Category Archives: Space Travel

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins waves at the audience during the astronaut graduation ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in January 2020. In April 2022, she will become the first Black woman to live and work on the International Space Station. Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins waves at the audience during the astronaut graduation ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in January 2020. In April 2022, she will become the first Black woman to live and work on the International Space Station.

For the first time, a Black woman will live and work on the International Space Station, starting in April of next year.

Jessica Watkins, who was born in Maryland but now considers Colorado home, is slated to spend six months on the ISS as a mission specialist. It will be her first mission in space.

The crew for this mission known as Crew-4 will be the fourth rotation of astronauts on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to the ISS.

Watkins joined the ranks of NASA astronauts in 2017 and has worked in the space agency's research centers, particularly on the Mars rover, Curiosity.

Watkins says she grew up admiring astronauts like Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space, and Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. And she hopes her work aboard the ISS will inspire more kids of color to aspire to space travel.

"I do hope that all young girls, especially young girls of color that are interested in STEM and interested in exploring space, feel empowered to do so," Watkins told Colorado Public Radio last year. "I just hope young girls across the country feel that way now."

And the International Space Station might not be Watkins' only stop in space. With a background in geology and studying the surface of Mars, Watkins would "certainly" be interested in traveling to the red planet, "as long as we have a ride back," she joked in the CPR interview.

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Jessica Watkins will be the first Black woman to live and work on the space station - NPR

The International Space Station (ISS) photographed by Expedition 56 crew members from a Soyuz spacecraft after undocking, October 4, 2018.NASA/Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS

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STOCKHOLM, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Russia's test on Monday to blow up one of its own satellites in space has drawn criticism for endangering the crew of the International Space Station and, experts say, created a debris field that has increased risks to space activities for years. read more

WHAT IS SPACE DEBRIS AND WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?

Space debris, or space junk, consists of discarded launch vehicles or parts of a spacecraft that float around in space hundreds of miles above the Earth, risking collision with a satellites or a space station.

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Debris can also be caused by an explosion in space or when countries conduct missile tests to destroy their own satellites by missiles. Apart from Russia, China, the United States and India have shot down satellites, creating space debris.

As space debris orbits around the earth at tremendous speeds - about 15,700 miles per hour (25,265 kph) in low Earth orbit - it could cause significant damage to a satellite or a spacecraft in case of a collision.

"Every satellite that goes into orbit has the potential of becoming space debris," Professor Hugh Lewis, head of the Astronautics Research Group at the University of Southampton, said in an interview.

With the launch of more satellites from companies such as Elon Musk's Starlink and OneWeb satellite constellation, near Earth space will likely see more space debris.

HOW BIG IS THE DEBRIS?

The U.S. government tracks about 23,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth.

There are half a million pieces of debris larger than 1 centimetre and 100 million pieces of debris about one millimetre or larger.

Debris, particularly near the International Space Station, orbits the Earth 15 to 16 times a day, increasing the risk of collision.

The European Space Agency (ESA) estimates the total mass of all space objects in Earth orbit weigh more than 9,600 tonnes.

In a few decades, if the build-up of space debris continues, some regions of space might become unusable, Holger Krag, head of the ESA's Space Safety Programme Office, said in an interview.

WHAT WAS THE IMPACT OF THE CURRENT TEST?

The Kosmos 1408 satellite that was destroyed on Monday was launched in 1982 and weighed more than 2,000 kg (4,410 lbs), creating a significant amount of space debris.

The test generated more than 1,500 pieces of "trackable orbital debris" and would likely spawn hundreds of thousands of smaller fragments, the U.S. Space Command said in a statement. read more

The crew of the space station were directed to take shelter in their docked spaceship capsules for two hours after the test in case they needed to leave due to a collision with debris.

"The event happened at an altitude just 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the space station altitude," Krag said. "So the risk for the space station will be increased, perhaps even doubled, compared to what it was before."

WILL SPACE DEBRIS AFFECT SPACE TRAVEL?

While space debris is unlikely to affect space travel, it will lead to significant problems for spaceflight around Earth.

The risk would be highest for objects orbiting at an altitude of around 1,000 kilometres (620 miles), which is used for communications and Earth observation.

"We will still be able to travel to Mars because we will transit very fast through this problematic region," Krag said.

"But if you want to operate and stay for years in this problematic region, that might not be possible anymore in a few decades from now," he said.

CAN SPACE DEBRIS BE REMOVED?

According to NASA, debris in orbits below 600 kilometres will fall back to Earth within several years, but above 1,000 kilometres it will continue circling the Earth for a century or more.

"If we want to try and solve the space debris problem, we have to start to remove that type of object," Lewis said.

Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency have partnered with start-ups to help with removal of space debris.

While JAXA has launched a six-month demonstration project with Astroscale for the world's first debris removal mission, ESA is working with Swiss start-up ClearSpace for launching a mission in 2025.

Not only a hazard, space debris increases the cost for satellite operators.

Satellite operators in the geostationary orbit have estimated protective and mitigation measures account for about 5-10% of mission costs and for lower-Earth orbits the cost is higher, according to an OECD study.

(This story has been refiled to correct typos in paragraphs 1, 9, 12)

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Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Editing by Alex Richardson

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Q+A What is space debris and how dangerous is it? - Reuters

SpaceX chief Elon Musk while mentioning people who have walked on the Moon in a tweet said "soon, that list will grow much longer as humanity reaches new heights."

Musk's latest tweet on space travelcomes as aSpaceX capsule landed at the International Space Station(ISS) last week carrying four astronauts as part of its partnership with NASA.

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The current mission named Crew-3 had blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying astronauts Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron and Raja Chari. The spaceship Endurance docked at ISS last Thursday.

Watch:Musk is willing to spend $6 billion to fight world hunger

Chari, 44 who is a US Air Force colonel along with Marshburn, 61, a medical doctor and Maurer,34, are set to stay in space for six months.

Also Read:Musk on stock selling spree? Tesla CEO sells another $1.2 bn worth shares

Maurer is a science engineer while Barron served in the Navy. Marshburn had travelled space on two earlier occasions and had also taken spacewalks.

Also Read:Indian-American hired woman to slap him for using Facebook; Elon Musk approves

The US astronauts will conduct space exploration and carry out scientific research and are likely to undertake spacewalks to upgrade sections of the space station. They were accompanied by German astronaut Matthias Maurer from the European Space Agency.

(With inputs from Agencies)

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Soon, that list will grow much longer, says Musk on space travel - WION

A new space mission to hunt for potentially habitable planets around Earths closest neighbouring star system is under way.

In a project with echoes of the 2009 film Avatar, an international collaboration of scientists in Australia and the US will search in the Alpha Centauri star system for earth-like planets that could sustain life.

Alpha Centauri Earths closest neighbouring star system consists of two sun-like stars, known as Alpha Centauri A and B, and a more distant red dwarf star.

The Toliman mission, named after the ancient Arabic-derived name for the star system, will search for potential planets orbiting Alpha Centauri A and B.

The Toliman telescope, which is under construction, is set to be launched into low-earth orbit in 2023. It seeks to discover new planets in the Goldilocks orbit at the right distance, so the planet is neither too hot nor too cold to sustain life.

Project leader Prof Peter Tuthill, of the University of Sydney, said: If were looking for life as we know it, usually the gold standard is a planet where liquid water could be present at the surface of the planet so its not like a frozen snowball, and it doesnt boil all the water up into the atmosphere.

We know that life has evolved at least once, around a sun-like star on an earth-like planet, Tuthill said. We try to look for other examples that are as close to that configuration as possible.

Tuthill likened hunting for planets to solving a mystery: the signals planets give off are very subtle and very faint compared to the signals from stars, he said.

Despite the seemingly frequent discovery of exoplanets planets outside our solar system around our very nearest sun-like stars we dont have any idea whether there could be any earth-like planets, Tuthill said.

The Toliman mission will try to uncover planets by studying whether the stars Alpha Centauri A and B wobble from side to side, due to the presence of unseen planets tugging on them gravitationally.

Collaborators on the mission previously detected a planet candidate potentially orbiting around Alpha Centauri A, but its existence hasnt been definitively confirmed.

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If that is a real planet that would be something like a Neptune-like planet a gas giant, Tuthill said. Maybe it has a moon around it that life could exist on.

That possibility has a sci-fi parallel: James Camerons 2009 film, Avatar, is set on Pandora, a fictional habitable moon that orbits a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri system.

If that detection is proved to be confirmed, then James Cameron got there first with his movie, Tuthill said.

At 4.37 light years away from the sun, Alpha Centauri would be an obvious destination for any future interstellar travel, Tuthill added.

Even so, a terribly forbidding leap in technology would be required to get there. At about the speed of the fastest modern space probes, this is something like a 100,000-year voyage.

Its not in my lifetime, but its still a visionary future where we might imagine developing technologies able to span these interstellar voids.

In collaboration with the University of Sydney, the Toliman mission involves scientists at Saber Astronautics in Australia, and Breakthrough Initiatives and Nasas Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US.

This might be the biggest privately funded space telescope ever built, Tuthill said.

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New mission to scour our interstellar neighbourhood for planets that could sustain life - The Guardian

The race to commercial space flight has well and truly started, with more than 85 companies and organizations seeking a future in interplanetary tourism. Yet some researchers worry we might be getting ahead of ourselves.

Before travel outside of Earth becomes a regular event, the world needs to implement some basic biosecurity measures, they warn. Otherwise, we could start receiving unwelcome alien visitors.

If a foreign organism manages to hitch a ride back to our planet on one of our spacecrafts, it could wreak havoc on Earth's equilibrium.

The chance of that actually happening is improbable, especially since we haven't yet found life outside of Earth. But given how bad it could get, it's a reality some think we should prepare for.

A more likely scenario would be a human tourist carrying an Earthly organism to space, and that's also a significant risk.

In space-like conditions, studies have shown some microbes can undergo rapid genetic mutations. After growing a thousand generations of Escherichia coli in micro-gravity conditions, for instance, researchers found the harmful bacteria grew even more competitive, acquiring antibiotic resistance.

If that resistant strain is then carried back to Earth, it could seriously threaten human life.

"Risks that have low probability of occurrence, but have the potential for extreme consequences, are at the heart of biosecurity management," says invasion biologist Phill Cassey from the University of Adelaide in Australia.

"Because when things go wrong, they go really wrong."

The international Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) has put together a Panel on Planetary Protection, but no current member has expertise in invasion science.

Invasion biologists in Australia think that's a serious oversight. They say we need more sophisticated protocols to prevent biological contamination from extraterrestrial environments to Earth and vice versa.

"Given the enormous foundation of research in the science and management of invasive species," the biologistswrite, "we contend that greater collaboration between invasion biologists and astrobiologists would enhance existing international protocols for planetary biosecurityboth for Earth and for extraterrestrial bodies that could contain life."

Because right now, it seems our biosecurity protocols are failing us.

When an Israeli spacecraft crashed into the Moon in 2019, for instance, it dumped dehydrated tardigrades onto the surface, which could possibly still be alive.

Even more worrisome, bacterial strains with signs of extreme resistance have also been isolated in NASA "clean rooms" where employees assemble spacecraft.If these dangerous microbes hitchhike into space, there's a chance they could grow even more virulent in microgravity.

Stopping that from happening in the first place is much easier than trying to tackle mutating organisms once they make it to, say, Mars.

Even then, however, some experts think it might be nearly impossible keeping Earthly microbes here on Earth. Everywhere else humans have gone, we've inevitably taken organisms with us.

Space, invasion scientists warn, is merely "the next frontier of biosecurity risk".

The study was published in BioScience.

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Alien Pathogens Could 'Hitchhike' to Earth - And We're Totally Unprepared, Experts Warn - ScienceAlert

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For decades, anybody searching forthe "taste" of the Apollo moon program could reach for those little packets of freeze-dried ice cream that were createdto bring America's first astronauts some ersatz comfortfood on their journey to the lunar surface.

Now with travel to Mars on the horizon,the time has comefor space ice cream to step aside and make room for the flavor of new era of planetary travel: tomato ketchup, the "Marz Edition."

Heinz, acompany synonymous with ketchup, successfully funded and collaborated with biologists at Florida Tech's Aldrin Space Instituteto grow tomatoes in Mars-like conditions here on the Space Coast to show once and for allthat even on faraway worlds humanscan have the perfect condiment.

The experimentis the first of its kind. It actually produced a single bottle of ketchup that was unveiled onMonday at Heinz HQ in Pittsburgh, PA.

With the help of 14 graduate and undergraduate students,AndrewPalmer,associateprofessor of biological sciences at Florida Tech, grew 450 tomato plants in regolith, the loose unconsolidated rock and dust that coverplanets like Mars.

Replay:SpaceX Crew-3 launch from Kennedy Space Center

Photos: NASA / SpaceX Crew-3 launch from Kennedy Space Center

Heinz was certainly proudof the accomplishment that took two years to complete.

"The team successfully yielded a crop of Heinz tomatoes, from the brand's proprietary tomato seeds, with the exacting qualities that pass the rigorous quality and taste standards to become its iconic ketchup," the company said in a statement last week.

While Heinz was no plans to sell any of its Marz Edition ketchup just yet, the project represents more than just space-age, pop-culture marketing. There was serious science behind it with implications for life on earth as well ason the red planet as scientists look to grow food in poor soils.

Before now, most efforts around discovering ways to grow in Martian-simulated conditions are short-term plant growth studies. What this project has done is look at long-term food harvesting," said Palmer in a news release from Heinz.

One of the biggest hurdles with producing food on Mars, Palmer said,is the difference betweenEarth and Martian soil. According to Palmer, the key difference is that Martian soil isn't really soil. Regolith "doesn't have any organic matter, so there's nothing alive...so there's not a lot of organic material there," said Palmer.

To mimic Martian regolith, the team used 7,800 pounds of soil from the Mohave Desert aterracotta-coloredgrit that is similar to Martian regolith, according to a statement released by the Florida Institute of Technology. Though the regolithis dry and fine, the team found that it didn't require more water to sustain the plants than it would have with normal soil.

The tomatoes grewin a greenhouse at Florida Techs Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovative Design in Palm Bay referred to as the "Red House." Temperatures at the Red Housefluctuatedbetween 73 and 83 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on if it was nighttime or daytime, Palmer said.

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The tomatoes produced under these conditions were held to high standards, said Palmer. Heinz has "Tomato Masters" who inspect the quality of the tomatoes grown to ensure that they meet professional food-grade standards.

When Palmer and his team tried the tomatoes, he said they tasted like tomatoes grown from normal soil. "For me the biggest thing was smell...They have very strong like tomatoquality smell to them,"Palmer said.

The two-year partnership started with an email that Palmer initially thought was a prank.However, after a second read-through, Palmer realized Heinz was interested in partnering with his lab to cultivateMartian tomatoes, said Palmer.

Heinz was most certainly crowing about the achievement.

"Were so excited that our team of experts has been able to grow tomatoes in conditions found on another planet and share our creation with the world. From analyzing the soil from Martian conditions two years ago to harvesting now, its been a journey thats proved wherever we end up, HEINZ Tomato Ketchup will still be enjoyed for generations to come," Cristina Kenz, chief growth officer for Kraft Heinz International Zone, said.

Though the project is now over, the research has cross-planetaryimplications.

Hall of Fame: Pamela Melroy, Scott Kelly and Michael Lopez-Alegria inducted into U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame

Palmer's team documented every part of the process: fertilizer used, details of the water used, and temperatures. The information is crucial for trying to duplicate the experimenton Mars. But Palmer said that theinformation would also benefitagricultural systems here on earth.

"As we think about sustainable agriculture here, the same concerns about inputs need to be considered here, right?So as we develop modern agriculture, someof you know our green revolution that we're trying to generate now, part of that is knowing exactly how much fertilizer you're using and optimizing that so that you don't get run off right.So that you don't have wasted fertilizerthat pollutes our lakes or lagoons," said Palmer.

Though the results from the project were fruitful, Palmer said thatit'll be a while before astronauts will be planting food on Mars.

"We're making more and more progress. I think this is an important component of that. But...what I hope really is the most important thing from this, is it draws attention back to the field and gets people really thinking more about funding this research and the importance of this research in planning for that," said Palmer.

Amira Sweilem is the Data Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY.Contact Sweilemat 386-406-5648orasweilem@floridatoday.com.

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Florida Tech and Heinz collaborate to grow space tomatoes for 'Marz Edition' ketchup - Florida Today

WhenSuzanne Asbury-Olivers father received a Fathers Day gift of a ride in a sailplane, he naturally took Suzanne with him. Upon landing, her father proclaimed his love of flying and enthusiastically asked when Suzanne could begin takinglessons. She began flying gliders at 14, and first soloed when she wasjust 15 years old. By the time she was 18,Asbury-Oliverhad her powered-aircraft instrument rating, commercial certificate, flight instructor,and instrument-flight instructor certificates, as well as a multiengine rating. She had become an aviation professional.

Asbury-Oliversearched for a way she could do what she loved, fly, and make a living. At the start of the1980sthe major airlines were in trouble and there was little opportunity for public aviation careers. When she saw an advertisement put out by Pepsi-Cola for a skywriter,Asbury-Oliverfirst thought it would be impossible to get the job. But she realized there probably wasnt anyone more qualified,so sheinquired about the position and was promptly putina plane with the current Pepsi skywriter.Asbury-Oliverwas almost instantly successful and worked withpilot JackStrayer for a year before heretiredand she became head skywriter. Suzanne and her husband, Steven Oliver, became Americas only husband and wife professional skywriting and aerobatic team.

Skywriting is not only a time-honored advertising tradition, but one of the most exciting and influential forms of advertisement.Though it is rarely used today, skywritingisvery impressive and effective.The Pepsi-Cola company has used the skywriting advertising technique since 1932, and it is perhaps the only company that still employs skywriting today.

Asbury-Oliver has been skywriting messages across the skies above the United States and Canada for Pepsi since 1980. From the open cockpit of the famous 1929 Travel Air biplane, the PepsiSkyWriter, Oliver created thousands of letters 3,048 meters (10,000 feet) above the earth for Pepsi Cola. While she has logged over 5,500 flying hours, her personal favoritesarethose spent inthe TravelAir.She remarked about the planethat,I fell in love with the open cockpit flying. Most pilots stare out at the sky through two layers of dirty Plexiglas, but in the open cockpit plane, there is just the sky, the wind, the cold, the ground, and me. Touring North America from coast to coast,Asbury-Oliver, now flying a modified De Havilland Chipmunk, skywrites over 500 messages in more than 150 locations each year. She remains the only professional female skywriter in the world.

This content was migrated from an earlier online exhibit,Women in Aviation and Space History, which shared the stories of the women featured in theMuseum inearly 2000s.

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Skywriting Your Name in History: Suzanne Asbury-Oliver - National Air and Space Museum

After almost three years in development, were thrilled to announce that Heavenly Bodies will be launching on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on December 7, 2021. Weve been working hard to make this game everything wed imagined, and we cant wait to share it with you. Our new gameplay trailer below hints at some of the varied, alluring and often ridiculous scenarios youll find yourselves in, whether playing solo or with a space pal via local co-op.

Previously, weve written about how the game feels to play and what youll be doing out there in space. To celebrate the game being so close to release, we thought wed dive into the reference that inspired us and how Heavenly Bodies came to look the way it does.

The games visual style is influenced by mid-century technical illustrations, archival imagery of early space flight exploration and cutaway drawings that allow the viewer to see detailed structures. Our goal has been to create something that appears more like an artists interpretation of space rather than striving for realism. The work of Soviet architect and designer Galina Balashova and NASA collaborator illustrator Russ Arasmith has been vital in informing our visual language.

Image credit: Artwork by Russ Arasmith, Date Unknown. NASA

To reproduce this bold, graphical and analogue aesthetic, we first analysed what it was that we needed to effectively reproduce in an interactive, real-time context. The key features we wanted to include were:

high contrast between highlights, mid-tones and shadows with little blending in between;

the ability to replicate illustrative techniques such as hatching and stippling;

grain that feels relative to the scale of the objects in the scene;

ability to control the roughness of an object;

texture support for hand painted details.

The results of our initial experiments are below, and we felt they were an early step in the right direction.

Once wed encapsulated these properties in real-time 3d on smaller objects, we were keen to apply them to larger, playable environments.

Our main considerations in translating this style across to Heavenly Bodies were:

prioritising the playable space and interactive objects over unnecessary detail or clutter;

using colour to highlight essential items and different interaction types;

preferencing analogue technology and large forms that communicate their operation.

Heres a look at the scenario Data in the game, where you can see all of these elements coming together.

The information required to complete the task at hand is delivered from Mission Control via the Communications Terminal in every level. This information arrives as a paper printout which is then added to the Operations Manual carried by the player.

The Operations Manual is informed by NASA handbooks and checklists issued to astronauts for quick reference in stressful situations, of which there are plenty in the game. Preferencing analogue technology over digital, modern and sci-fi is an underlying direction for the game. Below are some early concepts for the clunky Communications Terminal, followed by an example of the materials they dispense in the level Energy.

Throughout the game weve hidden a bunch of special collectable items for players to find and send back to Mission Control to be placed proudly on display. These collectables are our nod to significant achievements in space history, such as Sputnik, the first satellite put into orbit, and the Voyager Golden Record that blasted through the cosmos containing the sounds of our universe, and more, which well leave for you to discover.

The artwork for the PlayStation trophies are our way of acknowledging the efforts of our brave cosmonauts, commemorating their efforts in the form of a physical artefact for players to collect and reflect oncreating their own history of memorable events. Vintage space memorabilia, including stamps, matchboxes, pins and badges, were integral sources of reference, so making our own set of assets felt like a great way to pay tribute to a past era of space exploration.

Our love of historical space illustration extends to every corner of Heavenly Bodies, and weve aimed to capture the magic of mid-century graphic illustration wherever possible. For us, this era embodies the early romanticism and optimism of space travel. While loosely set in the late 60s, early 70s, weve adapted events and technologies from later decades to create the kinds of scenarios we want players to experience, and we hope you enjoy it.See you in orbit! Heavenly Bodies releases for PS4 and PS5 on December 7, 2021 you can wishlist the game here.

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Inside the art design of Heavenly Bodies, launching December 7 - PlayStation.Blog

Nasa has shared its vision for human space exploration in the future in a new sci-fi video.

The minute-long Visions of the Future short shows holiday destinations booked through the Exoplanet Travel Bureau, such as the Moon, and Mars.

Venus has a futuristic observation deck looking like an ice cream cone with a large glass come over it while Enceladus, one of Saturns moons, is orbited by a metal bubble with a family inside gazing at the ringed planet.

Another astronaut kayaks on one of Saturns other moons, Titan, and yet another skydives into the exoplanetHD 40307 g, which was discovered to be a potential super-Earth that could have a life-supporting climate and even water.

The video was inspired by a series of travel posters created by Nasas Jet Propulsion Lab, with the agency sharing a series of behind-the-scenes shots showing the before-and-after of green screen technology.

Human exploration of other planets has seemingly become a closer reality with the development of private space travel, although many have criticised the billionaires responsible for failing to help those struggling on Earth or tackle climate change.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that he plans to send the first craft to Mars by 2022, with humans following in the next four to six years.

Id say six years from now, highly confident [that humans will travel to Mars]. If we get lucky, maybe four years, and then were going to try and send an uncrewed vehicle there in two years, he said in December 2020.

Im mostly concerned with developing the technology that can enable a lot of people to go to Mars and make life multi-planetary, have a base on the moon, a city on Mars, and I think its important that we strive to have a self-sustaining city on Mars as soon as possible.

The billionaire believes that terraforming -blasting the planet with nuclear weapons at its poles to cause the ice caps to melt and induce accelerated warming will be a key component to live on other planets.

Life in glass domes at first. Eventually, terraformed to support life, like Earth, he said.

However, the path to another world will not be easy. "A bunch of people will probably die in the beginning", he said candidly in an interview in April 2021. Even if humans do get to Mars the battle between these corporations and Earth governments to develop Martian laws will be intense, and unlikely to be resolved quickly.

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Nasa reveals the future of space travel in incredible sci-fi video - The Independent

NASA has shared a video imagining the whimsical future of human space travel. Created by NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, the brief visual envisions what the planets would look like as faraway vacation destinations arranged through the fictional Exoplanet Travel Bureau.

On Mars, a parent and their child watch as a rocket takes off from the dusty red ground. Meanwhile, on Venus, people gather enclosed with a clear dome.

Beyond merely the immediate planets, NASA depicts what it would be like to hang out on Enceladus or kayak through the waters of Titan, both of which are moons of Saturn.

The videos description explained that it was inspired by a series of travel posters produced by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Goddard Centers Chris Smith used green screens and computer graphics to render the vivid scenes.

While the only place besides Earth where humans have stood is the Moon, NASA reminded viewers that plans for the first visit to Mars are well underway.

In other tech news, Activision Blizzard fired 20 employees as part of an ongoing investigation into harassment claims.

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NASA Envisions the Future of Human Space Travel in a Colorful Video - HYPEBEAST