Category Archives: Space Exploration

Vladimir Komarov before the fatal accident.

Gagarins friend, Colonel Vladimir Komarov was meant to lead Soyuz-1 to glory, but failed to escape a tragic end.

In the 1960s, the Soviet Union and the U.S. were in a cut-throat space race. Each wished to show superiority over their ideological enemy.

On March 16, 1966, the Americans performed the first-ever docking in space during the Gemini 8 crewed spaceflight. The Americans did so manually and the Soviets were eager to strike back, demonstrating the word they could perform the first-ever automatic docking in space the very next year. Unfortunately, the hustle led to the first casualty of the Soviet space program.

The Agena Target Docking Vehicle seen from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Gemini adapter of the Agena is approximately two feet from the nose of the spacecraft (lower left).

In 1967, The Soviet spacecraft designers hurriedly prepared for the launch of the Soyuz-1 and the Soyuz-2, which were supposed to dock in space.

The death of chief Soviet spacecraft designer Sergei Korolev in 1966 tarnished the preparation for what was supposed to be a triumphant launch. Korolev was an outstandingly influential figure in the Soviet space program, who could have averted the subsequent catastrophe by refusing to be forced into setting a deadline to please the political leadership of the USSR.

Chief Soviet spacecraft designer Sergei Korolev.

But Korolev died and left his Experimental Design Bureau 1 the leading Soviet institution behind Soviet efforts in rocket design and space exploration to his successor Vasily Mishin. Unfortunately, for the new head of the Soviet space program, he would be best remembered for one of the biggest tragedies which happened under his leadership.

Either the new chef designer did not have enough power to cross the Soviet political leadership thirsty for new Soviet scientific achievements or he genuinely had interest in speeding up the launch of the Soyuz-1. But the spacecraft was not properly prepared for the flight, which nonetheless took place on April 23, 1967.

Colonel Vladimir Komarov.

On that day, the Soyuz-1 was ready for launch. Onboard was Colonel Vladimir Komarov, an experienced cosmonaut for whom it was a second space mission. The, by then, world-class celebrity Yuri Gagarin was assigned to stand-in, in case Komarov wasnt able to fly.

Yuri Gagarin (left) was assigned to stand-in, in case Komarov (right) wasnt able to fly.

Troubles started soon after the ill-fated spacecraft entered Earths orbit. One of the two solar panels failed to unfold as planned and the lack of electricity caused an equipment malfunction. The system that was responsible for navigating the spaceship in relation to the sun failed, too.

Colonel Vladimir Komarov prepares for the fatal mission.

Komarov attempted to manually change the orbit of the spacecraft, but instead caused unwanted rotation around the spacecrafts axis which only intensified as he tried to stop it.

Colonel Vladimir Komarov preparing for the flight.

Witnessing the amassing technical failures onboard the spaceship, the control center aborted the scheduled flight Soyuz-2, which was supposed to dock to the Soyuz-1, and began working on returning Komarov to earth safely.

The experienced cosmonaut had to manually navigate the spaceship back to Earth so that he could land in a specific location. Komarov did so successfully and was very close to a safe return, when one of the most basic systems malfunctioned.

Vladimir Komarov's remnants after the accident.

A pilot chute failed to pull the main parachute out and the capsule hit the ground hard. The impact killed Komarov, who had so vigorously fought for his life and the success of the mission.

When emergency services arrived on the scene, they saw a fire that local residents were working to extinguish.

A monument in honour of Vladimir Komarov.

A monument commemorating Komarovs sacrifice was erected in the location of the crash in 1987.

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Who was the first casualty of the Soviet space program? - Russia Beyond

It has been a tough year here on Earth, but 2020 was a bright spot for space exploration. SpaceX sent its futuristic Starship to new heights, three countries launched Mars missions, and robots grabbed debris from the moon and an asteroid.

2021 promises more, including a planned launch of the Hubble Space Telescopes successor.

Perhaps its no surprise then that space themes are having a moment in home decor. When so many of us Earthlings are stuck at home because of the pandemic, space imagery can add a sense of adventure or whimsy to rooms, walls and ceilings.

Ive done outer space, and starry skies, says New York interior designer Patrice Hoban. My clients love using stars as a backdrop in nurseries. Ive also worked with glow-paint to add an extra pop to kids rooms and home theaters.

She sticks tiny glow-in-the-dark stars to the ceiling; the light can last for hours. Its the closest thing Ive found to being in a planetarium, she says.

Rachel Magana, senior visual designer at the sustainable furniture-rental company Fernish, picked up some cosmological decorating ideas from a colleagues recent nursery project.

Base your color palette around deep blue tones, then splash in bits of color like yellow, white or red, she says. Or create your own galaxy wall. Paint a blue wall, then use some watered-down white paint to splatter it with fine droplets. You may just create some new constellations.

She suggests adding fun, space-agey lamps and vintage NASA posters.

Outer space has inspired designers for decades. In the 1960s, the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, along with the development of synthetic materials, led to a surge in futuristic furniture like molded plastic chairs and Sputnik-shaped lighting.

These days, you can download artwork directly from NASA: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov, or find it at retailers like Red Bubble, Etsy and Zazzle.

Magana also suggests making a letter board with a space-themed quote like Neil Armstrongs famous One small step for man phrase.

Much of the astronomy-themed art in the marketplace would be striking in any room. There are lunar graphics on canvas at Target. Tempapers got constellation wallpapers, but if you cant do wallpaper, consider Kenna Sato Designs constellation decals for walls or ceilings.

Galaxy Lamps has a sphere that looks like a planetoid. Charge it up with the included USB and cycle through 16 colors with three lighting modes. Theres a moon version, too. And at Beautiful Halo, find a collection of rocket-ship ceiling fixtures.

German designer Jan Kath has created a rug collection called Spacecrafted inspired by imagery of gas clouds and asteroid nebulae from the Hubble telescope.

Studio Greytak, in Missoula, Montana, has designed a Jupiter lamp out of the mineral aragonite, depicting the whirling, turbulent gases of the planet. And theres the Impact table, where a chunk of desert rose crystals is embedded with cast glass, as though a piece of asteroid had plunged into a pool.

Zodiac wall decals and a Milky Way throw rug can be found at Project Nursery. There are hanging mobiles of the planets and of stars and clouds, at both Crate & Kids and Pottery Barn Kids.

A glow-in-the-dark duvet cover printed with the solar system is also at PBK, but if youre ready to really head to the stars, check out Snurk Livings duvet set. The studio, owned by Dutch designers Peggy van Neer and Erik van Loo, has designed the set photoprinted with a life-size astronaut suit.

Creating a night sky on the ceiling of a home theater seems to be popular; Houzz has hundreds of examples for inspiration.

Maydan Architects in Palo Alto, California, designed one for a recent project.

Our clients grandfather was the owner of multiple movie theaters, says Mary Maydan. One of them had a retractable ceiling that enabled guests to experience the starry sky at night. When our client decided to build their home theater, this installation was actually fulfilling a lifelong dream.

The ceiling isnt retractable, but has an eight-paneled fixture depicting the Milky Way and a shooting star.

It provides very soft light and was intended to be kept on during the screening of the movie and create a magical experience, says Maydan.

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Space-themed decor brings the heavens indoors | Keys Homes | keysnews.com - KeysNews.com

(Reuters) - Wall Street thought 2020 was a frenetic year for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs).

FILE PHOTO: The Wall Street sign is pictured at the New York Stock exchange (NYSE) in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 9, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Yet with more than nine months to go until the end of 2021, initial public offerings (IPOs) of U.S. SPACs this week surpassed the $83.4 billion the sector raised in all of 2020, data from industry tracker SPAC Research showed.

This is also more than the $29.5 billion that IPOs of companies that operate businesses - as opposed to being empty shells like SPACs - have raised since the start of the year, according to IPOScoop data.

The breakneck growth of what was once an obscure backwater of capital markets reflects the popularity of SPACs as an alternative vehicle to traditional IPOs. By merging with a SPAC, companies can debut in the stock market with forecasts and predictions that are not as regulated as they would be in IPO investor roadshows. In exchange, however, they often give away a larger stake of themselves than they would have in an IPO.

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that we would already exceed 2020 totals before the end of the first quarter, I would not have believed it. Its been quite phenomenal and there are no real signs of the momentum stopping meaningfully anytime soon, said Carlos Alvarez, head of permanent capital solutions at UBS Group AG.

The $200 million IPO of Build Acquisition Corp on Tuesday pushed the total raised by U.S. SPACs in IPOs above last years haul, which was already more than six times the previous all-time record, according to SPAC Research.

The value of mergers between SPACs and private companies has also already outpaced last years total deal volume, even though the sector has not been a one-way bet for investors.

Graphic: SPAC craze sees 2021 topple IPO record -

Currently, 408 SPACs with $131.1 billion in cash are looking for companies to merge with. Based on the rough rule of thumb that a SPAC typically merges with a company 3-5 times its size, this equates to potentially over $600 billion in purchasing power.

SPACs have gained immense popularity among amateur retail traders as well as Wall Street funds that are hoping to ride the coattails of the prominent investors launching them. Billionaire Bill Ackman, tennis player Serena Williams and former U.S. House speaker Paul Ryan are among those who raised SPACs.

SPACs have burnished their appeal by focusing on deals in futuristic industries such as electric vehicles, self-driving cars and space exploration. While they are typically afforded two years by investors to find a deal, most of them now clinch a merger within months.

The amount of liquidity in the system right now is unprecedented. Not only is there a great pricing umbrella for these deals to come to market, the cost of holding a SPAC is significantly lower for investors as business combinations are coming remarkably fast, said Warren Fixmer, managing director at Bank of America and co-head of its SPAC practice.

The rise of SPACs has been fraught with risks. While many have scored meteoric gains on finding a deal, others have quickly seen their stock rallies reversed.

Churchill Capital IV Corps shares had run up more than 500% last month in anticipation of a merger with electric vehicle startup Lucid Motors, yet they slumped on the deals announcement as investors became more skeptical about the prospects of it making a car in the short tern.

The Defiance Next Gen SPAC Derived ETF, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks SPACs, fell as much as 30% off its record high this month following its launch in September. It is currently trading around 15% off its high.

Where SPACs go from here is going to be 100% dependent on what happens with the broader equity market, said Michael Ohlrogge, an assistant professor of law at New York University who has studied SPAC performance.

When there is a correction, though, theres going to be a lot of pain in the SPAC market.

(This story corrects 2020 volume figure to $83.4 billion from $83.5 billion)

Reporting by Joshua Franklin in Boston; editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Richard Pullin

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U.S. SPACs overtake 2020 haul in less than three months - Reuters

SAN DIEGO, March 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- KULR Technology Group Inc. (OTCQB: KULR) (the "Company" or "KULR"), a leading developer of next-generation lithium-ion battery safety and thermal management technologies, today announces a long-term technology and developmental partnership with Andretti Technologies (ATEC), the advanced technology arm of Andretti Autosport, founded by Michael Andretti. As part of the alliance, KULR will establish a thermal management testing and design platform for high performance battery solutions with the highest safety ratings specially adapted to the rigorous technical requirements of Andrettis global racing enterprise. Both partners will also focus on co-developing and co-marketing motorsports' battery and safety technologies to automotive partners for mass market EV applications.

The aim of the KULR and Andretti Technologies partnership is a transfer of technical knowledge from aerospace to the racetrack through ATEC affiliated programs. Drawing upon KULR's technical expertise building lightweight, high-performance thermal management solutions for space exploration, including the NICER instrument on the International Space Station, the Mercury Messenger and the SHERLOC instrument on the Mars Rover, ATEC plans to implement new cooling technology, battery cell architecture and testing methodologies for its high performance and high power applications within the global EV motorsports marketplace.

We are in the early innings of the EV revolution, said Michael Mo, CEO of KULR. "ATEC is a perfect partner for KULR to showcase our space-proven technology in the world of high performance motorsports. From here, we will deliver the absolute pinnacle in performance and the safest battery products for the mass EV markets."

KULR also emphasized its ambitions for its passive propagation resistant (PPR) solutions within the Andretti Technologies battery storage and transportation safety roadmap. KULRs passive propagation resistant packaging solutions for lithium batteries are critical at preventing cell to cell thermal runaway propagation which inhibits the fire and ejecta of a single battery cell from exiting the battery enclosure. The PPR architecture is also designed to absorb and mitigate rapid temperature changes in battery systems and keeps sensitive components within desired temperature ranges for their required specification. Avoiding any efficiency loss and/or serious damage to any system components results in a more sustainable, and environmentally sound, battery management system. This demand for sustainability played a major part in the new partnership with ATEC.

The alliance with KULR provides ATEC additional technical resources to accelerate engineering and scale battery system development in a sustainable way, says Roger Griffiths, Chief Technology Officer of Andretti Technologies, while also allowing us access to KULR's hardware expertise to help compete with the largest OEMs in the most competitive motorsport races on the planet.

To keep up-to-date on the joint development with the Andretti family of brands, please follow KULR Technology on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or TikTok.

About KULR Technology Group Inc. KULR Technology Group Inc. (OTCQB:KULR) develops, manufactures and licenses next-generation carbon fiber thermal management technologies for batteries and electronic systems. Leveraging the company's roots in developing breakthrough cooling solutions for NASA space missions and backed by a strong intellectual property portfolio, KULR enables leading aerospace, electronics, energy storage, 5G infrastructure, and electric vehicle manufacturers to make their products cooler, lighter and safer for the consumer. For more information, please visit http://www.KULRTechnology.com.

About Andretti Technologies The advanced technology arm of racing enterprise Andretti Autosport, Andretti Technologies was founded in late 2014 as the powertrain provider for the Andretti Formula E program. Building on the foundation of racing heritage and intense competition, the Michael Andretti-led outfit is dedicated to using the experiences of yesterday to help shape a better tomorrow. With an eye beyond motorsport, Andretti Technologies strives to raise the bar of innovation while meeting the future transportation needs of an ever evolving and more complex world.

Safe Harbor Statement This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of offers to buy any securities of any entity. This release contains certain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof. Our actual results may differ materially from those stated or implied in such forward-looking statements, due to risks and uncertainties associated with our business, which include the risk factors disclosed in our Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 14, 2020. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as anticipate, believe, could, estimate, expect, intend, may, should, and would or similar words. All forecasts are provided by management in this release are based on information available at this time and management expects that internal projections and expectations may change over time. In addition, the forecasts are entirely on managements best estimate of our future financial performance given our current contracts, current backlog of opportunities and conversations with new and existing customers about our products and services. We assume no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Media Contact: Derek Newton Head, Media Relations Main: (786) 499-8998 Derek.Newton@KULRTechnology.com

Investor Relations: KULR Technology Group Inc. Main: (888) 367-5559 IR@KULRTechnology.com

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KULR Technology Group Partners with Andretti Technologies to Bring Mars Rover Thermal Management Technology to EV Motorsports - GlobeNewswire

Pearl River County residents may hear rocket engines rumbling Thursday afternoon.

Four rocket engines will be tested at Stennis Space Center Thursday as part of the Core Stage Green Run Test Series. The test series began in January 2020 and is meant to ensure the SLS core stage is ready for lunar missions. The hot fire test was originally run in January, but was cut short, and is being run again Thursday.

The SLS rocket is designed to fly humans and cargo to the moon in a single launch and is powered by four RS-25 engines. NASA plans to land the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024 as part of the Artemis program.

The planned test window is between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., but may start early or late.

In a test, we say, the rocket engine will tells us when its ready, said Mike McDaniel, Aerojet Rocketdynes Site Lead for Stennis.

Preparations for the hot fire test began 48 hours before the test window. Tuesday afternoon, teams were reviewing data and the Boeing team began powering up the core stage.

Januarys hot fire test lasted just over a minute at 67 seconds, said McDaniel.

There was a core stage sensor that cut the test and the engines, so from our perspective the engines performed as expected. The engine startup, core stage startup and shutdown performed as planned, but there was a red line sensor that triggered the termination of the test at 67 seconds.

There are thousands of sensors on the core stage that monitor things like temperature and pressure. Those sensors have preset upper limits and if those are reached the core stage is shut down.

Thursdays test will be a full duration test, so the engines should run between four and eight minutes.

Although it was only for 67 seconds, the test in January made history as the first time all four RS-25 engines were ignited at the same time.

I was able to be on site and just view it, said McDaniel. Just the energy and the power and knowing that these vehicles will be launching into space is amazing. You get chills thinking about it. There just hasnt been this much liquid propulsion power since the early 70s, and theres just a lot of pride in being part of this program.

When testing on the SLS core stage is complete, it will be transported to Kennedy Space Center, where it will be integrated with the solid rocket boosters and the Orion capsule.

That whole system is being tested on the Artemis I mission.

Im sure the engineers will learn a lot about the systems and make it even better for the Artemis II when the astronauts are riding on it.

The Artemis I mission will be an uncrewed mission to the moon, which is set to launch towards the end of 2021. The Orion capsule will circle the moon and then return to Earth. The Artemis II mission will launch astronauts to the moon in 2024.

The teams who work on the SLS rocket think constantly about astronaut safety, said McDaniel, which is why they run a test with the same sequence that will be used to launch the vehicle at Kennedy Space Center.

The astronauts put their life and their families in our hands essentially and we want to make sure that we check and double check everything, every component for the astronauts riding on that vehicle.

One of the highlights of his work is meeting the astronauts, said McDaniel.

I have two groups of heroes, teachers and astronauts, so meeting the astronauts and talking with them about what we do and listening to how excited they are to ride on these engines, theres a lot of pride in that part.

For McDaniel, the work to create technology capable of space travel and deep space exploration is also about improving life on Earth. Technology developed for space exploration has gone on to be applied in medicine to develop better prosthetics and pacemakers.

I think people dont realize how much that technology comes back on Earth and improves our quality of life, he said. Its not just going into space to do it, its about the quality its going to be bringing to our children and our grandchildren and humanity.

Aerojet Rocketdyne is already developing the next generation of RS-25 engines, using advanced manufacturing processes, like 3D printing, to make engines that are lighter and more durable. McDaniel believes these manufacturing techniques will impact life on Earth.

I really believe that going forward, manufacturing, the material properties that make material lighter and stronger and more durable and doing that with the added technology of 3D printing, that technology is just going to continue to advance. I dont know what that will look like in 20 years, but it will definitely be different and better than today.

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Hot fire test set for Thursday at Stennis will put SLS engines through the paces - Picayune Item - Picayune Item

Recent Democratic presidents have supported and initiated important, bold and sustainable robotic and commercial space efforts. But no Democrat since John F. Kennedy has set this nation onto a course that resulted in humans exploring new worlds.

Kennedy famously charged the country to put humans on the Moon during the 1960s and he made it a prominent part of the messaging of his New Frontiers administration. As Ingrid Ockert recently wrote in a book review about Apollo, Kennedy used space for defining his administration in contrast to the perceived failures of (his predecessor)believing that success in space would position Democrats as the party of vision and imagination. And it worked.

Kennedy did not live to see his moonshot realized but it enthralled the world. It also accomplished a masterful feat of soft power projection and it inspired a generation at home to embark in careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) that fueled the PC and internet revolutions of the 1980s and 1990s. This, in turn, launched much of our modern economy.

I am a scientist whose career has been organized around and benefited tremendously from robotic space exploration. Yet I can say with authority that no robotic space exploration mission has ever had such a powerful and pervasive impact as Kennedy sending Americans to explore another world.

Kennedys bold vision propelled science forward greatly. It determined how and when theEarth-Moon system was formed. Of even greater impact, it produced the first pictures of our fragile, blue marble Earth hanging in the deep blackness of space, launching an ecological awareness of our planet that still powerfully speaks to us six decades later.

President BidenJoe BidenThe Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - Biden to hit road, tout COVID-19 relief law Oregon senator takes center stage in Democratic filibuster debate This week: Democrats eye next step after coronavirus relief bill win MORE was first elected to the Senate during Apollo. To his credit, the president has already affirmed that his administration will continue NASAs Artemis program to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon. Moreover, Biden has signaled his innate grasp of what Kennedys Apollo accomplished and how space exploration can inspire on a larger scale by exhibiting a Moon rock in the Oval Office and by very publicly celebrating the recent accomplishment of NASAs Perseverance rovers landing on Mars.

But where will Biden take this nation in human space exploration? How can he brand his administration to be both as bold and effective in space as Kennedys administration was?

As with other Biden initiatives, like his Cancer Moonshot and green energy future, he can use space to inspire. In this daunting, pessimistic and divided time we may actually need space initiatives more today than even in the darkest days of the Cold War.

Biden should craft our human space exploration to project bold U.S. global leadership by sending men and women to do more than just visit, but to establish bases on these new frontiers. In doing so, he would no doubt launch a powerful new wave of science and engineering careers to fuel the nations tech economy for decades to come.

In this time when science and the scientific method is often under public attack, Biden can build space exploration back better, infusing this nations sense of its 21st century self and its progress to a brighter future that is both science-based and larger than life. He can show the world an America leading a historic pathway to the planets and even to the stars with a revitalized NASA and a whole of government approach that leverages what human space exploration and the scientific method can tangibly deliver and how they can intangibly inspire.

Such an approach would dovetail well with other administration goals, showcasing the diverse workforce creating our future in space and leveraging the innovation of the private sector in partnership with the government to send humans to far away worlds in ways that no other nation can.

In this time of pandemic despair, Biden has a historic opportunity to light a candle of hope for a brighter future both in space and here on Earth. Kennedy saw that connection between people here on Earth and people exploring space and he was right. That brighter future for human space exploration that Biden can launch could hold even greater economic, scientific, global domestic leadership and inspirational benefits than Apollo did, and for all humankind.

Dr. Alan Stern is a former NASA head of science, a former board chair of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and a member of the National Science Board. His opinions here are his own.

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A moonshot to inspire: Building back better in space | TheHill - The Hill

China and Russia have agreed to jointly build a research station on or around the moon, setting the stage for a new space race.

The United States and the Soviet Union, followed by its successor state, Russia, have long dominated space exploration, putting the first astronauts in space and on the moon and later collaborating on the International Space Station that has been in orbit for two decades.

The joint announcement by China and Russia on Tuesday has the potential to scramble the geopolitics of space exploration, once again setting up competing programs and goals for the scientific and, potentially, commercial exploitation of the moon. This time, though, the main players will be the United States and China, with Russia as a supporting player.

In recent years, China has made huge advances in space exploration, putting its own astronauts in orbit and sending probes to the moon and to Mars. It has effectively drafted Russia as a partner in missions that it has already planned, outpacing a Russian program that has stalled in recent years.

In December, Chinas Change-5 mission brought back samples from the moons surface, which have gone on display with great fanfare in Beijing. That made China only the third nation, after the United States and the Soviet Union, to accomplish the feat. In the coming months, it is expected to send a lander and rover to the Martian surface, hard on the heels of NASAs Perseverance, which arrived there last month.

The two countries did not detail their joint projects nor set a timeline. According to a statement by the China National Space Administration, they agreed to use their accumulated experience in space science research and development and use of space equipment and space technology to jointly formulate a route map for the construction of an international lunar scientific research station.

A memorandum of understanding signed in a video conference on Tuesday by Zhang Kejian, the head of the Chinese space program, and his Russian counterpart, Dmitri O. Rogozin, referred to the Change-7 mission, a Chinese probe expected to be launched to the moons southern pole in 2024. Chinas lunar probes are named after a moon goddess of classical Chinese mythology.

For Russia, the agreement is a role reversal.

The Soviet Union initially led the first space race in the mid-20th century before falling behind the United States, which put the first man on the moon in 1969, a feat the Soviets never managed. After the Soviet Unions collapse, Russia became an important partner in the development of the International Space Station.

With NASA having retired the space shuttle in 2011, Russias Soyuz rockets were the only way to get to the International Space Station until SpaceX, a private company founded by the billionaire Elon Musk, sent astronauts into orbit on its own rocket last year.

China, by contrast, was never invited to the International Space Station, as American law prohibits NASA from cooperating with Beijing. That meant China had no choice but to set and pursue its own goals, said Joan S. Johnson-Freese, a professor of national security affairs at the United States Naval War College.

China has sent 11 astronauts into orbit since 2003 and built two smaller space stations, called Tiangong-1 and 2, that have since been decommissioned. Modules for a third station are scheduled for launch this year.

China pledged to keep the joint project with Russia open to all interested countries and international partners, as the statement put it, but it seemed all but certain to exclude the United States and its allies in space exploration.

The United States has its own plans to revisit the moon by 2024 through an international program called Artemis.

With Russia by its side, China could now draw in other countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America, establishing parallel programs for lunar development, said Namrata Goswami, an independent analyst and co-author of a new book on space exploration, Scramble for the Skies.

China has created an ideological narrative about its lunar base that offers its advanced space capacity as an asset to those who want to join in an alternative mechanism of lunar exploration and exploitation of resources, she said.

Claire Fu contributed research.

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China and Russia Agree to Explore the Moon Together - The New York Times

Floating in space watching your ship speed away rivals moments in Gravity or Interstellar and its one of the things that makes Outer Wilds among the best games ever made, says Jacob Aron

By Jacob Aron

A view of Timber Hearth, the home planet where Outer Wilds begins

Mobius Digital

Outer Wilds

Mobius Digital

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PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

THE first few months of any year are a slow time for video game launches, but whether it is due to the pandemic or the recent release of next-generation consoles, new games are thin on the ground at the moment. That is why I spent this month checking out 2019s Outer Wilds and I am glad I did, because it is one of the best games ever made.

A bold claim, but hear me out. Outer Wilds is set in a miniature solar system filled with planets bearing evocative names such as Giants Deep and Brittle Hollow. As the newest member of Outer Wilds Ventures, an organisation that is as much a bunch of trail hikers as it is NASA, you set off to explore these worlds and in 22 minutes, the sun explodes in a supernova, wiping out you and everything else in the solar system.

Moments later, the game resets and you begin another 22-minute session. This time limit, combined with the small solar system, gives you space exploration without the boring bits. After launching your trusty spacecraft, you can be walking on the surface of another planet within minutes. At the same time, everything operates under more-or-less realistic orbital mechanics, making space flight a challenge of matching orbits and velocities you cant just point at your destination and go.

I spent my first few runs getting to grips with the controls, which allow you to thrust in either direction along all three spatial axes, and more than once found myself falling into the sun, triggering an early reset. Yet little by little, I mastered my ship and was soon merrily exploring.

There are no new abilities to unlock as you play the only thing you gain is knowledge

I am deliberately avoiding saying much about what I found because Outer Wilds is about the joy of discovering things for yourself: it really is everything you could want from a space-exploration game. To give you a flavour, during my playthrough, I fell into a black hole, docked with a mysterious space station and landed on a comet, before falling off again.

But not all in a single go. Your ships computer records your discoveries, linking them together like a corkboard with strings. This doesnt reset, allowing you to uncover the games many mysteries over a number of runs. There are no new abilities to unlock as you play the only thing you gain is knowledge, so you could theoretically complete Outer Wilds in your first 22 minutes.

The result is that the game is full of aha! moments that are both incredibly satisfying and make you feel very clever, but it is also mechanically brilliant. Launching your spacecraft at the start of a run is always a tiny thrill as you rumble into orbit. Your spacesuit has limited oxygen and fuel, making it essential to manage your resources. If you run out of fuel, you can use oxygen as propellant in a last-ditch effort to get to safety.

This comes together to generate moments that easily rival Gravity or Interstellar. At one point, I was floating around a planet, separated from my ship, which was orbiting another planet.

I could see the ship was heading away from me, and doubted I would be able to catch up with my remaining fuel. Instead, I pulled open my map of the solar system so I could estimate when the two planets would have their closest approach. Timing things just right, I jetted off for what I thought would be a daring rendezvous. For a moment, it seemed like I was on course until I smashed into a moon, cracked my helmet and died. Thankfully, the next run was just a moment away.

Games

The Witness

Thekla

PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Android, iOS

The Witness is full of mysteries. Set on an island split into regions, each locale puts its own spin on grid-based logic puzzles. It is gorgeous, but extremely mentally taxing.

No Mans Sky

Hello Games

PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

No Mans Sky offers billions of procedurally generated worlds. This can make them feel samey, but the latest update lets you collect alien pets.

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Why Outer Wilds is a space-exploration game that's worth dying in - New Scientist News

Imagine running on a cement footpath, and then suddenly through dry sand. Just to keep upright, you would have to slow down and change the way you run. In the same way, a walking robot would have to change its gait to handle different surfaces.

Generally, we humans and most robots can only change how we run. But what if we could also change the shape of our bodies to run as fast and safely as possible on any surface?

We would like to rely on robots for difficult and dangerous tasks, from inspecting failed nuclear reactors to space exploration. For these tasks, a static body could limit the robots adaptability. A shape-shifting body could make the difference between success and failure in these unexpected environments. Even better, a shape-shifting robot could learn the best body shape for different environments and adapt to new environments as it encounters them.

In collaboration with the University of Oslo, we have successfully tested this idea with a four-legged robot that adapts its body to walk on new surfaces as it sees them, performing better than a static-body robot. Our research is published in Nature Machine Intelligence.

DyRET, the Dynamic Robot for Embodied Testing, or the animal in the Norwegian of its creator, Tnnes Nygaard, was designed to explore the idea of a shape-shifting robot. Each of DyRETs four legs has two telescopic sections, so that it can change the length of its thigh or shin bones. The adjustments are made by motors built into the legs and the lengths can be changed automatically while the robot is operating.

The motors can change the height of DyRET by around 20%, from 60cm to 73cm tall. That 13cm makes a dramatic difference to the robots walk. With short legs, DyRET is stable but slow, with a low centre of gravity. In its tallest mode, DyRET is more unstable while it walks but its stride is much longer, allowing it to travel faster and to step over obstacles.

DyRET also has sensors to keep track of what its walking on. Each of DyRETs feet has a force sensor that can feel how hard the ground is. A 3D camera points at the ground between DyRETs front legs to estimate how rough the ground is.

When DyRET is walking, it continuously senses the environment through its feet and 3D camera. When the robot detects a change in ground conditions, it can change to the best leg length. But how does the robot know what body shape works best?

We explored two ways for DyRET to learn the best leg configuration for different situations: a controlled environment, indoors with known surfaces, and a real-world test outside.

In our controlled tests, DyRET walked inside boxes about 5 metres long containing different walking surfaces: sand, gravel, and hard fibre-cement sheeting. The robot walked on each material in each of 25 different leg configurations to record the efficiency of its movement. Given this data, we tested the robots ability to automatically sense a change in the walking surface within the boxes, and to choose the best body shape.

While our controlled experiments showed DyRET could adapt its body successfully to surfaces it had walked on before, the real world is a much more variable and unpredictable place. We showed this method could be extended to unseen terrain by estimating the best body-shape for any surface that the robot encounters.

Read more: How do robots 'see' the world?

In our outdoor experiments, DyRET used a machine learning model, seeded with knowledge about the best leg configuration for a given combination of terrain hardness and roughness taken from the controlled tests. As the robot walks, it continuously predicts the best body shape for the terrain as it encounters it, while updating its model with measurements of how well it can walk. In our experiments, DyRETs predictions improve as it walks, allowing it to quickly generate efficient movements, even for terrain it hasnt seen before.

DyRET explores the idea of embodied cognition in a robot: that is, that a robots hardware body can be used to solve problems in collaboration with its software brain by tightly linking them to the environment. Instead of DyRETs body being a constraint on its movement, it is itself an adaptive way of solving problems in challenging environments.

This is incredibly beneficial, especially when we cant predict the exact environmental conditions beforehand, which makes picking a single good robot shape very challenging. Instead, these robots would adapt to a wide variety of environmental conditions through shape-change.

Our proof of concept has powerful implications for the future of robotic design, unlocking currently impossible environments that are very challenging and variable. Future shape-shifting robots might be used on the sea floor, or for long-term missions in space.

Read more: Were teaching robots to evolve autonomously so they can adapt to life alone on distant planets

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Shape-shifting robots in the wild: the DyRET robot can rearrange its body to walk in new environments - The Conversation AU

China and Russia are joining forces to build an international space station on the moon.

Leaders from both countries' space programs earlier this week signed an agreement for the joint construction of what they call the International Scientific Lunar Station a complex of experimental research facilities located on the surface or in the orbit of the moon.

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A memorandum of understanding on the project was signed by Dmitry Rogozin, general director of Russias Roscosmos State Corporation, and Zhang Kejian, head of Chinas National Space Administration, on Tuesday.

The two countries said they will use their collective experience in space research to develop a roadmap for the construction of the lunar base. Details of what the proposed station will look like are not clear at this time.

The International Lunar Research Station is a comprehensive scientific experiment base that can carry out multi-disciplinary and multi-objective scientific research activities such as the moon's own exploration and utilization, moon-based observation, basic scientific experiment and technical verification on the lunar surface or lunar orbit, and long-term autonomous operation, the Chinese National Space Administration said Tuesday.

Russias space agency said in a statement the complex will support a variety of research experiments, with the possibility of long-term unmanned operation with the prospect of human presence on the moon.

The research station will be open to all interested countries and international partners in an effort to strengthen research cooperation and promote space exploration for peaceful purposes in the interests of all mankind, Chinas space agency said.

The move marks Beijings latest push to explore the moon alongside rivals such as NASA, which is prohibited from working with China under a 2011 law. China is looking to carry out crewed missions to the moon by the 2030s. If successful it would be only the second country to put a human on the lunar surface behind the U.S.

The agreement also suggests Russia, which has had a decades-long relationship with NASA on the International Space Station (ISS), sees its future in space exploration primarily as a cooperative effort with China.

NASA has secured agreements with nine other countries to participate in the U.S. Artemis program. The program is aiming to carry out humanitys return to the moon with plans to send astronauts to the lunar surface over the next decade to establish a long-term, sustainable human presence.

While the U.S. and Russia have had a long collaborative relationship in their space exploration efforts, Russia is not among the countries participating in the U.S. lunar program.

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China and Russia will build space station on moon together, snubbing NASA | TheHill - The Hill