Category Archives: Space Travel

Fancy plunking down cold, hard cash to launch your way into near-space heights, or snagging a ticket for a vacation in Earth orbit? Maybe you're still dreaming of that long-distance cruise out to the moon or beyond.

A space vacation has long been available only in the realm of science fiction, but this year, public space travel appears closer than ever before. British billionaire Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, the company Blue Origin backed by Jeff Bezos (another billionaire) and the Mars-bound goals of Elon Musk and his ambitious SpaceX Starship are all pioneering different ways to bring space travel to the public.

But it's been a long haul to get reach this nexus of private (and public) space travel and a new book takes a look at just how long that voyage has been.

In "See You In Orbit? Our Dream Of Spaceflight" (To Orbit Productions, 2019), Alan Ladwig takes a look back at the missions and milestones in developing public spaceflight opportunities. Ladwig is a former NASA manager for both Shuttle Student Involvement Program and the Spaceflight Participant Program which included the Teacher in Space and Journalist in Space competitions. He is now chief of To Orbit Productions, LLC, a consulting and art company, and he admits the new book has been a crime of passion for over three decades.

Space.com caught up with Ladwig to explore the historical quest for public space travel, tourism and the promise of one day strapping in and placing your table trays into locked position for liftoff.

Space.com: Your book has been 30 years in the making. Why so?

Ladwig: I started it in 1990 and when I began the whole notion of citizen space travel as a reality was pretty far away. There wasn't a good way to have an ending that gave people much hope. You had some companies that came to NASA wanting to outfit the shuttle with a passenger module in the cargo bay. Other organizations wanted to build their own spacecraft. But none of that ever panned out. Most of them were undercapitalized and didn't have the money to pull it off. Or their business model was just not accurate enough to be sustainable.

Space.com: And you feel that's changed?

Ladwig: History is full of people that came through with good ideas and just couldn't quite get to the finishing line. I put them in my hall of fame for having tried and trying to keep the dream alive. So it took years to get to this new breed of advocacy investors that had the wherewithal, the technical expertise, but not necessarily operational experience at the beginning.

Space.com: You have a cautionary question mark in the title of your book. How come?

Ladwig: Even now that we're on the precipice of suborbital flight, hopefully this year, look how long thats taken. Once again, though we're getting closer to the reality, the expectations and the predictions have been off by quite a bit.

Space.com: But over the years, the public remained ready to buckle up?

Ladwig: As I say in the book, thats because for the last 70 years we were told we were going to get to go told by industry, by the government, by visionaries, and by the media. Arthur Clarke, a year before Apollo 11 said well be able to fly to the moon as cheaply as you can fly from New York to Tokyo. It got written down as though it was gospel. And I think now you've got a similar thing going on with Elon Musk sending people to Mars by 2025, or circumlunar flight even earlier. He said that he has "aspirational" goals, and I love that term. It's kind of an overall caveat that protects him from not delivering. But sooner or later you've got to deliver. If you don't people start to get a little cynical.

Space.com: I was drawn to your behind-the-scenes account of the loss of Challenger and its crew that included teacher-in-space, Christa McAuliffe. You subtitled that section "The Dream Turns into Heartbreak."

Ladwig: Because of the accident my emotions were all over the place. Having a civilian onboard had nothing to do with the accident. In the beginning, the Spaceflight Participant program was projected to possibly do a flight three to four times a year. We had been considering journalist in space and artist in space too.

My favorite line in the countless letters I received from people eager to fly: "Look no further, I'm the one." After the accident that put it all on hold.

Space.com: Jumping to today, just how on edge is public space travel? Is it resilient enough to survive another accident?

Ladwig: I think it will depend on how far along we are in flight that an accident happens. Also, it depends on what caused the accident. If it occurs early on it could be a setback for the commercial companies. But if it happens three or four years from now and it's a private citizen, I don't think the public reaction will be the same as when astronauts have died in the past.

It's like climbing the Himalayans. Look how many people die in the Himalayans and that hasn't stopped people from going. But I do think that's the kind of discussion people will have should there be an accident. Any endeavor of going forward on ambitious or adventurous things there could be death, and thats part of it.

Space.com: Do you think public space travel is simply an extension of how passenger air travel has evolved over time?

Ladwig: Professor Patrick Collins is a well-known and respected authority on space economics and space tourism. He noted in his research that in the first 100 years of aviation, passenger travel grew from zero in 1901 to 1.5 billion passengers in 2001. Meanwhile, the first 50 years of human spaceflight, fewer than 600 individuals achieved a rocket ride. So those comparisons are made periodically. And there are those who suggest that space should have done the same thing, but others that say it's much more difficult to make that transition to space.

But early on you saw people from the aviation industry talk about how this was going to be a natural progression, even for their own companies. Again, it was the expectation raised in the public because this is what they were being told.

By the way, Collins had different phases of space travel with dollars attached: Pioneering Phase, Exclusive Phase, the Mature Phase and the Mass Market Phase. I think it's a good model for today.

Space.com: What's your take on the recent Space Adventures/SpaceX agreement to launch citizens into space?

Ladwig: The recent announcement that Space Adventures will be a ticket agent for flights on SpaceX's Dragon2 is an exciting milestone toward the dream of spaceflight. While the expected ticket price remains beyond the reach of all but the wealthiest of citizens, the collaboration represents an important step to open space travel beyond the traditional astronaut corps.

The announced projections of flights by 2022 may be optimistic. However, once service begins, the aspirational goal will quickly fade in the public's memory.

Space.com: What should a civilian space tourist expect from his/her flight?

Ladwig: From an Earth orbiting perspective, there's the Frank White Overview Effect. That part is going to be tougher to do on a suborbital flight. So my answer would be initially the tourism part is more experiential. It's not destination-based, its experiential the experience of enjoying microgravity and that floating sensation.

For the suborbital flights, it appears that individuals will get anywhere from six to eight minutes of weightlessness. Will that be a transformational experience remains to be seen. I just don't think we know enough about it at this point. And that's a challenge for the companies offering this service. Will people come back feeling it was worth it? I'm betting that they are going to enjoy it. But will people come back and say it wasn't worth a quarter million dollars?

Space.com: And you have to be fit and slim to wear those spacesuits!

Ladwig: Everybody talks about the democratization of space. If that's truly going to be fulfilled, it's not going to be by just a bunch of svelte people. There's a pretty diverse range of people that want to have the experience. You have to take on all comers.

Space.com: What are your take home messages in the book?

Ladwig: The dream has been around for decadeseven centuries. It's part of our mythology, as early as 1865 when Jules Verne wrote "From the Earth to the Moon." The motivations have been consistent, certainly since the 1920s.

Another point is why people think that they are going to go. Its because weve been told thats the case for a long time. Weve been told our ticket to ride was just a rocket away.

The Holy Grail has been launch costs coming down enough that anybody could afford it. I think unless something radical happens with the cost to orbit coming down, its a long time before you reach a mass market stage. We probably will some day, but who knows when thats going to be.

I'm no longer interested in the predictions ...I want to start seeing the reality. You don't want to be negative but you want to be realistic.

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

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'See you in orbit?' New book tackles the enduring dream of public spaceflight - Space.com

At a time when things on old planet Earth seem a bit chaotic, it can be tempting for investors to look to the heavens. No, Im not talking about that heaven. Im referring to space. Interestingly enough, one of the hottest traded stocks on Robinhood in the month of February was Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) stock.

Source: Christopher Penler / Shutterstock.com

SPCE stock rocketed up over 20% from the beginning of January until Feb. 19. At that point, the stock has come back down to earth. However, its still holding onto a gain for the year. Thats no small feat considering the selloff that is happening in the broader markets.

Theres a part of me that respects Virgin Galactic. After all, as a wide-eyed elementary school student, I was promised wed be flying in our own Millennium Falcons by 2020. But the reality is were not even cruising around earth like George Jetson. This brings to mind the harsh reality of space travel. It costs money. Lots of it.

Sir Richard Branson isnt the only billionaire entrepreneur looking to be the first into space. And hes not even the first to come up with the idea. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos, the founder and owner of Blue Origin, launched his space business in 2000. That was four years before Virgin Galactic came into existence.

And Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has his SpaceX business. Both ventures are attempting to make a dent into the space sector. However, Branson has the advantage of being the first pure play space company that is publicly traded.

However, SPCE stock came into being in a less-than-conventional way. Our own Ian Bezek wrote about the reverse merger that took the company public. And more importantly what that means for retail investors now that many of these initial investors have taken their profits.

But regardless of how you feel about the way Virgin Galactic came into existence, SPCE stock can act as a currency to help the company stay afloat. And if youre an individual investor looking to invest in space, Bransons company is the only publicly traded option.

Branson positions the company as the best of both worlds. He believes the company is a hardware company that will have the margins of a software company. The most potentially viable business for Virgin Galactic is like the Concorde, only traveling at higher altitudes and faster speeds. In fact, the space part of this business is that the aircraft will be cruising at altitudes of 100 kilometers above the Earths surface.

According to the company, they will begin conducting these suborbital flights next year at a cost of $250,000 per seat. There will be six seats available on each flight. And the company also reports that they already have 8,000 customers who are looking to test the technology.

But as Josh Enomoto recently wrote, the science is ahead of the companys ability to scale this into a viable business for anyone except the ultra-rich (a number that may be declining by the day). And thats where my objection comes in. SPCE stock may very well be an unintended victim of the coronavirus because seeing this stock become profitable seemed like a moonshot in the best economy. Now, it just seems like a failure to launch.

I dont know Sir Richard Branson. It seems like hes a true believer in the businesses he owns. He may very well believe that our future is in space travel. But Im not buying it right now, at least not with any money that meant something to me.

Every stock like SPCE has an enticing business proposition. In the case of Virgin Galactic, the idea of suborbital space flight may be the most viable part of its business. Suborbital flight can take customers right to the edge of space. They get a feeling of weightlessness without that silly astronaut training. But even that business is going to require a massive investment to become scalable.

Over the next weeks and months, many investors will be retreating into a fantasy world fueled by streaming services. But when it comes to your investments, there will be buying opportunities that are rooted on solid ground. Its okay to shoot for the stars, but SPCE stock at this point needs to deliver customers and cash before its a viable business.

Chris Markoch is a freelance financial copywriter who has been covering the market for over five years. He has been writing for InvestorPlace since 2019. As of this writing, Chris Markoch did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Dont Shoot for the Stars with SPCE Stock - Investorplace.com

Tsuki no ishi wa doko desu ka? Thats a question I heard, and answered, hundreds of times every day. The year was 1970. I was one of 56 young Japanese-speaking American guides whod been hired to staff the U.S. Pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan. It was the first Worlds Fair to be held in that country, and 78 nations contributed exhibits intended to exemplify the theme of Progress and Harmony for Mankind.

Ever since Neil Armstrong had taken that giant leap for mankind in the previous summer, the Japanese public had become passionate about space travel. More than anything, they wanted to see a genuine piece of the lunar surface. Theyd willingly tolerate waiting in line for three hours to enter our doors, so long as they could gaze upon our pavilions pride and joy. Hence the urgency of the question: Where is the moon rock?

We U.S. Pavilion guides came in all colors, shapes, and sizes. Unlike the so-called hostesses of other pavilions, we were chosen not for our cuteness but rather for our ability to handle the Japanese language in a public setting. Some of us were scholarly types who had studied the language out of personal interest (that was me); others had been raised by American parents in Japan and taught to speak Japanese from childhood. Still, to talk about the space program we needed to learn a whole new vocabulary: the correct Japanese terms for astronaut, command module, lunar excursion module, and the like. And we had to be geared up for Japanese space nerds (most of them male and very young), who quickly overcame their shyness to pepper us with questions about the whole phenomenon of manned space flight.

Of course, ours was not the only pavilion toured by the 64 million overwhelmingly Japanese visitors who attended Expo 70 during its six-month duration. The mammoth USSR Pavilion, a sickle-shaped red and white edifice that towered over the fairgrounds, was chock-full of reminders that, in that Cold War era, the Russians were first to put a man in space. Dominating the Soviet pavilions main hall was a giant photograph of the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, cradling a dove. And dramatic lighting accentuated the gleaming white surfaces of the space vehicles on display. But we Americans knew the Russian secret: Their space exhibit featured nothing but life-size models. Because uncrewed Russian spaceships burned up during re-entry into Earths atmosphere, they could not possibly have been shown off at Expo 70. And there was no way the majestic but hollow craft suspended overhead could have flown anywhere.

The U.S. Pavilion was vastly different. Where the Russians went high, we went low. Our more modest pavilion was largely underground. Though not designed to wow casual onlookers, this structure proved something of a subtle engineering marvel. It was topped by a translucent fiberglass dome held aloft entirely by air pressure. Because of this air-supported roof, visitors to the pavilion were forced to awkwardly divide into three separate lines, so as to enter our airlocks by way of revolving doors, something most Japanese had never before encountered. (Guards patiently helped them figure out these oh-so-mysterious contraptions.)

Having conquered the doors, visitors were naturally desperate to see the moon rock as quickly as possible. Thats why anyone wearing one of our spacey red, white, and blue uniforms (minidresses and berets for the women; jackets and ties for the men) was bombarded with questions about the whereabouts of our staror rather lunarattraction. Tsuki no ishi wa doko desu ka?

Just inside the U.S. Pavilion, there was nothing connected with outer space to be seen. Instead, visitors could experience some large and surprisingly candid photographs, curated by New Yorks Museum of Modern Art, revealing diverse slices of life in America. Bruce Davidsons photos of squalid Harlem tenements and Diane Arbuss offbeat shots of middle-American grotesques raised the hackles of some American visitors and baffled most Japanese, who were far more accustomed to the unfailingly happy scenes presented in other pavilions photo displays.

To the credit of our bosses in the United States Information Agency, we guides were allowed to engage visitors in frank conversations about the strengths and quirks of our country and system of government. The Vietnam War was then raging in Southeast Asia, and American college students had taken to the streets in protest, so there was a lot to discuss. Most of our visitors, though, were in a hurry to get to the space exhibit: Even a sports section featuring Babe Ruths locker only rarely tempted visitors, though baseball was (and still is) hugely popular in Japan. Instead, the crowds poured down a wide staircase to the pavilions lower level, where they were greeted by such wonders as the actual Apollo 8 command module, the first space vehicle of any nation ever to leave Earth orbit and circle the moon. To the guide strategically placed in front of that slightly battered module, its burn scars well evident, it was like watching the approach of an unending tidal wave. The visitors (some of them in silly hats doled out by their tour group leaders) just kept coming, with their cameras and their questions, goggling at all the space-age contraptions suspended over their heads.

Another of our guides was always stationed in front of a simulated lunar surface depicting astronauts in spacesuits, an American flag proudly planted, and a Lunar Module, or LEM. This was a tricky posting for all of us because it required us to explain that our landing vehicle was not a model, as in the USSR Pavilion, but a honmono (real thing). The language barrier made these fine shades of meaning more complex. No, we admitted, our lander had not been on the moon, because of course the LEMs that landed on the moon in the Apollo lunar expeditions had remained there. This was, though, an operational LEM, one that had served as a back-up for the recent Apollo 12 mission. We offered this explanation over and over, not only in Japanese but in any other languages wed previously studied, and in some we hadnt. I personally found myself desperately trying to give my spiel to an Italian couple, who finally grinned and exclaimed, Ah! Gemello! Yes! I said, making a triumphant mental connection to Gemini and the French word jumeaux. Its the twin of the LEM thats now on the moon.

Such was the drawing power of the U.S. Pavilion in 1970 that we recognized famous faces from showbiz, sports, and international politics almost every day. As a native Angeleno and an English major, I was excited to meet Californians like funnyman Danny Kaye, singer Andy Williams, and author Irving Stone, along with some of my favorite sumo wrestlers. Imelda Marcos, imperious First Lady of the Philippines, came through with a large entourage, as did a group of well-lubricated U.S. governors and the cranky crown prince of Sweden. But it was extra-special to see the 69-year-old Hirohito, Japans emperor both during and after World War II, pay a historic early-morning visit. And I wont soon forget his grandson, Naruhito, who arrived for a tour of his own. Though he wore shorts and had a bowl haircut, this 10-year-old already projected dignity. (In 2019, he would become Japans Tenno Heika, or reigning emperor.)

The biggest buzz came with the arrival of the triumphant Apollo 12 crew: Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon, and Alan Bean. Two of them had walked on the lunar surface mere months before Expo 70s March 15 opening ceremonies. The three posed cheerfully for photos on the steps of our LEM, engendering much good will.

But at no time were the good wishes of the Japanese people more in evidence than in April 1970, after the launch of the ill-fated Apollo 13. When this new lunar mission seemed headed for disaster, everyone assumed we guides had special inside knowledge of what was going on. In that pre-Internet time, those of us who couldnt comfortably make sense of a Japanese newspaper account were in fact far more in the dark than our Japanese visitors. Nonetheless, the Japanese were quick to tell us they were praying for the crews safe return home. When astronauts Lovell, Swigert, and Haise splashed down safely, fair-goers congratulated us and shook our hands as though we personally had had something to do with their rescue. We accepted their congratulations gladly.

I have yet to describe the moon rock, our pavilions holy grail. Mounted on prongs like a large diamond and set in a glass case well out of visitors reach, it looked like nothing so much as a misshapen chunk of overcooked hamburger. Of course the mere glimpse of it generated tremendous excitement. But what can you say about a rock, even one that came from outer space? Early on, a member of the Japanese press corps asked me which Id rather have: this moon rock or a diamond engagement ring. I pondered for a moment and then replied, It all depends on who gives me the ring. I have since had no reason to change my answer.

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When Apollo Went to Japan | Space - Air & Space Magazine

While people now panics over a deadly virus, space experts are now making marvelous space findings that you would love to see! Within this week, another asteroid might hit planet Earth as NASA identified this as another detected'Near-Earth Object'or NEO that is possibly taller than the whole building of Empire State in New York! Meanwhile, a space study about a low-mass planet candidate now found that has Earth-like features called 'Super-Earth'!

(Photo : NASA on Unsplash )Space: Super-Earth and Comet Spotted Near Earth and Sun; Here's the Best Galaxy Travel You Might See Soon

For those people out there that love the information about NEOs, here comes another potential asteroid that might hit Earth soon. According toUK Daily Express, an asteroid identified as Asteroid 2012 XA133 with a size of 390m or meters taller than the Empire State Building is expected to be seen in Earth skies on Friday, Mar. 27.

As National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA reported on Sunday, Mar. 22, the agency is now tracking the possibility of collision between the asteroid and the planet. Luckily, for now, NASA found no evidence that it will crash on Earth but might just swing by on the planet. Here comes the interesting part, though.

Asteroid 2012 XA133 is now fast-approaching compared to when it was identified eight years ago. This space rock was about 4.1 million miles or 6.66 million km from the Earth-- if you compare it to the distance of the planet from the Sun, which is about 93 million miles or 149.6 million km.

As clarified by the agency, there are a lot of NEOs that surrounds planet Earth. Most of them do not have any impact on the planet, and only some are reported to have the possibility of having a collision with Earth.

"Some asteroids and comets follow orbital paths that take them much closer to the Sun and therefore Earth - than usual-- just like Asteroid XA133," said NASA. "In fact, as best as we can tell, no large object is likely to strike the Earth any time in the next several hundred years."

(Photo : NASA on Unsplash )Space: Super-Earth and Comet Spotted Near Earth and Sun; Here's the Best Galaxy Travel You Might See Soon

Arecent studyfrom space experts Mario Damasso and colleagues, are now giving more clarity on Earth-like planets called'Super-Earth'lurking in deep space. According to the research study led by Damasso, a low-mass planet candidate has been seen behind the nearest star from the Sun called Proxima Centauri. It has a distance of 1.5 AU and might be orbiting near the star.

Every 5.2 years, the Super-Earth was seen orbiting near Proxima Centauri, and recently, the potential planet did it again. Researchers suggest that this Super-Earth could have a higher mass than planet Earth but can't exceed the masses of bigger planets like Uranus and Neptune.

Once the findings are proven to be accurate, experts said that it could be one of the highlights in space for the year 2020 since there are still questions regarding the impact and how Super-Earth is born in space.

For now, let's just wait for a while.

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NASA: Super-Earth and Asteroid Taller Than Empire State Spotted; Here's the Best Space Travel You Might S - Tech Times

Its no longer a question of whether were going to Mars, but when. By the time we reach a second planet probably in the 2030s well probably have a base or two on the moon as well. But will people ever live beyond Earth permanently?

Hazards abound on the red planet, a world that is colder and drier than Antarctica and without the luxury of breathable air. Andy Weir provides an excellent picture of the struggle to survive in his novel The Martian. Kim Stanley Robinson takes a deeper dive with his Mars trilogy. The series follows the first 100 settlers, a hand-picked crew of scientists and engineers who gradually transform the climate. There is plenty of engineering and biology, but Robinson broadens into philosophy when he explores how some settlers want to keep Mars pure and red, while others view the life that greens the planet as a gift from humanity. And alternative history is just around the corner when another wave of colonists arrive, dreaming of breaking away from planet Earth.

Women may require fewer calories, reducing kilograms and cost for any mission launching from Earth, but governments have proved unwilling to let them take the lead. Martha Ackmanns The Mercury 13 tells the story of the women Nasa trained as part of the Mercury programme in the 1960s, and how the US president Lyndon Johnson denied them the opportunity to fly. It wasnt until 1983 that Sally Ride became the first US female astronaut in space, and the sexist culture at Nasa is the backdrop for To Space and Back, a book for younger readers that is as informative as it is aspirational. She explains what its like to eat, sleep, bathe or use the toilet in zero gravity subjects that Mary Roach expands on in her lighthearted study of living in space, Packing for Mars. Sex, in particular, is fraught with difficulties in zero gravity, where Newtons third law can make action and reaction a messy affair.

Mars may be cold and dry, but a gravitational field 38% as strong as Earths may be enough to support growth and development in humans. Robert Zubrin provides a blueprint for settling the red planet in The Case for Mars, laying out how we can get there, establish camps and harvest energy, oxygen and food from the materials we find. He ventures further in The Case for Space, where he outlines the opportunities for mining in the asteroid belt and beyond. Gravity on the frigid moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune is likely to be too weak to support humans. But perhaps the next century will find us using artificial gravity to live throughout the solar system. In 1977, Gerald ONeill described in The High Frontier how the massive rotating spheres this would require are surprisingly straightforward to build.

Our dreams of voyaging in space are even older than that. Jules Vernes 1865 adventure story From the Earth to the Moon is eerily prescient. More than a century before Apollo 11, Verne imagines a giant cannon built in Florida with great controversy and at great expense, which launches three men in a capsule. They fire retrorockets to land on the moon and eventually return to splash down in the Pacific Ocean. The next few centuries may see us travel to Mars and beyond, but human explorers will find that writers have already planted the flag of the imagination on all these new horizons.

Spacefarers by Christopher Wanjek is published by Harvard.

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Let's move to Mars: the best books about our future in space - The Guardian

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) With businesses closed, events canceled and crowd restrictions in place, some Michigan venues are turning to livestream to connect with patrons.

From film festivals and musical performances to bookreadings with Santa, heres a list of what you can enjoy online:

1 p.m. | Live book reading with Santa on Facebook | Facebook live event

4 p.m. through March 29 | Ann Arbor Film Festival | Watch dozens of independent films for free via Vimeo. (Warning: All films are not rated and intended for mature audiences unless otherwise noted. Some films may contain strobing effects. Viewer discretion is advised.)

9 a.m. 9:30 a.m. | KDL Library: Yoga with Mo | Yoga, breathwork and meditation session geared toward teens and adults.

1 p.m. 1:15 p.m. | KDL Livestream Storytime | Read and sing together as a family.

2 p.m. 2:15 p.m. | KDL Livestream Teens and Tweens Book Club

10 a.m. | Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park virtual visits | Join Meijer Gardens staff for special live activities including draw-alongs, book readings and live tours of attractions, including the popular Butterflies are Blooming exhibit:

11 a.m. | BenJammin Educational Music | Live performance with Gramma Jamma

Noon 12:15 | KDL Library: Read aloud with author Peter H. Reynolds | Reynolds shares a reading from one of his best-selling books.

3 p.m. 3:15 p.m. | Home Safari with the Cincinnati Zoo | A daily weekday livestream in which the zoo profiles an animal and shares an activity you can do from home.

All Day | Grand Rapids Public Museum | Watch the museums two 10-month-old Lake Sturgeon swim around their habitat in the Grand Fish, Grand River exhibition anytime during the day: .

All Day | Monterey Bay Aquarium| From sea otters and sharks to jellyfish and penguins, watch livestreams of the creatures in each exhibit.

All Day | Pure Michigan webcams | From Sault Ste. Marie to Holland, get a live look at whats happening around the state without the drive.

Grand Rapids Public Museum | Explore the museums collection of more than 250,000 artifacts and specimens online for free and download virtual discovery kits.

The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation | Dig through the museums digital collection and discover artifacts like the bus on which Rosa Parks protested segregation laws and the first car built by Henry Ford.

Outdoor Discovery Center | Take education outside with ODCs Backyard Crusade activities. Each weekly focus encourages families to explore their outdoor surroundings and investigate nature.

The Menominee Range Historical Museums | Virtual tour takes visitors through three museums that feature more than 100 exhibits including Native American history, World War II gliders and the largest steam-driven pumping engine built in the U.S.

Michigan History Museum | Take a virtual tour of the museums five floors and learn about some of the earliest people to call Michigan home.

Michigan Science Center | Take a virtual tour and learn about the human body, space travel and more through the science centers galleries.

Have another livestream event or online activity you think should be on our list? Send us the link and information by emailing christa.ferguson@woodtv.com.

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Living through livestream: Online activities, webcams - WOODTV.com

There are huge chances to investigate by scientists. In any case, a great deal of vitality and endeavors are required to help support the lives of space travelers in the space with the goal that they can investigate the immaculate. To coordinate the pace, a minor atomic reactor is tried by NASA that will open many shrouded insider facts and go about as an impetus in space investigation.

NASA revealed to me that it had made a noteworthy stride in settling the issues identified with space investigations and the convoluted issues, space travelers face. The little atomic reactor tried by the space office and the Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration is said to enrich a ton of vitality for the sustenance of ran missions to the external orbital world including Moon, Mars, and other related spots. The possibility of Elon Musk in reusing the pre-owned rockets to encourage space travel is now removing many expenses caused in the space investigation and its commercialization.

It took around five months for the introduction to finish. According to Jim Reuter, NASAs acting partner chairman for the Space Technology Mission Directorate, Protected, productive and abundant vitality will be the way to future automated and human investigation. Adding further he stated, I expect the Kilopower task to be a fundamental piece of lunar and Mars power structures as they develop.

Additionally, it helped them to realize that it is steady and safe at all conditions it experiences. The entire framework was put under an assortment of stress tests with the goal that a reasonable thought can be gotten concerning what will occur if a motor in a shuttle fizzled or power must be closed off for some time.

Kilopower enables us to do a lot higher force missions, and to investigate the shadowed holes of the Moon, said Gibson. Including further he stated When we begin sending space travelers for long remains on the Moon and to different planets, that will require another class of intensity that weve never required.

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Small Atomic Reactor Examined This Will Unlock Space Research Via NASA - The Digital Wise

This blog is part of a series providing regional analysis on the effects of the coronavirus.

By Jihad Azour

The impact of COVID-19 and the oil price plunge in the Middle East and the Caucasus and Central Asia has been substantial and could intensify. With three-quarters of the countries reporting at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 and some facing a major outbreak, the coronavirus pandemic has become the largest near-term challenge to the region. Like much of the rest of the world, people in these countries were taken utterly by surprise with this development, and I would like to express my solidarity with them as they cope with this unprecedented health crisis.

This challenge will be especially daunting for the regions fragile and conflict-torn statessuch as Iraq, Sudan, and Yemenwhere the difficulty of preparing weak health systems for the outbreak could be compounded by reduced imports due to disruptions in global trade, giving rise to shortages of medical supplies and other goods and resulting in substantial price increases.

Uncertainty about the nature and duration of the shocks has complicated the policy response.

Beyond the devastating toll on human health, the pandemic is causing significant economic turmoil in the region through simultaneous shocksa drop in domestic and external demand, a reduction in trade, disruption of production, a fall in consumer confidence, and tightening of financial conditions. The regions oil exporters face the additional shock of plummeting oil prices. Travel restrictions following the public health crisis have reduced the global demand for oil, and the absence of a new production agreement among OPEC+ members has led to a glut in oil supply. As a result, oil prices have fallen by over 50 percent since the start of the public health crisis. The intertwined shocks are expected to deal a severe blow to economic activity in the region, at least in the first half of this year, with potentially lasting consequences.

Channels of economic impact

Heres what we know.

First, measures to contain the pandemics spread are hurting key job-rich sectors: tourist cancellations in Egypt have reached 80 percent, while hospitality and retail have been affected in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere. Given the large numbers of people employed in the service sector, there will be wide reverberations if unemployment rises and wages and remittances fall.

Production and manufacturing are also being disrupted and investment plans put on hold. These adverse shocks are compounded by a plunge in business and consumer confidence, as we have observed in economies around the world.

In addition to the economic disruptions from COVID-19, the regions oil exporters are affected by lower commodity prices. Lower export receipts will weaken external positions and reduce revenue, putting pressures on government budgets and spilling over to the rest of the economy. Oil importers, on the other hand, will likely be affected by second-round effects, including lower remittance inflows and weaker demand for goods and services from the rest of the region.

Finally, sharp spikes in global risk aversion and the flight of capital to safe assets have led to a decline in portfolio flows to the region by near $2 billion since mid-February, with sizable outflows observed in recent weeksa risk I underscored in a recent blog. Equity prices have fallen, and bond spreads have risen. Such a tightening in financial conditions could prove to be a major challenge, given the regions estimated $35 billion in maturing external sovereign debt in 2020.

Against this challenging backdrop, the region is likely to see a big drop in growth this year.

Policy priorities

The immediate policy priority for the region is to protect the population from the coronavirus. Efforts should focus on mitigation and containment measures to protect public health. Governments should spare no expense to ensure that health systems and social safety nets are adequately prepared to meet the needs of their populations, even in countries where budgets are already squeezed. Governments in the Caucasus and Central Asia, for example, are increasing health spending and considering broader measures to support to the vulnerable and shore up demand. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, where the coronavirus outbreak has been particularly severe, the government is ramping up health spending, providing additional funding to its Ministry of Health.

Beyond that overarching imperative, economic policy responses should be directed at preventing the pandemica temporary health crisisfrom developing into a protracted economic recession with lasting welfare losses to the society through increased unemployment and bankruptcies. However, the uncertainty about the nature and duration of the shocks has complicated the policy response. Where policy space is available, governments can achieve this goal using a mix of timely and targeted policies on hard-hit sectors and populations, including temporary tax relief and cash transfers.

Temporary fiscal support should consist of measures that provide well-targeted support to affected households and businesses. This support should aim to help workers and firms weather the significant, but hopefully temporary, stop in economic activity that the health measures being implemented to control the spread of the coronavirus will entail. This support will have to take account of the fiscal space that is available, and where policy space is limited be accommodated by reprioritizing revenue and spending objectives within existing fiscal envelopes. Where liquidity shortages are a major concern, central banks should stand ready to provide ample liquidity to banks, particularly those lending to small and medium-sized enterprises, while regulators could support prudent restructuring of distressed loans without compromising loan classification and provisioning rules.

When the immediate crisis from the coronavirus has begun to dissipate, consideration could be given to more conventional fiscal measures to support the economy, such as restarting infrastructure spending, although fiscal space has been significantly eroded over the last decade. Given the nature of the current slowdown, trying to stimulate the economy at this time is unlikely to be successful and would risk eliminating the limited fiscal space that is still available.

Many countries are already introducing targeted measures. For example, several countriesKazakhstan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, to name a fewhave announced large financial packages to support the private sector. These packages include targeted measures to defer taxes and government fees, defer loan payments, and increase concessional financing for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Other countries, particularly the regions oil importers, have more limited policy space. Lower revenues resulting from lower importson top of additional pandemic mitigation spendingare expected to widen fiscal deficits in these economies. And while well-targeted health spending should not be sacrificed, very high debt in many of these oil-importing countries means that they will lack the resources to respond adequately to the broader economic slowdown. As such, these countries should try to strike a balance between easing credit conditions and avoiding vulnerability to capital outflows, and, where possible, allow the exchange rate to cushion some of the shocks. Sizeable financing needs are likely to arise in some countries.

Support from the IMF

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have been in continuous interaction with the authorities in our region to offer advice and assistance, especially those in urgent need of financing to withstand the shocks. The Fund has several tools at its disposal to help its members surmount this crisis and limit its human and economic cost, and a dozen countries from the region have already approached the Fund for financial support. Work is ongoing to expedite approval of such requestslater this week, our Executive Board will consider a request from the Kyrgyz Republic for emergency financing, likely the first such disbursement since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. A few other requests will be considered by the Executive Board in the coming days. Now, more than ever, international cooperation is vital if we hope to prevent lasting economic scars.

The IMF and COVID-19

Read more:

COVID-19 Pandemic and the Middle East and Central Asia: Region Facing Dual Shock - International Monetary Fund

During the 1950s, New Yorks Museum of Modern Art organized a famous photo exhibition called The Family of Man. In the wake of a world war, the show, chockablock with pictures of people, celebrated humanitys cacophony, resilience and common bond.

Today a different global calamity has made scarcity the necessary condition of humanitys survival. Cafes along the Navigli in Milan hunker behind shutters along with the Milanese who used to sip aperos beside the canal. Times Square is a ghost town, as are the City of London and the Place de la Concorde in Paris during what used to be the morning rush.

The photographs here all tell a similar story: a temple in Indonesia; Haneda Airport in Tokyo; the Americana Diner in New Jersey. Emptiness proliferates like the virus.

The Times recently sent dozens of photographers out to capture images of once-bustling public plazas, beaches, fairgrounds, restaurants, movie theaters, tourist meccas and train stations. Public spaces, as we think of them today, trace their origins back at least to the agoras of ancient Greece. Hard to translate, the word agora in Homer suggested gathering. Eventually it came to imply the square or open space at the center of a town or city, the place without which Greeks did not really regard a town or city as a town or city at all, but only as an assortment of houses and shrines.

Thousands of years later, public squares and other spaces remain bellwethers and magnets, places to which we gravitate for pleasure and solace, to take our collective temperature, celebrate, protest. Following the uprisings in Tiananmen Square, Tahrir Square, Taksim Square and elsewhere, Yellow Vest protesters in France demonstrated their discontent last year not by starting a GoFundMe page but by occupying public sites like the Place de la Rpublique and the Place de lOpra in Paris.

Both of those squares were built during the 19th century as part of a master plan by a French official, Baron Georges-Eugne Haussmann, who remade vast swaths of Paris after the city passed new health regulations in 1850 to combat disease. Beset by viruses and other natural disasters, cities around the world have time and again devised new infrastructure and rewritten zoning regulations to ensure more light and air, and produced public spaces, buildings and other sites, including some of the ones in these photographs, that promised to improve civic welfare and that represented new frontiers of civic aspiration.

Their present emptiness, a public health necessity, can conjure up dystopia, not progress, but, promisingly, it also suggests that, by heeding the experts and staying apart, we have not yet lost the capacity to come together for the common good. Covid-19 doesnt vote along party lines, after all. These images are haunted and haunting, like stills from movies about plagues and the apocalypse, but in some ways they are hopeful.

They also remind us that beauty requires human interaction.

I dont mean that buildings and fairgrounds and railway stations and temples cant look eerily beautiful empty. Some of these sites, like many of these photographs, are works of art. I mean that empty buildings, squares and beaches are what art history textbooks, boutique hotel advertisements and glossy shelter and travel magazines tend to traffic in. Their emptiness trumpets an existence mostly divorced from human habitation and the messy thrum of daily life. They imagine an experience more akin to the wonder of bygone explorers coming upon the remains of a lost civilization.

They evoke the romance of ruins.

Beauty entails something else. It is something we bestow.

It will be the moment we return.

London This is what rush hour looks like now in a major metropolis.Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Munich A subway without commuters.Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times

Moscow The seats were empty at rehearsal, and remained so for the online performance.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

Beijing A lone diner in a neighborhood known for its nightlife.Gilles Sabri for The New York Times

Caracas Day 2 of Venezuelas nationwide quarantine.Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times

Los Angeles An unchanging ocean, a barely recognizable beach in Santa Monica.Philip Cheung for The New York Times

Barcelona Pigeons had Las Ramblas to themselves.Maria Contreras Coll for The New York Times

New Jersey The Americana Diner in West Orange was open but only for takeout.Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

Srinagar, India In a tourist season without tourists, boats without passengers.Atul Loke for The New York Times

Bangkok Streets of fear in a city popular with Chinese visitors from Wuhan.Amanda Mustard for The New York Times

Berlin Keep your distance: That is the plea from the German government.Emile Ducke for The New York Times

New Delhi A day at the fair in Red Fort.Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times

Rome The view from the Spanish Steps.Alessandro Penso for The New York Times

Washington Even cherry blossom season did not draw visitors to the Lincoln Memorial.Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times

Tokyo When the world stops traveling.Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times

Seoul South Koreas outbreak was, for weeks, the worst outside China.Woohae Cho for The New York Times

Seattle A hot dog was as unlikely as a visit to the Space Needle.Grant Hindsley for The New York Times

Milan The Navigli, where the Milanese often gather at the end of the day.Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times

San Francisco California residents have been ordered to stay home.Rozette Rago for The New York Times

Rawalpindi, Pakistan No standees, and few seat takers.Saiyna Bashir for The New York Times

New York A major transit hub, the Oculus, in a city no longer on the move.Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

Yangon, Myanmar Nothing to see here: Tourists used to come for the panoramic view.Minzayar Oo for The New York Times

So Paulo The last picture show, or one of them, before theaters were shut.Victor Moriyama for The New York Times

Siem Reap, Cambodia No visits to Angkor Wat, and no Pub Street toasts afterward.Adam Dean for The New York Times

Sydney, Australia Sunset is normally prime photo-taking time at the Opera House.Matthew Abbott for The New York Times

Hong Kong A popular viewing point, but few takers.Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Yogyakarta, Indonesia Only the buildings needed guarding at a temple complex.Ulet Ifansasti for The New York Times

Paris The view is still there, the viewers far less so.Andrea Mantovani for The New York Times

Bogot, Colombia An empty cloverleaf tells the story of a city on lockdown.Federico Rios for The New York Times

Tehran Happy New Year: The Persian New Year comes to Iran.Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

See the rest here:

The Great Empty - The New York Times

As the NBA season has been suspended until further notice, it leaves plenty of time for Kyrie Irving to recover, and while the athlete does that in the comfort of quarantine, his eponymous line of signature Nike silhouettes is still expanding in his honor. From clean black and white colorways to a trophy-clad inspiration for All-Star Weekend, this years run of the Kyrie 6 has been relatively removed of out-there schemes that, however, is changing with the introduction of this latest, whose existence has been unveiled by way of independent sellers. Infused with themes of space travel, the pair irons on motifs across both the lateral and medial: the latter gives way to the astros as it likens basketballs to planets while the former prefers to sprawl with text as it spells out There is no coming back. Obviously foreboding, the embroidered detail sits atop a dripping volt green swoosh whose suede base arrives in a grey thats as neutral as the white coloring seen on the toe and tooling. Elsewhere, black heel counters add prominent color blocking, bits of orange streak across the forefoot, and the right sides tongue emblem swaps the Kyrie insignia for more celestial nods. Grab a detailed look here and find them available via eBay ahead of a likely upcoming Nike.com release.

In other news, there may be more Off-White Air Jordan 5s on the way.

Nike Kyrie 6 There Is No Coming BackAvailable$160Color: Photon Dust/Green StrikeStyle Code: BQ4631-005

Make sure to follow @kicksfinder for live tweets during the release date.

Where to Buy

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Nike Kyrie 6 Heads To Space With There Is No Coming Back - Sneaker News