Category Archives: Space Travel

Fueled by a passion for wilderness and a genius for robotics, Natalie Panek is taking Leave No Trace to where its never been beforeouter space.

Natalie Paneks favorite places on Earth are the wildest ones: Greenland, Baffin Island, Patagonia, the Yukon, Alaska. But the destination she really dreams of visiting?

Mars.

Paneks obsession with space travel started when she was a kid, when her family would adventure outside Calgary, Alberta, where her dad could find mushrooms and huckleberries and elk and fish. Its the place Panek first lay back and gazed up at the stars and thought, there, there, there. There is where I want to be.

And she almost made it. In early 2017, the year she turned 32, Panek made it to the final 100 candidates (out of 4,000) vying to become one of Canadas two new astronauts. She had spent many months in the recruitment process, but then was rejected for a medical issue a potential immune system problemshe couldnt even feel.

You chase this goal for 25 years, she says, and then its over. Not from anything you did wrong. Just circumstances completely out of your control.

A few days later at her home in Toronto, the rejection in hand, an existential crisis lurking at the gates, her partner Cam went off-script:

Lets just book a flight to Calgary and go home to the mountains.Are you serious? Get on a plane? An hour from now?Yeah! Lets do it.

Nature and solitude teach patience.

And there, in the mountains, the first place that wild spaces grabbed her heart, she had the space to think. To think about everything she needed to and about nothing at all.

Panek committed to a year of adventure therapyto head out every weekendto heal her broken heart. More than 40 outings later, something shifted. She felt grounded again, at home on the Earth.

I started calling myself an explorer, and then immediately felt really awkward about it, Panek says. Im not going on remote expeditions for famous outdoor organizations. Then I realized that the world needs more everyday explorers, people who question the information presented to us and have awe and wonder for the world. Daily curiosity for what is all around us. This is exploration at its core.

With her confidence back, Panek found herself dreaming of space again. And she started to question our footprint there. Just like weve littered the slopes of Everest, weve left plenty of junk in orbit. There are 8,400 tons of debris spinning around the planet. Some 3,000 satellites currently in orbit dont even work.

People familiar with the outdoors grow up with this idea of Leave No Trace, but we dont treat space exploration that way, she says. Everyone gets super excited about planetary exploration or space telescopes, which are totally awesome. But were leaving rovers that are no longer working on another planet or dead satellites orbiting Earth. We might be exploring, but were also polluting.

Its a problem that needs solving, and Panek has embraced it. She has worked on projects to build robotic tools that could service and repair satellitesessentially, using space-age technology to clean up the galactic mess. In fact, she might be poised to contribute to space in ways she would never have been able to had she realized her initial dream of becoming an astronaut.

What Ive come to love so much about this work is that its trying to hold us accountable for taking care of the environment that we explore."

Panek embodies a spirit we celebrate at Arcteryx. We discovered that inspiring and effective problem-solvers, no matter the field theyre in or what challenge theyre approaching, share common traits: humility, a commitment to collaboration, and a deep love for wild places.

At Arcteryx, we are perfectionists, fanatics, gear-heads, outdoorlovers. But we are designers first. Designers are more than tinkerers, artists, and makers. Designers are agents for changeleaning into hard problems, applying a process and ethos that creates possibility.

Just like Panek is doing. Ever since her first camping trip gazing up at the stars, she has known in her marrow that were obligated to leave no trace no matter where we are or how far we go. Thats the responsibility that comes with the privilege of exploring.

And perhaps this is the best legacy any of us can leave: no trace at all. Imagine those who come after us having the opportunity to experience a beautiful place, a spectacular planet, or an incredible vista with no mark left by humansas if they, too, were the first.

Watch a video of Natalie Panek and meet more problem solvers at arcteryx.com/explore/problem-solvers.

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The Way of the Problem Solver: Wild Space - Backpacker

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A connected world has ushered an age teeming with economic and social activity, as well as incredible scientific progress. Thus, many assume that humanity is invincible and that the solar system is our inevitable conquest.

Heres a reality check: Humans are never more than one generation away from extinction: Posterity wont exist if an asteroid crashes our blue planet and if we dont have an alternative planetary habitat.

One consortium made up of cryptocurrency and fintech ventures is innovating a way for investors to allocate capital towards an initial exchange offering tied to the colonization of Mars and space exploration.

Cutting the Cost of Space Exploration

NASA (which has a $21 billion annual budget) has taken a lot of flack for its high cost of space exploration while not doing enough to send personnel and equipment throughout the solar system. The U.S. space agency recently said it would cost $50 million to travel to the International Space Station and $35,000 per night to stay.

Critics further say that NASAs funds are tied in a bloated bureaucracy that serves political, not scientific, interests.

Billionaire entrepreneurs like Richard Branson and Elon Musk have been working to cut costs: Virgin Galactic (Bransons company) will charge just $250,000 to send passengers into suborbital flight nearly 50 years after the Apollo 11 mission. By 2023, Branson expects to generate $600 million in revenue after sending 1,562 customers on 270 flights.

Elon Musks SpaceX is also disrupting the industry through reusable Falcon 9 rockets that are the cheapest space-launch vehicles in the world. The California-based company is developing Starship, a reusable interplanetary transport system and space vehicle that can enable human colonization of Mars by 2035.

More investors are interested. (See below.)

Economic Interest in Space Travel

As any successful business owner knows, Richard Branson and Elon Musk show that its good designs that make a project successful. Its not about the size of the budget (i.e., government bloat). Rather, its about smart deployment of capital and working with innovators who get results.

Capital formation is also important. This month, Unicorn Tokenization Corp. is launching the USPX token, where funds will be invested in direct or indirect economic interest of SpaceX. (There is no affiliation between the two.) This token and similar projects could turn many people into stakeholders in the success of humanity, says Valentin Preobrazhenskiy, CEO of LATOKEN, a digital asset exchange.

Crypto holders and Silicon Valley investors are supporting space-tech ventures, and it gives the industry a new source of liquidity. Billionaire Tim Draper, a big investor in Bitcoin as well as early backer of Skype and Tesla, has funded SpaceChain, an open-source network of satellites thats powered by blockchain.

Frictionless Pooling of Capital

The involvement of fintech firms is important for entrepreneurial ventures to succeed. Private capital is an alternative to less-efficient public-sector funding. Cryptocurrencies and digital-asset exchanges facilitate frictionless contributions to large causes or for-profit ventures whose cash-out timelines are far ahead in the future. These innovations were designed to make cross-border payments as painless as possible, as well as tap into a global base of support.

For example, digital exchanges can raise millions of dollars via their platforms in just a few minutes. Compare that to crowdfunding websites that raise the same amount of capital, but take weeks or months to do so. Secondly, tokenization of money allow global supporters to quickly send frictionless payments from anywhere.

Given their position as aggregators of capital and their interest in building both traditional and crypto-native financial services, the exchanges are perfectly positioned to catalyze the adoption of Open Finance, wrote Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin Capital, in an Oct. 29 blog. The exchanges aggregate capital, and they can strongly influence where and how that capital flows.

A rational person would hope that more capital would be allocated towards innovations that give humanity a chance to explore and thrive on alternative habitats.

Read the rest here:

Entrepreneurs, Not Government, are Lowering the Cost of Space Travel - TechBullion

KLAUS (2019) Stream on Netflix. The abrupt drop in temperatures across the Eastern United States this week may make this animated Santa origin story uncomfortably relatable, as it is set on an island above the Arctic Circle. The movie centers on Jesper, a mailman voiced by Jason Schwartzman who partners with a hermitlike toymaker named Klaus (J.K. Simmons) to deliver trinkets to children on the island. It is the first feature directed by Sergio Pablos, an animator and screenwriter whose decades-long history working with Disney informs this movies look. It all moves along so amiably, and offers such consistently delightful visuals, that the conventional plot points, up to and including an inevitable but I can explain bit, are entirely digestible, Glenn Kenny wrote in his review for The New York Times. These clichs inhibit Klaus from achieving instant-classic status, but the film is winning enough that its worth a place in a family Christmas-movie library (not that, as a Netflix offering, it will take up any physical space).

SNOOPY IN SPACE Stream on Apple TV Plus. For a secular alternative to Klaus, consider this new animated series with characters from Charles M. Schulzs Peanuts comics. Charlie Brown enthusiasts will be glad to hear that, while this story involves space travel and is delivered via Apples shiny new streaming service, the series sticks to the familiar animation style and jazzy score.

IT COMES AT NIGHT (2017) Rent on Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu and YouTube. The 31-year-old director Trey Edward Shults is back in theaters this week with Waves, an intense family drama set in contemporary Florida. His previous movie, It Comes at Night, also dealt with family matters though it did so in a less recognizable world. The movie centers on a mother and father (played by Carmen Ejogo and Joel Edgerton) who, along with their teenage son (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), hole up in a country house amid an apocalyptic epidemic. The drama ramps up after the arrival of another family. What happens is both shocking and, in retrospect, brutally inevitable, A.O. Scott wrote in his review for The Times. It Comes at Night is pretty terrifying to sit through, but it may be even scarier after its over, when you sift through what youve seen and try to piece together what it may have meant.

PARIAH: THE LIVES AND DEATHS OF SONNY LISTON 9 p.m. on Showtime. After the 1962 boxing match in which Sonny Liston defeated Floyd Patterson to become the heavyweight champion of the world, Liston was asked whether or not beating Patterson was as easy as he had expected. No, The Times quoted Liston as having said. I thought it would be easier. He was rubbing it in: The victory had come after only two minutes and six seconds of boxing. The famously mysterious fighters career and eventual premature death are the subjects of this documentary series.

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Whats on TV Friday: Santa Claus and Sonny Liston - The New York Times

Scorched Earth

Space companies trying to make off-world tourism a thing will likely cause major environmental destruction in the process.

Thats because a single SpaceX Falcon 9 launch emits as much carbon dioxide as 395 transatlantic flights, Common Dreams reports. And with SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and others planning to ramp up their space tourism efforts, they could become a major force exacerbatingglobal climate change.

Travel company Champion Travelerdid the actual math, and the numbers look grim.

Just one space flight emits as much CO2 as 73 cars typically do over the course of an entire year, and SpaceX has two dozen launches planned just to establish its Starlink satellite network. Add in all the other space companies launches, and you get a whole lot of greenhouse gases poised to burn our atmosphere away.

But hey, if the worlds going to burn, you might as well get a sick view of it from the shuttles window seat.

READ MORE: New Analysis Shows Billionaires Dream of Space Tourism Would Be Disaster for Emissions, Climate Crisis [Common Dreams]

More on space tourism: Virgin Galactics Plan: Send Tourists to Space Every 32 Hours

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New Research: Casual Space Tourism Will Devastate the Planet - Futurism

CLEVELAND On 3News Now with Stephanie Haney, the top headlines include why Cleveland Browns fans' pleas for their fellow fans not to sell tickets to tonight's game to Pittsburgh Steelers fans, and how Ohio has become a crucial part of NASA's plan to get back to the moon... and eventually Mars.

Producer Mike Friend joins the live stream to talk about the Orion capsule ahead of a special edition of What's Next at 11 P.M., which will be devotedly entirely to the story of Ohio's role in upcoming space travel.

We'll also share news of Colson Baker, better known as Machine Gun Kelly, opening a coffee shop in Cleveland's Flats East Bank. The shop is called "The 27 Club," in a tribute to performers weve lost too soon.

To help you earn money and also save a few dollars, we'll also tell you how you can get paid to watch Hallmark movies and give you the inside scoop on the Black Friday deals Walmart released today.

On 3News Now, digital anchor Stephanie Haney covers the top headlines, trending topics and previews what were working on for you right now ahead of What Matters Most at 6 P.M., Front Row at 7 P.M. and Whats Next at 11 P.M.

Check back with us each afternoon on wkyc.com, in the 3News app, on Facebook and YouTube for the 3News Now update with Stephanie.

Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, click the bell to get notified every time 3News goes live, and like and follow our page on Facebook for all the latest news you need to know.

RELATED: Watch | 3News Now with Stephanie Haney on Nov. 12

RELATED: Watch | 3News Now with Stephanie Haney on Nov. 11

Originally posted here:

Watch | 3News Now with Stephanie Haney on Nov. 14 - WKYC.com

More than a third of Britons believe humans will inevitably have to live in space due to the Earth becoming increasingly uninhabitable.

While the public sector dominated space exploration in the 20th century, the space race this century has been revolutionised by the private sector.

And it seems increasingly likely that people will look to private enterprises like SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Asgardia to facilitate their space travel.

To find out what the UK thinks about travelling to and living in space, Asgardia the first space nation commissioned Populus to conduct a poll of 2,103 people.

From this figure, 37% said it was inevitable that humans would have to move off Earth because the planet will not be suitable to live on.

A total of 29% of those surveyed said they would pay to go to space if it were easily accessible to the general public.

Less than a fifth (18%) would use their savings to visit space if given the chance.

People were also asked their opinions on aliens, with 42% believing extraterrestrial life has or will visit the Earth.

One fifth of those polled were worried about an asteroid potentially crashing into Earth, and the same number believe planetary alignments affect their mood.

A quarter of the recipients said the UK needs a stronger asteroid defence system.

Asgardia, the first space nation, is named after the City of the Gods in Norse mythology.

Its main aim is to develop space technology unfettered by earthly politics and laws, leading ultimately to a permanent orbiting home where its citizens can live and work.

Former Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik, chairman of Parliament for Asgardia, said: Inspiring the public to dream about space travel and tackle the final frontier is vital to the success of our endeavours even the Apollo programme, that ultimately put a man on the Moon, was scrapped largely due to a lack of public support in the US.

But with nearly a third of UK with an ambition to visit space, it is clear to see that this support is not unattainable.

One of the keys will be to help people feel as though they are a part of something bigger and more tangible than just watching a rocket launch or following the fate of a satellite due to crash into a comet.

Asgardia aims to provide this, with over a million followers already, the space nation offers the opportunity to contribute to the exploration of space.

From running for a seat in our Parliament to tackling the scientific challenges associated with space living, democratising space exploration is a key goal of ours.

Read more from the original source:

37% of Britons think humans will inevitably have to live in space - Jersey Evening Post

MIDLAND, Texas Cities around the country are looking to the sky for its futureliterally. Take Houston for example the city just broke ground on a spaceport at the Ellington Airport.

NewsWest 9s sister station KHOU reports phase 1 of the project required an $18.8 million investment to provide the ground level infrastructure to attract commercial space travel and aviation companies to Houston.

HOUSTON - Houston will launch and land suborbital vehicles from its spaceport that's officially under construction. The Houston Spaceport at Ellington Airport has been a concept for 4 years. Friday, city officials and project partners took their official first step toward concrete reality with a ground-breaking ceremony Friday at Ellington Field.

This will lay the ground work to support the companies that produce the cutting-edge innovations needed to take commercial space travel and aviation into the sub-sonic, super-sonic and hyper-sonic realm, Houston Aviation Director Mario Diaz said.

Intuitive Machines is the first private company to sign on as a spaceport tenant. In May, Intuitive Machines received a $77.2 million contract from NASA to create, launch and land its NOVA-C spacecraft to the surface of the moon.

Sounds familiarMidland began its endeavor to the great unknown in 2014 when it earned its spaceport license.

As of today, the FAA has 11 active licenses for commercial spaceports. Of those, five have yet to host or launch a landing Midland included. When people think of commercial space travel, televised launches and names like Elon Musk and SpaceX quickly come to mind.

The people responsible for Midlands spaceport say you likely wont see something like that in Midland. In terms of business, space is still a young industry, though its growing at a rapid pace. CNBC estimates it could be the next trillion-dollar industry. Thats why city leaders are banking on the need for a spaceport in Midland.

This is your guide to investing in space right now, with insight on the top space companies from analysts and investors.

Midlands economy is already booming you can see signs of growth all over town. From crowded roads and restaurants to new neighborhoods under construction, Midland is the land of opportunity.

A perfect example of that growth is at the airport.

Weve been counting passengers since 1965, there have been only two years busier than this year, Director of Airports Justine Ruff said.

More people are finding their way to West Texas; so much so that Ruff says theyre running out of space.

If you called me right now, hey I have a King Air, I want to come to Midland, I dont have anywhere to put you. Were full, Ruff said.

Finding space is certainly a challenge out at the airport, in more than one way. The city has five years invested into its spaceport. Its first mission to create suborbital spacecrafts with Xcor did not pan out.

We took a big risk in terms of bringing in a company that failed, MDC chairman Brent Hilliard said.

But before youre critical of any business decisions, know this: Overall, it has been a really good thing for us, Ruff said.

Hilliard says the Xcor deal wasnt a total bust.

RELATED: Mayor: Optimistic about future of Spaceport Business Park after recent XCOR layoffs

A majority of that investment is still operating at the airport, Hilliard said.

The funding provided by the Midland Development Corporation rebuilt dilapidated hangars and turned a rundown portion of the airports property into a business park a multi-million dollar asset that is being used today.

Weve got buildings, a roadway in, infrastructure. We can bring aviation or space, Ruff said.

Brent Hilliard, the chairman of the MDC, says theyve learned a lot from their past deal. Making the seemingly impossible possible comes with setbacks.

Space is far more complicated than just a rocket that takes off, he said.

There are a lot of factors at play with what is and what could be. To put it simply, Midlands spaceport mission will likely not be what you see online and TV.

We are a spaceport in the sense that we have a space company thats in business on our property. Its not doing the sexy launches in Florida, but it never will be and that wasnt necessarily intended to be that. Hilliard said. You have to understand who you are and how that relates to what youre chasing.

He says one thing we must all understand is that the space industry is new and growing fast a combination that makes it high risk.

You have to choose where you want to be at on the risk profile. For us, weve chosen the middle to low range risk, Hilliard said. We dont think of spaceport as just space. For a lot of folks, they think were going to the moon, were going to mars, all these different places. Its so much more broad than that.

So where does Midland fit in the growing industry? Heres one avenue: satellites. AST and Science is the spaceports current tenant. The company creates and assembles ultra-powerful satellites to launch in low earth orbit.

RELATED: ATS&Science bring corporate headquarters, 160 jobs to Midland

A sound deal Hilliard believes could reap big benefits for Midland.

We could see a four percent return on our investment thats unheard of, he said.

Other ways Midland could support the space industry could be through design, engineering parts or testing new technology the sky is the limit.

You cant be small minded in what you want to do. Small minded meaning having the mindset that we dont need space because everyone has a job that wants one. Even though were at full employment doesnt mean everyone working enjoys what they do, Hilliard said. Thats where space comes in. Space for Midland could be and is currently, if you dont like what youre doing in oil and gas, you can go to work for AST.

While nothing could likely ever change the industry West Texas is known for, space could be another avenue to attract and keep bright minds in West Texas.

The scope of the space industry is very complex. Right now, deals are either through government contracts or private. As the industry grows, so do opportunities. Thats why the people involved in this deal arent worried theyre in it for the long haul. A report from CNBC states Wall Streets consensus is that space will become a multi-trillion dollar economy in the next 10 to 20 years.

Thats why leaders stand behind Midland having a spaceport designation this is a long-term play that could bring new jobs and revenue to West Texas.

Right now, Midlands spaceport is being utilized to design and manufacture satellites. In the future, Midland could be used as a site for supersonic or hypersonic travel. That type of technology already exists and as it advances, Hilliard says Midland very likely could be a testing site for it.

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Midland finding its place in the space industry - NewsWest9.com

Adapted from ACS Central Science 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.9b00850

In the future, diagnosing conditions inside your body might be as effortless as dissolvable stitches. Scientists from five different departments at Stanford have developed a stretchable semiconductor material that naturally dissolves in environments like the human body. The paper, shared through EurekAlert, details the teams development of a skin-inspired semiconductor made of a stretchy, acid-soluble semiconductor core with a similarly stretchy, biodegradable core.

So-called skin-inspired materials are the major rage in materials science because of the multiple kinds of engineering and design challenges they can alleviate. In their paper, the Stanford scientists say a skin-inspired material is more strain-tolerant, easier to fabricate, and could help reduce form factor of devices by packing more good stuff into a smaller space.

But to make a skin-inspired material thats also conductive is a huge challenge. Most of the semiconductor materials that make computing possible are brittle and often crystalline, like diamonds or crystal silicon. The bendier ones like lead or aluminum are definitely not stretchy. A stretchy, bendy semiconducting material is a future-computing unicorn.

Semiconductors are already unicorns within chemistry and circuitry in other ways. A computer chip, which is one of the most common uses of semiconductors, could be built with neither conductors nor insulatorssemiconductors exist in a middle ground that makes it possible to increase and decrease electron flow, powering the infinitesimal logic gates that make up our processors.

Semiconductors can be doped (thats really what its called) to increase their conductivity by turning loose a certain number of electrons. We cant make these modifications to conductive materials, because their electrons are already footloose and fancy free. Insulators are simply too unreactive to be doped.

So within the already special class of semiconductors, a new kind that could be tolerated by and then naturally dissolve within the human body or in nature has almost infinite potential usefulness. Imagine a diagnostic device you could implant and leave for a month without needing to retrieve it in a second operation. Even the mildest, simplest procedures have an amount of risk greater than zero, and the amount gets higher among exactly the population that needs the most diagnostic testing over time.

Are we in for a future where our computers are made of mechanical skin? Try to put the artificial skin phone case out of your mind and instead think of the biological ships that are a mainstay of every science fiction franchise. Star Trek: The Next Generation opens with a living ship held captive in the shape of a space station. By 1995s Star Trek: Voyager, writers already envisioned loose bags of biological material as a power source that would extend the useful life of a ship.

Much of todays cutting-edge space travel research involves self-folding materials that could probably do a lot more if they were also stretchy and elastic. The Stanford team was supported in part by grants from the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Air Force. In other words, everyone is interested in stretching their resources.

Whether its inside the human body, in space, or thrown into a volcano, versatile semiconductors will likely help us get to the next frontier.

Read more:

Stretchy, Degradable Semiconductors Are the Future of Everything - Popular Mechanics

CBS Photo Archive, via Fathom Events

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It's been 60 years since Rod Serling opened the door to "a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity... between light and shadow... between science and superstition... between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge."

CBS Photo Archive, via Fathom Events

Roll out The Twilight Zone: A 60th Anniversary Celebration.

At 7 p.m. Thursday November 14, the collection of six Twilight Zone digitally-restored episodes of the iconic television series will hit movie theaters around the country and in the area. The three-hour showing will also feature a short documentary, Remembering Rod Serling, which explores the life and concepts of its creator.

CBS Photo Archive, via Fathom Events

For five years from 1959 to 1964 The Twilight Zone redefined science fiction. It introduced time and space travel to pop culture. It envisioned the apocalypse in new, compelling ways. It explored alienation and the loss and triumph of the human spirit.

CBS Photo Archive, via Fathom Events

Binge viewing of "The Twilight Zone" has become a tradition that spans generations, thanks to marathons of the series that run on television on New Years Eve and Day and the Fourth of July.

CBS Photo Archive, via Fathom Events

The dangers of the mob and totalitarianism were also common themes. So was the apocalypse, seen in episodes such as "Time Enough At Last. The 1959 episode tells the story of a man who cant find the time nor the place to read only to be given all the time in the world when he is the sole survivor of nuclear destruction. It stars Cleveland native Burgess Meredith and is one of the six episodes included in The Twilight Zone: A 60th Anniversary Celebration.

CBS Photo Archive, via Fathom Events

It was one of four appearances for Meredith, which helped carry his fame into the TV age. The show also introduced such actors as Jack Klugman and William Shatner.

CBS Photo Archive, via Fathom Events

The 60th anniversary screening also features classic episodes such as: Walking Distance, Invaders, The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, To Serve Man, Eye of the Beholder and To Serve Man.

CBS Photo Archive, via Fathom Events

'Twilight Zone' creator Rod Serling hated prejudice and government intrusion on the rights of the individual. He explored the dangers of McCarthyism and Cold War paranoia in episodes such as 'The Monsters are Due on Maple Street.' The episode, one of six including in the 60th anniversary screening, recounts the arrival of paranoia, recrimination and a mob mentality on, "A tree-lined little world of front-porch gliders, barbecues, the laughter of children and the bell of an ice cream vendor.

CBS Photo Archive, via Fathom Events

The Twilight Zone: A 60th Anniversary Celebration screens at area theaters including:

Cinemark 24 Cleveland, 6001 Canal Road, Valley View;

Cedar Lee Theatre, 2163 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights;

Regal Crocker Park Stadium 16 & IMAX, 30147 Detroit Road, Westlake;

Cinemark 15 Macedonia, 8161 Macedonia Commons, Macedonia;

Chagrin Cinemas, 8200 East Washington Street, Chagrin Falls;

AMC Classic Solon 16, 6185 Enterprise Parkway, Solon;

Atlas Cinemas Eastgate 10, 1345 Som Center Road, Mayfield Heights.

For more info, go to https://www.fathomevents.com/events/the-twilight-zone?date=2019-11-14

CBS Photo Archive, via Fathom Events

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'Twilight Zone' sci-fi series marks 60th anniversary with rare theatrical screening (photos) - cleveland.com

There is no Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or Diwali in a galaxy far, far away, but that doesnt mean Star Wars: Galaxys Edge cant get into the holiday spirit like the rest of Disneyland.

A faithful allegiance to the backstory of the Star Wars universe means the new 14-acre Galaxys Edge looks like it does every day of the year during the current two-month-long holiday season at the Anaheim theme park. But theres no reason the Black Spire Outpost village on the Star Wars planet of Batuu cant celebrate the holidays.

Walt Disney Imagineering and Lucasfilm created the new Star Wars planet specifically for the new lands in Disneyland and Disneys Hollywood Studios in Florida. The creative team could also just as easily establish new holiday traditions for Black Spire Outpost or adopt seasonal celebrations for Batuu from other planets in the Star Wars galaxy.

So what can Disneyland do to bring more holiday spirit to Star Wars: Galaxys Edge? Weve got three suggestions for making the season brighter in the new themed land.

Most Star Wars fans are familiar with Life Day through the delightfully bad 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. Chewbacca and Han Solo spent time with the Wookiees family during Life Day on the television show. The new Mandalorian series on Disney+ calls out Life Day in the opening episode.

Life Day traces its roots back to the Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk. The holiday celebrates the life-giving and life-affirming powers of the Tree of Life, according to StarWars.com. During the Life Day holiday season, Wookiees dressed in traditional red robes gather around a trimmed tree and exchange gifts with relatives.

The annual celebration is filled with fireworks, festive music and holiday treats like Wookiee-ookiees and Hoth chocolate. Figrin Dan and the Modal Nodes, the alien house band from the Mos Eisley cantina in the original Star Wars movie, has been known to play special Life Day concerts.

Life Day would be a natural fit for Galaxys Edge. Black Spire Outpost is named for the petrified trees that dot the village. A young tree growing in the middle of the spaceport represents rebirth and new life. It would make perfect sense for Chewie to introduce the Kashyyyk holiday to Batuu.

Life Day music and foods could bring the seasonal Wookiee celebration to Galaxys Edge for the holidays. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run could mix in a mission that takes Chewie back to Kashyyyk in time for Life Day. How exciting would it be to have the Modal Nodes play a holiday concert in Ogas Cantina?

Several planets in the Star Wars galaxy celebrate some version of a Harvest Festival or something similar to Thanksgiving.

Jar-Jar Binks and the Gungans on the Star Wars planet of Naboo give thanks to their deities on Munchen, a special day also known as the Sacred Feast or Great Feast.

The Ewoks are always looking for any excuse to throw a party on the forest moon of Endor. The teddy bear-like hunter-gatherers have a Harvest Festival and a Harvest Moon Feast. An Ewok feast favorite: Rainbow Berry Pie.

The annual Harvest Day festival in Mos Eisley on Luke Skywalkers home planet of Tatooine marks the years water harvest by the areas moisture farmers.

Hosnian Prime, the capital of the New Republic, celebrates the beginning of Autumn with sunsail races on Equinox Day.

A Batuu Harvest Festival would be perfect for Galaxys Edge.

Black Spire Outpost is the central meeting place for area ranchers and farmers to sell their goods to local residents, according to the backstory for the Star Wars themed lands. Galaxys Edge has a Blue Milk stand surrounded by moisture evaporators and a restaurant that receives shipments of seasonal foods from throughout the galaxy. It would make sense for Batuu to have an annual Harvest Festival that added a larger Thanksgiving presence to the holiday season celebrations at Disneyland.

Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo could offer a Harvest Festival feast for a limited time. Ronto Roasters could sell an Oktoberfest-inspired sausage sandwich. The Milk Stand could pour a Fall flavor of Blue Milk in a seasonal souvenir sipper. Kat Sakas Kettle could make a Harvest Caramel Corn. Imagine the lines for holiday exclusive Ewok Rainbow Berry Pie?

The Coruscant calendar includes three Fete Weeks that mark celebrations throughout the year, according to StarWars.com.

The New Years Fete stretches for a week at the start of the year. The Festival of Light is filled with presents and parties. The Festival of Stars celebrating the birth of interstellar space travel is the galaxys prime vacation period.

The Festival of Light pays homage to the Star Wars planet of Naboo joining the Galactic Republic with fireworks and holographic displays. The Ewoks celebrate their own Light Festival which honors the Tree of Light that keeps the Night Spirit away.

Any one of the Fete Weeks or all three, for that matter could serve as a basis for a Winter Carnival in Black Spire Outpost celebrating the winter equinox. The Festival of Light could incorporate lightsaber training for young padawans similar to the former Jedi Training Academy in Tomorrowland. The Festival of Stars could add a John Williams symphonic score to the nightly fireworks show over Galaxys Edge. A Winter Fete parade could march through the streets of Black Spire Outpost throughout the holiday season.

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3 ways Disneyland can add some holiday spirit to the new Star Wars: Galaxys Edge - The Mercury News