Category Archives: Space Exploration

Michelle Nichols refers to herself as an astroeducator, and the label could not be more apt. In a comprehensive slide presentation for the Levy Lecture audience on Jan. 25, Nichols described the history of the International Space Station (ISS), the ingenious temporary home to a constantly changing group of international astronauts.

The idea of living in space has been a mainstay of science fiction for years. The first known image of a home among the stars appeared in the 1869 novella The Brick Moon by Edward Everett Hale. In 1928, Herman Potonik, an Austro-Hungarian army officer, engineer and space enthusiast, conceived of humans living permanently in space on an orbiting spacecraft and drew the first architectural model for this structure.

In the 1950s, Wernher von Braun was a German aerospace engineer who worked for NASA after being recruited by the Americans. He was a major proponent of using rockets for space exploration and envisioned employing a team of scientists to build a satellite in space based on the same spherical shape advanced by Potonik.

In 1971, the idea of a space station moved from fantasy to reality. The Soviet Union launched Salyut 1, the first space station inhabited by humans. It was tubular in shape and included a docking station to receive astronauts launched into orbit weeks or months later. The Salyut program lasted for 20 years, ending in 1991 with Salyut 7.

Nichols summarized the advances made by the Soviet Union during this period, including the transition from monolithic to modular stations, the use of multiple docking ports, orbital handovers from one crew to another, the use of unmanned resupply vehicles, and the viability of conducting long spaceflight programs, which were science experiments that lasted for many months. The international scientific community cheered these advances.

Using photos from NASA and other sources, Nichols took the audience through decades of spacecrafts and space stations, including U.S. Skylabs 1, 2 and 3 and the Soviet Unions Mir space station launched in 1986. Mir was essentially assembled in orbit between 1986 and 1996. Later managed by Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it served as an example of international partnership and development as astronauts from several countries were sent to Mir to participate in building and maintaining the structure and conducting experiments within it.

The United States led construction of the ISS, which began in 1998. Over the course of 13 years, other countries including Russia and Canada built and supplied components of the station. Nichols marveled at the photo of the finished ISS, reminding the audience, The International Space Station was constructed once. These modules were never put together on the ground, together as one piece. That would have been impossible to do. There were no second chances.

The audience viewed photographs of various astronauts going about their everyday routines such as working on a laptop, shaving, exercising, getting ready for sleep, getting a haircut, conducting experiments, preparing food, eating, playing a musical instrument and moving from one module to another. One of the most challenging aspects of life in space is just knowing where everything is. There is plenty of storage space, but every inch of the structure has a purpose and every object must have a function or reason for being there. Within the ISS, weight and volume are too precious and too expensive to allocate other than purposefully.

Nichols noted that the three most frequently asked questions concern normal functions such as eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom. The physical processes of those three actions work the same in space as they do on earth, but the lack of gravity necessitates accommodations such as handholds and footholds, Velcro to secure items, and tying ones occupied sleeping bag to surfaces at all four corners. Every aspect of the astronauts lives is measured and monitored; they are walking science experiments and they wouldnt have it any other way. Each of them worked for years to be selected as astronaut candidates, make it through training and be chosen to go to space.

The audience response to Nichols presentation, her fourth as a Levy Lecture speaker, was overwhelmingly positive. Viewer Tom Wallace emailed saying, Amazing! Thanks so much for this beautiful, inspirational and informative presentation! One anonymous commenter was excited to watch the webinar with a grandchild. Several noted how much they learned by listening to Nichols. A particularly effusive audience member observed, I wasnt sure I would be interested in this presentation, but gave it a try. So glad I did!! Excellent speaker that held my attention! Taught me all kinds of new things. Fascinating! Thank you!

The webinar is available on the Levy Senior Center Foundation YouTube channel.

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Levy Lecture: Exploring the International Space Station - Evanston RoundTable

Artists concept of an Orion spacecraft at the moon. Credit: NASA

NASA will announce later this year the four astronauts who will slingshot around the far side of the moon on the Artemis lunar programs first crew mission, currently scheduled for launch in 2024, the head of the agencys human space exploration division recently said. The crew is expected to include three U.S. fliers and one Canadian astronaut.

The Artemis 2 mission will follow two years after NASAs Artemis 1 test flight, an unpiloted pathfinder mission scheduled to launch no earlier than March from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Artemis 1 will be the first flight of NASAs Space Launch System, a heavy-lift rocket designed for lunar missions thats been in development for more than a decade. It will also be first trip by NASAs Orion crew capsule to the moon, following a demonstration flight that orbited Earth in 2014.

The goal of NASAs Artemis program is to land astronauts on the moons surface for the first time since the final Apollo lunar mission in December 1972. The Artemis programs first attempt to land a crew on the moon is penciled in for the Artemis 3 mission, scheduled for 2025, with a derivative of the Starship vehicle SpaceXs is developing in South Texas.

Before attempting a lunar landing, NASA will send four astronauts on a voyage around the far side of the moon on Artemis 2. The mission will carry the crew farther from Earth than any humans in history.

Jim Free, head of NASAs exploration systems development programs, said Jan. 18 that the agency soon plans to reveal which astronauts will fly on Artemis 2.

Were planning on making the announcement for the Artemis 2 crew this year, Free said in a meeting of the NASA Advisory Councils Human Exploration and Operations Committee.

NASA announced a cadre of 18 astronauts in December 2020 for possible assignments to early Artemis lunar missions. The same month, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency revealed an agreement to put a Canadian astronaut on the Artemis 2 flight around the moon.

The Canadian flier will join three U.S. astronauts on the Artemis 2 mission.

Canada also secured a spot for a Canadian astronaut on a future mission to the Gateway mini-space station NASA and its international partners plan to construct in orbit around the moon. NASA is providing the flight opportunities for Canadian astronauts in exchange for Canadas contribution of a large robotic arm for the Gateway,which is intended to serve as a waypoint, spacecraft refueling station, and deep space research outpost in the vicinity of the moon.

After launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin the Artemis 2 mission, the Space Launch System will place the Orion crew capsule into orbit around Earth, where the astronauts will perform checkouts, test out the ships rendezvous and docking systems, and then fire Orions service module engine to fly to the moon a quarter-million miles away.

The Artemis 2 mission will follow a hybrid free return trajectory around the moon. The Orion crew capsule wont enter orbit around the moon, but still instead loop around the far side and return directly to Earth for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

The Orion spacecraft will arc out to a distanceof 4,600 miles (7,400 kilometers) beyond the far side of the moon, farther than any humans have ever traveled into space.

The Artemis 2 mission will last around 10 days, paving the way for future landing expeditions and longer-duration flights to the Gateway. As of November, the launch of the Artemis 2 mission from Kennedy Space Center was scheduled in May 2024.

NASA hasnt confirmed flight opportunities for Japan and the European Space Agency, the other major partners in the Artemis program. But astronauts from both partners are expected to fly to the moon in the Artemis program.

ESA supplies the service modules for Orion missions, and is developing a refueling and communications module for the Gateway station. Japan is helping work on an international habitation module, along with ESA, and could send resupply ships to the Gateway complex.

The first two elements of the Gateway are being built in the United States by Maxar Technologies and Northrop Grumman for launch together on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket no earlier than May 2024.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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NASA to name astronauts this year for first Artemis moon mission Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

Plus Ultra Space Outposts (Plus Ultra), a European company developing a lunar satellite constellation, and ispace Europe (ispace EU), the European branch of ispace, inc., have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on joint lunar missions. The MoU includes the transport and deployment of satellites into lunar orbit, as early as 20241, to provide communications and navigation services.

Additionally, Ultra and ispace intend to combine their complementary capabilities to further explore the possibilities of commercial space resources on the Moon and in lunar orbit. Under the terms of the MoU, ispace would transport Plus Ultras lunar communication satellites as customer payloads to the Moon. In return, Plus Ultra would provide lunar communications and navigation services to ispace, among other potential collaborations.

Plus Ultra is planning to launch a lunar satellite constellation called Harmony to provide continuous, high-speed communications of up to 100 Mbps between any location on or around the Moon, including cislunar orbit, anywhere on Earth. With plans to begin operations in 20241, Harmony is envisioned to optimize the navigation of space vehicles, such as those operated by ispace, as well as for commercial and governmental operators of landers, rovers, space tugs, and larger transportation systems on and around the lunar surface, with the aim of enabling a whirlwind of activity on the Moon that ushers in a new era for the space economy.

Carlos Manuel Entrena Utrilla, founder & CEO, Plus Ultra said, We need a paradigm shift for space exploration and business to establish a cis-lunar economy and the collaboration with ispace is a great step towards that goal. The agreement with ispace already shows the strong commercial interest in Harmonys services allowing us to start offering complete packages for lunar vehicles and other device deployments. With our constellation we are aiming to set the de facto industry standard for lunar communications and navigation, taking it from the exclusive resource it is now to a regular 24/7 service that enables new opportunities. With the Moonlight Initiative and NASAs Near Space Network respectively, space agencies like ESA and NASA have explicitly shown their interest for a lunar communications and navigation system.

Julien-Alexandre Lamamy, managing director, ispace Europe added, A continuous, high-speed communications infrastructure is essential to enable the development of the cis-lunar ecosystem. Thats why were so pleased to work with Plus Ultra and utilize our complementary capabilities to not only achieve mutual interests, but also to establish the building blocks of a sustainable future for the lunar industry.

Dr. Marc Serres, CEO, Luxembourg Space Agency concluded, The Luxembourg Space sector has been showing continuous dynamism and development over the past years and I am thrilled to see that Plus Ultra is now also establishing its presence in the Grand Duchy. The moon is the next stop on the way to space exploration and space resources utilisation. We strongly believe in collaboration as a key success factor for the future of the space industry, and I am delighted to see the development of such projects with our national ecosystem.

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1as of January 2022

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Plus Ultra and ispace's MoU Aim to Deploy Communications and Navigation Infrastructure in Lunar Orbit SatNews - SatNews Publishers

It wasnt just that he mentioned a religious holiday. After all, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wasnt the only person to observe, following the successful launch of the James Webb Space Telescope last month, that the long-awaited feat had occurred on Christmas Day. Rather, Nelsons comments raised eyebrows for their spiritual tone.

Its significant that we had the delays and it kept us all the way to today, Christmas Day, Nelson said in a video released by NASA shortly after the launch. He went on to quote a passage from Psalm 19: The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament shows his handiwork.

To some viewers especially those who believe religion and science are incompatible the very mention of a religious text seemed to undercut the messaging of scientific achievement. The suggestion that the telescope served a Christian purpose, or that its use would reinforce a Christian worldview, also seemed to belie a commitment to inclusivity in science that NASA has claimed to value. (The agency is still reeling from the controversy over its decision to name the telescope after James Webb, a man alleged to have been complicit in the persecution of LGBTQ government workers.)

These are all valid concerns. But its also worth remembering that Nelsons biblical references follow in a long tradition of religious rhetoric in the U.S. space program. Theres a tendency to flatten this history to imagine that religious language is and always has been inappropriate in the scientific discourse. But one needs only look back a few decades to find a time when comments like Nelsons were not only acceptable in the American space culture they were a central part of Americas science identity.

From the 1950s, the United States was embroiled in a decades-long rivalry with the U.S.S.R. known as the Space Race a competition that turned the technological and military practicalities of space exploration into a sort of proxy battle for cultural, political, and economic validation. Each nations scientific successes were interpreted as triumphs of one national ideology over the other. Among those warring ideologies were the nations sharply contrasting attitudes toward religion.

The U.S.S.R. had officially embraced atheism (though some Soviet citizens were people of faith). In her recent history of Soviet atheism, Victoria Smolkin describes how Soviet leaders and cosmonauts used their victories in the Space Race as occasions to wave a banner of antipathy toward religion. During a 1962 visit to the U.S., Smolkin writes, Soviet cosmonaut German Titov, the second person in space, proclaimed his atheism, remarking that he had not seen God or angels during his 17 orbits of Earth. Later Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev similarly joked to American reporters about Gods failure to show up in space. The brash rejection of God served to advance the Soviet effort to solidify state atheism and defuse religions threat to state authority.

But the Soviet Unions dismissal of religion also stirred a backlash on the other side of the Iron Curtain. In fields ranging from evolutionary biology to cosmology, American scientists criticized the ideological dogmatism of Marxism, claiming that it impaired free scientific inquiry. Whereas the Soviet regime was totalitarian and oppressive, the American scientific establishment, by embracing religious tolerance, projected an image of openness. Opposed to the strict atheism of the Soviets but wary of the perceived anti-science attitude of fundamentalist Christians, the American scientific establishment staked out a middle ground of respectable, generic but still Christian-leaning religiosity.

As public figures as well as scientists, NASA astronauts were frequently seen as exemplifying this milquetoast religious identity. Some astronauts were explicit about their own Christianity; others were more vague about the spirituality they experienced in the stars. Neil Armstrong, though he considered himself a deist, was nonetheless looked up to as a Christian role model who fulfilled a divine promise that humanity would someday reach the stars.

On Christmas Eve in 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 broadcast themselves from lunar orbit reading from the opening passages of Genesis as the Sun rose above the Moons horizon: In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. The juxtaposition of those words with images of the lunar sunrise seemed to symbolize the convergence of religious and scientific values.

The Christmas Eve reading prompted Madalyn Murray OHair, the founder of the organization American Atheists, to file a lawsuit against NASA, arguing that the act abridged their First Amendment rights. But the lawsuit failed, and since then the tradition of astronauts expressing their personal faith, carrying objects of religious significance among their personal effects, even celebrating holidays in space, has largely been permitted and even incorporated into NASAs public outreach. American Presidents including John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Ronald Reagan all used religious language when talking about the Space Program, often with implicit or explicit criticism of the Soviets. Ultimately, NASA, American politicians of both parties, and the wider U.S. public created a narrative that Americas religiosity had helped the country succeed in the Space Race over its godless rival. This religiosity was effective in part because it avoided the messy specifics that might have created friction with science or between theologies.

One needs only look back a few decades to find a time when comments like Nelsons were not only acceptable in the American space culture they were a central part of Americas science identity.

Few people exemplify this melding of space exploration and spirituality more than Nelson himself. In 1986, decades before he became NASA Administrator, Nelson went to space on the shuttle Columbia, the last NASA mission before the Challenger disaster. His 1988 memoir described his extraterrestrial sojourn as an eye-opening religious experience that contrasted starkly with that of his Soviet counterparts. Yuri Gagarin, the first Russian cosmonaut, proudly proclaimed when he returned to earth that he had looked for God and had not found him, Nelson wrote (perhaps misattributing Titovs 1962 comments). I looked, and could see nothing else. The Soviets might have reached the heavens first, but the Americans were the first to find God up there.

Nelson also recalled reaching into his pocket and pulling out his Bible while on the Columbia:

I remembered when, as a student at Yale, I had read the ancient words of the 19th Psalm, written by a shepherd boy in Israel almost 3,000 years ago. My college mind had wondered, What could David possibly know about space? As I read those words again, I was amazed that they could express my feelings so perfectly: The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament sheweth His handiwork.

More than 30 years later, Nelson uttered the same scripture nearly verbatim while reflecting on the launch of the the telescope. It is a passage that has long been invoked by scientists and theologians to express the idea that there are truths that can only be discovered outside of scripture truths that must be learned from the handiwork of nature. Its been quoted to argue against Biblical literalism and science denial. And, for Nelson, it seems to give voice to a certain sense of awe and spiritual wonder at nature that has abided in him since his time as an astronaut.

The scientific, religious, and political culture of the U.S., however, has evolved tremendously since then. Christian nationalism has become a widespread and antidemocratic political force one that has been deployed to attack government-supported, science-based efforts to stem the Covid-19 pandemic and curtail climate change. Cold War-era God-talk, and the embrace of generic religiosity, no longer exemplify Americas place in the modern geopolitical world. The words Nelson uses to capture his connection with the cosmos may not have changed since the 1980s, but its a different nation now.

Adam R. Shapiro is a historian of science and religion. He is the author of Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools, and (with Thomas Dixon) the forthcoming Very Short Introduction to Science and Religion.

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Opinion: Is There a Place For Spirituality in Space Science? - Undark Magazine

Deep beneath the salty ocean, the seafloor is cracked. Hot gases from the layers below bubble into the water, sustaining colonies of microbial life that are eking out an existence far from the sunkissed surface.

This may sound like a scene from the bottom of Earths vast oceans, but its actually a possible description of Europa one of the icy moons orbiting Jupiter. And thanks to the upcoming Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission, we may finally have the opportunity to find out how accurate that description is.

Astrobiologists scientists who look for signs of life beyond the confines of our planet have long adhered to a simple mantra: follow the water. Thats because every living thing on Earth, from the tiniest bacterium to the mighty blue whale, needs liquid water to survive. While alien life without water may be possible, looking for that molecular marriage between hydrogen and oxygen is an excellent place to start.

In the hunt for HO, much has been made of the habitable zone the narrow ring around a star where the temperature is just right for liquid water. Earth sits in this region, so the majority of our water neither freezes nor boils. But the habitable zone is an imperfect concept.

At least five objects in the outer Solar System have sub-surface oceans, says Dr Mark Fox-Powell, an astrobiologist at the Open University. All are far beyond the outer reaches of the traditional habitable zone. Three of these oceans can be found beneath the surfaces on a trio of Jupiters moons: Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Jupiter has a habitable zone of its own. The required heat isnt coming from the Sun, but from the gravity of Jupiter. It expands and contracts the moons, warming them up like squash balls.

Scores and fractures criss-cross Europas icy crust. The red-brown material is thought to be salt and sulphur compounds that have been modified by radiation Science Photo Library

While we have been to the Jovian system many times, these moons have rarely been the main attraction. The last time we were there studying them directly was with the Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s, says Fox-Powell. Instead, the focus has tended to fall on the giant planet itself. But now theres JUICE, a dedicated mission heading for its icy satellites.

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At the heart of the JUICE mission is a spacecraft thats been built by the European Space Agency (ESA). It bears a slight resemblance to a giant bird, with solar panel wings stretching out on either side of the spacecrafts main body. The sunlight at Jupiter is 30 times dimmer than the light that reaches Earth, so the panels need to be big. They cover an area equal to 85m, or about half the size of a volleyball court.

Its three-metre-diameter antenna will send the data JUICE collects back to mission control, although it will take almost two hours to travel the more than half a billion kilometres to Earth.

A scale model of the RIME antenna undergoes testing at the Hertz facility in the Netherlands ESA/ M Cowan

ESA had been working towards launching JUICE in 2022 until the coronavirus pandemic hit. Instead of the planned liftoff, this coming year will now see frantic activity as ESA scrambles to claw back the time lost during lockdown, and make the final preparations needed to ready the landmark mission for its rescheduled launch in 2023.

The original plan was for JUICE to take a convoluted route, involving five flybys of Earth, Venus and Mars to use the planets gravitational might to slingshot the spacecraft towards Jupiter, a journey that was set to take 7.5 years. ESA has yet to reveal exact details of the new timeline, but JUICE should arrive at Jupiter at the start of the 2030s. Once there, it will spend at least three years exploring Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. It will be joined by NASAs Europa Clipper mission, currently scheduled for launch in 2024 and arrival in April 2030.

Weve known about these moons for a long time. Along with Io the most volcanically active place in the Solar System Europa, Ganymede and Callisto make up the so-called Galilean moons, first seen by the Italian astronomer Galileo at the start of the 17th Century.

Of the trio that JUICE will focus on, Europa tends to steal the limelight. Its definitely the poster child of the Galilean moons, says Fox-Powell. Thats because beneath its icy crust sits an ocean that contains more liquid water than all of Earths seas, lakes and rivers combined. If theres life swimming around in our oceans, could the same be true of Europa?

Part of the problem is that the ocean is hiding beneath a thick, icy surface. We cant access it directly, says Fox-Powell. Thankfully, scientists think the icy crust and the water are interacting, a bit like the molten rock beneath Earths surface that breaks through during volcanic activity. It means we can use material on the surface to study the oceans indirectly, Fox-Powell says.

Plumes of water from the ocean below often erupt through Europas icy surface, as illustrated here. Science Photo Library

We may even be able to collect a sample of that material, despite JUICE being unable to land on Europa. The spacecraft is carrying 10 high-precision instruments to Jupiter, including the Particle Environment Package (PEP). Its designed to study dust and other molecules that have been kicked up from the surface, says Fox-Powell. Its not impossible that, if that material came from the oceans, it could contain molecules that are indicative of life.

If there are organisms in Europas oceans, then theyll need a source of energy. Hidden beneath the icy crust, they cant get that energy from the Sun. Fox-Powell sees two potential options. The Jovian system is an environment flooded with intense levels of radiation as Jupiters magnetic field slings and funnels high-energy particles around.

Any ocean material that ends up on the surface is going to be irradiated, Fox-Powell says. That changes the chemistry of the ice. One likely scenario is that the radiation is breaking water into hydrogen and oxygen, with that oxygen potentially seeping back down into the ocean below. Other potential by-products include compounds containing the element sulphur. On Earth, theyre known to support microbial life, says Fox-Powell. JUICE will help us to learn more about that ocean-surface boundary and to what extent the conditions are suitable for biology.

Alternatively, life may have colonised the ocean floor. On Earth, there are whole communities of organisms that thrive on the seabed without any sunlight whatsoever. The source of their energy is hydrothermal vents cracks in the boundary between the ocean and Earths hot interior. JUICE could help us see how geologically active Europas interior is.

While Europa grabs the lions share of public attention, its not JUICEs main target. The mission will only fly by Europa twice but will buzz past Callisto on 12 occasions. Callisto is the outermost of the four Galilean moons, so is least affected by Jupiters gravity and radiation. In contrast to Europa, whose surface is constantly reshaped by material welling up from beneath the ice, Callisto has the oldest surface in the Solar System. Unchanged for billions of years, its pockmarked by more impact craters than any other body orbiting the Sun.

Astronomers suspect that a 200km-deep ocean lies beneath Callistos ancient surface. This is where JUICEs Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) instrument will come into its own. It will transmit radio waves that can penetrate the icy shells of the Galilean moons down to a depth of around nine kilometres. From the way the radio waves are reflected back, we should be able to learn more about the moons internal structures.

Another approach will be provided by the Gravity and Geophysics of Jupiter and Galilean Moons (3GM) instrument. It will measure the gravitational fields of Callisto and the other icy moons, which will reveal how different layers of material including water are stacked up inside them.

JUICE will also use Callisto for a leg-up. Mission controllers will use the gravity of the moon to increase the spacecrafts inclination by about 30 so it can get a better look at Jupiters polar regions the source of Jupiters vast and intense magnetic field.

It is magnetism that determined where JUICE will spend the bulk of its time: Ganymede. Along with a dozen fly-bys, the spacecraft will also go into orbit around Ganymede and stay there for eight months. It will be the first time that a spacecraft from Earth has orbited a moon other than our own.

Ganymede is the most exciting body in the Solar System, says Prof Michele Dougherty, from Imperial College London. For one thing, its bigger than any other moon. In fact, its bigger than the dwarf planet Pluto and the planet Mercury. Like Europa, its also thought to have a sub-surface ocean that contains more water than we have on Earth.

Yet its Ganymedes magnetism thats the main attraction. Its unique among the moons of the Solar System for having a magnetic field of its own. Dougherty is the principal investigator for J-MAG an instrument on JUICE for measuring magnetic fields. J-MAG is located at the end of a 10.6m-long boom to keep it away from magnetic interference from the main spacecraft. Its sensitive electronics are locked inside a lead-lined vault to protect them from Jupiters intense radiation.

Auroral activity on Ganymede holds clues as to the magnetic influence of Jupiter NASA/ ESA

Dougherty wants to measure Ganymedes magnetic field in detail, including how it interacts with Jupiters own magnetic field. Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have spotted auroral activity on Ganymede. The equivalent of the northern and southern lights on Earth, the auroras should wobble around Ganymedes poles due to the influence of Jupiters magnetism.

That they dont, suggests a sub-surface ocean of salty water on Ganymede thats conducting electricity and counter-balancing Jupiters magnetic might. Studying Ganymedes magnetic field could provide further clues about the size and nature of this ocean. In turn, that could help us understand if its a place that may be home to alien life.

Separating Ganymedes magnetic field from Jupiters is far from straightforward, though, particularly given how much the planet dominates its surrounding satellites. Its like trying to find needles in a haystack, Dougherty says, but theyre changing size, shape and colour all the time. Still, shes confident the team can pull it off. The flybys will be used to practise, with the really important data coming once JUICE settles into orbit around Ganymede. The results are going to be spectacular, Dougherty says.

If shes right, itll be the crowning achievement at the end of a long and winding road. Dougherty was previously involved in another flagship spacecraft: the Cassini mission to Saturn. Discussions about JUICE began in earnest in 2008, when Cassini had already been at Saturn for four years.

It was one of Saturns moons Enceladus that made people sit up and take notice. My team was instrumental in discovering that Enceladus has plumes of water vapour, Dougherty says. Water from a sub-surface ocean was being spat out into space, showing that its possible to find water beyond the traditional habitable zone.

The discoveries at Enceladus showed us that focusing on moons of the outer planets was a good thing to do. Soon a plan was hatched to get a closer view of Jupiters icy moons. Not that its all been plain-sailing. At one point during the pandemic, with labs closed, Doughertys team was building parts of J-MAG on their kitchen tables. Building an instrument is always stressful, but the pandemic took that stress to the next level, she says.

A simplified mock-up of the JUICE spacecraft is used to carry out tests Airbus/ Rolf Schwark

That effort is all the more remarkable given that the team will eventually destroy all of that hard work. Sometime in 2034, the spacecraft is likely to run out of propellant. Without any fuel, scientists will no longer be able to manoeuvre it around the Jovian system. So the team will do whats been done before with spacecraft like Cassini and the MESSENGER mission to Mercury: deliberately crash it.

By smacking into the surface of Ganymede, JUICE will provide one final experiment to see what this gargantuan moon is made of. Its days of exploring Jupiters icy moons will be over, but scientists will continue to pore over JUICEs collection of valuable data for a long time afterwards. In 20 years time, our understanding of these moons will be different, says Fox-Powell. JUICE is going to provide a real revolution. It could, finally, tell us whether or not were alone in this vast and often surprising Solar System.

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JUICE: What secrets lie beneath the icy surface of Jupiters moons? - BBC Science Focus Magazine

Decades ago, before billionaires could hitch rides into orbit, space exploration seemed like a more poetic endeavor.

I grew up in Dickinson, less than ten miles from NASAs Manned Spacecraft Center, when it was still easy to name all the astronauts training there. I went to church and school with kids whose dads were among the pocket-protected brigade of genius engineers, including flight director Gene Kranz, the guy Ed Harris portrayed in Apollo 13.

As a college student in the 1970s, I had a summer gig as a proofreader at the Lunar Science Institute, in the Diamond Jim West Mansion just east of NASAs back gate. Jovial, unkempt, caffeine-fueled scientists toiled at night in a room a few steps from my desk, sharing time on a huge mainframe and producing papers about moon rocks and soil samples. I only vaguely understood their work, but it felt important, and I kept their nouns and verbs in agreement and their capitals and commas in place.

By then, everyone knew what Earth looked like from space; the Apollo 17 crews famous Blue Marble photograph, which will be fifty years old this December, had become ubiquitous. Today, closer views of our planet stream continuously from the International Space Station on cellphones and laptops, freely accessible, like so many other twenty-first century amenities born from our ability to launch gadgets into the sky. I wonder if anyone will remember how meaningful that first whole-Earth image was.

The Infinite, a new virtual reality encounter, aims to revive that old sense of wonder. It might even give you the overview effect, a visceral moment of clarity astronauts often experience when they view our planet from afara near-spiritual vision of humanity as a single species on a vaporous and vulnerable blue ball within the universe.

Set up at Houstons Sawyer Yards through February 20 (then heading to Seattle), The Infinite was filmed by astronauts aboard the International Space Station between January 2019 and September 2021. Using a custom video camera that produces ultra-high-definition, 3D, 360-degree views, they recorded short scenes outside (and inside, filmed with a smaller 360-degree camera) of the ISS to show how they live and work, as well as glimpses of Earth and the farther reaches of space from the orbiting laboratory. Some of that material was released last year as a four-part film series, Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, by Montreals Felix & Paul Studios (which also designed the outside camera) and Time Studios. The Space Explorers series won last years Emmy for Outstanding Interactive Program.

I love a good VR happening. One of the best Ive been to is fine art: Laurie Anderson and Hsin-Chien Huangs To The Moon delivers a fantastical lunarscape with dinosaurs that materialize from DNA strands and asteroids that morph into black diamonds. The Infinite is something elsetruly virtual reality.

The entry of the exhibit, though, is inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey. With a small group of strangers, I walked a ramp through a glowing white vinyl room into a metal chamber where lights flashed through seams in the walls. As the sliding doors closed, we heard the voice of astronaut Anne McClain, describing how raw she felt just before she launched into space. A countdown further fired up our juices. When the doors opened into a huge, dark room, we plucked our sanitized headsets from eerily lit floor-to-ceiling tubes. A minute or so later, I dissolved into stardust and re-formed as a female avatar with a bright green grid for skin.

Left: Two exit galleries help ease the transition back down to Earth. Melissa Taylor Photography/Public Content

Top: Guests suit up before stepping into the International Space Station. Melissa Taylor Photography/Public Content

A transparent rendering of the ISS hovered in the rooms center. The stations ambient beeps and transmissions alternated with a celestial soundtrack through my headphones. I had to make myself walk through the renderings wallsa disconcerting feeling from the startto reach the interactive orb-portals inside. With each orb visitors touch, a different 360-degree filmed scene appears. The shows sixty portals are loosely organized into seven-minute chapters with inspirational names: Adaptation, Progress, Unity, Expansion. The portals are spaced around the room, roughly near the points of the stations floor plan where they were filmed, and visitors choose which ones they will open. No one can get to all sixty during the shows 35-minute duration, so each trip through is different. One of the organizers told me it took him six visits to find all the material. That would be costly (adult tickets are $36 to $65; kids, students, and seniors pay less).

I was literally lost in space, wandering cluelessly through the virtual laboratory during my first visit, and only slightly more oriented during a second. The Infinite dwells on the human aspects of life in the ISSwhat it means to live and work 260 miles above Earths surface in a contraption thats configured like a plumbing fixture under a kitchen sink and hangs from a truss structure the length of a football field. Even seemingly insignificant details absorbed me: rows of commemorative mission stickers affixed to surfaces; the Velcro strips everywhere, indispensable for holding virtually anything in place, including toothbrushes, laptops, and wrenches; the way long hair floats, Medusa-like, around faces.

The stations tubular modules are cramped, with no discernible floors or ceilings and no real up or down, just four walls covered with a mind-boggling mess of wires, monitors, consoles, cargo compartments, and bags of supplies. This is no place for minimalists or claustrophobes. And then theres the constant dance with microgravity. The astronauts drift gracefully through the stations tunnels like khaki-clad sea creatures, hooking their sock-covered feet under footholds or grabbing handholds when they need to be stationary or maneuver through modules.

I watched them toss a football, share a meal, jog on a treadmill, explain how their outhouse works, say goodbye to departing crewmates, and monitor the gazillion science experiments that hang out in the walls. I followed them into the cupola, an observation capsule that holds the stations only windows. Life on the ISS is a wild mix of the unimaginable and the mundane. The housecleaning never ends. The internet service is sketchy. Face time with families is sacred.

Preparing for an EVA, or extravehicular activityi.e., a space walktakes weeks: suits must be readied, every move planned. Just suiting up takes hours. Visitors to The Infinite, however, can step through the transparent walls of the virtual ISS to be outside in a few seconds. A few orbs beckoned to me from somewhere near the truss structure, and I went for them. I knew my boots were firmly planted on a thinly carpeted floor, but I still felt disembodied and dwarfed by a tower of panels that glinted in the sun. Just an arms length away, other parts of the ISS looked shockingly Rube Goldberglike, with exposed wires, sensors, satellite dishes, and the gangly robotic arms that grab arriving cargo and crew vehicles. I was close enough to read the logos on module exteriorsJAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency), ESA (European Space Agency), SpaceX.

Then I looked down, and it knocked the wits out of me. Earth! Alive, immense, and bright blue beneath wispy brushstrokes of clouds, organic and palpably alive. My eyes teared up, then I went giddy. It wasnt just that it was beautiful: something about the wholeness of the planet transcended the mayhem I knew humans were inflicting on it and themselvessomething profound and hopeful. The overview effect.

I could have stayed all day, but a voice in the headset instructed me to follow a path of light to a chair where I would view the final scene. It took me outside the station again to participate in an EVA that was filmed last September. In real time, Japans Akihiko Hoshide and Frances Thomas Pesquet performed what would have been a mundane task if they hadnt been tethered to a machine moving at over 17,000 miles an hour. They were installing a bracket on the truss structure, a full days work. I was just along for a few minutes ride, mesmerized by their movements but free to gaze beyond them, to Earth. When the scene ended, I felt like I could still walk on air.

I did not expect The Infinite to flip any switches in my brain. It had been light-years since I breathed the early NASA air of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, watching every nail-biter launch and landing on TV. I have binged on YouTube videos shot from the ISS for days now, hoping to recapture the sense of Earth as a miraculously contained sphere. Even when the views are awesome, on my ordinary screen, the world remains stubbornly flat.

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An Awe-inspiring Space Odyssey Lifts Off in Houston - Texas Monthly

Space is a new and exciting industry with potential both now and in the future. According to a report by Morgan Stanley, the space industry could grow from $400 billion to more than $1 trillion by 2040, which doesn't even factor in new markets like space tourism. How do investors capture this upside? Several companies are beginning to build their contributions to this new market.

Investors need to understand that such a young industry carries many risks, but these five companies can generate significant returns if things work out well over the long term.

Image source: Getty Images.

Sometimes it's hard to believe, but the day is coming when people can tour space. Virgin Galactic Holdings (NYSE:SPCE) is helping build the space tourism industry. Its spacecraft is designed for suborbital flights, leaving the Earth's atmosphere but not entering orbit. These flights produce a short duration of weightlessness before coming back down.

The company sells tickets for future flights at $454,000 per seat but has more test flights to complete before beginning customer flights. The company's most recent test was a successful flight in July 2021, when founder Richard Branson joined the ship's crew. The long-term potential for Virgin Galactic is a fleet expansion and mastery of the technology that can make the price to fly affordable for more customers, bringing space tourism into the mainstream. The stock's small $2.6 billion market cap leaves a lot of room for upside if Virgin Galactic is successful.

If there is a space industry, how will we process the payments that flow back and forth? Payment processing company Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) could help answer that question. Hotels, entertainment businesses, and restaurants across the country use Shift4's platform.

In its report, Morgan Stanley believes that satellite broadband, satellite-delivered internet, could contribute between 50%-70% of the space industry's projected growth. Elon Musk's SpaceX has invested heavily to build Starlink, its upcoming broadband business. Shift4 has partnered with SpaceX to support it with its payment services. Shift4's management estimates this addressable market as being worth between $100 billion and $500 billion globally. Shift4's satellite broadband exposure andgrowing payments business could fuel growth over the years ahead.

Space is a complex industry, and companies like the industrial technology business Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB) can advance the development of space with its software solutions that help its customers use data information to run their operations. For example, it can use satellite data to help customers use their physical assets most effectively. Its primary businesses concentrate on applications like buildings and infrastructure, geospatial data, commodities and utilities, and transportation.

For instance, the company's technology helps farmers maximize their crop harvest. Trimble's ability to simplify parts of these complex industries and applicationscould make it a natural fit for the space industry as it grows over time. The immaturity of space could make Trimble a good stock for broad exposure, and it happens to be the top holding in ARK's space-focused ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF.

Aerospace and defense company Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) is a natural fit in the space industry, thanks to its vast experience in rockets and propulsion gained from making various weapons systems and vehicles for the U.S. military. It has a space business segment -- including satellites, space transportation, and defense systems -- that accounted for almost a fifth of total revenue in 2020.

President Donald Trump created the Space Force in late 2019, a new division of the U.S. military. Suppose space eventually becomes a new arena for geopolitical tension. In that case, Lockheed Martin's existing relationships and experience in the space industry could help its space segment grow as a part of the company's overall business.

Satellites are gaining more use as technology advances, helping us transmit information between space and Earth at faster speeds. BlackSky Technology (NYSE:BKSY) is a geospatial-data company that's building a network of satellites to perform rapid surveillance of the planet's landscape through its software-as-a-service platform. It can generate and transmit imagery in approximately 90 minutes; its customers include U.S. intelligence agencies and commercial customers in commodities and insurance.

It's a young company competing against other satellite companies in the market. Still, BlackSky's $2.5 billion business pipeline gives the company predictable revenue over the next few years. Investors will want to keep an eye on execution to see that backlogged business converts to billed revenue, and that BlackSky successfully expands its satellite fleet over time. Its market cap is just $370 million, so the upside is sizable if things work out.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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5 Explosive Space Stocks to Buy in 2022 and Beyond - Motley Fool

Everyone is always saying that we should get out of our comfort zones, but what does that actually mean? For me, it means to explore the unknown and its in the unknown that we can really grow and learn.

Through exploration of the unknown, humanity has been able to develop opportunities for success in every aspect of our society.

The subjects that students learn in science class today are derived from the exploration of the unknown. Without the great scientists and the research theyve committed themselves to, we would still be stuck in a state of perpetual stagnation.

For example, one of historys greatest scientists, first astronomers and initiator of our current space exploration programs was Galileo Galilei. Through careful planning and measurements along with a great deal of imagination, Galileo was able to create and perfect the telescope, a tool which has benefited us in space exploration for centuries.

Later he influenced many other leading scientists, such as Kepler, Newton, and our current NASA program (which has named a satellite after him), to continue his studies of the unknown universe. By taking the initiative and stepping into the investigation of the unknown, Galileo and many other noteworthy scientists were able to make a name for themselves and begin a new age of exploration, and human science will forever be in their debt.

However, the exploration of the unknown isnt limited to just academic values and knowledge. Revolutionists in both art and music have created entire eras of art, each being significantly different than the one before.

According to the National Gallery of Art, Pablo Picasso, founder of the art style Cubism, is a prime example of someone who spent their career changing what humanity knows of art. Although he was a conventional artist at the beginning of his career, his shift into what is now his most well known style of art is what made him influential.

Despite the fact that his art caused much controversy due to its unconventional depictions of what a normal painting should look like, by venturing into a new territory of art and exploring every corner of it, he was able to shape the concept of modern art.

An example of a pioneer in music is the well-known musician Louis Armstrong, who is credited with being one of the first and most prominent jazz musicians. As reported by the Louis Armstrong House, Armstrong started off rough with a difficult childhood, but he went on to become the first major jazz soloist and one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century by producing a distinctly different style of trumpeting and incorporating a more formal yet loose style of swinging jazz that revolutionized the genre.

By breaking away from the constraints of normality, these artists and composers were able to bring about lasting changes and developments in the industry.

Not only can exploring the unknown benefit society as a whole, but it can also benefit one personally. When I was seven, I had taken an interest in rock climbing. On my eighth birthday, I asked my parents to hold my party at a local climbing gym. It would be my first time ever trying rock climbing.

Upon entering the facility with my friends, many of them decided that the feat was too scary for them. Being an adventurous third grader, I was determined to scale my first wall right then and there. However, while waiting in line for my turn, I began to get cold feet.

What if the rope snaps? What if I embarrass myself while trying to be cool?

Thoughts of doubt plagued my mind and soon it was my turn to start the climb. I was about to bail out on my chance when I realized that doubting myself into not partaking in an interest of mine was something that I was going to regret for years to come.

I hyped myself up for the climb and slowly started to scale the wall. About a quarter of the way through, I realized that I really enjoyed the experience and I started to climb faster. When I reached the top, I felt a certain sense of accomplishment that I wouldnt have felt if I had bailed out from the start.

To top my already proud self, the spotter who was handling the pulley gear told me that my climb was one of the best that shed ever seen from a junior and that I should consider continuing the sport.

From this experience, I learned that, although stepping out of my comfort zone and venturing out into the unknown was frightening, without the experience, I might have never found an interest that I was truly passionate about and even had a talent in.

The exploration of the unknown has provided the opportunity for the world to improve and augment itself in science, art, and beyond. Personally, it has definitely broadened my world and opened the doors to new experiences and growth.

What does the unknown have to offer you?

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Venture into the unknown - Los Angeles Times

ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs.

The history of space exploration has never been dull, but we happen to be living through an especially eventful era of dazzling discoveries, ambitious missions, and emerging challenges.

To get a sense of how people feel about this multifaceted spacescape, Motherboard is exclusively publishing the results of a wide-ranging poll of the American public, conducted by a team at the Outer Space Institute, a transdisciplinary global network of space experts, and the Angus Reid Forum USA, an online public opinion community.

The poll, which is available to view in full at this link, queried more than 1,500 respondents about topics such as aliens, orbital debris, the United States Space Force, and human missions to the Moon and Mars. The team also invited participants to provide feedback, in their own words, on the poll, with verbatim responses that ranged in tone from wistful to conspiratorial to zany (one person, for instance, offered this simple yet incisive comment: Uranus).

The poll was conducted through an online opinion panel and was designed to be as statistically representative of the American public as possible in terms of demographics, geography, and even political affiliation. The end results offer an intriguing snapshot of public attitudes about space from the most influential spacefaring nation on Earth.

U.S. public opinion really matters in space because the United States really matters in space, said Michael Byers, a professor and Canada Research Chair in global politics and international law at the University of British Columbia (UBC), in a call with team members Aaron Boley, an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in planetary astronomy at UBC, and Gregor Sharp, senior manager of panel research and outreach at the Angus Reid Forum. (Byers and Boley also serve as co-directors of the Outer Space Institute).

As for why Canadian researchers conducted the poll, its because what [U.S. decision-makers] decide matters for everyone, added Byers.

On top of that, it's just super-interesting research that hasn't been done before, noted Sharp.

To that point, the poll revealed overwhelming consensus on a few issues. A whopping 81 percent of participants agreed that outer space should belong to everyoneno one country should be able to claim control over it, with 49 percent indicating they strongly agreed with that statement. The value of fundamental science, such as astronomy, was likewise broadly acknowledged, with 72 percent of respondents agreeing that it is important and deserves government funding (30 percent strongly agreed).

The participants also expressed high levels of optimism about the existence of alien life, as well as the odds that humans will one day encounter it. Seventy-one percent agreed it is likely that there is other intelligent life beyond Earth in our galaxy, the Milky Way, with 40 percent strongly agreeing with that statement.

Meanwhile, 75 percent said it is likely that we will detect microorganisms beyond Earth in our solar system (49 percent said very likely) while 77 percent said it is likely that we will detect microorganisms elsewhere in our galaxy (52 percent said very likely).

The broad recognition of the possibility of life in the solar system has implications for how we conduct space exploration, said Boley, who noted that it also underscores the need for planetary protection measures designed to prevent cross-contamination between Earth and other worlds.

The wide public recognition that this is something that is a real possibility is, I think, an important component of this poll, Boley added.

Byers said that some of the results were extremely helpful to the Outer Space Institutes advocacy efforts, which include a push to ban anti-satellite (ASAT) tests. These tests destroy satellites and create swarms of orbital debris, which is outer space junk made up of defunct or broken spacecraft parts.

The poll revealed strong opposition to ASAT tests and high levels of concern about orbital debris. Seventy-two percent agreed that there should be an international ban on conducting tests that create orbital debris, and 69 percent agreed that countries that create more orbital debris should be sanctioned.

These results show that the U.S. government would have public support to add its weight to the push for a test ban treaty, Byers said.

The poll also showed that the American public is wary of some commercial activities in space, and generally has nuanced opinions about the private space sector. Sixty-nine percent said there should be limits on the number of satellites that companies can launch, indicating awareness about megaconstellations, such as SpaceXs Starlink, that could add tens of thousands of satellites to orbit this decade. In addition, 54 percent of respondents said that companies should not be able to profit from resources extracted off of the planet, with 29 percent saying they should be able to profit and 17 percent saying they were unsure about this issue.

For the most part, the poll did not show a huge difference in opinion according to political affiliation. However, Americas notoriously polarized politics did manage to infect one topic: the United States Space Force.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, participants who supported Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election were far more likely to have favorable views of this military agency, which was previously known as U.S. Air Force Space Command before Trump rebranded it. Seventy percent of those who voted for Trump in the last election agreed that the Space Force is essential for protecting American interests in outer space, compared to 33 percent of respondents who voted for Biden in 2020, and 41 percent of people who did not vote in the 2020 election.

There were other revealing nuggets lodged in the demographic details of the responses. Women were more likely than men to say they were unsure of their opinion on the presented issues, which is a gender-based trend that turns up in polls on many subjects. Sharp also pointed out that African-Americans were generally more skeptical of extravagant space missions, which may reflect, in part, the recognition of longstanding institutional racism within spaceflight, perhaps typified by the 1970 song Whitey on the Moon by Gil Scott-Heron.

Some respondents provided written feedback to the poll in a section the team called Verbatims. Sharp warned that these comments should not be viewed as representative of the American public, because they express the viewpoints of only a few individuals.

To the extent that a verbatim reflects data that we polled on, sometimes it's just a very good way to illustrate, in somebody else's words, how they think about a question that we may have abstracted or may have framed slightly differently, Sharp explained. There's the potential to link up verbatims to the overall results, but of course, proceed with caution because the way people infer or interpret things does vary.

Indeed, an interesting subset of responses referenced conspiracy theories and misinformation, though its difficult to parse whether those comments are genuine beliefs or playful trolls, according to the teamfollow-ups would be required to get a better sense of the real intent. Here are a few of those responses, some of which are edited for brevity but otherwise unaltered:

Did we really go to the Moon?

I believe its all a lie . Conspiracy theory 101

NASA is the biggest frauds besides the government. We havent been to the moon, outer space or mars. The earth is flat, not a globe. The earth being round is a massive deception that upon research is uncovered.

I just hope we really are going in outer space and the moon.Gov sure is wating alot of money in space.

I still find it strange that NASA kinda pretty much disappeared and then came back. Like what is really going on?

I think governments should be more truthful about all of it, like what's going on out there.

Was there actually a moon landing?

Humans destroy everything. We cant figure out to leave well enough alone. Lets fix Earth (and I dont even believe in the constructs of Global Warming )

China just wants to get us to spend billions....they haven't even been to the Moon......neither have we.....but I would think that anyone wishing to go to Mars would want to go to the Moon first.

Beyond mentions of conspiracies, the comments expose a kaleidoscopic array of interests and opinions about space. For instance, a significant chunk expressed concern that funding for space exploration would be better spent on social or environmental issues on Earth, while others were extremely enthusiastic about exploring outer space. Here are a few snippets of both perspectives.

I love space, space exploration, the idea of intelligent life-- I love all of it but it amounts to absolutely nothing when we have some pretty catastrophic issues here that could be solved with that money (military budgets, too!)

We should be looking for other habitable planets like earth and trying to figure out how to travel quickly, like warp drive, instead of wasting so much time on Mars that is not habitable.

Don't colonize Mars. Focus on this planet first. So many more people will suffer needlessly if we just take our societal fuck-ups to another planet, especially since so many are already suffering here. We cannot handle it.

There is no compelling reason to funnel billions of dollars into exploring space in any capacity when our planet will become unlivable within a few generations. Doing so is irresponsible and disgusting. Countries, companies, and individuals with wealth should spend their resources helping people and the earth, not getting into pissing wars over space.

The emergence of private space companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, also generated a range of reactions. Some respondents welcomed the dawn of commercial spaceflight, while others voiced negative opinions of space sector billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Here are some of those comments:

Billionaires are evil and have already destroyed this planet so they're looking for another to destroy, figures

I think the new private companies are doing much better than governments did to promote space exploration

I think we should spend our tax $$$ on people here on earth and stop wasting it on space projects. Let Elon Musk spend his billions on space projects if he wants to.

Limits on billionaire vanity project rocket launches- Jeff bezos should be taxed for every recreational rocket trip- perhaps to the scale of their greenhouse gas emissions.

Honestly I think if individual people are wealthy enough to go to space on their own, then however much money they spend getting there they should also have to donate to climate issues.

I hate the fact that we are now exploiting celebrities to go into space. They don't belong there. Leave space travel to the seasoned astronauts.

Another fascinating subsection of participants approached space issues through the lens of their religious beliefs:

We should be exploring Earth's waters instead of wasting so much time , money and energy on chasing outer space fantasies. If God wanted us to have other worldly neighbors he would have created them and maybe he already has!?

My biblical beliefs are that it All belongs to God, if we are to represent Him well, there needs to be a balance of protecting the USA and meeting the needs of the whole working class of earthly humans. Not just the rich assholes.

Naturally, many participants also offered their thoughts on UFOs and whether humans have already been contacted by alien life:

I've seen UFO's/UAP's 4 times in my life that I know no man had anything to do with creating or piloting. So I think more pointed questions as to one's personal experiences of whether or not we've ever witnessed a UFO/UAP would be interesting for you to know about us.

I believe that there are outer space beings. Mainly Aliens. I have seen UFO's in different areas of America.

Speaking of aliens, there was an interesting split in the comments between people who viewed extraterrestrial contact in a positive light and those that expressed concerns about the potential dangers of such an encounter:

We are not alone. We should have a global plan

Alien relations? We should decide as a planet how we interact with potentially intelligent alien life.

I think it is highly likely that we will find other intelligent life other than microorganisms out in our solar system! It is to vast and to large for us to be the only ones

If there is a race advanced enough to visit earth as often as we presume, how can we be foolish enough to think we could fight them in a battle.

Where are the smart aliens that can help us cure cancer and extend human life.

Some of the responses absolutely demand further clarification. One person suggested that people might be able to hear aliens when they smoke cannabis. Another dared to address the question on everyones mind: What about sex in zero gravity ??? Is getting pregnant there even possible ??? A participant also came up with a creative, if bittersweet, idea to immortalize humanitys existence: We should carve a carbon/carbon-dioxide molecule diagram into the moon in case humans die off because of climate change.

My personal favorite is a bit inscrutable, but I read it as a succinct suggestion: more planets. Agreed.

Overall, the combination of the poll and the verbatim responses suggest that plenty of Americans are curious about all facets of space explorationincluding completely unexpected onesand that many have strong opinions about how it should be conducted now, and in the future.

It was very pleasing to see the relatively high level of understanding of space issues, said Byers. People are plugged in.

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Scientists Surveyed People About Space. The Comments Are Out Of This World - VICE

Frank De Winne joined the European Space Agencys Astronaut Corps in January 2000 and made his first spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2002 in support of the Odissea mission. He served as a flight engineer and conducted 23 experiments in life and physical sciences, some using Europes Microgravity Science Glovebox. As part of Expedition 21, in 2009, Frank became the first European commander of the ISS. One of his tasks was to operate the Stations robotic arm to dock Japans first H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV). After his mission, he chaired the technical committee of the second EU-ESA Space Exploration Conference in Brussels in 2010. Frank became Head of ESAs European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany in August 2012. Since 2017, he has been in charge of Space Station operations at ESA, and in 2020 became ESAs ISS Programme Manager. Kirill Pletner, Editor-in-Chief of ROOMs sister publication Aerospace Sphere Journal, caught up with Frank De Winne to obtain his perspective on human space exploration, from priority areas in ESAs work to a personal view on current space trends.

The European Astronaut Training Centre has three main functions. The first is of course to train the astronauts who fly to space. This includes the basic training of new ESA astronauts and mission specific training including those astronauts from the ISS partners, which includes aspects of training on ESAs Columbus module and the European Science Programme and other elements of life aboard the ISS.

The second function is to make sure that ESA astronauts are recruited in good health and stay in good health throughout their careers and during their missions. And thirdly we support the astronauts during their operations, either on the ground or while theyre on the space station, by providing crew and family support, for example.

As the ISS programme manager, Im responsible for the entire implementation of the ISS programme within the European Space Agency. This includes all the technical engineering that is required to sustain operations on the ISS and the activities of the European Astronaut Centre. In addition, I am also responsible for all the interactions with the international partners and making sure that the ISS partners can continue to deliver a successful programme.

An interesting point about the ISS is that we can use it, on the one hand, for new scientific discoveries, but also to prepare for long-term exploration activities, such as the lunar gateway and related technology demonstrations.

Another very interesting perspective is that together with the international partnership, we are trying to build and to stimulate what we call the low Earth orbit (LEO) economy. This is important because a lot of commercial companies are now also interested in working in low Earth orbit. So, in the future, we hope to continue to use LEO ourselves as customers, but also encourage an entire commercial customer base for LEO applications. This would of course reduce the cost for the agencies, which would mean that we could spend more of our resources on further exploration beyond LEO, for example to the Moon.

Overall, the training is very similar. In the ESA and NASA system, much more attention is given to the operational skills and to work in the simulators, while I think the Russian system gives more attention to the theoretical aspects. Indeed, at the end of your training in Russia you have to do an exam, while in ESA there is no formal exam but the overall performance during your training is taken into account.

The training hall at EAC in Cologne Germany.

The first published priority for ESA is to enhance the relationship with the European Commission. The European Commission today has many space programmes, the most important being Copernicus and Galileo, which are implemented by the European Space Agency. The commission has ambitions for further flagship programmes on behalf of the whole European Union and its important that we can continue to work together to implement these programmes.

The second priority is to see how space can further contribute to the general economy and how we can encourage further commercialisation in space. We see that, especially in the United States, a lot of resources are devoted to the development of space activities by private actors. The best-known examples of that are, of course, Elon Musk with SpaceX and Jeff Bezos with Blue Origin, but there are also other actors that invest a lot of money in space. So we have to see how private actors in Europe can participate in this larger space economy.

The third priority is space safety and security. This is important because our societies are increasingly dependent on our assets in space. Think about all the transportation providers that use Galileo navigation signals to find their way around. Think about all the companies and governments that use Copernicus data to enhance their productiveness, or the use of the Copernicus system in managing disasters. Its very important that we can guarantee the use of space in the future and the safety and security of all our space assets. An important element in this is, of course, the management of space debris, in other words the control and reduction of space debris.

A fourth priority is to enhance specific ESA programmes, such as the science programme which is one of the fundaments of the European Space Agency. This would include both robotic and human exploration, and one of the programmes that we will present to the ministers in 2022 is a cooperative programme with the international partners that would see the first European walking on the Moon by 2030.

And, finally, a fifth priority is to undertake a programme of internal reform within ESA to help us to implement all our programmes in the most efficient way.

Frank De Winne with Materials Science Laboratory hardware in the ISS Kibo laboratory.

ISS Russian segment including the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module (2021).

ESA today is not looking into issues of reproduction in space, but it is looking into the effects that can influence long-term survivability in space, for example for missions to Mars. Some of these aspects are of course linked to radiation, which is why ESA is investing a lot of resources in radiation monitoring that will be conducted on the gateway element.

We are also looking into counter measures for astronauts who would have to work in the microgravity environment for the long term. The most promising are related to novel exercise devices that we will test on the space station in 2024 and then hopefully fly to the gateway.

However, ESA is also doing studies for more advanced systems that could be needed in the next 20 to 30 years. For example, the agency is studying the effects of artificial gravity, together with universities and other researchers, although, as of today, we have no projects to build artificial gravity into our space stations.

International Space Station (2021).

Hosting a visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to EAC.

ESA has a diversity programme for the entire workforce and aims to be an inclusive employer, but as astronauts are the most visible element of our workforce, we want to have a larger diversity and inclusiveness in our astronaut corps.

Today, spacecraft and space stations are developed for people that have very specific characteristics, who are in good health and have no physical disabilities. However, it is clear that there are plenty of people in European society that have all the qualities and capabilities needed to be a good astronaut, which is why we want to have a feasibility programme to include those people that, besides their physical disability, would be fully qualified to fly to space.

For the moment, we are only looking for people that have lost the lower parts of their limbs, or are generally of short stature, a criterion based on discussions with specialists from the Paralympic committee. We really hope that some of the people with physical disabilities that we select can become fully professional astronauts.

Frank De Winne shows Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider a mock-up of Europe s Columbus laboratory on the ISS at EAC.

Thats a difficult question. What impressed me the most during my spaceflight was how beautiful our Earth looks, but also how fragile it is. You can see how thin our atmosphere is and its only like a small sheet of paper that surrounds the enormous planet.

From the operational side, what impressed me most during my spaceflight was the first tracking and capture of the new HTV module.

I really dont have any negative things about my spaceflight except for the fact that for six months youre away from your family and your friends. Although you can talk with them on the phone, or through the video from time to time, its impossible to have close physical contact with them.

From space the lines drawn between countries are invisible. For example, it is impossible to see national borders between Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

The most impressive thing that Ive seen from space is that our Earth has no borders. For example, its impossible to see from space the border between Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. This evoked for me a very strong feeling that, for some reason, we have drawn on the map of the Earth some fairly arbitrary lines that we now call borders and that today we are fighting over those lines.

We have to understand that we have only one planet, one Earth, and we are only one humanity in this immense universe. I really hope that in the future we find ways to live together on this planet as one single humanity.

Well, in recent years, the most significant developments are of course the investors in the US that have started developing private space capabilities. Think about the flights of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin and of course, SpaceX, which has developed the Dragon Spacecraft. So we see, in the United States, a kind of space race developing between billionaires. I think this will have a very big impact on the future of space exploration.

Today, space is already available to non-professionals, but of course only if they are rich. I think sub-orbital flights will become more and more available for the less wealthy in the near future, but orbital flight will take a lot longer.

The only companies currently offering orbital flights on the commercial market are SpaceX and Axiom, and those flights are still very, very expensive. Of course, there are other options via the Russian government, including flights with Space Adventures, but they are as expensive and implemented through a government agency.

We also have to consider how we define space: do we define the flights that Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have made as sub-orbital flights and define this as entering space, or do we confine the definition to orbital flights that circle around the Earth more than once?

SpaceX Dragon capsule delivering ISS crew.

I personally think it is unethical to implement one-way flights to Mars. We have to understand that on Mars that are no resources and we wouldnt survive, so a one-way trip to Mars would basically be a suicide trip. For this reason, I would certainly not support or fly on a one-way trip to Mars.

Commercial space station concept by Axiom.

The most important foundation that I have discovered in the 20 years that Ive worked in space is international cooperation. Throughout my time in ESA and the International Space Station programme we have faced many difficulties, but we were always able to overcome them thanks to the support of our international partners.

Lets think about the beginning of the ISS where we had the unfortunate space shuttle accident, or to some of the Russian Progress vehicles or the Soyuz that did not make it to the ISS. The partnership has been able to overcome these difficulties and the ISS is stronger than ever.

We were recently able to dock an additional element to the Russian part of the space station, the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) which carries the European Robotic Arm. This was only possible because we have thousands of people around the world who are convinced that working together is the best way forward. And despite all the political difficulties around the world today, we continue to work and provide science for the benefit of humankind every single day on the International Space Station.

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International cooperation - the key to survival on Earth and in space - Room: The Space Journal - ROOM Space Journal