Category Archives: Space Travel

The Pros And Cons of Space Tourism

Space exploration is a contentious subject. While most people believe that exploring space is a good concept, many believe that space exploration could lead to humanitys extinction in the long run.

Since Barron Hilton, then-president of Hilton Hotels, presented his concept for a hotel on the moon in 1967; space tourism has come a long way with the innovations in space technology. It was designed as a luxury for the wealthy elite, equipped with a Galaxy Lounge where visitors sip a martini while gazing at the stars. Today, Virgin Galactic, founded by Sir Richard Branson, intends to be the worlds first commercial spaceline, offering a 2.5-hour ride with six minutes of weightlessness and breathtaking sights. It has over 700 confirmed consumers who are eagerly awaiting flights.

However, many others believe space exploration is a bad thing and that ultimately it will have a negative impact on the environment. Today we will look at both sides of the argument so that you can make an educated decision for yourself.

New Resources One significant benefit of space exploration is that it allows humanity to tap into additional resources in space. Many of us are aware that our fossil resources will be depleted sooner or later. When we run out of natural resources, our technological progress will be severely hampered. As a result, if we want to keep progressing as a species and advance our technologies, the additional resources collected from asteroids are critical.

Economic Growth Space tourism provides a new means to strengthen the global economy, in addition to providing another outlet for adrenaline seekers. According to a survey published by the World Travel & Tourism Council, tourism created $7.2 trillion (9.8% of global GDP) and 284 million jobs in 2015, accounting for one out of every eleven jobs on the planet. Thus, theres reason to anticipate that commercial space travel will have a similar economic impact. These figures have probably grown since this survey was conducted, although they would have been significantly impacted over the last year due to the current pandemic.

Forecasting Dangers The universe is a vast world with hidden hazards hiding in practically every corner. Even if you merely glance at our solar system, there are asteroid and comet threats that might wreak havoc on our world if they collide. Exploring space allows us to identify these threats ahead of time, allowing us to plan an encounter that will help to save our species.

Increased Pollution Aside from the numerous benefits of space exploration, space travel still has some concerns. One key issue with space research, for example, is that it entails enormous air pollution. Launching a rocket necessitates a considerable amount of fossil fuels. Furthermore, large amounts of fossil fuels must be used in the manufacturing of rockets. As a result, space flight causes enormous air pollution, and individuals who live near these facilities, particularly those who live close to them, may suffer significantly from the pollutants in the air.

Health Risks Apart from mishaps that result in death, humans must contend with severe conditions and adapt to an unpleasant environment harmful to their health. Long periods spent in zero gravity can be hazardous to a persons cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems. People who are unintentionally exposed to high-energy ionising cosmic rays may get cancer.

Testing Hazards Several organisations are working on space tourism packages that will transport people to the very outer layers in a pleasant aircraft, but this is not an exploration activity. At the moment, astronauts are strapped into a vehicle that is hooked to a massive rocket to break free from gravitys grip. Over 20 people have died in the line of duty in advancing US space programme goals, beginning with Theodore Freeman, who was killed in the crash of a T-38 in October 1964.

Explorers are always at risk, and space is no exception. Humans were not designed for the vacuum of space. Therefore we must continually adapt and defend ourselves when we are outside of our atmosphere. Thus, the benefits and drawbacks of space exploration must be considered from a practical standpoint.

As space exploration boosts the economy, it also raises our awareness of how uncommon and valuable our planet is. The feeling of amazement and respect that comes with leaving Earths atmosphere and looking back on the world we live in is palpable. When they return to terra firma, space travellers will ideally have a greater appreciation for our planet and desire to take a more active role in maintaining it. The industry has a long way to go and many hurdles to overcome if they wish to win the naysayers over. However, it is making significant strides, and I am excited to see where it is heading.

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The Pros And Cons of Space Tourism - GineersNow

Would you ever want to go to space? Space tourism is on the rise. Now only for the very rich, but there are also people who will do it for nothing. For example, virologist Ab Osterhaus, he said last night in Op1. He is dizzy.

What seems? It is impossible to be afraid of heights in space. Thats what Pieter Frijters, fear expert at Mindtuning, says. As soon as the distance is no longer tangible, you can no longer be afraid of heights and thats what happens in space.

In a small plane low to the ground, you can be afraid of heights because the distance is tangible. If you go ten kilometers or much higher, then it is no longer a question of height and depth, but of abstract space. This is also the reason why Andr Kuipers was able to go into space as an astronaut despite his fear of heights. The International Space Station is located 400 kilometers above Earth.

The fear of flying has nothing to do with the fear of heights, but with claustrophobia, says Frijters. One has the impression that as soon as the door closes, there is no more way out.

However, there are exceptions. Spacegeek Hens Zimmerman has a weekly space travel podcast. US astronaut Joseph Acaba suffered from vertigo during a spacewalk at the ISS in 2017, he later said.

You are afraid of heights if there is a reference point nearby, for example the ISS passing below you, Zimmerman explains. When asked, Frijters agrees. This is an example of tangible distance.

Fear of heights plays no role during space travel. As an astronaut, you are squeezed horizontally in your seat at launch, you dont look out the window. Then you have other priorities, explains the podcast creator.

On the other hand, you may have to deal with fear of heights before launch, especially when boarding the rocket. Rockets can be up to 100 meters long. If you take the elevator and look down, it can really hurt you, Zimmerman explains.

Listen to fact or fiction? back to EenVandaag on NPO Radio 1

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Going into space with vertigo? It's possible! - DodoFinance

Eighteen months into the Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. aviation has finally started to rebound but the industry that has emerged is different than the industry that was essentially forced into a coma in the first months of the pandemic. A year after their first interview on the state of aviation, Harvard Business Review sat down to discuss the challenges (and opportunities) facing the industry with Jon Ostrower, the editor-in-chief of The Air Current, Courtney Miller, managing director of analysis for The Air Current, and Dan McKone and Alan Lewis, two Boston-based managing directors at L.E.K. Consulting who have experience advising major airlines.

In May, 2020, you all agreed the Covid pandemic was the biggest crisis aviation had ever faced. Have things played out as you expected?

McKone: Business travel is still way down, and we expected that. But leisure travel has rebounded more quickly than even our bullish forecasts.

Personally, Im shocked so many people are willing to hop on an airplane during a pandemic.

Ostrower: Everyone has been rightly focused on whether air travel affects the spread of Covid. We did an analysis that asked another question: does the spread of Covid affect air travel? And the answer is not really. Demand is not being driven by the number of cases of Covid. If people are allowed to fly, they will.

Miller: And theres evidence to suggest this holds true in other countries, too. Canadas passenger numbers stayed at roughly 10% of pre-pandemic levels. Then the government loosened travel restrictions and passenger numbers basically jumped to 40% in a matter of days. Of course, these are almost all leisure travelers.

Will business travel come back?

Lewis: Some of it will. But the longer the pandemic continues, the more habits become entrenched around some of the alternatives to travel, such as video conferencing, and the more CFOs realize that the savings from travel budgets are falling to the bottom line. For the airlines, this is a bad cycle.

Does that pose a threat to the airline industry?

McKone: To its profitability? For sure. There has been some talk of a price recovery, and the airlines are cited as a contributor to some of the outsized inflation numbers that were seeing in the headlines, but while passenger volumes are recovering, and the cost of leisure tickets is going up off last year, overall yields remain significantly down from 2019, because the business travel just isnt there. The fare mix is still unhealthy relative to how airlines normally run their business.

Miller: Thats the key element. Yes, the lowest fares are a lot higher now. So the average traveler thinks the airlines must doing great because their tickets are way more expensive. Well, your flight is more expensive now because the people who used to allow your ticket to be cheap by buying very expensive tickets, they arent really subsidizing it anymore.

How will airlines adjust?

Ostrower: It will require a different product mix. So-called premium economy will be a winner just as it was when corporate travel budgets tightened after the 2008 crisis. Companies coming back with reduced travel budgets wont want to spend for the long haul, lie-flat product that was the standard for business travel before. Already, the recovery within the premium economy segment has outpaced pretty much everything except the lowest basic economy fares.

Lewis: Interestingly, this is an acceleration of a trend that pre-dates the pandemic. Airlines have been moving to denser, smaller business class cabins, and larger premium economy and economy sections.

Have the government bailouts ended up being good value for the taxpayers? And did airlines handle the bailouts responsibly?

McKone: I know there is controversy over whether we should have had a better return on investment to the taxpayer, or maybe even pushed harder to equitize some of the taxpayers investments. But at the end of the day, the airline industry is a public good. Its a utility we all benefit from, not dissimilar in many ways from the financial system, or the electrical grid. And I think the first order of business last year was just to ensure the industry survived. We accomplished that.

Miller: I agree. We bought economic insurance. You can say, Did we overpay for it? Well, what if we didnt buy it?

Lewis: Its very difficult to criticize given the uncertainty airlines faced but one area where we might have wanted the airlines to act differently is around pushing early retirement and furloughs at pilots, as we now have a pilot shortage, which exacerbated cancellations. A main aim of the bailouts was to keep jobs in place. Another missed opportunity was the lack of coordination from governments around international travel restrictions weve had a frustrating, changing, piecemeal system with a lot of inconsistencies. But thats not the airlines fault.

Theres an old adage: Dont let a crisis go to waste. Has there been much innovation during the pandemic?

McKone: At the surface, the focus has been more on survival than innovation. However, there has certainly been some innovation from a safety perspective everything from applying antimicrobial coatings to the seats, to disinfecting aircraft with UV light, and a whole series of advancements around biometric identification for passengers. All of these advancements will transcend the crisis.

In addition, at an industry level, weve had literally dozens of new airlines launched globally. Theres still a great capacity to be entrepreneurial and to drive ambition in the airline industry, despite all these headwinds. Theres also been more innovation in aerospace and other sectors of aviation in commercial space travel, eVTOL, drones, and so on.

Ostrower: I sometimes get asked to give U.S. airlines a letter grade through the crisis. But for a crisis like this its better to think in terms of pass/fail. The airlines are still in business, they havent been nationalized. For a few months last year it seemed like that outcome would require a miracle.

Whats up with all the fighting at airports and on airplanes recently?

Ostrower: I dont know if theres a simple answer, but I will say this: When the federal government makes public health decisions, who ends up having to enforce them? The air rage epidemic is at least partly result of the fact that flight attendants have had to become the arbiters of public health requirements.

Executives at private jet companies must be licking their chops.

Ostrower: Private aviation has benefited enormously from the pandemic. I was just recently at what can be described as an airplane petting zoo. Effectively it was a showcase for small aircraft manufacturers. Business aviation is red hot right now. But its being driven less by fear of infection or air rage and more by the fact that airline schedules are changing so rapidly. Private aviation allows the certainty of knowing youre going to get from point A to point B without being rerouted or cancelled. Thats the main attraction.

McKone: We tend to think of private aviation as a niche industry serving a rarefied customer base, and while that is true, the number of people who have the wherewithal to fly private is a multiple of the number that has historically done it. Theres room for growth.

Lewis: Yes, and youve seen innovation in this sector too, whether it be charter, fractional ownership, aviation clubs theres so many more ways to consume the service that didnt exist 10 years ago, which makes it easier for customers to trial private aviation and get into it.

Has aviation lost its allure? Is the industry still sought-after as a place to work?

Ostrower: The allure of airlines is always there because you get the free travel benefits to go see the world. Thats always going to be something that attract people. And theres exciting developments in aerospace, around future technologies like electric and space that are big draw for staff; the magic of leaving the ground has always been a great lure for people and I think that thats going to continue.

McKone: At the end of the day, aviation and travel is all about connecting the world and thats always going to be attractive to young people.

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Where Does the Airline Industry Go from Here? - Harvard Business Review

The fourth full record since 2018 from Muzi has a sense of exploring different planets in space.

The cover of Muzi's latest album. Picture: Supplied

JOHANNESBURG - South African DJ, singer, songwriter, and record producer Muzi has released his new album titled Interblaktic.

His fourth full record since 2018, the album has a sense of exploring different planets in space. This can be felt in the way he opens the first song, there seems to be a lot of black people on Mars.

Muzi told Eyewitness News that the title is a combination of the words "black" and "intergalactic", which speaks to his blackness and love for space travel/exploration.

He added that another inspiration for the album was the 80s sound.

My favourite music era is the 80s. They were obsessed with ideas of the future, so Im inspired by that.

Interblaktic, a 16-track record, features the recent collaboration between Muzi and Grammy winner Kaytranada IKnow It which details Muzi's obsession with his phone.

The album also features an ode to disco on Come Duze featuring Limpopos breakout star Sho Madjozi, as well as cuts with fellow South Africa artists Setso, Espacio Dios, and MC The Temple.

Also known as the Zulu Skywalker, Muzi said he found working on this project very exciting.

Exploring new sounds and trying to get them right is always exciting, like trying to make something you havent made before.

This album is an optimistic offering to what was a difficult year for most South Africans and for Muzi himself who lost his mother last year. He therefore hopes that listeners around the world will also find the light in his music.

It feels really good that people love this album, I worked super hard at it and Im just grateful the album is out and people get to hear it.

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Off to space with Muzis new album Interblaktic - Eyewitness News

Lucy flies over a Trojan asteroid in this NASA animation.

NASA is about to embark on a space archeology mission for the ages. Out in Jupiter's orbit lies a collection of rocks known as the Trojan asteroids -- fossils from the earliest era of our solar system. These time capsules are locked in a dance around the sun and could hold the key to unlocking the origins of the giant planets.

Next week, NASA is sending the Lucy spacecrafttoward these ancient raw materials in an ambitious and daring decade-long mission to access our solar system's well-preserved history.

Perfectly named for the fossil that taught us about humanity's genesis, Lucy's 12-year-long trek promises to reveal a cosmic evolutionary record. The spacecraft will catch closeup views of a diverse selection of Trojan asteroids to help scientists decipher how and why our solar system's planets came to be.

From the lab to your inbox. Get the latest science stories from CNET every week.

Right now, we know close to nothing about these primitive rocks' properties. But we've rounded up everything we can to help you prepare for the momentous launch.

Cue "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."

You can watch the lift-off, currently scheduled for Oct. 16 at 2:34 a.m. PT (5:34 a.m. ET), online on NASA TV.

Make sure to check back closer to the big day for a livestream on CNET Highlightsand all the times across the globe.

And while you wait, let's dive into why this mission could be world-changing for astronomers.

Long before planets came into existence, the solar system overflowed with trillions of rocky and icy bodies orbiting a dim sun. Some of these fragments slowly fused together to form larger planets, such as the Earth and Mars. But along the way, a bunch of floating rocks were left over.

Many were swept into the endless depths of the universe -- taking their secrets with them -- but a smattering still live in the outer reaches of our solar system.

Caught between the gravitational pull of the sun and of Jupiter are these primitive pieces of rock that have been around for billions of years. They're known as Jupiter's Trojan asteroids. NASA aptly refers to them as "time capsules from the birth of our solar system," and they form two clusters that share an orbit with the gas giant. Over 7,000 have been detected so far.

"The stuff that went into growing Jupiter and Saturn are now trapped in these locations," NASA planetary scientist and principal investigator of the Lucy mission, Hal Levison, said in the mission's overview.

Lucy will be the first spacecraft to asteroid-hop among seven of the Trojan asteroids, but before heading to both the leading and trailing swarms, it'll visit a main belt asteroid located between Mars and Jupiter.

In green, you see the leading and trailing swarms of Jupiter Trojans. That's where Lucy is headed.

"We're going to eight never-before-seen asteroids in 12 years with a single spacecraft," Tom Statler, Lucy project scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington said in a statement. "This is a fantastic opportunity for discovery as we probe into our solar system's distant past."

NASA notes that "no other space mission in history has been launched to as many different destinations in independent orbits around our sun" and that "Lucy will show us, for the first time, the diversity of the primordial bodies that built the planets."

The spacecraft will use traditional chemical propulsion technology that'll help with maneuvering, but to save fuel, it'll fly past points of interest instead of treading slowly. That doesn't pose much of a hindrance, though, because Lucy can still snap pics and collect spectroscopic information while whizzing by.

Armed with a high-gain antenna for communication with Earth; high-tech cameras (color, as well as black and white); an infrared spectrometer and thermometer, the spacecraft will check out severalkey features of these asteroids by capturing their physical properties:

Surface geology: This includes things like shape, crater size, crustal structure and layering.

Surface color and composition: Tones and colors of the rocks, mineral makeup and regolith properties, such as loose soil composition, are some of these features.

Interiors and bulk properties: Masses, densities, powder blankets around craters and other nitty gritty details comprise this section.

Satellites and rings: A few of the asteroids might have mini-asteroids orbiting them, as though they're the center of their own solar system. Some might even have Saturn-like rings consisting of super-small rocks or icy bodies.

NASA's Lucy will explore eight asteroids over a dozen years.

It isn't easy being a NASA probe.

Because Lucy will rely on solar power for the mission, its arrays -- large enough to cover a five-story building -- had to undergo intense testing to ensure they won't malfunction during spaceflight. They're so huge because of how far the probe will be traveling from the sun.

A researcher working on Lucy's solar panels.

According to NASA, it will take a total of 20 minutes for these crucial solar panels to extend after launch. "These 20 minutes will determine if the rest of the 12-year mission will be a success," Levison saidin a statement.

Mars rovers, such as Perseverance, have shorter spans of anxiety-inducing moments during their EDL phase, or entry, descent and landing sequence.

"Mars landers have their seven minutes of terror, we have this," Levison remarked.

After several iterations of testing, Donya Douglas-Bradshaw, Lucy project manager from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement that the execution on the ground was "flawless."

Although space is a very different arena.

On Oct. 16, Lucy will be transported to the Vehicle Integration Facility at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and "mated" with the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. That rocket will help Lucy exit Earth's atmosphere.

Then, Lucy will propel away from our home planet to begin the 12-year voyage, swinging around the solar system, using Earth's gravity as leverage three times during the journey.

"Launching a spacecraft is almost like sending a child off to college -- you've done what can for them to get them ready for that next big step on their own," Levison said.

Lucy stands 13 feet (4 meters), nearly fully assembled in this photo.

After a dozen years, Lucy will stabilize near Earth, then crusade once again to the Trojan asteroid belt. It'll be the first ever spacecraft to travel all the way to Jupiter and back home.

Future humans will face two options: collect Lucy as an artifact and bring it down to Earth, or allow Jupiter to eventually fling it into the sun or out of the solar system.

Not to fear. Lucy's job will be complete by then. And perhaps our astronomy textbooks will be amended with the unprecedented information it delivers home.

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NASA's Lucy mission to Jupiter's fossil asteroids: Everything to know - CNET

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. A SpaceX rocket lifted off on Wednesday night from a launchpad here, carrying four Americans on an adventure to orbit the Earth for three days that will be like no other.

None of the crew works for NASA. The mission, known as Inspiration4, is the first orbital trip where not one of the people aboard is a professional astronaut and where government is, by and large, a bystander and observer.

The evening sky was nearly devoid of clouds when the nine engines of the Falcon 9 rocket ignited, lifting the rocket and its passengers to space.

Jared Isaacman, a 38-year-old billionaire and founder of Shift4, a payments processing service, financed the trip. As the missions commander, he thanked those who made it possible, and said that it had brought him and the crew, to the door step of an exciting and unexplored frontier.

Mr. Isaacmans public profile is far less prominent than that of Richard Branson or Jeff Bezos, two billionaires who flew to the edge of space in July in vehicles operated by companies they own. Those trips lasted just minutes before returning to the ground.

But Mr. Isaacmans three-day adventure is perhaps more noteworthy, a step toward a future where space travel might be like airline travel today accessible by almost everyone.

That is because Mr. Isaacman decided not to just bring along his friends on this trip to space. Instead, he opened opportunities to three people he did not know.

We set out from the start to deliver a very inspiring message, Mr. Isaacman said during a news conference on Tuesday, and chose to do that through an interesting crew selection process.

The result is a mission that carries a crew that is more representative of wider society Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old physician assistant at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis; Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old community college professor who would be the first Black woman to pilot a spacecraft; and Christopher Sembroski, a 42-year-old data engineer.

Mr. Isaacman has declined to say how much he is paying for this orbital trip, only that it was less than the $200 million that he hopes to raise for St. Jude with an accompanying fund-raising drive, one of the stated purposes of the trip.

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Do You Think You Will Ever Travel to Space? - The New York Times

Transit 4A, shown here with its companion payloads before launch in 1961, was a U.S. Navy satellite ... [+] program to provide exact navigational positions regardless of surface weather. It was the first space vehicle to employ a radioisotope power supply (RIPS) and the first to switch power systems by command.

This summer NASA marked the 60th anniversary of a nuclear-powered spaceflight. The Transit IV-A was an experimental navigational satellite with a radioisotope-powered generator, launched by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory from Cape Canaveral on 29 June 1961.

Transit IV-A's SNAP-3B radioisotope generator produced 2.7 W of electrical power, which is enough to power an LED lightbulb. Nevertheless, the satellite broke mission-duration records, having travelled over 25,000 times around the Earth by the time it became the oldest operating US satellite in May 1964. The satellite confirmed that the Earth's equator is elliptical.

Since that time, NASA has flown more than 25 missions carrying a nuclear-powered system.

Radioisotope power systems use thermocouples to convert heat from the decay of plutonium-238 into electricity and are one of only two practical ways to provide long-term electrical power in space. Solar panels are another option, but solar power becomes less efficient as spacecraft travel farther from the Sun beyond Mars, they are worthless. Chemical sources dont work for very long as their energy density is too low and their weight is prohibitive on long missions.

A Pu-238 fuel pellet, glowing here with the heat it produces, emits a steady heat from its natural ... [+] radioactive decay. Unique features of Pu-238 have made it the material of choice to power space missions.

Radioisotope power systems are reliable and efficient, according to June Zakrajsek, manager for NASA's Radioisotope Power Systems Program office at the Glenn Research Center.

"They operate continuously over long-duration space missions regardless of sunlight, temperature, charged particle radiation, or surface conditions like thick clouds or dust. Theyve allowed us to explore from the Sun to Pluto and beyond," she said.

The plutonium-238 fuel used in NASA's radioactive power systems is provided through a partnership with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The isotope is made by irradiating neptunium-237, and is currently produced by Oak Ridge National Laboratory in partnership with Idaho and Los Alamos National Laboratories.

Radioactive power systems powered the Lunar Surface Experiment Packages of each Apollo landing site, as well as the Pioneer, Viking, Voyager, Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini and New Horizons space missions.

Mars surface is so Earth-like, humans will set foot on it. Subsurface ice provides water, but to ... [+] colonize will require nuclear power. This Curiosity rover photo shows a long ridge colored by the mineral hematite.

New Horizons spacecraft flew by the most distant object ever observed up close - Ultima Thule, far beyond Pluto, in the region called the Kuiper Belt, outside the Solar System proper. It will continue on into the Oort Cloud, the outermost region of the Solar System that remains from the original nebula from which the Sun and planets formed.

Then it will exit our Solar System completely.

The spacecraft could not have done so without energy supplied by the nucleus.

So far, NASA has done well with small nuclear systems that power our unmanned spacecraft to distant planets. But for human flights to Mars and beyond, or for setting up colonies on the Moon or Mars, larger systems are needed, even actual nuclear reactors, as concluded by a National Academies report.

And NASA is moving in that direction at a good pace. The Energy Department and NASA have awarded three teams one-year, $5 million contracts to carry out nuclear thermal space propulsion concept studies. Even the Department of Defense is looking into nuclear thermal propulsion rocket engines for sending maneuverable satellites further outside Earth's orbit.

Concept of a Bimodal Nuclear Thermal Rocket in Low Earth Orbit. This will be necessary for any ... [+] manned trip to Mars or beyond, and NASA has previously tested nuclear thermal propulsion, proving that it does work.

NASA believes that a nuclear reactor that would be used for space travel could be ready by 2022, according to Patrick McClure, head of the Kilopower project, which is an Energy Department and NASA collaboration. The reactor has successfully completed ground tests and is set for flight tests.

We are even making radiation protection suits for individual astronauts to use on long missions, a radiation-shielding vest calledStemRad.

So as we gear up for more government and private commercial space exploration and development, we will continue to explore radiological and nuclear power to fuel our spacecraft and colonies, and perhaps take to places beyond our own Solar System.

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60 Years Of Nuclear In Space Is Just The Beginning - Forbes

Astronaut Chris Cassidy discusses Disney documentary 'Among the Stars'

The new original series 'Among the Stars' gives viewers a look at the dangerous and awe-inspiring missions Chris Cassidy and the team at NASA embark on.

LOS ANGELES - Eyes have increasingly been fixated on the sky thanks to SpaceX's recent Inspiration 4 mission, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin suborbital excursion and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic blast off.

And now all eyes are on NASA astronaut Captain Chris Cassidy in a new Disney+ documentary.

The new original series "Among the Stars" showcases intimate footage, personal video diaries and livestream footage stationed both on Earth and in space giving viewers a look at the dangerous and awe-inspiring missions Cassidy and the team at NASA embark on.

Chris Cassidy talks to mission managers prior to departing for the launch pad, Thursday, April 9, 2020. (NASA/GCTC/Andrey Sheli)

"Space travel is not easy," Cassidy told FOX Television Stations in an interview. "It takes a lot of people to pull it off and to do it safely, and thats an important message given all the success that we have enjoyed watching with the recent commercial companies in space."

WATCH: Woman in Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek and the Remaking of NASA

The original six-part series, set to premiere Oct. 6 on the streaming service Disney+, follows the teams successes and failures over the course of two year. In doing so, it provides behind-the-scenes access to a critically important NASA mission: the repair of a $2 billion science experiment, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), which aims to reveal the origins of the universe.

To repair the AMS, Cassidy and his team must undertake a series of complex spacewalks, but the story quickly becomes a tale about the broader team at NASA and the collective quest to succeed.

"Its hard. Its not without risk, and thats what this documentary also shows," Cassidy continued.

Filmed with different space agencies across the globe from NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston to the European Space Agency in Cologne viewers are transported around the world as they follow Cassidy in his training to depart for the International Space Station.

History was made on Wednesday as the world's first all-civilian crew launched into orbit. SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission launched on Wednesday, September 15 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"Now I have this footage forever, and the mission is captured for me to enjoy with family and friends as I age in life, so thats a really nice benefit," Cassidy, 51, shared.

RELATED: Terror on Tubi countdown: Dive into the depths of 'The Descent'

The recently retired astronaut and former Navy Seal Captain said hes "excited" about the industries and businesses working to make commercial human spaceflight commonplace.

"Anything that gets the public interested, excited, motivated for space travel it ultimately benefits our space program," Cassidy revealed. "I love watching all those launches."

While its unclear who will be next to walk on the moon, Cassidy said hes thrilled it will likely be one of his friends.

"The next moonwalker doesnt know who she or he is, but Ive walked in the hallways with that person," Cassidy continued.

NASA: A Journey Through Space(2016): "This exciting documentary series takes you on the incredible journey of the past, present and future of NASA that shaped the 20th Century and will boldly go further in the 21st Century and beyond!"

Alien Contact: Nasa Exposed (2014): "Whistleblowers claim NASA not only knows about alien visitations but that they are in contact with extraterrestrials."

Alien Contact: Nasa Exposed 2 (2017): "The recent discovery of 1300 exoplanets that could sustain life has rocked the scientific world. Now everyone from world leaders to former astronauts are testifying that UFOs not only exist, but that Aliens are here and have been monitoring the human race for centuries."

About Tubi: Tubi is available on Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub, and on OTT devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Vizio TVs, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs, Hisense TVs, Comcast X1, Cox Contour, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S. Consumers can also watch Tubi content on the web at http://www.tubi.tv/.

With total view time surpassing 200 million hours of content streamed each month since April, Tubi has over 30,000 movies and television shows from over 250 content partners, including every major studio. The service gives fans of films and television programs an easy way to discover new content that is available completely free.

Tubi is owned by the FOX Corporation.

Premieres Oct. 6 on Disney+. Produced by Fulwell 73 Productions for Disney+. Ben Turner directs and executive produces for Fulwell 73. Executive producers on this series include Gabe Turner, Leo Pearlman, Will Gluck and Richard Schwartz.

About the writer: Stephanie Weaver is a Los Angeles-based journalist. She is a host of the national streaming show, LiveNOW from FOX, and is a digital reporter for FOX TV. Find her on Facebook and Instagram at @StephWeaverTV.

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Among the Stars astronaut Chris Cassidy on space flight: Its not without risk - FOX 10 News Phoenix

While officials at NASA and the European Space Agency, as well as planners in China, plot out ultra-expensive and complicated missions to return samples from Mars, there are an increasing number of researchers blueprinting low-cost and novel ways to further explore the Red Planet.

Be it via souped-up helicopters or inexpensive landers and orbiters, they say it's time to script new ways to gather more data from a variety of places on that remote world.

How to use relatively low-priced craft for a next round of investigation is backed by Bethany Ehlmann, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Related: A brief history of Mars missions

"Mars, like Earth, is diverse. Different locales capture different environmental snapshots," Ehlmann told Space.com. There's plenty of exploration to do, she added, citing the possibility of visiting amazing and exotic sites that spacecraft have imaged from orbit, such as the Valles Marineris canyon system and the Martian polar caps.

"A system as complicated as Mars requires breadth as well as depth," Ehlmann said, "and that means finding new ways to explore at multiple locations by lowering the price per spacecraft mission through technology or new programmatic paradigms and collaborations. Imagine half a dozen mobile Mars explorers, operated by universities around the country That would get students energized about careers in science and engineering!"

After decades of Mars exploration, many of the important questions that remain can be answered only with boots on the ground, be those "boots" robotic or human, Ehlmann said.

"NASA has always been a very risk-averse agency. This is completely understandable, since taxpayer dollars are being spent," said Robert Lillis, Associate Director for Planetary Science and Astrobiology within the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.

Lillis points to NASA's Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program as a "bold effort" to facilitate first-rate planetary science at a fraction of the cost of a typical Discovery mission. (NASA's Discovery program supports ambitious but relatively low-cost exploration efforts. The current cost cap for a Discovery mission is about $500 million.)

SIMPLEx also serves as a pathfinder to investigate the trade-off between cost and risk, Lillis said.

For example, the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) mission is a SIMPLEx undertaking, one that promises a very good bang for the buck in terms of science per dollar, said Lillis, who's EscaPADE's principal investigator. The total cost of this Mars mission, which is projected to arrive in orbit around the Red Planet in 2026, is pegged at under $80 million.

The twin EscaPADE probes will provide a unique "stereo" perspective to Mars' highly complex upper atmosphere system, Lillis said. "Our two spacecraft Blue and Gold will provide us with two pairs of eyes, enabling us to, for the first time, understand the real-time response of Mars' patterns of atmospheric loss to the electromagnetic gusts and gales of the solar wind that buffet Mars," he said.

Taking "NewSpace" approaches to spacecraft development will allow constellations of small satellites to explore and monitor the Martian atmosphere with unprecedented fidelity and coverage, Lillis said. "We'll be able to see all parts of the planet at all times of day, from the surface to the upper atmosphere."

Lillis added that this kind of "situational awareness" will be crucial to protect future human explorers, in two primary ways. First, better characterization of near-surface air pressure and wind allows for safer entry, descent and landing. Second, weather monitoring will enable accurate weather forecasting through data assimilation.

"When we talk about weather forecasting on Mars being important for the safety of explorers, we're talking about dust storms, regional or global," Lillis said. "Dust storms reduce solar power generation and visibility."

Related: What would it be like to live on Mars?

A new technology to land on Mars cheaply and safely is the Small High Impact Energy Landing Device (SHIELD) concept, now under study at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California.

"SHIELD is basically both a lander and a shock absorber in one," said Louis Giersch, the primary investigator for SHIELD.

"It won't be able to put a spacecraft like the Perseverance rover on the surface, but it could allow scientists to study more of the Martian surface while riding along with larger NASA missions," Giersch added. "We're still evaluating what kinds of science instruments make sense, but weather sensors, cameras and mass spectrometers are all on the drawing board."

SHIELD's goal is to reduce Mars lander costs by an order of magnitude, making doable a broad suite of potential missions. For example, the tech could potentially allow NASA to put down dozens of individual robots over a relatively short timespan, dotting the distant planet with landers.

Giersch said that SHIELD will place more limitations on science payloads relative to more conventional Mars landers. The science payloads will need to be even more compact and rugged, he said, but with the anticipated benefit of more frequent access to the Martian surface as a result of reduced mission cost.

Related: The best (and worst) Mars landings of all time

"The opportunity for low-cost frequent access to Mars is here," added JPL's Nathan Barba, systems engineer for SHIELD. That door was opened when the Mars Cube One (MarCO) A and B cubesats, nicknamed EVE and WALL-E, completed a successful flyby of Mars in November 2018. The duo, which cost just $18.5 million for JPL to build and operate, hitched a ride with NASA's InSight Mars lander.

"SHIELD could be delivered as a single lander or many in a single launch. A low-cost lander like SHIELD could enable first-time measurements or pathfinder exploration like ground-truthing information that is critical for larger, more-expensive missions," Barba said.

Increased access to space is exciting, Barba continued, "because it means more opportunities for science at Mars. If a new class of lower-cost interplanetary missions were to come to fruition, it would foster an even more diverse set of investigations and provide an opportunity for many new early-career scientists and engineers."

Smaller, lower-cost spacecraft missions could provide decadal-class science in parallel to the Mars sample return campaign, Barba said. The paradigm shift in capability and cost can be attributed to many factors, from an order-of-magnitude reduction in launch cost, enabled by rideshare and emerging small launch vehicles, to the fabrication of science instruments capable of high-precision and/or fundamentally novel measurements, he said.

Yet another future Mars investigation idea has already been bolstered by the multiple flights of NASA's Ingenuity helicopter. Ingenuity, a technology demonstrator, has clearly showcased its aerial "Wright stuff" but what comes next?

"Flights of Ingenuity have been beyond what we could have imagined," said Shannah Withrow-Maser, Mars Science Helicopter Vehicle Systems Lead at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. "Each flight is teaching us more and more and opening doors for future mission concepts," she told Space.com.

One idea that's percolating is an advanced Mars helicopter, a hexacopter device that can haul larger payloads and travel greater distances than the currently flying Ingenuity. Withrow-Maser said this Mars Science Helicopter approach is taking shape courtesy of the teachable moments supplied by Ingenuity data, which is downloaded and evaluated after each flight.

"There's a little bit of holding your breath every time Ingenuity flies," Withrow-Maser said. "We're taking it one flight at a time. It far exceeds the boundaries of what was designed for and tested here on Earth."

Defining a future rotorcraft for Mars is just its own beast, Withrow-Maser said. "We're able to do some really cool things with rotorcraft," she said, "taking off from anywhere and also hover[ing] over objects of interest."

Now being appraised is a future mid-air deployment of a hexacopter, which would be released part way through the entry, descent and landing process. Potentially, a variety of Mars features that are tough or impossible for rovers to explore could be surveyed for example, polar caps, vertical cliffs and mud volcanoes.

The craft could also zip over the intriguing Martian dark streaks known as recurring slope lineae, which might be signs of liquid water activity. A hexacopter could also potentially help map out vertical profiles of the atmosphere or even dive into lava tube openings.

"The community is just starting to get an idea of what might be done using aero-exploration," Withrow-Maser said. "A rotorcraft allows us to move much further and faster. New vehicle platforms can be a catalyst for all types of science. I think we're in a good position to be able to take advantage of any opportunities that would come our way."

Leonard David is author of the book "Moon Rush: The New Space Race," published by National Geographic in May 2019. A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Mars on the cheap: Scientists working to revolutionize access to the Red Planet - Space.com

Lucy flies over a Trojan asteroid in this NASA animation.

Far out in Jupiter's orbit lie the Trojan asteroids -- fossils from the rock collection that spawned the giant planets over 4 billion years ago. These hovering time capsules could hold the key to unlocking the origins of planets.

In a couple of weeks, NASA's Lucy mission is sending a spacecraft toward these ancient raw materials in an ambitious and daring attempt to access our solar system's well-preserved history.

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Perfectly named for the fossil that taught us about humanity's genesis, Lucy's 12-year-long trek promises to reveal a cosmic evolutionary record. The spacecraft will catch close-up views of a diverse selection of Trojan asteroids to help scientists decipher how and why our solar system's planets came to be.

Right now, we know close to nothing about these primitive rocks' properties. But we've rounded up everything we can to help you prepare for the momentous launch.

Cue "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."

You can watch the lift-off, currently scheduled for Oct. 16 at 2:34 a.m. PT (5:34 a.m. ET), online on NASA TV.

Make sure to check back closer to the big day for a livestream on CNET Highlightsand all the times across the globe.

And while you wait, let's dive into why this mission could be world-changing for astronomers.

Long before planets came into existence, the solar system overflowed with trillions of rocky and icy bodies orbiting a dim sun. Some of these fragments slowly fused together to form larger planets, such as the Earth and Mars. But along the way, a bunch of floating rocks were left over.

Many were swept into the endless depths of the universe -- taking their secrets with them -- but a smattering still live in the outer reaches of our solar system.

Caught between the gravitational pull of the sun and Jupiter are these primitive pieces of rock that have been around for billions of years. They're known as Jupiter's Trojan asteroids. NASA aptly refers to them as "time capsules from the birth of our solar system" and they form two clusters that share an orbit with the gas giant. Over 7,000 have been detected, so far.

"The stuff that went into growing Jupiter and Saturn are now trapped in these locations," NASA planetary scientist and principal investigator of the Lucy mission, Hal Levison, said in the mission's overview.

Lucy will be the first spacecraft to asteroid-hop among seven of the Trojan asteroids, but before heading to both the leading and trailing swarms, it'll visit a main belt asteroid located between Mars and Jupiter.

In green, you see the leading and trailing swarms of Jupiter Trojans. That's where Lucy is headed.

"We're going to eight never-before-seen asteroids in 12 years with a single spacecraft," Tom Statler, Lucy project scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington said in a statement. "This is a fantastic opportunity for discovery as we probe into our solar system's distant past."

NASA notes that "no other space mission in history has been launched to as many different destinations in independent orbits around our sun" and that "Lucy will show us, for the first time, the diversity of the primordial bodies that built the planets."

The spacecraft will use traditional chemical propulsion technology that'll help with maneuvering, but to save fuel, it'll fly past points of interest instead of treading slowly. That doesn't pose much of a hindrance, though, because Lucy can still snap pics and collect spectroscopic information while whizzing by.

Armed with a high-gain antenna for communication with Earth; high-tech cameras (color, as well as black and white); an infrared spectrometer and thermometer, the spacecraft will check out severalkey features of these asteroids by capturing their physical properties:

Surface geology: This includes things like shape, crater size, crustal structure and layering.

Surface color and composition: Tones and colors of the rocks, mineral makeup and regolith properties, such as loose soil composition, are some of these features.

Interiors and bulk properties: Masses, densities, powder blankets around craters and other nitty gritty details comprise this section.

Satellites and rings: A few of the asteroids might have mini-asteroids orbiting them, as though they're the center of their own solar system. Some might even have Saturn-like rings consisting of super small rocks or icy bodies.

NASA's Lucy will explore eight asteroids over a dozen years.

It isn't easy being a NASA probe.

Because Lucy will rely on solar power for the mission, its arrays -- large enough to cover a five story building -- had to undergo intense testing to ensure they won't malfunction during spaceflight. They're so huge because of how far the probe will be traveling from the sun.

A researcher working on Lucy's solar panels.

According to NASA, it will take a total of 20 minutes for these crucial solar panels to extend after launch. "These 20 minutes will determine if the rest of the 12 year mission will be a success," Levison saidin a statement.

Mars rovers, such as Perseverance, have shorter spans of anxiety-inducing moments during their EDL phase, or entry, descent and landing sequence.

"Mars landers have their seven minutes of terror, we have this," Levison remarked.

After several iterations of testing, Donya Douglas-Bradshaw, Lucy project manager from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement that the execution on the ground was "flawless."

Although space is a very different arena.

On Oct. 16, Lucy will be transported to the Vehicle Integration Facility at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and "mated" with the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. That rocket will help Lucy exit Earth's atmosphere.

Then, Lucy will propel away from our home planet to begin the 12-year voyage, swinging around the solar system, using Earth's gravity as leverage three times during the journey.

"Launching a spacecraft is almost like sending a child off to college -- you've done what can for them to get them ready for that next big step on their own," Levison said.

Lucy stands 13 feet (4 meters), nearly fully assembled in this photo.

After a dozen years, Lucy will stabilize near Earth, then crusade once again to the Trojan asteroid belt. It'll be the first ever spacecraft to travel all the way to Jupiter and back home.

Future humans will face two options: collect Lucy as an artifact and bring it down to Earth, or allow Jupiter to eventually fling it into the sun or out of the solar system.

Not to fear. Lucy's job will be complete by then. And perhaps our astronomy textbooks will be amended with the unprecedented information it delivers home.

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NASA's Lucy mission to Jupiter's Trojan asteroids: Everything you need to know - CNET