Category Archives: Space Exploration

For most people, getting to the stars is nothing more than a dream. On April 28, 2001, Dennis Tito achieved that lifelong goalbut he wasnt a typical astronaut. Tito, a wealthy businessman, paid $20 million for a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to be the first tourist to visit the International Space Station. Only seven people have followed suit in the 20 years since, but that number is poised to double in the next 12 months alone.

NASA has long been hesitant to play host to space tourists, so Russialooking for sources of money post-Cold War in the 1990s and 2000shas been the only option available for those looking for this kind of extreme adventure. However, it seems the rise of private space companies is going to make it easier for regular people to experience space.

From my perspective as a space policy analyst, I see the beginning of an era in which more people can experience space. With companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin hoping to build a future for humanity in space, space tourism is a way to demonstrate both the safety and reliability of space travel to the general public.

Flights to space like Dennis Titos are expensive for a reason. A rocket must burn a lot of costly fuel to travel high and fast enough to enter Earths orbit.

Another cheaper possibility is a suborbital launch, with the rocket going high enough to reach the edge of space and coming right back down. While passengers on a suborbital trip experience weightlessness and incredible views, these launches are more accessible.

The difficulty and expense of either option has meant that, traditionally, only nation-states have been able to explore space. This began to change in the 1990s as a series of entrepreneurs entered the space arena. Three companies led by billionaire CEOs have emerged as the major players: Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and SpaceX. Though none have taken paying, private customers to space, all anticipate doing so in the very near future.

British billionaire Richard Branson has built his brand on not just business but also his love of adventure. In pursuing space tourism, Branson has brought both of those to bear. He established Virgin Galactic after buying SpaceShipOnea company that won the Ansari X-Prize by building the first reusable spaceship. Since then, Virgin Galactic has sought to design, build, and fly a larger SpaceShipTwo that can carry up to six passengers in a suborbital flight.

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, respective leaders of SpaceX and Blue Origin, began their own ventures in the early 2000s.The going has been harder than anticipated. While Branson predicted opening the business to tourists in 2009, Virgin Galactic has encountered some significant hurdlesincluding the death of a pilot in a crash in 2014. After the crash, engineers found significant problems with the design of the vehicle, which required modifications.

Musk, fearing that a catastrophe of some sort could leave Earth uninhabitable, was frustrated at the lack of progress in making humanity a multiplanetary species. He founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of first developing reusable launch technology to decrease the cost of getting to space. Since then, SpaceX has found success with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. SpaceXs ultimate goal is human settlement of Marssending paying customers to space is an intermediate step. Musk says he hopes to show that space travel can be done easily and that tourism might provide a revenue stream to support development of the larger, Mars-focused Starship system.

Bezos, inspired by the vision of physicist Gerard ONeill, wants to expand humanity and industry not to Mars, but to space itself. Blue Origin, established in 2004, has proceeded slowly and quietly in also developing reusable rockets. Its New Shepard rocket, first successfully flown in 2015, will eventually offer tourists a suborbital trip to the edge of space, similar to Virgin Galactics. For Bezos, these launches represent an effort at making space travel routine, reliable, and accessible to people as a first step to enabling further space exploration.

Now, SpaceX is the only option for someone looking to go into space and orbit the Earth. It currently has two tourist launches planned. The first is scheduled for as early as September 2021, funded by billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman. The other trip, planned for 2022, is being organized by Axiom Space. These trips will be costly, at $55 million for the flight and a stay on the International Space Station. The high cost has led some to warn that space tourismand private access to space more broadlymight reinforce inequality between rich and poor.

Blue Origins and Virgin Galactics suborbital trips are far more reasonable in cost, with both priced between $200,000 and $250,000. Blue Origin appears to be the nearest to allowing paying customers on board, saying after a recent launch that crewed missions would be happening soon. Virgin Galactic continues to test SpaceShipTwo, but no specific timetable has been announced for tourist flights.

Though these prices are high, it is worth considering that Dennis Titos $20 million ticket in 2001 could pay for 100 flights on Blue Origin soon. The experience of viewing the Earth from space, though, may prove to be priceless for a whole new generation of space explorers.

Wendy Whitman Cobb is a professor of strategy and security studies at the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Space tourism20 years in the makingis ready for launch - Fast Company

Richard Branson was running almost 15 years late. But as we rode into the Mojave desert on the morning of 12 December 2018, he was feeling upbeat and untroubled by the past. He wore jeans, a leather jacket and the easy smile of someone used to being behind schedule.

Branson hadnt exactly squandered the past 15 years. Hed become a grandfather, moved to a private island in the Caribbean and expanded Virgins business empire into banking, hotels, gyms, wedding dresses and more. But he was staking his legacy on Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company he formed in 2004. The idea was to build a rocketship with seats for eight two pilots, six passengers that would be carried aloft by a mothership, released about 45,000ft in the air and then zoom just beyond the lower limit of space, float around for a few minutes, before returning to Earth. He was charging $200,000 a seat.

It did not initially seem like such a crazy idea. That year, a boutique aviation firm in Mojave, California, two hours north of Los Angeles, had built a prototype mothership and rocketship that a pair of test pilots flew to space three times, becoming the first privately built space craft. Branson hired the firm to design, build and test him a bigger version of the craft.

But the undertaking was proving far more difficult than Branson anticipated. An accidental explosion in 2007 killed three engineers. A mid-air accident in 2014 destroyed the ship and killed a test pilot, forcing Virgin Galactic to more or less start over.

I approached the company shortly after the accident to ask if I could embed with them and write a story about their space programme for the New Yorker. I worked on the story for four years. After it came out, in August 2018, I spent another two years reporting and writing a book about the test pilots who fly Bransons spaceship.

Amid the tragedies and setbacks, Branson remained optimistic of the prospect of imminent success. In 2004: It is envisaged that Virgin Galactic will open for business by the beginning of 2005 and, subject to the necessary safety and regulatory approvals, begin operating flights from 2007. Then, in 2009: Im very confident that we should be able to meet 2011. Later, in 2017: We are hopefully about three months before we are in space, maybe six months before Im in space.

Meanwhile, other private space companies, such as Elon Musks SpaceX and Jeff Bezoss Blue Origin, were making progress. Branson confessed that had he known in 2004 what he knew now, I wouldnt have gone ahead with the project We simply couldnt afford it.

His record on delivering promises has made him a polarising figure. Branson has appeared on lists of both hucksters and heroes. One poll ranked him second among people whom British children should emulate; Jesus Christ came third. His biographer describes him as a card player with a weak hand who plays to strength, but also a self-made and self-deprecating man whose flamboyance endears him to aspiring tycoons, who snap up his books and flock to his lectures to glean the secrets of fortune-hunting.

But all of that was in the past; the turmoil and hardship would hopefully make the triumph all that much sweeter. For he and I knew as we headed into the desert that tomorrow could finally be the day that Virgin Galactic went to space.

Branson was all smiles as we arrived at our destination north of the airport in Mojave, an expansive, Asimovian facility where Bransons other space company, Virgin Orbit, tests rockets and where Branson was about to be given a special tour. He listened to the engineers canned deliveries, but did not ask about cryogenics or flow rates or other technical details.

That was not his gift. His gift was knowing what people like. Branson is a tastemaker, a marketing genius. He spruces up airplanes, trains, hotels and gyms, rebrands them as his own and moves on. He knows when to get in and get out: he earned a reported 200m when he sold his stake in Virgin Media, for instance, and another 230m when he sold his stake in Virgin Active. He does not typically make stuff. Yet here he was in the business of making spacecraft.

This brought particular challenges. For one, US law prohibits citizens from sharing technical details with foreigners, even if those foreigners own the company. When Branson asked a rocket question, an engineer responded with silence. Its because Im British, isnt it? Branson said, betraying a hint of frustration.

Later in the tour, we visited a test pad where engineers were bent over intricate foil-wrapped tubes, hoses and piping, preparing to conduct a ground test. Branson asked how many more ground tests they intended to conduct and when they could launch an aerial test. Every day they were testing meant another day they werent making money.

At least a couple, said the engineer.

Stop testing! said Branson, half-joking. You might find something wrong!

It all started for Branson with the Sex Pistols. In December 1976, the punk band went on a primetime talkshow where the guitarist called the host a dirty fucker on air, bringing the segment to an abrupt end. Venues cancelled the bands upcoming gigs. Their record label dropped them.

Branson was a 26-year-old music producer. He saw an opportunity and signed the band to his label. Five months later, when the Sex Pistols released God Save the Queen, a mockery of the royal Silver Jubilee, the BBC refused to play the single. Branson responded by chartering a boat and setting up a stage on deck. They sailed up the Thames, in front of parliament, while the band played God Save the Queen. Police boarded the boat and shut down the concert.

God Save the Queen jumped to No 2 in the charts. But the stunt was equally important for Branson; it established his rebel reputation, one he has nurtured ever since: I wont let silly rules stop me. He branched into other sectors. Before long, Virgin had its own line of soft drinks, trains, wedding dresses, limousines, wines, airlines, casinos, and condoms.

Virgins formula is Bransons adventuresome brand. He has promoted soda from the top of a tank in Times Square and dangled naked from a crane with only a mobile phone covering his privates to advertise that Virgin Mobile had nothing to hide on its bills. He has flown hot-air balloons across oceans and set speedboat records. Along the way, he has survived some close calls like when his boat capsized in a nasty storm, or when he was attempting to sail across the Atlantic, through the Bermuda Triangle, when the mainsail ripped and forced him to turn back. (He promised, We will build another boat and try again!)

He is accustomed to handling setbacks with a smile. This has proven particularly useful at Virgin Galactic, where the company has not provided what it promised, but somehow continues to sell promise.

At the February 2016 rollout for SpaceShipTwo in Mojave, a reporter asked Branson about Virgin Galactics longer-term ambitions. Branson said that flying people to space was pretty cool, but, Once youve got people into space, why shouldnt we have point-to-point travel at tremendous speeds? And why shouldnt we go on creating an orbital vehicle? We will start to do that. I just had a meeting with a senator, talking about asteroids. And they asked, Can Virgin Galactic come up with ideas to try to remove giant asteroids coming toward the Earth? Well have a look at that. And, Could Virgin Galactic help sort out the debris in space? Well have a look at that, too. And once all thats sorted wed like to join the race for deep-space exploration.

Virgin Galactics president, Mike Moses, sat nearby, and, speaking after Branson, stressed how an experimental rocketship programme required evolutionary steps that were gradual, deliberate and realistic.

One of the things I hate is the world judging us based on what our marketing has said in terms of our readiness to fly and the depth of our knowledge, Moses once told me.

Branson knows that people snigger. It would be embarrassing if someone went back over the last 13 years and wrote down all my quotes about when I thought we would be in space, he told me.

But he is uniquely unfazed by embarrassment. He stutters when he speaks without notes. He shares unflattering details about his sex life, like his bizarre sexual allergy to his first wife. Whenever we made love a painful rash spread across me which would take about three weeks to heal, he once wrote. We went to a number of doctors, but we never resolved the problem. I even had a circumcision to try to stop the reaction.

Somehow it added to his charm. A couple years ago, I contacted him and asked if I could visit him in the British Virgin Islands to discuss the programme. He extended a personal invitation. I booked plane tickets, while his assistant arranged a speedboat transfer and asked if I had any dietary restrictions. So I can let our chefs know in advance, she said. But on the eve of my trip, Bransons advisers found out what was happening and revoked the invitation. Branson had apparently made plans without consulting his communications director.

At the time, I saw it as proof of Bransons swashbuckling insouciance: he could live that persona and let others protect him from himself. Perhaps I should have seen it as another empty promise.

The day after we drove into the desert, Branson stepped on to a stage beside the runway. Behind him, Virgin Galactics mothership, with SpaceShipTwo fixed to its belly, was preparing to takeoff. Branson welcomed the select crowd. Im not allowed to say it, but hopefully were going to space today! he said. Hopefully well have some magic in the next couple of hours. An hour later, Branson was squinting against the sun, tracking SpaceShipTwos contrails across the blue morning sky.

Space travel has been a longtime obsession of his. He once produced a documentary to commemorate the moon landing, featuring ambient soundscapes, a psychedelic montage of telescope images and clips of John F Kennedys moon shot speech. Later, when Branson appeared on the BBCs Going Live!, a viewer called in and asked if hed contemplated any extraterrestrial ventures. Id love to go into space, said Branson. If youre building a spacecraft, Id love to come with you.

Accounts from astronauts further fuelled Bransons fascination. Weightlessness sounded positively bananas to him having to Velcro everything down so that it didnt float away; being able to pitch a bread roll at your tablemate without worrying it would end up falling on to a dirty floor.

But what moved Branson most was how astronauts described the transformative power of it all, its almost baptismal nature. Once people have gone to space they come back with renewed enthusiasm to try and tackle what is happening on this planet, he told me. He regarded space travel as a humanistic, rather than an escapist, venture. And now, suddenly, it seemed possible that he could offer that experience to the masses.

He watched the flight from the foot of the stage while an engineer stood at the mic, relaying updates from mission control. They had to get above 264,000ft, or 50 miles, which the US government defines as the boundary of space.

The ship was climbing.

Two hundred thousand, said the engineer.

Two hundred and twenty thousand feet.

Two hundred and forty thousand feet.

Branson looked up. Tears welled in his eyes.

Two hundred and fifty thousand feet.

Two sixty.

Two hundred and The engineer paused, awaiting confirmation. He got it:

Two. Hundred. And. Sixty. Four. Thousand. Feet.

Up in the cockpit the pilot Mark Stucky said: Great motor burn, everybody! Were going to space, Richard!

The crowd whooped and cheered.

Branson covered his face with both hands, cratering with emotion. His son Sam stood next to him and put his hand on his fathers back. That was the definition of a picture telling a thousand words, a thousand sleepless nights, Sam told me. Later, Branson held an impromptu press conference. He burned easily in the sun so he found a sliver of shade behind a trailer and reporters crowded in.

Mike Moses hung near the back, but within earshot. Branson declared that SpaceShipTwo could be done with its flight-test programme in as little as three months.

As yet, they have only returned to space once and are still testing. A temporary stall? Or have the costs of this undertaking finally caught up with Branson?

I am no longer embedded with the company, but stay in touch with people there. I know that two years ago the vice-president of safety resigned because of safety concerns, and that a December 2020 flight was aborted in midair. (In a statement, a Virgin Galactic spokesperson said, We feel confident about our space operations, which are regulated by the FAA office of commercial spaceflight transportation. Flight test programmes are an iterative process with safety as the first priority and it is well known that we have overcome a variety of technical challenges over the past 15 years. Our safety culture is built around the principle that everyone in the company has the ability to call attention to an issue. They added: As we are still in the flight test phase of the programme, we continue to analyse, inspect and modify the vehicles as necessary, and we are on track to conduct our next spaceflight in May.) I also know, from public information, that while Virgin Galactics space programme may be struggling, its bottom line seems strong. In late 2019, Virgin Galactic became a publicly traded company: at one point the stock was trading at almost five times its initial price offering. However, in recent weeks, as Virgin Galactics competitors progress, the stock has begun to fall.

Last year, Branson sold $500m worth of shares. Last month, he sold another $150m worth of shares.

He has always seemed to have known when to get in and when to get out.

Test Gods: Tragedy and Triumph in the New Space Race by Nicholas Schmidle is published by Hutchinson on 6 May at 20. Order a copy for 17.40 at guardianbookshop.com

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Will Virgin Galactic ever lift off? - The Guardian

NASA and its partners are planning a new space mission called Interstellar Probe'. This would reach interstellar space, the deep region beyond the suns influence, within 15 years. The timeline is much quicker than Voyager 1, an earlier spacecraft launched by NASA in 1977, which travelled the distance in 35 years. The proposed spacecraft would also take an image of our heliosphere, the bubble created by the sun that protects our solar system from interstellar radiation. The mission will represent humanity's first deliberate step into the sea of space between our Sun and other potentially habitable systems, as per the mission statement.

TraveLling far beyond the Sun's sphere of influence, an Interstellar Probe would be the boldest move in space exploration since humans landed on the moon, remarkedthe mission team which presented its proposal on Monday, April 26, at the annual general assembly of the European Geosciences Union. The team is led by Elena Provorinova, the missions heliophysics lead from the John Hopkins Applied Physics lab (APL), Maryland, United States. APL-led mission team involves some 500 people from around the world including scientists, engineers and enthusiasts.

The mission would help us understand how the Sun makes our solar system habitable and where it lies in our galaxy. Moreover, it would also get us data that will shed light on the origin and evolution of the planetary systems, and the formation of early galaxies and stars. The probe could launch in the early 2030s.

The need for this mission has fuelled the space exploration community for decades. On August 1, 2012, human exploration of space made history as Voyager 1 dived into interstellar space.Voyager 1, a part of NASAs Voyager program, has travelled around 38 billion kilometres which is about 150 times the distance of the sun from the Earth. The Voyager program was aimed to explore the outer limits of the Sun's sphere of influence other than exploring the solar system beyond the neighbour planets. NASA also hoped Voyager 1, the farthest man-made object, to go possibly beyond '' the suns influence.

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Interstellar Probe Would be Humanitys Fastest and Farthest Step Into Space - News18

BEIJING (AP) China will launch its next robot lunar lander in 2024, and it will carry equipment from France, Sweden, Russia and Italy, the official news agency reported.

Plans call for Change 6 to land near the lunar south pole and collect samples for return to Earth, the programs chief designer, Hu Hao, said at a conference Saturday, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The Change landers are part of Chinese space exploration efforts that also include a probe that is preparing to land a robot rover on Mars. There are also plans for a crewed orbital station, landing a human on the moon and retrieving soil from an asteroid.

In December, the previous moon probe, Change 5, returned lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s.

Change 6 is to collect lunar samples automatically for comprehensive analysis and research, Hu was quoted as saying at the conference in the eastern city of Nanjing.

The lander is expected to carry instruments developed by scientists from France, Sweden, Italy and Russia, Hu said. He gave no details of what they will do.

The announcement reflects growing interaction between Chinas secretive, military-linked space program and other countries.

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Official: China's moon probe will carry French, Russian gear - The Associated Press

April 23, 2021

Editor's note:This story is part of a series of profiles ofnotable spring 2021 graduates.

Vishaal Singh will graduate this May with a PhD in Geological Sciences from ASUsSchool of Earth and Space Exploration. Singh received his undergraduate degree from the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India. Vishaal Singh. Download Full Image

In 2016, when Singh spent a year investigating the surface of the moon for his masters thesis, he started looking at PhD programs with a focus on planetary science and exploration. Recognizing the School of Earth and Space Explorations interdisciplinary program as one of the highest ranked in the country, with involvement in space missions like the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars rover Curiosity, Singh applied to the ASU graduate program with a goal of working on instrument development for future missions.

Early on, Singh enrolled in an Exploration Systems Engineering graduate course with Professors Mark Robinson and Paul Scowen. Apart from the lectures, the course included field visits to NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Orbital ATK, which provided insight into how satellites and instruments for commercial and scientific purposes are built. During the semesterlong project, the class designed a planetary mission to the moon, which was invaluable in learning about the mission life cycle, from formulation to closeout.

It helped contextualize the development of missions like Psyche and Europa Clipper, and personally motivated me to develop instrumentation for enabling future exploration a major goal of my dissertation, said Singh.

Discussions with his adviser, Professor Alyssa Rhoden,shaped Singhs interest in ocean worlds like Europa and motivated his research. It was, however, lessons outside the classroom that shaped his outlook on life.

In my second year as a PhD student at ASU, my adviser left to take on a position at another research institute, Singh said. During that period of uncertainty, I was pleasantly surprised by the support from the community of graduate students and the selflessness of my professors. My adviser continued to serve as a mentor to me despite no obligation to do so, while Professor Steve Desch stepped up to take on the role of adviser. I ended up with a network of researchers (and friends) who have encouraged me at every step of this journey it is an ideal I intend to follow in my own interactions with other researchers.

Desch quickly discovered Singhs incredible work ethic, his diverse range of interests, his excellence at self-direction and his innate talent.

Vishaal is the embodiment of the SESE spirit, Desch said. Tackling a problem from multiple angles: studying Europa ice from the standpoint of spectroscopy and laboratory experiments, to spacecraft data, even to lab testing of communication tethers for future exploration by landers! It's been a pleasure and a reward to work with Vishaal, and I look forward to many future collaborations with him.

Singh shared more about his experiences at the School of Earth and Space Exploration.

Questions: What was your aha moment when you realized you wanted to study the field you majored in?

Answer:There was no single aha moment, but rather a series of experiences that set me on this path. Nearly two decades ago, my first notion of space exploration revolved around saving the Earth from an asteroid impact, courtesy of Bruce Willis and the film "Armageddon." With time, I came to realize that this work did not mean saving the world on a daily basis, but it remained a source of fascination. It wasnt until my sophomore year in undergrad that it finally clicked. I was given the choice of spending three months either on a beach in Goa, or in a small room mapping craters on the moon, and I chose the latter. Those three months led me to select planetary science not just for my major, but for my research career.

Q: Whats the best piece of advice youd give to those still in school?

A:With the pandemic, its been hard to find the motivation to get out of bed, much less spend days staring at pixelated faces on endless Zoom calls, or getting any writing done. It is hard to feel like you are making any progress, and I spent months where I got very little done. As I got closer to finishing, one of the things which helped was setting weekly goals, and meeting virtually with advisers and peers to hold myself accountable. It was OK if I did not get everything done but having a timeline that established when this project would end was invaluable for me.

Q: What was your favorite spot on campus, whether for studying, meeting friends or just thinking about life?

A:I had an unusual dissertation journey in that I spent more time away from ASU, working for the past three years in research labs across the country. While on the Tempe campus, I have fond memories of meeting up with friends at ISTB4 Crater Carpet, the Hayden Lawn, and of group lunches at Thai Basil. Outside of it, after exhausting weeks on lab running or failing to run experiments, I spent many weekends biking on the Glendora Ridge Road and the foothills of Mt. Baldy in Pasadena (California) to clear my head.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

A:I was lucky enough to get involved in NASA-funded projects with several researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Columbia University we are independently (1) developing techniques for understanding the surface of icy worlds and how they evolve over time, and (2) building instruments for communicating through the ice and exploring the oceans of Europa, to search for life. As a postdoctoral researcher in planetary science, I intend to continue this work, and eventually achieve my goal of becoming an instrument scientist on missions to the outer solar system.

Q: If someone gave you $40 million to solve one problem on our planet, what would you tackle?

A:After five years of graduate school with a singular focus on space exploration, my views towards tackling the problems on Earth are colored by my understanding of the trickle-down effects of exploration and their socioeconomic benefit to society. From advances in space-related industries to spurring innovation in technology/life-saving capabilities and creating employment, space exploration with NASA at the forefront has transformed our lives. The driving force behind this transformation has been the people working on these projects.

Vishaal Singh in the lab.

For less than 0.00001% of the federal budget, we can continue to tackle some of the greatest challenges in science and technology by creating a new science-literate and globally inclusive workforce. With a diversity of experiences, perspectives and scientific expertise, we can increase national interest in science and continue to inspire people across the world. I would pursue this goal by training the next generation of scientists and engineers.

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Space missions to icy worlds in the outer solar system on the horizon for geological sciences graduate - ASU Now

TORONTO With the new sci-fi film "Stowaway," Toronto-raised star Shamier Anderson says he's checked a major role off his acting bucket list: astronaut.

TORONTO With the new sci-fi film "Stowaway," Toronto-raised star Shamier Anderson says he's checked a major role off his acting bucket list: astronaut.

So, what other career goals does he have?

"Marvel or DC, one of the two," Anderson, brother of fellow acclaimed actor Stephan James, said in an interview.

"Me and my brother have this ongoing joke, like, 'Man, the next movie has to be in tights,' because every superhero wears tights. It's like we're in tights season now. Simu Liu, he's wearing tights in 'Shang-Chi' at Marvel, he's a superstar.... But Marvel or DC (Comics), that's next on the bucket list. That'd be incredible."

Liu is among several Canadians enjoying "tights season" with major roles in upcoming superhero projects at Marvel. Others include Tatiana Maslany with "She-Hulk" and Iman Vellani in "Captain Marvel 2."

Anderson and Liu are also a part of the new Seek More campaign from the organization Made/Nous, which encourages Canadians to discover more diverse content and creators.

"Stowaway," which hit Amazon Prime Video Canada on Thursday, is a good example of the kind of programming the campaign wants viewers to look for, said Anderson.

The 29-year-old plays Michael, a space launch support engineer and unintended stowaway on a mission to Mars.

Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette and Daniel Dae Kim play the other astronauts onboard the spaceship, who have to make hard decisions after discovering Michael and realizing there's only enough oxygen for three people.

The film's director and co-writer is Joe Penna, who helmed the 2018 Mads Mikkelsen survival drama "Arctic."

"I love space, I love space exploration, I love planets, I love astronomy," said Anderson, who is also a producer and writer and co-founded The Black Academy with James to help combat systemic racism and celebrate Black talent.

"It's the idea of the sky not being a limit and just defying the odds. My mom was always very esoteric and spiritual, saying, 'You definitely are a star and you're going to go to space,' metaphorically, just letting us know that it was possible. I think that had a subconscious effect, the idea of going beyond the clouds and reaching for the sky."

Anderson has indeed seen his star soar in recent years, with other credits including Halle Berrys directorial debut "Bruised," the series "Wynonna Earp," and "X-Men" producer Simon Kinberg's upcoming "Invasion" sci-fi series for Apple TV Plus.

He shot "Stowaway" over two months in 2019 in a studio in Germany. The entire story takes place in a spaceship that Anderson said was hand-made to look as real as possible.

"There's no green screen outside of the solar system," he said.

Viewers don't see any of the action on Earth, so Michael's backstory comes solely from the script and little touches Anderson added to flesh out his character. For instance, the "bond bracelet" his character wears as a nod to his younger sister was Anderson's idea. He wanted himself and the audience to have something tangible to understand their connection.

Ultimately the story is about sacrifice, compassion and "humans going through a series of unfortunate events" rather than extraterrestrial elements, said Anderson.

"I know there are diverse people in this film, but it's not about their race or their ethnicity, and we don't make mention of that, because it's irrelevant. It's about the human experience. And it's about fear."

The film isn't specifically about "this Black man going through a Black experience, which is important," Anderson said.

But it does show a character "we don't get to see much in cinema Black individuals who are in this arena, who are in space exploration, who are astronauts, who study that craft," he added.

"For Michael, I feel like his biggest inspiration was Guion Bluford, the first African American astronaut to go to space," he said. "And if I could redo anything, I wish there was a small reference to that, just to show that this man is astute, he knows what he's doing, he loves what he's doing."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2021.

Victoria Ahearn, The Canadian Press

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From space to superhero? Canadian 'Stowaway' star Shamier Anderson on his next goal - Powell River Peak

The latest ARK Invest Fund, the ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF (NYSEARCA:ARKX), is a pure play on Cathie Wood.

Source: Shutterstock

I call Wood the tech whisperer, thanks to the success of funds like ARK Innovation (NYSEARCA:ARKK), up 140% over the last year. Woods investment thesis is that she picks disruptive tech companies that can outperform the market, or even the tech sector.

This thesis makes sense to me. Knowing where technology is going, and getting out ahead of it, has given me a million-dollar retirement. But no thesis works forever, especially if everyone piles into it. If everyone has bought, theres no place to go but down.

So, whats the deal with this latest ARK fund?

ARK Space Exploration and Innovation is an exchange-traded fund, meaning you can buy it or sell it like a stock. Unlike market index funds like Vanguard Total Income (NYSEARCA:VTI), ARK funds are actively managed. In this way ARKX stock is a throwback to the old days of stock picking by professionals.

ARKX has been trading for less than a month, so its hard to generalize its performance. So far, its up 1% while the general market is up 5%. It was due to open for trade April 22 at $20.56, 6 cents above the offering price. Net assets are just $63.3 million, and the expense ratio is 0.75%.

The problem for the fund, as our Wayne Duggan wrote recently, is that there arent any true space exploration stocks. SpaceX is still private. Other space launch companies are highly diversified.

This is where the & Innovation part of the name comes into play. As of April 22, ARKX lists investments in 40 companies, few of which have anything to do with space. About 4.89% of the fund was in JD.Com (NASDAQ:JD), a Chinese e-commerce company that I own and like. But shipping with drones to remote Chinese villages, or fancy Shanghai restaurants, does not a space company make.

Of 40 holdings in the ARKX portfolio, I own shares in four. In addition to JD.Com, these are Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE:BABA).

Duggans criticism of the current holdings is based on Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB), a 43-year old company that is ARKX largest holding, with a share of 8.92%. Trimble is also a big holding with the The 3D Printing ETF (NYSEARCA:PRNT), which is ARKX second-largest holding with 5.99%.

Trimble is mainly a satellite navigation company. It was called Trimble Navigation until 2016. The new CEO, Robert Painter, had been chief financial officer until last year and has been with Trimble about 15 years. He recently sold almost $560,000 in Trimble shares.I see no problem with any of that. Satellite-based navigation makes sense as an ARKX holding. Trimble stock is up 150% over the last year. The market cap is $20.3 billion. Even CEOs must eat.

My problem is that this is mostly a defense fund. Kratos Defense and Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS), L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHS), Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), and Boeing (NYSE:BA) are all big defense contractors among the 10 largest holdings. Then there are some true outliers. Whats Deere (NYSE:DE) doing here. Uh, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX)?

In the end whats in the ARKX stock portfolio right now is irrelevant.

Buying this fund means buying Wood and her team. Youre buying their strategies. Youre buying their trading savvy. I doubt half the current holdings will be in the fund a year from now.

ARKX is an active trading fund that depends for its success on the people running it. If you believe Wood and her team can find you stocks that benefit from space, buy it. Youre getting in on the ground floor.

At the time of publication, Dana Blankenhorn directly owned shares in VTI, JD, BABA, AMZN and NVDA.

Dana Blankenhorn has been a financial and technology journalist since 1978. He is the author of Technologys Big Bang: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow with Moores Law, available at the Amazon Kindle store. Write him at danablankenhorn@gmail.com, tweet him at @danablankenhorn, or subscribe to his Substack newsletter.

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ARKX: ARK Space Exploration & Innovation Is Another Bet on Cathie Wood - Investorplace.com

Elon Musks SpaceX launched its third crewed rocket for NASA, sending a further four astronauts into orbit and marking the first time the company achieved the takeoff with both a pre-used capsule and rocket.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 5:49 a.m. ETwith a low rumble and leaving behind a trail of fire and smoke in the predawn darknessfrom NASAs Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. It is set to autonomously dock with the International Space Station roughly 24 hours later, joining an earlier group of four astronauts who traveled there on SpaceXs first operational mission in November and three others also on board.

The launch marks a number of firsts for SpaceX. It is the first time that two of the companys Crew Dragon capsules will be simultaneously docked at the ISS. It is also the first time the rocket has carried two international partners, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agencys Akihiko Hoshide and Frenchman Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency. They join Americans Shane Kimbrough, the missions commander, and Megan McArthur, the spacecrafts pilot. The crew will be stationed at the space station for a six-month mission.

Another first: Both the rocket and capsule used in Fridays launch were reused from earlier launches. The rocket was previously used in the first operational launch in November, and the capsule comes from Mays test launch. The mission, code named Crew-2, originally scheduled for Thursday, had been postponed due to poor weather conditions along the flight path.

The Falcon 9 left its launchpad two seconds past 5:49 a.m., providing 1.7 million pounds of thrust and accelerating the capsule across the morning sky and reaching a velocity of close to 17,000 miles an hour. Roughly 12 minutes later, the capsule safely separated from the rockets upper stage, ground controllers said.

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SpaceX Launches Crewed Rocket Into Space in Latest NASA Mission - The Wall Street Journal

"A whole new way to explore the alien terrain in our solar system is now at our disposal," said Nottingham Trent University astronomer Daniel Brown.

This first test flight - with more to come by Ingenuity - holds great promise.

Up to five increasingly ambitious flights are planned, and they could lead the way to a fleet of Martian drones in decades to come, providing aerial views, transporting packages and serving as lookouts for human crews. On Earth, the technology could enable helicopters to reach new heights, doing things like more easily navigating the Himalayas.

Ingenuity's team has until the beginning of May to complete the test flights so that the rover can get on with its main mission: collecting rock samples that could hold evidence of past Martian life, for return to Earth a decade from now.

The team plans to test the helicopter's limits, possibly even wrecking the craft, leaving it to rest in place forever, having sent its data back home.

Nasa is planning a second flight for the helicopter on Thursday. The helicopter is fitted with two microphones and the plan is to record sound on one of the later flights.

Dr Bob Balaram, Ingenuity's chief engineer, said that this could open the door for similar flightattempts in the future on Venus and Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.

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Nasa flies Ingenuity helicopter on Mars in 'Wright brothers moment' which could revolutionise space exploration - The Telegraph

History has been made on Mars: NASAs Ingenuity helicopter just achieved the first powered and controlled flight on another planet. Ingenuity is a small, lightweight, drone-like helicopter that was carried on the Perseverance rover. They launched from Earth together in July 2020 and landed on Mars on Feb. 19, 2021.

Ingenuitys sole mission is to demonstrate that flight on another planet is feasible. In the early morning of April 19, Ingenuity spun up its rotors, climbed to a height of three metres where it hovered for about 30 seconds, performing a rotation while doing so, and then safely landed back on the surface of Mars.

And just like that, humans can now fly on other planets. This technological demonstration will help scientists create new missions to Mars and other places in the solar system using not just rovers, but helicopters as well.

Whether youre on Earth or Mars, in order to achieve flight, you need to generate lift. An aircraft does this by forcing air to move around its wings or rotors. The amount of lift generated is related to how fast the air is moving over the wings, and how dense the air is. If the air is very dense, it will generate more lift at a given airspeed than if it was less dense; the less atmosphere, the lower the force of lift generated.

On Mars, the atmosphere is just one per cent the pressure of Earths, which makes generating lift much more difficult. The surface gravity on Mars is about 40 per cent of Earths. These conditions, and more, were painstakingly tested on Earth before launching to Mars.

NASA engineers designed Ingenuity with this in mind. Its rotor blades are 1.2 metres long. That is very large in comparison to its mass, which is just 1.8 kilograms (roughly the weight of a laptop). The rotors also spin much faster than would be required on Earth to lift the same amount of mass.

At the time of Ingenuitys groundbreaking flight, Mars was about 290 million kilometres away from Earth. At that distance, it takes light and thus, communications about 16 minutes to get to Mars, and another 16 minutes to get back to us. This delay makes it impossible to have a human fly the helicopter live, because any command you give Ingenuity is going to take 16 minutes before it gets there, and by that time, the helicopter could be face down in the dirt.

That means Ingenuity needs to be able to make flight decisions on its own. When Ingenuity spins up its rotors and starts to lift off from the ground, it must react to wind gusts, temperature changes or any other random environmental concern in order to achieve a successful flight.

Ingenuity was deployed to the surface of Mars by Perseverance on April 3, where it performed its first technological demonstration: surviving the night. The temperature on Mars can plunge to -80C at night; the helicopter needed to prove its on-board battery and heating systems were up to the challenge.

Next, Ingenuity performed a variety of pre-flight tests to evaluate all the systems and ensure flight readiness. However, during a high-speed spin test on April 9, Ingenuitys computer systems identified a possible problem and shut the helicopter off. Ingenuity sent back data, and NASA engineers determined that a software fix was needed. Shortly thereafter, the helicopter performed and completed the high-speed spin test.

Now that Ingenuity has proven that it can fly, it will be directed to do a few more test flights before its mission ends. In some of these flights, Ingenuity could fly over 300 metres in distance.

Achieving flight on another planet means that our approach to planetary exploration will change. When we first started exploring Mars, we used landers that are unable to move after theyve landed. Then in 1997, the Pathfinder mission deployed the Sojourner rover, a technological demonstration of roving capabilities (and awesomely featured in the feature film The Martian). The success of the Sojourner rover was later seen in the deployment of the twin Spirit and Opportunity rovers, and more recently in Curiosity and Perseverance.

Now, with the success of Ingenuity, what will Mars exploration look like moving forward? Helicopters will be able to study locations that even rovers cannot, like the side of a cliff, up a particularly steep hill, or within a field of really large rocks that the rover cannot navigate. A helicopter will be able to go much farther than the tens of kilometres a rover can.

With helicopter missions, scientists will be able to cover hundreds of kilometres of Martian surface. With that type of capability, our understanding of Mars will grow.

And its not just limited to Mars. At this moment, a mission to Saturns largest moon Titan is currently being developed. It is called Dragonfly and will launch towards Titan in 2026 or 2027.

Titan has an atmosphere that is about 60 per cent thicker than Earths. Using four rotors, Dragonfly will be the first science mission to use flight as its primary mode of transportation. It will fly across Titan learning about its chemistry and possible habitability.

What Ingenuity is doing right now will help inform the engineers of Dragonfly how to build their spacecraft. Its incredible to see how much technology has changed in just over a century. What will the next century look like?

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NASAs Ingenuity helicopter flight on Mars opens up new frontiers in space exploration - The Conversation US