Category Archives: Space Travel

There is almost no knowledge about the physiological and psychological effects on women in this research area, said Angelique Van Ombergen, the Esa scientist leading the experiment at the Medes space clinic in Toulouse. We really hope that this study could help address some of the knowledge gaps of how people react to this extreme environment. The weightlessness experienced by astronauts can have striking effects on the body in a short space of time. Without gravity to load the spine, water and other molecules are able to move into the discs between vertebrae, meaning that astronauts tend to become taller in space but also weaker as supporting muscles and ligaments are doing less work.

The absence of gravity also leads to fluids shifting towards the head, which has been linked to hearing and vision problems. Previous studies have found the immune system can go quiet in the sterile environment of a spaceship, which can lead to a reactivation of old viruses. Many of these effects are likely to vary significantly between men and women. Based on previous dry immersion experiments a Russian cohort spent 21 days in a similar setup Van Ombergen said the experience was likely to be quite challenging for the volunteers, rather than relaxing. It requires dedication from the volunteers to stick to it, she said.

In the latest study, the volunteers will first be swathed in a cotton sheet and then a waterproof tarp, before being suspended in an immersion tank with only their arms and head left outside. The volunteers will remain in their tank for five days in a monotonous environment, only coming out for brief hygiene breaks to shower and go to the toilet, while remaining in a horizontal position to minimise fluid shifts in the body. The scientists will collect blood and urine samples, while making continuous measurements to see how the body is adapting. The proportion of female astronauts has slowly increased over the past decade, with the first all-female spacewalk in 2019, Nasa having announced its goal to put the first woman on the moon and China expected to include a female astronaut on next months mission to its new Tiangong space station.

Until now, though, there has been a dearth of data making it difficult to tailor exercise programmes during missions and rehabilitation on return to Earth for female astronauts. Women seem less susceptible to vision impairment than men, related to headward fluid shifts, but women are more susceptible to fainting when they come back to Earth, said Prof Alan Hargens, who researches the impact of microgravity on the human body at Surgery University of California San Diego.

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Immersion tank study will explore the impact of space travel on the female body | Space - BollyInside

Like the speed of an advancing race car driver, the winds in the outermost "lane" of Jupiter's Great Red Spot are accelerating a discovery only made possible by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, which has monitored the planet for more than a decade.

Researchers analyzing Hubble's regular "storm reports" found that the average wind speed just within the boundaries of the storm, known as a high-speed ring, has increased by up to 8 percent from 2009 to 2020. In contrast, the winds near the red spots innermost region are moving significantly more slowly, like someone cruising lazily on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

The massive storm's crimson-colored clouds spin counterclockwise at speeds that exceed 400 miles per hour and the vortex is bigger than Earth itself. The red spot is legendary in part because humans have observed it for more than 150 years.

When I initially saw the results, I asked 'Does this make sense?' No one has ever seen this before," said Michael Wong of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the analysis published today in Geophysical Research Letters. "But this is something only Hubble can do. Hubble's longevity and ongoing observations make this revelation possible."

We use Earth-orbiting satellites and airplanes to track major storms on Earth closely in real time. "Since we don't have a storm chaser plane at Jupiter, we can't continuously measure the winds on site," explained Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who contributed to the research. "Hubble is the only telescope that has the kind of temporal coverage and spatial resolution that can capture Jupiters winds in this detail."

The change in wind speeds they have measured with Hubble amount to less than 1.6 miles per hour per Earth year. "We're talking about such a small change that if you didnt have eleven years of Hubble data, we wouldn't know it happened," said Simon. "With Hubble we have the precision we need to spot a trend." Hubble's ongoing monitoring allows researchers to revisit and analyze its data very precisely as they keep adding to it. The smallest features Hubble can reveal in the storm are a mere 105 miles across, about twice the length of the state of Rhode Island.

"We find that the average wind speed in the Great Red Spot has been slightly increasing over the past decade," Wong added. "We have one example where our analysis of the two-dimensional wind map found abrupt changes in 2017 when there was a major convective storm nearby."

To better analyze Hubble's bounty of data, Wong took a new approach to his data analysis. He used software to track tens to hundreds of thousands of wind vectors (directions and speeds) each time Jupiter was observed by Hubble. "It gave me a much more consistent set of velocity measurements," Wong explained. "I also ran a battery of statistical tests to confirm if it was justified to call this an increase in wind speed. It is."

What does the increase in speed mean? "That's hard to diagnose, since Hubble can't see the bottom of the storm very well. Anything below the cloud tops is invisible in the data," explained Wong. "But it's an interesting piece of data that can help us understand what's fueling the Great Red Spot and how it's maintaining energy." There's still a lot of work to do to fully understand it.

Astronomers have pursued ongoing studies of the "king" of solar system storms since the 1870s. The Great Red Spot is an upwelling of material from Jupiter's interior. If seen from the side, the storm would have a tiered wedding cake structure with high clouds at the center cascading down to its outer layers. Astronomers have noted that it is shrinking in size and becoming more circular than oval in observations spanning more than a century. The current diameter is 10,000 miles across, meaning that Earth could still fit inside it.

In addition to observing this legendary, long-lived storm, researchers have observed storms on other planets, including Neptune, where they tend to travel across the planets surface and disappear over only a few years. Research like this helps scientists not only learn about the individual planets, but also draw conclusions about the underlying physics that drive and maintain planets' storms.

The majority of the data to support this research came from Hubble's Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, which provides annual Hubble global views of the outer planets that allow astronomers to look for changes in the planets' storms, winds, and clouds.

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Hubble Shows Winds in Jupiter's Great Red Spot Are Speeding Up - HubbleSite

From Star Treklike medical scanners to concepts for off-planet agriculture like in The Expanse, science fiction has often inspired actual research at NASA and other space agencies. This week, researchers are meeting at a virtual conference for the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to brainstorm and investigate sci-fi-like ideas, some of which may very well shape the missions of the next 20 years.

A drone helicopter hopping about a Martian crater or a lunar rover that maps moon ice might have seemed far-fetched a decade ago, but the copter actually flew earlier this year, and the rover is in the planning stages. Now the conference organizers have solicited proposals for more exploratory projects, a few of which the agency might eventually fund. We invest in long-term, far-out technologies, and most of them probably wont work. The ones that do might change everything. Its high risk, high payoff, almost like a venture capital investment portfolio, says Jason Derleth, the NIAC program executive.

The program isnt focused on incremental developments but instead seeks game-changing technologies, ones that are 10 times better than the state of the art, Derleth says. He likens it to the Pentagons Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which also explores extremely speculative concepts but developed the precursor to the modern internet, among other innovations.

The annual conference, which continues through Thursday, September 23, is publicly viewable on NIACs livestream. Some of the proposals discussed so farsuch as for new ways to launch foldable space stations or astronaut habitats, or to extract resources from other worldsrevolve around the understanding that, for lengthy space voyages, you have to make the most of every rocket launch.

The next generation of space travelers will need resources for survival, for protective structures, and to fuel the journey further or return home. This leaves us with two options: Take everything with us, like if you were going on a hiking trip in the desert. Or find new and creative ways to use whatever is already there, says Amelia Greig, an aerospace engineer at University of Texas at El Paso, who presented at the conference on Tuesday.

To aid creative reuse of lunar resources, Greig and her colleagues propose a technology called ablative arc mining, which would slurp up water ice and the kinds of metals that could be used as building materials. Its like using controlled lightning bolts to mine the moon, she said during her presentation. Her concept describes a van-sized moon crawlernamed after the Jawa sandcrawlers of Star Warsthat picks a spot, and then places a ringed device that it carries on its front end parallel to the ground. Electric arcs zap across the ring, which can be made as large as a meter in diameter, ripping particles from the moons surface. Those particles, now charged, can then be moved and sorted by the machines electromagnetic fields. That way, rather than scoping just one resource, a single piece of equipment could fill one container with water, another with oxygen attached to other elements, and others with silicon, aluminum, or other metal particles.

An artistic representation of the ablative arc mining system deployed into a crater near the lunar south pole.

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NASA's NIAC Program Gives a Sneak Peek at the Future of Space Travel - WIRED

Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969 and delivered his pre-prepared line that became famous: Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Except he misspoke. What Armstrong said was nonsense. He meant to say a man rather than just man.

Whatever. Armstrongs statement rang true. From the start of the space age in 1957 when the Soviet Unions Sputnik satellite orbited the Earth, six-plus decades of mainly US government-funded, -designed and -staffed space exploration has brought many rewards. Apart from stirring national pride and showcasing bravery, space exploration has boosted knowledge of the universe and led to much innovation related to satellites, global positioning and weather forecasting.

Even if Armstrong blew his line, he was more profound than Jeff Bezos on his return to Earth on July 20 after being blasted into the atmosphere just past the Karman line that, 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Earth, generally marks outer space. Best day ever, was Bezoss verdict on flying for 10 minutes in a pilotless rocket built by Blue Origin, a company he founded in 2000.

Perhaps Bezos should have said something more Armstrong-like as did Richard Branson when, nine days before Bezos, he zoomed to an altitude of 80 kilometres in a piloted space plane built by Virgin Galactic, which Branson set up in 2004. We are at the vanguard of a new space age, Branson said.

Whats new is that an entrepreneur-led drive into space is underway. Bezos and Branson joined soon perhaps by other private companies are vying with Boeing and Elon Musks Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to commercialise space.

SpaceX, as Musks creation of 2002 is known, is ahead. The companys most notable feat is that in 2015 it pioneered reusable rockets, which is regarded as the single transformative technology shift driving todays space race because it has slashed launch costs.

Many benefits are likely to flow from the commercialisation of space that already amounts to a US$350 billion industry. Space tourism is likely to grow, after commencing on September 15 when SpaceX launched its first privately funded three-day spaceflight of just tourists. The standard offering (at US$450,000 a pop with Virgin Galactic) will be orbiting the Earth to experience weightlessness and gain an astronauts view of the world. Another prospect is vacations on commercial space stations. A later step could be tourist trips to the moon.

A second, and bigger, commercial motivator is adding to the more than 5,000 satellites already orbiting the Earth. SpaceX, for instance, plans to add another 11,000 satellites via its Starlink mega-constellation and has filed for US permission for another 30,000.

Private enterprise heading into the cosmos is rekindling and aiding government space efforts. Nasa, as well as employing SpaceX to return to the moon under its Artemis Program, plans more voyages to Mars and intends to search Jupiters moon Europa for life. China in May landed a vehicle on Mars for the first time, two years after the country became the first to land a craft on the far side of the moon. Beijing and Moscow in June announced plans for a permanent base on the moon.

Commercial space efforts are bound to advance scientific knowledge. The hope is that microgravity will allow for unique research that could lead to discoveries previously kept hidden by gravity. Another motive is to enable people to live beyond Earth. Bezos sees a future where millions of people are living and working in space. Musk talks of terraforming Mars, by which he means nuking Mars to make the planet habitable for humans.

The commercialisation of space comes with risks and disadvantages that could limit such exploration (ignoring complaints about the cost). The biggest risk is that space travel is dangerous. Much can go wrong with rockets, and fatal events could derail space exploration, as they have in the past.

Another problem is space exploration is likely to intensify global political tensions. Whoever rules space controls an avenue to deliver thermonuclear weapons via ballistic missiles and much else. Chinas moves into space look likely to intensify Chinese-US rivalry. The US in 2019 created a Space Command as its sixth military sphere to thwart China in space. A third drawback is the space race will come with environmental damage, especially with respect to climate change from fossil-fuelled rockets.

Whatever the doubts or drawbacks about the question, the better economics of space exploration are overriding them. A privately led space adventure has begun that has already notched achievements and, amid controversy and setbacks, is likely to post many more.

To be pedantic, private companies have long helped Nasa while the commercialisation of space could be dated to the turn of the century, so its not new, just intensifying. The role of Nasa and other government agencies in this private quest shouldnt be underestimated. These private companies will need to be willing to lose much money. A techno-utopian element bordering on the unbelievable pervades the private space quest. Some, perhaps much, disappointment lies ahead.

No doubt. But the entrepreneurs pioneering todays drive into space are wealthy visionaries who wont be deterred easily. Get set for a space race pursued by people who think they are on a philanthropic mission.

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Space Exploration is Going Private ShareCafe - ShareCafe

Chabot Space and Science Center is preparing to reopen its telescope and campusin November.

Longtime fans of Oaklands Chabot Space and Science Center will experience a much different museum and educational facility when it reopens next month. Thanks to a close relationship with NASAs Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, the NASA Experience at Chabot Space and Science Center will be a major attraction for students and families.

Everyone who visits will have an ever-changing experience, says Liz Austerman, vice president of museum experience at Chabot. They can come several times a year and have entirely new experiences on each visit.

Initial exhibitions at Chabot will focus on the rovers and robotics that NASA uses in space exploration. Visitors will also recognize adjustments to Chabots layout. Designers have updated the center with modular installations, which can be moved and altered quickly to accommodate various interactive activities.

NASAs brainpower will be a constant element at the new Chabot as well, with speaking engagements and panel discussions featuring top researchers and scientists.

Austerman says that the NASA Experience and its STEAM environment will interact with students and community members at schools and other locations throughout the East Bay. She hopes this outreach will recruit young students to pursue careers in science and space exploration.

Our intention is to demystify the ivory tower of being a researcher at NASA and show kids that they can do it as well, says Austerman. I recently heard a researcher say, I dont do math at my job, and I thought, A 12-year-old might be interested to hear that, and realize, Maybe I can do this, too! chabotspace.org.

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Space Age Changes in the Oakland Hills | Travel + Places | diablomag.com - Diablo Magazine

Leonard Nimoy as Spock playing 3-d chess game on the set of Star Trek: The Original Series. One of ... [+] the many inventions to later be powered by AI in the iconic series.

Humanity is finally going where no one has gone before more than a half century after Star Trek first entered the pop culture psyche.

The successful splash down of SpaceX over the weekend with four tourists who orbited Earth for three days has spurred a surge in interest in space travel. SpaceX told reporters it can fly five to six private missions a year and will increase that number as demand dictates. At the same time, NASA is gearing up to build habitats on the moon by 2024 and Mars by 2030. Suddenly, planetary joyrides are a reality and no longer limited to the science fiction that inspired them.

After decades of stagnation, the commercialization of space is accelerating at a rapid pace, thanks to billionaires Elon Musk of SpaceX, Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic, and Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin all sci fi fans.

So when I was offered an interview with George Takei, who played Sulu in Star Trek: The Original Series, I jumped at it. His mobile game, Star Trek Fleet Command, has just gone cross-platform, taking us one step closer to the metaverse.

A social justice activist, Takei shared with me his thoughts on the promise and perils of AI, space tourism, and the biggest challenges facing humanity as we begin to venture off planet.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

PARIS: Science fiction is often credited by technologists for inspiring the innovation powering our future. SoundHound cofounder Keyvan Mohajer is a Trekkie with a voice AI startup valued at more than a billion dollars. In an interview with me, he said that when he was ideating his company, he took inspiration from Star Trek and considered developing the holodeck, replicator and transporter.

Which technology from the show would you most like to see made into a product?

TAKEI: The transporter. As an avid traveler Ive come to hate the way airports are mismanaged losing luggage, switching gates, canceling flights. Anything that gets me there sooner without the hassle would be great, including stepping on a pad, sparkling for a brief moment, then bopping out at my destination. I'm sure Luddites like Dr. McCoy would object to having their molecules messed with, but I welcome it.

Starship Enterprise Transporter Room exhibit from Star Trek The Adventure | Photo by Scott ... [+] Barbour/Getty Images

One of the most memorable AI characters in the original series is a transporter called The Guardian of Forever which takes Captain Kirk and Spock back in time. Kirk falls in love and must chose between his own personal happiness and the consequences of messing with the timeline.

Throughout the generations, sinister AIs appear as supercomputers that attempt to wrestle control of the ship and androids that try to seduce the crew. Do you think Gene Roddenberry, the shows creator, had concerns about AI becoming an existential threat?

Science fiction aside, I personally believe that AI can never be the enemy. Its merely a tool for which human judgment determines the outcome.

The Guardian of Forever exhibit from Star Trek The Tour | Photo by Axel Koester/Corbis via Getty ... [+] Images

Theres a great New York Times article about AI writing its own code and poetry, but its doing so based on information given to it by humans.AI should not be seen as a creative thinking being, rather its a valuable aid that can help us explore the complexities of the universe.

Weve now entered the age of space tourism. Do you have any interest in going up?

SpaceX Tesla roadster launched from the Falcon Heavy rocket with a dummy driver named "Starman" ... [+] heading towards Mars | Photo by SpaceX via Getty Images

In some respects, I feel like Ive already gone. Genes son Ray Roddenberry took me and my husband Brad to the Zero-G experience in Las Vegas. After an unbearable crushing feeling where some people actually lost their breakfast, there was this incredible sensation of feeling lighter than air as we floated around. I can imagine how that must feel in space.

Star Trek was ahead of its time in so many ways, but most people dont realize it was produced by the comedian Lucille Ball, best known for her role in the sitcom, I Love Lucy. Whats the backstory?

Lucille Ball was a smart businesswoman who, along with her husband and co-star Desi Arnaz, negotiated the rights to their show and parlayed the profits into Desilu Productions. After their divorce, she took over the studio and named Hollywood screenwriter Herb Solow head of production who brought her the Star Trek pitch from Gene. When the network rejected the first pilot, she agreed to a second, which was unusual, but it was that one that got picked up by the network and I was in it.

An interesting side story is that Genes girlfriend (and later wife) appeared in the first pilot as the second in command, but the network wanted that role recast as a man, so Gene gave her a blonde wig and made her a nurse to keep her in the series. Other than that, the show had a lot of diversity for the era. Gene felt television was being wasted on mindless quiz shows and wanted to address the civil rights and anti war movements. Thankfully, Lucille Ball made it possible.

How do you feel about being a playable character in the game Star Trek Fleet Command?

I love that Sulu, a swashbuckling fencer and number one graduate of Starfleet Academy, got to achieve his ambition of becoming the captain of his own starship. I hope players enjoy the journey.

What do you see as the biggest threats to humanity as we set out on voyages to explore the unknown?

Well, wherever we go, we need to stay vigilant of the fallibility of humans as we have the potential to become our own worst enemy.

When I was five years old, soldiers came to the front door of our house and at gunpoint forced us out of our home under orders from the U.S. president in reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Ill never forget the terror of that morning and being crammed onto that truck with my mother, my little brother, my baby sister, and father, with only the belongings we could carry with us.

We were American citizens, but for no other reason than our race, we were labeled enemies of the state. The government froze our bank account, took our house, and sent us far from Los Angeles where had been living a comfortable life. We were sent to the swamplands of Arkansas and held captive behind a barbed wire fence for four long years.

When we were finally released, we were given $25 each and a bus ticket to Skid Row to live in abject poverty. We struggled for years, but my father worked hard as a dishwasher and was able to move us into the barrio where he started a business that ultimately got us back to the area where we once lived.

This is the story of the 120,000 innocent Japanese Americans who had their lives taken from them in an instant. We must never forget that the order came from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the very president who said we have nothing to fear but fear itself, yet he himself so easily succumbed to mass hysteria over an imagined alien threat and with a stroke of his pen abandoned the rule of law meant to protect us all.

What would you like your legacy to be?

Despite the treachery I lived through as a child, at 84 years I feel Ive had an amazing life. Star Trek has given me a platform to tell this tale and remind people that democracy is fragile. I have made it my mission to make America a true peoples democracy with equal rights for everyone, and that is what I want my legacy to be.

Star Trek fan Jimmy Chi with George Takei signing his book, They Called Us Enemy

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Star Trek Legend George Takei On AI, Space Travel, And TV Inventions - Forbes

Earlier this month NASA announced that on December 18, after years of delays, the James Webb Space Telescope will finally leave Earth on a mission to revolutionize astrophysics and cosmology.

But before this $10-billion observatory can begin its work, it must survive a daunting commute that includes a voyage at sea, a rocket launch and a 1.5-million-kilometer flight to its destination: Lagrange Point 2, or L2. Far beyond the orbit of the moon (and out of reach of any near-term rescue mission), L2 is a region where the gravitational tugs of Earth and the sun balance out to create a perfect long-term parking place for telescopes. As Webb leaves our planet and moon behind, it must also deploy key components that were folded up to fit inside its rocket. This high-tension process involves some 178 release mechanisms, each of which must operate flawlessly for the telescope to complete its 40 or so major deployments.

This is the most complex scientific mission that we've done, says Nancy Levenson, deputy director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSci). Theres a lot that has to go right.

Webb is without question the most advanced space telescope ever built. The spacecrafts infrared gaze will penetrate cosmic clouds of dust to reveal the hidden details of stellar nurseries and embryonic protoplanets midway through formation. It will also gather the faint photons effused by the first stars and galaxies to form after the big bangwhich were initially emitted as visible light but have since been stretched, or redshifted, by the expansion of the cosmos.

Its going to help us unlock some of the mysteries of our universe, says Greg Robinson, Webbs program director at NASA. I want to say its going to rewrite the physics books.

But that assumes all goes according to plan.

Webbs journey will begin in Redondo Beach, Calif., at the Northrop Grumman facility where its construction and final tests were completed. There the spacecraft, which is currently folded up, will be placed into a specialized shipping container called the Super Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea, or Super STTARS. The custom travel pod will protect Webb from humidity, vibrations and fluctuating temperatures.

Later this month, while housed within its high-tech cocoon, Webb will be transported to the citys harbor and placed on a boat. The exact date of departure has been kept under wraps to stifle piracy, says Massimo Stiavelli, head of Webbs mission office at STScI.

Details about the security accompanying the telescope have not been made public. Even so, Stiavelli says that he is unconcerned about pirates stealing the precious cargo, thanks to numerous undisclosed but very real security measures put in place for the maritime trip. In the event of a high-seas heist attempt, he says, I would worry about [the safety of] the pirates themselves.

After departing from shore, the telescope, still contained in Super STTARS, will voyage south along the coast and through the Panama Canal. Webb will likely enter the Caribbean sometime in early Octoberthat is, during hurricane season.

Safe harbors have been identified all along the spacecrafts shipping route. And weather conditions will be monitored closely to ensure that it does not unexpectedly find itself caught vulnerable in a storm, Stiavelli says.

After about two weeks at sea, the telescope will arrive at the port and European Space Agency (ESA) launch site of Kourou, French Guiana. There Webb will undergo launch preparations, which include fueling it, performing final electronics checks and, of course, mounting the spacecraft on its celestial steed: ESAs Ariane 5 rocket.

Still folded, the 6,500-kilogram telescope will be secured inside the top of the rocket, within a chamber called the fairing. Once positioned, Webb will be ready to take to the skies.

Presuming no further delays in its path to the launchpad, early in the morning of December 18, Webb will blast off with a slight eastward trajectory over the Atlantic Ocean. Its Ariane 5 rocket is considered a reliable workhorse, and the telescope itself has passed tests meant to mimic the stresses of a launch, so confidence is high that the journey to orbit will go smoothly, Robinson says.

Still, one of the largest sighs of relief will be a successful launch, says Heidi Hammel, a vice president at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. As we say in the business, this is rocket science. Were putting this incredibly precious resource on top of a rocket and setting the fuse, so to speak.

Once it is about 10,400 kilometers into its trip, Webb will detach from the Ariane 5s second stage, signifying the end of the launch. Nevertheless, the most nerve-racking part of Webbs journey will have only just begun: a 1.5-million-kilometer cruise to L2, during which the folded telescope will slowly begin to unfurl.

That's when the nail biting starts, Hammel says. We arent there. We cant make adjustments, so things must work well.

Just moments after separating from its rocket, Webbs solar-power array will unfold to begin supplying electricity to the spacecraft. Although the solar-array deployment is a relatively simple procedure, its success is critical to power all following operations, Stiavelli says.

About 12 hours after launch, the crafts thrusters will fire for the first time to correct its trajectory. Course corrections must be efficient to preserve the telescopes fuel and maximize its life span, Stiavelli says. Confirmation of a successful course correction will not arrive until well after the fact, although subsequent tweaks to Webbs flight trajectory can be made if needed.

As the telescope nears its third day in space, Webb will begin to deploy one of its most intricate and prominent instruments: the sunshield. If unspooled without a hitch, a stack of five enormous kite-shaped sheets of polyimide film will block sunlight and heat from reaching the telescopes infrared sensors, which must remain at extremely low cryogenic temperatures to function properly.

The sunshield is crucial for keeping the telescope sufficiently cold so that it can sense the infrared glow of cosmic dawn, Hammel says. The deployment has got to go well, she adds.

But to open the sunshield, around 150 release mechanisms must fire correctly over the course of three days. The complicated deployment involves around 7,000 parts, including 400 pulleys, eight motors and 140 release actuators. The sunshields deployment is key to achieving scientists wildest dreams for the observatory. But for aerospace engineers, the procedures complexity and high number of single-point failures are the stuff of nightmares.

Its a big task: getting these five extremely thin layers that are each the size of a tennis court all stretched out and separated from each other, Hammel says. And the anxiety will not fade with a nominal sunshield deployment. Six days into the flight, the telescopes secondary mirror, positioned at the end of three long arms, will lower into place. Despite its name, the secondary mirror is a critical component for Webbs success, Hammel says. If other deployments do not work out perfectly, there may be work-arounds. But if the secondary mirror doesnt deploy successfully, we have no telescope, she says. We got nothing.

On the seventh day Webbs 6.5-meter primary mirror, a collection of 18 beryllium-hewn, gold-plated hexagonal segments, will begin to unfurl. First, two wings will swing out and lock into place like pieces of a folding table. Then tiny actuators will push or pull each of the mirror segments into a micron-precise alignment, producing the primary mirrors singular focus. Deploying and aligning the primary mirror will involve 132 actuators and motors, each of which must function properly.

Finally, a month after launch, Webb should reach L2, concluding one of the most audacious spaceflights ever attempted and allowing the worlds astronomers to collectively exhale.

Weve been practicing for this for years, Hammel says. This is like an orchestra concert with hundreds of people all playing different instruments. Everybody has to have practiced their part and all the instruments have to be ready. And then we play the music.

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The Nail-Biting Journey of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Is About to Begin - Scientific American

British artist Luke Jerram takes viewers to space like the NASA Apollo astronauts as part of the new "Gaia" exhibit at Founders Hall in Uptown Charlotte.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Space travel hasn't been around all that long compared to the number of years people have dreamed about touching the stars, but everyone can marvel at the blue marble hanging in outer space at a new art exhibit in Charlotte.

The new exhibit insider Founders Hall is called Gaia, after the Greek goddess of Earth.

"For tens of thousands of years, mankind has been able to look up," artist Luke Jerram said. "But it was only 58 years ago that man could see the earth from outer space. And now everyone has that chance."

Jerram said he was inspired by something called the "overview effect," which is what astronauts experience when they first go into space and look down at Earth. He's had exhibitions around the world in 117 countries.

His latest features images taken from Apollo 8 in 1968, when it was circling the moon. Gaia provides an amazing experience as if you were looking down on Earth from space.

"They realize that the planet is this really fragile beautiful ecosystem," Jerram said. "We've only got one planet, and we have to look after it and the reason I made this artwork is to try to give the public the sense of what it might be like to float in space and look down on the Earth."

From British artist Luke Jerram, experience the world in a whole new way, this is Gaia. Gaia will be presented by Blumenthal Performing Arts until Oct. 1.

Contact Larry Sprinkle atlsprinkle@wcnc.comand follow him onFacebook,TwitterandInstagram.

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All of WCNC Charlotte's podcasts are free and available for both streaming and download. You can listen now on Android, iPhone, Amazon, and other internet-connected devices. Join us from North Carolina, South Carolina, or on the go anywhere.

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'Gaia' art exhibit brings out-of-this-world views of Earth to Charlotte - WCNC.com

Mila Kunis Updates: Ashton Kutcher was scheduled to take Richard Bransons next space flight. When we were kids we were told that going into space takes a lot of time in school and really hard preparation.

Richard Branson had the chance last week to test his own Virgin Galactic starship in interesting ways, even though it didnt actually go into space (it was just high in the sky and close enough to space to show off). discovered that another wealthy person would go into space with Branson: Ashton Kutcher.

In a meeting with the Cheddar News, Ashton Kutcher announced that he would have been important for the next space flight, but Mila Kunis was too concerned to even think about releasing him.

When I got married and had kids, my partner essentially supported the fact that going into space with young children was anything but a smart family decision, so I sold my ticket back to Virgin Galactic, he said. says Cheddar. He adds, I should be on the next flight, but I wont be on the next flight. However, Kutcher says that eventually it will actually make room.

As announced by CNN, Virgin Galactic spent nearly twenty years wrecking a spaceship that would make it conceivable to go to the edge of space. Just 6 people took their first test trip last week: Branson, Virgin Galactic leader Sirisha Bandla, astronaut instructor Virgin Galactic Chief and Interior Program Manager Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic lead operations engineer Colin Bennett, and pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci.

However, Virgin Galactic has plans for these somewhat standard space excursions and a few rich folks. figured out how to save anywhere from $ 200,000 to $ 250,000 on tickets for a chance to fly off earth. And considering that may sound expensive, CNN says the organization will soon be selling more tickets at a much higher price.

Since this is the new diversion between very rich and exhausted people, Jeff Bezos is also supposed to fly into space on Tuesday with a spaceship of his organization Blue Origin. Bezos aviation organization downloaded a $ 28 million pass to join the trip. Undeniably more than it costs to go to Virgin Galactic.

These rich people, who have ample freedom not to pay reviews by leaving Earth whenever they want, are really screwed up, yet we trust them to take part in your space travel. that we no longer have to deal with the fact that they are destroying our planet.

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Mila Kunis talked Ashton Kutcher out of being one of- Daily Research Plot - Daily Research Plot

image:China is reaching for new heights in space exploration with its world-class space transportation systems. LM-5B is one its flagship launch vehicles. view more

Credit: Prof. Xiaojun Wang from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology

Today, China stands at another historical node, and in doing so faces new opportunities and challenges. The country must have the courage to seize these opportunities, continue to innovate, and make breakthroughs, says Dr. Xiaojun Wang, President of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.

In 2021, China became the second nation to successfully land and operate an unmanned rover on Mars. Around the 2030s, China plans to become the first nation to send a Sample Return Spacecraft to Mars. These are only two of Chinas milestones in its journey to become a top space nation. It has many more planned. To realize all those plans, Chinas aerospace agencies have been working on innovative technologies for over 60 years. Crucial among these are the transportation systems, specifically, the launch vehicles.

In an article published in Space: Science & Technology on 29 June 2021, Dr. Wang explores Chinas recent advances in space transportation systems, future prospects, and the challenges that remain to be met.

Over the past few years, with a new generation of space launch vehicles, China has launched rockets from the sea, sent multiple satellites into space, landed on the Moon and Mars, and conducted human spaceflight, garnering international attention. The latest among these launch vehicles, LM-11 of the Long March series, has a record-low preparation time of less than 24 hours, and is a great step towards meeting the rapid transportation needs that a space station will bring; China has begun the construction of its space station in low-earth orbit in April 2021.

To make its space program more environmentally sustainable, Chinas aerospace agencies are upgrading toxic traditional petroleum-derived rocket propellant-based propulsion systems to liquid-based cryogenic propulsion systemswhich uses cleaner fuels like hydrogen or oxygenor the new high-power electric propulsion systems. Launch vehicles are also being made highly specific in terms of propulsion technology and efficient in terms of the thrust to weight ratios and engines, which could save energy and fuel expenditure and make missions safer. Reusable technology involving the control of landing zones and enabling horizontal take-off and landing are being developed as well, to reduce the junk generated by space missions as well as stay relevant on the global stage. Reusable launch technology will also enable China to stay competitive in the commercial space travel industry, which is rapidly gaining speed.

With deep space missions in mind, scientists are also working on developing lightweight metal composites that can withstand the test of time and improve the energy efficiency of vehicle bodies. This will be necessary for stellar and nuclear-powered crafts, which are the only known kinds of vehicles capable of exploring beyond the solar system.

Furthermore, scientists have combined the power of the latest advances in aerospace engineering with artificial intelligence to develop smart technology that can predict and identify errors during space missions and even take corrective steps as needed. Using big data and cloud computing, platforms that can offer better remote control and improved communications with spacecrafts, are being built. Space vehicle production, testing, launch, flight operation, reconfiguration, and docking are being automated.

With significant monetary investment and specific year-on-year targets for meeting each of these research developmental goals, spanning across the 2020s to the 2040s, China has set its sights on becoming a powerful space nation by the first half of this century. It even plans to set up a manned base station on the moon and a space solar power station to better power its space products.

From single satellite launch vehicles to manned spacecrafts, from near-Earth orbit missions to deep space exploration, Chinas space transportation systems have developed by huge leaps in the last few decades and will continue to do so in the decades to come. China seeks to intelligently empower aerospace transportation systems, create efficient propulsion technologies, and develop digital management systems to realize its goal of emerging as a space power nation, China will devote itself in peacefully developing the space and encouraging international cooperation says Dr. Wang.

Space may be where humanitys future lies. And with this acceleration in the development of space technology, China is launching itself to the top of the race to get there.

***

Reference

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34133/2021/9769856

Author: Xiaojun Wang

Affiliation: China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, Beijing , China

About Professor Xiaojun Wang

Dr. Xiaojun Wang is the President and Deputy Secretary of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. He is also the Vice President of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) Bureaus Societies and Museums.

Space Science & Technology

Systematic review

Not applicable

Prospects for the Future Development of Chinas Space Transportation System

29-Jun-2021

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Advancements in transport technology that are launching China - EurekAlert