Category Archives: Space Exploration

We already know that space missions impact the astronauts involved in a myriad of ways. From the physical challenges (loss of bone density, changes in the muscular system or the heart) to the mental ones, these side-effects of spending extended periods in space have been studied before. A new study takes the spotlight and shines it brightly on the impact on mental health.

The conclusion is not exactly a cheering one.

With humanity getting ready to send the first manned mission to Mars and, sometime in the near future (hopefully), to colonize the Red Planet, its about time the human costs of space exploration were considered. The first colonizers will be up for the biggest challenge ever, in the most literal sense. If the journey to Mars or landing on the planet doesnt kill them, if they survive the waves of radiation and the hostile environment, they still have a huge hurdle ahead: themselves.

Lack of gravity, lack of privacy, lack of a regular day-cycle, the inescapable routine of everyday life, living in a confined but crowded space, the cold, and the hostile environment. All these will play a role in ultimately altering the mental health of the astronauts, with potentially disastrous consequences for one or more members of the team.

In order to predict the kind of psychological toll space exploration will have on astronauts, a team of researchers conducted a 9-month study on personnel at research centers in Antarctica: two of them, to be more precise, one situated inland and a coastal one. Though theyre still on Earth, these researchers experience similar conditions as astronauts, minus the lack of gravity.

The conclusion was that longer missions inevitably lead to a decline in positive emotions. Not only that, but participants in the study expressed less interest in self-regulating these negative emotions as time went by and manifested physical ailments. Put simply, without a protocol in place for these situations, they can only go from bad to worse.

The study was led by psychologist Candice Alfano, director of the University of Houstons Sleep and Anxiety Center, and her team, who developed a self-reporting diagnostic called Mental Health Checklist (MHCL). It allowed to track participants mental well-being, monitor their level of stress hormones, and provide a presumably accurate description of what will happen on space missions.

During the study, participants expressed decreased levels of feel-good emotions, such as awe, satisfaction, and inspiration, essential for surviving in high-stress scenarios. At points, they showed clear symptoms of depression and anxiety, heightened by and directly related to increasing complaints about their physical health.

Perhaps even worse, even as they approached the date for the return home, they failed to show any improvementor what is known as the third-quarter effect. At the same time, the longer the mission, the fewer the attempts to regulate negative emotions and enforce positive ones.

That sounds very bleak for todays researchers at Antarctica and tomorrows astronauts on Mars. The upside is that this can and should be countered with effective measures that will mitigate some of these potentially devastating effects.

Interventions and counter measures aimed at enhancing positive emotions may, therefore, be critical in reducing psychological risk in extreme settings, Alfano writes in the study.

Sure, on the face of it, were all tough it out, you can do it, and theres still plenty of stigma surrounding mental health in many aspects of our life. But with space exploration, if not with anything else, thats not the kind of risk you want to take.

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Sound the Alarm: Extended Space Missions Will Impact Astronauts' Mental Health - autoevolution

One of the closest spheres of cooperation between Russia and the U.S. has been the International Space Station project. In November 2000, two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut arrived there in a Russian-built spacecraft.

Now, a report by the Guardian indicates that Russia has plans to leave the ISS project and build their own space station. The head of its Roscosmos space agency has said their goal is for an orbital launch by 2030, ending more than 20 years of close cooperation with the U.S. aboard the aging ISS. This is if President Vladimir Putin approves the plan.

If in 2030, in accordance with our plans, we can put it into orbit, it will be a colossal breakthrough, said Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin. The will is there to take a new step in world manned space exploration.

Despite strained relations between Russia and the U.S. over human rights, cyberattacks and other issues, the ISS reportedly has been one of the closest spheres of cooperation between the two countries. Since 1998, Russian cosmonauts have collaborated with peers from the U.S. and 16 other countries for the ISS.

Yuri Borisov, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, told Russian TV that Moscow would give notice to its partners that it would leave the ISS project from 2025 last weekend.

Since the Russian stations orbit path would expose it to a higher level of radiation, Rogozin said it most likely would not be permanently crewed, unlike the ISS. However in addition to visits by cosmonauts, it would use robots and artificial intelligence.

Rogozin said visits by foreign crews was something Russia was ready to consider, but the station must be national If you want to do well, do it yourself.

An unnamed source was quoted by Interfax saying, Russia planned to spend up to $6bn to get the project launched.

READ MORE:

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Russia plans to leave the ISS project and build its own space station - PennLive

By CAMERON DELEAN

Staff Writer

With the recent advancements in space exploration, the question of whether or not we should be furthering our efforts to get to space has created some controversy. Some argue that our focus should be on remedying social and environmental issues on Earth before looking to expand our outreach, while others encourage the relentless pursuit of space exploration and colonization. However, it has become increasingly clear that we are better off first resolving our own planetary issues before we are ready to look elsewhere.

Federal funding for NASA has proven to be a significant expense. Some argue this is unnecessary, while others claim it is essential to developing our understanding of the universe.

The National Space Society, or NSS, makes strong points in favor of continuing NASAs efforts. Jeffrey G. Liss, from the NSS Board of Directors argues that going to space is a must and lists the benefits to pursuing space exploration and colonization in his article, WHY WE DO AND MUST GO INTO SPACE. Liss states that the space program pays for itself, that it opens up the opportunity to discover new resources and that colonizing other planets will help evolve society as a whole.

Liss also argues that the whole point of exploring other planets should be to colonize it, stating the ultimate purpose of going into space is to live and work there just as the ultimate purpose of exploring the New World was colonization and not merely to sit back on Earth and cogitate about what automated spacecraft report back.

The commentary given by Liss is problematic in its nature. The concept of colonization is outdated, and rather space exploration should be seen as an advancement for the entirety of the human race. Instead, it is viewed as a race to conquer and then profit off of new land, when we have yet to solve our own environmental and social dilemmas.

There are far too many issues here on Earth for us to fathom colonizing another planet. There is no way to develop a successful working society from scratch when there are already significant problems we have yet to solve on Earth. Fraser Cain, from Universe Today, discussed in an article, 7 Replies to Shouldnt We Fix the Earth First?, his reasons for hesitating on space exploration.

How about the whole world stops smoking, and we spend $20 billion on colonizing Mars and the other $730 billion on renewable fuels and cleaning up our negative impact on the environment, reducing poverty and giving people access to clean water? said Cain. This is a common argument that many have against continually funding NASA and entertaining the idea of colonizing other planets.

Everyone can recognize the importance of space exploration and can be excited by the idea of advancing technology for that purpose. However, many are also concerned about the state of our planet, and can recognize that our efforts should be directed at remedying the issues we are currently facing. Space exploration should be pursued, just not as aggressively as we should pursue environmental and social issues. It is essential that we learn how to care for our own planet and its inhabitants before we can even consider building societies on other places. If we are incapable of helping ourselves, how are we supposed to expand to an entirely different planet?

Read more:

Focus on fixing Earth before colonizing new planets - The Blue & Gray Press

Sypris Solutions (NASDAQ:SYPR) stock is rocketing higher on Friday following news of a space exploration deal with the U.S. Government.

This deal comes from a prime contractor of the U.S. Department of Defense. This will have Sypris Solutions manufacturing and testing of electronic assemblies that will be used in a government spacecraft program.

According to a news release, this spacecraft will be used for deep space exploration. The craft will be able to carry a crew and will also have to be able to reenter the Earths atmosphere after missions in space are complete.

So how far out is this spacecraft expected to travel? As far as Mars if things go well. The goal is to use it for missions to nearby asteroids, the Moon, and then eventually trips to Mars moons and the planet itself.

Jim Long, Vice President & General Manager of Sypris Electronics, said this about the news sending SYPR stock higher today.

Sypris has been manufacturing space electronic hardware for many years for top-tier instrumentation, satellite and spacecraft providers. The opportunity to continue and expand our participation on this program is a privilege for Sypris Electronics. Our customer is a leader in the space industry and we look forward to working closely with them to ensure that this mission-critical program is a success.

Sypris Solutions says that it expects to begin production of the parts for the spacecraft this year. It also doesnt disclose any of the terms of the deal, including financials.

SYPR stock was up 58.4% as of Friday morning and is up 204.8% since the start of the year.

Sypris Solutions isnt the only company seeing its stock rise higher today.

Several others are also seeing gains worth talking about. That includes Ocugen(NASDAQ:OCGN), C3.ai(NYSE:AI), and ION Geophysical Corporation (NYSE:IO). Investors can get up to speed on these stocks by checking out the following content from InvestorPlace.com.

On the date of publication, William White did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.

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SYPR Stock: The Big Government Deal That Has Space Stock Sypris Rocketing Higher - Investorplace.com

When NASA completed its third crewed mission to the Moon 50 years ago, the spacecraft brought some unusual things as it landed on the Pacific Ocean on February 9, 1971.

There were 500 seeds, including sycamore, sweetgum, redwood that travelled from the Moon.

Stuart Roosa, one of the three astronauts of the mission, packed these seeds for the mission in an experiment to see how they react to the space environment.

Also read | Believe it or not! These trees consume poisonous metals

But since Roosa never landed on the lunar surface, these seeds were unable to be planted in the Moon.

As the seeds return to Earth, they were germinated by the Forest Service, reports CNN.Named as the "Moon Trees," these were planted across the US and the world, as per NASA.

NASA has since then tracked 60 of these trees, mainly in the US, but some were planted in Brazil, Switzerland and Japan too.

Also read | Miami is set to reduce number of palm trees as climate concerns rise

In a recent BBC Radio 4 programme, it was claimed that nearly 15 of these trees were planted in Britain.

However, there have been no records that substantiate how these seeds may have arrived in the UK and are nowhere to be found.

Now, the UK space agency has begun its hunt to find these seeds or trees that could have grown from these seeds.

"I'll be interested in discovering if any of the Moon seeds came to the UK and what has become of them," space exploration expert Libby Jackson from the UK Space Agency was reported as saying by Science Alert.

See the original post:

UK space agency hunts for `Moon Trees` from seeds brought back by mission 50 years ago - WION

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COVID-19 Impact on Satellite Remote Sensing Market Share, Size, Trends and Growth 2021 to 2026|Airbus SAS (France), Ball Corporation (US), Boeing...

The first piece of Russia's new space station a Science Power Module that was originally intended for the International Space Station (ISS) will be ready for launch in 2025, said Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin on Tuesday, cementing the notion that Russia will withdraw from the ISS programme and go it alone.

"The first basic module for the new Russian Orbital Service Station is already in the works. The Energia Rocket and Space Corporation has been tasked to ensure its readiness for launch to the target orbit in 2025," Rogozin Tweeted yesterday in a post, which also included a video of Energia staff at work.

News that Russia might be forging ahead with its own plans for a space station emerged last year, when a report from Russian manufacturer RSC Energia, the prime developer and contractor of the Russian crewed spaceflight program, noted that the ISS was on the verge of catastrophic failure due to worn out components. Its dilapidated state would be so costly to repair that Russia should focus on completing its own orbital station instead, said Flight Director of the Russian Segment of the ISS, Vladimir Alekseevich Soloviev.

This has recently been echoed by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov, who during an interview on Russian TV said that the deterioration of the ISS could lead to disaster in the future, reports Russian news agency, TASS.

"We cannot endanger the life of [the astronauts]. The situation, which today is associated with the ageing of the structure, iron, can lead to irreversible consequences - before a catastrophe. This must not be allowed," Borisov said, referring to the need to create a Russian orbital station.

During the interview, Borisov also indicated that the countries future national space station could be used as a staging post for the exploration of the Moon and cislunar space.

This is one of the new functions. And maybe it is being considered very seriously, the station is as a kind of transfer point, such an intermediate one, in particular for flights and exploration of the Moon and near-lunar space," Borisov said.

According to TASS, the Deputy Prime Minister also discussed deploying the station to a orbit higher than the one currently in use by the ISS. "We need to climb higher. <...> This will allow us to see the Russian territory as much as possible, and especially, which is very important, the polar regions, and this is also connected with the development of the Northern Sea Route," he said.

Since its launch in 1998, the ISS has become one of the most ambitious international collaborations in human history. It is currently financed by all of its collaborators, but receives the majority of its funding from NASA, Roscosmos and the European Space Agency.

Recently however, support for the ISS has been overshadowed by countries and organisations announcing the construction of their own versions, such as China and private firm, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC).

While an involvement with other countries was not ruled out, like China, Russia is ready to sole finance the construction of a new space station, the Deputy Prime Minister said in his TV interview; we will definitely take them, but we will cope [with financing] on our own, he said.

Despite the latest development, key officials are upholding Russias involvement in the ISS say TASS and that "a decision has been made at the upper levels" to continue the operation of the station until 2028. This was backed up by Rogozin who explained that the state corporation is monitoring the state of the ISS, and that it is too early to write it off.

See the original post here:

Russia announces the first module of its new space station will be launched in 2025 - ROOM Space Journal

Virgin Galactic's spacecraft Unity comes into land during a glide test flight on May 1, 2020.

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic shares fell in trading Tuesday after Ark Invest's space exploration ETF sold nearly half its stake in the space tourism company.

Cathie Wood's firm sold 275,204 shares of Virgin Galactic from its ARKX fund on Monday, cutting the ETF's holdings of the stock from 585,675 shares to 315,781 shares. Of the 39 ARKX holdings, Virgin Galactic was the 19th largest but is now down to 33rd, making up just over 1% of the fund's weight.

Ark Invest also sold 315,600 shares of Virgin Galactic from its ARKQ "autonomous technology and robotics" fund on Monday. That Ark ETF retains a larger stake in Virgin Galactic, with 1.76 million shares. Together, ARKX and ARKQ hold a stake worth $46.7 million in Virgin Galactic stock as of yesterday's closing price.

Virgin Galactic's stock dropped 6.6% in trading to close at $20.98 a share.

Wood's new space ETF only began trading at the end of last month and many investors believed Virgin would be a top holding for the fund given it was among the first publicly traded pure plays in the industry. But ARKX continues to focus its largest holdings on GPS-based services company Trimble, another Ark Invest fund PRNT, and a variety of aerospace and defense contractors including Kratos, L3Harris, Komatsu, Lockheed Martin, Thales, and Boeing. The largest pure-play space holding in ARKX is satellite operator Iridium Communications.

Virgin Galactic's stock last week erased its 2021 gains, after more than doubling to highs above $60 a share in February. The losses accelerated in the past month after delays to its test program and commercial flights, as well as sharesales by chairman Chamath Palihapitiya and then founder Richard Branson.

More:

Virgin Galactic shares drop after Cathie Wood's new space ETF dumps nearly half its holding - CNBC

Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMCO) will hold a webinar on April 15, 2021 from 11:30-12:30 pm ET.

The topic is: Bringing Space Home: The Role of Sample Return in Space Exploration.

Register at this website. The event will be recorded. Anyone who registers will be provided with the link for on-demand viewing.

An emailed invitation says it will feature experts from JPL, Goddard, academia and Lockheed Martin who will talk about the past, present and future of sample return how it all started, what were still discovering from samples we have, how OSIRIS-REx changed the game for modern robotic missions and how all of this informs NASAs ambitious Mars sample return already playing out with the Perseverance mission.

The April 11, 2021 Planetary Exploration Newsletter provides this additional information:

BRINGING SPACE HOME: THE ROLE OF SAMPLE RETURN IN SPACE EXPLORATION

Free event!

A deep dive into why we do sample return missions, what weve learnedfrom them, the unique challenges they pose and what lies ahead forbringing more of these precious materials back to Earth.

https://tinyurl.com/rdzn9pf6

Date: 15 April 2021Time: 11:30am ETZoom link: Will be provided upon registration

Featured panelists:Jim Green, Chief Scientist, NASADave Mitchell, Director of Flight Projects, NASA Goddard Space FlightCenterDr. Don Brownlee, Principal Investigator on Stardust Mission,University of WashingtonSandra Freund, Mission Operations Manager, Lockheed Martin Space

Moderator:Camille Calibeo, Advanced Programs Capture Manager at Lockheed MartinSpace and founder of @TheGalacticGal

Mrs. Calibeo will host and moderate Q&A with a panel of experts fromLockheed Martin, NASA and the University of Washington on sample returnmissions.

See more here:

BRINGING SPACE HOME: THE ROLE OF SAMPLE RETURN IN SPACE EXPLORATION (LMCO), Apr 15, 2021, virtual, 11:30-12:30 pm ET - SpacePolicyOnline.com

Cathie Wood's ARK Invest recently launched its ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF (NYSEMKT:ARKX). This is the firm's latest actively managed exchange traded fund, and it's designed to give investors exposure to various tech and aerospace companies that enable or benefit from space exploration.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Trimble(NASDAQ:TRMB) are two of the top 10 holdings in this relatively new ETF, and both of these companies look like good long-term investments. Here's why.

NVIDIA pioneered the graphics processing unit (GPU), a type of semiconductor (or chip) designed to process lots of data very quickly. GPU technology makes it possible to accelerate heavy workloads like artificial intelligence, data analytics, and scientific computing.

Image source: NVIDIA.

While rivals have released their own GPUs, NVIDIA's chips remain the gold standard in the industry, as evidenced by their widespread adoption. For example, every major public cloud provider-- from Amazon Web ServicestoAlibaba Cloud -- uses NVIDIA GPUs in their data centers.

In addition to various terrestrial applications, NVIDIA's chips have already been instrumental in space exploration. NASA, for example, is using NVIDIA's DGX-2 supercomputing platform to plan a manned mission to Mars.

Landing on the red planet will be complicated and dangerous: Starting from an initial descent rate of 12,000 miles per hour, the spacecraft will have just six minutes to slow down before reaching the surface. During the descent, complex fluid dynamicswill affect the vehicle in unknown ways, and simulating those conditions on other computing platforms would take up to six months, according to NASA computer scientists. But with NVIDIA's computing platform, it takes just one week to run six simulations simultaneously.

Driven by unrivaled processing power, NVIDIA products have benefited from high demand in recent years. As a result, the company has posted solid financial results, despite inventory headwinds in 2019.

Metric

2018

2021

CAGR

Revenue

$9.7 billion

$16.7 billion

20%

Free cash flow

$2.9 billion

$4.7 billion

17%

Data source: NVIDIA SEC filings. Note: Fiscal 2021 ended Jan. 31, 2021. CAGR = compound annual growth rate.

Of course, scientific research is just one use case. NVIDIA's GPUs are also well suited for other high-performance computing applications. In fact, according to management, NVIDIA's total addressable market in the data center space will reach $100 billion by 2024. That leaves this tech company with plenty of room to grow.

Some investors were probably surprised by Cathie Wood's decision to make Trimble the top holding in ARK's latest ETF. Trimble isn't growing as quickly as NVIDIA, and its aspirations aren't as flashy as enterprises like Virgin Galactic. That being said, Trimble stock has outperformed the S&P 500 over the last one, five, and 10 years.

Image source: Getty Images.

The company provides hardware and software solutions to millionsof customers across some of the world's largest industries like construction, agriculture, and transportation. For example, Trimble's Connected Supply Chain platform helps improve fuel efficiency and safety in long-haul trucking and freight transport, providing real-time data and analytics to back-office administrators. Likewise, Trimble's Connected Farmplatform optimizes agricultural workflows, helping farmers improve crop performance and profitability.

Many of Trimble's products integrate real-time positioning technologies -- this includes global positioning systems (GPS) and global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), as well as systems that use laser and optical technology to establish location. Trimble also provides data collection platforms that simplify management of this geospatial information. These technologies, in particular, lend themselves to space exploration.

Not surprisingly, the coronavirus pandemic hit Trimble hard, as it disrupted supply chains and suppressed the global economy. As a result, the company's revenue dropped 4% in 2020. Even so, Trimble's gross margin has expanded in recent years, driving solid growth in free cash flow.

Metric

2017

2020

CAGR

Revenue

$2.6 billion

$3.1 billion

6%

Gross margin

52.1%

55.8%

N/A

Free cash flow

$386 million

$615 million

17%

Source: TrimbleSEC filings.

Trimble estimates its market opportunity at $50 billion, leaving it with plenty of room for growth. Moreover, Trimble targets industries that have been historically underserved by technology, offering solutions that help clients improve productivity, quality, and safety. That should drive demand as those enterprises turn to technology to boost operational outcomes.

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

Excerpt from:

ARK Is Investing in Space Exploration: These 2 Tech Stocks Could Blast Off - The Motley Fool