Category Archives: Space Travel

As the 2022 Farnborough International Airshow gets under way near London, its an ideal time to explore some of the exciting developments that are energizing both the present and the future of Alabamas multi-layered aerospace industry.

Here is a brief look at a few of those developments.

HUNTSVILLE SPACEPORT

In May, the Huntsville International Airport won FAA approval to allow commercial space vehicles to land on its runway, making it the first commercial airport in the U.S. licensed to operate as a re-entry site for space vehicles.

The decision means Sierra Spaces Dream Chaser spaceplane is one step closer to landing in Huntsville, realizing a vision city leaders set into motion beginning in 2014.

TheDream Chaseris a reusable re-entry vehicle to deliver supplies to the International Space Station as part of a NASA resupply program.

The spaceplane could begin landing in Huntsville as soon as next year.

The landing of Dream Chaser at Huntsville International Airport is part of a vision for economic development that continues our legacy in space science and taps into our workforce expertise and assets developed for the International Space Station, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said.

The FAA decision positions Huntsvilles airport as a potential landing spot for other space re-entry vehicles, according to the Huntsville Madison County Chamber.

DIGITAL HYPERSONICS FACTORY

Lockheed Martins new facility in Courtland known as Missile Assembly Building 4, or MAB4 is no typical factory. Rather, its a digital first center for the development of hypersonic strike technologies.

MAB4 was designed to pull together the best advanced production processes from across the entire company. Its team uses cutting-edge technologies, including robotics, electronic foam boards, smart torque tools, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and model-based data consumption.

Lockheed Martin said MAB4, which opened in late 2021, represents a milestone in its strategic commitment to establish North Alabama as the Home of Hypersonic Strike Production.

These weapons, flying at five times the speed of sound or faster, can intercept and destroy ultra-fast enemy missiles.

This Lockheed Martin factory underscores the fact that important defense work is being conducted in Alabama, enhancing national security and keeping us all safer, Secretary Canfield said.

SOLVING ADDITIVE RIDDLES

Additive manufacturing, or industrial 3-D printing, is poised to revolutionize how aircraft components are made, but only if we can be certain the parts are reliable.

Thats where Auburn Universitys additive manufacturing research center comes in, thanks to its work with the FAA to improve commercial air travel by raising the reliability of 3-D printed metal aircraft components.

The FAA said its $3 million partnershipwith Auburns National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME) is intended to improve safety by standardizing certification of existing and emerging structural applications of advanced materials.

NCAMEs researchers will help the FAA develop additive manufacturing specifications related to understanding how microscopic features in 3-D printed metal affect overall fatigue and fracture properties in parts, along with variability issues across different production platforms.

By understanding the sources of variability, controlling them, or accounting for them, we can generate more reliable materials data, and more reliable AM products, said Nima Shamsaei, the NCAME director.

In other words, the Auburn researchers will be cracking the code on 3-D printed parts to make them safer.

ROARING ROCKET ENGINES

When Blue Origin selected Huntsville as the site for its new, $200 million rocket engine factory, the spaceflight company had its eyes on the future and the past.

Specifically, Blue Origin glimpsed the resurrection of historic Test Stand 4670 at Marshall Space Flight Center, where NASA evaluated the engines that propelled the Saturn V rocket on the Apollo programs journey to the Moon. The 300-foot structure, commissioned in 1965, had been inactive since 1988.

Blue Origin launched an extensive rehabilitation project to put the test stand back in action for the BE-4 and BE-3U engines made at its new Huntsville facility. The first test could happen later this year, reviving the rocket engine roar residents remember from back in the day.

One of the coolest things about this whole project is the history, David Helderman, Blue Origins director of Alabama test operations, told the Huntsville Business Journal in May.

We love that were building our history on history. Its a cool, long history of Americas Space Program, he added.

For the first time, our Huntsville engines team has installed a #BE4 engine into Blue Origins refurbished and historic MSFC Test Stand 4670 preparing for commissioning tests. pic.twitter.com/AdVemeFfFC

Blue Origin (@blueorigin) June 21, 2022

Blue Origins Alabama-made BE-4 engines will power the companys own New Glenn rocket as well as the United Launch Alliances next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket, which will soon launch on its first mission.

ULA builds the Vulcan Centaur at the nations largest rocket factory in Decatur, just minutes away from Blue Origins facility and the NASA test stand in Huntsville.

Vulcan Centaurs future was given a boost in April 2022, when Amazon selected the ULA rocket for 38 launches supporting deployment for its ambitious Project Kuiper, Amazons initiative to increase global broadband access through a constellation of 3,236 advanced satellites in low Earth orbit.

The 1.6 million-square-foot ULA factory in Decatur has been the production site for the companys workhorse Atlas V and Delta IV rockets. CEO Tory Bruno tweeted in late July that the company has orders for 70 Vulcan rockets, with eight of them in the production flow in Decatur.

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Alabama aerospace industry blasting off with dynamic developments - Made In Alabama

What is (NFT)

A non-fungible token (NFT) is monetary security that consists of digital data secured in a blockchain. This blockchain keeps the record of NFTs ownership, and it can be easily transferred to other people by the owner. Hence, it allows NFTs to be sold and traded. They can be made by anybody. It needs a little or zero coding expertise to generate them. NFTs typically have some references to digital files that may include photos, audio, or videos. As NFTs can be identified uniquely, they are not similar to cryptocurrencies. The market value of this financial security depends upon its digital files. An NFT does not hinder the copying of its relevant digital file and avoids preventing the making of NFTs that reference identical files

Space travel club

This club is earning good popularity all over the world due to its unique and fascinating projects. Their projects are mostly NFT-based. They are offering people an opportunity to board a real space. Moreover, they offer a trip every year. However, these facilities are only for NFT owners. This firm is providing many services to the NFT holders to fascinate them. Their NFT acts as a membership card for them. With the help of this card, they can participate in various events. They can also book many planets in the metaverse using their NFT. They can also get some other benefits only available to members.

Importance of STC

Ticket types

STC does not always give you the ticket that wins. While every ticket keeper is allowed to access all VIP events, however, boarding to space has some special requirements. Fulfilling those requirements means you should be a winner when they draw the tickets of winners after each snapshot. The collection of their tickets is 246 tickets. Out of the 245, tickets will be put on the minting list. Only one Palladium ticket will be presented to the special guest of STC. The following are some ticket types and their chances to board after each snapshot:

Conclusion

We know that NFT is a source of digital financial security. It is being used by many people these days. Space Travel project is a firm that runs some NFT-based projects. If you have some NFTs, you can get a chance to board a real space. They also give you access to various other events. These facilities are only for their members and your NFT will act as your membership card.

To know more about this project visit their websitewww.spacetravelclub.worldor follow the project on twitterhttps://twitter.com/spacetravelclu1

Media ContactCompany Name: STC LabsContact Person: Sophia Price Marketing manager Email: Send EmailCountry: United StatesWebsite: https://www.spacetravelclub.world/

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STC, a new club that will board to real space - Digital Journal

University of Central Florida Assistant professor Kawai Kwok is seen at the Structures & Materials Design Laboratory, on June 22, 2022. Kwoks work focuses on developing shape-changing structures. These kinds of structures can be used on space missions, for drone work and for solar sails and blades among other applications. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS)

ORLANDO, Fla. (Tribune News Service) An army of Knights is among the researchers charging their way into final frontier with innovative projects shaping the future of space travel.

Perhaps it's unsurprising due to the University of Central Florida's history tied to the American space program. As the need for more aerospace engineers rose, the "space university" opened its doors to education in 1968 the same year the Apollo 8 mission took humans into the moon's orbit.

Since then, students and professors have taken full advantage of being only 35 miles from Kennedy Space Center collaborating with NASA, developing new technologies and techniques straight out of science fiction. In the last 18 months, UCF has had 71 space-related research projects approved and awarded with grants exceeding $10 million, according to UCF spokeswoman Zenaida Kotala.

Some of the research projects include:

3-D printed sensors for astronauts to monitor ship's integrity

A device that would create a landing pad for a rocket as it lands

Developing cost-effective and logistically feasible way to mine lunar ice

The projects' vary widely but nearly half of them, 31, are moon-research related.

Most recently, UCF's Kawai Kwok was one of eight UCF recipients to receive the NSF Career award for his research proposal of examining flexible yet strong material capable of performing as a satellite solar sail, and then being able to roll up from the satellite's base as easily as measuring tape.

Shape changing structures

It's called "snapping instability structures" Kwok said and his idea all started with a stroll through his garden.

Kwok was admiring a ladybug as it flew by. The gentle insect landed on a flower, compacted its wings and nimbly navigated its surroundings. Other than achieving flight, insect wings will conform to the body as the organism sees fit. If it needs to soar, the wings expand. If it needs to crawl under a window, the wings will contract and allow the bug to take on a slimmer form.

"That's exactly the kind of behavior we have been looking for many years in the engineering community. How do we have a structure that can drastically change the shapes?" said Kwok, a 38-year-old assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

For the last six years, Kwok has been researching composite lightweight structures for aerospace applications.

University of Central Florida Assistant professor Kawai Kwok demonstrates a bendable propeller, at the Structures & Materials Design Laboratory, on Wednesday, June 22, 2022. Kwoks work focuses on developing shape-changing structures. These kinds of structures can be used on space missions, for drone work and for solar sails and blades among other applications. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS)

His most recent idea of exploring "snap instability" is what earned him a $500,486 NSF CAREER grant, which will allow Kwok and some of his select students to explore different applications of carbon fiber composites or other lightweight material that might be able to mimic the behavior of insect wings.

Although, creating material that is both thin and a very strong isn't easy.

Currently, Kwok and his students are working on a .5-meter-long propeller made of a carbon fiber composite. So far, the light and bendable propeller can maintain integrity spinning at 3,000 RPM. Next Kwok wants to move up to a 1-meter-long propeller the results of which could benefit drone technology. The U.S. Navy has already expressed interest in Kwok's work.

"I guess (the) dream would be (to) design propellers or wings that unfold from a drone. The Navy (would like) to be able to launch a swarm of drones in compact in small tubes," Kwok said.

For the time being, the research is in its early stages and may not end up using carbon fiber, which is cooked up in a small lab at the UCF Engineering Building

"We're not just looking at carbon fiber composites. We're trying to see if we can mix a larger variety of materials with different functions and properties," he said.

Ideally, Kwok's snap instability structures would take on similar characteristics to that of measuring tape, being able to expand greatly while also maintaining structural integrity for technologies such as solar sails for solar-powered space travel. It's an idea that's hasn't truly moved beyond that of science fiction. One of the reason solar sails are hard to create is because they need to be large enough to capture an area of about 20 to 40 meters, to capture photons from the sun, but also maintain an extremely light weight.

"How to fold them into in a way that can can be structurally sound in space? Hopefully, we'll find that answer," Kwok said.

Lunar mapping

When it comes to the moon UCF shines with its lunar geological expert and planetary scientist Kerri Donaldson Hanna, who has her hands full with numerous moon-related research projects. First, there's project Lunar Trailblazer, which is a satellite capable of scanning and producing high-resolution maps of water on the moon. Donaldson Hanna and her team of students are creating spectral instruments for the NASA satellite.

Water has been long suspected on the moon since the Lunar Prospector probe first detected a high level of hydrogen in the north and south poles in 1999. It is speculated that water-ice exists in the permanent shadows of lunar craters, but there are few actual detections of frozen water. Trailblazer seeks to change that by scanning as low as crater floors and as high as mountain peaks using powerful instruments capable of measuring all the way down to 3.6 microns and creating a large database of water sites for future colonization.

Donaldson Hanna's work in Trailblazer has a foundation in two other critical projects she worked on that furthered scientific understanding of lunar geology: NASA's Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment and Moon Mineralogy Mapper. The latter flew aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 and discovered water.

Furthering the goal of finding water, Donaldson Hanna is also working as co-investigator on the Lunar Compact InfraRed Imaging System project. She along with an undergraduate student, Adam Bedel, are selecting filters for a thermal camera onboard the XELENE lunar lander, designed by aerospace manufacturer Masten Space Systems. Their work will be used to help make thermal maps of the south polar region of the moon. The images provided by XELENE should give scientists a better understanding of which regions are cold enough to retain water.

Additionally, NASA announced earlier in June that Donaldson Hanna and another UCF planetary scientist, Adrienne Dove, will be exploring an unknown and mysterious region of the moon Gruithuisen Domes. The area is found on the western part of the moon and appears to be the result of a rare form of volcanic eruption. But that's left NASA scientists confused as such geological structures on Earth require oceans of liquid water and plate tectonics to form.

Enter Donaldson Hanna and Dove who will lead a $35 million mission that would land a spacecraft over the Gruithuisen Domes and provide answers.

"There's potentially a treasure trove of knowledge waiting to be discovered, which will not only help us inform future robotic and human exploration of the moon, but may also help us better understand the history of our own planet as well as other planets in the solar system," Donaldson Hanna told the Orlando Sentinel in June.

Axiom study

UCF's medical campus is the closest med school to Kennedy Space Center, putting it in a unique spot of scientific opportunity. As a result, UCF Health has arranged a partnership with Axiom Space supporting human research studies in future flights including the Axiom 2 mission slated for next year.

UCF professors partnered with Israeli researchers to study four private astronauts to better understand microgravity's effect on the human body, specifically studying changes to the astronauts' eyes and brains.

Currently, researchers are analyzing data from the April launch that saw a SpaceX Crew Dragon contracted by Axiom Space fly up for a stay on board the International Space Station.

UCF's Dr. Ali Rizvi and Dr. Joyce Paulson are analyzing the microgravity environment's effect on the "blood-brain barrier," or the coated protection around a brain that filters out harmful toxins. Scientists have looked at ways around this barrier since it acts as an obstacle to delivering certain medications that need to reach the central nervous system. The end goal is to to treat degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's or dementia. Previous research has shown the blood barrier can be changed in a microgravity or zero-gravity environments creating larger pores in the barrier and possibly allowing medication to reach the nervous system.

UCF Health professors are collaborating with Israeli researchers to better understand the human body in a microgravity environment by studying the four space participants.

Additionally, another group of UCF scientists is examining the astronauts' eyes and how microgravity may affect the fluid within an ocular structure in a phenomenon known as "spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome" or SANS. Previous studies have focused on SANS but UCF's research has a new tool at its disposal.

UCF professor Dr. Mehul Patel along with researchers at Israel's Rabin Medical Center are using a new imaging device that will shed light on the structure of the eyes, blood flow and how spaceflight might change them.

After the 17-day trip in space, the astronauts were evaluated within 48 hours of their return. Currently, scientists are reviewing the data for any possible changes.

"This is one of the exciting parts of doing the study," Patel said. "We're going to be able to see microscopic changes, perhaps, for the first time ever, in someone that has left Earth."

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Millions in grant money headed to Florida university for space research - Stars and Stripes

Aimed at sparking curiosity and enriching the experience of global travellers, the rooms feature interactive, mind-bending activities that are integrated into the Marriott Hotels guest room design.

Recommended for people aged seven and up, reservations for The Curiosity Room by TED can be made now for stays starting from July 15 at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.

Following the inaugural launch in San Francisco, guests will also book the discovery-based room at Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queens Park and London Marriott Hotel County Hall later this summer, with stays starting on August 15 and September 15, respectively. Each room experience will be live for three months at each location.

Recent social listening research conducted on behalf of Marriott saw a significant year-over-year uptick in searches for #themedrooms (+106 per cent) and hotel rooms + themed (+65 per cent), suggesting consumers are craving more distinct and inspiring hotel experiences.

The idea is that guests embark on the adventure immediately upon entry to the room. Marriott says: The entire room is a puzzle box waiting to be solved. Puzzle elements have been seamlessly hidden within the dcor; solving them all will lead guests to a grand finale and series of surprises and rewards. The puzzles have also been customised to the three destinations, featuring and celebrating local landmarks, culture, and more.

Guests will uncover hidden messages, hunt for puzzle pieces, and experience elements of the room in unexpected and delightful ways. The rooms Curiosity Journal serves as the guide and connection to the one-of-a-kind in-room journey, with hints available in case guests need a helpful hand. When the final challenge has been completed, guests receive a certificate of completion and can celebrate with a complimentary dessert in the hotels restaurant.

Jason Nuell, senior vice-president of premium Brands for Marriott International, says: Marriott Hotels has always been a place where guests can be inspired at every corner of their experience and weve taken that to the next level with TEDs award-winning, educational arm TED-Ed.

This one-of-a-kind adventure further fosters the notion for our guests to stay curious in their travels, opening their minds beyond a typical overnight stay and propel them to explore the destination with renewed desire to learn something new.

Taking inspiration from each hotels respective destination, rooms feature art from illustrator and artist Caleb Morris, who founded Welcome to the Neighborhoods an art series focused on creating unique connections between people and cities all over the world.

In addition,guests will discover various moments of wonder, as well as a guide of local travel recommendations curated by Marriott Hotels and TED, that encourage further exploration beyond the guest room from the striking architecture of San Francisco to the culture of Bangkok and rich history of London.

Guests will be able to take home some mementos, such as the travel guide, to leave a lasting impression of the trip, while everyday items such as keys unlock clues to help guests progress through the immersive space.

Reservations for the Curiosity Room by TED are available now for the stay dates below:

Watching millions of people view and share TED-Eds educational animated videos online every day is a profoundly rewarding experience for our team of creators, says TED-Eds founding and executive director, Logan Smalley.

What really excites me about our partnership with Marriott Hotels, though, is that it will enable families throughout the world, for the first time ever, to experience a totally unique version of TED-Ed in person.

I think everyone who participates will gain, in the most tantalizingly fun way possible, a deeper understanding and appreciation of TED-Ed and their destination, and Im grateful to Marriott Hotels for making that possible.

Marriott Hotels has a longstanding, global partnership with TED. The relationship began in 2016 by distributing TED Talks and TED Fellows Salons, blogs, and original quotes to hotel guests worldwide, and has continued to elevate every year with new elements of the partnership.

Travelers staying at Marriott Hotels have access to custom content expertly curated by TED, with selected themes that are topical and relevant to guests including innovation, travel, entrepreneurship, and much more. Specifically, new TED-Ed content will now be available at hotels with video-based lessons that vary by subject and age.

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Marriott Hotels and TED partner to create curiosity rooms - Globetrender

On June 8th, NASA revealed that its new powerful space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, is now sporting a small dimple in one of its primary mirrors after getting pelted by a larger-than-expected micrometeoroid out in deep space. The news came as a bit of a shock since the impact happened just five months into the telescopes space tenure but such strikes are simply an inevitable aspect of space travel, and more thwacks are certainly on their way.

Despite what its name implies, space isnt exactly empty. Within our Solar System, tiny bits of space dust are zooming through the regions between our planets at whopping speeds that can reach up to tens of thousands of miles per hour. These micrometeoroids, no larger than a grain of sand, are often little pieces of asteroids or comets that have broken away and are now orbiting around the Sun. And theyre everywhere. A rough estimate of small meteoroids in the inner Solar System puts their combined total mass at about 55 trillion tons (if they were all combined into one rock, itd be about the size of a small island).

That means that if you send a spacecraft into deep space, your hardware is certain to get hit by one of these little bits of space rock at some point. Knowing this, spacecraft engineers will construct their vehicles with certain protections to shield against micrometeoroid strikes. Theyll often incorporate something called Whipple shielding, a special multi-layer barrier. If the shield is hit by a micrometeoroid, the particle will pass through the first layer and fragment even further, so the second layer is hit by even smaller particles. Such shielding is usually used around sensitive components of spacecraft for extra protection.

But with NASAs James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, its trickier. The telescopes gold-coated mirrors must be exposed to the space environment in order to properly gather light from the distant Universe. And while these mirrors were built to withstand some impacts, they are more or less sitting ducks for larger micrometeoroid strikes, like the one that hit JWST in May. Though the micrometeoroid was still smaller than a grain of sand, it was larger than what NASA anticipated enough to cause damage to one of the mirrors.

Spacecraft operators model the micrometeoroid population out in space to get a better understanding of how often a spacecraft might get hit in any given part of the Solar System and what size particles might be thwacking their hardware. But even then, its not a foolproof system. Its all probability, David Malaspina, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado focusing on cosmic dust impacts on spacecraft, tells The Verge. You can only say, I have this chance of getting hit by this sized particle. But whether or not you ever do, thats up to chance.

Micrometeoroids have a wide range of origin stories. They can be the leftover products of high-speed collisions in space, which pulverize space rocks into minuscule pieces. Asteroids and comets also get bombarded over time by space particles and photons from the Sun, causing tiny pieces to break off. An asteroid can also get too close to a large planet like Jupiter, where the strong gravitational pull wrenches off pieces of the rock. Or an object can get too close to the Sun and get too hot, causing the rock to expand and break apart into pieces. There are even interstellar micrometeoroids that are just passing through our Solar System from more distant cosmic neighborhoods.

How fast these particles move depends on what region of space theyre in and the path they take around our star, averaging about 45,000 miles per hour, or 20 kilometers a second. Whether or not theyll run into your spacecraft also depends on where your vehicle lives in space and how fast its moving. For instance, NASAs Parker Solar Probe is the closest human-made object to the Sun at the moment, moving at a top speed of more than 400,000 miles per hour. It gets down to the 4-yard line, compared to Earth being all the way at one end zone, says Malaspina, who has focused on studying micrometeoroid impacts on Parker Solar Probe. Its also moving through the densest part of a region called the zodiacal cloud, a thick disk of space particles that permeates our Solar System. So the Parker Solar Probe is getting sandblasted more frequently than JWST and its hitting these particles at incredibly high speeds than the telescope would get hit.

The Parker Solar Probe is giving us a better understanding of micrometeoroids around the Sun, but we have a pretty good understanding of the population around Earth, too. Whenever a micrometeoroid hits the upper atmosphere around our planet, it burns up and creates meteoric smoke fine smoke particles that can be measured. The amount of this smoke can tell us how much dust is hitting Earth over time. Additionally, there have been experiments on the International Space Station, where materials have been mounted on the outside of the orbiting lab to see how often theyre bombarded.

While JWST lives roughly 1 million miles from Earth, thats still relatively close by. Scientists also have an idea of whats out there based on other missions sent to a similar orbit as JWST. And most of the stuff that hits the telescope isnt that big of a deal. Spacecraft get hit by little ones all the time, Malaspina says. By little, I mean fractions of a micron much, much, much smaller than a human hair. And for the most part, spacecraft dont even notice those. In fact, JWST was already hit by small micrometeoroids four times before getting hit by the larger micrometeoroid in May.

NASA did model the micrometeoroid environment before JWST launched, but in light of the recent impact, the agency has convened a new team to refine their models and better predict what might happen to the telescope after future impacts. Current micrometeoroid modeling will try to predict things like how debris spreads through an orbit if an asteroid or comet breaks apart. That kind of debris is more dynamic, Malaspina says, making it harder to predict.

At the end of the day, though, prediction will simply give you more knowledge about when a spacecraft might get hit by a large speck of dust. One-off impacts like this are simply inevitable. JWST will continue to get blasted over time, but it was an eventuality that NASA was always prepared for. You just have to live with the probability that you will be hit eventually by some sized dust particle, and you just do the best you can with the engineering, says Malaspina.

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Why getting hit by space dust is an unavoidable aspect of space travel - The Verge

This article was originally published atThe Conversation. (opens in new tab)The publication contributed the article to Space.com'sExpert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Sam Baron (opens in new tab), Associate professor, Australian Catholic University

At the beginning of the new Disney Pixar film, "Lightyear," Buzz Lightyear gets stranded on a dangerous faraway planet with his commanding officer and crew.

Their only hope of getting off the planet is to test a special fuel. To do that, Buzz has to fly into space and repeatedly try to jump to hyper-speed. But each attempt he makes comes with a terrible cost.

Every time Buzz takes off for a four-minute test flight into space, he lands back on the planet to find many years have passed. The people Buzz cares most about fall in love, have kids and even grandkids. Time becomes his biggest enemy.

What's going on? Is this just science fiction, or could what happened to Buzz actually happen?

Related: NASA channeled its inner Buzz Lightyear with this wild Z-1 spacesuit concept

Buzz is experiencing a real phenomenon known as time dilation. Time dilation is a prediction of one of the most famous scientific theories ever developed: Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

Prior to relativity, the best theory of motion we had was Isaac Newton's mechanics.

Newton's theory was incredibly powerful, providing stunning predictions of the motion of the planets in our solar system.

In Newton's theory, time is like a single giant clock that ticks away the seconds in the same way for everyone. No matter where you are in the universe, the master clock will display the same time.

Read more:Curious Kids: is time travel possible for humans? (opens in new tab)

Einstein's theory of relativity shattered the master clock into many clocks one for each person and object in motion. In Einstein's picture of the universe, everyone carries their own clock with them.

One consequence of this is there is no guarantee the clocks will tick at the same rate. In fact, many clocks will tick at different rates.

Even worse, the faster you travel relative to someone else, the slower your clock will tick compared to theirs.

This means if you travel very fast in a spaceship as Buzz does a few minutes might pass for you, but years might pass for someone on the planet you left behind.

In a sense, time dilation can be thought of as a kind of time travel. It provides a way to jump into someone else's future.

This is what Buzz does: he jumps into the future of his friends left on the planet below.

Unfortunately, there is no way to use time dilation to travel backwards in time, into the past (as one important character talks about later in the film).

It's also not possible to use time dilation to travel into your own future.

That means there's no known way for you to travel into the future and meet your older self, simply by going really fast.

Time dilation might seem like science fiction, but in fact it is a measurable phenomenon. Indeed, scientists have conducted a number of experiments to confirm that clocks tick at different rates, depending on how they are moving.

For example, astronauts on theInternational Space Stationare traveling atvery high speedscompared with their friends and family on Earth. (You can watch the space station pass overhead if you knowwhen to look up.)

This means those astronauts are aging at aslightly slower rate. Indeed, US astronaut Buzz Aldrin, from whom Buzz in Lightyear gets his name, would have experienced a tiny bit of time dilation during his trip to the moon in the 1960s.

Dont worry, though, the astronauts on the International Space Stationwont feel or notice (opens in new tab)any time dilation. It's nothing like the extreme time jumps seen in Lightyear.

Aldrin was able to return safely to his family, and the astronauts up in space now will too.

Clearly, time dilation could have a serious cost. But it's not all bad news. Time dilation could one day help us travel to the stars.

The universe is a massive place. The nearest star is40,208,000,000,000 km away (opens in new tab). Getting there is like traveling around the world one billion times. Traveling at an ordinary speed, no one would ever survive long enough to make the trip.

Time dilation, however, is also accompanied by another phenomenon: length contraction. When one travels very fast toward an object, the distance between your spaceship and that object will appear to be contracted.

Very roughly, at high speeds, everything is closer together. This means that for someone traveling at a high speed, they could make it to the nearest star in a matter of days.

But time dilation would still be in effect. Your clock would slow relative to the clock of someone on Earth. So, you could make a round trip to the nearest star in a few days, but by the time you arrived home, everyone you know would be gone.

That is both the promise, and the tragedy, of interstellar travel.

This article is republished fromThe Conversation (opens in new tab)under a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article (opens in new tab).

Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates and become part of the discussion on Facebook and Twitter. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.

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In the new Disney Pixar movie Lightyear, time gets bendy. Is time travel real, or just science fiction? - Space.com

Katrin Fidencio, San Diego, USA

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The historic deeds of Jessica Meir:

NASA astronaut and marine biologist Jessica Meir went down in history when she was the first Swedish woman to be sent on a mission into space on September 25, 2019.

There she spent 205 days and complete

d 3,280 revolutions around the earth, which corresponds to a journey of about 139,851,994 kilometers. She conducted important research during space travel, including how heart tissue behaves in microgravity compared to on Earth. Jessica Meir also became historic when she and her colleague Christina Koch carried out the first space walk in history where only women participated, in space and in the control room on the ground.

The Swedish-American astronaut Jessica Meir, whose mother comes from Vsters, has both American and Swedish citizenship. She grew up with Swedish traditions, everything from Lucia celebrations to saffron buns, and dancing around a midsummer pole with a folk costume, for example, was a must while growing up. Already at the age of five, she began to dream of becoming an astronaut. When she was given first grade as a school assignment to draw what she wanted to be as an adult, she made a drawing of herself as an astronaut on the surface of the moon. Maybe the dream can come true?

For now, Jessica Meir once again has the opportunity to become historic. She is one of 18 selected astronauts for the American lunar program Artemis, which launches this summer, and can thus become the first woman in the world on the moon. That Jessica Meir is one of the candidates is not surprising. She has extensive experience of staying and conducting experiments in space. She also has a solid education a doctorate in marine biology, a masters degree in space studies and a bachelors degree in biology.

Jessica Meir will travel around Sweden for five days in June to lecture and meet the general public, researchers, politicians and students. Do you live near Stockholm, Helsingborg, Vsters, Ume or Gothenburg?

Then come and listen to one of the open lectures that Jessica Meir holds. It is completely free but requires advance booking so that everyone can fit in the halls. We can promise that it will be an exciting experience where Jessica Meir talks about life and research on board the space station ISS and the dream of becoming the first woman on the moon.(Jessica Meir at the moment is in Sweden and is scheduled to make lectures at different places in her native country): Ed. Upadhyaya.

Congratulations Jessica Meir: telegraphnepal.com

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US Astronaut Jessica Meir revolves 3, 280 times around the Earth Telegraph Nepal - Telegraphnepal.com

On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride was onboard the space shuttle Challenger for the STS-7 mission, thereby becoming the first American woman to go into space. Apart from making two space flights, Ride championed the cause of science education for children. A.S.Ganesh tells you more about Ride, an inspiration and role model for generations

On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride was onboard the space shuttle Challenger for the STS-7 mission, thereby becoming the first American woman to go into space. Apart from making two space flights, Ride championed the cause of science education for children. A.S.Ganesh tells you more about Ride, an inspiration and role model for generations

The first decades of space exploration was largely dominated by two countries the U.S. and the Soviet Union. This period is even referred to as the Space Race as the two Cold War adversaries pitted themselves against each other to achieve superior spaceflight capabilities.

While the two countries were neck and neck in most aspects, the Soviets sent a woman to space much before the U.S. Even though Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in June 1963, it was another 20 years before Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.

Ride was the older of two daughters born to Carol Joyce Ride and Dale Ride. Even though her mother was a counsellor and her father a professor of political science, Ride credits them for fostering her interest in science by enabling her to explore from a very young age.

An athletic teenager, Ride loved sports such as tennis, running, volleyball, and softball. In fact, she attended Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles on a partial tennis scholarship. She even tried her luck in professional tennis, before returning to California to attend Stanford University.

By 1973, Ride not only had a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, but had also obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. She got her Master of Science degree in 1975 and obtained her Ph.D. in Physics by 1978.

Having restricted astronaut qualification to men for decades, NASA expanded astronaut selection with the advent of the space shuttle from only pilots to engineers and scientists, opening the doorway for women finally. Having seen an ad in a newspaper inviting women to apply for the astronaut programme, Ride decided to give it a shot.

Out of more than 8,000 applications, Ride became one of six women who were chosen as an astronaut candidate in January 1978. Spaceflight training began soon after and it included parachute jumping, water survival, weightlessness, radio communications, and navigation, among others. She was also involved in developing the robot arm used to deploy and retrieve satellites.

Ride served as part of the ground-support crew for STS-2 and STS-3 missions in November 1981 and March 1982. In April 1982, NASA announced that Ride would be part of the STS-7 crew, serving as a mission specialist in a five-member crew.

On June 18, 1983, Ride became the first American woman in space. By the time the STS-7 mission was completed and the space shuttle Challenger returned to Earth on June 24, they had launched communications satellites for Canada and Indonesia. As an expert in the use of the shuttles robotic arm, Ride also helped deploy and retrieve a satellite in space using the robot arm.

Ride monitoring control panels from the pilots chair on a space shuttle flight deck in June 1983.| Photo Credit: Uncredited

Ride created history once again when she became the first American woman to travel to space a second time as part of the STS-41G in October 1984. During this nine-day mission, Ride employed the shuttles robotic arm to remove ice from the shuttles exterior and to also readjust a radar antenna. There could have even been a third, as she was supposed to join STS-61M, but that mission was cancelled following the 1986 Challenger disaster.

Even after her days of space travel were over, Ride was actively involved in influencing the space programme. When accident investigation boards were set up in response to two shuttle tragedies Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003 Ride was a part of them both.

Having returned to academia, Ride believed that it was important to encourage students, especially girls, to pursue a career in science. With this objective, she co-founded a non-profit organisation called Sally Ride Science to inspire young women. She even wrote a number of science-related books for children, including To Space and Back and Exploring our Solar System.

Following a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, Ride died in 2012. In her life of 61 years, Ride not only rode to space, but also blazed a trail for women and men to follow.

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Ride rides into the space - The Hindu

By Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer

For more than six decades, a small group of scientists has been trying to pick up radio transmissions from other planetary systems, motivated by the fact that doing so would demonstrate that someone intelligent is out there. This effort, known as SETI (the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence), is straightforward and technically fairly straightforward, as it doesnt require interstellar travel for either the aliens or the Earthlings. Its a strictly passive endeavor using big antennas feeding highly sensitive receivers that can sniff out signals over a broad range of the radio dial.

But some researchers believe we should be taking a more active role in probing nearby space. They argue we should prod the aliens with signals of our own, inviting them to respond; an exercise known as active SETI. Rather than hope that the extraterrestrials have launched signals our way, we could knock on their door and get their attention.

In practice this amounts to sequentially aiming a powerful radio transmitter at one star system after another while transmitting a friendly message that, one hopes, will trigger a similarly friendly response.

This sounds straightforward, but there are some decisions to be made. To begin with, how do we encode the message in a way that space aliens, whose English abilities are surely sub-par, will understand. In addition, what information should we transmit? Shakespeares collected works? The Harvard five-foot shelf?

Recently, a new addition to the art of cosmic composition has appeared. Its the work of a global team of researchers led by Jonathan Jiang of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Like many of its predecessors, the new communication scheme makes a call back to the short pictogram transmitted from the Arecibo, Puerto Rico radio telescope in 1974. Mathematics, physics, astronomy, and biology are the touchstones for these pictograms all subjects that are presumed to be required coursework for extraterrestrials. We wont share a common language with the aliens, but we can certainly presume a shared familiarity with science and math.

However, the idea of trying to initiate contact is not looked upon kindly by some people in the research community, who see the possibility of a calamitous outcome to betraying our existence to unknown beings. Its been likened to shouting in a dark forest. The potential consequences could be dire, so we mustnt take chances. We should keep our heads down.

Thats a popular point of view, one that was even endorsed by Stephen Hawking. But I dont agree. Laying low might seem like cheap insurance against catastrophe, but thats not the way I see it.

I believe that the costs of laying low would be substantial. After all, Homo sapiens might be around for a long time, and insisting that we never, ever point a powerful radio transmitter skyward could prove to be a weighty albatross burdening our descendants.

But remember that we can only be threatened by species that have the means to either come here or send their weaponry our way. Either option demands a degree of technical sophistication thats far beyond our own. But if theyre that advanced, then they can be presumed to have large antennas and sensitive radio receiving equipment, and to have had such technologies for a while. That means that irrespective of their personal natures, they can detect the transmissions weve already sent into space: The television, radio, and radar signals weve been lofting skyward since World War II.

In other words, its entirely too late to worry about giving away our position. Thats been done. Additionally, if we were to accede to the alarmist position that strong transmissions to the sky should somehow be forbidden, what happens when we establish colonies or waystations elsewhere in our solar system? Do we set limits on any transmissions to these outposts because of the inevitable spill radiation that would continue into deep space? And what about the use of radar for establishing the orbits of long-period comets as a matter of defense against the type of deadly impact that doomed the dinosaurs? Do we give that up too?

The paper from Jiang et al. suggests yet another scheme for sending an informative postcard to other Milky Way inhabitants. The public reaction to this work has been modest, even if some of the graphics which portrayed nude humans were not. Some people seem to think that the real issue with active SETI is the impropriety of sending images of unclothed human bodies into space. These guardians of terrestrial decorum seem less concerned with whether doing so might be a suicidal move for life on Earth than with keeping aliens from seeing what we look like underneath our clothes. From my point of view, both worries are wacky.

Originally appeared at

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/chinas-possible-alien-satellite-signal-highlights-extraterrestrial-com-rcna33602

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Earth Calling the Cosmos - SETI Institute

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) Inspiration4 Commander and Shift4 Founder and CEO Jared Isaacman announced a $10 million donation to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center to build a new Space Camp facility.

The multimillion-dollar gift will help build a 40,000-square foot, hanger-style building.

Space Camp may be located in Huntsville, Alabama, but its an asset for the entire nation, Isaacman said. There are things here you will not find at school, you will not find at your local museum, your computer, your iPad, or your virtual reality headset will never be able to provide.

The building is planned to bring several of Space Camp and Aviation Challenges immersive activities under one roof. The plans include space and aviation simulators, an indoor pool, a netted drone space, classrooms and a challenge course for future trainees.

The announcement was made on Space Camps current mission training floor during their 40th-anniversary celebration. While the U.S. Space and Rocket Center opened its doors in 1970, Space Camp was founded in 1982.

The Rocket Center is in the final stages of selecting a site for the new building and an architectural firm for the design. There was no set timetable for the construction process in the announcement.

Isaacman will also be donating an L-39 Black Diamond plane to be displayed at the new facility when it is finished.

The Inspiration4 mission was the first all-civilian crew to go to space. They raised almost $250 million for St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital during a fundraiser before their flight on September 15, 2021, aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. The four-person crew made a visit to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center before their flight to meet with campers and talk about their mission.

Isaacman said the Inspiration4 mission was a big step forward for space travel, and he encourages others to support the future of U.S. space exploration.

We always said if we got this right, it would open the door for so many exciting missions to follow, and thats exactly whats going to happen, Isaacman said. What youre seeing at Space Camp is a lot of young minds that will some day go on those missions.

Isaacman went to Aviation Challenge when he was 12 years old and his fellow crewman Chris Sembroski previously worked as a Space Camp counselor.

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Space Camp receives $10M donation for new Inspiration4 Training Center - WHNT News 19