Category Archives: Space Travel

When Sina Bahram shifted into weightlessness for the first time on Sunday, he could feel the air brushing past his skin as his body began to float into the air. As someone whod longed to be an astronaut since he was four years old, hed been waiting many years to have this exact feeling.

I knew it would be a joyous experience just because I looked forward to it for many decades of my life, but the visceral nature of that joy wasnt brought home until you actually experience it, Bahram, a computer scientist who runs Prime Access Consulting, tells The Verge. It is truly indescribable.

Bahram got to perceive free fall for the first time onboard a specially outfitted plane operated by the Zero-G Corporation, a company that provides parabolic flights that mimic the feeling of being weightless in space. He experienced the moment using his senses of touch, sound, smell, and taste but not sight. Bahram has been legally blind for most of his life, something that effectively bars him from flying to space with NASA.

But now, having experienced weightlessness himself, hes more confident than ever that his disability should not be a barrier to space travel. Even when youre feeling completely out of control because everything you know about the world from your entire lifespan is no longer true, in terms of gravity down being down; up being up even with all of those removed, there was never a sense of uncertainty or danger, says Bahram.

Bahram was one of 12 people with a disability to experience weightlessness on Sunday, October 17th, during a parabolic flight, which took off from Long Beach, California. It was the first flight of its kind, arranged by a non-profit called Mission: AstroAccess, which has the stated goal of flying one or more of these flyers called ambassadors to space in the years ahead.

Its a goal that would certainly shake up the current model for who is allowed to fly to space. To become a NASA astronaut, for instance, a candidate must be in excellent health and has to undergo a stringent physical to be considered for the program. NASA astronauts used to need 20/20 vision, though the space agency now allows individuals who wear glasses or who have had surgical procedures to correct their vision to 20/20. But NASA will not consider individuals who are blind, and any other major medical disabilities related to deafness or mobility will automatically disqualify someone from the application process.

However, human spaceflight is in the midst of a major transformation. For one thing, its not just NASAs game anymore. Numerous private companies have sprung up in the last few decades aiming to send humans to various parts of space. Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have both developed suborbital vehicles that are designed to take paying customers to the edge of space and back so that flyers can experience a brief glimpse of Earth from above. Meanwhile, SpaceX has started flying people to low Earth orbit on its new Crew Dragon spacecraft. While the company built the vehicle primarily to carry NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station, SpaceX recently flew a crew of four civilians to orbit on the vehicle during a private three-day mission. One of those passengers, Hayley Arceneaux, had an internal prosthesis in her leg something that would have disqualified her from flying as a NASA astronaut.

Recently, the European Space Agency announced plans to select an astronaut with a physical disability through its Parastronaut Feasibility Project. With more opportunities than ever for non-NASA astronauts to fly to space, Mission: AstroAccess is striving for people with disabilities to be included in future missions suborbital or orbital. Ultimately, AstroAccess wants to know how the physical space inside a spacecraft might be updated so that people with sight, sound, and mobility disabilities might be able to work and thrive in a space environment.

Before that happens, though, AstroAccess wanted to give people with disabilities the opportunity to simply experience weightlessness. A crew of 12 were selected from a pool of applicants from all over the world to fly aboard the Zero-G Corporations Boeing 727. The belly of the plane is mostly gutted and padded to provide plenty of room to float around as the pilot steers the vehicle on a series of peaks and valleys to simulate weightlessness.

Once the crew had been selected, they were grouped into teams. One group, which included Bahram, had people with varying degrees of limited vision. Another group had astronauts with varying levels of deafness. And a third group had those with limited mobility people who either use prostheses or wheelchairs to move. Together the teams came up with different types of research and experiments they wanted to conduct during the flight. Bahram and his group decided to bring Braile displays to see how they fared in weightlessness, as well as tactile sensors to help determine the direction and orientation of the plane.

Not all of their experiments panned out, Azubuike Zuby Onwuta, who is also legally blind, tells The Verge. We brought on certain tools to help us conduct sound experiments, but then the roar of the engine drowned those tools that emitted sound, said Onwuta, a US Army veteran and disability advocate who trained at Harvard-MIT.

For Viktoria Modesta, one of her biggest tasks ahead of the flight was coming up with the designs for the flight suits, which had to be tailored very specifically for each individual. Opting for black material with plenty of zippers and pockets, Modesta made sure each suit was crafted very specifically with each wearer in mind.

A lot of customization was done to peoples flight suits, specifically with openings, pockets, extra straps, and different ways of helping their body function in zero gravity, Modesta, a singer and performance artist who had her left leg amputated below the knee years after an accident at birth, tells The Verge. Having such highly tailored suits became critical for some of the mobility crew to have the best possible experience. For instance, one of the ambassadors had a suit with special straps that held his legs together, which made it easier to focus on maneuvering through the space. And when some of the mobility crew found themselves floating, it was the first time in years that they could move around without the use of their chair.

Each experience was different for each ambassador, and now Mission: AstroAccess has plenty of new data to help suggest what kind of accessibility-related changes should be incorporated in future spacecraft. That might include directional fabrics on the walls, for instance, to help those with limited vision determine their orientation. Bahram argues that making these kinds of updates is not just about being inclusive but also about making flights safer for every astronaut. He cited one instance in which astronaut Chris Hadfield went temporarily blind during a spacewalk when cleaning solution squirted into his eye.

That is a failure of the system, Bahram says. There is no reason whatsoever that that should have been as dangerous as it was. It was because NASA has not considered persons with disabilities as viable candidates. That could have been a complete non-issue.

With more accessible tools, all astronauts from the able-bodied ones to those with disabilities might have more options to remain safe during an emergency scenario. And it starts with designing a space with all types of bodies in mind.

Its one of these things where this level of ableism has been built into our society, and we need to understand that it is our environments that are disabling, not individuals that are disabled, Bahram says.

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The mission to break barriers to space travel for people with disabilities - The Verge

As more people travel into space, Johns Hopkins Medicine experts expect more physicians will see patients with space travel-related pain.

Although most back pain in space disappears on its own, space travelers are at higher risk for sciatica a form of back pain that can radiate down the legs.

Humans can grow up to 3 inches in space as the spine adapts to microgravity.

Stress, trauma and changes in nutrition likely contribute to back pain developed during space travel.

Newswise With growing numbers of humans venturing into space, experts predict an increase in the number of people experiencing the physical toll of such travel, including highly common forms of back pain.

The prediction comes in a new report by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine, published in the September issue of Anesthesiology, based on a comprehensive review of past studies measuring the effects of space travel on the spine, and exploring methods to prevent, diagnose, and treat back pain. The scientists say further study among astronauts of these methods including specialized suits and certain exercises may provide insights for treating back pain in the estimated 80% of Earth-bound people who experience some form of it over their lifetimes.

Steven Cohen, M.D., professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins and a retired Army colonel. Perhaps more importantly, insight into back pain in space travelers may provide usable information to treat back pain in other populations.

An Aching Back: A Common Low Gravity-Related Pain

According to the review, past studies of astronauts have shown that 52% of space travelers report some form of back pain in the first two to five days of space travel. That figure is based on a retrospective study of 722 space flights worldwide published in Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance in 2012. The condition is now dubbed space adaptation back pain, and although 86% of cases were mild, the pain was enough to hinder an astronauts ability to complete tasks.

In addition to the studies among astronauts, a study from the University of Innsbruck in Austria showed that nearly half of military helicopter pilots and crewmembers who experience fluctuating gravitational forces report low back pain. The pilots are almost three times more likely to develop lumbar (lower back) disc herniation an injury to the soft connective cushioning in the spine compared with the general population. Astronauts are more than four times as likely to herniate a disc, according to a NASA study in 2010, and the risk was even higher in the first year after returning to Earth.

The Spine Changes in Space

Penchev says the high prevalence of back pain among these groups is understandable because the human spine is built to support our bodies under the gravitational forces experienced on Earth. One prominent feature is the spinal curvature an S-shaped bend in the spine that allows it to resist gravity, remain flexible and absorb weight and impact. However, in microgravity, this curve is reduced. Some of the earliest data from space explorations, say the researchers, showed astronauts grew over 3 inches in space due to the loss of this curve. More recent studies using MRI scans showed modern-day astronauts have a reduced curve in their spine.

If reduced gravity allows this curvature to straighten, says Radostin Penchev, M.D., resident physician at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, this not only could be a cause of acute pain in astronauts, but also could affect the stability of their spine when they return to earth.

Preventing and Treating Astronauts Back Pain

In their review of past studies, the researchers said that along with microgravitys stresses, other contributors to back pain in space include the intense physical experience of riding in a rocket and a change in dietary habits that could alter nutritional levels in the body and impact tissue health and healing.

Throughout the Space Age, the researchers say resistance exercises such as isometrics, squats, lunges and bench pressing have been a mainstay of back pain prevention, and space stations are equipped with exercise machines and other resistance training tools.

Science fiction has popularized the spinning space station that uses centrifugal force to mimic gravity, says Penchev. A more realistic and perhaps better alternative, he adds, are specialized suits that provide spinal resistance similar to that experienced under Earths gravity.

The experience is similar to donning rubber bands from the shoulders to hips to help activate the muscle groups that keep us standing upright on Earth, say the researchers. The Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance study of 722 space flights showed that the use of such a resistance suit along with exercise regimens relieved space-adaptation back pain in 85% of subjects. However, some astronauts complain these suits are uncomfortable and impair their range of motion.

Other methods to prevent back pain among astronauts mentioned by the researchers include massage, nutritional supplementation to increase vitamin D and caloric intake, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, and negative pressure devices, all paired with resistance exercise.

To combat the intense vibrations and speed of riding rockets into space, Cohen, Penchev and their team believe that engineering space vehicles to improve impact protection for the flight crew and align the forces of acceleration and impact with human anatomy could reduce the number of astronauts experiencing long-term back pain or injury.

Other researchers who authored the review include Richard Scheuring of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Johnson Space Center; Adam Soto of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the Tripler Army Medical Center; Derek Miletich of the Naval Medical Center San Diego; and Eric Kerstman of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Johnson Space Center and the University of Texas.

This work was supported by the departments of anesthesiology and physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and by the U.S. Department of Defense.

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Back Pain Common Among Astronauts Offers Treatment Insights for the Earth-Bound - Newswise

Thats not to say it could never happen, though, Nelson said.

If we discover in the next century that an asteroid is inbound for Earth an asteroid that would not only blow up Earth or change it like an asteroid did when the dinosaurs lived and wiped out the dinosaurs [DART] is the way of avoiding that catastrophe, Nelson said. Thats all going on right now.

Nelsons comments were part of a wide-ranging discussion on the politics of space that included a question-and-answer session with UVA students.

Nelson addressed, among many topics, space relations with China; the timetable for landing on Mars; partisanship as it relates to space; future affordability of space travel; and possible medical and scientific benefits that might be found in space.

Nelson, who in 1986 flew on the 24th space shuttle flight, also addressed criticism of spending on space instead of addressing problems on Earth. My critics would like me to take a space flight again theyd like me to go to Mars on a one-way trip, he said, smiling.

Nelson said that one of the main objectives of trying to get to Mars and other planets is the search for extraterrestrial life.

Students asked Nelson about the mysterious sightings from pilots that have been the subject of news reports, including one from 60 Minutes.

Ive talked to those pilots and they know they saw something, and their radars locked on to it, Nelson said. And they dont know what is. And we dont know what it is. We hope its not an adversary here on Earth that has that kind of technology. But its something. And so this is a mission that were constantly looking, Who is out there? Who are we? How did we get here? How did we become as we are? How did we develop? How did we civilize? And are those same conditions out there in a universe that has billions of other suns and billions of other galaxies? Its so large I cant conceive it.

Now there are even theories that there might be other universes, Nelson added. And if thats the case, who am I to say planet Earth is the only location of a life form that is civilized and organized like ours?

Of course, no space discussion would be complete without touching on a hot-button topic: Nelson was asked by a student if he preferred Star Wars or Star Trek.

I like them both, said Nelson, smiling.

Nelson said both productions came along at the perfect time, just as the country was really excited about space.

If you think back to the original Star Trek, that was a very diverse crew, Nelson said. They had Lt. [Nyota] Uhura, an African American, and the actress Nichelle Nichols, and they had an Asian American that was part of that crew.

That was role-modeling way back even before Apollo. Now were bringing all that into reality with the Artemis generation, added Nelson, alluding to NASAs initiative to put the first woman on the moon, along with the next man, by 2024.

The hourlong interview can be seen in its entirety here.

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Space Jam: Former Senator Talks Aliens, Asteroids and 'Star Trek' With Larry Sabato - UVA Today

Temperature is a key factor in decomposition. On the Moon, for example, temperatures can range from 120C to -170C. Bodies could therefore show signs of heat-induced change or freezing damage

A representational image of an astronaut in space. Shutterstock

As space travel for recreational purposes is becoming a very real possibility, there could come a time when we are travelling to other planets for holidays, or perhaps even to live. Commercial space company Blue Origin has already started sendingpaying customerson sub-orbital flights. And Elon Musk hopes to start abase on Marswith his firm SpaceX.

This means we need to start thinking about what it will be like to live in space but also what will happen if someone dies there.

After death here on Earth the human body progresses through a number of stages of decomposition. These were described as early as 1247 in Song CisThe Washing Away of Wrongs, essentially the first forensic science handbook.

First the blood stops flowing and begins to pool as a result of gravity, a process known as livor mortis. Then the body cools to algor mortis, and the muscles stiffen due to uncontrolled build-up of calcium in the muscle fibres. This is the state of rigor mortis. Next enzymes, proteins which speed up chemical reactions, break down cell walls releasing their contents.

These decomposition processes are the intrinsic factors, but there are also external factors which influence the process of decomposition, including temperature, insect activity, burying or wrapping a body, and the presence of fire or water.

Mummification, the desiccation or drying out of the body, occurs in dry conditions which can be hot or cold.

In damp environments without oxygen, adipocere formation can occur, where the water can cause the breakdown of fats into a waxy material through the process of hydrolysis. This waxy coating can act as a barrier on top of the skin to protect and preserve it.

But in most cases, the soft tissues will ultimately disappear to reveal the skeleton. These hard tissues are much more resilient and can survive for thousands of years.

Halting decompositionSo, what about death in the final frontier?

Well, the different gravity seen on other planets will certainly impact the livor mortis stage, and the lack of gravity while floating in space would mean that blood would not pool.

Inside a spacesuit, rigor mortis would still occur since it is the result of the cessation of bodily functions. And bacteria from the gut would still devour the soft tissues. But these bacteria need oxygen to function properly and so limited supplies of air would significantly slow down the process.

Microbes from the soil also help decomposition, and so any planetary environment that inhibits microbial action, such as extreme dryness, improves the chances of soft tissue preserving.

Decomposition in conditions so different from the Earths environment means that external factors would be more complicated, such as with the skeleton. When we are alive, bone is a living material comprising both organic materials like blood vessels and collagen, and inorganic materials in a crystal structure.

Normally, the organic component will decompose, and so the skeletons we see in museums are mostly the inorganic remnants. But in very acidic soils, which we may find on other planets, the reverse can happen and the inorganic component can disappear leaving only the soft tissues.

On Earth the decomposition of human remains forms part of a balanced ecosystem where nutrients are recycled by living organisms, such as insects, microbes and even plants. Environments on different planets will not have evolved to make use of our bodies in the same efficient way. Insects and scavenging animals are not present on other planets in our system.

But the dry desert-like conditions of Mars might mean that the soft tissues dry out, and perhaps the windblown sediment would erode and damage the skeleton in a way that we see here on Earth.

Temperature is also a key factor in decomposition. On the Moon, for example,temperatures can range from 120C to -170C. Bodies could therefore show signs of heat-induced change or freezing damage.

But I think it is likely that remains would still appear human as the full process of decomposition that we see here on Earth would not occur. Our bodies would be the aliens in space. Perhaps we would need to find a new form of funerary practice, which does not involve the high energy requirements of cremation or the digging of graves in a harsh inhospitable environment.

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As space travel picks up pace its time to explore what may happen to our bodies if we die there - Firstpost

Uncle Snoop is returning with another project and he's kicking things off with a new single. We've been hearing quitea bit about Mount Westmore, the Rap supergroup made up of Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Too $hort, and E-40, and on Wednesday (October 20), they released their official debut single, "Big Subwoofer."'

The track arrived with aJesse Wellens and Sam Macaroni-directed visual and is bolstered with the official label announcement of Snoop's forthcoming album, Snoop Dogg Presents: THE ALGORITHM. It marks Snoop's first release on the label as an executive creative and strategic consultant. The Algorithm is set to feature artists from Def Jam past, present, and future. Its Snoops mission tochange the current algorithm of what we listen to today by putting feeling back into music with the release of his new project.

Theres so much talent on this record, said Snoop. So many styles of music, it breaks the algorithm. Right now, the algorithm is telling us you have to rap this way, you have to sound this way, but theyre not telling you how its supposed to feel. My algorithm is going to give you a feeling, not a sound.

Stream Mount Westmore's "Big Subwoofer" and let us know what you think.

Quotable Lyrics

Heard this youngin screaming like womanYelling that they comingN*gga we ain't runningIt's a new day, still got the AK if these b*tches take it back to 88Turn the music down 'fore we locking hornsKeep the party going it's a false alarm.

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Mount Westmore Arrives With Space Travel Visual To "Big Subwoofer" - HotNewHipHop

Elon Musk could become a trillionaire. Here's what that means.

Elon Musk could become the world's first trillionaire. Here's what that means.

Staff video, USA TODAY

Elon Musk could become the world's first trillionaire, according to a prediction made by investment firm Morgan Stanley.

However, it won't be from his highly successful electric vehicle company Tesla. Instead, it'll likely be from his fledgling space startup SpaceX,The Guardianreports, despite the fact that Tesla's net worth is about$850billion, almost 30 times SpaceX's$30 billion price tag.

Teslabecame the most valuable American carmaker in 2020, eclipsing veterans such as Ford and General Motors, while SpaceX is still privately traded.

The business mogul's personal wealth recently ballooned to $222 billion, building his lead as the richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.

Elon Musk to move Tesla's headquarters from California to Texas

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the $1.1 billion facility will reside in Travis County, Texas.

Staff Video, USA TODAY

SpaceXwas founded in 2002 with lofty ambitions to send humans to Mars while bringing down the cost of space travel.

To get his spaceflight ambitions off the ground, Musk attempted to buy refurbished Russian ballistic missiles. That proved to be too expensive, and working with Russian officials was difficult.

The evolution of SpaceX:How Elon Musk took SpaceX from an idea to the cusp of making history

After my second or third trip back from Russia, I was like, Whoa, theres got to be a better way to solve this rocket problem, Musk said at the2018 South By Southwest conferencein Austin, Texas. So we embarked on that journey to create SpaceX."

At the same time, NASA was relying on theRussian Soyuz spacecraft and paying around $80 million for each seat, according toNASA Director Phil McAlister.

After SpaceX's Falcon 1 failed to reach orbit three times but succeeded on the fourth try, his upstart company was strapped for cash and turning the page to its final chapter.

At that point, NASA and SpaceX decided to enter a mutually beneficial partnership.

Two days before Christmas 2008, NASA announced SpaceX had been awarded a $1.6 billion contract to fly supplies to the International Space Station, a program now known as Commercial Resupply Services.

"We've been working with SpaceX and Boeing on their systems for about the last ten years, transferring some of our knowledge of 60 years of human spaceflight to those companies, and helping them with their development, both financially and technically," McAlister says.

The partnership has paid off for NASA. A seat thatoriginally cost $80 million on Soyuz spacecraft now costs about $58 million on SpaceX's rockets, says McAlister.

Most recently, SpaceX launched its first all-civilian crew into orbit. For three days, a physician's assistant, an engineer, a professor and a billionaire circled the Earth in a rocket called Inspiration4.

The future of civilian space travel:William Shatner went to space. Here's how much it would cost you.

Emre Kelly from Florida Today and Scott Gleeson from USA TODAY contributed. contributed.Michelle Shen is a Money & Tech Digital Reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her @michelle_shen10 on Twitter.

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Elon Musk could become the world's first trillionaire due to SpaceX - USA TODAY

James Camparo of the Aerospace Corporation thinks the drift of their clock is exceptionally low. These on-orbit frequency stability results are very encouraging for the technology, even though the clock did not operate in its optimal settings while in space, says Camparo, who holds a doctorate in chemical physics and was not involved in the study. He anticipates that during the next phase of the mission, the JPL team will achieve even lower frequency variations, further improving the clocks performance.

This kind of precision timing will be needed for future deep space missions. Currently, navigation in space actually requires all of the decisions to be made on Earth. Ground navigators bounce radio signals to a spacecraft and back, and ultraprecise clocks can time how long the round trip takes. This measurement is used to calculate information about position, speed, and direction, and a final signal is sent back to the space vessel with commands on how to adjust course.

But the time it takes to send messages back and forth is a real limitation. For objects near the moon, the two-way trip only takes a couple of seconds, Ely says. But as you travel further out, the time required quickly becomes inefficient: near Mars, the round trip time is about 40 minutes, and near Jupiter, this increases to about an hour and a half. By the time you travel all the way out to the current location of the Voyager, a satellite exploring interstellar space, he says, it can take days. Far out into the cosmos, it would be impractical and unsafe to rely on this method, especially if the craft was carrying people. (Currently, uncrewed missions, like the Perseverance rovers landing on Mars, rely on automated systems for navigation decisions that have to be made on short timescales.)

The solution, the JPL team says, is to equip the spacecraft with its own atomic clock and eliminate the need for ground-based calculations. The craft will always need to receive an initial signal from Earth, in order to measure its position and direction from a constant point of reference. But there would be no need to bounce a signal back, because the subsequent navigation calculations could be done in real time onboard.

Until now, this was impossible. Atomic clocks used to navigate from the ground are too bigthe size of refrigeratorsand current space clocks arent accurate enough to rely on. The JPL teams version is the first one thats both small enough to fit on a spacecraft and stable enough for one-way navigation to become a reality.

It may prove useful for ground travel too. On Earth, we use GPS, a network of satellites carrying atomic clocks that help us navigate on the surface. But according to Ely, these clocks arent nearly as stabletheir drift needs to be corrected at least twice a day to ensure a constant stream of accurate information for everyone on Earth. If you had a more stable clock that had less drift, you could decrease that kind of overhead, says Ely. In the future, he also imagines that a large population of humans or robots on the moon or Mars will need to have their own tracking infrastructure; a GPS-like constellation of satellites, equipped with tiny atomic clocks, could accomplish this.

Camparo agrees, and says the device could even be configured to use on ground stations on Mars or the moon. Its worth noting that when we consider space-system timekeeping, we often focus on the atomic clocks carried by the spacecraft, he says. However, for any constellation of satellites, there has to be a better clock at the satellite systems ground station, since this is how scientists monitor the accuracy of clocks in space.

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This Atomic Clock Will Transform Deep Space Exploration - WIRED

When Cassandra Klos wasgrowing up in rural New Hampshire, it was easy to see the stars. She traced the constellations with her finger and imagined how it would feel to travel among them. As a college art student, she launched a photo project about Betty and Barney Hill, a New Hampshire couple who claimed to have been abducted by aliens.

Then Klos went on her first mission to Mars.

To be clear, no earthling has actually set foot on the red planet. NASA is hoping to send a crew there in the 2030s, as is China, and the private company SpaceX is working to establish a permanent Martian presence with starships ferrying humans back and forth to Earth. We dont want to be one of those single-planet species, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said in April, outlining the companys ambitions. We want to be a multi-planet species.

First, though, theres some figuring out to do. Designing the right spacecraft and living spaces is part of the challenge. There are also prosaic, but important, questions. How will people shower with a limited supply of water? What will it take to grow fresh greens to supplement the steady diet of dehydrated food? And with civilians from different backgrounds living together in close quarters, will Martian habitats end up resembling the set of Jean-Paul Sartres play No Exit, where hell is other people?

The two-week mission Klos joined in 2015 was designed to explore those kinds of questions. It took place at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, four hours south of Salt Lake City, but everyone spoke and acted as though they were actually on Mars. A group of six people lived in a two-story cylindrical building. The commander, a former member of the Army National Guard, kept the participants on a strict schedule of fixing electrical systems, taking inventory, tidying up the facilities and sampling the soil. Everyone was assigned a special role: Klos was to prepare reports to share with the public. The health safety officer kept tabs on the crews well-being, and the engineer monitored levels of carbon dioxide and solar power.

Before stepping outside in a spacesuit, Klos and the others had to get permission from mission control back on Earth (actually a coordinator stationed in a nearby town). That person would send information about the winds and weather, and determine how long each person could stay outside the base. Sometimes dust storms rolled in, cutting off the solar power supply just as they would on Mars. Klos was allowed to bathe only once a week, using a couple of buckets of water. She was enchanted.

This is not performance art, says Klos. These are real scientific endeavors. Sometimes people make the critique that were role-playing too much. But the goal is to really live the way people are going to live on Mars so scientists can figure out how to make it work when we get there.

There are about a dozen such habitats around the globe, hosting simulations that run anywhere from two weeks to a full year. One of these is run by NASAs Human Research Program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. But other facilities are funded by private organizations. The Mars Society, established by Brooklyn-born aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin, operates the habitat in Utah, where Klos returned for another mission in 2017, and another in the Canadian Arctic. Klos also took part in a mission at the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS. The facility is run by the International MoonBase Alliance, a group founded by the Dutch entrepreneur Henk Rogers.

HI-SEAS is located on Hawaiis big island at 8,200 feet above sea level, on top of the active volcano Mauna Loa. NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center is collaborating with the facility to gather information about volcanic caves and the microbes that live in those Mars-like conditions. HI-SEAS is also studying the limitations of doing that kind of work while wearing heavy spacesuits. Its hard enough for astronauts to hold a screwdriver in a gloved hand while repairing the International Space Station, but if people are going to be clambering on Martian rocks looking for microbes, theyll need the right gear.

The missions are open to people who have no background in science, engineering or astronaut training. After all, the goal is to send ordinary folks into space, so its worth finding out whether ordinary folks can coexist in Mars-like conditions here on Earth. Each two-story habitat at a simulation facility has usable floor space of only about 1,200 square feetthe size of two small apartments stacked on top of each otherwhich isnt much room for six people who cant just breeze out for a walk around the block.

To get a spot on a Mars or Moon simulation, you have to propose a project that the leaders believe is useful. One recent HI-SEAS participant focused on 3-D printing, looking at ways to create bricks out of volcanic rock. Another studied hydrogen fuel cells. Yet another tried out different methods for growing hydroponic lettuce. Many projects focus on psychological research, looking at how various foods, exercises and smells influence peoples moods while theyre crammed together in a pressurized capsule.

Preparations for Mars may prove to have benefits for life on Earth. Earlier research for space travel paved the way for medical advances such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The data were gathering now about surviving on solar power, conserving water and growing plants in arid conditions could be useful here at home as our climate changes.

The director of HI-SEAS, the 32-year-old astrobiologist Michaela Musilova, says she makes an effort to assemble diverse crews, using the internet to recruit teachers, journalists and artists like Klos. On a mission Musilova led in the fall of 2020, she ended up with crew members who supported opposing candidates in the November presidential election. That made for very interesting dynamics, she says. But Musilova says her teams are most innovative when their members come from different backgrounds. The range of perspectives is great for problem-solving, and the variety of personal stories can help combat boredom. And people who are eager to spend time on Mars, simulated or otherwise, tend to have certain things in common, including a willingness to live with strangers in close quarters and an enthusiasm for future space explorations.

We all have our quirks, Musilova says. Were all going to make mistakes and annoy other people. But when someone is having a bad day, we go out of our way to cheer them up. When someone is being a pain in the ass, were able to have some empathy. If living together on Mars can make us into better versions of ourselves, that might be the greatest breakthrough of all.

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Inside the Experiment to Create Mars on Earth - Smithsonian

Another 60% of Americans agree that space should be accessible to everyone.

Published: Oct. 14, 2021 at 7:00 AM EDT

NEW YORK, Oct. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --As space travel and space tourism continues to make headlines and more civilians vie for seats on the next launch, many Americans have strong feelings about going to space.

According to a ValuePenguin survey of over 2,000 consumers, almost half want to go to space and some would even go into debt to do so; however, others think space tourism may not be ethical.

Key findings:

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Nearly 50% of Americans Want to Space Travel But Only 19% Would Shell Out $100,000 To Do So According to a ValuePenguin.com Survey - WKYT

A Russian actor and a film director have returned to Earth after spending 12 days on the International Space Station shooting scenes for the first movie in orbit.

Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko landed as scheduled on Kazakhstans steppe early on Sunday, according to footage broadcast live by the Russian space agency.

They were ferried back to terra firma by cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, who had been on the space station for the past six months.

The descent vehicle of the crewed spacecraft Soyuz MS-18 is standing upright and is secure. The crew are feeling good! Russian space agency Roscosmos tweeted.

The film-makers had blasted off from the Russia-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier this month, travelling to the ISS with veteran cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov to film scenes for The Challenge.

If the project stays on track, the Russian crew will beat a Hollywood project announced last year by Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise together with Nasa and Elon Musks SpaceX.

The movies plot, which has been mostly kept under wraps along with its budget, centres around a surgeon who is dispatched to the ISS to save a cosmonaut.

Shkaplerov, 49, along with the two Russian cosmonauts who were already aboard the ISS, are said to have cameo roles in the film.

The mission was not without small hitches.

As the film crew docked at the ISS earlier this month, Shkaplerov had to switch to manual control.

And when Russian flight controllers on Friday conducted a test on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft the ships thruster fired unexpectedly and destabilised the ISS for 30 minutes, a Nasa spokesperson told the Russian news agency TASS.

Their landing, which was documented by a film crew, will also feature in the movie, Konstantin Ernst, the head of the Kremlin-friendly Channel One TV network and a co-producer of The Challenge, told AFP.

The mission will add to a long list of firsts for Russias space industry.

The Soviets launched the first satellite Sputnik, and sent into orbit the first animal, a dog named Laika, the first man, Yuri Gagarin, and the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova.

But compared with the Soviet era, modern Russia has struggled to innovate and its space industry is fighting to secure state funding with the Kremlin prioritising military spending.

Its space agency is still reliant on Soviet-designed technology and has faced a number of setbacks, including corruption scandals and botched launches.

Russia is also falling behind in the global space race, facing tough competition from the US and China, with Beijing showing growing ambitions in the industry.

Russias Roscosmos was also dealt a blow after SpaceX last year successfully delivered astronauts to the ISS, ending Moscows monopoly for journeys to the orbital station.

In a bid to spruce up its image and diversify its revenue, Russias space programme revealed this year that it will be reviving its tourism plan to ferry fee-paying adventurers to the ISS.

After a decade-long pause, Russia will send two Japanese tourists including billionaire Yusaku Maezawa to the ISS in December, capping a year that has been a milestone for amateur space travel.

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Russian film crew return to Earth after shooting the first movie in space - The Guardian