe mission, said Omran Sharaf, project manager of the Hope probe.

This edition of REU will be very special as it goes in parallel with the launch of Hope to Mars."

The REU programme is now in its sixth year and so far, about 30 Emirati students have worked on projects such as how to support life in space, studying the atmosphere and the search for water.

The deadline for applications is January 1 and the programme is open to Emirati students in their first, second or final year with more than one semester left to graduate. Anyone interested can email reu@mbrsc.ae

Updated: December 10, 2019 04:09 AM

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Emirati students given chance to work on Emirates Mars Mission - The National

Dec 09, 2019 Joe Kleiman Museums, News, North America, World markets Comments Off on Space Center Houston marks record attendance and introduction of Galaxy Lights

Thenonprofit Space Center Houston, the Official Visitor Center of NASA Johnson Space Center and a Certified Autism Center, has welcomed more than 1.1 million visitors to date, marking its highest annual attendance since opening in 1992. This milestone comes with one month to go in the year and just as the center is offering a new holiday tradition,Space Center Houstons Galaxy Lights, presented by Reliant.

Space Center Houston has made significant strides in offering exceptional, authentic science and space exploration learning opportunities for everyone, said William T. Harris, president and CEO of Space Center Houston. We are dedicated to advancing innovation and creative thinking to engage visitors in how science, technology, engineering and mathematics are relevant to our everyday lives as well as exploring space.

The leading science and space exploration learning center is on pace to surpass last years attendance by 15 percent. This year it set record-breaking attendance nine out of 11 months including its best Spring Break, June, July and Labor Day weekend. Since 2012, the center has experienced an exponential 70 percent increase in growth from nearly 500,000 annual visitors.

Recognized as the No. 1 destination in Houston for international visitors according to Houston First, the center continues to draw people from around the world to explore the science and space exploration learning center and to participate in its leading educational programs.

Attendance rocketed this summer with the celebration of the 50thanniversary of Apollo 11. Space Center Houston drew visitors from 49 countries for its series of events with Apollo legends, astronauts and its first outdoor concert. On the anniversary of the Moon landing, the center experienced its best single day attendance ever with more than 13,000 people.

The center continues to offer new science learning opportunities for people of all ages. Space Center Houstons new interactive fall exhibit Playing with Light explores light through engaging experiments and the all-new holiday experience Galaxy Lights, presented by Reliant. Galaxy Lights is the most technologically advanced light display in Texas and is open nightly through Jan. 5. For more information about activities, hours of operation and tickets during this unique holiday adventure, visitspacecenter.org/galaxylights.

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Space Center Houston marks record attendance and introduction of Galaxy Lights - InPark Magazine

Space is in.

On the 20th November, NATO Foreign Ministers met in Brussels to prepare for last weeks NATO Summit in London. Much of the noise around the summit has been political in the UK, it was focussed on how Boris Johnson would nullify the threat an often tactless Donald Trump might pose to his election campaign, and on how Jeremy Corbyns Labour could use the NATO visit to their advantage. Further afield, much has been made of a brewing France vs Germany fall-out, after Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly (albeit not directly) rebuked French President Emmanuel Macron for his claims that NATO was suffering from brain-death.

It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that the discussion of concrete NATO policy has fallen by the way when it comes to the popular press in favour of debate surrounding the long-term viability of NATO. The NATO Summit in London on the 3rd and 4th was dominated by coverage of the splits in the NATO family, from Trump vs Trudeau to Macron vs the world. In a world in which the international liberal order is fracturing, there are major big picture questions which need answering.

But key policy changes need addressing as well and space is increasingly becoming an important aspect of foreign policy for NATO and its member states. Here in the UK, in particular, weve been dreaming big on post-Brexit space plans. The Conservatives have made a pledge to establish the UKs first Space Command in their manifesto, and several Ministers have made calls for the UK to embrace space as a new frontier in foreign policy. Spaceports have been proposed, and plans for new satellite systems drafted but the truth is that Britain must do even more to make our actions match our aspirations. According to Joshua Posaner, in Politico, the UKs cash commitment to projects under the European Space Agency lag way behind the big hitters posing a problem for UK Aerospace companies, and threatening to derail any grand space ambitions before theyve even got going.

Its certainly true that the British government has pledged to raise its overall contribution to the European Space Agency a rise of 15% to an overall contribution of 440 million annually but that needs to raise in order to match the efforts of other countries with space ambitions. Spain, for example, raised its contribution by 25% to 850 million.

The UKs ambition is coming through strongly in certain areas. The government is dead set on opening a spaceport in the early stages of the coming decade, as a first step in realising its space ambitions but this ambition is being matched across Europe. Sweden, for example, has committed to starting rocket launches from Kiruna by 2022. Norway aims to beat that and has 2020 in its sights. Portugal matches the UKs space ambitions and aims to open a spaceport in the Azores. France, Germany and Italy all spend a substantial amount more than the UK does on space exploration specifically.

For British leaders to target space is encouraging. Space and space exploration will be a key aspect of foreign policy in the not-too-distant future, and Britain should aim to be amongst the countries writing the rulebook. Beyond that, though; space centres can become hubs of hi-tech innovation, and important focal points for scientific research and progress. The tech industry is already one of the key aspects of the UKs soft power approach and investing in space can be a key way to expand that, as well as a development on its own terms. Being seen to lead the way, or at least be not too far behind other big hitters, is essential in terms of establishing Brexit Britains commitment to progress in the world and as a key player in emerging arenas.

The key members of the next government whoever they may be will likely continue to make wild proclamations on the future of space and the new possibilities it presents to the UK. To make these dreams reality, the government needs to step up its game and that means matching our neighbours on action and funding.

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The only way is up - matching aspirations with action in space - BFPG

In March 2010, anthropologists discovered a tiny, lone finger bone in the Denisova cave in Siberia. They determined it belonged to previously undiscovered species of human ancestor.

Genetic analysis revealed that Denisovans (named after the cave in which they were found) were an enigmatic offshoot of Neanderthals.

Thus far, fossilized Denisovan remains have only been found in Siberia and Tibet. The species disappeared about 50,000 years ago but passed some of their genetic makeup to Homo sapiens.Denisovan DNA can be found in the genes of modern humans across Asia and some Pacific islands;up to 5% of modern Papua New Guinea residents' DNA shows remnants of interbreedingwith Denisovans.

People in Tibet today also possess some Denisovan traits and these traits appear to help Sherpas weather high altitudes.

Just after anthropologists discovered Denisovans, geneticists finished sequencing the entire Neanderthal genome.

Scientists discovered that both Neanderthals and Denisovans interbred with modern humans extensively.

While 2010 was a watershed year for anthropology, 2011 was all about achievements in space. NASA sent a new rover to Mars named Curiosity.

Curiosity is the largest and most capable rover ever sent to Mars. It joined fellow rover Opportunity in searching the red planet for signs of water and clues about whether Mars was capable of supporting microbial lifeforms.

In November 2011, NASA announced that its planet-hunting Kepler space telescope had spotted its first potentially habitable planet, Kepler 22-b.

The Kepler mission was charged with finding and identifying Earth-like planets in our galaxy that existed within a star's "Goldilocks," or habitable, zone. Kepler 22-b is 600 light-years away.

Planets in habitable zones are capable of hosting liquid water, one of the requisites for being considered Earth-like.

Impressive achievements in space exploration continued into 2012. In November of that year, NASA's Voyager 1 probe left our solar system and crossed into interstellar space.

NASA launched Voyager 1 in 1977. After flying by Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 crossed into interstellar space. It continues to collect data to this day.

In 2019, Voyager 1's successor, Voyager 2, also entered interstellar space. Both probes have been flying longer than any other spacecraft in history.

Voyager 2 has beamed back unprecedented data about previously unknown boundary layers at the far edge of our solar system an area known as the heliopause. The discovery of these boundary layers suggests there are stages in the transition from our solar bubble to interstellar space that scientists did not previously know about.

In May 2012, Elon Musk's aerospace company, SpaceX, made history by sending the first-ever commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station (ISS).

SpaceX's groundbreaking spaceship was called Dragon.

Previously, only four governments the United States, Russia, Japan, and the European Space Agency had achieved this challenging technical feat.

Seven years later, SpaceX launched Dragon's successor, Crew Dragon, into orbit for the first time. Crew Dragon is designed to ferry astronauts to the ISS; its 2019 trip marked the first time that a commercial spaceship designed for humans had ever left Earth.

Other scientific disciplines made incredible headway in 2012, too. Physicists reported the detection of a new type of particle called the Higgs Boson.

The Higgs Boson is nicknamed the "God particle" because it gives mass to all other fundamental particles in the universe that have mass, like electrons and protons.

Scientists knew a particle akin to the Higgs Boson had to exist otherwise nothing in the universe would have mass, and we wouldn't exist but had failed to find evidence of such a particle until 2012.

The same year, the patent for utilizing CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology was approved.

Crispr-Cas9 technology enables researchers to edit parts of the genome by removing, adding, or altering sections of DNA. Since 2012, scientists have edited mosquito, mushroom, and lizard DNA, among others. In 2018, a Chinese scientist announced he had edited the genetic information of two human embryos.

In 2013, NASA astronomers observed plumes of water vapor being ejected from the frigid, icy surface of Jupiter's moon, Europa.

This discovery made Europa only the second known oceanic world in our solar system aside from Earth; NASA observed jets of water vapor spewing from Saturn's moon Enceladus in 2005.

The presence of liquid water and ice make these two moons ideal places to search for life in our corner of the galaxy.

Since 2013, water has also been discovered on the dwarf-planet Pluto, a moon of Neptune called Triton, and multiple other moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

That year, NASA's Curiosity rover uncovered evidence that the red planet not only once held liquid water, but may also have been habitable.

In September 2012, NASA announced its Curiosity rover had identified gravel made by an ancient river in Mars' Gale Crater.

Then in March 2013, scientists found chemical ingredients for life sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and carbon in powder that Curiosity had drilled from rock near the ancient streambed.

"A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment," Michael Meyer, who worked as the lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the time, said in a press release about the finding. "From what we know now, the answer is yes."

In the following years, evidence has mounted that the planet was once home to a vast ocean.

Since then, evidence has continued to mount that Mars still hosts liquid water today in at least one underground lake.

After three years of studying Mars, Italian scientists determined in July 2018 that it's possible the red planet has a 20-kilometer-wide lake of liquid water at its polar ice cap today.

"If these researchers are right, this is the first time we've found evidence of a large water body on Mars," Cassie Stuurman, a geophysicist at the University of Texas,told the Associated Press.

Other parts of Mars are too cold for water to stay liquid unless it's deep underground.

In a March 2019 study, researchers suggested that seasonal flow patterns in Mars's crater walls could come from pressurized groundwater 750 meters below the surface, which travels upward through cracks in the ground.

In November, physicists discovered 28 strange particles called neutrinos buried deep under the Antarctic ice. These neutrinos, they concluded, had come from outside our solar system.

Researchers found the particles using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, an array of sensors embedded in Antarctic ice. Neutrinos are nearly mass-less and unstoppable; they move at the speed of light and get discharged in the aftermath of exploding stars.

Scientists can use neutrinos to understand events happening in distant galaxies. In 2018, they found more of the particles in Antarctica, then traced them back to the source: a rapidly spinning black hole, millions of times the mass of the sun, that's gobbling up gas and dust.

Researchers also achieved a food industry milestone in 2013 when scientists successfully served the first-ever lab-grown hamburger.

The burger which took two years and $325,000 to make consists of 20,000 thin strips of cow muscle tissue that were grown in a Netherlands laboratory.

Since 2013, the lab-grown meat industry has grown in popularity and dropped in price. In 2015, one of the researchers responsible for the first lab-grown burger, said the per-pound cost had dropped to $37.

The European Space Agency got some time in the spotlight in 2014. In November, the agency's Rosetta space probe was able to land on a comet 372 million miles from Earth called 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

It took Rosetta 10 years to reach and orbit the comet, then launch a lander down to the surface.

Rosetta's lander, Philae, took the first-ever surface images of a comet.

In 2015, anthropologist Lee Berger announced that his team had discovered a new human ancestor species called Homo Naledi in South Africa.

Two spelunkers had accidentally stumbled across the Homo naledi fossils two years earlier, in a hidden cave 100 feet below the surface.

All told, the chamber contained 1,550 bones belonging to at least 15 individuals who all lived between 330,000 and 250,000 years ago.

2015 was also the year that scientists mapped the human epigenome for the first time.

The epigenome is made up of chemicals and proteins that can attach to DNA and modify its function turning our genes on and off.

An individual's lifestyle and environment factors like whether they smoke or what their diet looks like can prompt sometimes deadly changes in their epigenome that can cause cancer.

Mapping the epigenome may help scientists understand how tumors develop and cancer spreads.

Another NASA spacecraft, Cassini, achieved new heights that same year. In September, astronomers announced that they had confirmed a liquid ocean exists under the icy crust of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft found that Enceladus emits plumes of water into space following the probe's arrival in 2004. But in 2015, scientists confirmed that the source of these plumes was a giant saltwater oceanhidden beneath the moon's icy crust.

In 2016, an artificial intelligence program from Google's DeepMind division named AlphaGo beat the world champion in four out of five matches of Go, a strategy game.

That wasn't the first time AI beat humans in a complex game.

In 2011, IBM's supercomputer, Watson, defeated two "Jeopardy!" champions including Ken Jennings in a three-day contest.

A year after AlphaGo's success, anAI named Libaratus beat four of the world's top professional players in 120,000 hands of no-limit, two-player poker. Then, in 2019, another DeepMind AI program named AlphaStar bested 99.8% of human players in the popular video game "Starcraft II."

Physicists rejoiced in 2016 when they detected two black holes colliding a billion light-years away.

The catastrophic collision created ripples in space-time, also known asgravitational waves. Einstein predicted the existence of these gravitational waves in 1915, but he thought they'd be too weak to ever pick up on Earth. New detection tools have proved otherwise.

This collision was the first event scientists observed using gravitational-wave detectors. Then in 2017, they observed two neutron stars merging. In August 2019, astrophysicists detected the billion-year-old aftermath of a collision between a black hole and a neutron star(the super-dense remnant of a dead star).

In 2017, geologists announced they'd discovered a new continent, called Zealandia, hidden under the Pacific Ocean.

The lost land ofZealandiasits on the ocean floor between New Zealand and New Caledonia.

It wasn't always sunken researchers have found fossils that suggested novel kinds of plants and organisms once lived there. Some argue that Zealandia should be countedalongsideour (more visible) seven continents.

In 2019, scientists found that another ancient continent had slid under what is now southern Europe about 120 million years ago. The researchers named this continent Greater Adria. Its uppermost regions formed mountain ranges across Europe, like the Alps.

That year brought a new breakthrough in genetics, too: Scientists successfully created synthetic DNA.

All living creatures' DNA is made up of two types of amino acid pairs: A-T (adenine thymine) and G-C (guanine cytosine). This four-letter alphabet forms the basis for all genetic information in the natural world.

But scientists invented two new letters, an unnatural pair of X-Y bases, that they seamlessly integrated into the genetic alphabet of E. coli bacteria.

Floyd Romesburg, who led the research, previously told Business Insider that his invention could improve the way we treat diseases. For example, it could change the way proteins degrade inside the body, helping drugs stay in your system longer. Romesburg said his team will be investigating how the finding might help cancer treatments and drugs for autoimmune diseases.

It was also a breakthrough year for self-driving car technology.

In September 2017, Audi announced it had produced the world's first "Level 3" autonomous car meaning its self-driving mode requires no human feet, hands, or eyes. The A8 sedan can wholly, safely control itself in self-driving mode, only needing a human to take over in the event of bad weather or disappearing lane lines.

Tesla Autopilot drivers, for comparison, have to be ready to take over at any moment, so they're counseled to keep their eyes on the road at all times.

Just two months later, Waymo the autonomous vehicle division of Alphabet, Google's parent company revealed that it was testing self-driving minivans in the streets of Arizona without any humans at all behind the wheel. In 2018, Waymo launched the first fully autonomous taxi service in the US.

Astronomers also witnessed another interstellar collision in 2017. When two neutron stars collided, scientists were able to see how all the gold in the universe was created.

The two massive, exploded stars hit each other at one-third the speed of light and created gravitational waves. Scientific instruments on Earth picked up the waves from that crash, an event astronomers say only happens once every 100,000 years.

The crash happened 130 million light years away from Earth, researchers discovered. It caused the formation of $100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 worth of gold and produced huge stores of silver and platinum, too.

That year, researchers at a Hawaiian astronomical observatory also observed the first interstellar object ever seen in our solar system, named 'Oumuamua.

Scientists only had a few weeks to study the interstellar interloper before it got too far, and too dim, to see with Earth-based telescopes.

Guesses as to what the object is run the gamut from comet to asteroid to alien spaceship. One Harvard University astronomer, Avi Loeb, has speculated that 'Oumuamua was an extraterrestrial scout, but nearly all other experts who have studied 'Oumuamua say that hypothesis is extraordinarily unlikely.

2017 was also a bittersweet year for astronomers who had to say goodbye to NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which took a fatal dive into Saturn in October.

Cassini had been exploring Saturn and its moons for 13 years before the probe plunged to its death on September 15. Scientists planned the crash to ensure that Cassini wouldn't one day run out of fuel and hit one of Saturn's potentially habitable moons (thereby contaminating it with Earthly bacteria).

During its final dive, Cassini beamed back amazing photos of Saturn as we'd never seen the planet before. That last portion of the mission began with a flyby of the planet's moon, Titan. Then Cassini jetted through a 1,200-mile opening between Saturn and its rings of ice an unprecedented feat.

The spacecraft then angled down into the planet's clouds and burned up.

Toward the end of 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new gene therapy treatment for blind people.

The cure for a form of hereditary blindness called leber congenital amaurosis is the first gene therapy approved by the FDA for an inherited disease.

The treatment, called Luxturna, is a one-time virus dose that gets injected into a patient's retina. The corrected gene in the virus taps out the flawed, blindness-inducing gene in the eye, and produces a key vision-producing protein that patients with the disease normally can't make.

People start noticing a difference in their sight within a month. In clinical trials of the treatment, 13 out of 20 patients saw positive results. The treatment costs $425,000 per eye, or $850,000 total, however.

The following year, genetics news of a very different nature came out: Chinese geneticist He Jiankui announced he had successfully genetically modified human embryos.

Jiankui claimed to have edited genes in a pair of twins born in China in November. By using the DNA-editing technique called CRISPR, he said, the babies were born immune to HIV.

This type of genetic manipulation is banned in most parts of the world, since any genetic mutations that the babies may have would get passed on to their offspring, with potentially disastrous consequences.

In 2019, the MIT Technology Review released excerpts from Jiankui's research. The unpublished manuscripts revealed that in the process of trying to manipulate the babies' HIV resistance which some experts say was unsuccessful Jiankui may have introduced unintended mutations.

In 2018, NASA launched another rover to the red planet. InSight touched down on November 26.

NASA's InSight lander spent more than six months careening through space before it landed safely on Martian soil.

The robot is charged with exploring Mars' deep interior and helping scientists understand why Mars wound up a cold desert planet while Earth did not.

InSight has given scientists the unprecedented ability to detect and monitor Mars quakes seismic events deep inside the planet.

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Biggest scientific discoveries of the 2010s decade: photos - Business Insider

Vice President Mike Pence touted big plans for an American-led lunar landing by 2024 during a Thursday appearance at the NASA Ames Research Center, where he lauded the ingenuity of local engineers and researchers behind the effort.

Speaking to more than 100 NASA employees on Nov. 14, Pence heaped praise on current and former Ames staff that have championed modern aviation, space exploration and cutting-edge computing for 80 years. With renewed goals to conduct manned missions to the moon and a long-term goal of reaching Mars in the coming decades, Pence said NASA Ames will again be the center of innovation.

"We're about to make even more history, and it will pass right through NASA Ames," Pence said.

Casting a shadow over the visit, however, was recent news of a mass shooting at a Southern California school earlier that morning. A boy a male student shot and killed two students, a 16-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy, and injured three others at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita. Pence led his planned remarks by extending condolences to the families affected, and said President Donald Trump asked him to convey his deepest sympathies for the families and the victims and the entire Santa Clarita community.

"The hearts of every American are with you today, our prayers are with you, and our prayers are with all the doctors and nurses and hospital staff," he said.

Pence commended the swift response of local law enforcement and school officials who "undoubtedly saved lives." The Trump administration, he said, will fight to prevent future mass shootings, but did not specify how.

"This president and this administration will remain resolved to bring the scourge of mass shootings to an end. And we will not rest or relent until we end this evil in our time and make our schools and communities safe again."

Trump floated the idea of supporting more aggressive background checks and "red flag" laws in the summer, but recent media reports indicate proposed gun-control legislation has not been a priority for the president.

Pence addressed NASA employees in front of the research center's Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS), a one-of-a-kind facility that can prepare astronauts to land on lunar and eventually martian surfaces. The VMS acts as a sort of flight simulator designed to mirror the feel, the controls and the visual cues needed to pilot a lander in an environment unlike Earth.

Though the VMS is primarily for refining the design of aircraft and spacecrafts, it also serves a valuable secondary role as a training simulator for pilots.

Pence's comments largely centered on the administration's renewed focus on manned missions to the moon. In 2017, Trump signed a directive prioritizing missions that will put the first woman, and the next man, on the moon. The directive also places a focus on "long-term exploration and utilization" ultimately culminating in a manned mission to Mars. At the time, Pence announced that he would be heading the National Space Council and act as a link between NASA and the White House.

Though the initial target was to have astronauts land on the moon in 2028, Pence announced during a National Space Council meeting last March that the new, accelerated timeline now calls for a touchdown by 2024. If reached, it would be the first time the United States has conducted a lunar landing in 52 years.

Pence told NASA employees on Thursday that things are already moving fast: In just a matter of months, strong efforts have been made to get America "back" in the business of launching its own spacecrafts, which he described as a languishing priority for the country.

"Before spring arrives next year, we're going to send American astronauts on American rockets from American soil," he said, adding that NASA would no longer have to hitch a ride with the Russians on the return trip.

Pence's visit to Moffett Field was the last leg of a two-day trip to California, which began with two events in support of Trump. He participated in a "Trump Victory" lunch in Huntington Beach Wednesday followed by a reception in Monterey. Both events were closed to the media.

In past comments to the media and on Twitter, Trump has signaled that he is eager to send astronauts to Mars and vented in June that the first leg of the mission returning to the moon wasn't breaking any new ground. A crewed flight to Mars is loosely planned to happen sometime in the 2030s.

Protesters stage die-in

While NASA employees at the event largely supported Pence's comments, often punctuated with cheering and applause, not everyone was thrilled with the vice president's visit. Several groups staged demonstrations outside of the research facility.

The protests included a presence from the groups Vigil for Democracy, calling out the vice president's opposition to abortion and LGBT rights, Resistance SF and Refuse Fascism Bay Area. The local chapter of the Raging Grannies traded their usual colorful garb for somber black and acted as mourners at a "die-in" of protesters dressed in white clothing stained with fake blood on their crotches, representing victims of back-alley abortions.

"They want to send women back into the Dark Ages," said Vara Ramakrishnan of Los Altos, a member of the group Vigil for Democracy, adding that Pence's record on women's and LGBT issues as governor of Indiana "speaks volumes."

The protesters referred to a bill signed by Pence while he was governor of Indiana requiring women to hold burial services for fetuses.

Nancy Martin of Palo Alto, a member of Raging Grannies, said that as a pro-choice advocate and Planned Parenthood volunteer, she opposed Pence's visit to the Bay Area.

"I'm here in solidarity with women, and also trans women, who are endangered by the sexist policies of Pence and Trump," said Alan Marling, a protester participating in the "die-in".

The "die-in" protesters lay down in crosswalks around Ames' main entrance, and marched across Moffett Boulevard with linked arms, followed by "Handmaids" dressed in red capes and white bonnets, followed by the Raging Grannies. The groups say they wanted to draw attention to the vice president's "misogyny and homophobia," and quoted comments made by Pence in opposition to Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion, and his belief that homosexuality is a choice.

A group of eight protesters made it about one block onto the NASA Ames campus before security and police escorted them out.

Future space missions

Plans for a crewed landing on the moon has been dubbed the Artemis program, an American-led effort that has picked up support from several international partners since it was first announced. NASA is joined by the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency and the Australian Space Agency.

Pence also emphasized the importance of "unleashing" the private sector and fostering strong public-private partnerships something Ames employees have been quick to embrace.

The program includes several ambitious and expensive components, notably the Lunar Orbital Platform (better known as the Lunar Gateway), a space station that would orbit around the moon and act as a "jumping-off" point for robots and astronauts to land on the moon's surface.

In the near term, NASA officials announced last month that it is developing a robot rover that could be sent to the moon to observe and sample frozen water concentrated at the south pole. The rover is equipped with a meter-long drill to take samples, which will assist researchers in creating a global map of resources on the moon that could be essential for lengthy stays on the lunar surface.

Throughout the address, Pence repeatedly described Trump's commitment to NASA as unwavering, noting that Trump signed into law the "largest budget ever" for the agency in the modern era. The administration also asked Congress to approve adding $1.6 billion to the budget, bringing the total planned spending to over $22.6 billion in fiscal year 2020.

And while much of the technology and equipment needed to carry out the Artemis program remains under development and almost like science fiction, Pence said the research center has a reputation of overcoming the odds.

"You made science fiction into science fact at NASA Ames, and you made history," he said.

Bay City News Service contributed to this report.

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VP Mike Pence tours NASA Ames, talks space exploration and mass shootings - The Almanac Online

LEE COUNTY

On Monday, a SpaceX rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral loaded with tiny satellites to build a global internet network.

Friday, Lee County is looking at how it will play a role in the next golden age of space exploration.

Education and transportation are just a few ways Lee County can benefit when it comes to the aerospace industry.

Friday, members of Horizon Way and the Lee County Economic Development office hosted an informative meeting about the future of aerospace and the role Lee County and the state of Florida will play.

They say the industry has grown a lot since NASAs space shuttle program ended in 2011.

Instead of Florida being just a launching site, companies are now making those parts here. With more boots on the ground, that means areas here in Florida can get a piece of the pie too.

WINK News spoke with Dave Ketcham of Space Florida, who says local airports are just one of the ways we can help.

Its critical that Florida has a strong network of roads, air and seaports from here in a Europe and China and South America Africa and elsewhere, said Dale Ketcham, Vice President of Space Florida.

Thats where Wright Construction comes in. The company helped build the Skyplex property near RSW, a site that draws businesses in because of its proximity to the airport potentially those in aerospace.

Fred Edman, President of Wright Construction Group, says, Lee County with the north side of the airport being developed, especially with the new Skyplex Boulevard entrance, the port authority is really inviting new businesses to come and establish their headquarters right there on the north side of the airport.

And with the county already capitalizing on attracting students to aviation, were a step ahead.

At Bonita Springs High School, Michelle Guitierrez and her peers are learning how to build and fly aerospace machines. She says I would like to probably engineer rockets, satellites, things like that.

Making way for a brighter future for all mankind.

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Lee County exploring plans of what role they will play in future space exploration - Wink News