Category Archives: Space Exploration

Sorry to our fellow hopeful space nerds, but we have to burst everyones warp bubble. Despite recent reports that scientists have accidentally created a warp bubble, it looks like warp speed is still a few baby steps away. But all hope is not lost: a group of scientists led by Dr. Harold G. Sunny White has proposed a structure that could actually be built in the real world and used to study the Casimir effect. It might be a baby step, but its a real one.

The Casimir effect, for the uninitiated, is a very small attractive force that exists between two uncharged but conductive parallel plates that are held very, very close together. It used to be a purely hypothetical offshoot of relativity, but now that weve seen it happen in real life, its high on the list of real-world phenomena scientists are investigating to figure out how we might finally crack the problem of interstellar space exploration.

Specifically, the idea of an Alcubierre warp drive rests on the principle that under the right conditions, the space itself between a traveler and their destination could be induced to contract. This would mean that a hypothetical vessel could break the cosmic speed limit by arriving at their destination faster than the speed of light, without ever having to accelerate its squishy human passengers to relativistic speeds. But the cost is steep. To move faster than light, ships like the USS Enterprise have to open up a warp bubble around themselves by applying amounts of energy that require things like dilithium and antimatter. Here on Terra Prime, the best of human understanding still requires exotic matter to create the conditions for a warp bubble. But scientists have learned how to produce the Casimir effect without having to resort to exotic matter, and if we want to make space itself contract, then wed best figure out everything we can about spontaneous attractive forces in nature.

The paper that describes the structure in question is quite dense. It reports an analysis of the distribution of quantum vacuum energy around a spherical bead of silver-plated silicon, fixed in the middle of a cylinder held between two parallel plates. In the abstract, it says that a micro/nano-scale structure has been discovered that predicts negative energy density distribution that closely matches requirements for the Alcubierre metric. Later, it more closely characterizes its specific target as the predicted toroidal Casimir energy density distribution for [a] sphere-cylinder system comprised of a 1 m diameter sphere suspended in the middle of a 4 m diameter cylinder.

Fig. 1 (above) shows a couple extreme close-ups of parallel-plate structures proposed for use in studying the Casimir effect. (Image: study authors.)

The study was conjectural, and in the paper they explicitly acknowledge it as such, but several initial write-ups of the paper framed things incorrectly. This resulted in various articles claiming the new discovery represented the creation of an actual, real-world warp bubble. The quote below is representative of the initial confusion:

To be clear, our finding is not a warp bubble analog, it is a real, albeit humble and tiny, warp bubble, White told The Debrief, quickly dispensing with the notion that this is anything other than the creation of an actual, real-world warp bubble. Hence the significance.

This statement is not supported by the paper, as Dr. White discussed when we contacted him for an interview. One thing I want to make sure Im very clear on here, he explained to ExtremeTech, is that we did some numerical analysis to identify a real structure that one could manufacture that is predicted to manifest a real warp bubble. We have not built a real warp bubble in the lab. The whole premise of real and analog is meant in the context of the physics parlance.

Thats what really makes these results significant. Being an analog of another phenomenon means theres an unavoidable disconnect in terms of whether any given research can be generalized between the two. This is the same reason that a drug thats demonstrated to work in mouse models doesnt always make it out of human clinical testing. Mice, pigs, and monkeys are useful biological analogs to humans, but the overlap isnt perfect.

Fig. 10(b): Notional micro/nano structure depicting an array of sphere-cylinder units, proposed for use studying the Casimir effect. Image: study authors

There are ways of learning about the physics of one thing by looking at another; Dr. White explained that phenomena exist called acoustic black holes, which behave like black holes in useful ways that we can study, without actually being black holes themselves. Acoustic black holes can trap sound waves within a volume of fluid, in a way not unlike a black hole traps light waves within a volume of space and acoustic black holes emit a kind of energy analogous to the Hawking radiation emitted by black holes. Obviously its less work to make a region of differential fluid flow than it is to make an actual singularity, but the reduced labor comes with a price. Because light and sound are so different, only some of the results generalize from one case to the other.

The researchers did the modeling of the parallel-plate structure, as well as their subsequent numerical analysis, using a cluster of 660 Intel Skylake CPUs. We routinely do analysis today on the custom Casimir cavities as we prepare for some of the empirical work were doing to measure Casimir force, with some of these custom topologies, said Dr. White, and we have to spin up clusters of this size on a regular basis. We would like a lot more, because even with a thousand CPUs, we have to kind of hold the details of the model down, to a point, so that it can get results for us.

This work looking into the Casimir effect is one among several other ambitious research projects at Whites nonprofit, the Limitless Space Institute (LSI). Dr. White compared the organizations basic blue-sky research to modern GPS systems, in that they must account for both relativity and quantum effects in order to produce the highest possible accuracy. LSI works with DARPAs Defense Sciences Office, awards grants and research fellowships, and does its own internal research at NASAs Eagleworks lab. (Eagleworks is the lab that built the EmDrive, an experiment that studied a carefully shaped cavity in hopes that it could capture and direct microwave energy, creating thrust with no propellant.) But the nonprofit has also funded academic research into other exotic ways of getting from A to B, including beam-energy propulsion and relativistic solar sails, fusion propulsion, and even traversable wormholes.

Fig. 8 Plot of York Time. This image shows the expansion and contraction of space associated with the Alcubierre metric. The plot also includes a simple representation of craft overlayed to illustrate the alignment of the exotic matter ring (T00) with the expansion and contraction of space. It should be noted that the flat region at the middle of the York Time plot represents the region of flat spacetime in the middle of the warp bubble where coordinate time is the same as proper time, and proper acceleration is zero. This would be where sensitive spacecraft systems/instruments and possibly crew would be located.

For a long time, NASA has been synonymous with space exploration. Recently humans have begun to look again toward putting boots on the moon, but thats not the limit of our ambition; weve got satellites and Voyagers and landers and solar probes, and even a plucky little rover thats hanging out on the surface of Mars doing all sorts of science in tandem with its companion drone, trying to scout and prepare the way for humans to finally land there.

But suppose you wanted to do something like send a human being to the rings of Saturn, on a timescale of hundreds of days, comparable to current travel times between here and Mars. Fission, or even fusion, could be harnessed to get us a long way out into the reaches of the outer solar system. Nuclear-electric propulsion, where youve got a nuclear reactor thats coupled with some form of electric propulsion, Hall thrusters, what have you that type of architecture can take human beings to every destination in the solar system, said Dr. White. Its well explored in the literature; all it requires is the dedication to build and field those systems.

Even though its an order of magnitude more energy to get a payload to Saturn than it takes to get that same payload to LEO, the megawatt-scale power demands arent beyond the reach of nuclear-electric, or even chemical propulsion. As design sizes shrink, power requirements could potentially be met by a micro-reactor on the scale of the boxcar-sized designs under research elsewhere in the public sector. We can muster the energy to get to incredibly distant places; what we cant do yet is get there fast enough to be worth the trip. Nuclear-electric propulsion gives us the solar system, said Dr. White. But if we want to get to another star system within some fraction of a human lifetime, thats where we need to look on the frontiers of physics.

Note: The Debrief has updated its story since publication to remove the phrase anything other than the creation of an actual, real-world warp bubble, but the headline still implies that a specific, reproducible phenomenon has been observed / discovered. This is inaccurate. This paper describes a model that predicts a phenomenon. Scientists have yet to observe or create an actual warp bubble, whether in nature or in a lab.

Now Read:

Link:

Scientists Haven't 'Created' a Warp Bubble, But They're a Bit Closer to Testing One - ExtremeTech

In 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin climbed out of Apollo 11s Eagle lander and stepped onto the moon, they were several hours ahead of schedule. Back on Earth, the moon had not yet risen sufficiently for the Goldstone dish antenna in California to pick up the video. All of America and much of the world sat at the edge of their collective seat, and there was no dish in the United States that could deliver what everyone wanted to see.

On the other side of the world, a radio antenna at Parkes Observatory in New South Wales, Australia, picked up the feed from the moon. Were it not for Australia, no one would have seen that giant leap for humanity as it was happening.

Australias history in space does not often get the acclaim it is due. Australians have long made important contributions to space exploration and development. The nation holds essential communications infrastructure for space missions; it has sent astronauts to the International Space Station; and it was a founding member of the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

Yet, for all its successes, Australias modern space story is only just beginning, and its progress today is a perfect example of how a nation is leveraging its resources and capabilities, making smart investments, and implementing focused strategies to grow its space ecosystem, participate in the global space economy, and enjoy the rewards it offers for life on Earth.

The Australian Civil Space Strategy presents the 2030 goal of increasing the space sectors GDP contribution to $12 billion while also creating 20,000 new jobs. The path to those goals is paved with investments.

For example, as identified in The Space Report, the Australian Government allocated $15 million (Australian or AUD) to the nations International Space Investment initiative to foster international collaboration in space. Geoscience Australia received AUD$224.9 million to improve positioning, navigation and timing capabilities. The publicly funded Space Infrastructure Fund is providing AUD$19.5 million to domestic space companies. And perhaps the most impactful funding (and arguably the most inspiring) comes via Australias contribution to our return to the moon and our longer term goal, to reach Mars.

Australia is a founding signatory to the Artemis Accords, the community of nations setting out the standards for the peaceful exploration of the moon and deep space bodies. Australian Space Agency Director-General Enrico Palermo said of the agreement:

Australia is at the cutting-edge of robotics technology and systems for remote operations, which are going to be central to setting up a sustainable presence on the Moon and eventually supporting human exploration of Mars This agreement will leverage our expertise in remote operations to grow our space sector here at home, while developments that come from preparing for space will make sure our resources sector keeps powering ahead too.

As part of its commitment to this vision, Australias AUD$150 million Moon to Mars Initiative is a publicly funded effort by the Australian Government to provide funding for programs that support industry and the innovations that contribute to successful lunar and Martian missions. Under the initiative:

The Supply Chain Program provides grants and support for projects that enhance the domestic and international supply chains in support of space missions.

The Demonstrator Program provides for the development of space technologies.

The Trailblazer Program provides AUD$150 million in investments across five years for projects that support NASA missions to the Moon and Mars.

The results of these investments are already apparent. In October 2021, the Australian government inked an agreement with NASA to develop and build a semi-autonomous rover for exploring the lunar surface. This project is backed by AUD$50 million from the Trailblazer Program, a third of the entire funding on offer, and it will bring together government, private industry and the research community.

This is a clear example that Australias space ecosystem is in motion, and it is being led in large part by a space agency with two primary mandates: coordinate civil space activities across government and support the growth of the space industry. These are demanding charges for any agency, and it may be startling that the Australian Space Agency (ASA) only began operations in July 2018. Australia was among the last nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to establish a government space agency, and today, ASA boasts a relatively modest budget, AUD$80 million in 2020, according to The Space Report.

While ASAs youth may at first appear to be a hindrance, it could actually be a defining feature of its success. Australia is not burdened with legacy institutions and cultures that could limit agility and innovation, and it has a clear understanding that Australias success is contingent on the success of its commercial space ecosystem. The challenge is to bring the pieces of the puzzle together, and ASA is confidently at the helm.

As ASAs former Director-General Megan Clark said in 2020, We have the entrepreneurship, we have the can do attitude, we absolutely have the ideas and the talent, we have the capacity to run through the legs of giants weve just got a little bit of catching up to do.

As many nations are learning, some of the most important steps to unleashing space economy potential are updating regulatory frameworks and restrictions governing space activities. In Australia, two of the most significant hurdles for private sector innovation were prohibitive insurance requirements for launch activities and restrictive regulations around the launching and return of space technologies. The Space (Launches and Returns) Act 2018 and a series of rule changes in 2019 addressed both challenges. Insurance requirements for launch activities were lowered, and the space regulatory framework was amended to align with modern technology and the pace of innovation across the scientific fields.

These changes came alongside other industry-supporting initiatives, such as the Australian Parliaments Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation, Science and Resources Inquiry into Developing Australias Space Industry. Throughout 2020 and 2021, the Inquiry has solicited input and held public hearings to learn about industry needs and identify opportunities to support space innovation, commercialization, international collaboration, and workforce development.

By virtue of these kinds of initiatives and amendments, the Australian space industry is growing fast. Notable standout enterprises include:

Gilmour Space, a launch company backed by AUD$61 million, is developing a launch system to put small satellites in orbit, and it anticipates its first commercial launch in 2022. Black Sky Aerospace launched Australias first commercial payload in 2018 and is the only Australian company licensed to manufacture large scale solid rocket motors. Hypersonix is focused on reaching space with hypersonic vehicles and scramjets. And while based in New Zealand, Rocket Lab is also participating in the launch system market and is a major employer of Australians in the space industry.

This steady march toward sovereign launch capabilities requires the facilities to launch, which is prompting the development of launch facilities that can accommodate domestic and international customers with varying needs. The launch service provider Southern Launch, for example, capitalizes on its location in Adelaide, South Australia, from which objects can be launched into the hard-to-reach polar orbit. Meanwhile in the Northern Territory, Equatorial Launch Australia is developing a launch site that offers a lower rate of pounds-per-dollar to orbit because it is so close to the equator.

With launch capabilities and facilities, what comes next is a surge in innovation, new businesses, new products and services, and all the jobs that come with them. There are enormous commercial opportunities for environmental data collection and analysis, for land and resource management, mining, telecoms, logistics tracking for the booming shipping industry, and crop and herd management in agriculture. Australia is on the cusp of becoming a major market for the space industry, but what about the workforce? Is it ready?

Australia is geographically huge, the sixth largest country in the world, and economically powerful, with the 12th largest economy by GDP, around $1.6 trillion. Yet, its 2021 population is just 25.7 million people, and of those, only around 13 million people are in the workforce.

Currently, Australia has about 10,000 jobs to offer in the space industry, but the goal is to raise that to 30,000 in less than a decade. We know from observing other spacefaring nations that jobs in the space ecosystem are good jobs, and it stands to reason that with a small population, Australia aspires to create a workforce that is high-skilled, well-paid and competitive on the international stage. Space can deliver all of that, and if education is a measure, Australia is ready. Around 18% of the Australian workforce holds a qualification in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) field, according to an Australian Government report.

Education is just one component of creating a space-ready workforce, but given the existing STEM talent, the Australian space industry is positioned to reskill or upskill professionals in related fields, such as aviation and robotics. Just as important is inspiring the next generation to take an interest in STEM subject matter, and space is an alluring hook to spark a students imagination and lifelong ambition. It is why Australia is fortunate to have the Victorian Space Science Education Centre, the South Australian Space School, and the recently opened Australian Space Discovery Centre, all of which focus on promoting STEM education through the lens of space.

Yet, a STEM background is not the only path to joining the space workforce. A thriving space ecosystem requires a range of skill sets. This includes entrepreneurship and space technology commercialization. It also includes designers, project managers, administrators, supply chain and manufacturing experts, and indeed, all of the skilled talent needed to support and grow a blossoming industry. With this, Australias goal of creating 20,000 new jobs through space activities is entirely within reach. No one goes to space alone, and there is room for all people in the space workforce.

Taking a step back and looking at Australias long space journey, it is evident that the best is yet to come. The laws and regulations are being adapted to industry needs, funding is flowing through the right channels, and collaboration between government, industry and academia is flourishing. The workforce, the companies, the focus and drive all of the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. On a competitive landscape packed with legacy giants (such as the United States, ESA and China) that attract all the fame and glory, Australia is catching up fast. It will, in the words of Dr. Clark, run through the legs of those giants, and it will be exciting to watch.

Shelli Brunswick is the chief operating officer of Space Foundation.

This article originally appeared in the December 2021 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

The rest is here:

Op-ed | Through the Legs of Giants: The next chapter in Australia's space journey - SpaceNews

Less than a year after nailing its first interplanetary mission with a flawless Mars orbit insertion, the United Arab Emirates has selected its next destination: the asteroid belt.

In October, the UAE announced that it was aiming to launch a new spacecraft in 2028. Like the Hope Mars orbiter, the as-yet-unnamed asteroid mission is designed to meet specific science goals, but it is also being carefully engineered to shape the nation's future as the UAE looks to diversify its traditionally oil-focused economy. That gives the UAE's missions a different flavor than what NASA fans are used to seeing.

"We do this in a completely different mechanism," Sarah Al Amiri, the chair of the UAE Space Agency, told Space.com. "We don't have a typical process of proposals and then narrowing it down and so on. It's an interesting way of working, but I enjoy it thoroughly because you have everyone sitting at the same table scientists, engineers, mission designers discussing all these different potential programs."

Related: The greatest asteroid missions of all time!

The new mission will draw heavily on the team's experience with the Hope mission, which the UAE designed to arrive in orbit by the nation's 50th anniversary, which occurred this month. Hope, also known as the Emirates Mars Mission, was designed to push the nation's technical skills and ambitions while also finding a way to give the world's scientists a new batch of data to consider.

But even while Hope was still on Earth, before its launch in July 2020, UAE space leaders had begun to consider in the background what they could do next, Al Amiri said, considering multiple potential missions. (Al Amiri declined to provide any details about other missions the team considered in case the UAE revives them in the future.)

Dreaming up a new mission, the UAE wanted to start with what it had already built with Hope, but this time, incorporating the nation's private companies as well. "We used the Emirates Mars Mission to build capabilities and capacity in the country, and then we're using this mission to build capabilities and capacity in industry directly," Al Amiri said.

But carrying over from Hope is a key partnership with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder, which signed onto the Mars mission in 2014. "Seven years ago, we had no idea what it would be like to work with the Emiratis," Pete Withnell, program manager for Hope at LASP, told Space.com. "It was challenging from a technical perspective, but very rewarding on a personal one, and we have lifelong friendships coming out of this."

Also familiar will be the spacecraft itself: Although the new asteroid probe will go to a different destination to do a different type of science than Hope, it will build directly on its predecessor's template for spacecraft design and construction.

That said, the new mission will need better heat protection to survive a swing past Venus on its way out to the asteroid belt, and it will need stronger power production to run on the reduced sunlight available farther from the sun.

"The soft spot was this mission, where it used enough of the Emirates Mars Mission to reduce risk, because it's a much harder mission to go to the asteroid belt," Al Amiri said. "It's enough change and enough challenge to be able to trigger it forward."

In embarking on another mission, the UAE also wanted to mimic the science approach it took for Hope: to focus on a destination of high interest but to chase a data set that would tell scientists something new about the solar system. For Hope, that meant studying the Martian climate and atmosphere using a unique orbit that allows the spacecraft to see much of the planet at once. For the new mission, it means developing a complex itinerary of asteroid visits culminating with a landing attempt.

But which asteroids precisely, it's too early to say. So far, the team isn't focused on specific space rocks; instead, it is developing a mission sketch of what might be feasible given the spacecraft and some basic science goals.

"Because we're basing this off of a spacecraft design that we know with minor tweaks, that was part of our decision-making process actually how much can this spacecraft handle?" Al Amiri said.

"We knew sort of the size of the asteroids that we needed to target and the types of maneuvering that the spacecraft needs to go through," she added. "Based on that we did an initial sort of orbit design of the spacecraft to identify where its route's going to be, around when do we launch."

Only now is the team beginning to evaluate precisely which asteroids the spacecraft can and should visit.

"I think that's the excitement of all this it's sort of like choosing destination unknown," Heather Reed, who has also been a part of both missions from the LASP side, told Space.com. "With any luck, we have a varied set of things that we're looking at, so hopefully all of them are different."

The new mission joins a substantial list of spacecraft invested in understanding the secrets of asteroids. NASA is waiting for samples from a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu to be delivered in 2023. The agency also just launched the first-ever mission to the Trojan asteroids that orbit the sun at the same distance as Jupiter and is preparing for next year's launch of a mission designed to unpack the secrets of an asteroid that appears to be mostly metal.

Meanwhile, last year, Japan celebrated a delivery of samples drawn from an asteroid called Ryugu, which it just shared with NASA. Japan and China are each planning to launch an asteroid mission later in the decade; Europe is building a spacecraft that will visit an asteroid after NASA slams its own spacecraft into the space rock next fall.

But despite the interest in the asteroid belt and even without a firm sense of the instruments the spacecraft will carry, there's little chance that the UAE can go there and learn nothing new, since it's "a largely unexplored region of space," Withnell said.

"The asteroid belt provides a good snapshot in the past, our understanding of the evolution of our solar system, and a snapshot into the future into the role they will play in space exploration," Al Amiri said.

"There is so much new to discover," Reed said. "All we have to do is get there, right?"

That, of course, is the challenge the team will tackle over the next five years as the project works toward a 2028 launch date.

"The Emiratis like to do things big and they don't like particularly to do them in a safe way. They like to take risks," Withnell said. "Those are two things that speak very well to engineers and scientists."

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Read the rest here:

UAE looks to build on Mars mission success with tour of the asteroid belt - Space.com

The last private spaceflight of the year blasted off and safely returned to earth last weekend.

According to AP Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn, the passengers included Laura Shepard Churchley, the eldest daughter of astronaut Alan Shepard, who famously hit golf shots on the surface of the moon as a member of the Apollo 14 moonshot. Good Morning America co-host and former all-star defensive end for the New York Giants, Michael Strahan, was also along for the ride, which turned out to be about 50 miles shorter than Mr. Shepards 1961, Mercury flight.

The Saturday launch, which was reportedly delayed for two days by windy conditions, also included space exploration company, Voyager Space, chairman and CEO Dylan Taylor, financier Lane Bess and his son Cameron, as well as investor Evan Dick.

According to Dunn, the flight lasted about 10 minutes and sent the occupants skyward for 66 miles, into what NASA refers to as the mesosphere layer of the earths atmosphere.

The capsule traveled just above the imaginary line which marks the beginning of space 62 miles above sea level, where the passengers were able to experience several moments of weightlessness before the capsule parachuted them back to earth.

I thought about Daddy coming down and thought, gosh he didnt even get to enjoy any of what Im getting to enjoy, Shepard Churchley said after the flight. He was working. He had to do it himself. I went up for the ride!

Blue Origin, the company Shepard Churchley and Strahan flew with Saturday, is owned by Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos, who went on the companys first launch in July.

In October, actor William Shatner, perhaps better known as Captain James Kirk from the original Star Trek TV series, rode along on Blue Origins second launch.

Billionaire Richard Branson pioneered space tourism earlier in July by blasting off with his own company, Virgin Galactic.

While regular launches of paying customers and celebrity guests have only been available for a few months, Space X, founded by Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has been around since 2002. The company routinely launches NASA satellites into space.

They were the first private company to deliver cargo to the International Space Station and have made two successful flights bringing astronauts to ISS in May and Nov. 2020.

Read the original post:

First year of space tourism comes to a close with astronaut's daughter, all-star football player among passengers - Northeast Valley News

You are invited to a journey of Indias space exploration, through a talk by the team of Space Handshakes, an initiative involving casual conversations about space and space-related matters. The guest at the latest event is Srinivas Laxman, a journalist and writer of several books on space and ISRO. Speaking to Laxman will be Ruchira Sawant, co-founder of Space Handshake. Hosted by Indic Inspirations, the event seeks to bring space, legends and experience to the public. The talk will be followed by a Q&A session. At Indic Inspirations Experience Centre, Munshi Chambers, Near Passport Office, Koregaon Park Annex, Ghorpadi Mundhwa Road, on December 18, 11 am-1 pm. Contact: 89990 93398.

Sakharam Binder, a play by Vijay Tendulkar, was written in Marathi and first performed in 1972. The protagonist thinks he has the system by the tail and can disregard the culture and societal values as long as he is truthful. The system is the de facto enslavement of women in post-colonial India. The play Laxmi ka Sakharam, based on Tendulkars classic, takes a look at Sakharams views about the narrow-minded attitude of the world around him, while he himself is a borderline misogynist. At Raah: Literacy and Cultural Centre on December 19, 6 pm. Before the play, there will be a free Stage Acting Primer from 4 pm to 6 pm. Donor passes: Rs 500. Register: https://www.townscript.com/e/sankharam-unleashed-344123.

Phoenix Marketcity has organised a community-driven Christmas Toy Donation Drive that will span the city and reach out to corporates, schools, gated communities, banks and spaces apart from the mall. They are calling out to collect old toys that their children have outgrown and donate it to this cause. Donation baskets for toy collection have been placed in more than 20 societies in and around Pune, Kotak Mahindra bank branches and at the mall. The drive that began on December 17, will continue till the end of the month.

Swatantra Theatres 8th Annual Theatre Festival, Swatantra Rang, features classics such as Asghar Wajahats Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya and Ajay Shuklas story of red tape and corruption Taj Mahal Ka Tender on December 18 (6 pm and 8:45 pm, respectively).

On December 19, the stage will be set for Sarveshwar Dayal Saxenas political satire Bakri and Alakhnandans Ujbak Raja Teen Dacoit, based on Hans Christian Andersons The Emperors New Clothes (6 pm and 8:45 pm, respectively). At Open Air Theatre, Swatantra Theatre (Inside Jain Vidyalaya next to BMCC, Deccan Area). Entry: Donor passes will be available one hour before the show; advance booking at Bookmyshow.

A 400-year-old story molded in copper, Tambat Ali or Coppersmiths Lane, is a part of Punes living heritage. A walk by the Western Routes on December 18 aims to get people to look closer at how the Tambats preserve this age-old and dying craft despite the challenges in their way. Timings: 10am-12 pm. Entry: Rs 350. Contact: 9405591758.

Original post:

Pune: This weekend, travel to space and take a tour of Tambat Ali - The Indian Express

Looking Back and Looking Forward for SETI

From the seminal Drake Equation to new strategies for exploring the cosmos for extraterrestrial intelligence, SETI scientists are dedicated to the search.

To speed the cosmic trawl, researchers are increasingly leaning on a concept first articulated in of all places economics. Due to the current limits of technology, the modern SETI enterprise is mainly a search for potential civilizations thatwantto be found. Extraterrestrial intelligences would, by definition, be rational agents, and might intentionally beam out signals indicating their presence, shouting We are here! into the void. If so, astronomers could turn our common intelligence to their advantage, working out how to cooperate even without communicating. All they need to do is think like aliens.

The COSMIC program hardware has been installed at the VLA and the data is beginning to flow, allowing observational data to be analyzed in parallel for potential extraterrestrial signatures.

Last year, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the SETI Institute agreed to cooperate in the development and installation of the COSMIC system at VLA. COSMIC, funded by the SETI Institute, analyzes data from VLA to identify possible transmissions by extraterrestrial technology.

Living Worlds, an award-winning original planetarium show developed at the Cal Academy, begins daily showings at the Morrison Planetarium. Narrated by Daveed Diggs, the program looks at Earth and beyond to explore how to discover life elsewhere in the galaxy.

Living Worldsfollows the odyssey of life on our planet and the exploration of its possible alien abodes beyond Earth, said Dr. Nathalie A. Cabrol, astrobiologist and the Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute. It brings together attention to details and scientific rigor while always keeping it as a priority to make it visually stunning.Living Worldsis a journey through time and space, where life is both the observer and the planetary experiment now on a quest to figure out its own origin.

Using astronaut health and rodent data, a Frontier Development Lab (FDL) team has created a method that allows more accurate prediction of genes affected by radiation, which can lead to cancer or immunity diseases.

"The FDL Astronaut Health team achieved some truly incredible results in this year's challenge - both in their novel combination of human and mice data and the identification of several causal genes responsible for cancer," saidPatrick Foley, Intel lead technical mentor. "This work is a testament to what can happen when public and private institutions work together and how federated learning can be used to unlock discoveries that would otherwise remain buried. We are confident that this research will go on to drive better health outcomes for astronauts and enrich the lives of every person on Earth."

Jill Tarter is interviewed on the astronomy podcast Astrophiz.

Dr Jill Tarter is fantastic! Listen to this amazing interview with a scientist/astronomer who has always been at the forefront of SETI research.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has found its first planet that orbits two stars. Previous circumbinary planet detections required at least three transits of the stars to confirm; a new technique with TESS only requires two transits.

The TESS discovery involves anew techniquedeveloped in part by scientists from the Planetary Science Institute, a nonprofit organization founded in 1972, based in Tucson, Arizona, and dedicated to solar system exploration.Veselin B. Kostovof the SETI Institute a research-based nonprofit, based in Mountain View, California led the new study.

The tally of exoplanets discovered using the Kepler spacecraft has increased by 301, thanks to a new AI algorithm called ExoMiner. The SETI Institute partnered with several other organizations, including NASA, to develop the algorithm and scan the Kepler data on candidate potential planets.

As [Hamed] Valizadeganexplained:When ExoMiner says something is a planet, you can be sure its a planet. ExoMiner is highly accurate and in some ways more reliable than both existing machine classifiers and the human experts its meant to emulate because of the biases that come with human labeling. Now that weve trained ExoMiner using Kepler data, with a little fine-tuning, we can transfer that learning to other missions, including TESS, which were currently working on. Theres room to grow.

Unistellars eVscope telescope was named as a CES (Consumer Electronics Show) Innovation Award Honoree by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), and is in the running for their Best of Innovation award, to be issued in January 2022.

TheUnistellareVscope 2 is the worlds most powerful digital telescope for consumers. It enables anyone to discover the universe and contribute to meaningful space science. Uncompromised optics and cutting-edge technology let users experience deep space faster, easier and clearer than ever.

The recent purposeful explosion of a satellite not only endangered the International Space Station and its astronauts, but the resulting debris field can also impede use of ground-based telescopes.

"Space debris is a key concern that could threaten space exploration plans. You should notice that this incident generated 1,500 trackable orbital debris, which is quite different from tracked orbital debris," says Franck Marchis, Chief Scientific Officer at Unistellar and Senior Planetary Astronomer at SETI Institute, a not-for-profit research organization studying the origin of life in space.

"The daunting task of monitoring that amount of new debris, along with the debris that already exists in space, will be unmanageable with traditional big telescope infrastructures. The growing network of small, smart digital telescopes is key to ensuring space exploration is accessible and safe," Marchis says.

With all of the exoplanets that have been discovered, it is possible that there is a twin of the Earth a Planet B? What would life on such a planet be like?

There really is no Planet B for us, said Jill Tarter, astronomer and former director of the Center for SETI Research who currently holds the Chair Emeritus for SETI Research. Unless we figure out a way to solve all of the global issues that we face here and mitigate those challenges, wherever we go well create the same problems that weve done here on this planet. Theres no escape hatch.

With the possibility that extraterrestrial life may be found in our lifetimes, exaggerated claims of the media, which are then disproved, can diminish trust in the science behind the story. NASA scientist James Green has a new proposal for reporting on SETI progress.

Imagine, for example, that NASAs Europa Clipper probewhich is due to launch in 2024 ona mission looking for signs of life on Jupiters moon Europadetects possible fleeting evidence of organic molecules under that worlds icy shell. How do you announce that? Seth Shostak, an astronomer with the California-based SETI Institute, told The Daily Beast. (SETI stands for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.)

Big Picture Science

Join hosts Seth Shostak and Molly Bentley each week as they explore emerging science and technology research.

Dimming the SunDoes geoengineering offer a Plan B if nations at the U.N. climate meeting can't reduce carbon emissions? The Glasgow meetinghas been called the last best chance to take measures to slow down global heating. But we're nowhere near to achieving the emission reductions necessary to stave off a hothouse planet.We consider both the promise and the perils of geoengineering, and ask who decides about experimenting with Earths climate.

With guests Elizabeth Kolbert, David Keith, Kim Cobb

Your Inner TreeDeclining biodiversity is a problem as fraught as climate change.Loss of habitat, monoculture crops, and the damming of waterways all lead to massive species extinction. They tear at lifes delicate web, and threaten a balance established by four billion years of evolution.Can we reassess our relationship to Nature? We consider logging efforts that make elephants part of the work force, and how to leverage the cooperative behavior of trees.Becoming Natures ally, rather than its enemy.

With guests Suzanne Simard, Carl Safina, Jacob Shell

Suitable for Life?Life nearby? Weve not yet found any on our favorite planet, Mars. But even if Mars is sterile, could we ever change that by terraforming it? Or seeding it with life from Earth?The Red Planet is not the only game in town: A new NASA mission to a Jovian moon may give clues to biology on a world where, unlike Mars, liquid water still exists.Also, the promise of the James Webb Space Telescope and why the solar systems largest active volcano offers clues to the habitability of other worlds.

With guests Kate Craft, Julie Rathbun, Courtney Dressing, Chris McKay

Skeptic Check: Shroom with a ViewMagic mushrooms or psilocybin - may be associated with tripping hippies and Woodstock, but they are now being studied as new treatments for depression and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers. Is this Age of Aquarius medicine or something that could really work? Plus, the centuries-long use of psychedelics by indigenous peoples, and a discovery in Californias Pinwheel Cave offers new clues about the relationship between hallucinogens and cave art.

With guests Merlin Sheldrake, Albert Garcia-Romeu, David Wayne Robinson, Sandra Hernandez

Talk the WalkBirds and bees do it and so do fish. In a discovery that highlights the adaptive benefits of walking, scientists have discovered fish that can walk on land. Not fin-flap their bodies, mind you, but ambulate like reptiles.And speaking of which, new research shows that T Rex, the biggest reptileof them all, wasnt a sprinter, but could be an efficient hunter by outwalking its prey.Find out the advantage of legging it, and how human bipedalism stacks up. Not only is walking good for our bodies and brains, but not walking can change your personality and adversely affect your health.

With guests Hans Larsson, Shane OMara, Brooke Flammang

More Big Picture Science episodes can be found at http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes.

SETI Live

SETI Institute hosts interview cutting-edge scientists each week on social media. Recent SETI Live episodes include:

Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1: Alien Technology or not?In a new paper published last researchers concluded that BLC1 was an artifact of Earth-based interference from human technologies. Dr. Sofia Sheikh took it a few steps further to see if it were possible to establish a process for what to do if a signal of interest is found. The result is a technosignature verification framework that can be used for future candidate signals. Join Franck Marchis and Sofia Sheikh in a discussion of this work.

How to Better Visualize Complex Systems?Learning science is about understanding complex systems and interactions among their entities. Telescopes are for observing objects that are far away, and microscopes are for exploring the tiniest objects. But what tools do we have for visualizing general patterns, processes, or relationships that can be defined in terms of compact mathematical models? Visualizing the unseeable can be a powerful teaching tool.

SETI Institute affiliate Dr. Mojgan Haganikar has written a book, Visualizing Dynamic Systems, that categorizes the visualization skills needed for various types of scientific problems. With the emergence of new technologies, we have more powerful tools to visualize invisible concepts, complex systems, and large datasets by revealing patterns and inter-relations in new ways. Join the SETI Institutes Pamela Harman as she explores what is possible with Haganikar.

Strange Radio Waves from the Galactic CenterA team of radio astronomers detected unusual signals from deep in the heart of the Milky Way using CSIROs ASKAP radio telescope. The radio waves fit no currently understood pattern of variable radio source and could suggest a new class of stellar object. What could this be? Pulsar, huge solar flare, or something else?

We invited the lead author of the paper, published in October in Astrophysical Journal, Ziteng Wang and his Ph.D. supervisor Professor Tara Murphy, both from the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Sydney, to discuss with SETI Institute Senior astronomer Franck Marchis their discovery and its extraordinary behavior.

Takween: Geometry and Creation ( A SETI AIR Conversation)A Conversation with SETI Artist in Residence Zeinab Alhashemi

Could the codes of creation be embedded in geometry? Dubai-based SETI Artist in Residence Zeinab Alhashemi is exploring how the patterns that exist in nature connect to art, mathematics, and spirituality. Zeinab sees geometry as a universal language that brings together culture and science. She has become known for her large-scale, contemporary art installations that deconstruct the viewers understanding of their surroundings and introduce an alternative point of view. Her most recent work is the kinetic sculpture Takween, which is currently being exhibited at the Dubai 2020 expo. Based on the ancient motif of the Viscia Pisces, it symbolizes creation, time, and the celestial spheres.

A New Way to Detect Planets with Two Stars27 days, 2 transits, 3 eclipses, and the 1st circumbinary planet detected from a single sector of TESS data!

Researchers announced they detected a planet in a 200-day orbit around two stars from observations of just one TESS sector over an observation period of 27 days. Previous detections of circumbinary planets required observing three transits which was not possible in the short observation window. Franck Marchis will discuss the discovery with SETI Institute scientist and lead author on the discovery's paper, Veselin Kostov.

Recent Signals of Interest for SETIYou've read it in many headlines, researchers detect mysterious signal from outer space, but what does that mean? And how do scientists determine if a signal is from ET or natural phenomenon? Join this Giving Tuesday SETI Live with Dr. Wael Farah, a researcher at the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array, to learn all about recent signals of interest and how the scientific community studies them. Beth Johnson will host.

Videos of all past Facebook Live events can be found on our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/SETIInstitute/, or on our YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/SETIInstitute.

Read this article:

SETI Institute in the News Media Roundup. November 2021 - SETI Institute

KILGORE The Kilgore Public Library is blasting off into the holiday season with a NASA My Library ornament contest. A special Christmas tree at the library also has been decorated with hand-painted and personally designed space-themed ornaments.

The contest was held to celebrate the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which is planned to follow the Hubble Space Telescope as NASAs flagship astrophysics mission and is scheduled to be launched Wednesday, according to NASA.

Library patrons and community members designed and decorated a number of ornaments, which can be seen hanging on the space-themed tree at the library. Participants voted for their favorite ornament this past week.

Winners are:

Patron Choice Award: Anelise Green

Planet, Stars, Galaxies Winner: Milo Moehring

James Webb Space Telescope Winner: Aubrey LaDuke

Rockets Winner: Harrison Anderson

Library Director Stacey Cole said the tree and ornaments are part of the librarys year-long celebration of NASA and space exploration.

Earlier this year, the Kilgore library was selected to be part of NASA My Library, an education initiative created to increase and enhance STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) learning opportunities, including in geographic areas and populations underrepresented in STEAM education.

Kilgore Public Library is one of just 60 libraries nationwide to be part of this initiative, and were thrilled to have been selected, said Kaitlin Waldecker, library programming coordinator. We look forward to introducing STEAM concepts to our younger patrons and to exploring the universe together with people of all ages during our public programs in 2021 and 2022.

As a NASA My Library partner, the Kilgore Public Library will hold public programs that explore science and technology.

As part of this initiative, Kilgore Public Library also will receive training and resources to implement NASA events and programming, access to a university subject matter expert to support patron engagement and $1,600 for programming expenses.

Read more:

Blasting off into the holidays: Kilgore library's tree showcases space theme - Longview News-Journal

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 15 December 2021, 08:12 pm

(Photo : Artezio from Unsplash) Could China Beat NASA in Terms of Mars Exploration? Space Race Report Says it's 20 Years Ahead of the US (Photo : by NASA via Getty Images) JEZERO CRATER, MARS - FEBRUARY 18: In this handout image provided by NASA, the first high-resolution, color image to be sent back by the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) on the underside of NASAs Perseverance Mars rover after its landing in the area known as Jezero crater on February 18, 2021 on the planet Mars. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. (Photo : Getty Images )

A Mars spacecraft might have just spotted water ice hidden a few feet under the Red Planet's version of the Grand Canyon.

(Photo : Artezio from Unsplash)Could China Beat NASA in Terms of Mars Exploration? Space Race Report Says it's 20 Years Ahead of the US

According to Space.com, the discovery was made by the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft, which is part of a joint mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos called ExoMars.

The water ice was detected by virtue of the data collected by the TGO. Using a machine called a Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector (FREND), the spacecraft was able to detect high levels of hydrogen at Candor Chaos, a site located close to the Martian Grand Canyon called Valles Marineris.

To brush up on your elementary school science, hydrogen is a key component of water.

In an official statement, the ESA said that the central part of Valles Marineris is packed with "far more water than expected." They even compared it to Earth's own regions covered in permafrost. There, water ice remains under the land for a long time because of the constant cold.

The TGO Mars spacecraft was able to make the discovery from almost 250 miles above the planet's surface. But it also allows scientists to "look down" to as much as 3 feet below the dusty surface of Mars, where they hope to find water-rich regions that could go undetected by other instruments.

With this discovery, the ESA ExoMars mission hopes to better understand what happened to the planet's water in the distant past. Furthermore, it will also help them improve their techniques for finding organic materials, as well as signs of life on Mars-or any other potentially habitable exoplanet.

For now, the ExoMars mission and the TGO spacecraft will continue to study the Red Planet and find out once and for all if life ever existed there, according to the ESA.

(Photo : by NASA via Getty Images)JEZERO CRATER, MARS - FEBRUARY 18: In this handout image provided by NASA, the first high-resolution, color image to be sent back by the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) on the underside of NASAs Perseverance Mars rover after its landing in the area known as Jezero crater on February 18, 2021 on the planet Mars. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.

Water is a critical part of life as it is known on Earth. Even in our world's harshest environments, the presence of microscopic water molecules have almost always been linked to the existence of living organisms.

Read Also: NASA Mars Rover's Rock Sample Sports 'Something No One Has Ever Seen'

It is not the first one to do so, but it further corroborates the fact that liquid water-or water ice, in this case-does flow on Mars, albeit very sparingly.

This massive confirmation was made way back in 2015 by NASA, using data from their Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft. The probe used an instrument called an imaging spectrometer to detect signatures of so-called "hydrated minerals" on specific slopes on the planet.

On these slopes, the liquid water flows intermittently at temperatures over -10 degrees Fahrenheit, but eventually disappears when it gets colder than that.

Given that water is an essential sign of potential life, numerous theories are floating around suggesting that Mars might have been a livelier world in the distant past. But where did all the water go in the first place?

(Photo : Getty Images )

There are two places where it could have gone, as per National Geographic. One, around 30 to 99 percent of all the planet's water got trapped into minerals in its crust. Two, the rest of it just went to space. This is the conclusion of a study published last March 17th in the journal Science, which was presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

For now, the TGO spacecraft and the whole ExoMars mission will continue prodding.

Related Article: Giant Hole In Mars Atmosphere Responsible For Loss Of Water On Red Planet

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce

2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

See the rest here:

Mars Spacecraft Spots WATER ICE Under The Red Planet's 'Grand Canyon' - Tech Times

In a recent profile penned inVanity Fair,Andy Jassy comes off smelling like a rose. Without the thorns.

According to author Nick Bolton, Amazon's newly crowned CEO is the "anti-Bezos" -- an unassuming, inoffensive nice guy who really knows how to run a business. In fact, he's been at the helm of AWS (Amazon Web Services) for a while, growing the service into an operationworth hundreds of billions of dollars -- all while somehow somehow avoiding the internecine warfare that so often plagues those of his rank.

Jessy isn't perfect, Bolton explains. He's boring, too detail-oriented, and perhaps most egregious, too much of an Amazonian.

It's true that Bezos could no longer be the face of his own company. Problems withworking conditionsand wages have stained the company's reputation. Just recently, in fact, the company suffered a public lashing because ithid internal Covid-19 casesfrom its own workers. Meanwhile, Bezos racks up billions in personal wealthand targets monstrously expensive space exploration.

But is Jassy the right man to take the helm? It really seems like a thinly-veiled PR move. Bezos will still be chairman of the board, effectively calling the shots with a different title. Jassy, meanwhile, will likely toethe party line, as revealed in Bolton's lengthy interview. Despite prodding about corporate missteps over the years, he largely championed Amazon's position.

What Amazon really needs is a cultural shakeup that can only happen if a real anti-Bezos steps in. The company needs a leader who understands employee exploitation, wage imbalance, power dynamics and manipulation, and is willing to admit to wrongdoing with a plan for rectification.

Jassy just doesn't seem to be that person. While he may be a "nice guy" -- counter to the image many of us have of Bezosat this point -- it's only a matter of time until the reputation of the company is conflated with Jassy. As the face of the company, still effectively run by Chairman Bezos, Jassy will likely become another face to represent the exploitation and foibles that have come to characterize Amazon leadership.

I hope that I'm wrong. I hope Jassy is, truly, the anti-Bezos Amazon needs -- that we all need. But I'm not holding my breath.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

Continued here:

The #1 Reason Amazon's New "Anti-Bezos" CEO, Andy Jassy, Is A Step In the Wrong Direction - Inc.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

This subterranean creature has 1,306 legs. Yes, that's a record.

Deep underground in an exploratory drill hole in a mining region of Australia, scientists have discovered a "marvel of evolution," a remarkably elongated blind millipede possessing the most legs - 1,306, to be precise - of any known animal. The threadlike pale-colored millipede reaches about 3-1/2 inches (95 mm) long and about four-hundredths of an inch (0.95 mm) wide, with a conical head, beak-shaped mouth and large antennae - likely one of its only sources of sensory input because it lacks eyes, scientists said on Thursday.

Russia hopeful of space rides from NASA to ISS from 2022 - agency head

Moscow expects NASA to start taking cosmonauts to the International Space Station again and is hopeful that cooperation can resume next year, the head of the Russian space agency was quoted as saying on Wednesday. Russia has been the only country capable of delivering people to the ISS since 2011, when the U.S. space agency retired its space shuttle and divert resources towards deeper space exploration.

Ground control to Maezawa: SoftBank's Son speaks to orbiting protege

SoftBank Group Corp founder and CEO Masayoshi Son said he spoke by phone to fashion magnate and protege Yusaku Maezawa, who is currently on a trip to the International Space Station. "Maezawa called my mobile but it cut out!! I tried to call him back but he was out of range," Son posted to his 2.9 million Twitters followers late on Wednesday.

Omicron thrives in airways, not lungs; new data on asymptomatic cases

The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. Omicron multiplies faster in airways, slower in lungs

Zoo in Chile tests experimental COVID vaccine on lions and tigers

At the Buin Zoo on the outskirts of the Chilean capital Santiago, a veterinarian sporting a tiger-striped face mask administers an experimental COVID-19 vaccine to a tiger in a cage, as another zoo worker feeds the animal chunks of raw meat via a pair of long tongs. The Buin Zoo, like others around the world, is looking to keep its animals safe from the coronavirus. It is administering an experimental formula donated by global animal health company Zoetis Inc to its 10 most susceptible animals, zoo director Ignacio Idalsoaga said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Read the original here:

Science News Roundup: This subterranean creature has 1,306 legs. Yes, that's a record.; Russia hopeful of space rides from NASA to ISS from 2022 -...