Category Archives: Space Exploration

The Artemis 1 moon rocket at Launch Pad 39 at the Kennedy Space Center. Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

The Artemis 1 moon rocket at Launch Pad 39 at the Kennedy Space Center.

NASA's Artemis I spacecraft was supposed to head to the moon earlier this week. But after suffering a technical error it had to be delayed until Saturday afternoon.

It's been nearly 50 years since the last Apollo landing, and the landscape for space exploration has changed drastically since then. One obvious update? This ship has no crew (for now). NASA hopes that later Artemis missions will eventually return humans on the moon.

Efficiency, costs, and motivations for the mission have been brought into question leading up to the launch. Lori Garver was the deputy administrator of NASA during the Obama administration and joined All Things Considered to shed light on the process, and the future of humans in space.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

On the purpose of the mission

Within the space community, this has been something they wanted to do since they left the moon. And I think one of the reasons we haven't, is because we haven't answered that question [of why they took such a long hiatus]. Today, NASA says it's because we're in a race with China, but of course, we've won that race six times. So I think the space program is incredibly valuable and the things that we are doing have helped humanity tremendously. Going back to the moon is, I think, a positive path, but I don't think we have well articulated the purpose for spending the amounts of money that are now required.

On the impact of private space exploration companies

Private space companies are actually part of this mission. Of course, they were part of Apollo as well. Space X has a contract with them to build the lunar lander, but they are also building a large launch vehicle that could get us there for a fraction of the cost of the government owned and operated planned systems that have taken more than a decade and tens of billions of dollars. So this isn't an either-or.

On the delayed launch of Artemis 1, and other challenges

Well, it's not just this latest setback that is an issue. It's emblematic of why a program that was supposed to take five years has now taken nearly 12. And that was supposed to cost $20 billion, has cost $43 billion. That is something that I don't understand how the public and their elected representatives will continue to support once there is a private sector option flying.

On what other avenues NASA should expend resources on

I think NASA could go back to the moon for significantly less resources in a way that drives technology, which is what really returns to the nation and the planet. The money that they save for doing that could be spent on priorities like increasing the Earth sciences programs, studying greenhouse gas emissions from space, helping us to manage our resources on this planet. There are a lot of ways NASA's can contribute to a better world, both here on Earth and beyond.

On how space exploration benefits humans on Earth

We believe they're inspirational and allow people to invest in themselves and go into fields which help us all. I think there is also a direct return ultimately, and things like being able to detect incoming asteroids. You don't need humans in space to do that. But it is exploration. And ultimately, we do have to get off of this planet to survive over the longer term. In my view, that is a multigenerational activity and we need to figure out how to last long enough on this planet in order to be to a point where we can expand beyond in a permanent way.

On whether NASA has struggled to keep up with the times

Well, I wrote a book, Escaping Gravity that just came out about this. I think, you know, no one's bad. It's just the status quo in Washington. Contractors already have jobs, they're going to argue for keeping those jobs, their members of Congress want them to keep those jobs. And it just becomes sort of a do-over when, in my view, we weren't established we being NASA to do the same thing again. We are supposed to be driving technologies. And so that's why I think many of us are critical of this rocket program, because it really is 1970s technology, and that is not the way we think it's best to go back to the moon.

On the desire to get to Mars

I think within NASA and the some of these private companies, Mars is the ultimate goal. I think that going to the moon is not required before you get to Mars, but it is certainly helpful, and a place where you can learn again to operate at a distance from this planet. I think the goal of getting to Mars for many people is more exciting, but that is an order of magnitude more challenging.

This story was adapted for the web by Manuela Lopez Restrepo.

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How Artemis 1 fits into NASA's grand vision for space exploration - NPR

It's a common dream among our terrestrial species to one day explore the stars. Some of us have grown up with boots on the moon long in our history and boots on Mars planned for 2040 (opens in new tab), causing us to look forward to a plausible future of space exploration. Sadly, it's coming along a bit slower than my dreams were hoping for, but NASA is still helping our stranded little species get a taste of space with things like these amazing photographs (opens in new tab) and 3D solar system renderings.

Back in 2010 NASA released a free software suite called NASA's Eyes Visualisation. It's an incredibly interesting tool that realistically simulates spacecraft, planets, and other items in our solar system based on real data. Just a few days ago the company released NASA's Eyes in browser format (spotted by HotHardware (opens in new tab)), so anyone with a computer can check out some of the happenings in our local system.

Jumping onto the new NASA's Eyes website (opens in new tab) will give you a 3D rendering of our system live, or you can play around with the controls to move time to your whim. Clicking on objects will give you more information about them, and you can move around them and zoom in and out fairly freely. Some objects' surfaces can even have high-res textures turned on to boot. It takes me back to mining resources in Mass Effect, but hopefully without the mining part.

There are still other seriously cool features in this web browsing look at the solar system, too. It has a telescope mode that allows you to land on a planet and see the night's sky from that perspective. It's the closest I've ever come to pulling a Dr Manhattan and just chilling out on Mars while the world spins on without me.

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For the NASA nerds among us, the Eye also shows off stories on the left hand side of the screen. These take you through various exploration missions in 3D, explaining what was found and how by the various instruments sent out into the void.

You can get a look at what Voyager twins have been up to, watch the Perseverance Mars landing, and even see geysers get discovered on one of Saturn's moons.

Spoilers, it's probably not the one you think.

All of this gives space fans the world over a great 3D exploration app in any browser they can access. This is one great little tool that's great for learning tonnes of information about NASA missions, our solar system, the different planets and moons, or just mindlessly exploring space from the comfort of your PC.

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NASA's ace 3D space exploration tool Eyes on the Solar system now works in browser - PC Gamer

* Warning: Mild Spoilers Ahead *

The Apple TV+ series, For All Mankind, just wrapped up Season 3 and is a smash hit for both critics and fans, garnering Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 90% and 81%, respectively. Its a show that (probably) came about from the Amazon hit, The Man in the High Castle, which depicted a world after the Allies lost World War II, and also garnered favorable ratings of 84% and 81%, respectively, having both fantastic characters and writing.

Like its predecessor, For All Mankind also depicts a different world, but this time after the United States loses the race to the Moon, with the Soviet Unions Alexei Leonov becoming the first man to step foot on its surface instead of Neil Armstrong. This historic event galvanizes both NASA and the United States to prove that America is still the greatest, resulting in the Jamestown moon base (Season 1 & 2), and eventually sending astronauts to Mars (Season 3).

Also like its predecessor, For All Mankind has fantastic characters and writing, but also doesnt pull any punches in terms of the levels of tragedy and loss the astronauts and their families endure as humanity continues to push the boundaries of human space exploration. This is where the show really shines since it doesnt just demonstrate how things could have been if we lost the race to the Moon, but how things could still be in our own reality as we prepare to send astronauts back to the Moon and to Mars in the coming years. Throughout the course of its three glorious seasons, astronauts suffer, they go crazy (one suffers from legitimate PTSD after a trip to the Moon), and a lot of astronauts meet some pretty grisly deaths, both in space and on Earth. During our own Space Age, we have encountered unspeakable tragedies such as the Apollo 1 fire, Challenger explosion, and Columbia disaster, and Artemis 1 currently sitting atop its launchpad is a testament to both our resilience and fortitude to keep going.

As our own world anxiously awaits the launch of Artemis 1 to the Moon, its more important than ever to prepare ourselves for the very real likelihood that Artemis astronauts and future Mars explorers will endure the same hardships and tragedies experienced by the astronauts in For All Mankind. If our own Artemis 3slated to be the first crewed missionloses an astronaut or the mission fails due to astronauts going crazy or dying on the Moon, we must keep going. If the first crewed mission to the Red Planet experiences the same level of loss and tragedy depicted in Season 3, we must keep going.

Despite it taking place both on television and in an alternate universe, For All Mankind gives a harsh reality check that space is hard. Much like in the show, some of our future astronauts to the Moon and Mars will suffer, some will go crazy, and some will die. But as we have demonstrated throughout the Space Age, we cant let this stop us from achieving the impossible and pushing the boundaries of human space exploration to plant our flag a little farther.

We will endure, but dont expect our future astronauts to have a sunshine and rainbows stay on the Moon and Mars.

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

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Credit: Shisma; permission to share under theCreative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 4.0 Internationallicense. (Image)

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'For All Mankind' Gives Harsh Reality Check About Human Space Exploration - Universe Today

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be an astronaut? Well thanks to Fernbank Museum, ATLiens will get a hands-on experience, climbing aboard this transformative exhibit that plans to delve into what it takes to travel to, work in, and live surrounded by space!

Explore the vacuum of space, radiation, meteoroids, and temperature extremes of this extraordinary environment, while aboard an orbiting space station, and thats just the beginning.

Journey to Space, will be on view fro022m Oct. 8, 2until Jan. 1, 2023. The exhibit highlights the excitement of cosmic travel, the physical issues that arise with space exploration, the challenges of gravitational weightlessness, to infinity and beyond!

The exhibition will delight science enthusiasts with a combination of impressive objects and hands-on opportunities that allow patrons to better understand the science of space travel. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore historic space-related attire and protective gear, including Neil Armstrongs gloves, an Apollo helmet, space suit sleeves, meteoroid shields and more.

They will also gain the unique perspective of how spacesuits are engineered to protect astronauts from the many dangers they encounter while in orbit. Through games, multimedia components, and interactive exhibits, youll learn so much including hilarious (yet interesting) facts like how astronauts eat, sleep, and even go to the bathroom in space.

Presented by the Science Museum of Minnesota and the California Science Center. With support from NASA, so you know its legit!

Also opening on Oct. 8 is the giant screen film, Astronaut: Ocean to Orbit. Planned to open alongside the space-themed exhibit, this film explores the ways NASA uses underwater environments to simulate life and work in space.

Journey to Spacewill be on display at the Fernbank Museum from October 8 2022 until January 1 2023. You can find Fernbank Museum at 767 Clifton Rd, 30307. For more informaton, click here to visit their website.

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An Out-Of-This-World Space Exhibition Will Soon Open At Fernbank Museum - Secret Atlanta

The Russian lab aboard the International Space Station (ISS) used a tissue-making 3D printer to print a little beef in 2019.

Didier Toubia, the head of the Israeli startup Aleph Farms which provided cells for the tests, said that the technology can help make long-term travel possible and renew space exploration, to far-away places such as Mars. However, he added that the companys main goal is to provide such animal-free meat to markets on Earth, and that it is just a matter of time before these products arrive in supermarkets.

The idea is not to replace traditional agriculture, Toubia says. Its about being a better alternative to factory farming.

Mark Post, a Dutch scientist from Maastricht University, created and presented the first cow-stem-cell-derived burger in 2013. Since then, there has been quite a lot of interest from both industry and consumers to bring lab-grown meat to the market. However, production costs are still high, which prevented such products from hitting shelves near you. Nevertheless, as research progresses and production is scaled, the price of lab-grown meat could soon become competitive.

While were still debating what to call these products laboratory, artificial, cell-based, or cultivated meat have all been proposed the public has been invited to taste them and provide feedback. This would suggest that commercialization, at least on a small scale, of this type of meat, is not far away. At first, cost is still going to be a limiting factor and these products will likely only fill a niche role. However, industry estimates say that lab-grown meat at reasonable prices could hit supermarket shelves in 5 to 20 years.

But thats all happening down here; what about in space? Israeli startup Aleph Farms has partnered with several 3D printing companies to conduct an experiment on the ISS. The end result, they say, is the first-ever case of synthetic meat produced in space.

Their method mimics natural tissue-regeneration processes, the company explains. This is intended to reproduce the structure and texture of beef, to produce a piece of meat that feels more realistic. However, this has proven challenging on Earth; Aleph Farms hopes that the space-borne experiment can help guide further development on the planet.

Russia-based 3D Bioprinting Solutions provided the printer for the experiment carried out in the Russian lab onboard the ISS. US-based Meal Source Technologies and Finless Foods also took part in the experiment. The bio-ink used is a mixture of animal cells and growth factors. In space, the process has the potential to be much faster since the ink can grow in all directions and doesnt need a support structure (a lattice is needed on Earth).

While Aleph Farms cant yet 3D-print meat at competitive prices, the cost of launching things to space is very high. It would make sense then to give astronauts a way to produce at least some of their meat on board. It would help reduce logistics costs, free up storage space, and enable longer missions.

Laboratory-grown meat can help us reduce the environmental burden of our agriculture, as it uses far less water and land than traditional farms. It also means fewer cows in farms and slaughterhouses. However, there is still some debate on where the increased use of energy would affect its real environmental impact, and on issues related to the nutrition of the resulting product.

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That time astronauts on the International Space Station printed beef in space - ZME Science

Collins Aerospace inaugurated a new, 120,000-square-foot facility located at the Spaceport in Houston, Texas. An anchor tenant at the Houston Airport Systems newly created space hub, Collins will transition its current local operations to the new site, further advancing its space exploration programs.

With over 40 years in the Houston area and the current site filled to capacity, Collins new facility in the Spaceport represents a $30 million investment. The increased footprint allows for expanded operations, manufacturing and testing and is also expected to add an additional 300 jobs in the coming years.

Collins long history of innovating, developing and delivering the critical systems that have played an integral role in humankinds exploration of space takes yet another step forward with the opening of this state-of-the-art facility at the Houston Spaceport, said Phil Jasper, president of Collins Aerospaces Mission Systems business. This strategic location and our strong local partnerships are driving the next-generation technologies that will enable humankind to live, work and play in space.

Along with Collins existing space facilities in California, Connecticut and Illinois, the new Houston Spaceport location will support the development and testing of several key space systems, including the next-generation spacesuit which astronauts could wear to work outside the International Space Station and on the moon as well as Collins Universal Waste Management System and trash compactor.

The expansion of Collins Aerospace at the Houston Spaceport is a crucial next step in the citys journey to be the countrys premier next-generation aerospace and technical hub, said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. The innovative technologies created at this facility will also serve as the critical systems to support humankinds future space exploration and habitation. We look forward to fueling the future of aerospace right here in Houston.

Some 10,000 square feet of the facility will be dedicated to Houstons first-ever spaceflight incubator, where startups, universities and industry professionals will collaborate using robotics, medicine, additive manufacturing and more to solve complex space technology challenges.

The inauguration of the new facility included a ceremonial ribbon cutting with remarks from Collins executives, U.S. Senator and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations, and Innovation Ted Cruz; as well as U.S. Representative and Ranking Member of the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Brian Babin.

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Collins Aerospace Opens New Facility at the Houston Spaceport To Support Future Space Exploration - Aviation Pros

NASA's Artemis 1 mission is poised to take a key step toward returning humans to the Moon after a half-century hiatus. The launch was initially scheduled for the morning of Aug. 29, 2022 but was postponed due to an issue with one of the rocket's engines. NASA rescheduled the launch to Sept. 3, 2022, but the second launch attempt was scrubbed due to a hydrogen leak. There are numerous launch "windows" throughout the fall of 2022. The mission is a shakedown cruise sans crew for NASA's Space Launch System and Orion Crew Capsule.

The spacecraft is scheduled to travel to the Moon, deploy some small satellites and then settle into orbit. NASA aims to practice operating the spacecraft, test the conditions crews will experience on and around the Moon, and assure everyone that the spacecraft and any occupants can safely return to Earth.

The Conversation asked Jack Burns, a professor and space scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder and former member of the Presidential Transition Team for NASA, to describe the mission, explain what the Artemis program promises to do for space exploration, and reflect on how the space program has changed in the half-century since humans last set foot on the lunar surface.

Artemis 1 is going to be the first flight of the new Space Launch System. This is a "heavy lift" vehicle, as NASA refers to it. It will be the most powerful rocket engine ever flown to space, even more powerful than Apollo's Saturn V system that took astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and '70s.

It's a new type of rocket system, because it has both a combination of liquid oxygen and hydrogen main engines and two strap-on solid rocket boosters derived from the space shuttle. It's really a hybrid between the space shuttle and Apollo's Saturn V rocket.

Testing is very important, because the Orion Crew Capsule is going to be getting a real workout. It will be in the space environment of the Moon, a high-radiation environment, for a month. And, very importantly, it will be testing the heat shield, which protects the capsule and its occupants, when it comes back to the Earth at 25,000 miles per hour. This will be the fastest capsule reentry since Apollo, so it's very important that the heat shield function well.

This mission is also going to carry a series of small satellites that will be placed in orbit of the Moon. Those will do some useful precursor science, everything from looking further into the permanently shadowed craters where scientists think there is water to just doing more measurements of the radiation environment, seeing what the effects will be on humans for long-term exposure.

The mission is a first step toward Artemis 3, which is going to result in the first human missions to the Moon in the 21st century and the first since 1972. Artemis 1 is an uncrewed test flight.

Artemis 2, which is scheduled to launch a few years after that, will have astronauts on board. It, too, will be an orbital mission, very much like Apollo 8, which circled the Moon and came back home. The astronauts will spend a longer time orbiting the Moon and will test everything with a human crew.

And, finally, that will lead to a journey to the surface of the Moon in which Artemis 3 sometime mid-decade will rendezvous with the SpaceX Starship and transfer crew. Orion will remain in orbit, and the lunar Starship will take the astronauts to the surface. They will go to the south pole of the Moon to look at an area scientists haven't explored before to investigate the water ice there.

The reason for Apollo that Kennedy envisioned initially was to beat the Soviet Union to the Moon. The administration didn't particularly care about space travel, or about the Moon itself, but it represented an audacious goal that would clearly put America first in terms of space and technology.

The downside of doing that is the old saying "You live by the sword, you die by the sword." When the U.S. got to the Moon, it was basically game over. We beat the Russians. So we put some flags down and did some science experiments. But pretty quickly after Apollo 11, within a few more missions, Richard Nixon canceled the program because the political objectives had been met.

So fast-forward 50 years. This is a very different environment. We are not doing this to beat the Russians or the Chinese or anybody else, but to begin a sustainable exploration beyond Earth's orbit.

The Artemis program is driven by a number of different goals. It includes in situ resource utilization, which means using resources at hand like water ice and lunar soil to produce food, fuel and building materials.

The program is also helping to establish a lunar and space economy, starting with entrepreneurs, because SpaceX is very much part of this first mission to the surface of the Moon. NASA doesn't own the Starship but is buying seats to allow astronauts to go to the surface. SpaceX will then use the Starship for other purposes to transport other payloads, private astronauts and astronauts from other countries.

Fifty years of technology development means that going to the Moon now is much less expensive and more technologically feasible, and much more sophisticated experiments are possible when you just figure the computer technology. Those 50 years of technological advancement have been a complete game-changer. Almost anybody with the financial resources can send spacecraft to the Moon now, though not necessarily with humans.

NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services contracts private companies to build uncrewed landers to go to the Moon. My colleagues and I have a radio telescope that's going to the Moon on one of the landers in January. That just wouldn't have been possible even 10 years ago.

The administration has said that in that first crewed flight, on Artemis 3, there will be at least one woman and very likely a person of color. They may be one and the same. There may be several.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of that diversity, because young kids today who are looking up at NASA can say, "Hey, there's an astronaut who looks like me. I can do this. I can be part of the space program."

This article was updated on Sept. 3, 2022 to indicate that the launch was postponed a second time.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Why NASA's moon-bound Artemis 1 mission matters - Salon

Sara Sabry, the first Egyptian to reach space, is pursuing a doctorate in Aerospace Sciencesat UND

If UND students share stories of what they did over the summer, Sara Sabrys tale likely will top them all: She went into space.

Being the first Egyptian woman to visit space the first Egyptian person to reach space, period means a full schedule of appearances. Sabry, along with five other people, participated in Blue Origins sixth manned spaceflight on Aug. 4, which launched from Texas. The private spaceflight company is owned by business magnate Jeff Bezos.

Sabry attended orientation on Aug. 17 to familiarize herself with the UND campus and the various labs and facets of the doctoral program in Aerospace Sciences she will be working to complete. Shortly after orientation, she set off for Florida for training with the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences. After a circuitous trip across portions of the U.S. and Europe, shell return to her studies.

I have a lot of travel coming up, she said, sitting among the spacesuits kept in the Human Spaceflight Laboratory in Clifford Hall, though terrestrial travel certainly cant compare to extraterrestrial.

And a lot of travel is something of an understatement. At the IIAS in Florida, Sabry underwent training designed to prepare astronauts to do research in space. She also underwent training on how to deal with hypoxia a lack of oxygen and training to experience high-gravitational forces, the latter of which she said would have come in handy for her own spaceflight.

I wish I had done the high-G force training before my actual spaceflight, because I did experience very high Gs, she told UND Today.

After Florida, Sabry will go to Jordan, where she will speak with children interested in the space field. From there, she will attend the International Astronautical Congress in Paris before returning to Egypt for another conference and a series of media interviews about her recent spaceflight. Before returning to UND, she probably will spend a little time in Berlin, where she previously lived and worked.

Designing and evaluating a spacesuit is an interdisciplinary activity that involves experts in the fields of Space Studies, Biomechanics, Kinesiology and others. Sabry, who studied mechanical engineering before earning a masters degree in biomedical/medical engineering, said she was drawn to UND by the collaborative nature of the Department of Space Studies in the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences.

Working in that collaborative environment, she said, will allow her to draw on her educational background. Spacesuit design and functionality blends her interests in medical and mechanical engineering.

I was really interested in how systems touch the health of astronauts, and spacesuits do just that they keep you alive in space, and they allow you to perform the tasks that you need to do, she said.

At UND, Sabry will work with Space Studies Professor Pablo de Len, who has an extensive history of spacesuit design and testing. De Len said Sabrys unique experience with spaceflight will be a valuable addition to UND Space Studies. Her addition to the program speaks to the quality of education and research going on at the University.

We have been attracting the best students from all over the world and, the fact that Sara selected UND to do her Ph.D. is clear proof of that, he said.

De Len is a familiar figure for Sabry, as she has followed his research. About a year ago, she founded the nonprofit organization Deep Space Initiative, which seeks to bring about deep space exploration while expanding access to the fields of space science. De Len is an advisor to the organization.

Now a few weeks after her spaceflight, Sabry said she still is trying to process the experience.

She was selected from thousands of candidates to go on the Blue Origin rocket and was sponsored by the nonprofit organization Space for Humanity, an organization that aims to expand access to space and train future leaders.

Sabry loves to describe the overview effect, defined by Space for Humanity as the cognitive shift in awareness that occurs when a human being looks down on the Earth from space. Sabry, who on Aug. 4 crossed the Krmn line the threshold between Earths atmosphere and outer space some 60 miles above the surface of the planet said she was overcome with emotion when her feet were finally back on the ground.

I am passionate about talking about the overview effect, so I can talk about it for hours, she said. I have this newfound connection with space, with why were trying to explore it. This new reality that Im living in is like, if Im going to put it into words, there is no separation between Earth and space, and that we are right there.

Sabrys spaceflight has meaning beyond her opened perception. She is using it to instill hope and the benefits of education in Egyptian children. Growing up, she never saw a person in the space field who looked like her, she said. Shes hoping her example can serve as a source of inspiration.

Education is really important, she said. Its one of the most essential tools to gain control of your life, and to make things happen that people have told you before could never happen.

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Where no Egyptian has gone before - UND Today - University of North Dakota

Although NASAs first attempt at launching its Artemis rocket was ultimately scrubbed, the space launch system (SLS) and the Artemis program, in general, represent a new international focus on space, the moon, and beyond. Inventors and their innovations drive that dream, so it is valuable to assess the nature of intellectual property protection that those inventors might be granted in space.Intellectual property law, although often influenced by international agreements, is inherently local. A nations IP laws are effectively territorial rights that extend only as far (with a handful of judicial exceptions, e.g., WesternGeco LLC v. ION Geophysical Corp) as its physical borders. For the most part that excludes outer space, wherever that is. However, like many aspects of the law of space, we can look to the laws of other provinces of mankind here on earth including, for example, the high seas and Antarctica, to determine to what extent there is IP law in space.

The 1952 US Patent Act codified case law dating back to the 1865 Gardiner v. Howe case in legislating that US patent law jurisdiction extends to US-flagged ships on the high seas. Again, in 1990, the US congress applied Gardiner to extend US patent jurisdiction over US-controlled spaceships as well (Codified as 35 US 105).

Article 21 of the IGA which is devoted specifically to intellectual property on the ISS notes that infringing activities in any component within the ISS are deemed to have occurred in the nation state where that component is registered. This jurisdiction is not absolute. IP rules relating to secrecy do not extend to non-nationals that invent in those modules as they might on Earth.

Artemis aims to put humans on the Moon, Mars, and beyond which raises the question as to what sort of intellectual property laws if any will be enforced off of Earth and not on a registered space vessel. I.e., on the surface of the Moon.

As a viable space flag of convenience, we might see a huge increase in the number of foreign patentees in Israel (at last count there were around 1600 foreign applications per year, mostly pharmaceuticals) seeking to circumvent this loophole and patent in Israeli jurisdiction, as well as putative infringers seeking to register and launch their space vehicles from an Israeli commercial space port.In the meantime, the only current earth-based explorers, and potential patent infringers, on the moon or anywhere else in the solar system will continue to be robots. Consider, Mars is the only known planet wholly inhabited by robots. Could AI machines operating in outer space be infringers of patents? Could you sue for infringement? Who would you even sue?

Prof. Dov Greenbaum is the director of the Zvi Meitar Institute for Legal Implications of Emerging Technologies at the Harry Radzyner Law School, at Reichman University.

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Israels space race has an IP issue that needs its own exploration - CTech

While directing the documentary Good Night Oppy, which recalls the 15-year journey of the Mars rover Opportunity, Ryan White interviewed NASA scientists, dug through exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, and worked with Industrial Light & Magic to recreate the robots journey. But highlight of the whole experience were the notes he got from one of the films producers.

His name was Steven Spielberg.

It was crazy, White said in a recent interview with IndieWire over Zoom. Not to take anything away from other producers, but Spielbergs notes were one of a kind. They were so incisive. The veteran filmmakers involvement with the project came through his company Amblin, which set up the project with production company Film 45 and secured NASAs commitment prior to Whites signing on. Spielbergs name played a huge role in getting NASA onboard, White said. Theyre pretty protective.

Its easy to see why: Good Night Oppy, which Amazon will premiere at Telluride and TIFF this month, presents a far more emotional perspective of NASA engineers than the calculated image that the government body usually offers up. The story of the rover which explored nearly 30 miles of Mars surface between 2003 and 2018 features stunning, photorealistic renderings of what it looked like on the surface of the planet. Yet the movie stands out from a slew of space-themed projects because its just as much about the people guiding the mission, and often conveys a Spielbergian sense of awe.

White, whose previous credits include crowdpleasers The Case Against 8 and Ask Dr. Ruth, may not seem like the most obvious fit for a big-budget documentary about planetary exploration. But he was sold on the basic pitch: the robot that was supposed to live 90 days and ended up surviving for 15 years. I loved space films growing up and always wanted to do one once I became a documentary filmmaker, but all the ones that had ever been presented to us just werent the right fit, he said, citing portraits of astronauts as the most common type of project making the rounds. A lot of the things that Ive been pitched arent the types of things that I would want to make, he said. It needed to be a real character-driven film.

Using detailed footage the NASA command center, which also oversaw the mission of Opportunitys twin Spirit, the movie explores how the Opportunity team cared for the machine they lovingly called Oppy despite the seeming absurdity of that relationship. Their investment in the mission is paired with recreations that stop just short of making the rover seem like a sentient being.

The most common conversation in the edit room was how much we were anthropomorphizing the robot versus the people that were telling the story, White said. I dont think any of us expected scientists and engineers to be this emotional or wear their hearts on their sleeves.

White said Spielbergs notes were crucial here. The most important one I got from him was about walking that tightrope of emotion and not manipulating the audience too much, he said. His notes were incredibly helpful in that way of making sure that the audience does fall in love with the robot without forcing it.

White and his filmmaking team were able to dig through some 600 hours of footage from the mission, and while NASA had approved all the footage it released for the project, producer Jessica Hargrave said that they never got involved in the editing process. It never felt that there was influence or control coming from them, she said. They knew what we wanted to do.

The mission control footage features staffers who grow up with the mission and many endearing scenes of the teams rituals as they live on Mars time, including a string of hilarious wake up songs. As the filmmakers realized how the Opportunity mission became central to the lives of their subjects, their closeness to the robot grew more tangible.

But the real hurdle for the filmmaking team came from the animated sequences set on the surface, which take up nearly half of the runtime. White wrote a script for the movie and developed sequences with veteran storyboard artist Josh Sheppard (The Batman), but the filmmaker realized he was in new terrain literally and figuratively when it came to special effects. At the beginning, I had no idea what I was doing, he said. All CGI starts as really crude animatics. As a director, you have to really trust that ILM is going to carry it out in a way thats not cheesy. We were always saying we didnt want it to feel like a cartoon.

The VFX studio pulled from thousands of images of the Mars surface, including several taken by Mars orbiters that were originally treated as additional characters in the film for an earlier cut. The approach continued to evolve last year, when new rover Perseverance landed on the surface and captured audio of wind from the planet for the first time. Working with sound designer Mark Mangini, who recently won the Oscar for Dune and also worked on Mad Max: Fury Road, the filmmakers were able to incorporate the wind recordings into the soundscape of the movie. At times the images of the robot making its way through the desert landscape bears a marked similarity to Wall-E, a comparison that was not lost on the team. We talked about Wall-E a lot, White said. We were always reminding ourselves, Were making a documentary, were not making a Pixar film. The science and authenticity was important.

Still, when White pitched the project to buyers in 2020, he brought up several narrative comparisons over documentaries. We were always saying its like E.T. meets Wall-E meets Her, because of the human-machine connection, White said. (The 80s were big on that theme: Flight of the Navigator and Harry and the Hendersons also came up.) The idea was that the audience had to fall in love with a non-human character whos going to leave in the end or die, in this case but it still had to be a family film, White said. At the same time, we didnt want to dumb it down. We knew that would do no justice to the engineers and the scientists.

They tested rough cuts with family audiences, including Hargraves young children. They understood it less, but there was still that sense of wonder and awe, which would ont feel as much as an adult, she said. That response confirmed an observation by the former Opportunity scientist Steve Squires, who says in the movie that while an eight-year-old might not understand spectroscopy, show them a robot and their eyes light up.

With time, White said the enthusiasm for the robots journey was infectious. We were also finding ourselves falling in love with Opportunity, even though we never knew her, through the people and their bond that they had with her, he said. It is a box of wires and it is an inanimate object, but it feels alive to the people who made it.

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He was concerned that Squyres (who will attend Telluride to promote the film) would be troubled by the way the movie turned out. I was worried he was going to say something like, This was way too much of a Disney film,' White said. But he thought it stuck the perfect emotional balance of how they felt about her.

Good Night Oppy arrives at a pivotal moment in the history of planetary exploration, as NASAs Artemis mission gears up for future missions to the moon and the privatization of the industry means many more missions are around the corner (including those from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos Blue Origin, which is not associated with the project). That bigger picture was intentionally left out of the movie. Its more about what we can learn from that planet and apply to ours, Hargrave said. I think thats why people have really tried to put forward the research that needs to go into that planet specifically how it can relate to and affect this one.

Needless to say, White said the experience made him curious about the possibility of traveling to space one day but he was hardly interested in signing up for any future plans to colonize the red planet. Mars sounds like an awful place to live, he said. Its pretty boring, too.

Amazon releases Good Night Oppy in theaters on Friday, November 4 and on Prime Video on Wednesday, November 23.

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Steven Spielberg and Wall-E Inspired Mars Exploration Doc Good Night Oppy - IndieWire