Category Archives: Space Travel

As Hayley Arceneauxs voice echoed through the LSU Health student union building Wednesday afternoon, members of LSU Health Shreveport School of Allied Health Professions joined to speak about the youngest American heading to space Wednesday evening.

In the LSU Health student union, the aroma of popcorn and space memorabilia flooded the room as Arceneauxs Netflix episode played on the big screen. Arceneaux, a 2016 graduate of the Physician Assistant (PA) program in the School of Allied Health Professions at LSU Health Shreveport is serving as the Chief Medical Director for the Inspiration4 Mission.

The Inspiration4 Mission is a three-day flight in which the Crew Dragon capsule will circle Earth dozens of times before re-entering the atmosphere for a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida. This will be just the fourth flight of the Crew Dragon capsule with people on-board, following three launches that carried NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

The Inspiration4 Mission, comprised of Hayley, Chris Sembroski, Jared Isaacman and Sian Proctor who will serve as commander, is set to become the first human spaceflight to reach orbit with a crew comprised entirely of private citizens.

Arceneaux, a survivor of childhood cancer, is no friend to fear and has always lived an adventurous life. So, when the professors who taught her at LSU Health heard about her new adventure, they were not shocked.

One of the things that I really remember is when we interviewed her for PA school long before exams or anything, we interviewed her via Skype because she was studying abroad in Spain and she's always loved to travel. So, you know it's just one of the things that I remember that makes her stand out from other people, Lindsay Ferrington, Clinical Coordinator and Assistant Professor for the PA program at LSU Health said.

Arceneaux dreamed of becoming an astronaut as a child but at 10 years old Arceneaux was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer that doctors discovered in her left leg. Arceneaux endured surgery that ultimately left her with a prosthetic femur.

At 10 years old Arceneaux would spend a year at St. Judes hospital receiving chemotherapy and ultimately finding her true passion in life.

After she came through childhood cancer with her leg she decided she would go into the healthcare field and from the time that she started here her goal was always to get back to St. Judes, Valorie Lurry, Director of Student Life and Alumni Affairs at LSU Health Shreveport School of Allied Health Professions said. I guess she put space on the back burner at that point. The way the stars aligned for this to work out is incredible.

Arceneaux will also become the first person with a prosthesis in space as well as the first cancer survivor.

Current students at the School of Allied Health Professions joined Wednesday afternoon to write letters and watch Arceneaux on the big screen.

I'm just really rooting for Hayley I think she's a wonderful woman and I'm really looking forward to hearing her story when she comes back down, Peter Nguyen, LSU Health Shreveport School of Allied Health Professions student said.

This mission is not only huge for Arceneaux and St. Judes but also for the people of Louisiana.

Governor John Bel Edwards posted on Facebook Wednesday afternoon his congratulations and his pride, stating Louisianans are out of this world.

My heart is filled with pride for her but I'm also nervous, but I've been praying for her every day and I know Gods got big plans for her so I'm proud of what she's going to accomplish, Lurry said.

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'Louisianans are out of this world', LSU Health Shreveport celebrates graduate's space flight - Shreveport Times

If all goes as planned, four private citizens who had never met until a few months ago will launch atop a SpaceX rocket from Kennedy Space Center nextweek for the first all-civilian mission to orbit the Earth.

Dubbed "Inspiration4," this flight will be far more advanced than the recent suborbital "hops" that carried billionaires and other civilians.

Rather than just climbing to the edge of space and returning to land in less than an hour as Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin did, Inspiration4 will circle the Earth for three days and do so in a higher orbit than the International Space Station.

Paying for it all is Jared Isaacman, a 38-year-oldbillionaire high-school dropout, who is promoting the flight as massive fundraising effort for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Anddocumenting the entire processa la a reality-TV show are camera crews from Netflix.

Life on the Red Planet?: NASA is looking for 4 people to live inside their 3D-printed Mars module for a year

As of Friday, SpaceX said the launch was set for no earlier than 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday.It expects to narrow that down to a five-hour window about three days ahead of time. The crew, who arrived at Kennedy Space Center Thursday,will launch from Launch Complex 39-A at the KSC, the same pad from which Apollo 11 launched to the moon.

Isaacman, who started his internet company Shift4 Payments as a 16-year-old in the basement of his parent's house, says he knows some people will see this mission asa billionaire going ona joyride."

But in the Netflix series "Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space" Isaacmansaid it was much more than an ego trip for a rich man.

"Were not going to do this if we cant make a huge difference for the problems the worlds faced with today or we dont earn the right to go up into space. We gravitated right to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital," he said.

Isaacman, an accomplished pilotwhois listed as the "Mission Commander and Benefactor,"sees the mission as a vehicle to raise $200 million for St. Jude. He has pledged the first $100 million himself.

Isaacman is basing Inspiration4 around four "mission pillars:" Leadership, Hope, Generosity, and Prosperity, with each represented by a seat in the Dragon capsule.

"We're not going to go up with a bunch of fishing buddies," Isaacman said.

Space tourism: Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic shoot for the stars

Isaacman will fill the Leadership seat. The other three crew members are

Issacman, a pilot who is qualified to fly commercial and military jets,was on a phone call with some people from SpaceX in 2020 on a unrelated matter. Toward the end of the conversation, he said,"Whenever you guys are ready to really open this thing up, just, like, keep me in mind."

The SpaceX folks told him they were just about ready to send civilians to space and offered him the opportunity to be first. "And I was just all over it," Isaacman said on the Netflix series.

Isaacman and SpaceX were able to quickly reach a deal. Neither is saying how much he is paying SpaceX for the launch, though Isaacman has said it was far less than $200 million he hopes to raise for St. Jude.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk calledthis first private orbital space flight animportant step toward his goal of eventually colonizing Mars.

"Hopefully, as the name suggests, it inspires people about spaceflight," Musk said in the Netflix series. "You need pioneers likeJared in order to have the future mission and ultimately making science fiction not fiction forever."

Launch of a new era or flights of fancy?: Branson, Bezos ventures may open space travel to all

SpaceX and Isaacman unveiled their project to the world in a TV ad that ran during the Super Bowl in February encouraging people to apply for the mission.

The Super Bowl ad and the all-civilian crew aren't the only signs that Inspiaration4 is something completely different from a NASA mission, which until now was the only way people reached orbit from U.S. soil.

For one thing, the timing of NASA missions are normally set far in advance of the planned launch.

But since Inspiration4 doesn't have to rendezvous with the International Space Station or plans to place a satellite in a particular orbit, the normal timing restraints don't apply.

Instead SpaceX has said it has two back-to-back 24-hour windows that open at 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept 14. It expects to narrow that down closer to launch.

Brevard County activates emergency management forlaunches and has a plan for crowd control for the launch, but can't put anything into place until it has a narrower launch window. "We are still in the dark for it ourselves," said county spokesman Don Walker. "We are in a holding pattern."

Another sign that this is not a NASA mission has been the presence of Netflix cameras from almost the time the mission was conceived.

The first two episodes of the series, which became available Sept. 6, tells the story of the crew members, how they were selected, what training they've received and how their families are dealing with their loved ones tackling space travel.

While "Countdown: Insporation4 Mission to Space" is labeled a documentary series, it is more akin to reality television than a Ken Burns film. Video cameras seemed to have been omnipresent around the crew for months, capturing everything from the moment the crew members first found out they were headed to space(via Zoom calls in which reactions varied from shock to tears) to them sharing the news with friends and family to a trip to KSC to visit the launch pad where they will blast off. It even includes video footage of Arceneaux as 10-year-old patient at St. Jude.

A deeper look at Jeff Bezos' trip to space: Plenty of elbow room and the largest windows in space

The crew of Inspiration4 has had to cram all its training into six months, while basic astronaut training takes two years at NASA.

Among the training the crew has received are centrifuge rides to simulate G forces, Zero-G plane training and time in a Dragon capsule simulator.

Of course, the flight is fully automated and Inspiration crew will never have to take control of the capsule.

Also setting Insporation4 apart from other space missions is the passel of goodies the crew canbring with them to space that will be auctioned off with proceeds going to St. Jude. NASA astronauts head to the space station are allowed to bring along 3.3 lbs. of personal items, with the rest of the cargo load set aside for science experiments and essential supplies.

Among those items heading up on Inspiration4:

As the name suggests, Isaacman hopes the Inspiration4 inspires people and to look forward to the day when space travel is not limited to highly trained astronauts.

And its hard to find a more inspiring story than Arceneaux's. She will be the youngest person ever to orbit the Earth, the first cancer survivor in space and, because of a metal rod in her leg, the first person with a prosthetic to fly on a rocket.

A 'new breed' of astronaut: Meet the citizen space traveler who'll be on Virgin Galactic's next flight

Inspiration4 and the recent space hops by billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos have drawn pushback from those who argue that the billions of dollars spent to make space tourism possible would have been better spent helping to solve problems on Earth.

In the Netflix series, though, Musk argues that humanity can both tackle problems on Earth and explore the heavens.

"I think we should spend the vast majority of our resources solving problems on Earth. Like 99% plus of our, you know, economy should be dedicated to solving problems on Earth,"he said. "But I think maybe something like 1% or less than 1% could be applied to extending life beyond Earth. ...If life is just about problems I mean why … whats the point of living."

Follow John McCarthy on Twitter:@JournalistJohnM

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The first all-civilian SpaceX flight is set to launch next week from Kennedy Space Center - USA TODAY

On July 21, 2021, billionaire Jeff Bezos rocketed about 65 miles above the Earths crust. Another billionaire, Sir Richard Branson, did the same nine days before, but his vehicle could only climb to 53 milessome do not consider that a space flight, really.

Clearly, this was not the first time man ventured into space. However, in all earlier cases, explorers pursued a publicly defined mission and were paid from the public purse. Whereas Bezos and Branson were motived by private interest. Although Bezos thanked his companys workers and customers for paying for his trip, it was, nonetheless, a privately financed venture. These two aspects, private interest and private financing, make these billionaires the worlds first space barons.

The public reception of the emerging elite space travelers club is mixed. Space enthusiasts celebrate the renewed interest in space travel, which could spark future technologies that, one day, help bring life to other planets. Critics suggest that the money used would be better spent for fighting global hunger and poverty.

There is more to both sides of this argument than meets the eye, and further inquiry is warranted. For starters, I shall rule out an otherwise interesting, but notoriously complex, dimension that gave economists a headache for decades. That is the problem of interpersonal comparison of utility. In this case, can we really compare the utility gained by Bezos from his $5.5 billion trip with that of 37 million people had the money been used to end their hunger? The question may seem rhetorical, but it is not.

The problem remains an interesting one even after Bezos, and thus the need to compare his well-being with that of others, is taken out of the picture. Let us look exclusively from the viewpoint of potential beneficiaries in the developing world. Would a transfer of cash to them be better than using the money on space tourism? Surprisingly, the answer is not necessarily affirmative.

Nobel laureate economist Angus Deaton suggests that technological innovations like antibiotics, pest control, and vaccines have been the primary drivers of humanitys escape from destitution, including in developing countries, far surpassing development aid in impact. By this logic, space tourism could muster moral support, in addition to cash, if it also facilitates significant technological advances (in addition to conspicuous consumption).

So far, blasting billionaires off to the edge of space has not exactly been earth-shattering, technically. Mankind had previously stepped onto the moon on six separate occasions; astronauts and cosmonauts have visited space routinely, often without such commotion; and Mars is already inhabited by robots. The NASA Voyager, built half a century ago, has become the first man-made object to exit our solar systemcurrently drifting at 14.2 billion miles away from usthat is about 21 hours of light-travel time from Earth (solar light reaches us in about eight minutes).

Previous research on space technology has undoubtedly improved life on earth. Modern water filtration systems, solar cells, firefighting equipment, insulin pumps, and artificial limbs are all reported to have been initiated by space research. It is too soon to see such impact from the new billionaire-driven space race. However, Bezos company Blue Origin is reported to hold at least 19 patents, whereas Elon Musks SpaceX has followed a different path: The company has not submitted any patent applications to avoid technological disclosure. Yet, there are some obvious advances including reusable rockets, which have reduced the cost of space flight dramatically.

Nonetheless, even in the presence of such innovations, there may remain significant doubts. Would for-profit innovations diffuse for public benefit as much as the publicly funded ones? The reluctance to lift intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines has been a sobering test just recently.

In some highly specialized settings, when a group tries to help those outside the group, their joint action can actually hurt the outsiders instead of helping them. This is called the Samaritans Curse and was recently discussed by Kaushik Basu, a Brookings nonresident senior fellow. In the case of foreign aid, a similar argument is considered when donors respond to deteriorating conditions in a country by providing more aid while the recipient country government acts strategically by leaving needs unfulfilled to qualify for further aid.

In space tourism, a Samaritans Curse argument can hold even without such mischievous behavior by potential recipients. Suppose the poor could benefit significantly from future innovations driven by selfish (for-profit) motives of space travelers. Then, using the space tourism money for simple cash transfers instead could be the worse option for the poor themselves. For example, in Africa, cellphone technology may have improved life more than a hypothetical transfer of equivalent size.

For such prominent technology effects, it is not enough if private space ventures muster a whole lot of innovations. The effects on the global poor will also depend on how easily those innovations can be utilized for practical purposes in daily life and how quickly those applications can diffuse to developing countries. This is an area where public policy can go a long way: Capping intellectual property protections at a reasonable level, especially when public funds are used, could help broadly. Similarly, a technology-focused assistance scheme for developing countries can complement other international aid programs. Without such discretionary actions, the benefits of space tourism could take a long time to trickle down.

The bottom line is that space tourism can hold its moral ground if it achieves life-changing technological advances. However, a public nudge is most likely needed to distribute such benefits beyond the elite space travelers club. Otherwise, humanity may jump out of the Samaritans Curse into the trickle-down economics for the space age.

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On space barons and global poverty - Brookings Institution

Did you knowSHIFT is taking the stage this fall? Together with an amazing line-up of experts, we will explore the future of mobility during TNW Conference 2021.Secure your ticket now!

In the world of mobility there are two main types of insurances: motor vehicle and travel insurance.

And while, Im sure, you all know the basics of what each of them covers, let me surprise you here by saying that travel insurance will expand to space.

Yes, you read that correctly. Travel insurance company Battleface has launched its services for space tourists, Travel Daily News reports.

So, what does a space travel insurance cover? As per Battleface, there are many benefits included such as accidental death and permanent disablement.

Well, going to space is and inherently dangerous business. Say the spaceship catches fire during launch everything goes wrong and youre lost in space forever. But dont worry, at least you can be insured.

Sasha Gainullin, CEO of Battleface, said:

Todays landscape mirrors the early days of air travel back at the beginning of last century. [] The first policy for aviation was written in 1911 and in 1927 the first transatlantic flight flown by Charles Lindbergh was insured. We are excited to be one of the first companies in 2021 to be providing insurance to space tourism pioneers who want to have the freedom to travel into space.

Of course, not everyone will have the freedom to travel into space, or to be exact, the financial means.

Too expensive

Battlefaces policy is valid for any of the space flights operated byElon MusksSpaceX, Jeff Bezoss Blue Origin, Richard BransonsVirgin Galactic, and high-tech balloon manufacturers, Space Perspective, among others.

A seat on SpaceXs Crew Dragon costs the exorbitant amount of $55 million. Trips aboard the Blue Origins New Shepard were auctioned for $28 million. Riding on Virgin Galactics VSS Unity will cost passengers $250,000 apiece. And tickets for Space Perspectives Neptune One balloon start at $125,000.

All this seems very excessive, given that were at least decades aways from seeing suborbital transportation and space travel becoming an integral part of mobility.

But if we really think about it, they are indeed infiltrating it.

Civilians, although not regular ones, like Musk, Branson, and Bezos have already made their first trip to space. Plus, all the companies mentioned in the insurance plans are planning commercial flights within the next three years.

So, it is kinda happening now.

Yes, commercial space travel is still in its infancy, but the fact that insurance companies are eyeing a place within this industry makes me wonder whether well be alive to witness mobility moving from the earth to the stars.

Do EVs excite your electrons? Do ebikes get your wheels spinning? Do self-driving cars get you all charged up?

Then you need the weekly SHIFT newsletter in your life.Click here to sign up.

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You can book travel insurance for your next trip to space wait, what? - The Next Web

With such strong base-level material, you could hardly go wrong, and so it proves with this history of the International Space Station, which has been orbiting the Earth 250 miles up since 1998. This is very much the authorised version, told largely through interviews with a select multi-national group of the over 200 astronauts who have spent time on it. With copious footage of rockets blasting off, the ISS streaking along above the atmosphere, and many God-shots of Earth itself, this has the awe-generators turned up to 11.

The interviewees are of perhaps slightly less dramatically impressive character, despite their undoubted achievements possessing a workable sense of humour doesnt seem to be high on astronaut qualification lists. They are not especially well-served by the film-makers embellishments, with over-produced childhood-memory sequences, distracting musical choices on the soundtrack, and bland segment-introduction quotes. Still, they are empathetic enough, especially when the accent is on their personal and family experiences: standout, surely, is Cady Coleman, who went to the ISS in 1995, and her glass-blower husband Josh Simpson, who both speak movingly of the crisis of separation.

Major news events also intrude into this self-contained world: footage from space of the smoke cloud rising from New York on 9/11, and the loss of the Columbia shuttle in 2003 are jolts to the serene cosmic mood. Perhaps less well-known is John F Kennedys determination as evidenced in a UN speech and a written memo to Nasa to get the USSR involved in Americas space-flight ambitions; its in this spirit of international co-operation that the ISS was evidently conceived. This film is a capable, wholesome tribute to a project that is about as warm and fuzzy as space travel gets.

The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station is released on 13 September on digital platforms.

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The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station review awe generators turned up to 11 - The Guardian

Space commercialization may make space tourism a reality. How can investors position their portfolios to take advantage of going orbital?

4 min read

Photo by TDAmeritrade

Private and public sector space investment is increasing

Global space industry could surpass $1 trillion by 2040

Space stock remains riskyboth to travel to and invest in

The successful space trips in 2021 by Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos Blue Origin and Richard Branson, founder of Virgin and Virgin Galactic (SPCE), meant more than just two billionaires being weightless in space for a few minutes. It may lead to advancements in commercialized space flights and scientific innovation too.

Although many of us cant afford to bid on a seat for the next space flightticket sales for Virgin Galactics VSS Unity start at $450,000 a seatthere are a few ways investors can position their portfolios to take advantage of going orbital.

Theres certainly a lot of interest in space investing, even if a lot of it hasnt shown profitability yet. Shares of SPCE more than doubled between the start of 2020 and mid-2021, for instance.

Elon Musks SpaceX is also in the thick of commercial space ventures. SpaceX has been around longer than both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic and was the first to send astronauts to the International Space Station. Its a private company, however, so investors cant participate. SpaceX plans to fly a passenger around the moon in 2023, but its biggest businesses are heavy launch vehicles and satellites.

Other companies looking to develop commercialized spacecraft are familiar household names that offer the public a chance to invest, including Boeing (BA), Lockheed Martin (LMT), and Northrop Grumman (NOC). BA became a big player in the space tourism race when it signed an agreement with NASA as part of its Commercial Crew Development program to launch crew vehicles into space.

The private sectors push into commercialized space flight could lead to greater space spending across the board, according to Michael Fairbourn, education coach at TDAmeritrade. President Bidens proposed 2022 NASA budget contains more science funding than ever, at $24.7 billion, including a 9% increase in the agencys science division and a 5% increase in funding for deep-space exploration systems. NASA still targets 2024 for the first piloted moon landing since 1972, though its possible the timetable on that might be delayed.

Fairbourn noted that SPCEs Branson had originally priced space travel tickets at $250,000. Being able to increase prices is critical, and to do it sustainably is what might make the venture viable.

Bransons pretty good at getting a sense of demand, Fairbourn said. He has been with other products, at least. Thats just such an important point. If you can see the pricing going up like that, its central to generating those revenues consistently.

Morgan Stanleys (MS) Space Team estimates that by 2040the global space industry could be worth more than $1 trillion, versus $350 billion in 2016.

Aside from companies developing ships and rockets for human flight, firms that might be thought of as space adjacent can profit through space-related technology that helps us on Earth.

A key part of making commercialized space flight a reality is satellites. This is one of the largest subsectors in the space industry, and these companies specialize in the infrastructure and technology of near-space and low-Earth orbit, which is where Branson and Bezos spent time. Established U.S. satellite companies include EchoStar (SATS) and Iridium Communications (IRDM).

Many start-up satellite companies are going public through special purpose acquisition (SPAC) companies, so thats another area to consider watching.

Another critical area: satellite internet improvements that make communications between spaceships and Earth seamless and provide better broadband service back home. Innovations such as 5G may speed up communications and make them clearer. Companies in this sector include Dish Network (DISH), once a part of EchoStar;Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI); and Viasat (VSAT). Morgan Stanley forecasted that internet spending will garner the lions share of spending, estimating it at 39% of that $1 trillion.

The most significant short- and medium-term opportunities may come from satellite broadband internet access, Morgan Stanley stated in a recent report. Launching satellites that offer broadband internet service will help drive down the cost of data, just as demand for that data explodes.

Satellites and broadband might be seen as more practical aspects of investing in space. The riskier area could be space tourism, which is highly speculative. Several companies and concepts have ended up in the dustbin, including a Spanish company that wanted to create a hotel-like space station. Also, a 1960s proposal for a starship powered by exploding nuclear bombs appears to be off the table.

Then there are safety issues. Space-travel safety experts noted neither Branson nor Bezos wore the pressure suits NASA and other nations require for protection from rapid decompression outside the Earths atmosphere. Under Armour (UAA) designed the space suits for Virgin Galactic.

According to Bloomberg News, there are no safety standards for the commercialized space industry, and Congress exempted U.S. space tourism from federal safety oversight for crews. This exemption lasts until at least 2023.

Space accidents are deadly, and two of them occurred with NASAs Space Shuttle. Out of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, 14 people died during the shuttle program. NASA grounded the Space Shuttle for two years after the 1986 Challenger disaster, and the agency scrapped its Space Flight Participant Program, which wouldve sent private citizens into space.

A deadly mishap in the nascent commercialized space industry could easily scuttle the advances made and set it back for years, so investors need to be cautious. Its also helpful to assess which companies are riskiest. A company working on crewed travel to the moon or Mars, for instance, might be more vulnerable to a disaster than a company trying to improve 5G through satellites.

Then again, the payoff possibilities for investors might be better if theyre willing to take on more risk. They could also lose everything, so remember: If you invest in this area, dont put in more than you can afford to lose.

Even if there arent any spectacular and tragic mission failures, space is an area thats defeated many governments in the past and may continue to defeat private companies, too.

For now, the high costs of manufacturing or mining on an asteroid or on Mars likely outweigh the possible revenue from those operations. Companies that succeed in space will need to find a way to get the price of missions and development down enough where it makes sense to operate there rather than on our own planet.

Eventually (and this may be way down the road), space could offer manufacturing and mining opportunities pretty much undreamed of on Earth. According to Forbes, a single 140-mile-wide asteroid (named 16 Psyche) made of iron and nickel could have resources worth $1 trillion.

Mining an asteroid and manufacturing products in space, if it could be done profitably, presents what might be a big step in green technology. Any pollution associated with the activity would be in space, not on Earth. Some scientists see a future where Earth eventually becomes more of a garden spot of the solar system, free from the pollutants of manufacturing and mining, which would occur on asteroids or moons. Companies that find a way to do that could become popular with the environmental, social, and governance investing crowd here at home.

Still, thats probably decades away, if not more. For now, investors might have to approach the space industry one small step at a time.

Debbie Carlson is not a representative of TDAmeritrade, Inc. The material, views, and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and may not be reflective of those held by TDAmeritrade, Inc.

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As Space Commercialization Heats Up, Can Investors Ride the Rocket? - The Ticker Tape

The rise of commercial space travel is here, and for the vast majority who cannot afford its millions-plus price tag, streaming platforms are here to capture it. Starting this week, Netflix will air the first two installments of Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, its first docuseries to cover an event SpaceXs launch of its first all-civilian crew on a three-day trip circling Earth in near real time. Subsequent episodes will document the four astronauts preparation for the 15 September launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Episodes three and four will air just two days prior; a feature-length finale film of the mission itself will air in late September.

The series, directed by veteran sports documentarian Jason Hehir, best known for The Last Dance, promises to take audiences behind the scenes of the Inspiration4 mission, from the astronaut selection to the training and eventual takeoff. Netflix, as well as the passengers and SpaceX figures introduced in the first two episodes, are billing the trip as a paradigm shift in space exploration: an aperture in commercial space travel, a small but significant advancement toward the proliferation of rocket transportation, and a new frontier for reality television.

Inspiration4 is just a really small step along that journey toward a Jetsons world where everyones going to jump in their spacecraft and journey in the worlds beyond ours, Jared Isaacman, the 38-year-old billionaire chief executive of Shift4 Payments and longtime flight enthusiast who will be the missions commander, told the Guardian. I dont think its just going to be a few people for a long time, he added, comparing space travel now, executed by private companies such as Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic with exorbitant price tags, to the early days of experimental aviation. This is starting with a few, for sure, but this going to open up to the many.

Until then, commercial space travel remains an ultra-expensive, ultra-exclusive club predominantly spurred by the mega-rich, with live streams for everyone else. In July, Blue Origin livestreamed its launch of Jeff Bezos on a 11-minute suborbital space journey on its YouTube channel and on Amazon Prime; Virgin Galactic also streamed founder Richard Bransons 59-minute space flight on YouTube, and recruited a popular science TikTok star for a future trip. Its a given, as the environmentally questionable business of space tourism continues to expand, that reality TV will ride along in April, Nasa signed a Space Act Agreement with the production company Space Hero to [facilitate] initial cooperation and information sharing for a competition show that would send the winner on an expensive trip to the International Space Station as early as 2023.

Theres a gameshow undercurrent to Countdown, the Netflix series, whose first two episodes predominantly serve to introduce viewers to the civilian astronauts, selected by a Willy Wonka-like arbitrary process tied to four core mission values.

Besides Isaacman (Leadership), who declined to specify the amount paid to participate in the mission (but did say proceeds raised for the pediatric cancer specialists at St Judes childrens research hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, would exceed the cost of the mission), the group includes Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old pediatric cancer survivor and physician assistant at St Judes, which nominated her to symbolize the value of Hope; Sian Proctor, 51, of Phoenix, Arizona, a geology professor who won a spot on Inspiration4 through a competition assessing entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to go semi-viral (Prosperity); and Chris Sembrowski, 42, a data engineer and air force veteran from Everett, Washington, selected off a list of donors to St Judes as part of Inspiration4s Superbowl campaign (Generosity).

All are new to astrodynamics, ordinary figures unused to cameras and spotlight. Its a far cry from Hehirs mission on The Last Dance, in which his team endeavored to de-iconize a celebrity as ubiquitous and iconic as Michael Jordan. Though Countdown will build, in real time, the iconography of Inspiration4, Hehir assures that the project is not acting as gauzy PR for the company I didnt see it as our role to aggrandize SpaceX, he told the Guardian. I thought it was necessary to outline what their mission is, why are we doing this because one of the first questions is always that its another billionaire going to space, whats the point? The point is ambition, seeing what else is out there, and the point in a charitable sense is raising $200m for St Judes.

This is the most common criticism levied at SpaceX, and private space travel in general, one Hehir floats midway through the first episode why send, or care about, billionaires going to space when theres an abundance of earthbound issues that need addressing, most pressingly the climate emergency. Asked his response to such backlash, Isaacman echoed his answer in the first episode of the series: We absolutely believe in balance here, he said. Its been right from the start, from the creation of Inspiration4, that weve said: we have to address some of the problems of today to earn the right to make progress for tomorrow, pointing to the fundraising effort for St Judes.

SpaceXs billionaire founder, Elon Musk, appears in the first episode for brief overviews on the mission of Inspiration4 (civilian orbital space flight) and the company at large (colonization of Mars). It was necessary to have [Musk] in it, Hehir said, because he is the face of that company and I felt that we owe it to our viewers for him to do two things. One, to articulate what the companys mission is, and then two, to address the criticism that is so pervasive these days, of billionaires going into space and the privilege of wealth. (Musks answer to the billionaire-critique is that 99%-plus of our economy should be dedicated to solving problems on Earth but a multi-planet, space-bearing civilization is an exciting, inspiring future.)

I had no interest in mythologizing that company or making it out that theyre saviors of the world, Hehir said. But I do think its important if youre going to understand the ambition of the mission, to understand the ambition of the company itself.

If all goes according to plan, the final episode, turned around on a snap days-long production timeline, will capture the Inspiration4s crew successful return to Earth. The first two episodes find each weighing the inherent risk of space travel; Proctor, in particular, remembers watching the Challenger disaster when a shuttle exploded on live television in 1986, killing all seven crew on board (captured on camera: the shock and grief of Grace and Edward Corrigan, whose daughter Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher from New Hampshire, was to be the first American civilian in space).

I understand what calculated risk is and what the reward is, she told the Guardian, and the reward of human space flight far exceeds the risk.

Proctor, who was born in Guam, where her father worked for Nasa at an Apollo tracking station, will be only the fourth black American woman ever to travel to space (to date, only about 600 people have made the journey). Bubbling with a Ms Frizzle-esque enthusiasm for space exploration, Proctor is using to her spot aboard Inspiration4 to highlight black womens long-overlooked role in American space travel. Were opening up the door for people who normally would have thought of being an astronaut or going to space, giving them the insight into how were doing it, and how times are changing, she said of participating in the first all-civilian space flight.

Old space was exclusive and you had to be the best of the best, you had to fit certain criteria. This is new space thats emerging, that enables us to open up who gets to go and participate and write the narrative of human space flight, she added, mapping out what she called a Jedi space Just, Equitable, Diverse and Inclusive.

It remains to be seen if that narrative of a more democratic space will come to pass and if Inspiration4 will push past skepticism of ultra-expensive, privately funded space flight. Regardless, the mission, and the messaging attached to it, will be televised, bringing the vast frontier to your personal screen.

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The point is ambition: are we ready to follow Netflix into space? - The Guardian

To Foundation for the Future cofounder Tim Chrisman, space travel isnt boring enough yet.

In the midst of writing his book, Humanity in Space, Chrisman told Technical.ly he realized that while he had high hopes for the future of space travel, it still didnt seem fathomable that he himself would be able to go someday. While there was plenty of innovation for astronauts and space for the Jeff Bezoses of the world to take the journey, the former CIA agent said there was still plenty missing when it came to regular people making the trip. Foundation for the Future, his nonprofit that focuses on infrastructure for space travel, was born.

Kids like to think, Im going to be an astronaut, Im going to go to space. Parents pat them on their head and are like, yeah, of course, when you own a unicorn, Chrisman said. Thats the sense space still has even though its expanding, more people are going. So were trying to put, or at least design, those boring, background things that need to be in place to make it a normal place.

The Merrifield, Virginia-based organization currently has 10 employees, and he anticipates growing to 15-20 over the next year.

Almost a year after its founding, the organization centers its efforts on the behind-the-scenes potential for space travel. In out-of-this-world development, that includes things like mineral and power reserves in outer space, wireless power transmission and space-based solar power. The Foundation, Chrisman said, works on anything from long-term financing vehicles to expanding the space workforce to policy design and advocacy in politics.

The big thing is, if we do it here, we need it there, Chrisman said. [It means] thinking about ways that whatever it is that youre using in a technological capacity here, how can that be adapted to a harsher environment?

Although it was originally concentrated around infrastructure, Chrisman said the foundation has since expanded to include efforts around workforce development for space travel. Its since partnered with organizations like a space finance firm trade association, which helps fund projects, and it has a bill pending introduction in the House of Representatives that looks to add several million jobs in the space sector, in both technology and in blue-collar building jobs. Its also taking part in a grant program with NASA to help add more education options and allow more schools across the country to develop curriculums for space builds and development.

Realistically, if you can weld a plane, you can weld a rocket, he said. If you can be a pipefitter for an oil and gas well, then you can do that for a fuel system for spacecraft.

Although rides to space by everyday people might need a bit more time to become commonplace, he foresees several thousand people eventually living in space semi-permanently, in the same way that there are scientific encampments in remote parts of Alaska and Antarctica. The International Space Station, he said, has hosted at least four-to-five humans each year for over two decades, and he expects that to double annually starting in the next few years.

Having [space] as another place that these technological things can be adapted to is really the main shift, Chrisman said. Sure, theres going to be a lot of new innovation that comes out, but most of the progress is going to be people smarter than me doing things that are exciting here on the ground and realizing: I can shoot this into space too.

Link:

This Falls Church founder wants to build out infrastructure in space - Technical.ly DC

The ability to predict the weather on planets, such as Mars, and on Saturns moon Titan could help ensure the safety of space missions, both manned and unmanned.

Elizabeth Watson 10:57 pm, Sep 06, 2021

Contributing Reporter

Creative Commons

A recent Yale study conducted by two members of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences could have crucial implications for the future of space travel.

The study, authored by postdoctoral associate J. Michael Battalio and Juan Lora, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences, focuses on the use of annular modes variabilities in the climate that are disparate from the seasonal cycle on other planets to predict weather. Their research provides evidence that these annular modes could play a role in the weather patterns of planets.

Battalios inspiration for this study stemmed from his previous research studying Martian dust storms. He realized that the dust storms had a cyclical nature that was not consistent with the shorter periodicity of the atmospheric waves that caused the storms.

I didnt know when I discovered this periodicity what was going on, but I remembered some of my previous reading of literature for Earth that annular modes on Earth had a periodicity of about 20 days, and theyre connected to these waves that had this other periodicity, Battalio said. I figured if Mars has waves like Earth and this climate feature, these annular modes then it makes sense to look for these modes on Mars and see if their periodicity can explain the dust storms.

Battalio joined Loras research group at Yale in 2019, and they had plans to research the existence of annular modes on other planets. In addition to Mars, the pair also observed a similar phenomenon on Titan, Saturns largest moon, using the Titan Atmospheric Model, a simulation of the moons climate that Lora developed during his doctoral dissertation.

To their surprise, Battalio and Lora discovered that the impact of annular modes is even greater on Mars and Titan than on Earth.

Were trying to understand whether these types of structures of variability occur in other terrestrial planetary atmospheres, and we have the tools to do that on Mars for the first time, Lora said. The idea is to try to see if theres some sort of regular variability in the atmospheres of these two places, which then if its there, we can characterize and understand it. Maybe that paves the way for weather predictions down the line, and thats where the implications and future work are.

In 2018, NASAs solar-powered Opportunity rover, which had been collecting data on Mars surface for over a decade, ceased functioning as a result of a planet-wide dust storm.

Using annular modes to monitor the planets climate could allow scientists to better predict the arrival of such weather events on Mars and prevent similar destruction on future missions.

People on the surface are going to have to rely on solar-generated electricity, Battalio said. If we cannot warn people, if we cannot forecast these dust events reliably the way we do for Earth, if one of these dust events sneaks up on them and they dont have enough energy stored in battery backups, it could make life very difficult for people on the surface.

Pedram Hassanzadeh, an assistant professor in Rice Universitys Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, described having accurate weather forecasting in places like Mars as a matter of life and death.

He believes that annular modes could play a valuable part in addressing this issue, especially since the infrastructure for predicting weather on Earth does not exist on Mars.

We are probably not going to have this infrastructure on Mars if we want to go there and stay there, so I think building a statistical model using machine learning can be an interesting step in something that even a small computer, small laptop or even an iPad could do the computation to give you some rough estimate, Hassanzadeh said. For that kind of work, using annular modes, that is perhaps our best shot.

Istvan Szunyogh, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, emphasized the importance of Lora and Battalios discovery.

He explained how the paper suggests that these annular modes are likely a common feature for planets similar to Earth, which is a significant advancement in understanding for the field.

Its not trivial that these modes exist because some of the changes, like changes in the seasons for example, are expected because they really depend on the amount of energy that comes from the sun, but as [Lora and Battalio] are describing in the paper, these are internal variabilities, Szunyogh said.

Battalio and Lora hope to expand their research to other planets, such as Venus and Jupiter.

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Yale researchers discover potential key for space travel on Mars and Titan - Yale Daily News

SpaceXCEO Elon Musk is not shy about sharing his thoughts on life in outer space or space travel, and now he has someone who is readyto hear more and over tea:Russian space chief Dmitriy Rogozin.

On Tuesday, Rogozin, the head of Russias space agency Roscosmos, gave his first interview with a Western news outlet. Speaking to CNN, Rogozin marveled at the recent flights to outer space by billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson. He said it was his hope that Russian millionaires, who he described as havingmore interest in yachts than spaceships,will one day follow and invest more in outer space travel.

Branson was the first of the two to undergo a space flight as a passenger onboard Virgin Galactic Unity 22 on July 11. Nine days later, Bezos Blue Origin NS-16 took off from a West Texas launch site and remained at a suborbital level for about 10 minutes.

For all his praise of Bezos and Branson, Rogozin saved his highest regard for Musk for achieving a dream his country was delayed from claiming.

"Mr. Elon Musk realizes many of the ideas and thoughts that we wanted to realize, but did not get to because, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, our space program halted for some time," Rogozin said on CNN. "We respect him as an organizer of the space industry and as an inventor, who is not afraid to take risk."

The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour as it approached the International Space Station after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 24, 2021 Photo: NASA / Handout

Rogozin took a moment to invite Musk to visit him in Russia and be a guest of my family. That way, he hoped to discuss further "exploring the universe, extraterrestrial life, and how we can use space to preserve life on Earth."

This is not the first time an international official has passed an invitation on to Musk. Last August, Musk tweeted "Aliens built the pyramids obv," earning him hundreds of thousands of likes as well as attention from Egypt where the great pyramids stand.Rania A. Al Mashat, Egypt's minister of international cooperation, tweeted after Musk made his remark that she follows his work "with a lot of admiration" and that her country has its door open for him to visit.

"Mr. Musk, we are waiting for you," she said.

Rogozin's invitation, however, does carry a few complications. Since 2014, Rogozin has been under U.S. sanctions from his tenure as Russias deputy defense minister as a consequence ofannexing the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This complicated cooperation on outer space, especially given the U.S. reliance on Russia for facilities and rockets to launch astronauts into orbit. Muskpraised the Russians for their rocket engineering and technology.

Musk and Rogozin also have something of a personal rivalry that has been on full display on Twitter. After coming under U.S. sanctions, Rogozin said that it would need a trampoline to get its astronauts into space as a result. Five years later, Musk, whose SpaceX company has worked together with NASA on developing new rockets, remarked at a conference that the trampoline works.

Last December, Rogozin teased SpaceX by posting a photo of a launch site from the Siberian province of Yakutia. He captioned the photo in Russian with questioning on whether or not SpaceX engineers could work like Roscosmosunder sub-zero temperatures.

Asked about these online spats, CNNs Kristin Fisher said Rogozin considered them playful, normal, healthy competition between engineers.

Soyuz-2 carrier rocket launch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on May 22, 2020. Photo: Roscosmos

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Life In Outer Space? Elon Musk Invited To Talk 'Extraterrestrial Life' With Russian Space Chief - International Business Times