Category Archives: Space Travel

Astronaut Alan Shepard is helped out of his spacesuit aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain after a successful sub-orbital flight on May 5, 1961. ( AP Images)

On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American and the second man to travel in space when he launched a 15-minute, sub-orbital flight aboard NASAs Mercury spacecraftFreedom 7. (Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had completed one orbit of the Earth on April 12, about three weeks earlier.) Shepard, whose mission ushered in the age of Americanhuman spaceflight, also became the first space traveler to manually control the orientation of his craft, as Gagarins milestone flight was largely automated.

The Mercury-Redstone rocket that transported Alan Shepard is launched into space on May 5, 1961. ( AP Images)During his flight, which was televised live around the world, Shepard glimpsed the Earth from space, remarking: What a beautiful view. Ten years later, as the commander of NASAs Apollo 14 mission, he would become the fifth astronaut towalk on the moon. He even hit golf balls on the lunar surface.

By demonstrating the feasibility of space travel, Shepard began a journey that would ultimately lead to theexploration of Mars. According to NASA, the peaceful, international exploration of space began with a single step in 1961 and continues today.

By U.S. Mission Italy | 3 May, 2021 | Topics: News | Tags: NASA, Space

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60 years ago, Alan Shepard became the first American in space | US Embassy & Consulates in Italy - US Embassy Rome

Super-fast-charging batteries, neurofeedback, space hummus, flexible solar panels, duckweeds growing systems and eye-tracking tech to combat micro-gravity induced sickness are among 44 Israeli research projects headed to the International Space Station as part of the Ramon Foundation and the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technologys Rakia Mission, as announced by the ministry this week.

The Rakia Mission includes Israeli businessman and former fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe, who is set to be the countrys second astronaut after Ilan Ramon, who perished in the Columbia Space Shuttle accident in 2003.

SEE ALSO: Israel To Send Its Second Astronaut To Space

Stibbe, who is also one of the founders of the Ramon Foundation, is set to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in early 2022, as part of the Axiom Space Ax-1 Mission, pending NASA and Axiom approvals. This first mission to the Space Station, manned entirely by private astronauts Stibbe, mission commander Michael Lpez-Alegra, investor Larry Connor and philanthropist Mark Pathy was announced in November of last year.

Stibbe is expected to spend 200 hours on the International Space Station and is set to carry out the locally developed technology experiments.

If theres going to be a country that is going to be a leader in the upcoming burgeoning space market, its natural that it should be Israel, a country known for its startups, military prowess and space industry, Glen (Itamar) Doniger, Scientific Director at Myndlift, a company with one of the 44 projects headed for space, tells NoCamels.

This is an adrenaline shot there are no other words to describe what this mission does to the Israeli space community. This is an extraordinary opportunity on every scale, Prof. Moran Bercovici of the Technions Faculty ofMechanicalEngineering said on behalf of the three Technion projects chosen for the mission.

Bercovicis lab hopes to demonstrate the first-ever fabrication of optical components in space. The experiment onboard ISS will investigate the ability to leverage the microgravity environment to produce liquid lenses.If successful, it could pave the way for the fabrication of advanced optical components in space, including the creation of extremely large telescopic lenses.

The other Technion projects will test gamma ray bursts and miniature satellites.

The schedule is crazy, the challenges are immense, but we will make it; this is in our Israeli DNA, this is what were good at, Bercovici said in a university statement. I want to thank all partners: the Ramon Foundation, the Ministry of Science and Technologys Israeli Space Agency and Rakia Missions scientific-technological committee. And a special thank you to Eytan Stibbe for his choice not to content himself with a personal experience, but to devote to science this amazing journey, on which he is taking us all.

A majority of the research projects could impact the next generation of space travel, and especially the health of future astronauts.

Home urinalysis medical device company Healthy.io, is set to try and to detect possible kidney malfunctions in real-time aboard the ISS. Keeping astronauts aboard longer space missions is critical especially as NASA moves forward with its Moon mission in 2024 and Mars mission shortly after.

Meanwhile, local company Myndlift, which uses neurofeedback a non-invasive methodology that measures brainwave activity and trains the brain using visual and auditory cues to measure brainwave activity and train the brain using visual and auditory cues, hopes its software can help Stibbe function at his best during the mission.

We believe that neurofeedback is an under-utilized tool due, in most part, to its expense and the cumbersome equipment, said Aziz Kaddan, Myndlift CEO. By creating a remote-first neurofeedback tool and platform, we have enabled people worldwide to use this training methodology from their homes, and now from space.

If Myndlift proves effective, it could have the potential to help astronauts optimize their performance in space and sustain attention for longer, expeditionary missions.

In terms of feasibility, its pretty easy to take the device up to space and to use it in space, Doniger tells NoCamels. In addition to the feasibility objective, theres also the assessment and the neurofeedback. And if all of those are shown to be favorable in this study, then the idea would be that astronauts could potentially take our system with them on expeditionary missions to the Moon, to Mars. NASA is looking for solutions to reduce risk of adverse cognitive or behavioral conditions and psychiatric disorders in that context.

Doniger adds that astronaut time is quite expensive, and praises the Ramon Foundation for enabling local research projects to look beyond the ozone layer.

Separately, Israeli battery tech companyStoreDot, a developer of extreme fast charging (XFC) battery technology (the aim is five minutes), announced that it got the OK from NASA to conduct the first space-based research and development program into new battery materials. The company is working together with the Israeli Electric Company (IEC) on the mission.

StoreDots XFC technology will undergo two weeks of testing in zero gravity conditions and the results are expected to pave the way for a new generation of advanced lithium-ion batteries. The company indicated it will use the experiment to gain new insights into the chemical reactions that cause silicon to expand during the fast-charging process.

This is an extraordinary opportunity for Israeli researchers and entrepreneurs to examine the feasibility and viability of initiatives, and to advance space research and products designated for the aerospace industry in diverse fields renewable energy, water and air purification technologies, agriculture, medical instruments, astrophysics, materials engineering, biology, psychology, quantum communication, remote sensors and more, reads the Ramon Foundations statement about the scientific mission.

Vision technology used and modified by Bar-Ilan University to help astronauts combat neuro-ocular syndrome is another project headed for the ISS.

Together with Dr. Eran Schenker, chief medical innovation officer at the Israel Aerospace Medicine Institute, Prof. Uri Polat, Head of the School of Optometry and Vision Science and Prof. Yossi Mandel, Head of the Ophthalmic Science and Engineering Lab, modified digital tablet software technology to monitor astronauts vision during space missions.

The technology is based on an application that can be downloaded to any tablet. During Eytan Stibbes time in space, we will remotely examine his vision and understand at what point in time changes occur. The results will allow us to draw conclusions about neuro-visual damage in space and may constitute a breakthrough in treatment, said Porat.

I have no doubt that this research will greatly contribute to understanding microgravity and vision function that will be of great use even during long-term missions to Mars and space, saidSchenker.

Nutrition is also key for astronauts.

Four local agriculture tech projects will experiment aboard the ISS. GreenOnyx is set to grow a water-based lentil plant under microgravity conditions; a multidisciplinary team of plant scientists from numerous institutes will try to control and analyze crops grown on the space station; Aleph Farms, together with SpacePharma, the Indian Space Applications Centre, and European space agencies and scientific high-tech startup accelerators, will try to grow cow cells for cultured meat in space; and researchers at Stanford University in collaboration with the Strauss Group, Moon2Mars Ventures, D-Mars Analog Center, and the Yeruham Science Center, will study plants extracellular optogenetics using light in chickpea plants.

One of the researchers at Stanford University is none other than Yonatan Winetraub, one of the co-founders of SpaceIL, the non-profit organization that attempted to land Israels Beresheet, the first private interplanetary robotic mission, on the Moon on April 11, 2019.

Its not by chance that the chickpea plant was chosen not only is it a sturdy plant but chickpea, in Hebrew, is hummus and it is the main ingredient of the nationally popular hummus dish eaten by93percent of the population every week, according to2020 statistics.

When I heard NASA will be sending astronauts to the moon the Jewish Mother in me had to ask, what are they going to eat?I hope that one day we can grow chickpeas on the moon, it has a very interesting science behind it, Winetraub tells NoCamels.

Viva Sarah Press is a journalist and speaker. She writes and talks about the creativity and innovation taking place in Israel and beyond.www.vivaspress.com

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44 Israeli Research Projects Headed For Space On Rakia Mission - NoCamels - Israeli Innovation News

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lon Musk, who has a talent for memorable sound bites, has gone on record as saying that his ambition for spaceflight is likely to involve killing a whole bunch of people. Some in his audience may have been shocked but spaceflight has always been risky and in some respects thus far we have been lucky. During the space shuttle programme, Nasa lost two crews of seven astronauts really abruptly and quite a few others lost their lives on the ground.

First and foremost, its nothing new. One could even argue that the modern era is simply unable to cope with the concept of loss. Our spoon fed, air-conditioned lives have become so comfortable that we cannot yet envisage the sort of attitude space exploration might soon require.

The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is usually cited as the first man to circumnavigate the world in a sailing ship. This isnt quite true. He died before his mission could be completed and it was his first officer, Juan Sebastian Elcano who brought the ship home in 1522. Only 18 men survived the voyage.

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Elon Musk is right about the inevitable risks and rewards of space travel - The Independent

DISCOVERY+ DOCUMENTS BACKYARD ENGINEERS PURSUING THEIR DREAMS OF SPACE FLIGHT IN ALL-NEW LIMITED SERIES "HOMEMADE ASTRONAUTS"

'Homemade Astronauts' to Stream Thursday, May 13, on discovery+

(LOS ANGELES) - Although we've been living in the space age for over half a century, very few people have experienced space for themselves. For some, space travel is the ultimate mission - exploring our universe beyond the Earth's atmosphere to discover the unknown. HOMEMADE ASTRONAUTS streaming Thursday, May 13, on discovery+, will document three self-financed teams who dream of becoming some of the first private citizens to launch themselves into space.

Each year, civilians from across the country and around the world set out on their own backyard space race - using nothing but grit, determination and self-taught skills to create their own home-built rockets and spacesuits. HOMEMADE ASTRONAUTS follows the journey of three groups of dreamers who pave their own paths, each with a different approach to space travel.

The four-episode series, filmed over the course of two and a half years, documents the rarely seen world of home-made space travelers and the extreme lengths these teams take to reach their goals.

These pursuits of big dreams come with big risks. And no one took bigger risks or had bigger dreams than lifelong daredevil Mike "Mad Mike" Hughes. He and his build partner Waldo Stakes set out with the ultimate goal of propelling Mike 62 miles above the earth, all the way to the Karman line, the border between Earth's atmosphere and outer space. Their plan is to raise enough money to build a "Rockoon" - part rocket, part balloon - as a cost-effective way to make the journey.

Cameras document their progress as Mike first makes three bold attempts to reach up to one mile above the earth in a steam-powered rocket. His goal: to garner publicity and fundraising for his rockoon. In March 2018, Mike launched himself nearly 1,875 feet into the air in the Mojave Desert. On the heels of this successful launch and landing, Mike tweaked his design and aimed for a full mile above ground in February of 2020.

In taking this big step towards his ultimate dream of reaching 62 miles above the earth, Mike met a tragic end when his launch did not go as planned. Sending shockwaves throughout the rocket-building community and all who knew and loved him, Mike's friends and supporters gathered in July of 2020 in tribute to the man who pursued his dream, and paid the ultimate price.

Separately, in Minnesota, the real-life "Rocketman," Ky Michaelson, is the first civilian to build and launch an unmanned rocket into space. He's working together with his son, Buddy, and entrepreneur Kurt Anderson - "The Rocketboys" - to take his skills to new heights. Ky hopes to become the first amateur to build and launch a fuel-powered, manned space rocket. Along the way, Ky and the Rocketboys build a rocket sled, in which Kurt attempts to break the land/ice speed world record.

Finally, in Oregon, anthropology professor Cameron Smith takes matters into his own hands to pursue his dream of space flight, after finding out years ago that his vision did not meet NASA standards. Now, he is creating a spacesuit that can withstand all the elements of space travel, with the ultimate goal of taking himself to the Armstrong line, 60,000 feet above ground. Using supplies as unexpected as a crockpot, he crafts a space-worthy suit that he tests on himself for safety on an airplane flight. With that success, Cameron designs a specialized hot air balloon, and comes up with an ingenious plan to float himself to the highest height.

In addition to streaming HOMEMADE ASTRONAUTS on discovery+, viewers can join the conversation on social media by using #HomemadeAstronauts and following @Discovery on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok and @discoveryplus on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more updates.

HOMEMADE ASTRONAUTS is produced by World of Wonder. Executive Producers for World of Wonder are Jeremy Simmons, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato and Tom Campbell. Executive Producer for Science Channel is Caroline Perez. Lindsey Foster Blumberg is Supervising Producer for Science.

About discovery+

discovery+ is the definitive non-fiction, real life subscription streaming service. discovery+ features a landmark partnership with Verizon that gives their customers with select plans up to 12 months of discovery+ on Verizon. discovery+ has the largest-ever content offering of any new streaming service at launch, featuring a wide range of exclusive, original series across popular, passion verticals in which Discovery brands have a strong leadership position, including lifestyle and relationships; home and food; true crime; paranormal; adventure and natural history; as well as science, tech and the environment, and a slate of high-quality documentaries. For more, visit discoveryplus.com or find it on a variety of platforms and devices, including ones from Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Roku and Samsung.

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Breaking News - discovery+ Documents Backyard Engineers Pursuing Their Dreams of Space Flight in All-New Limited Series "Homemade...

Feeding humans hurtling through space isnt easy.

While todays astronauts get to eat high quality cuisine made on on earth by some of the worlds best cooks, space travel in the future will require entirely new approaches that can grow enough food in space to produce sufficient calories and nutrients for astronaut crews on multiyear interplanetary missions.

Which is why theres growing interest from the space agencies from the U.S., Canada, Japan and other countries to find new and novel food system concepts that can keep astronauts and eventually even permanent space inhabitants fed.

To discuss the current and future state of space food, I recently got together with Anjan Contractor, the CEO of BeeHex, a company who created a 3D pizza printer for NASA. Also joining us was Dane Gobel, the operations administrator for the Deep Space Food Challenge, a new initiative by NASA and the Canadian space agency to spur innovation in developing new food systems for long-term space travel.

Some of the things we discuss on the podcast:

And much more!

You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen by clicking the player below.

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The Food Tech Show: The Future of Space Food - The Spoon

I'm a hell of a lot cooler than you guys. Why don't you just fix your little problem and light this candle?

On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel to space. His historic mission in the Freedom 7 spacecraft came a little over three weeks after the Soviet Union successfully made Yuri Gagarin the first person in space. While Gagarins spaceflight lasted 108 minutes and included a single orbit around Earth, Shepards lasted only 15 minutes and was suborbital.

Shepards mission was part of Project Mercury, NASAs first human spaceflight program, and Shepard was part of a group of astronauts called the Mercury Seven.

NASA introduced the Project Mercury astronauts to the world on April 9, 1959, only six months after the agency was established. Known as the Mercury Seven or Original Seven, they are (front row, left to right) Walter M. "Wally" Schirra Jr., Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, John H. Glenn Jr., M. Scott Carpenter, (back row) Alan B. Shepard Jr., Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and L. Gordon Cooper, Jr.

Alan B. Shepard Jr earned his bachelors degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1944 and graduated from the Naval Test Pilot School in 1951 and the Naval War College in 1957. Shepard began his naval career deployed in the Pacific during World War II and he later entered flight training at Corpus Christi and Pensacola, earning his wings in 1947. As a pilot, Shepard logged more than 8,000 flying hours, 3,700 of which were in jet aircraft.

Shepard joined the astronaut program in 1959 and began of training for his first spaceflight. According to NASA, the Mercury Sevens training was intended to provide the new astronauts with an education in astronautics and space biology, conditioning for space flight, training in the operation of the new Mercury vehicle, familiarization with ground operations, and aviation flight training. This included time in the U.S. Navys centrifuge to test his ability to withstand severe acceleration and deceleration forces while they couldnt actually train in space, they could recreate the experience as best as possible. This made ground simulator training incredibly important and required that the selected astronauts be able to adapt quickly if the in-flight experience unfolded differently than in training.

After two years of training, the day was finally here: On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard climbed into his Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7 and became the first American and second person in space on a 15-minute suborbital spaceflight.

To launch Shepard and his spacecraft into space, NASA turned to existing military ballistic missiles, modifying a U.S. Army Redstone rocket. The Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle was also used to launch Gus Grissom when he became the second American in space a few months later. From John Glenns 1962 orbital flight onward, Mercury missions were launched on modified U.S. Air Force Atlas ICBMs.

NASA turned to military designs once more for the Mercury spacesuits. Shepard wore a modified version of a U.S. Navy Mark IV flight suit (designed for high-altitude military pilots in the Navy and Marine Corps) for hisFreedom 7mission.Its futuristic look is thanks to a silver-colored coating meant to increase his visibility if an emergency rescue was needed. The zippers crossing the suit (27 in total!) were designed to make the fit very tight. In order for Shepard to get in and out of the suit, he had to unwrap that spiral zipperpractically going around his entire bodyand then rewrap the suit around him, tightening the zipper as he went.

Shepards mission ended 15 minutes after launch with splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. Throughout the mission, ground control had nearly continuous contact with Shepard through a worldwide network of ground stations, ships, and aircraft. NASA designed the Mercury capsule for a water landing, with a parachute that deployed at 24,500 feet to begin slowing the spacecraft. Unlike Yuri Gagarin, who parachuted out of his Vostok capsule, Shepard and other American astronauts stayed inside the capsule during the entire descent. After landing in the ocean, Shepard exited the spacecraft and was hoisted into a Navy helicopter and taken to the nearby aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain.

Different than Gagarins secretive launch, Alan Shepards spaceflight was very highly publicized, and millions of people watched the launch live, turning him into a national hero. In the days after his successful spaceflight, Shepard received ticker-tape parades in DC, New York, and Los Angeles, and received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal from President John F. Kennedy. In 1963, Shepard became the Chief of the Astronaut Office after being grounded from future spaceflight due toa diagnosis of Mnire's disease, an inner-ear disorder that can cause dizziness and nausea. However, in 1969 Shepard underwent an operation to relieve the symptoms of Mnire's and was cleared to fly again. He returned to space as commander of the Apollo 14 mission in 1971, becoming the fifth person to walk on the Moon.

Shepards two spaceflights took place nearly 10 years apart and his differing experiences one spaceflight a 15-minute orbital flight and the other a nine-day voyage to the Moon including nine hours of extravehicular activity on the lunar surface showcases how far NASAs human spaceflight capability had come in a single decade.

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Light This Candle: What You Need to Know About Alan Shepard's Historic Spaceflight - National Air and Space Museum

LAS CRUCES, N.M.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPCE) (the Company), a vertically integrated aerospace and space travel company, announced today that it has rescheduled the reporting of its financial results for the first quarter 2021 to following the close of the U.S. markets on Monday, May 10, 2021. Virgin Galactic will now host a conference call to discuss the results and provide a business update that day at 2:00 p.m., Pacific Time (5:00 p.m., Eastern Time). The Company is rescheduling its reporting due to the recent statement issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) on April 12, 2021 relating to the accounting treatment of warrants issued by special purpose acquisition companies (the SEC Statement).

The Company today reported in a Current Report on Form 8-K that, following its review of the SEC Statement and consulting with its advisors, the Company will restate its consolidated financial statements included in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. The restatement is due solely to the accounting treatment for the warrants of Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. that were outstanding at the time of the Companys business combination on October 25, 2019. The Company expects to file the restated financials prior to the new conference call date and estimates that it will recognize incremental non-operating, non-cash expense for each of the fiscal years ended December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019. The Company does not anticipate that the restatement will impact its previously communicated non-GAAP financial metrics, including Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.

As of today, approximately 2.7 million warrants remain outstanding, which represents less than 10% of the warrants originally issued.

As previously communicated, Virgin Galactic is targeting its next rocket-powered spaceflight from Spaceport America to take place in May.

A live webcast and replay of the conference call will be available on the Companys Investor Relations website at investors.virgingalactic.com.

About Virgin Galactic Holdings

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a vertically integrated aerospace and space travel company, pioneering human spaceflight for private individuals and researchers, as well as a manufacturer of advanced air and space vehicles. It is developing a spaceflight system designed to offer customers a unique and transformative experience. You can find more information at https://www.virgingalactic.com/.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws with respect to the Company, including statements regarding the expected impact of the restatement of the Companys financial statements on its 2020 financial results and the timing of filing of its 10-K/A . These forward-looking statements generally are identified by words such as believe, project, expect, anticipate, estimate, intend, strategy, future, opportunity, plan, may, should, will, would, and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this presentation, including but not limited to the factors, risks and uncertainties included in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), including, its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, accessible on the SECs website at http://www.sec.gov and the Investor Relations section of the Companys website at http://www.virgingalactic.com. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause the Companys actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and, except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Financial Disclosure Advisory

The Companys independent registered public accounting firm, KPMG LLP, has not audited or reviewed the estimates contained in this press release regarding the impact of the restatement on the Companys historical financial results. All estimates contained in this press release are subject to change, possibly materially, as management completes the Form 10-K/A and the Companys independent registered public accounting firm completes its audit of the Companys restated financial statements.

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Virgin Galactic Reschedules First Quarter 2021 Financial Results and Conference Call In Response to Recent SEC Guidance Relating to Warrants Issued by...

NASA's history-making Mars helicopter Ingenuity will make its third Red Planet flight this weekend, if all goes according to plan.

The Ingenuity team is targeting early Sunday morning (April 25) for sortie number three. The flight plan calls for Ingenuity to get about 16.5 feet (5 meters) above the floor of Mars' Jezero Crater, travel a total of 330 feet (100 m) and stay aloft for 80 seconds, chief pilot Hvard Grip of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote in a blog post today (April 23).

Grip did not give an estimated liftoff time but did say that data and photos are expected to starting coming down to Earth around 10:16 a.m. EDT (1416 GMT) on Sunday.

Video: Zoom in on Ingenuity helicopter's 1st flight on Mars

Ingenuity's first two flights were not so involved. On its groundbreaking first flight, which occurred on Monday (April 19), Ingenuity went straight up and down, attained a maximum altitude of about 10 feet (3 m) and stayed aloft for 39.1 seconds. On Thursday (April 22), the solar-powered helicopter remained airborne for nearly 52 seconds, got more than 16.5 feet (5 m) high and moved laterally a total of 13 feet (4 m).

During that second flight, Ingenuity snapped a photo of Jezero's floor and the tracks made by its much larger partner, NASA's Perseverance rover. It's "the first color image of the Martian surface taken by an aerial vehicle while it was aloft," NASA officials wrote in a caption for the newly unveiled photo, which Grip featured in his blog post today. (Ingenuity took photos during its first flight as well, but apparently only with its black-and-white navigation camera.)

Ingenuity is a technology demonstration designed to show that aerial vehicles can operate on Mars. A successful flight campaign could open the Red Planet's skies to extensive exploration, NASA officials have said.

The helicopter landed with Perseverance on Feb. 18 and deployed from the rover on April 3 to prep for its month-long flight campaign, which ends in early May. The Ingenuity team aims to make a total of five flights during that span, with each one more ambitious than the last.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Mars helicopter Ingenuity snaps epic photo of rover tracks, will attempt 3rd flight Sunday - Space.com

Kathleen Kate Rubins Ph.D. 06 boarded a mission in November 2020 to conduct scientific experiments under a microgravity environment. She returned to Earth on Apr. 16, bringing updates about her latest research finding.

Great to be back on the planet! the NASA astronaut said at the post-flight news conference last Tuesday.

Sunday marks National DNA Day, which celebrates advancements in the field of genomic research. In 2016, Rubins participated in Expeditions 48/49 to conduct scientific experiments in space. She became the first person to sequence DNA in space, research that she continued on her most recent mission a game changer in the field that opens up possibilities for analyzing various biological samples in space.

A former Stanford cancer biology student, Rubins recent assignment at the International Space Station (ISS) totaled 300 days in space across two flights charting her as the U.S. female astronaut with fourth most days in space.

She described her sense of awe and wonder upon glimpsing the Earth for the first time at the press conference: I was blown away, I couldnt even talk, she said. It is one of those views that never gets old.

Rubins 185-day stay in orbit is part of her preparation for the chance to become the first woman to walk on the moon as soon as 2024. The most recent of the 12 people to walk on the surface of the moon was there on Dec. 19, 1972, as part of the final mission of the U.S. Apollo program. Fittingly, in Greek mythology, Apollo has a twin sister named Artemis, for whom the new lunar landing program is named.

Prior to joining NASA as one of nine members of the 20th NASA astronaut class, she was a principal investigator at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT. She studied viral infections that affect Central and West Africa, including Ebola and smallpox. She brought expertise in infectious disease, molecular biology and microbiology to the team at the ISS.

On Nov. 15, the spacecraft left the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and docked on the Earth-facing port of the Rassvet module, a part of ISS, after a two-orbit, three-hour flight. While in space, she worked on numerous research projects, including comprehensive microbe sampling of the space station and cardiovascular cell behaviour in microgravity.

We were able to advance quite a bit from the 2016 initial sequencing, Rubins said at the press conference. [The] team has developed a lot of different ways of processing samples so they can go straight from a swab to a sequence, which is really important if you are looking at microbes or environmental samples.

Rubins also spent a large portion of the time aboard the ISS studying how plants sprout in microgravity. Freeze-dried food does not always contain all the nutrients astronauts need, especially for long voyages, so her work could help missions in the future.

We did get a few to harvest, Rubins said, describing the radishes that she managed to grow. I shared these with my crew mates so the whole crew was the first to eat radishes in space.

Space biology research will also be crucial to the success of the Artemis exploration program, according to aerospace and astronautics associate professor Simone DAmico.

New genetics and biological techniques are needed to understand how life adapts and changes during spaceflight, he said, adding that ultimately, the goal is to support human exploration of the moon and Mars. Gaining more insights here, such as how fluids move around plant roots in microgravity, is necessary for carrying out large-scale crop growth.

Conducting day-to-day biological experiments in space comes with various challenges. In an earlier interview with microbiology and immunology professor David Relman, Rubins described the practical challenges of conducting experiments in space.

Everything is floating, she said. Nothing is tacked down on your lab bench. You have to put velcro on every piece of equipment.

One of Rubins ongoing interests during her time in space was to establish a full microbial map of the space station, which she initiated during her latest trip by collecting 800 different environmental samples in the Space Station.

In an email to The Daily, Relman explained that studying the microbiome of human-inhabited spacecraft will offer multiple interesting insights.

Spacecraft in particular are the ultimate example of a closed environment, with tightly regulated environmental and life-support processes, he said. The role of microbes in adapting to, and modifying such environments, is relevant for our understanding of the interplay between microbial communities and human-associated environments on earth, including for managing and mitigating microbial community processes.

Relman added that better understanding and anticipation of microbial threats to human health will be critical as humans begin to look into long-term space travel. Understanding ways in which humans contaminate their local environments and the way environmental microbes could threaten our health will guide future investigation on how to best monitor and control these issues.

When theres any possibility of discovering extraterrestrial life forms, NASA investigates how to ensure that nothing on a foreign celestial body is exposed to earthly disease. According to Rubins, the moon is a very good control for Mars. Sampling everything that astronauts are bringing with them to the moon will help them develop a library and catalog of microbial population.

I think it would be a really incredibly interesting experiment to sample the lunar surface just as were doing the course of our exploration and understand our microbial footprint, Rubins said.

The crews on board NASA SpaceX Crew-1 mission, which coincided with Rubinss travel, are scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday, April 28. Rubins said that shed love to go back to the space station again, and for the next expedition shell bring a few photographs of family, a journal and mostly the sense of awe and wonder.

This article has been updated to reflect that Kate Rubins was the first person on the planet to sequence DNA rather than the first woman.

A previous version of this article incorrectly attributed a quote to Rubins instead of Relman. The Daily regrets this error.

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Stanford alumna Kate Rubins returns to Earth after six months of being in space - The Stanford Daily

For most people, getting to the stars is nothing more than a dream. On April 28, 2001, Dennis Tito achieved that lifelong goal but he wasnt a typical astronaut. Tito, a wealthy businessman, paid US$20 million for a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to be the first tourist to visit the International Space Station. Only seven people have followed suit in the 20 years since, but that number is poised to double in the next 12 months alone.

NASA has long been hesitant to play host to space tourists, so Russia looking for sources of money post-Cold War in the 1990s and 2000s has been the only option available for those looking for this kind of extreme adventure. However, it seems the rise of private space companies is going to make it easier for regular people to experience space.

From my perspective as a space policy analyst, I see the beginning of an era in which more people can experience space. With companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin hoping to build a future for humanity in space, space tourism is a way to demonstrate both the safety and reliability of space travel to the general public.

The Development of Space Tourism

Flights to space like Dennis Titos are expensive for a reason. A rocket must burn a lot of costly fuel to travel high and fast enough to enter Earths orbit.

Another cheaper possibility is a suborbital launch, with the rocket going high enough to reach the edge of space and coming right back down. While passengers on a suborbital trip experience weightlessness and incredible views, these launches are more accessible.

The difficulty and expense of either option has meant that, traditionally, only nation-states have been able to explore space. This began to change in the 1990s as a series of entrepreneurs entered the space arena. Three companies led by billionaire CEOs have emerged as the major players: Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX. Though none have taken paying, private customers to space, all anticipate doing so in the very near future.

British billionaire Richard Branson has built his brand on not just business but also his love of adventure. In pursuing space tourism, Branson has brought both of those to bear. He established Virgin Galactic after buying SpaceShipOne - a company that won the Ansari X-Prize by building the first reusable spaceship. Since then, Virgin Galactic has sought to design, build and fly a larger SpaceShipTwo that can carry up to six passengers in a suborbital flight.

The going has been harder than anticipated. While Branson predicted opening the business to tourists in 2009, Virgin Galactic has encountered some significant hurdles including the death of a pilot in a crash in 2014. After the crash, engineers found significant problems with the design of the vehicle, which required modifications.

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, respective leaders of SpaceX and Blue Origin, began their own ventures in the early 2000s.

Musk, fearing that a catastrophe of some sort could leave Earth uninhabitable, was frustrated at the lack of progress in making humanity a multiplanetary species. He founded SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of first developing reusable launch technology to decrease the cost of getting to space. Since then, SpaceX has found success with its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. SpaceXs ultimate goal is human settlement of Mars sending paying customers to space is an intermediate step. Musk says he hopes to show that space travel can be done easily and that tourism might provide a revenue stream to support development of the larger, Mars-focused Starship system.

Bezos, inspired by the vision of physicist Gerard ONeill, wants to expand humanity and industry not to Mars, but to space itself. Blue Origin, established in 2004, has proceeded slowly and quietly in also developing reusable rockets. Its New Shepard rocket, first successfully flown in 2015, will eventually offer tourists a suborbital trip to the edge of space, similar to Virgin Galactics. For Bezos, these launches represent an effort at making space travel routine, reliable and accessible to people as a first step to enabling further space exploration.

Outlook for the Future

Now, SpaceX is the only option for someone looking to go into space and orbit the Earth. It currently has two tourist launches planned. The first is scheduled for as early as September 2021, funded by billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman. The other trip, planned for 2022, is being organized by Axiom Space. These trips will be costly, at $55 million for the flight and a stay on the International Space Station. The high cost has led some to warn that space tourism and private access to space more broadly might reinforce inequality between rich and poor.

Blue Origins and Virgin Galactics suborbital trips are far more reasonable in cost, with both priced between $200,000 and $250,000. Blue Origin appears to be the nearest to allowing paying customers on board, saying after a recent launch that crewed missions would be happening soon. Virgin Galactic continues to test SpaceShipTwo, but no specific timetable has been announced for tourist flights.

Though these prices are high, it is worth considering that Dennis Titos $20 million ticket in 2001 could pay for 100 flights on Blue Origin soon. The experience of viewing the Earth from space, though, may prove to be priceless for a whole new generation of space explorers.

Wendy Whitman Cobbis a professor of strategy and security studies at theU.S. Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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