Category Archives: Space Travel

SANDUSKY, Ohio The next stage of human space exploration will start this weekend right here in Northeast Ohio at NASA's Plumbrook Station in Sandusky when the Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft arrives for environmental testing.

According to NASA, the Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft is "built to take humans farther than theyve ever gone before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities."

Artemis 1 Orion left the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday and it and its crew will arrive at Mansfield Lahm Airport, 2000 Harington Memorial Road, on Sunday afternoon. The Artemis I Orion will be delivered via NASA's Super Guppy aircraft.

The airport will be open to the public for anyone interested in watching the spacecraft being unloaded. Anyone who plans to attend should arrive no later than 1:30 p.m. The Super Guppy is scheduled to land at 2:30 p.m.

Astronaut Doug Wheelock will make an appearance at the main airport terminal office and be available for autographs from 4 to 4:30 p.m.

Additionally, there will be exhibits and activities from noon to 5 p.m. at NASA's Glenn Research Center, 21000 Brookpark Road, Cleveland.

NASA will use a 135-foot-long truck to take the Artemis I Orion to its Space Environments Complex (SEC) at the Plumbrook Station. According to the agency, the SEC "houses the largest and most powerful space environment simulation facilities in the world."

To see a virtual tour and find more information about NASA's Plumbrook Station, click here.

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NASA's Orion spacecraft to arrive Sunday and undergo environmental testing in Sandusky - News 5 Cleveland

Far outside our solar system and out past the distant reachers of our galaxyin the vast nothingness of spacethe distance between gas and dust particles grows, limiting their ability to transfer heat. Temperatures in these vacuous regions can plummet to about -455 degrees Fahrenheit (2.7 kelvin). Are you shivering yet?

But why is the vacuum of space this cold? Well, it's complicated.

For physicists, temperature is all about velocity and motion. When we talk about the temperature in a room, thats not the way a scientist would talk about it," astronomer Jim Sowell of the Georgia Institute of Technology tells Popular Mechanics. We would use the expression heat to define the speeds of all the particles in a given volume.

Most scientists use the kelvin instead of Fahrenheit to describe extremely cold temperatures, so we'll be doing that here, too.

Most, if not all of the heat in the universe comes from stars like our sun. The inside of the sun, where nuclear fusion occurs, temperatures can swell to 15 million kelvin. (On the surface, they only reach up to about 5,800 kelvin.)

The heat that leaves the sun and other stars travels across space as infrared waves of energy called solar radiation. These solar rays only heat the particles in their path, so anything not directly in view of the sun stays cool. Like, really cool.

At night, the surface of even the closest planet to the sun, Mercury, drops to about 95 kelvin. Plutos surface temperature reaches about 40 kelvin. Coincidentally, the lowest temperature ever recorded in our solar system was clocked much closer to home. Last year, scientists measured the depths of a dark crater on the surface of our moon and found that temperatures dropped to about 33 Kelvin, according to New Scientist.

Thats SUPER cold, like -400 Fahrenheit cold.

Event Horizon Telescope collaboration et al.

But our universe is vastunimaginably vast. (And possibly a loop?) What about the vacuum of space?

Well, thats where things get tricky. Within near and distant galaxies, the mesh of dust and clouds that weaves between the stars has been observed at temperatures between between 10 and 20 kelvin. The sparse pockets of space that contain little but cosmic background radiation, leftover energy from the formation of the universe, hover in at around 2.7 kelvin.

These temperatures dip perilously close to an elusive measurement: absolute zero. At absolute zero, which to -459.67 degrees Fahrenheitno motion or heat is transferred between particles, even on the quantum level.

In the vacuum of space, gas particles are few and far betweenabout one atom per spoonful, or 10 cubic centimeters, according to Quartzso they arent able to readily transfer heat to each other through conduction and convection. Heat in space can only be transferred through radiation, which regulates how particles of light, or photons, are absorbed or emitted, according to UniverseToday.

The further you travel into interstellar space, the colder it gets. I dont know that youll ever get down to absolute zero, Sowell says. Youre always going to see some light and therell be some motion. There may be pockets of the universe where temperatures drop to 1 Kelvin above absolute zero, he notes, but so far, the closest measurement to absolute zero has only been observed in laboratories here on Earth.

"Humans are actually pretty good at creating extreme temperatures," Alasdair Gent, a graduate student in astroparticle physics also of the Georgia Institute of Technology tells Popular Mechanics. Scientists are able to recreate the same temperatures seen in the vacuum of space as well as inside the core of stars like our sun.

Back here on Earth, we have it easy. You can have high-speed particles zipping by us outside the Earth's atmosphere, but if you took off your space suit, you would feel cold because there aren't that many particles hitting you, says Sowell. Here on the surface of the earth, particles aren't moving really fast, but there are zillions of them.

Earths atmosphere does an excellent job of circulating the suns heat through conduction, convection and radiation. Thats why we feel temperature changes so acutely on Earth. The particles are moving just a bit faster due to the sunlight or weather patterns, says Sowell.

When we venture out past the safety and confines of our planet, we wear spacesuits and travel in spacecraft that help protect us from these extreme temperatures. Here, a large dose of creativity and a whole lot of insulation is critical.

The Apollo-era spacesuits, for example, had heating systems that included flexible coils and lithium batteries. Modern suits come equipped with tiny, microscopic balls of heat-reactant chemicals that helped protect astronauts from the frigid temps. The Artemis spacesuits, which will take the next man and first woman to the moon in 2024, come equipped with a portable life support system that will help future moonwalkers regulate their temperature on the moon and beyond.

Were you to weave between galaxies in the vacuum of space without a spacesuit, the heat from your bodyabout 100 watts, according to Space.comwould start to radiate away from you. (Remember, conduction and convection don't work here.) This would be a slow, frigid way to go, and, eventually, you'd freeze to death. But... it's likely you'd asphyxiate first.

After all, space is all about extremes.

Update: A previous version of this article referred to the kelvin as being measured in degrees. The kelvin is not measured in degrees. We regret the error.

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The Weirdly Nihilistic Reason Why Outer Space Is So Cold - Popular Mechanics

The answer to efficient and cheap space travel might just be simpler than you think; all it requires is a cable and a weight.

Above, we have a video from Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell, and this time around, the scientific YouTube Channel is exploring the idea of cheap and effective space travel. The idea that is proposed begins with what is called a 'Tether,' which is simply a weight with a cable attached to it. Kurzgesagt suggests that humans build extremely long versions of these tethers and place them at a safe distance around our planet and use them as a 'free' means of propulsion to other planets.

Since the tether would be spinning around our planet, spaceships would be able to attach onto the tether and use its rotational force to be pushed towards a designated planet. The video says that there will be a few problems in doing this; humans would have to create smaller spacecrafts that would be able to match the tethers speed throughout our atmosphere (12,000km per hour). While that might sound extremely difficult, it should be noted that traditional spacecrafts need to reach 45,000km per hour to exit our planet's gravity.

The idea is also extended to other planets such as Mars and even smaller asteroids that we could land on, mine, and then return the plundered minerals from. Kurzgesagt estimates that if tethers were used, the time it takes to get to Mars will be reduced from 9 months to just 5 or even 3 months. Tether use would also reduce the size of the rockets by about 84%-96%, due to most of their body not needing to carry monumental amounts of fuel.

* Prices last scanned on 11/22/2019 at 9:50 pm CDT - prices may not be accurate, please click for very latest pricing

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The answer to cheap space travel to other planets is a 1,000km Skyhook - TweakTown

A prototype of a SpaceX rocket designed to carry people to Mars has suffered a major failure during tests in Texas.

A video of the incident recorded by a local space enthusiast captured the moment the top of the Starship MK-1 rocket exploded.

SpaceXsaid there were no injuries and that the incident in such an early-stage test of the rocket was not a serious setback.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

The purpose of todays test was to pressurise systems to the max, so the outcome was not completely unexpected, a spokesperson for the space firm said.

SpaceX CEO revealed on Twitter that tests would now proceed with the Starship MK-3 prototype design, which is more refined and features a much-improved flight design.

"The striking colour and texture of Africa Illizi, Algeria"

"Every day spent living in space is a great day, but today was particularly special. I got to speak with one of my inspirational heroes Prof Stephen Hawking and his amazing daughter Lucy, who developed the Principia Space Diary to engage children with STEM subjects. As well as talking about dark matter, quantum entanglement, alien life and light beam powered nanocraft we also got to see an amazing pass over the Bahamas and this - my favourite reef smile emoticon"

"Sunrise approaching Russia's frozen north-east coast"

"Hello London! Fancy a run? 🙂 #LondonMarathon"

"50 shades of blue: Bahamas"

"Snow on the mountains next to Yinchuan in China"

"Is it just me or do I see some rocket flames down there? These strange land features are in the Erg Iguidi desert, with its yellow stripes of sand stretching from Algeria to northern Mauritania in the Sahara"

"Sunlight reflecting the stunning colours of this Himalayan lake"

"The real thing: found Everest! Last picture turned out to be third-tallest mountain Kanchengjunga"

"Go #Exomars have a great mission. Earth has more in common with Mars than you might think #AfricaArt"

"Amazingly clear view of Tenerife"

"Some midday winter sun glinting off Greenlands snow-capped peaks"

"Great texture in these huge sand dunes, Saudi Arabia"

"The dam makes this river look like a dragons tail. Oahe Dam north of Pierre, South Dakota in the United States. (North is to the right)"

"Spotted volcano smoking away on Russias far east coast this morning heat has melted snow around top"

"New Zealand looking stunning in the sunshine. Mt Cook centre left with the Grand Plateau to the front and Mt Tasman (3,497m) to the right of the Grand Plateau. Fox Glacier in the middle then Franz Josef curving right. Tasman Lake (largest at front) is at the foot of the Tasman glacier which runs along the front of them. The Hooker Glacier flows out behind Mt Cook coming down to meet the Mueller Glacier on the left of the photo. The Murchison Glacier is at the front of the photo running parallel with the Tasman Glacier"

"Another great pass over Patagonia and a swirling plankton bloom off the coast"

"We dont often get such clear views of Alaska"

"Lights along the Nile stretching into the distance from Cairo"

"The Pacific Ring of Fire clear to see amongst the volcanoes of Kamchatka, Russia"

"Im guessing there was an impressive storm going on under that cumulonimbus cloud"

"Night-time Sahara you can really see how thin the Earths atmosphere is in this picture"

"Tokyo and Japanese coast. This image shows most of Japan with the largest mass of light corresponding to Tokyo. The white lights on the left are fishing boats"

"Morning sun striking active volcanoes in Guatemala"

"The vast waters of the Tapajos river, Amazonia"

"Beautiful glacial river water flowing from this Patagonian ice field Lake Viedma, West is up"

"Minus the #Dragon photobomb this time..."

"Sediment spilling into this mountain lake, Ethiopia"

"We have phases of short nights on the International Space Station sunlight is nearly always visible right now. No prizes for guessing where this is"

"From one mighty ocean to another ships passing through the Panama canal"

"The striking colour and texture of Africa Illizi, Algeria"

"Every day spent living in space is a great day, but today was particularly special. I got to speak with one of my inspirational heroes Prof Stephen Hawking and his amazing daughter Lucy, who developed the Principia Space Diary to engage children with STEM subjects. As well as talking about dark matter, quantum entanglement, alien life and light beam powered nanocraft we also got to see an amazing pass over the Bahamas and this - my favourite reef smile emoticon"

"Sunrise approaching Russia's frozen north-east coast"

"Hello London! Fancy a run? 🙂 #LondonMarathon"

"50 shades of blue: Bahamas"

"Snow on the mountains next to Yinchuan in China"

"Is it just me or do I see some rocket flames down there? These strange land features are in the Erg Iguidi desert, with its yellow stripes of sand stretching from Algeria to northern Mauritania in the Sahara"

"Sunlight reflecting the stunning colours of this Himalayan lake"

"The real thing: found Everest! Last picture turned out to be third-tallest mountain Kanchengjunga"

"Go #Exomars have a great mission. Earth has more in common with Mars than you might think #AfricaArt"

"Amazingly clear view of Tenerife"

"Some midday winter sun glinting off Greenlands snow-capped peaks"

"Great texture in these huge sand dunes, Saudi Arabia"

"The dam makes this river look like a dragons tail. Oahe Dam north of Pierre, South Dakota in the United States. (North is to the right)"

"Spotted volcano smoking away on Russias far east coast this morning heat has melted snow around top"

"New Zealand looking stunning in the sunshine. Mt Cook centre left with the Grand Plateau to the front and Mt Tasman (3,497m) to the right of the Grand Plateau. Fox Glacier in the middle then Franz Josef curving right. Tasman Lake (largest at front) is at the foot of the Tasman glacier which runs along the front of them. The Hooker Glacier flows out behind Mt Cook coming down to meet the Mueller Glacier on the left of the photo. The Murchison Glacier is at the front of the photo running parallel with the Tasman Glacier"

"Another great pass over Patagonia and a swirling plankton bloom off the coast"

"We dont often get such clear views of Alaska"

"Lights along the Nile stretching into the distance from Cairo"

"The Pacific Ring of Fire clear to see amongst the volcanoes of Kamchatka, Russia"

"Im guessing there was an impressive storm going on under that cumulonimbus cloud"

"Night-time Sahara you can really see how thin the Earths atmosphere is in this picture"

"Tokyo and Japanese coast. This image shows most of Japan with the largest mass of light corresponding to Tokyo. The white lights on the left are fishing boats"

"Morning sun striking active volcanoes in Guatemala"

"The vast waters of the Tapajos river, Amazonia"

"Beautiful glacial river water flowing from this Patagonian ice field Lake Viedma, West is up"

"Minus the #Dragon photobomb this time..."

"Sediment spilling into this mountain lake, Ethiopia"

"We have phases of short nights on the International Space Station sunlight is nearly always visible right now. No prizes for guessing where this is"

"From one mighty ocean to another ships passing through the Panama canal"

Mr Musk unveiled the Starship spacecraft in September, claiming it would be ready to carry humans to Mars within a few years.

This is going to sound totally nuts, but I think we want to try to reach orbit in less than six months, he said at the event in Texas.

The billionaire polymath also reiterated his belief that humanity needs to colonise the Moon, Mars and other parts of space in order to ensure its survival.

Elon Musk shared a picture of what the Starship rocket will look like(Elon Musk)

In order to achieve this, the company has ushered in a number of groundbreaking innovations to vastly reduce the cost of space travel, including reusable rockets that can land vertically following take off.

We need to make space travel like air travel. Any other mode of transport is reusable so the critical breakthrough is a rapidly reusable orbital rocket this is the holy grail of space, he said.

"I think we should really do our best to become a multi-planet species, and we should do it now."

Social media is an increasingly important battle ground in elections - and home to many questionable claims pumped out by all sides. If social media sites won't investigate the truth of divisive advertising, we will. Please send any political Facebook advertising you receive todigitaldemocracy@independent.co.uk, and we will catalogue and investigate it.Read more here.

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SpaceX rocket that Elon Musk wants to take people to Mars in explodes during tests - The Independent

If you're looking to plan a space-themed trip but you've already been to NASA's Kennedy and Johnson space centers, Atlas Obscura's new book can offer off-the-beaten-path cosmic destinations.

"Atlas Obscura, 2nd Edition: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders" (Workman Publishing, 2019) offers around-the-world destination recommendations for travelers looking for something unusual. Based on the website of the same name, the book was written by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras and Ella Morton and covers oddities of every nature. Plenty of those recommendations touch on spaceflight and related topics.

Perhaps you'd like to see icons of spaceflight itself: the book recommends stops like Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where Russian Soyuz vehicles still launch to the International Space Station. Or visit Australia's museum dedicated to the Skylab station that fell out of the sky.

Related: 5 Great Summer Vacation Ideas for Space Lovers

Or, if you're more interested in science destinations, consider visiting facilities like Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia or the Large Zenith Telescope with its mercury mirror in Canada.

Museum options abound, including historic planetariums, Germany's space travel museum, a museum dedicated to Galileo Galilei (and his preserved middle finger) and the Shanghai Astronomical Museum.

"Atlas Obscura" also offers places to see where space and Earth intersect, from finding Libyan desert glass to visiting Namibia's massive Hoba meteorite, left where it fell since it's too massive to move.

Or, of course, you could take the alien route. Consider the Betty and Barney Hill Archive in New Hampshire, dedicated to alien abduction accounts; stop by memorials of encounters with UFOs in Poland and Sweden, or even visit a would-be alien welcome center in South Carolina.

The book explores plenty of other space-related destinations as well. It's not quite the same as visiting space but we can't all be astronauts.

You can buy Atlas Obscura, 2nd Edition: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders at Amazon.

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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New 'Atlas Obscura' Book Offers Host of Space Oddities to Visit on Earth - Space.com

A FORMERFife miner who has devised a series of inventions around dissolving materials including bandages and wipes has linked up with scientists at Strathclyde University to develop ways of tackling waste in space.

Brian McCormack has already developed a suite of dissolvable products he believes could transform the way healthcare professionals would treat burns, as well as flushable wipes.

The 62-year-old, who set up McCormack Innovation to develop his products, has now entered a five-year agreement to explore ways of tackling waste in space.

The next stage of the race will be in deep space, and Mr McCormack hopes Scotland will be at the forefront of developing sustainable space travel.

Mr McCormack has created a group of inventions that include a dissolvable bandage that works like conventional crepe dressings, yet can be removed by placing in water.

READ MORE:SpaceX launches supplies to International Space Station after power delays

He is also in advanced discussions with a number of global companies over taking his products to market.

Now he has linked up with experts at the to Strathclyde Aerospace Centre of Excellence to develop new products for space use.

The growing problem of waste in space prompted NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, to launch a contest for ideas for tackling rubbish and other waste generated by space crew on long-range human space exploration missions, such as to the Moon or Mars.

Four astronauts can generate 2,500 kilograms of waste in a one-year mission.

Above:NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Expedition 30 flight engineer, is pictured among stowage bags in the Harmony node of the International Space Station. The bags, containing waste, will be transferred to the docked Progress 45 spacecraft for disposal. Credit: NASA

There is already an issue of waste material in space left over by earlier rockets, with between 16,000 and 20,000 pieces being tracked orbiting Earth.

Waste disposal methods on the International Space Station involve astronauts manually processing refuse by placing it into bags then loading it onto a designated vehicle for short term storage, which depending on the craft, returns the refuse to Earth or burns up in the atmosphere.

However, this disposal method will not be available for missions beyond low-Earth orbit.

READ MORE: Former Fife miner invents soluble bandages that could ease pain of millions

Mr McCormack said: Currently general waste on the international space station - packaging, wipes, everything - is put in bags and stored in a capsule.

The capsule is then released from the space station, the capsule enters the Earths atmosphere and burns up on entry like a meteor would.

This is planned so the burn up happens above the Pacific Ocean and at times the rubbish is taken away by a visiting commercial vehicle that returns to Earth.

This system works for low Earth orbit but not for deep space travel. In deep space there will not be the luxury of visiting commercial vehicles to take the rubbish away."

Above: NASA: 'We are going to the Moon by 2024.' Credit: NASA

Mr McCormacksaid:In deep space if you released a waste capsule it would not be pulled back into the Earths atmosphere and burn up, it would travel at dangerously high speeds and pollute space.

NASA has reached out to innovators and industry to develop a system that could solve this problem of disposal of waste in deep space. This is a major challenge.

McCormack Innovation, who have developed the worlds first dissolving wipe, could see opportunity to introduce items of every day use in space travel that would dissolve after use.

The biomedical tested wipe is one. Dissolving toilet paper and other packaging is also included.

READ MORE: Watch: Former Fife miner's soluble bandage 'could revolutionise trauma and burns care'

The company agreed the link-up after a meeting with a team of space academics led by Professor Max Vasile and Dr Monica Oliveira.

Mr McCormack said: It will be an honour for McCormack Innovation to work alongside this team on this project of dissolving waste in space, and making a very important contribution to deep space travel. Again, first-class innovation coming out Scotland.

Dr Oliveira, senior lecturer in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering, said: Waste management is a great challenge in space, especially in the context of long-duration space missions. Any innovative solutions that help to mitigate issues of waste are key for sustainable long-duration human space travel.

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Former miner turned inventor in link-up with space centre to tackle waste in space - HeraldScotland

Journeys to other star systems will forever be out of reach unless a massive breakthrough in physics makes faster-than-light travel a reality, or a breakthrough in medicine makes suspended animation possible.Now, at least, one of those things has happened.

Samuel Tisherman, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, is the leader of a team that has successfully put a human being in suspended animation.

Describing the successful operation as a little surreal, Professor Tisherman told New Scientist how he removed the patients blood and replaced with ice-cold saline solution.

The patient, technically dead at this point, was removed from the cooling system and taken to an operating theatre for a two-hour surgical procedure before having their blood restored and being warmed to the normal temperature of 37C.

Prof Tisherman says he will be producing a full account of the procedure in a scientific paper in the new year.

He says that his focus is on pausing life long enough to perform emergency surgery rather than sending astronauts on interstellar journeys.

He tells the story of a young man who was stabbed over a row in a bowling alley: He was a healthy young man just minutes before, then suddenly he was dead. We could have saved him if wed had enough time.

His suspended animation technique is intended as a way of securing that extra time.

I want to make clear that were not trying to send people off to Saturn, he says. Were trying to buy ourselves more time to save lives.

But inevitably space agencies such as NASA and the ESA as well as more ambitious tech entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos will be taken a keen interest in Prof Tishermans paper when it is published in 2020.

A journey to Saturn can take up to seven years, so keeping the crew on ice might be easier than keeping them healthy and happy for all that time.

While Prof Tisherman has released this news of one successful trial, there is no word on how many previous attempts were made with critical patients before this.

The experiment was given the go-ahead by the US Food and Drug Administration. The FDA waived the usual requirement for patient consent in this case as the patient could not be saved by any other means.

At the moment, the biggest obstacle to reliable animation of a patient who has been super-cooled in this way is cell damage as they are re-warmed so-called reperfusion injuries.

Prof Tisherman says that there may be a drug, or cocktail of drugs, that can help minimise these injuries but, he says: but we havent identified all the causes of reperfusion injuries yet.

Once he has, whether or not he wants to send a refrigerated crew to Saturn, its likely that sooner or later thats exactly what will happen.

Go here to read the rest:

Space travel barrier removed as docs freeze and revive human for first time - Daily Star

Putting astronauts into a state of suspended animation during long distance space travel is a staple of science fiction. Now, the European Space Agency (ESA) has investigated how such a technologyif it existed in real lifecould work and what its impacts would be on the designs of potential missions to Mars or other worlds.

The key finding of this investigation is that missions which made use of human hibernation would require much less physical space than normal, according to the space agency's Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) and SciSpacE team.

The research assessed human hibernation on a hypothetical mission to send six humans to Mars and back over five years.

"We worked on adjusting the architecture of the spacecraft, its logistics, protection against radiation, power consumption and overall mission design," Robin Biesbroek from the CDF said in a statement.

"We looked at how an astronaut team could be best put into hibernation, what to do in case of emergencies, how to handle human safety and even what impact hibernation would have on the psychology of the team. Finally we created an initial sketch of the habitat architecture and created a roadmap to achieve a validated approach to hibernate humans to Mars within 20 years," he said.

The CDF assumed that the astronauts would be induced into hibernation using drugs while inside small individual "soft-shell pods." The pods would be darkened and cooled to keep the bodies of the astronauts at a low temperature for most of the 180-day journey from Earth to Mars.

Before going into hibernation, the crew would have to put on extra body fatjust like hibernating animals do in the wild. Furthermore, the astronauts would go through a 21-day recuperation period after waking up in order to give their bodies time to recover.

An added bonus of human hibernation is that mission designers may be able to better protect astronauts from harmful radiationone of the main hazards of deep space travel. The crew would spend most of the mission in their pods, which could be protected by special shielding.

However, one challenge in any mission involving human hibernation, the CDF said, is that it would have to be largely automated and equipped with an artificial intelligence system that could deal with technical issues until the crew can be revived.

Importantly, the study found that hibernation technology may enable mission designers to reduce spacecraft mass by a third because the crew quarters would no longer be necessary, not to mention several tons of consumable items. The hibernation pods would double as cabins while the astronauts are awake.

"For a while now hibernation has been proposed as a game-changing tool for human space travel," Jennifer Ngo-Anh from the SciSpacE team said in a statement. "If we were able to reduce an astronaut's basic metabolic rate by 75 percentsimilar to what we can observe in nature with large hibernating animals such as certain bearswe could end up with substantial mass and cost savings, making long-duration exploration missions more feasible."

It is important to note that currently there is no proven technology available that can place humans into a hibernation-like state. However, this is not to say that it is beyond the realms of possibility in the future.

"The basic idea of putting astronauts into long-duration hibernation is actually not so crazy: a broadly comparable method has been tested and applied as therapy in critical care trauma patients and those due to undergo major surgeries for more than two decades," Ngo-Anh said.

"Most major medical centers have protocols for inducing hypothermia in patients to reduce their metabolism to basically gain time, keeping patients in a better shape than they otherwise would be. We aim to build on this in future, by researching the brain pathways that are activated or blocked during initiation of hibernation, starting with animals and proceeding to people," she said.

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This Is How Putting Astronauts Into Hibernation Could Work on a Mission to Mars - Newsweek

In 1902, a rocket landed in the moons eye, and audiences were in awe. Pirated versions of George Mlis silent black-and-white film A Trip to the Moon screened in theaters across the United States to rows of captivated eyes. That year gave birth to a new genre of film one that would later spawn multi-million dollar budget deals, elaborate theme parks and zeitgeist-defining, imagination-widening stories.

That year, the space movie began.

The genre has since rocketed to new heights in Hollywood. Since the space race of the 50s and 60s, when spaceships and moon-landings became reality, studios started churning out space movies, and they never stopped. Just this year, the tradition has persisted in blockbusters Star Wars, Ad Astra and Avengers: Endgame. As far as the eye can see, the space movie is here to stay.

So what makes a good space movie, then, in a world of so many? While there are certainly several factors, Duke professor and Science Communication program director Jory Weintraub wants us to think about about the science, or lack thereof, behind our favorite films.

For a few years now hes hosted a biannual event, Science in the Movies, that brings together science and film experts in a panel that dissects the science in various movie clips. In the past, the event has covered cinematic depictions of dinosaurs, mental illness and natural disasters. This Thursday, Nov. 21, at 7 p.m. in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, a panel of three will tackle, for the second time, one of Weintraubs favorite topics: Space on the Silver Screen.

I just love this topic so much, Weintraub said. And especially since this is the year of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, I thought, Okay. Its been long enough lets do this one again.

The panel will include Tony Rice, a NASA ambassador and WRAL contributor, Dr. Rachel Smith, head of the Astronomy & Astrophysics Research Lab at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and Dr. Marsha Gordon, professor of film studies at NC State University and co-host of Movies on the Radio on WUNCs The State of Things. Weintraub will moderate, presenting clips from space movies through the decades beginning, of course, with the one that started it all: A Trip to the Moon.

A film doesnt have to be totally scientifically sound to have critical value. Take A Trip to the Moon, for example; it was made long before space exploration became a possibility, and it features anthropomorphized planets and insectoid lunar animals. Instead, Gordon appreciates its fantastical take on space travel.

What I like about [A Trip to the Moon] in the context of thinking about space movies is just sharing with a contemporary audience what a filmmaker dreamed up over 100 years ago as the way youd imagine getting from earth to the moon and back again, Gordon wrote in an email. Its really quite delightful.

Another movie that the event panel will discuss is Stanley Kubricks 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. In addition to its dramatic aesthetic power, Dr. Gordon finds the film prescient in its imagination of artificial intelligence.

2001 raised questions about, for example, what might happen if computers could think and feel, Gordon wrote. It also raised the specter of AI taking control in a nefarious way that is a rather serious issue that we will all be confronted with in the relatively near future.

While many directors would openly admit to taking creative liberties in their depictions of science, a recent bevy of space-themed blockbusters have prided themselves on their scientific accuracy. In the making of Interstellar, Christopher Nolan enlisted astrophysicist Kip Thorne, and conversations about the wormhole-filled movies scientific authenticity abounded in popular culture. Nolan even followed up the films release with a book written by Kip Thorne, The Science of Interstellar.

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The general consensus in the scientific community is that Interstellar really does take inspiration from sound theoretical astrophysics although it certainly takes some creative license, as all movies branded as fiction necessarily do. But not all films that claim scientific accuracy are so well-researched. Weintraub wants to use these examples good and bad as a way of teaching the public what is true about space and space exploration.

I definitely am an unabashed science geek so Im not ashamed to say that, Weintraub said. But I think a lot of people you almost have to sneak [science] in in the form of entertainment.

Like the universe we live in, the audience of Space on the Silver Screen knows no boundaries it is for science geeks, film freaks and laypeople alike.

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From 'A Trip to the Moon' to 'Interstellar': 'Space on the Silver Screen' explores it all - Duke Chronicle

In this episode of the podcast Unwrap Your Candies Now, Ernie Manouse interviews Jeff Miller (director) and Tamarie Cooper (cast member and co-artistic director) about Baby Screams Miracle by Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Clare Barron. Described as a funny, moving tale of faith and survival, the show is being produced by The Catastrophic Theatre from November 22 December 15 at MATCH.

Then, Catherine Lu chats with Houston Symphony Composer-in-Residence Jimmy Lpez Bellido about his World Premiere Symphony No. 2, Ad Astra, dedicated to NASA and inspired by space travel. A culmination of his three-year residency, the piece is also a kind of love letter to Houston. Performances are December 5, 7 and 8 at Jones Hall.

Share your comments, questions and ideas at UYCN@houstonpublicmedia.org.

Music used: Invention No. 13 by J.S. Bach performed by Andrs Schiff and Symphony No. 2, Ad Astra by Jimmy Lpez Bellido (rehearsal excerpts) performed by the Houston Symphony, Music Director Andrs Orozco-Estrada

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Catastrophic Theatre Produces A Tale Of Faith And Survival For The Holidays, Plus Composer Jimmy Lpez Bellido Writes A Musical Love Letter To NASA -...