Category Archives: Space Exploration

Artists representation of IXPE in Earth orbit. Credit: NASA

Researchers introduce an imaging X-ray polarimetry mission that enables new measurements of cosmic X-ray sources.

Humankind has long been fascinated by the secrets hidden in the immense expanse of outer space. The invention of the optical telescope during the 17th century allowed humans to see stars appearing as mere twinkling dots in the night sky. Thanks to scientific innovations over the next four centuries, we can now launch telescopes into space to get a better look at astronomical objects and even study them at wavelengths beyond the visible spectrum. The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) launched by NASA on December 9, 2021, is one such expedition into the cosmos.

The IXPE is a space-based observatory developed in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI). It contains three identical telescopes, each with an imaging X-ray detector sensitive to light polarization at its focus. Equipped with these, IXPE can explore some of the brightest cosmic X-ray sources in our universe, such as pulsars, black holes, and neutron stars. With a 2-year baseline mission, IXPE will start off by studying dozens of X-ray sources in its first year, which will be followed by more detailed observations of the chosen targets in the second year.

The IXPE with the deployed coilable boom during testing. The boom provides a focal length of 4 meters and positions each of the mirror module assemblies above its respective X-ray detector unit. Credit: Ball Aerospace

Conceived in 2017, this multi-national project became a reality in 2021 owing to the participation of several space agencies that came together to realize different aspects of the mission. A recent article published in the Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems provides a detailed description of the optics and detectors of IXPE and the scientific goals of the mission.

IXPE was launched on a reusable Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center into an equatorial orbit at an altitude of 600 km. This orbit was chosen to reduce the charged-particle background, maximize the lifetime of the explorer and allow easier regular data downloads to primary and backup ground stations (Kenya and Singapore, respectively). The observatory uses an array of 12 sun sensors, a three-axis magnetometer, and two star trackers to maintain its course in space.

Photograph of the IXPE Observatory in the stowed position on a vibration table during observatory environmental testing. Credit: Ball Aerospace

Each telescope in the IXPE observatory comprises a mirror module assembly (MMA). The MMA focuses X-rays into polarization-sensitive detector units (DUs). The DUs, in turn, help in energy and position determination by providing timing information and polarization sensitivity data. The information collected by the DUs is relayed to the detector service unit (DSU), which processes the data and transmits it to the ground. A lightweight, coilable boom is deployed after launch to ensure the correct focal length and to align the MMAs with the DUs. Additionally, a tip-tilt-rotate mechanism exists on board, which can be used to align the mirrors with the detectors as well.

After the initial stages of alignment and calibration, IXPE began its baseline mission, providing high-quality polarization data of various sources. The first imaging data was reported in February. The IXPE team expects that the most striking early images will likely come from the remnants of shell-type supernova (a supernova that emits most of its radiation from a shell of shocked material). They believe that IXPE will also be able to image active galaxies, the galactic center of the Milky Way galaxy, and blazars, a type of galaxy that emits powerful jets of ionized matter and radiation. This will provide an opportunity to push the envelope of observations even further by exploring new source types of particular interest to gain physical insights.

The astrophysics community has been looking forward to this capability IXPE opens a new window on the X-ray sky by providing orders of magnitude higher sensitivity than previous X-ray polarimeters in space, said Megan Eckart, deputy editor for JATIS.

A marvel of science and engineering, IXPE will provide the first information about X-ray polarization for many astronomical sources. With its state-of-the-art telescopes and detectors, IXPE has the potential to expand the horizons of our knowledge about the universe.

Reference: Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer: prelaunch by Martin C. Weisskopf, Paolo Soffitta, Luca Baldini, Brian D. Ramsey, Stephen L. ODell, Roger W. Romani, Giorgio Matt, William D. Deininger, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Enrico Costa, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Luca Latronico, Herman L. Marshall, Fabio Muleri, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Allyn Tennant, Niccolo Bucciantini, Michal Dovciak, Frdric Marin, Alan Marscher, Juri Poutanen, Pat Slane, Roberto Turolla, William Kalinowski, Alessandro Di Marco, Sergio Fabiani, Massimo Minuti, Fabio La Monaca, Michele Pinchera, John Rankin, Carmelo Sgr, Alessio Trois, Fei Xie, Cheryl Alexander, D. Zachery Allen, Fabrizio Amici, Jason Andersen, Angelo Antonelli, Spencer Antoniak, Primo Attin, Mattia Barbanera, Matteo Bachetti , Randy M. Baggett, Jeff Bladt, Alessandro Brez, Raffaella Bonino, Christopher Boree, Fabio Borotto, Shawn Breeding, Daniele Brienza, H. Kyle Bygott, Ciro Caporale, Claudia Cardelli, Rita Carpentiero, Simone Castellano, Marco Castronuovo, Luca Cavalli, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Marco Ceccanti, Mauro Centrone, Saverio Citraro, Fabio DAmico, Elisa DAlba, Laura Di Gesu, Ettore Del Monte, Kurtis L. Dietz, Niccol Di Lalla, Giuseppe Di Persio, David Dolan, Immacolata Donnarumma, Yuri Evangelista, Kevin Ferrant, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, MacKenzie Ferrie, Joseph Footdale, Brent Forsyth, Michelle Foster, Benjamin Garelick, Shuichi Gunji, Eli Gurnee, Michael Head, Grant Hibbard, Samantha Johnson, Erik Kelly, Kiranmayee Kilaru, Carlo Lefevre, Shelley Le Roy, Pasqualino Loffredo, Paolo Lorenzi, Leonardo Lucchesi, Tyler Maddox, Guido Magazzu, Simone Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Elio Mangraviti, Marco Marengo, Alessandra Marrocchesi, Francesco Massaro, David Mauger, Jeffery McCracken, Michael McEachen, Rondal Mize, Paolo Mereu, Scott Mitchell, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Alfredo Morbidini, Federico Mosti, Hikmat Nasimi, Barbara Negri, Michela Negro, Toan Nguyen, Isaac Nitschke, Alessio Nuti, Mitch Onizuka, Chiara Oppedisano, Leonardo Orsini, Darren Osborne, Richard Pacheco, Alessandro Paggi, Will Painter, Steven D. Pavelitz, Christina Pentz, Raffaele Piazzolla, Matteo Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Colin Peterson, Maura Pilia, Alessandro Profeti, Simonetta Puccetti, Jaganathan Ranganathan, Ajay Ratheesh, Lee Reedy, Noah Root, Alda Rubini, Stephanie Ruswick, Javier Sanchez, Paolo Sarra, Francesco Santoli, Emanuele Scalise, Andrea Sciortino, Christopher Schroeder, Tim Seek, Kalie Sosdian, Gloria Spandre, Chet O. Speegle, Toru Tamagawa, Marcello Tardiola, Antonino Tobia, Nicholas E. Thomas, Robert Valerie, Marco Vimercati, Amy L. Walden, Bruce Weddendorf, Jeffrey Wedmore, David Welch, Davide Zanetti and Francesco Zanetti, 14 April 2022, Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems.DOI: 10.1117/1.JATIS.8.2.026002

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X-Ray Polarimetry: Pushing the Boundaries of Space Exploration - SciTechDaily

NASA Glenn Research Center is set to host the third annual Ohio Space Forum, an event highlighting the state's role in space exploration, security and developing a future space workforce.

The two-day event on May 17-18 includes a tour of the NASA Glenn facility and brings together military, industry and academic leaders in the fields of space research, operations, intelligence, exploration and defense.

The forum provides companies in the space and aerospace industry, or those interested in working directly with NASA Glenn, the opportunity to hear from and speak with NASA and industry leaders.

Speakers at the event include James Free, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems development; Col. (retired) Pamela Melroy, NASA's deputy administrator and former astronaut; and Col. Maurizio D. Calabrese, commander of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The agenda features an examination of Ohio's role in space exploration, including an update on the state's part in designing systems to help the country return to the moon in 2024. Other topics include Ohio's role in commercial low-Earth orbit space stations; national security work with the National Air and Space Intelligence Center; and developing a future space workforce.

The program is organized by Dayton Development Coalition and its partners: Ohio Aerospace Institute, Team NEO, Greater Cleveland Partnership and JumpStart. Registration for the event ends May 10.

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NASA Glenn hosts forum on Ohio's role in space travel and defense - Crain's Cleveland Business

Bernie is whining about the Space Race again.

In a column for The Guardian, Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders lauded the 1969 moon landing as a triumph of the state, a shining example of political will and democratic socialist ideals. Now, he says, the capitalists have moved in after a huge effort to privatize space exploration, with the risks being socialized and shouldered by taxpayers.

It is an irresistible narrative: tax-dodging billionaires using tax money to colonize the universe! How could Sanders resist it? How could The Guardian? How could Twitter?

Scratch the surface, though, and you find shallow populist posturing. Sanders is rewriting history and cynically framing a net positive win-win as exploitation.

To start, the moon landing involved numerous private space contractors, as Tim Fernholz of Quartz pointed out last year, when Sanders ally Rep. Jamaal Bowman said, We got to the moon without private contractors. NASA administrator Bill Nelson retorted, We got to the moon with American corporations.

The fact is, there was only one fully public space program that tried to land on the moonand it was run by the Soviet Union. Sanders and Bowman were echoing the same kind of politically convenient revisionist history.

But theres another hole in Sanders narrative.

The huge effort to privatize space exploration was, in part, the result of efforts to defund NASA, which Sanders voted to do in 1996, 2000, and 2012. Ironically, it was this chronic underfunding that prompted Elon Musk to create SpaceXafter he discovered that NASA didnt have a deadline to land on Mars.

When confronted about his voting record, Sanders said it was due to a difficult choice about whether you vote to provide food for hungry kids or health care for people who have none and other programs. He qualified the statement by saying that in general he supported increased funding for NASA.

The implication: we have bigger fish to fry before spending tax money on space.

Sanders was more explicit last year, when he tweeted: Space travel is an exciting idea, but right now we need to focus on Earth and create a progressive tax system.

It is unsurprising that Sanders would prioritize inequality over space exploration, but it begs the question of whether he would have supported the moon missionor even the creation of NASAhad he been an elected official at the time.

The financing and political will Sanders lauded in his articlethe democratic collectivist spirit of yoreis another feel good myth not backed by facts.

A 1965 Harris poll showed 57 percent of Americans believed money would be better spent on a less literal moonshot: new water desalination systems. A few years later, in 1967, only 43 percent of the public supported landing a man on the moon, according to another Harris poll. It was popularly referred to as a moondoggle. Fiscal conservatives argued it was a waste. As for the left, many couldnt square the budget with existing prioritieslike inequality. This attitude was encapsulated in the 1970 spoken word poem by Gil Scott Heron, Whitey on the Moon, a song that has gained renewed popularity in context of the new space race.

Ironically, The Guardian in July 1969 called a teachers union official a cynic for saying the moon landing was, A trivial prestige exercise which ignored the social conditions existing in the world.

It doesnt take a leap of imagination to believe Sanders would have taken this very same stand back in the 1960sespecially because the moon mission did actually involve corporate contractors.

The Vermont senator repeatedly voted to defund NASA, opposed public private space exploration, and said Bezos and Musk shouldnt be rich enough to fund space exploration. But even with a huge tax on unrealized gains, would Sanders be in favor of using any of the new tax revenue for space exploration?

Sanders helped create the vacuum that Musk and Bezos are fillingand both of the latter took on great financial risk to do so.

The abundance and equality Sanders and company seek is within reach, but only if they dont treat every private endeavor as exploitation, every technology as dystopian, and every government contract as corporate welfare.

The notion that NASA is socializing risk ignores the fact Musk endured three failed rocket launches and was only saved from bankruptcy thanks to a NASA contract, awarded after a fourth launch (this one, successful). This privatized risk, paved the way to reusable rockets, and reduced launch costs by orders of magnitude for NASA. Or, in other words, it socialized enormous gains.

Bezos similarly sank some $7 billion into his Blue Origin space exploration project before getting its big moon lander contract with NASA. If only Sanders and his ilk appreciated reusable rockets as much as reusable straws.

Outrage about portions of the federal budget going to American companies employing American workers is similarly disingenuous, because it ignores the alternative. That money could have been going to the genocidal Russian government instead.

Prior to the tech-bros showing up on the space scene, NASA was hopelessly dependent on Russia for space travel. The few contracts NASA still has with Russia are now in doubt, as the head of its space program threatened to dash the International Space Station into the sea and refuse to bring US astronauts back to earththreats Elon Musk has offered to mitigate.

In the final paragraphs of his opinion column, Sen. Sanders conceded space exploration offers massive potential to improve life on earth, but also warned it could make the rich richeras if those are always mutually exclusive choices.

You only have to look to Ukrainewhere SpaceXs satellite internet system Starlink has provided rapidly deployed and crucial internet connections for journalists and the militaryto refute this binary notion.

Sanders rails against a greed is good mindset, with an equally shallow and reductive mindset of profit is bad. It epitomizes a Marxist view of technology that has become increasingly influential, where people yearn for public versions of technologies that governments could never have producedsuch as the EUs failed Google competitor.

To the technological Marxists, every quid pro quo is exploitation and every user is being used, no matter the upsides to consumers. Theyre fiscally progressive, until private contractors offer the best means to a public endthen the likes of Bezos and Musk are cast as welfare kings. They prefer government-built disposable rockets over privately built reusable ones; $20,000 per kilogram nonprofit payloads over $2,000 per kilogram for-profit ones; for human consciousness to remain grounded on earth rather than for capitalists to reach the moon or Mars.

The abundance and equality Sanders and company seek is within reach, but only if they dont treat every private endeavor as exploitation, every technology as dystopian, and every government contract as corporate welfare.

Reusable rocketsborn of private enterprisehave created a new reality where space exploration wont need to use so much of the federal budget, and portend a more abundant future where we dont have to make tradeoffs between exploring the stars, feeding the hungry, or developing new desalination technology.

If it turns a billionaire into a trillionaire, so what? Thats just more wealth for Sanders and his ilk to tax!

Continued here:

Bernie Sanders Would Have Voted Against the Moon Landing - The Daily Beast

The famous Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky once said, Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot remain in the cradle forever. Tsiolkovsky is often hailed as one of the fathers of rocketry and cosmonautics and remembered for believing in the dominance of humanity throughout space, also known as anthropocosmism. His work in the late-19th and early-20th centuries helped shape space exploration several decades before humanity first walked on the Moon.

The second half of Tsiolkovskys famous quote refers to not just living on the Earth but relying on it as we venture farther out into the cosmos. Even today, as the International Space Station orbits above at 28,000 kilometers per hour (17,500 miles per hour), those astronauts require constant resupply from the ground to stay alive. Future astronauts on the Moon might only have to wait three days to receive supplies from Earth, but as we move farther out into space, especially to Mars, this reliance will undoubtedly become far more tedious, time-consuming, and costly. Therefore, if humanity is to establish a long-term presence in space, we have to learn to use the on-hand resources we have at our disposal.

A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has developed a sustainable method for making bricks out of Martian soil, using bacteria and urea. Mammals, including humans, are the primary producers of urea. Because they secrete urea as the primary nitrogenous waste product, they are called ureotelic animals. Urea serves an important role in the metabolism of nitrogen-containing compounds by animals. These so-called space bricks can be used to construct building-like structures on Mars that could facilitate human settlement on the Red Planet.

The method for making these space bricks was published in PLOS One. A slurry is first created by mixing Martian soil (simulant) with guar gum, a bacterium calledSporosarcina pasteurii, urea and nickel chloride (NiCl2). This slurry can be poured into molds of any desired shape, and over a few days the bacteria convert the urea into crystals of calcium carbonate. These crystals, along with biopolymers secreted by the microbes, act as cement holding the soil particles together. An advantage of this method is the reduced porosity of the bricks, which has been a problem with other methods used to consolidate Martian soil into bricks.

The bacteria seep deep into the pore spaces, using their own proteins to bind the particles together, decreasing porosity and leading to stronger bricks, says Aloke Kumar, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IISc, one of the senior authors of the paper.

The group plans to investigate the effect of Mars atmosphere and low gravity on the strength of the space bricks. The Martian atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earths atmosphere, and contains over 95% carbon dioxide, which may significantly affect bacterial growth. The researchers have constructed a device called MARS (Martian AtmospheRe Simulator), which consists of a chamber that reproduces the atmospheric conditions found on Mars in the lab.

In-Situ Resource Utilization

The IISc study published in PLOS One is based on a practice known as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), which refers to generating products from local materials, or essentially living off the land. As stated earlier, the farther humanity ventures out into space, the more important it will be to generate products from local materials as resupplies from Earth will be tedious, time-consuming, and costly. The European Space Agency is currently working on the ISRU Demonstration Mission, whose goal is to show, by 2025, that water or oxygen production on the Moon is feasible. NASAsLunar Surface Innovation Initiativewill also develop and demonstrate technologies to use the Moons resources to produce water, fuel, and other supplies as well as capabilities to excavate and construct structures on the Moon.

Indian Institute of Science

The Indian Institute of Science is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, in the Indian state of Karnataka. The IISc Department of Mechanical Engineering conducts research in areas such as Biomechanics and Medical Devices; Fluid Mechanics and Flow Physics; Heat Transfer and Energy Systems; Manufacturing and Materials; Mechanics of Solids and Structures; Mechanisms, Designs, and Optimization; Micro- and Nanoscale Processes and Devices; Robotics and Autonomous Systems; and Vibrations, Acoustics, and Control. Nitin Gupta, who is second author on the study, is a PhD student in the IISc Department of Mechanical Engineering whose research focuses on mechanical and materials characterization of bio-consolidates, made up of lunar soil regolith, using techniques such as XRD, micro-CT, SEM, UTM, TGA, and high-rate testing.

What will future ISRU studies reveal about how we can live and work in outer space for the long-term? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

Sources: Indian Institute of Science (1), Indian Institute of Science (2), NASA (1), LibreTexts, PLOS One, NASA (2), European Space Agency, NASA (3), Indian Institute of Science (3), LinkedIn

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Explorers Could Build Bricks on Mars with Bacteria and Pee - Universe Today

Bethesda Softworks newest look at its space-exploration role-playing game Starfield is primarily for your ears, but a new discussion between composer Inon Zur and audio director Mark Lampert also has some treats for the eye, in the form of enticing concept art of alien worlds and vast, unexplored space.

In a new episode released Tuesday from Bethesdas Into the Starfield series previous episodes have highlighted the games visual design and its companions and conversations Zur and Lampert wax on the emotional dimension of Starfield. Thats music, of course, and the latest look at/listen to Starfield offers plenty of it. Zur discusses the challenges of creating the signature and themes, and breaks down how elements of the orchestra represent everything from the particles of space to the journey to and return from the far reaches of space.

Starfield will have its share of interactive and hopefully memorable companions as players embark on their adventure, but Lampert hopes that the games music and sound design will serve as a different sort of ever-present companion.

We dont have control over how the player chooses to experience the game, Lampert said. The music has a funny way of playing the right chord change at the right time, and a lot of that just happens at random. You look over the valley at just the right moment, and that just happens to be when this one chord change happens, and there are times like that that feel scripted and theyre not. And I like that each player has that experience for themselves, personally.

Starfield will be released Nov. 11 on Windows PC and Xbox Series X, and will be playable at launch through Xbox Game Pass.

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Starfields music will be your companion in Bethesdas new space RPG - Polygon

Artists concept of the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft approaching the Sun.

Is human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit a thing of the past? Will space tourism profit and expand in low-Earth orbit while the rough and tumble exploration of space beyond the Moon continue to be carried out via robotics?

These questions cut to the heart of The End of Astronauts: Why Robots Are The Future of Exploration, a thought-provoking new book co-authored by astrophysicists Donald Goldsmith and Martin Rees.

Although such arguments arent necessarily new, the authors make some salient new points that bear repeating here.

- Human space travel remains dangerous.

High energy solar and galactic particles are rife throughout the solar system. Beyond Earths Van Allen radiation belts, astronauts are particularly vulnerable to radiation from such particles.

For each month in space, human bone density can lessen by as much in 1.5 percent in weight-bearing locations of the body such as the hips and knees. Astronauts spending six months en route to Mars, would receive at least 60 percent of the total radiation dose recommended for a full career, the authors note. The return trip home would push them over the limit, even without a sudden increase from solar storms or flares, they note.

- In contrast to human space exploration, non-human robotic explorers have safely and efficiently reached the outer edges of our solar system.

Since its creation in 1958, NASA has spent about 60 percent more on human exploration than on robotic investigation of the cosmos, the authors write. We should note that the human exploration of space has so far extended only to the Moon

The End of Astronauts

- Space-based telescopes need not be serviceable by humans.

Although the Hubble space telescope wouldnt have been operational without the ability to rescue it from what Goldsmith and Rees term an otherwise fatal manufacturing defect, they do note that the director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, which manages the Hubble has said that the total cost of the five astronaut repair missions would have paid for building and launching seven replacement telescopes.

Its hard to know whether this would be the case, given rising costs for instrumentation and space observatories in general. But the point is well taken. And perhaps thats one reason the Hubbles follow-on observatory, NASAs James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), was never designed to be serviced by human astronauts, at least.

From its current solar orbit some one million miles from Earth, the James Webb is currently out of reach of a crewed service mission. But thus far it has proven to be well on track for full science operations set to begin this summer.

- Artificial platforms for space colonies would hardly be Valhallas.

Artists often depict space colonies as exciting and attractive, resembling a holiday resort, or some other realization of our hopes for a near-perfect environment, Goldsmith and Rees write. But the authors note that this is likely not to resemble the reality of such space colonies constructed in interplanetary space. They note that there will be great difficulty and danger in maintaining such huge artificial structures in space, as well as the technical challenges involved in their construction.

- But space platforms would potentially allow billions of people to live in space.

As Goldsmith and Rees point out, in his 1997 book Mining the Sky, the cosmo-chemist John Lewis lamented that "as long as the human population remains as pitifully small as it is today, we shall be severely limited in what we can accomplish. Lewis stressed that human intelligence is the key to the future.... Having only one Einstein, one da Vinci, one Bill Gates is not enough.

The implication is that maximizing our human potential might require increasing the human population a hundred-fold. Space platforms would offer humans a sustainable way to increase our numbers and thereby roll the die so that geniuses would become more commonplace. Who knows if such a scheme would work? Instead, it would just be easier to reengineer our brains artificially to make such once in a lifetime geniuses more commonplace than we could ever imagine.

This whole argument is a bit tangential to the books focus of why robots should prevail in space, at least for the time being.

Goldsmith and Rees make a compelling case for robotics over astronauts at least in the short term. But let's hope that 100 years from now, time and technology will allow us to have both robust human interplanetary spaceflight and state of the art robotic space science and exploration.

In the short term, however, it probably does make good sense to emphasize solar system exploration via robotics as has been brilliantly done by the national space agencies over the last 65 years. It's truly amazing and how much has been accomplished with so few dollars.

In time, let's hope that there is a meeting that that that there is a merger of sorts between the kind of robotics that can complement our human aspirations to travel into interstellar space in ways that are incomprehensible at present.

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Leave Space Exploration To The Robots, Says New Book - Forbes

Elon Musks successful takeover bid for Twitter has raised concerns about his plans for the social media platform, because of his political views. Historically those views have teetered left and right, but tend to gravitate towards libertarian. His anti-union stance as CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla has displeased liberals, even if they constitute his best automotive customers.

Objections to The Boring Company, his venture that proposes to build underground transportation networks beneath cities, fall not on ideological grounds but practical ones: some civil engineers just call it pie in the sky.

But there is one skyward thrust of Musks sci-tech empire that attracts almost universal praise the aerospace enterprise SpaceX. The Netflix documentary Return to Space, directed by Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, chronicles the companys development of a recyclable rocket and its collaboration with NASA to get this country back into human space exploration.

Space is his best look, Vasarhelyi says of Musk, tacitly acknowledging his controversial profile that includes expressing doubts about Covid vaccine mandates and hanging out with pal Joe Rogan, the podcaster who has admitted to past use of racist language. If we were doing just an Elon Musk documentary Im sure we would have spent a lot of time going into that. But it wasnt really about that.

The films primary focus is on the first crewed mission for SpaceX in 2020, which aimed to send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station. NASA hadnt put any astronauts into space since the last Shuttle flight in 2011. Vasarhelyi and Chin secured remarkable access to document the process, including the crew preparing for the mission and then the blastoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which propelled the companys Crew Dragon space capsule into orbit. And to Musk himself as the launch neared and the rocket took off.

In Return to Space, Musk appears intimately engaged in the details of the SpaceX-NASA mission not surprising, given that he is not only the CEO of SpaceX, but also its chief engineer. He hovers in the background at times, in a black sports coat, or inserts himself occasionally to inquire about technical points or to receive updates on the weather forecast before launch. Theres a faint resemblance to Hugo Drax of Moonraker, if only because of the common space theme and both characters immense wealth.

Elon Musks Crash Course: New York Times Documentary Set At FX

There was reason for Musk to feel comfortable with the filmmakers.

We had friends in common with Elon. We had spent some time together with him [previously], Vasarhelyi notes. SpaceX [access] was a thing, but the real kind of achievement, in many ways, was that NASA access because theyre just so notoriously, I dont know, controlling They ended up making the kind of accommodations that they normally never make.

The directors were permitted to use footage that Behnken and Hurley shot themselves. And they spent considerable time with then-NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.

I think we got lucky with Bridenstine because he was the first civilian administrator [of NASA], Vasarhelyi says. He let us shadow him. I think he understood the value of this type of storytelling.

The filmmakers sprinkle some wonderful human touches throughout, including Bridenstines fondness for a certain kind of caffeine-powered soda.

We could always curry favor with him by bringing him Mountain Dew, Vasarhelyi shares. Like, who knew?

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002. Many at the time scoffed at the idea of a commercial outfit manufacturing rockets for NASA use, including no less a figure than Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. Critics may have felt they had correctly foreseen the folly of SpaceX when the companys early efforts to create the Falcon rocket ended in spectacular explosions. But that was part of the process.

SpaceX really came at it with this basically new school startup mentality where it was, Fail fast and fail early and learn from your failures, Chin explains. Its kind of fast and furious compared to how people traditionally approached work and development in space travel.

Musk and his aeronautical engineers came up with other innovations besides the rocket itself; they also developed an escape system allowing astronauts in their capsule to separate from the booster rocket, in case of catastrophe after liftoff.

The inherent risk of space flight unites Return to Space with the earlier work of Chin and Vasarhelyi. In The Rescue, they documented the perilous effort to save children trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand; the Academy Award-winning Free Solo tracked climber Alex Honnold as he attempted to ascend Yosemites El Capitan granite rock face without aid of ropes. The rescuers who saved the Thai kids soberly assessed whether their intended plans could work; Honnold choreographed every inch of his climb to lessen the chance of a fatal plunge.

Its a familiar space or terrain for us to examine the process of risk assessment and calculation and mitigation. The heart of any high stakes situation is there is the stakes of the mission, but theres also the stakes of life and death, Chin observes. You have to have a true passion and belief in what youre doing when youre in that situation where you are calculating life and death risks. And thats really interesting to us because thats a look into why people do what they do, and then it also looks at the process.

The mission with Behnken and Hurley came off without a hitch. Earlier this month, SpaceX again in collaboration with NASA launched a former NASA astronaut and three paying customers to the ISS.

The mission is the first to go to the space station on which all of the passengers are private citizens, and it is the first time that NASA has collaborated in arranging a space tourism visit, The New York Times reported on April 8. The flight marked a pivotal moment in efforts to spur space travel by commercial enterprises, NASA officials said.

(If Musk had one eye on the launch, the other was on Twitter. On April 4 it was revealed he had bought a 9 percent stake in the company. On April 9, a day after the latest SpaceX blastoff, he announced he would not seek a seat on Twitters board. Then on April 14 he offered $43 billion to buy Twitter; today a deal was announced that would see him acquire the company for $44 billion).

At one point in Return to Space, Musk sports a t-shirt emblazoned with the words, Occupy Mars. He has articulated an outsized vision not only for SpaceX but for the human race. That would include a return to Earths only natural satellite, most recently visited by Apollo astronauts in late 1972.

Its been now almost half a century since humans were last on the moon. Thats too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the moon, Musk said last April. And then build a city on Mars to become a spacefaring civilization, a multi-planet species.

Vasarhelyi remarks, [Musk] truly believes in these ideas of consciousness, civilization and thinking about these questions.

But as for setting up house on the Red Planet, Vasarhelyi, for one, counts herself out.

I think life on Mars, the filmmaker says, sounds incredibly unpleasant.

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Elon Musk Likes Twitter, But Space Exploration Is His Real Love, As Seen In Netflix Doc Return To Space - Deadline

Speaking broadly, no one owns space. But when you start looking at the particulars, a more complex answer emerges. Major organizations and investors wouldnt be vying to get a piece of the space pie if there wasnt amazing money to be made. Besides the 130 official government agencies around the world that are dedicated to space, Space Techs 2021 report identified more than 10,000 private tech companies and 5,000 top investors in the space sector besides Elon Musks SpaceX, which tends to get the most of the attention.

Valued currently at $350 billion and projected to reach $1 trillion in value in less than two decades, the industry focused on space is about to explode. As a new frontier is about to be opened to unbridled exploration, will it be the Wild West all over again, but in space?

Much of what we accept as rules governing space was outlined by the Outer Space Treaty of 1967(Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies), afoundational agreement of international space law which was negotiated and drafted under the auspices of the United Nations. The treaty, which by now includes 111 countries as signatories, set out key principles of how Earths nations should think about the use of space. The treaty poetically designated space as the province of all mankind and declared that it must remain open to peaceful explorations and use by all equally.

The treaty also laid out rules about the Moon and other celestial bodies, declaring that they cannot be claimed by anyone sovereign nation. Notably, the treaty also stated that no nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction should ever be placed in space, although it left the door open for conventional weapons, as well as the establishment of military space forces.

One big drawback of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST) is that it didnt precisely define what outer space was. After all, where does space begin? Is Jeff Bezos really an astronaut? As Dr. Jill Stuart, editor of the journal Space Policy, explained to the BBC, "There is no official definition of outer space. She proposed that the Karman Line is generally the standard of physical demarcation, starting at about 62 miles (100km) above the Earth. The imaginary line describes the boundary between our planets atmosphere and outer space. The atmosphere at that altitude would be too thin to support aeronautical flight. Reaching that height, aircraft would need a propulsion system that doesnt rely on the lift generated by Earths atmosphere to keep going further.

You have to fly above the Karman line to earn the astronauts wings. By that definition, Jeff Bezos would be considered an astronaut (going up 106km), while his fellow billionaire space racer Richard Branson would not (as he went up only 86km).

If no one really owns space, then how do we proceed with space mining? After all, according to NASA estimates,the value of asteroids that could potentially be exploited for resources is in the neighborhood of $700 quintillion that number is so large that if you divide it up by the number of people on Earth, each person would still get about $95 billion. And it's not just idle talk NASA has recently unveiled the spacecraft it is planning to launch in the summer of 2022 to investigate the asteroid Psyche 16, potentially laden with valuable heavy metals.

Space mining could be the key to replenishing the Earths supplies of important resources as we continue to deplete it of riches. Extraterrestrial mining is also crucial to our further expansion into space, as we need to find and utilize materials in space like metals and minerals so that we dont have to keep bringing them from Earth. Getting these in space would allow us to build the tools and machines in space, as well as create the fuels and other materials we need to keep propelling ourselves farther and farther into the universe.

But if SpaceX or Google capture an asteroid, do they get to keep the spoils?

In their paper If space is the province of mankind,' who owns its resources?, space law experts Senjuti Mallick and Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan explain that in 2015, the United States legalized space mining through the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act by essentially embracing the doctrine of finders, keepers, as the researchers describe it.

The Act states, in particular, that A US citizen engaged in commercial recovery of an asteroid resource or a space resource shall be entitled to any asteroid resource or space resource obtained. So, if you manage to catch one, the asteroid is all yours.

Interestingly, in 2017 the small nation of Luxembourg passed a similar legal framework and has since become one of the key players in space mining research along with the U.S. Under Luxembourgs laws, mining companies can plunder all they can. Whats more, Luxembourg doesnt make it a prerequisite for the companys stakeholders to be based in the country. Just having an office in Luxembourg is enough an arrangement that makes it possible for other countries like Japan, Portugal, and UAE to enter into mining agreements with the forward-thinking European country.

China, India, and Russia are also looking to outer space for resources. In 2021, China test-fired what was touted as themost powerful solid rocket motorwith the largest thrust in the world so far.The 500 tons of thrust generated is meant to power next-gen heavy-lift rockets, allowing China to be competitive in deep space exploration and space mining.

Russias participation in the international communitys space missions has been affected by its ongoing war in Ukraine, with the head of its space agency threatening to pull its support of the International Space Station, which may come about by 2024. Russias official standing on asteroid mining is that its not allowed by the Outer Space Treaty, which states that space should be free for "exploration and use by all States." Nonetheless, Russia has been making plans to build a lunar base to extract Helium, and as Mallick and Rajagopalan write in their report, numerous Russian private tech companies like Dauria Aerospace are involved in developing plans for drilling rigs, 3d-printer-equipped space stations, and water extraction stations on the moon.

Russias stance that space mining may violate the Outer Space Treaty highlights the fact that theres still disagreement on the laws governing this developing industry. More regulations and agreements may be necessary as the extraction of resources in space gathers steam. Alternatively, more serious conflict may follow.

Some, like Russia, view the space mining legislation by the U.S. and Luxembourg as essentially exploiting loopholes. The laws of both countries claim to allow ownership of the resources that have been taken out but not of the asteroid itself. According to Mallick and Rajagopalan, thats essentially saying that a private organization would have the right to claim extracted resources while no national entity would be taking over the whole space body. As such, the OST would not be violated. However, some argue this does not correspond to the spirit of the Outer Space Treaty, which would have included the appropriation of resources in the prohibition against anyone owning space.

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Who owns space? Here's what laws govern space exploration - Interesting Engineering

LSI is pleased to present the short inspirational-educational film titled "Go Incredibly Fast".

We hope you enjoy the film, and if it leaves you inspired to learn more, engage! Enabling bold exploration of our outer solar system and the stars is an all-hands-on-deck challenge.

Godspeed! - The LSI Team

For the film's companion engineering note, see https://www.goincrediblyfast.com/

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Limitless Space Institute is a non-profit organization whose mission is to inspire and educate the next generation to travel beyond our solar system and to research and develop enabling technologies. LSI advances the pursuit of relevant deep space exploration R&D through the following student-engaging programs:

LSI was founded by Dr. Kam Ghaffarian, previously founder of the award-winning contractor Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, and recognized by Ernst & Young as Entrepreneur of the Year. LSI's president is Brian "BK" Kelly, who served with NASA for 37 years, most recently as Director of Flight Operations, responsible for selecting astronauts and planning and implementing human spaceflight missions. Dr. Harold "Sonny" White leads LSI's Advanced R&D, bringing decades of research experience in the advanced power and propulsion domain, most recently serving as the NASA Johnson Space Center Engineering Directorate's Advanced Propulsion Theme Lead.

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Limitless Space Institute announces release of the short film "Go Incredibly Fast" - PR Newswire

Asmore countriesdeveloped their own space agencies, several international collaborative groups emerged. These include theUnited Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, theUnited Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space,and theConsultative Committee for Space Data Systems.

In 1975, 10 European nations founded theEuropean Space Agency. In 1998, the U.S. and Russia joined efforts to build the International Space Station, which is now supported by 15 countries.

These multinational ventures were primarily focused on scientific collaboration and data exchange.

The European Space Agency, which now includes 22 nations, could be considered among the first space blocs. But a more pronounced shift toward this type of power structure can be seen also after the end of the Cold War. Countries that shared interests on the ground began coming together to pursue specific mission objectives in space, forming space blocs.

In the past five years, several new space blocs have emerged with various levels of space capabilities. These include the African Space Agency, with 55 member states; theLatin American and Caribbean Space Agency, with seven member states; and theArab Space Coordination Group, with 12 Middle Eastern member states.

These groups allow for nations to collaborate closely with others in their blocs, but the blocs also compete with one another. Two recent space blocsthe Artemis Accordsand theSino-Russian lunar agreementare an example of such competition.

TheArtemis Accords were launched in October 2020. They are led by the U.S. and currently include 18 country members. The groups goal is to return people to the Moon by 2025 and establish a governing framework for exploring and mining on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The mission aims to build a research station on the south pole of the Moon with a supporting lunar space station calledthe Gateway.

Similarly, in 2019, Russia and China agreed to collaborate on amission to send peopleto the south pole of the Moon by 2026. This joint Sino-Russian mission also aims to eventually build aMoon base, and place a space stationin lunar orbit.

That these blocs do not collaborate to accomplish similar missions on the Moon indicates that strategic interests and rivalries on the ground have been transposed to space.

Any nation can join the Artemis Accords. But Russia and Chinaalong with a number of their allies on Earthhave not done so because some perceive the accords as an effort to expand the U.S.-dominated international orderto outer space.

Similarly, Russia and China plan to open their future lunar research stationto all interested parties, but no Artemis country has expressed interest. The European Space Agency has evendiscontinued several joint projectsit had planned with Russia and is instead expanding its partnerships with the U.S. and Japan.

In addition to seeking power in space, countries are also using space blocs to strengthen their spheres of influence on the ground.

One example is theAsia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization, which was formed in 2005. Led by China, itincludes Bangladesh, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand, and Turkey.

While its broad goal is the development and launch of satellites, the organizationsmajor aim is to expand and normalize the use of the Chinese BeiDou navigation systemthe Chinese version of GPS. Countries that use the system could become dependent on China, as is the case of Iran.

There has been tremendousgrowth of commercial activities in spacein the past decade. As a result, some scholars see a future of space cooperation defined byshared commercial interests. In this scenario, commercial entities act as intermediaries between states, uniting them behind specific commercial projects in space.

However, commercial enterprises areunlikely to dictate future international cooperation in space. According to current international space law, any company that operates in space does soas an extension ofand under the jurisdiction ofits home nations government.

The dominance of states over companies in space affairs has been starkly exemplified through the Ukraine crisis. As a result of state-imposed sanctions, many commercial space companies havestopped collaboratingwith Russia.

Given the current legal framework, it seems most likely that statesnot commercial entitieswill continue to dictate the rules in space.

I believe that going forward, state formations, such as space blocs, will serve as the major means through which states further their national interests in space and on the ground. There are many benefits when nations come together and form space blocs. Space is hard, so pooling resources, manpower, and know-how makes sense. However, such a system also comes with inherent dangers.

History offers many examples showing that the more rigid alliances become,the more likely conflict is to ensue. The growing rigidity of two alliancesthe Triple Entente and the Triple Allianceat the end of the 19th century is often cited as the key triggerof World War I.

A major lesson therein, is that as long as existing space blocs remain flexible and open to all, cooperation will flourish and the world may yet avoid an open conflict in space. Maintaining the focus on scientific goals and exchanges between and within space blocswhile keeping political rivalries at baywill help to ensure the future of international cooperation in space.

Svetla Ben-Itzhak is an assistant professor of space and international relations at Air University.

This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.

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How space exploration is tied to power struggles on Earth - Fast Company