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In SF Saids first work of childrens literature, Varjak Paw, the eponymous cat ventures out into the big, wide world. By rather appropriate contrast,another feline hero rendered by the author in The Book of Hopes, a collection of short stories published for children in the time of coronavirus, is living in close confinement.

The Naughtiest Cat I Have Ever Known is a 500-word tale by the Beirut-born Said and sits alongside 110 other contributions from leading childrens authors, poets and illustrators to provide words and pictures to comfort, inspire and entertain children in lockdown.

Saids cat in the autobiographical story, named Monamy from the French mon ami meaning my friend, is not under restrictions imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19 but instead lives in the claustrophobic third-floor London flat that was the writers childhood home. Ultimately, Monamy performs a valiant leap that sends a pompous relative of Said packing. Before that feat, however, the cat prances about climbing walls and tearing the place apart.

I was thinking about myself as a child at a time when I felt very isolated in a way that I imagine kids in lockdown will be feeling everywhere, Said tells The National. It was the appearance of this extraordinary, incredibly naughty cat that sent this explosion of activity and hope into my life, he says.

My mum was a single mum. I was an only child. She was quite protective and we lived in not the most salubrious bit of London. She did not really let me go out on my own until I was about 13.

The Book of Hopes has been launched as a free e-book by the National Literacy Trust in the UK, and will eventually be published as a gift book in the autumn by Bloomsbury, in support of NHS Charities Together.

The book is dedicated to: The doctors, nurses, carers, porters, cleaners and everyone currently working in hospitals: you are the stuff that wild, heroic dreams are made of.

The Hope Project was started only a few weeks ago by the award-winning author of The Good Thieves, Katherine Rundell, who emailed some of the childrens writers and artists that she most admires, asking them to write or draw something that might make children laugh or wonder or snort or smile.

The response was magnificent, which should not have surprised me, because childrens writers and illustrators are professional hunters of hope, Ms Rundell says in the foreword.

We seek it out, catching it in our nets, setting it down between the pages of a book and sending it out into the world, she says.

The stories, poems, essays and pictures are not all explicitly about hope but they each aim to create it through plastic-devouring caterpillars, doodles, beautiful prose, space travel, new shoes and dragons or accounts of a cat, like that of Saids Monamy.

Said is only one of the many luminaries who wholeheartedly embraced the project, including Lauren Child, Onjali Rauf, Anthony Horowitz, Michael Morpurgo, Axel Scheffler, Jacqueline Wilson and Sita Brahmachari.

Said, who won the 2003 Smarties Prize for Childrens Literature for Varjak Paw, describes the The Book of Hopes as a wonderful, inspiring idea and is thrilled he was asked to contribute.

I tried to think what I could do, he says. Childrens literature is capable of expressing absolutely anything that any other kind of literature is capable of expressing. But one thing it is uniquely good at expressing is hope as a possibility.

As the world looks for silver linings amid an avalanche of negatives brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, Said hopes that children will discover or reconnect with the joys of reading and also possibly take that pleasure one step further by creating their own written works.

If you love reading as a kid, and that could be reading anything, that is the single best thing you can possibly do, he says. Move from reading to writing for pleasure or drawing for pleasure. It can be anything. Make videos for pleasure, animation. That is enormously powerful.

Before the Covid-19 outbreak, Said would regularly embark on school visits, talking to children about reading, writing and creativity.

The closure of schools has stopped him from turning up in person but he has been using online video chats to reach out to pupils. It might not be exactly the same thing, he says, but the connection is still there.

The fact that I was not in the room did not get in the way of the message being communicated, he says.

I was really getting the sense that what they were getting from it was exactly that the feeling they wanted to go and write their own stories now, and you could do that at any age. One thing I always try and get over to kids is that age is irrelevant to writing. [You] guys can totally be writers right now. Just think about what you love and write something about that.

The message that Said is spreading through his talks and stories has come full circle because it was his own pet, Monamy, when he was a child that provided the inspiration for his own career as a childrens author.

I remember writing stories about him at the time, making comics about him. I used to love drawing him, the author says of his adored childhood cat. Whatever it is that you love a pet, another person, another object, a sport making something about the things you love can be an incredibly hopeful thing to do.

The Book of Hopes begins with a particularly poignant drawing by Child of a little girl framed in the window of a house, all in monochrome, looking out at the vibrantly colourful birds perched in a tree outside.

It serves as a powerful illustration of Saids belief that the book might be a creative momentum to help its young, cooped-up readers find some release, freedom and possibility. Which I think we could all use a bit of now, he says.

Updated: May 4, 2020 12:18 PM

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Beloved authors and illustrators create a free 'Book of Hopes' for children in lockdown - The National

Christopher Elliott, Special to USA TODAY Published 7:00 a.m. ET April 10, 2020

Reporters and experts from across the country and the USA TODAY Network help answer America's most urgent questions about the $2 trillion stimulus package. USA TODAY

Travelers are furious.

During the past month, they've watched the travel industry line up at the trough for government handouts. A $500 billion loan fund for hotels and $50 billion for airlines. Travel agents who book airline tickets can apply for$25 billion in loans and loan guarantees.

Yeah, that's billion with a "B."

And what did America's taxpayers get for it? Not much.

President Trump signs $2 trillion stimulus package:What's in it for travelers?

Travel companies didn't have to promise to fix their abusive policies. Airlines may continue charging outrageous fees and squeezing us into small seats. Tour operators are allowed to force us into ridiculous contracts when we book a vacation. And hotels can keep on charging "gotcha" resort fees.

In fact, many travel companies just turned around and retroactively changed their refund policies to allow them to keep even more of your money.

"Im really fuming," says John Kovacs, a retired consultant and frequent traveler based in Denver. "They get a bailout and continue to force us into hamster-size seats."

So what would make travelers less angry? Well, maybe we need a bailout. Not a financial bailout, but a helping hand from the government. Travel companies should obey their own rules and government regulations. Maybe we can't go back and impose conditions on that $2 trillion in government aid, but can't we at least attach a string or two to future assistance?

More bailout money for airlines? Trump says talks are underway

When it comes to customer service, travel is lightly regulated. But there are a few rules. One is the Department of Transportation's requirement that airlines fully refund a flight if they cancel it, regardless of the reason.

By the way, if a refund is due, the DOT says your airline must process it within seven business days if you paid by credit card, and 20 business days if you paid by cash or check.

Airline cancel your flight due to coronavirus crisis? You're still due a refund, DOT says

But airlines apparently believe this rule is negotiable in the coronavirus outbreak. Last week, United Airlinesbegan telling customers that it can offer only a ticket credit, even when it cancels a flight. Others quickly followed.

I checked with the Transportation Department, whichreaffirmed that the rule is very much in effect. Then it issued an enforcement notice reminding airlines that passengers should be refunded promptly when their scheduled flights are canceled or significantly delayed.

"Although the COVID-19 public health emergency has had an unprecedented impact on air travel, the airlines obligation to refund passengers for canceled or significantly delayed flights remains unchanged," the agency said in its April 3 order.

I got my airline to refund my ticket amid the pandemic: Here's how to get one if you're eligible

It's the height of corporate arrogance to ask their customers the American taxpayer for a bailout and then to take even more of their money. Yet that's exactly what is happening.

No wonder travelers are livid.

It gets worse. For years, travel companies pushed their customers into one-sided contracts that limited or completely eliminated their rights. If you wanted a full refund on a cruise, flight or resort stay, there was only one certain way you could get it: The company had to cancel. But in recent days, companies have reneged on that industry-standard practice, too, citing "extraordinary" circumstances.

Consider what happened to Kelly Kraft when Sandals canceled her coming vacation at Beaches Turks & Caicos, an all-inclusive property. A representative contacted her and told her that the $11,284 she'd paid for her vacation was "fully nonrefundable." Sandals offered her a credit valid for one year.

"They are trying to find a reason to justify keeping the money I paid for services I am not going to receive," says Kraft, a sales director from Diamondhead, Mississippi.

Interestingly, Kraft's cancellation isn't even addressed in her contract. Sandals has rules for when you cancel a vacation, but not when it cancels. A Sandals representative said the company has always addressed these rare instances on a case-by-case basis. But she added that reaction from customers to itsvoucher offer has been "overwhelmingly positive."

I'm not so sure about that. Many travelers are stuck at home and are facing sickness or unemployment as the coronavirus spreads. Is it asking too much for a travel company to refund a vacation it canceled?

Travel fees: These are the most ridiculous travel surcharges to look out for

USA TODAY's Christopher Elliott explains how to avoid additional resort fees.

Travel companies may ask for even more aid soon. if and when they do, legislators should attach a list of common-sense requirements to the next bailout. At a minimum, airlines, cruise lines and hotels must follow their contracts and obey all applicable rules and regulations.

But these companies should also promise to do better. They can't just pick up where they left off when the outbreak started. Their customers deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, now more than ever.

In an age of social distancing, airlines should offer all of their passengers a humane and safe amount of personal space on a plane. Hotels must stop charging surprise resort fees. And all travel companies should honor their agreements.

The travel industry should have been treating their customers better all along. But if they're going to take our money, they need to start behaving better now.

Do you have the right to recline your airline airplane seat? No, and here's why

There is no space to recline in airplanes anymore so here are ways to deal with the people who still do. USA TODAY

The airline industry is likely to ask for more aid in the coming weeks. Here's what tax-paying travelers want in return for bailing out the airlines:

Fair fees. Airlines should agree to stop charging fees that are unreasonable or disproportional to the costs they incur. That means no more $750 ticket change fees or $200 baggage fees.

Humane seat sizes. The government is under a congressional mandate to set minimum airline seat sizes. Until it does, airlines must promise to refrain from moving their seats even closer together.

Flexible refunds. Airlines must fully refund a ticket when a passenger has an infectious disease. And those change fees they waived for spring flights? Make them permanent, please.

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Travel bailouts: Airlines, hotels and travel agents all got them. Shouldn't the public? - USA TODAY

To the Editor:

The boogey man is a mythical creature never actually seen, but often used by storytellers to strike fear into children as the punisher for their misbehavior. Without a personal appearance, the boogey man has become an evil monster in the folklore of every world culture.

We still cant see him, but the boogey man is here now and he is scaring all of us to self-quarantine or be radically punished for our misbehavior. The invisible C19 virus comes to invade, sicken, and potentially destroy its victims. Like Medusa, the boogey man wont hurt you unless you are foolish and want to look directly into his eyes.

It is our American heritage to challenge and battle against competitors we can see. We have never fully won the battles with previous viruses. We have respected their deadliness enough to keep them at a safe distance until we learn how to coexist with them. Coexistence has been our only option.

As pioneers, we have constantly traveled into the unknowns of sailing the sea, exploring remote wildernesses and even the unnatural silence of space travel. These were experimental adventures where technology gave us a sense of control. At the moment the C19 virus is controlling us and that makes us angry. Angry because we do not have the knowledge to attack it just yet.

During this social intermission, time and distance are our best allies. Social distancing is the most effective therapeutic known to us at this time so we must take it in the maximum dosage possible.

I can feel the boogie man surrounding me and see him in the eyes of those he has infected. I dont want to meet him face to face so for at least the next 30 days I cant meet with you face to face either.

Rick Dime

Richmond

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Letter: The boogeyman - Northwest Herald

PHOTO: Shutterstock

Thought you'd read it all? The Luxembourg Times asked its culture squad to each pick five favourite books. Merel Miedema weighed in with ways to look at literature in multiples while locked down in Amsterdam.

Book pairings to show off with once you can meet up with your friends again:

Circe by Madeline Miller, The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker and The Penelopeiad by Margaret Atwood:

If you love Greek myth but are bored with the largely male-dominated narrative, these three books are perfect for you. In Circe, the eponymous heroine is exiled on an island of her own after her powers are found out by the Gods. From her island, she interacts with crucial points in Greek mythology and subverts their meaning. The Silence of the Girls deals with the Trojan War from a captured royals perspective and offers some heart-breaking insights into the lives of slaves in ancient times. Atwoods Penelopeiad shows an interesting and humorous side of Penelopes experience during her husbands absence and return. Whether read together or not, these three novels form fresh female perspectives on well-known classics.

Neil Gaimans The Sandman and Batman: Knightfall by DC Comics:

Perfect for when you have some (or a lot) of time on your hands, both of these chronicles make use of different visual artists in elaborate story lines with interesting and colourful casts. The Sandman tells the story of Dream, recently escaped from captivity, and his six siblings; Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny. Batman: Knightfall is a crucial story arc within the Batman world, dealing with the playboy-turned-vigilantes burnout and eventual change of strategy. Beautiful, violent and sometimes outright shocking, these stories will keep you captivated long after you finish reading.

The Collected Short Stories of Roald Dahl and Isaac Asimovs The Complete Stories:

To cleanse your palate and refresh your perspective in between epic tomes, try reading a short story from either one of these masters of the art form. Dahls stories often have a cruel streak and are always a delight. Whether he writes about spousal murder or neglect, accidentally turning your baby into a monster or exacting the perfect revenge, his stories are both entertaining and hilarious. Aasimovs stories, on the other hand, are not only beautiful insights into the time in which they were written (where space travel is possible but women are mostly still only wives or secretaries), but also make their readers think about more existential questions.

David Mitchells Cloud Atlas and Emile Zolas Germinal:

If bleak is what you are looking for, look no further than Zola. His novel on the lives and conditions of French mineworkers in 1860s France is an incredible journey of hopelessness and despair, but also of insight and beauty. It is paired here with another challenging but more future-oriented novel. Cloud Atlas is disorienting at first and might confuse at the start, but understanding will follow as you move further along the nested storyline. Both dystopian (with Germinal more rooted in reality than CloudAtlas) and simultaneously tentatively hopeful, these two novels belong together not so much because they share a genre or subject matter but more because they show the value of human connections throughout time and hardships.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov:

Pairing these two novels together is an uneasy move, and reading them both will most likely leave you with an uneasy feeling, too. Yanagiharas novel is a stunning and excruciating tale of friendship, love, and trauma. Juxtaposed as it is here with Nabokovs more light-hearted and satirical treatment of a similar subject, it will hopefully raise some interesting questions not only about the subject matter of both works, but also about the nature of art and its different applications in the processing of human trauma and emotion. These novels, and especially the combination of the two, are not for the faint of heart and are anything but escapist, but anyone who can make it through both will have a lot to think about. Keep your tissues close by.

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe and Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen:

This is one for the die-hards. Described as the archetypal Goth novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho is long, hard to read and complicated. You will want to throw it out the window several times during reading. Dont, because your reward will be a far better understanding of Northanger Abbey (and the Gothic genre). Only once youve read the first novel will Catherine Morlands ill-informed jumps to conclusion in the second make real sense and be much funnier. Make a pot of tea (or open a bottle of wine), supply yourself with plenty of biscuits, and sit yourself down for a truly challenging and rewarding adventure.

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Culture - The lockdown librarian - part 3 - Luxembourg Times

A growing number of cities around the world are temporarily reallocating road space from cars to people on foot and on cycles to keep key workers moving and residents in coronavirus lockdown healthy and active while socially distancing.

Limited urban park space and leisure trails are under increasing pressure, with many closed to prevent the spread of coronavirus, further limiting urban dwellers access to outdoor space. While traffic has dropped around the world, and with it nitrogen dioxide levels, there are widespread concerns over a rise in speeding drivers endangering those walking and cycling.

Evidence suggests air pollution, including from exhaust fumes, significantly harms the survival chances of those with Covid-19. With pedestrians crammed on to narrow pavements, and acres of empty asphalt on roads, lower speed limits, filtering residential streets to prevent rat-running, introducing emergency cycleways and expanding footpaths are among potential solutions.

Tabitha Combs, a lecturer at the University of North Carolina, is collating examples from around the world, adding to growing calls for more such measures.

No matter where a city is on the spectrum of supporting walking and bicycling, there are actions that are within their reach, and precedents of those actions being implemented in peer cities around the globe, she says.

In Philadelphia officials closed 4.7 miles of Martin Luther King Jr Drive, a wide riverside boulevard, to motor traffic on 20 March following an 1,100-strong petition, as leisure trails became overwhelmed by residents seeking their daily exercise.

Minneapolis has closed part of its riverfront parkways to motor vehicles. Denver has introduced pop-up cycling and walking lanes on 16th and 11th Avenues and roads around Sloan Lake to help people socially distance while exercising. On Thursday, Oakland officials said they were planning to close 74 miles of roads 10% of the citys total to motor vehicles.

In Canada, Vancouvers park board announced that Stanley Park is now cycling and walking only, as well as the linked eastbound lane of Beach Avenue, to relieve congestion and stop visitors arriving by car and parking dangerously, amid a 40% increase in park users. In Winnipeg, four streets are restricted to cycling and walking from 8am-8pm daily, and in Calgary traffic lanes have been reallocated to cycling.

Like many cities, Budapest has seen a drop in bus use by almost 90%, with a 50% decrease in road traffic. City officials have now planned a cycling network on main roads.

Sydney, Perth and Adelaide in Australia, Chapel Hill in the US and Calgary in Canada are among the cities that have made pedestrian crossings automatic in some districts so that people do not have to press a button.

In Berlin, a slew of streets have new, wide bike lanes in place of some motor vehicle lanes. Bogot has ambitiously replaced 35km of traffic lanes with new emergency bike lanes using temporary cones, mirroring the Colombian capitals TransMilenio bus rapid transit network, an alternative to people using public transport. Workers adjust the lane width depending on usage.

In late March the bicycle mayor of Mexico City proposed 130km of temporary bike lanes. In the meantime, a 1.7km temporary lane, running 8am-7pm, has been installed on a major thoroughfare.

In the UK, however, it is a very different picture. In London, where traffic has dropped by 63% on main roads, walking and cycling commissioner Will Norman says emergency bike routes on the citys arterial roads would not protect cyclists without complex junction improvements, which would require construction workers to travel during lockdown.

Cycling UKs policy director, Roger Geffen, has suggested junctions could be redesigned while roads are quieter, saying temporary cycling infrastructure provides a good experience to new commuters, while claiming that kerb space when its not under pressure and not as disruptive to make changes.

Hackney council in east London is the first UK local authority openly planning to temporarily filter its streets, using bollards and planters to prevent rat-running while maintaining access for emergency vehicles and residents. Councillor Jon Burke says it will decide which streets to filter on 20 April, before starting work.

Burke told the Guardian pedestrians stepping into the road to socially distance from one another are put at risk by speeding drivers, whose number appears to be increasing during the lockdown. He says construction workers can operate while socially distancing, and it is one sector with excess capacity during the pandemic.

We are running around making sure vulnerable people have enough food but we arent doing something about the 40,000 people that are dying each year because of air pollution, he says. We havent got weeks to deliver it, we need to deliver it now, because this crisis is happening now.

Dr Rachel Aldred, reader in transport at the University of Westminster, says the UK could learn from other countries. It feels like they are treating [cycling] like a proper mode of transport and we are just fumbling around. Theres no guidance from the government I think if they can manage it in Bogot, which is a very complicated megacity with a lot of issues, you could imagine London doing similar, she said, adding that much of the planning could be done remotely.

Transport engineer Brian Deegan says 20mph streets, bikes for key workers, and core corridor emergency cycle routes would help more essential staff cycle, while removing guard rails on pavements and extending pedestrian space using traffic cones would help those on foot. The London Cycling Campaign has also come up with short, medium and long-term proposals to improve active travel in the capital during the crisis.

Coronavirus and volunteering: how can I help in the UK?

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World cities turn their streets over to walkers and cyclists - The Guardian

Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at The Ohio State University, host of Ask a Spaceman and Space Radio, and author of "Your Place in the Universe." Sutter contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Interstellar space travel. Fantasy of every five-year-old kid within us. Staple of science fiction serials. Boldly going where nobody has gone before in a really fantastic way. As we grow ever more advanced with our rockets and space probes, the question arises: could we ever hope to colonize the stars? Or, barring that far-flung dream, can we at least send space probes to alien planets, letting them tell us what they see?

The truth is that interstellar travel and exploration is technically possible. There's no law of physics that outright forbids it. But that doesn't necessarily make it easy, and it certainly doesn't mean we'll achieve it in our lifetimes, let alone this century. Interstellar space travel is a real pain in the neck.

Related: Gallery: Visions of Interstellar Starship Travel

If you're sufficiently patient, then we've already achieved interstellar exploration status. We have several spacecraft on escape trajectories, meaning they're leaving the solar system and they are never coming back. NASA's Pioneer missions, the Voyager missions, and most recently New Horizons have all started their long outward journeys. The Voyagers especially are now considered outside the solar system, as defined as the region where the solar wind emanating from the sun gives way to general galactic background particles and dust.

So, great; we have interstellar space probes currently in operation. Except the problem is that they're going nowhere really fast. Each one of these intrepid interstellar explorers is traveling at tens of thousands of miles per hour, which sounds pretty fast. They're not headed in the direction of any particular star, because their missions were designed to explore planets inside the solar system. But if any of these spacecraft were headed to our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, just barely 4 light-years away, they would reach it in about 80,000 years.

I don't know about you, but I don't think NASA budgets for those kinds of timelines. Also, by the time these probes reach anywhere halfway interesting, their nuclear batteries will be long dead, and just be useless hunks of metal hurtling through the void. Which is a sort of success, if you think about it: It's not like our ancestors were able to accomplish such feats as tossing random junk between the stars, but it's probably also not exactly what you imagined interstellar space travel to be like.

Related: Superfast Spacecraft Propulsion Concepts (Images)

To make interstellar spaceflight more reasonable, a probe has to go really fast. On the order of at least one-tenth the speed of light. At that speed, spacecraft could reach Proxima Centauri in a handful of decades, and send back pictures a few years later, well within a human lifetime. Is it really so unreasonable to ask that the same person who starts the mission gets to finish it?

Going these speeds requires a tremendous amount of energy. One option is to contain that energy onboard the spacecraft as fuel. But if that's the case, the extra fuel adds mass, which makes it even harder to propel it up to those speeds. There are designs and sketches for nuclear-powered spacecraft that try to accomplish just this, but unless we want to start building thousands upon thousands of nuclear bombs just to put inside a rocket, we need to come up with other ideas.

Perhaps one of the most promising ideas is to keep the energy source of the spacecraft fixed and somehow transport that energy to the spacecraft as it travels. One way to do this is with lasers. Radiation is good at transporting energy from one place to another, especially over the vast distances of space. The spacecraft can then capture this energy and propel itself forward.

This is the basic idea behind the Breakthrough Starshot project, which aims to design a spacecraft capable of reaching the nearest stars in a matter of decades. In the simplest outline of this project, a giant laser on the order of 100 gigawatts shoots at an Earth-orbiting spacecraft. That spacecraft has a large solar sail that is incredibly reflective. The laser bounces off of that sail, giving momentum to the spacecraft. The thing is, a 100-gigawatt laser only has the force of a heavy backpack. You didn't read that incorrectly. If we were to shoot this laser at the spacecraft for about 10 minutes, in order to reach one-tenth the speed of light, the spacecraft can weigh no more than a gram.

That's the mass of a paper clip.

Related: Breakthrough Starshot in Pictures: Laser-Sailing Nanocraft to Study Alien Planets

This is where the rubber meets the interstellar road when it comes to making spacecraft travel the required speeds. The laser itself, at 100 gigawatts, is more powerful than any laser we've ever designed by many orders of magnitude. To give you a sense of scale, 100 gigawatts is the entire capacity of every single nuclear power plant operating in the United States combined.

And the spacecraft, which has to have a mass no more than a paper clip, must include a camera, computer, power source, circuitry, a shell, an antenna for communicating back home and the entire lightsail itself.

That lightsail must be almost perfectly reflective. If it absorbs even a tiny fraction of that incoming laser radiation it will convert that energy to heat instead of momentum. At 100 gigawatts, that means straight-up melting, which is generally considered not good for spacecraft.

Once accelerated to one-tenth the speed of light, the real journey begins. For 40 years, this little spacecraft will have to withstand the trials and travails of interstellar space. It will be impacted by dust grains at that enormous velocity. And while the dust is very tiny, at those speeds motes can do incredible damage. Cosmic rays, which are high-energy particles emitted by everything from the sun to distant supernova, can mess with the delicate circuitry inside. The spacecraft will be bombarded by these cosmic rays non-stop as soon as the journey begins.

Is Breakthrough Starshot possible? In principle, yes. Like I said above, there's no law of physics that prevents any of this from becoming reality. But that doesn't make it easy or even probable or plausible or even feasible using our current levels of technology (or reasonable projections into the near future of our technology). Can we really make a spacecraft that small and light? Can we really make a laser that powerful? Can a mission like this actually survive the challenges of deep space?

The answer isn't yes or no. The real question is this: are we willing to spend enough money to find out if it's possible?

Learn more by listening to the episode "Is interstellar travel possible?" on the Ask A Spaceman podcast, available on iTunes and on the Web at http://www.askaspaceman.com. Thanks to @infirmus, Amber D., neo, and Alex V. for the questions that led to this piece! Ask your own question on Twitter using #AskASpaceman or by following Paul @PaulMattSutter and facebook.com/PaulMattSutter.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Is Interstellar Travel Really Possible? | Space

People began traveling in space in 1961 in tiny spacecraft called capsules, which were launched from Earth by powerful rockets. Russian crews still travel in this kind of craft, in Soyuz capsules, but Americans now travel into space in shuttles, which are rocket-powered space planes.

There is no oxygen in space, so all crewed spacecraft carry a life-support system. This supplies air for people to breathe. The system also includes equipment to keep the air at a comfortable temperature and pressure and to remove carbon dioxide and odors.

Gravity in space is much weaker than it is on Earth. When people travel in space, they seem to become weightless. This often makes them feel sick. Their bodies do not have to work as hard, because they are not fighting gravity to sit or stand up. If they stay in space for a long time, the lack of gravity makes their muscles start to waste away. Exercise and a special diet help to combat these effects.

Astronauts on the APOLLO PROJECT traveled to the Moon, about 239,000 miles (385,000 km) away. Russian cosmonaut Valeri Poliakov traveled a distance of about 174 million miles (280 million km) around Earth while in the Mir space station.

In the space race of the 1960s, the US Apollo Project beat the Soviet Union by landing the first astronauts on the Moon. The first Moon landing, by Apollo 11, took place on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on another world.

The Apollo spacecraft was launched from Earth by the Saturn V rocket. On the launch pad, the whole assembly stood 365 ft (111 m) tall. The spacecraft itself weighed 50 tons (45 metric tons). It was made from three main modules (sections). The command module for flight control housed the three-person crew. The service module carried equipment, fuel, and a rocket motor. The lunar module detached from the craft and landed two astronauts on the Moons surface.

There were six Moon landings, beginning with Apollo 11 in July 1969 and ending with Apollo 17 in December 1972. During the missions, 12 astronauts explored the lunar surface for a total of over 80 hours and brought back nearly 880 lb (400 kg) of Moon rock and dust for examination on Earth.

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DK Space: Space Travel - Fact Monster

Mars as seen by the Hubble Telescope. NASA

Editors' note, December 19, 2015: This article was originally published August 6, 2015 and has been updated to include new developments in space travel efforts to Mars.

This year, scientists made one of the most important space discoveries in a long time, one that brings the mission of landing humans on the surface of another planet into laser focus -- and I'm not talking about Pluto's heart. They found compelling evidence that there is liquid water flowing on Mars, and that means there's the potential for life on the Red Planet.

You don't have to be a Space Camp alum like I am to feel your heart race at the very thought. Potentially finding water on Mars is an enormous triumph any way you look at it, and its discovery is sure to spur manned exploration of Mars' surface, something that's eluded us in the 46 years since landing on the moon.

Click here for more stories in CNET's Most Exciting Tech series

Outside of the scientific community's renewed interest in Martian exploration, there's another reason why I'm hopeful we'll set foot on Mars in my lifetime: we already have technology far more advanced than the spacecraft and control systems that got us to the moon, most of which ran on computers no more powerful than a calculator. These days, we also have the entrepreneurial hunger it takes to put people on the dusty red planet. A handful of smart people who share my passion for outer space have the drive and resources (ahem, money) to make it happen.

In my lifetime, human exploration of Earth's closest neighbor isn't just the province of space disaster movies like the Martian (thanks, Matt Damon), or abduction films like Mars Attacks and Mars Needs Moms. It's closer to reality than ever. Here are some of the important programs and people on our planet that will help put us on the Red Planet.

Like me, entrepreneur Elon Musk, the man behind SpaceX, the first private company to send supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), dreams of a Mars landing. Musk believes that humans could reach the planet in as few as 10 years.

Then there's billionaire Richard Branson, whose tourism venture, Virgin Galactic, is currently working on sending civilians (not just astronauts) into sub-orbital flight with a private spacecraft. Virgin Galactic isn't setting its sights on Mars just yet, but the company's work could one day help us get to the Red Planet.

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin is vocal about Mars too, advocating in his book " Mission to Mars" that it should be our next exploration goal. Meanwhile, Dutch non-profit foundation Mars One is planning and raising money for a one-way mission where some brave people establish a permanent base there, never to return to Earth. The Mars One group faces criticism from the scientific community, though, for not having a feasible plan to actually reach the planet with volunteers and sufficient supplies.

More credibly, NASA, the long-standing agency in charge of the US's space travel efforts, is optimistic about getting us to at least orbit Mars by President Obama's mid-2030 timeline, and has early-stage plans to make it real.

Though no one company or organization has an imminently viable action plan to get us to Mars just yet, these advancements and advocacy by the big players will hopefully pave the way for a mission to Mars.

Right now, the biggest challenges in getting to Mars are paying for the costly trip (the cheapest proposed plan would cost $76 million), keeping the astronauts healthy, and figuring out the right type of fuel for a round-trip voyage. Mars is an average 140 million miles from Earth (depending on its position in its orbit around the sun, and it would take a crew of astronauts around 200 days or 6 months to get there, at least. In order to cover that distance, we need sufficient fuel to power a spacecraft, and NASA is researching the best kind of ship and propulsion for such a trip.

SpaceX's Dragon Capsule.

SpaceX believes it has the right ship with the Dragon capsule, a manned spacecraft that could one day carry astronauts on interplanetary trips. Similarly, Texas-based rocket company Ad Astra Rocket is building the Vasmir electric engine that could possibly power a spaceship to Mars.

Meanwhile, SpaceWorks, an aerospace engineering firm out of Atlanta, has proposed the possibility of putting astronauts in torpor -- a hibernation-like state -- during the trip to conserve food and supplies and reduce the health risks associated with traveling in zero-gravity, like bone density loss. Though it sounds like something out of science fiction (in fact, astronauts were in a torpor state in the movies "Interstellar" and "2001: A Space Odyssey"), it could be a real, practical way to get humans to Mars as safely as possible.

The six-month trip to Mars won't be easy on the astronauts, as they face long stints of isolation, extended stays in cramped quarters and harsh weather conditions on the Martian surface. In order to keep them healthy, happy and safe, several organizations are currently conducting experiments that simulate conditions of being on Mars and traveling to the planet.

The NASA-funded Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation missions are studying a group of six humans living together in a confined, enclosed habitat, similar to what astronauts would live in on the surface of Mars during a mission. Meanwhile, astronauts from the European Space Agency (ESA) are in Antarctica at the Concordia research facility, a highly isolated compound that simulates what it's like to be on long space journeys in harsh conditions, hundreds of miles away from other humans.

The road to Mars through both private and government-funded space travel hasn't been easy so far. SpaceX's unmanned Falcon 9 rocket exploded just after launch in June 2015 during a resupply mission to the ISS. Likewise, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crashed in the fall of 2014 during a test flight in California, killing one person.

NASA's Columbia Shuttle broke up during re-entry during the STS-107 mission in 2003. The launch is shown here.

These accidents stir up memories of the prominent tragedies NASA has endured over the last 50 years; Apollo 1 catching on fire on the launchpad during testing, the Challenger space shuttle exploding 73 seconds after launch and the Columbia space shuttle disintegrating during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Each of those accidents claimed the lives of the crews on board.

The unfortunate truth is that in the quest for space travel, there will be near misses, failures and disasters. NASA carried on from its setbacks and so will SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and others, driven by the deep desire to explore uncharted territory.

Scientists, space agencies and private companies are still in the early stages of any kind of Mars mission, but their advancements in space travel are nothing short of astounding. Roughly 50 years ago, we were scrambling to send people on the week-long journey to the moon.

Now, we've sent astronauts to orbit the Earth for more than a year at a time, launched unmanned rovers to Mars to gather data about the planet's ability to host our species, and currently maintain a crew of people continuously living at the ISS (and posting pictures of the spectacular view to Twitter).

There are still untold hurdles to tackle before we can put a small crew of trained astronauts on the Red Planet, and many more after that until commercial rockets blast off for Mars with civilian spectators inside. But give it 50 more years, and I'm betting that we'll have a ship breaking away from Earth on a flight plan straight towards Mars. And when those first humans touch down, I'll be with the other fervent stargazers, watching every minute of it.

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Let's go to Mars! The future of space travel - CNET

"The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever," wrote Sovietspace travel pioneerKonstantin Tsiolkovsky in a letter in 1911. Scientists have long written and spoken about a perceived necessity to travel to other planets for the long-term survival of the human species.

While NASA, SpaceX, and other companies have relatively short-term plans to get us to Mars, what of the need to explore beyond our star, the Sun, which is estimated to die out in 7.5 billion years?

RELATED: DESTINATION MARS: 15 INCREDIBLE SPACEX MILESTONES, PAST AND FUTURE

Interstellar travel might not happen within our lifetimes, but space agencies and private companies are developing theories and methods to get to other stars. Here are 17 facts about how we might one day travel to other stars.

On his return from landing on the Moon, Neil Armstrong eloquently described the immense distance from our Moon to the Earth by saying,"it suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didnt feel like a giant. I felt very, very small."

The distance from the Earth to the Moon (383,400 km) is only a minuscule fraction of the distance to our Sun, and the distance from the Earth to the Sun (149.81 million km) is a proverbial drop in the ocean when compared with the distance to the closest star to the Sun.

The closest star to our Solar System is Proxima Centauri. It is part of a triple star system called Alpha Centauri and is about 4.24 light-years (or 1.3 parsecs) away from Earth. As NASA explains, that means that Proxima Centauri is40,208,000,000,000 (4 trillion) kmaway from Earth.

Our fastest current most reliable and fastest form of space travel is theion drive, which took theDeep Space 1mission to Comet Borrellyin 1998.Due to the immense distance from Earth to Proxima Centauri, using the ion drive to travel to our nearest neighboring star would take 18,000 years approximately2,700 human generations.

At our current rate of technological innovationsetting out on that trip would be futile as we would likely develop a technology that could catch up with, and overtake, the ion drive spacecraft years after it takes off from Earth.

In August of 2016 scientists documented a potentially habitable Earth-sized planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, which was subsequently dubbed Proxima b. Proxima b is an exoplanet, meaning the planet falls within theparameters of temperature required for life to develop.

Though this doesn't by any means mean we're going to find life on the planet its proximity to its sun also means its atmosphere might be exposed to deadly amounts of radiation the discovery did refresh hopes that we might one day travel to an alien planet orbiting a neighboring star.

Though Proxima Centauri is the closest star, besides the Sun, to Earth, its neighbor Alpha Centauri is much brighter and might also be a goal for missions of the distant future.

In his book Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin wrote:

"I believe that space travel will one day become as common as airline travel is today. I'm convinced, however, that the true future of space travel does not lie with government agencies NASA is still obsessed with the idea that the primary purpose of the space program is science but real progress will come from private companies competing to provide the ultimate adventure ride, and NASA will receive the trickle-down benefits."

Elon Musk's private company, SpaceX, has already reignited the race to get to Mars and beyondwith its tried and tested reusable rocket boosters and plans for a historic a manned mission to the ISS with its reusable Crew Dragon capsule in May of this year.

It's not the only company that's looking to take great strides in space travel. Privately funded and volunteer initiatives includetheTau Zero Foundation, the ominously-namedProject IcarusandBreakthrough Starshot. All of these are aimed at achieving lift-off for interstellar travel.

Though the ultimate aim is to get humans to other planets and solar systems, one company, Breakthrough Starshot, thinks it can be the first to get an unmanned spacecraft to our nearest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri, using an intriguing method.

The $100 million initiative, which is privately funded byRussian billionaires Yuri and Julia Milner, aims to propel a tiny probe to the star by zapping its extremely lightweight sail using a powerful laser beam shot from Earth.

The company is relying on the miniaturization of future technologies, which would allow a spacecraft so light weighing less than a gram that it could be propelled by a laser's impact to eventually accelerate at around one-fifth of the speed of light. At this speed Breakthrough Starshot's spacecraft could reach Proxima Centauri in about 20 years.

In order for this to be achievable, Breakthrough Starshot needs technological advances that would allow a tiny spacecraft to carry thrusters, a power supply, navigation and communication equipment so it can beam back what it sees when it reaches Proxima b.

In July of last year, the Planetary Society launched and tested a Carl Sagan-inspired solar sailthat was successfully shown to be able to change its orbital trajectory using a light sail that converted the energy of photons from sunlight into propulsive energy.

Though the relatively easy and cheap manufacture of solar sails makes them a cost-effective method for space travel, they are unlikely to ever have the propulsive energy needed to carry humans. They also rely on light from stars, meaning that Breakthrough Starshot's laser-based alternative (in point 4) is the more viable option.

In order to gain the speed needed to travel long distances, they would also need time to accelerate. Right now, solar sails are viewed as a more viable method for transporting satellites within our Solar System, rather than humans to distant star systems.

The magnetic sail is a variation on the solar sail that is propelled by solar wind rather than by sunlight. The solar wind is a stream of charged particles that has its own magnetic field. As per New Scientist,a magnetic sail would surround a spacecraft with a magnetic field that repels the field of the solar wind, leading to magnetic propulsion of the spacecraft away from the Sun.

As with solar sails, the magnetic sail, unfortunately, has its limitations as a method for interstellar travel. As a magnetic sail-propelled spacecraft gets farther away from the Sun, the intensity of sunlight and of solar wind would drop dramatically, meaning that they would not be able to pick up the necessary speed to be propelled to another star.

The theory of special relativity states that particles of light, photons, travel through a vacuum at a constant speed of670,616,629 miles per hour. If we could somehow harness a craft that could travel near this speed, interstellar travel would be a completely different proposition to what it is today.

As NASA points out, throughout space there are, in fact, instances of particles, that aren't photons, being accelerated to near the speed of light. From black holes to our near-Earth environment, particles that are being accelerated to incredible speeds 99.9 percent the speed of light likely thanks to phenomena such as magnetic reconnection, might point to future research that could help us harness methods for reaching such speeds.

Many theories and hypothetical methods for interstellar travel near the speed of light have already been proposed several of these are mentioned in the points below.

Aside from predicting the existence of black holes, years before we ever saw one in an image, Einstein's theory of general relativity also allowed for the prediction of the existence of wormholes. This term, "wormhole", which describes tunnel-like shortcuts that traverse space and time, was coined byquantum physicistJohn Wheeler, who also coined the term black hole.

While wormholes are a tantalizing idea for space travel that has lit up the imagination of many a sci-fi enthusiast over the years, the likelihood that we could ever travel through one is incredibly slim. Firstly, we're not even certain wormholes exist; secondly, it is theorized that any type of matter that entered a wormhole would cause it to immediately close up.

Though it might be possible to stabilize the matter surrounding a wormhole and keep it open using a negative energy field called ghost radiation, all theories are very much in the hypothesis stage and most likely won't be tested in any true form for many years to come.

Wormholes are also problematic as the fact that they could transport matter across space would mean they are also a form of time machine, and would, therefore, be a violation of the laws of cause and effect. That hasn't stopped some scientists from devising theories and methods for methods of interstellar travel that utilize wormholes more on that in section 14.

NASA and other organizations are working on a proposed fuel-free engine that might just be impossible. Why? Because the payoff, if they were to succeed, would be so revolutionary it would completely change our capability for interstellar travel and would usher in a new era for humanity.

The 'helical' engine, dubbed the EmDrive, was first proposed byBritish scientist Roger Shawyer in 2001. Shawyer hypothesized that we could generate thrust by pumping microwaves into a conical chamber. In theory, the microwaves shouldbounce off the chamber walls exponentially. In doing so, they would create enough propulsion to power a spacecraft without fuel.

If that weren't enough, NASA engineer David Burns, who is part of laboratory tests on the theoretical engine, says that, given the EMDrive needs no fuel, a spacecraft powered by such a device could eventually reach a speed of 99.9 percent the speed of light.

While some researchersclaim to have generated thrustduringEmDrive experiments, the amount was so low that detractors claim the energy might have really been generated by external factors, such as Earth's seismic vibrations.

In a study titled Dark Matter as a Possible New Energy Source for Future Rocket Technology,scientists set out a method for a form of travel that would harness the energy of the universe's mysterious dark matter.

The researchers behind the paper proposed a variation on the EmDrive (see point 9) that would harness the energy of dark matter in order to fuel a rocket. The advantage? Much like the EmDrive it would be an engine that doesn't rely on chemical combustion, meaning it would remove the shackles from our current methods for interstellar travel.

The problem with dark matter rockets? We know next to nothing about dark matter, aside from the fact that it's there. This form of travel relies greatly on future discoveries. It is worth researching though, simply because dark matter is everywhere; if it could be used as a fuel, we'd have an endless supply.

Fusion rockets are a type of spacecraft that would rely on nuclear fusion reactions to take us to the far reaches of space. The possibility of developing such a rocket was explored in the 1970s bytheBritish Interplanetary Societyunderits Project Daedalus.

These rockets would rely on the vast amounts of energy released during nuclear fusion. The main method to have been put forth for releasing this energy in rockets is a method called inertial confinement fusion. This method would see high-powered lasers blast a small pellet of fuel to make its outer layers explode. In turn, this would crush the pellet's inner layers and trigger fusion.

Magnetic fields would then be used to direct the energy flow out of the back of the spacecraft in order to propel it forwards. Such a craft could travel the distance to Proxima Centauri in 50 years.The main problem with this method? In spite of decades of work, we are yet to see a working rocket fusion reactor.

By far the most reckless, and craziest, form of interstellar travel we've seen proposed is Nuclear pulse propulsion. This method would see a spacecraft propelled by the periodic throwing of a nuclear bomb out of the back of the craft before setting it off at just the right distance.

This method was seriously studied bytheUS governments military technology agency DARPA, under the code nameProject Orion. A spacecraft using nuclear pulse propulsion would need to be fitted witha giant shock absorber, that would allow for heavy radiation shielding that would protect the passengers.

Though such a spacecraft could theoreticallyreach speeds of up to 10percent of the speed of light, the concept was largely dropped after nuclear test bans came into force in the 1960s.

The Bussard ramjet is another solution for one of the limitations of relying on chemical combustion namely the weight of fuel. With our current best method for interstellar travel, the farther we want to get, the more fuel we need, the heavier the spacecraft, and the slower the acceleration.

The Bussard ramjet, proposed by physicist Robert Bussard in 1960, takes the concept of the fusion rocket (point 11) and gives it a twist; instead of carrying a supply of nuclear fuel, the spacecraft would ionize hydrogen from the surrounding space, and then suck it in using a largeelectromagnetic field scoop (as in the image).

The main problem with this as a method for interstellar travel is that, as levels of hydrogen are so sparse, the scoop might have to be hundreds of kilometers across.

TheAlcubierre drivewasfirst proposed in 1994by Miguel Alcubierre, a physicist at the University of Wales in Cardiff. The proposed drive would use "exotic matter," which are types of particles that have anegative massand exert a negative pressure. Rather importantly, "exotic matter" has not yet been discovered, meaning theAlcubierre Drive relies on a future discovery that might never happen.

The particles of "exotic matter" could distort space-time, making space ahead of the spacecraft contract and space behind it to expand. This would mean the craft was inside a "warp bubble" that could theoretically travel faster than light without breaking the laws of relativity.

The main problem? Aside from there being no evidence of "exotic matter" existing, the Alcubierre drive, which is basically a real-life warp drive from Star Trek, would need energy equal to the total energy of the universe to sustain it. Despite this, in 2012,NASA scientist Harold Sonny White and colleagues released a paper, titledWarp Field Mechanics 101, detailing work into the possibility of anAlcubierre drive.

For all of the theories of warp drives and EmDrives that could allow for travel at immense speed, the fact is that future astronauts will likely need to be prepared for incredibly long journeys. Even if we could travel at 99.9 percent of the speed of light, it would take us approximately 4 years to get to our nearest star system,Alpha Centauri.

As researcher andprofessor of experimental architecture Dr. Rachel Armstrong told the BBC, we need to start thinking about theecosystem that interstellar humanity will occupy out there in between the stars.

Were moving from an industrial view of reality to an ecological view of reality, Armstrong explained. "Its about the inhabitation of spaces, not just the design of an iconic object."

Rather than the hulking metallic spacecraft of films likeAlienand2001: A Space Odyssey,Armstrong envisions habitats with plenty of space for large biomes full of organic life that can sustain human beings on long interstellar journeys.

Taking yet another leaf out of sci-fi movies and novels, the idea of cryosleep has been seriously considered as a way to allow human beings to travel huge distances without aging and without having to be awake for trips that can last for months.

In 2016, NASA funded research into a type ofsuspended animationwhere entire crews are put into cryogenic sleep for the duration of long space missions. The firm behind this,SpaceWorks, is working on developing a method for putting astronauts into acontrolled state of advanced hypothermia that would allow them to hibernate during the long journeys through space.

From the outset of human existence weve looked up at the stars and projected our hopes and fears, anxieties and dreams there, researcher Dr. Rachel Armstrong toldthe BBC. Thanks to the great number of theories, theoretical models, and methods that are being devised today, Armstrong explains, interstellar travel"is no longer just a dream, this is an experiment now."

As Carl Sagan once wrote, "all civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct." That's why interstellar travel is important; whether we reach beyond our solar system a hundred or more than a thousand years from now, the fate of our future civilization ultimately depends on the development of interstellar travel technology that can take us distances that today seem unimaginable, and to places that we can only dream of.

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17 Facts About Interstellar Travel that Will Have You Dreaming of Space - Interesting Engineering

In the wee hours of the morning on April 9th, three astronauts are set to launch on a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan and journey to the International Space Station, where theyll join three crew members already living and working in orbit. Because this flight is launching during a pandemic, tighter restrictions and protocols are in place to prevent the novel coronavirus from making its way to space.

The three people headed to orbit Thursday include NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. Ivanishin and Vagner are last-minute replacements to the flight after one of the original cosmonauts assigned to the mission suffered an eye injury. For Cassidy and Ivanishin, this will be their third trip to orbit, while it will be the first for Vagner. The crew will stay on the ISS for a total of six months.

Final preparations for a trip to the space station from Russia usually begin in Star City a small town just outside of Moscow. After a brief stay, the crew then heads to Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where their rocket launches, and enters a two-week quarantine period. Even before the pandemic, NASA and Russias state space corporation, Roscosmos, required crews to enter a two-week quarantine ahead of their launch date, to ensure the travelers dont inadvertently carry a nasty bug to space.

However, quarantine procedures accelerated slightly while the crews were still in Star City. Around the time of Cassidys arrival at the beginning of March, stricter travel restrictions and social distancing measures were enacted all over the world to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Had I been in normal quarantine, I probably could have gone out to some restaurants and left the immediate parameters of the Star City area and just been smart about where we went, Cassidy said during a round of press interviews on March 19th. But not this time. Weve been sort of isolated to our cottages and just the essential place to go to get food.

Pavel Vlasov, head of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) in Star City, confirmed that the crews started quarantining earlier than usual. They do not go on any trips even the traditional like visiting the Kremlin wall and [Sergei] Korolevs house before setting off to Baikonur, Vlasov said in a statement on the Roscosmos website.

Cassidy has since traveled to Baikonur Cosmodrome and gone through the regular quarantine procedures. NASA maintains that its employees have been following the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions recommendations for controlling infections ahead of quarantine, such as cleaning of surfaces, social distancing, emphasizing hand hygiene, encouraging NASA team members who are sick to stay home and limiting contact with crew members, according to a NASA spokesperson. Meanwhile, Cassidy and his crewmates have stayed relatively isolated in their hotel, prepping for the mission, exercising, and even playing ping-pong. Ironically, the timing of our entering the strict quarantine protocol somewhat magically lined up with the world caving in, in terms of quarantine protocol, Cassidy said.

But come launch day, the sights and sounds leading up to the mission will be much quieter than usual. Roscosmos has banned all media from covering the launch in person, and there will be fewer people on site to cheer the astronauts as they head to the rocket. Normally as you come walking out of the hotel... theres music playing and theres crowds of people lining the walkway as we proceed from the hotel to the buses, and its very, very motivating. Its super exciting, Cassidy said. But those celebrations will be absent this time around. Itll be completely quiet. There wont be anybody there. Well just kind of walk out. Maybe well still play the music and fire the three of us up ourselves. But who knows?

None of Cassidys family or friends can be at the launch due to travel restrictions. His wife was able to be with him while in Star City, and she had planned to attend the launch. But after Russia restricted foreign travel on March 16th, her itinerary changed. Ultimately, she went home when he headed to Baikonur Cosmodrome. We thought we would say goodbye on launch day, Cassidy said.

Despite everything, Cassidy is feeling good ahead of launch. He even shared a rap his friend made on Instagram about how to stay at home to fight COVID-19. He hopes that all of the extra precautions were enough to prevent COVID-19s spread to space. I really havent been around anybody else, so itd be really, really strange if I did contract something, Cassidy said on March 19th. Anything can happen between now and April 9th, but were being really super vigilant so that I can remain healthy to get to the station.

While on board the ISS, the crew will conduct science experiments and maybe even go on some spacewalks down the line. If all goes according to plan, this crew will likely be an audience to this summers most anticipated spaceflight event: the arrival of the first crewed flight of SpaceXs Crew Dragon. The vehicle, developed as part of NASAs Commercial Crew Program, is slated to take off this May, carrying NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the space station. But while theres plenty to look forward to in space, Cassidy said his mind wont stray far from whats happening on the Earth below.

Ill have a full plate and my mind will be engaged, but Im still going to be talking, communicating, emailing with my family and loved ones and friends, Cassidy said. I certainly am not going to be disengaged from it thinking its not my problem. Its certainly my problem, because my family is living it and my friends and my co-workers are living it in real time.

Takeoff for the mission is slated for 4:05AM ET on April 9th. After launch, the crew will make four orbits around Earth and arrive at the International Space Station six hours later. NASAs coverage of the launch will begin at 3AM ET, and coverage of docking will begin at 9:30AM ET.

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Three astronauts are launching to space Thursday after lengthy quarantine - The Verge