Category Archives: Space Exploration

While the space race of the 1950s and 1960s was an exciting time to be alive, humanity has never lived through a more fast-paced period of space exploration and human spaceflight. It seems almost impossible to catch up on the news without seeing a headline about a new Mars Rover, space telescope or astronomical event and the public clamors for all of it.

We're finally on the cusp of a huge leap in space exploration: commercial spaceflight, also known as space tourism. But advances in space tourism are mostly due to billionaires and private development, and tickets have been primarily bought by the ultra-wealthy for instance, it costs $250,000 to book a seat on Virgin Galactic for a trip to space. And when NASA said in 2019 that it would allow private citizens to fly to the International Space Station (ISS), it put the cost to stay there at $35,000 a night, and the price to get there at around $50 million.

However, while we wait for prices to come down, there are still ways to experience space tourism on Earth. These earthly adventures cover the range of experiences you could have in space, while still fitting the budget many people have for other "bucket list" travel, like visiting Antarctica.

If there's one constant force on Earth, it's gravity. Our measure of gravity on Earth forms the basis for our understanding of gravity elsewhere in the solar system. But gravity doesn't feel the same everywhere. The experience changes whether you're traveling through space (zero Gs) or visiting another celestial body like Mars (one-third of the gravity on Earth) or the moon (one-sixth the gravity). To simulate the differences in gravity, there are two companies that offer "zero-G" flights.

These companies, including American Zero-G and AirZeroG in Europe, use modified planes to simulate different gravitational forces through a series of parabolic flights. Over the course of a flight, the pilots take the plane through maneuvers that simulate Martian gravity, lunar gravity and zero gravity. Of course, this isn't really zero gravity it's actually weightlessness as you fall back toward Earth. But try not to think about that too much as it's a bit disconcerting to imagine!

Zero-G flights range in cost from $6,700 to $9,500. Flights are offered in different states and cities throughout the year.

Ever wondered what life on Mars is really like? Astroland can answer that question. As one might expect, this is a more challenging mission physically and psychologically. Astroland is similar to the NASA HI-SEAS program, but is aimed at a wider tourist base. The company operating Astroland is based in Spain, expanding the access in space tourism on Earth to more of Europe.

The main experience at Astroland is Ares Station, a realistic habitat built into a cave to simulate one possible settlement plan for Mars. While details on how to join an Astroland mission are currently limited, the idea is that each person will pay for a place on a team; you'll then go through advanced training to determine your role on the team. Following that, you'll spend a designated time in Ares Station living and working full time including conducting research projects and providing data about the psychological impact of living in isolation.

Initial pricing for Astroland was reported in the range of 6,000 euros ($7,000) for a month of training plus a three-day, three-night stay in Ares Station.

If you'd rather keep your feet firmly on planet Earth but still experience a bit of outer space, there's nowhere quite like space camp. Made famous by the "Space Camp" family film of the 1980s, children have been attending space camp in Huntsville, Alabama, for generations. There's also a program for adults both for those who went as kids and those who missed out.

The weekend-long Adult Astronaut Training program gives grown-ups the chance to get hands-on learning about planetary science, orbital mechanics and NASA missions past, present and future. Space camp is housed at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, part of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and all programming is designed in coordination with actual NASA missions. This means you can spend time in simulations piloting the Orion Capsule, working in mission control, and doing a "spacewalk" to work on International Space Station modules. And before or after your adult space camp, you can add on training as an underwater astronaut!

Cost is $199-$299 per person for space camp and $150 per person for the underwater program.

You can follow in the footsteps of real astronauts and cosmonauts by participating in astronaut training through a company called Space Adventures, which offers space tourism experiences ranging from watching rocket launches in Kazakhstan to actually launching tourists to the International Space Station.

But let's get back to learning how to be an astronaut for real. Spaceflight training through Space Adventures takes place in Star City, Russia, outside of Moscow. During the experience, participants learn how to fly Russian Soyuz spacecraft through a simulator, get to try spacewalk training, and ride the centrifuge to get a better understanding of the gravitational forces experienced during launch and landing. This experience offers a different perspective than others on this list as it focuses on the Russian space program, Roscosmos, rather than NASA.

Space Adventures' Spaceflight Training is a bespoke experience, and pricing is available on request.

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4 Ways to Experience Outer Space Right Here on Earth - HowStuffWorks

RIAU24.COM National Aeronautics and Space Administration USA (NASA) In conjunction with SpaceX recently launched the 128 Baptile Squid with 5,000 micro-organisms for a series of experiments on the effects of space travel to the International Space Station (ISS).

According to the BBC, the animals were inside the rocket Falcon 9 Space X It was launched by ISS on Thursday (June 3, 2021) as part of a cargo delivery mission to support NASA space research.

Also read: The tragic story of a 13-year-old boy who is determined to raise his brother after losing his parents to Covid 19 touches Netizens

The Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft carried a total of 3311 kg of cargo from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 13:29 local time on Thursday.

Furthermore, ABC News reports that the microbial animal and baby squid (Ubrimna scolops) are part of a NASA experiment known as umami or understanding of microgravity in animal-microbial interactions.

In particular, the experiment sought to explore the effects of space travel on molecular and chemical interactions between beneficial microorganisms and their animal hosts.

Also read: This man who is tired of eating grass has the heart to feed Golkappa cows, video goes viral

Jamie Foster, a leading researcher at UMAMI, commented: Animals, including humans, rely on our microbes to maintain healthy digestive and immune systems. We do not fully understand how space travel changes these beneficial interactions.

This space research is expected to give a better understanding of the complex relationships between beneficial animals and microorganisms. In addition, it will help to develop safety measures for the health of astronauts on long-distance space missions.

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128 Baby Squid in space for SpaceX and NASA space exploration - The Press Stories

While the hotel never came to fruition, the push for the commercialization of space continues to live on.

A hotel on the Moon. It's a concept that was once far-fetched, but with the advancements and commercialization of space exploration, now 50+ years later, is more of a potential reality.

Ideas, while "symbolic," for Americans to kick back and relax or grab a drink at a hotel in space were around two years before astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were forever etched in history.

It all dates back to 1967 when, then president of Hilton Hotels, Barron Hilton, spoke to astronomers and space lovers at an American Astronomical Society meeting.

Scarcely a day goes by that someone doesnt ask me, jovially, when the Lunar Hilton is going to be opened. They're joking, of course. But I don't see it as a joke at all I firmly believe that we are going to have Hiltons in outer space, perhaps even soon enough for me to officiate at the formal opening of the first," Hilton said, according to archives.

At the event, Hilton shared his conceptual vision for a space hotel called the Orbiter Hilton or Lunar Hilton with large rooms, carpets, drapes, wall-to-wall TVs and plants. The food guests would have access to during their stay, according to Barron, would "be as good as those on Earth."

If you think we're not going to have a cocktail lounge you don't know Hilton or travelers. Enter the Galaxy Lounge. Enjoy a martini and see the stars," he added.

And while the plans were grand, they never came to be a reality in the more than 50 years since. Archivists refer to the space hotel talks as a mix of "honest speculation and playful humor."

Fast forward to 2021 and space agencies and companies' interest in a more permanent space on the Moon continues to grow.

In 2019, CNNreported The Gateway Foundation was working to construct the Von Braun Station with the goal of it being fully operational by 2027. NBC News added the spacecraft will be large enough to hold a pair of hotels and house 100 guests -- along with possibly three times as many crew members.

Then there's the upcoming Artemis mission looking to take the next man and first woman to the Moon since 1972. To do that, several elements and contracts still need to fall into place.

The Artemis program is inspired by NASA's Apollo program and how it proved it was possible to land humans on the Moon and return them to Earth safely. In Greek mythology, Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo.

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A glimpse at the plans for Hilton's 1967 space hotel that never was - WTSP.com

During our stop by Uptown Jewelers this morning in the Magic Kingdom, we came across a lovely new addition to The Dress Shop Collection. This purple ombr dress will certainly have you dreaming of a great big beautiful tomorrow, and blasting off into space.

We love the T design on the chest. Disney is always great for their attention to detail.

The dress style even features pockets, which are perfect for a day in the park riding rides.

The bottom hem features a fun graphic and logo of Tomorrowland complete with iconic attractions around the area.

We also found this dress available on shopDisney.

Will you be adding this style to your Disney Dress collection? Let us know in the comments below.

As always, keep following WDWNT for all of your Disney Parks news, and for the absolute latest, follow WDW News Today on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

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PHOTOS: New Tomorrowland Dress Ready for Space Exploration at Magic Kingdom - wdwnt.com

Bechtel

ASCEND announced on Monday its 2021 Guiding Coalition. The Coalition is an advisory board of technical, scientific, engineering and business leaders selected to help maximize ASCEND's mission. The board will include Mike Costas, general manager and principal vice president of Bechtel's Defense and Space business line.

Costas said that the Coalition is The infrastructure needed to grow the space industry in the coming years will be complex and requires cooperation from a large and diverse supply chain.

ASCEND recognizes that adjacent industries beyond traditional aerospace companies will be needed to propel this growth. It was the same more than 60 years ago when Bechtel first worked for the U.S. space program. We see a bright future and our support will continue, Costas added.

Long-term space exploration and exploitation will require infrastructure on Earth, in low-Earth orbit, on the moon or in deep space will require master planning, management of complex megaprojects, first-of-a-kind technologies, detailed design and engineering and construction in remote or harsh environments.

The 33 members of the 2021 ASCEND Guiding Coalition bring a treasure trove of experience, from space exploration and vehicle design to communications, government and finance, to solve the complicated challenges in the space sector.

ASCEND is powered by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and was launched in 2020 to accelerate space commerce, exploration and discovery. The annual event this November follows a quarterly series of 2021 ASCENDx programs online. The November event will be live in Las Vegas and online everywhere.

The November Events program will host presentations by notable thought leaders and rising industry leaders. The content will focus on big picture challenges, paths to success, innovation applications and the exponential value of interdisciplinary collaboration in outer space.

"ASCEND is connecting leaders across disciplines in bold, new ways. AIAA is unique in our ability to convene the technical conversation, so that expertise can inform the economics and the policies of space exploration," said Dan Dumbacher, AIAA executive director.

"We want to have the hard conversations and drive the intentional outputs to accelerate building our off-world future, concluded Dumbacher.

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Bechtel's Mike Costas Named to ASCEND's 2021 Guiding Coalition - ExecutiveGov

Jeffrey Max has spent much of the past three decades investing in hi-tech businesses and helping them to drive scale. But his latest project might be his most ambitious yet: at Agile Space Industries, Max is literally (and figuratively) shooting for the moon.

Agile is a leading developer of propulsion engines for space craft. Founded in 2009 it started life by developing a rocket engine testing site in Southern Colarado, not far from the small city of Durango. It still offers that facility, but three years ago, Agile announced an expansion into design and manufacturing that has very quickly won plaudits; in February, it clinched the contract to supply 12 thrusters for a lunar lander for a 2023 mission to the moons South Pole.

Maxs involvement with Agile also began in 2018 largely thanks to a chance encounter. Having retired to Durango after stints in Chicago and New York, he agreed to host a local science and technology event; there he was approached by one of Agiles founders, who wanted him to take a look at the business.

I realised it was an extraordinary opportunity, Max recalls. It was an amazing business run by brilliant engineers who just didnt have the experience required to scale the company to the next level.

A seasoned entrepreneur and serial investor, Max knew he could provide that experience. Ive been building technology companies for 30 years and I would emphasise that it takes the entire team to make a business successful, he reflects. But while ideas are plentiful, there is a shortage of execution capacity and what drives execution is experience.

Max agreed to become chairman and CEO of Agile, taking on the roles in March 2019. Since then, the business has grown from six members of staff to around 40, with hiring taking place at every level of the organisation. We have a cadre of leaders and engineers who are the best of anyone Ive worked with in my entire career, Max says of his colleagues.

Expansion is continuing at pace. Agile has just completed the acquisition of Tronix3D the business will be renamed Agile Additive and is in the middle of a $10m Series A funding round to provide a war chest for further M&A, as well as additional capital to finance investment in its facilities. It might be unusual for an industry stalwart to launch a Series A round, but this is effectively acceleration capital for our move into manufacturing, Max explains.

Jeffrey Max, chairman and CEO of Agile Space Industries

Agiles unique selling proposition is its long track record of using 3D printing in the development process in 2009 it won the first ever grant from NASA for experimentation with the technology. The companys initial work was with ceramic materials, but more recently it has acquired the technology to print in metal, including the complex alloys used in space travel.

It has proved revolutionary, says Max, reflecting on the contrast between Agiles use of 3D and the traditional approach to developing new components, which can take months or even years. We can finish a design in the morning, send the instructions to the printer in the afternoon, print overnight and test the following day, he says. Suddenly, youre compressing the innovation cycle from months into days, collapsing the cost and timeframe of delivery, and delivering a bespoke product at off-the-shelf prices.

The approach also means there is no excess material built into designs. It costs $1.2m to put a kilo of payload on the moon, so imagine what you can save by getting rid of excess, Max says.

Max got into the space business at an opportune moment, just as private sector businesses began to explore space exploration for a variety of commercial and strategic reasons. A report published by Morgan Stanley last year suggested the global space industry was worth around $350bn the investment bank expects that to grow to more than $1 trillion by 2040.

Most of the chatter around the sector at least among non-industry experts surrounds high-profile ventures such as SpaceX, founded by Teslas Elon Musk, whose focus is getting rockets into space. But as Max points out, once missions make it into space, their work is only just beginning craft need sophisticated propulsion systems to carry out their goals, from landings on other planets to the exploration of deep space, or work to clean up space junk. We provide the engines that will move these craft around, he explains.

Still, if Max and the Agile team were the right people and 2018 was the right time, is Durango the right place? After all, a small and relatively inaccessible town in the Rocky mountains is a long way from the traditional centres of the aerospace sector in Los Angeles or the motor engine industry in Alabama.

Actually, says Max, the lifestyle in Durango has been instrumental in attracting talented people to the business, with the areas outdoor pursuits, from skiing and mountain biking to fishing and trekking providing to be a huge lure. The quality of life here is so enviable, he points out. Thats been hugely interesting to many of our team, and even more so in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Agile also offers opportunities to play an active part in the local community. Its test facility, for example, sits on tribal land and the firm is exploring the possibility of launching a vocational training programme to give opportunities to Native Americans interested in a career in the sector.

In other words, the stars are aligning for Agile, no pun intended. And while there is growing competition for space propulsion contracts, Max believes the companys track record speaks for itself. Weve got more than a decades worth of experience and innovation behind us, he points out.

The companys acquisition provides it with greater control of its supply chain and its Series A round represents another potential growth accelerant. Max believes the ingredients are in place to take the business to a whole new level, with a leadership team strong enough to manage a company of several hundred employees.

Were in the early stages: the space economy is only just lighting up, he says. But we intend to be the leading provider of in-space propulsion systems anywhere in the world.

Continued here:

Meet Jeffrey Max, The Entrepreneur Leading Colorados Agile To Victory In The Space Race - Forbes

Theres a book on a shelf in Rick Harndens New Ipswich home that he first read at the age of seven.

Rockets, Jets, Guided Missiles and Space Ships by Jack Coggins and Fletcher Pratt was published in 1951, a fantastic look at the then-unknown future of space travel, grounded in science. Like most kids in the 1950s, Harnden was fascinated by sci-fi movies that dramatized the idea of space exploration and he just couldnt get enough. It ignited a passion deep inside that would eventually become his lifes work.

He was in the fourth grade when discovered his love of math, sparked by a baseball game that featured multiplication.

Turned out I was pretty good at math and science, he said. I just remember always loving it and I still do to this day.

He took calculus in junior high school, remembering the thrill of learning there was something beyond geometry and trigonometry. He scored a perfect 800 on his math achievement test and knew he wanted to further his studies in the sciences. While his father Frank Harnden Sr. (Harndens given name is also Frank but has always gone by Rick) was a Harvard grad, Harnden took his educational journey to Yale Universitys physics department. The idea was always to go to grad school for nuclear physics but something happened the final semester of his senior year. He was introduced to the theory of x-ray astronomy and it altered the focus of his studies.

After growing up in the Dallas area, moving there at six months old from the Berkshires of Massachusetts, Harnden returned to the Lone Star State to study astrophysics at Rice University. As Harnden remembers, the space program was just getting underway as he embarked on his higher education with the first moon landing taking place during his days at Rice.

As Harnden dove deeper into the world of astrophysics he became fascinated with what else was out there in the universe. There was so much unknown about what lied beyond the earths atmosphere and the ability to be on the cutting edge of discovery was just about the most exciting thing a scientist could dream of.

Harnden said that for so long astronomy was about the light that was visible from distant objects.

Visible light is what were familiar with, he said. Yet its only one part of the electromagnetic spectrum. But by looking at the entire spectrum, you get a more comprehensive view of whats going on out there. Its a way to get a broader view, complete view of whats out in our universe.

Harnden called the discoveries around x-rays fascinating because there were so many questions about what was truly visible in space.

And we were actually answering those questions, he said. The answers are so satisfying and it was the perfect time to be involved in all of this.

Harnden was inspired by the likes of Herbert Friedman, who spent nearly his entire professional career at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C, and had a vision for an X-ray telescope on the moon which we have not done, Harnden said, along with Italian astrophysicist Riccardo Giacconi.

During his second year at Rice, Harnden was part of an experiment that launched a high-altitude balloon carrying a high-energy X-ray telescope from Palestine, Texas. Along with two bush pilots, Harnden tracked the balloon across the southern part of the country until its landing in a pig farmers field in Georgia. The data collected by the telescope was actually transmitted by radio, but someone had to gather the payload. It was the first of a dozen balloon flights that Harnden took part in around the globe, with his work taking him to places like Argentina, Japan, China, Germany, Italy and England.

After finishing up his studies, Harnden was a senior scientist at American Science & Engineering, Inc. for two years. Then at the urging of a professor, he applied for a job at Smithsonian Institution, Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard.

I didnt look for the job, it fell into my lap, he said. While his career took him to other locations in the field of astrophysics, Harnden was tied to the Smithsonian Institution, Astrophysical Observatory for 34 years until his retirement in 2008. He spent two years as a Visiting Senior Scientist at NASA Headquarters from 1995-97 and as a High Energy Astrophysics Discipline Scientist in the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters for the final four years of his work.

It was at Rice where Harndens passion for the universe took on a new dream of actually donning a spacesuit and being sent into space.

The space science department really got me keyed into NASA, Harnden said.

In 1977, Harnden was among 12,000 applicants for NASAs Mission Specialist Program. He was selected as one of 200 finalists and went through a battery of physical and psychological tests. Ultimately though he was eliminated from consideration.

I was not meant to go into space, Harnden said, who chalked up not being selected because of his eyesight. It was a defeating moment for Harnden and it led to what he described as a month-long depression. But it didnt derail his passion for space and all the questions that still needed to be answered. He has authored and peer-reviewed hundreds of scientific papers on the topic of astrophysics.

While at the Smithsonian Institution, Astrophysical Observatory, Harnden was part of so many missions in a quest to learn more about the presence of x-rays in space. He worked to develop instruments for sounding rocket projects for data collection, taking part in multiple launches from White Sands, New Mexico.

Some of his prized work was when he landed opportunities to be part of three satellite launches. The Roentegen Satellite (ROSAT), a German X-ray observatory built in collaboration with the United States and the United Kingdom put into orbit in 1990. It was named for German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, who first discovered x-rays in 1895. The High Energy Astronomical Observatory-2, also known as the Einstein Observatory, was the first fully imaging X-ray telescope put into space, whose scientific outcome completely changed the view of the X-ray sky. He even designed the analysis system for the Einstein Observatory.

I literally soldered components that went into space, Harnden said.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory, a telescope specially designed to detect X-ray emission from very hot regions of the universe such as exploded stars, clusters of galaxies, and matter around black holes was launched in 1999 and is still working today.

The cool thing about Chandra is that its orbit is unique, Harnden said, which is about one-third of the way to the moon.

Eventually I got kicked into management, Harnden said, so his hands-on work with projects took a bit of a back seat.

Harnden and his wife Virginia first moved to New Ipswich in 1998. While he was still working in Cambridge at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, they were in search of a getaway within about 90 minutes of Boston. As a lover of the outdoors, having climbed the Boy Scout ranks all the way to earning the honor of Eagle Scout, the four-acre property with a log cabin and a private lake surrounded by conservation land was perfect.

They slowly started to spend more time at their spot in the woods and when Harnden retired in 2008 it became their full-time home.

In search of something to fill his time, as Virginia had found her passion as a board member at the Hampshire Country School in Rindge, Harnden helped found Monadnock At Home, a nonprofit membership organization serving seniors of the Monadnock Region with the support and practical means to live and thrive in their homes and communities. His mom had come down with Alzheimers and spent time in a nursing home and his father had a stroke, so the mission was close to his heart.

I just thought anything we can do to help with that stage of life is worth doing, Harnden said. He is the former chair of the board and still continues to volunteer, helping with odd jobs around peoples homes and assisting with teaching technology. As the vaccine rollout began, Harnden helped some with setting up their appointments.

It is very, very satisfying and rewarding, he said. And as I learned as a boy scout, it helps you to.

The reason he retired at just the age of 63 was to spend more time with his and Virginias children and their grandchildren.

I was afraid I was going to miss things, he said.

He fills his time in the workshop on his property, having built a dock for the lake. He loves to fix things because as he puts it problem-solving is my thing.

Harnden is still fascinated by space, evident by still owning the first book he ever read about it. He has a pair of high powered binoculars that allows him to see star clusters, the rings of Saturn and moons of Jupiter. The best place for viewing on his property is in the middle of the lake.

Now Im just an observer, Harnden said. But what a trip its been.

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Monadnock Profiles: A love of space and passion for the sciences - Monadnock Ledger Transcript

A dozen nations have signed on Artemis Accords, a NASA initiative that focuses on peaceful use of astronomical objects

Topics space race|NASA|moon mission

After a 50-year hiatus, international treaties about space exploration and exploitation are on the table. The Artemis Accords are an initiative by the US to hash out new agreements. Artemis is the code name for NASAs mission to put humans on the Moon again in 2024.

The last major international agreements were the Outer Space Treaty (OST), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1967, followed by the Registration Convention of 1976. The OST articulated highfalutin principles and said little concrete. The Registration Convention asked signatories to furnish orbital details of ...

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First Published: Tue, June 08 2021. 06:10 IST

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After 50-year hiatus, international space mining treaties are on the table - Business Standard

"This Week In Space" brings you whats new and exciting in space exploration and astronomy once a week, every week. From supernovae to SpaceX or Mars missions to black holes, if its out of this world, its covered here:

A supernova that lit the night sky for months in 1181 AD has returned as a 'zombie' star, scientists say.

In 1181 AD, medieval astronomers in China and Japan stood witness to something that has only occurred eight times in all of recorded history: a supernova from within our galaxy. The stellar explosion appeared to humans as a new light in the night sky, then slowly faded over months back into darkness, never to be seen again. Until now.

Nearly a thousand years later, an international team of astronomers believe they have found the remains of that supernova. Its called a "zombie star," becauseunlike nearly every other supernova weve observedit partially survived its explosion.

On top of that, the supernova may be the first definite example of a rare type thats only been theorized before, involving the merger of two extremely dense stars. The only way to find out for sure is to study the star in detail.

Now, centuries after it was first seen by human eyes, thats finally possible.

An airborne experiment over the Alps could help scientists explore matter in other galaxies.

Scientists have thought of many ways to discover life on other planets, but they often rest on assumptions about what aliens might be like. This past week, an interdisciplinary team of scientists put forward a promising new method that only assumes one of the most fundamental facts about life as we know it. Then they tested it in daredevil fashion.

All life on Earth is based on molecules that are chiral, meaning they can exist in either one of two mirror-image forms. When biology uses a molecule in some way, it almost always uses just one form and not its mirror image. The scientists claim is that this microscopic tendency could be visible from space. Or, at the very least, from a helicopter.

In what must have been a fun study, the group sped a helicopter 5,000 feet above the Swiss Alps while constantly taking measurements of the ground beneath them through a telescope. If the helicopter was above greenery, the hope was that they would be able to detect how sunlight reflects differently from a plants asymmetrically chiral molecules (as opposed to, say, a rock or a lake).

It did. They found that they could use their measurements to tell whether they were flying over plant life within seconds.

Future astronomers may not use helicopters to accomplish the same feat, but the proof-of-concept stands, and means that some day this technique could be scaled up to planets themselves.

The U.S. is looking to become a gatekeeper and licenser for all of Earth's extra-planetary operations.

Another step has been taken toward the corporatization of space. Last week, South Korea and New Zealand became the 10th and 11th countries to sign the Artemis Accords, a space treaty that acts a prerequisite for those who want to be involved in American efforts to again set foot on the Moon.

Mostly, the agreement is uncontroversial. It reaffirms peaceful cooperation in space exploration and the status quo. To some, though, it represents another inch slid down the slippery slope to privatized space, or even an outer space totally dominated by the U.S.

The Accords set the standard for whether and how corporations can exploit resources in space (e.g. mining), allowing it so long as the corporations are appropriately approved. But the U.S. would be the body deciding most of those approvals, since most private space corporations are licensed in America. The result is that space not only becomes a new frontier of potentially unlimited private property, but one which the U.S. controls access to in practice.

Perhaps this is why NASA and the Department of State have pursued the treaty on a country-by-country basis, as opposed to bringing it to the UN for approval. With each country that signs on, there is a bit more precedent that outer space is aligned with US interests.

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This week in space: Zombie stars and the corporatization of the galaxy - Chron

What lies beyond our solar system has long fascinated not just scientists but also writers and filmmakers, so murky are its depths.

And even the two probes that have made it beyond the heliosphereand into interstellar space Voyagers 1 and 2 did so only after decades of exploring our own planetarysystem.

Now, Canberra researchers say they have cracked the code to enable usto send a spacecrafteven further, and at a far greater speed, to another planetarysystem altogether.

The spacecraft is alsoso small and delicatethat scientistsplanto send more than one in the hope thatsome of them will make it to Alpha Centauri, without being destroyed by an errant piece of space dust along the way.

The achievement is "very exciting"because it could enable us to record information from those planetary bodieswithin our lifetime its predicted travel time is just 20 years.

Compare that to the roughly 44 years Voyager 2 spent nosing around Uranus and Neptune before continuing into the great beyond.

The study's lead author, Australian National University astrophysicist Chathura Bandutunga, said when they discovered the solution it was a kind of "eureka moment", when they worked out how many lasers, and in what formation, they would need to propel their spacecraft far enough and fast enough to reach its goal.

"We already have several crafts Voyager included [in interstellar space]but it will be many human lifetimes before they reach anywhere near another star," Dr Bandutunga said.

"For the Breakthrough Starshot probe to reach Alpha Centauri within one lifetime it will need to travel over 2000 times faster than our current interstellar probes."

Supplied: Breakthrough Initiatives

DrBandutunga said the whole project was "very ambitious", but one researchers were finally confident enough to share with their collaborators around the world.

"The challenge that we're really looking at is how do we use light to push the satellite along?" he said.

"And how do we get that light from a ray that's on the ground all the way to the satellite in orbit? How to do that on a grand scale that's really unheard of to date."

If their theory is correct, the lasers will be arranged in just the right combination and number to propel the sail to where it needs to go, and the next step is to test that theory within the laws of physics.

"The next step is to test the building blocks in a laboratory setting," he said.

Ideally, a spacecraft will reach Alpha Centauri,the closest star system and closest planetary system to Earth's, and record images and scientific measurements that will be broadcast back to Earth.

Scientistsestimate roughly 100 million individual lasers will be needed to generate the required optical power of about 100GW.

Fellow author Paul Sibley said the devil was in the detail when it came to unscrambling the lasers.

"We use a random digital signal to scramble the measurements from each laser and unscramble each one separately in digital signal processing,"he said.

This allows us to pick out only the measurements we need from a vast jumble of information. We can then break the problem into small arrays and link them together in sections."

While these measurements may seem confounding to the average eye, what is clear is that scientists have never got this close before.

"This project is really about making that travel from our star to another star possible within a human lifetime," Dr Bandutunga said.

University of Southern Queensland professor of astrophysics Jonti Horner described the development as a "brilliant"step forward in space exploration research.

"I think it's really fun," Dr Horner said.

"It puts an interesting spin on something people already do in astronomy.

"I think it's a beautiful illustration of how something that has been developed for one purpose can be repurposed for a totally different project.

"Instead of unscrambling the effect that the atmosphere has on light coming in, you're preemptively scrambling the light going out so that the atmosphere unscrambles it."

Dr Horner said the breakthrough was an exciting one because it was using existing technology to do something groundbreaking, where data from distant stars could be sent back within 25 years.

"It's a really fascinating example of where the investment of money and science leads to remarkable results,"he said.

"This idea that if we could speed the spacecraft up to a quarter of the speed of light, you could get it to the nearest star within 15 or 20 years.

"It's saying this is possible, likely with technology that's not much more further advanced than what we have now, so it's not science fiction, it's near-future technology."

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Australian National University researchers light up our pathway to another planetary system in major scientific breakthrough - ABC News