Category Archives: Terraforming Mars

Welcome to Friday, everyone. Thanks to the recent launch of Steam's Summer Sale, we've seen a massive amount of game sales hitting the Google Play Store, and so we have a huge list of sales for the weekend, including a few standouts I'd like to point everyone towards. First up is Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a solid (but buggy) metroidvania title from the very man who popularized the genre. Next, I have Agent A: A puzzle in disguise, a fantastic point-and-click adventure game that's easily worth the sale price. Last but not least is OK Golf, one of the best golf games currently available on the Play Store. As always, I've highlighted all of the interesting titles in bold green text in order to make discovery easier. So without further ado, here are 25 temporarily free and a whopping 106 on-sale apps and games for the end of the week.

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Over 131 temporarily free and on-sale Android apps and games you can snag today - Android Police

Following the inaugural flight of NASAs Ingenuity, science fiction writer Gareth L. Powell considers the future of powered flight on other planets

Earlier this spring, with the maiden flight of NASAs Ingenuity, we celebrated one of the most significant engineering milestones of recent times. Despite having to contend with lower gravity and a thinner atmosphere, an aircraft flew on Mars for the first time. It was the first powered, controlled flight of a human-built vehicle on another planeta significance celebrated by the onboard inclusion of a tiny scrap of material from the Wright brothers first flyer.

The Ingenuity flights were relatively modest in duration, but they were a proof of concept. What comes next will be interesting. The Wright brothers first hop was shorter in length than the wingspan of the Boeing 747, which first took to the skies only sixty-six years after Kitty Hawk. Who knows what we could have flying through the Martian clouds sixty-six years from now?

The first thought I have is of a massive blimp carrying several dozen of these helicopters. Being solar powered, theres little reason it cant stay aloft for days, weeks, maybe even years. Every time the scientists on Earth identify a location of potential interest, the blimp dispatches a helicopter to investigate, soaring over any intervening rough terrain with more ease and speed than a rover.

A helicopter has the potential to get up-close and personal with the strata in a cliff facesomething thats obviously difficult for a ground-based vehicle. A fleet of them could traverse and map the length of the great Valles Marineras canyons without worrying about the bumpy topography.

But why stop with an automated blimp? Viewers of The Martian will remember long sequences of Matt Damon bouncing around in a rover for weeks as he treks towards salvation. But what if hed been able to jump in a helicopter and fly there in a day? When humans start building bases on Mars, helicopters would be as valuable to them as they are for bases in the Arctic and Antarctica. They could be used to airlift personnel to areas of potential interest identified via satellite survey. They could fly missions to resupply forward outposts, and rescue explorers stranded by injury or technical malfunction. They could evengod forbidbe used for security and defence.

Science fiction writers get a lot of mileage from imagining worst-case scenarios. We find drama in the idea of things going wrong. So, while I hope that in the near future we as a species will outgrow our childish infatuation with war, Mars is an entire planet filled with currently unclaimed resources and territory. A bright red jewel hanging just within our reach. Can our acquisitive monkey natures resist squabbling over such a prize? Only 15 years after Wilbur and Orville showed powered flight was possible, squadrons of biplanes were dogfighting in the war-torn skies over France. So, now Im imagining a drone war on Mars, fought remotely by competing governments or corporations, each vying for control of profitable ore deposits or water sources. Helicopter gunships whispering through the thin air, hunting for enemy rovers. Mass accelerators on Phobos and Deimos wiping out mining installations with meteoric bombardment from on high

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Air travel shrank the Earth. Instead of spending months sailing to Australia, it is now possible to get there in a matter of a day or two. The same will be true of Mars. If we build the right aircraft, well be able to go anywhere on the planetand dont forget how much smaller Mars is already. Where Earths diameter is 7,926 miles, the diameter of Mars is only 4,220 miles. So, while the technical challenges are huge, the distances are shorter and the gravity is lighter.

But why stop there? Now we know we can engineer machines able to fly in different gravities and through different atmospheric compositions, we should be building choppers capable of exploring the cloud tops of Venus. Huge machines with rotors the size of wind turbines could track the storm systems in Jupiters atmosphere, or cruise the ochre skies of Titan seeking life in its hydrocarbon lakes.

However, Im going to end this months column with a truly science fictional image. Imagine, if you will, a Mars in the not too distant future, where a combination of terraforming techniques have thickened the atmosphere enough for hardy plants to grow and specially adapted animals to roam the surface. And on this new tundra, shaggy herds of reindeer and buffalo graze the tough, wiry grass, watched over by autonomous helicopter shepherds, while overhead, two moons shine in the afternoon sky.

Gareth L. Powell writes science fiction about extraordinary characters wrestling with the question of what it means to be human. He has won and been shortlisted for several major awards, and his Embers of War novels are currently being adapted for television. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram as @garethlpowell.

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Sci-Fi Eye: Herders of Mars | The Engineer The Engineer - The Engineer

The Homo sapiens, in their current evolved form, have been around on Earth for about 200,000 years. Many advances have taken place since then, with each advance seeming to have had a greater impact on our environment than the previous one. More recently, the use of technology that brought human society an unprecedented level of comfort and material well-being is threatening to destroy our planet, the only one that is in the Goldilocks zone of the solar system.

The negative impacts on the environment caused by our unbridled use of technologies are numerous. It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss in detail all the adverse side-effects. Instead, I will focus on perhaps the most significant oneclimate change, followed closely by air pollution, water pollution and resource depletion, albeit not necessarily in the same order.

Our laptop or smart phone or iPad may not release any climate-altering greenhouse gases, but their production and subsequent use involves energy generated by fossil fuels that are responsible for global warming. The same is true for other high-tech devices and electronic implements that have become an integral part of our daily life. For example, using a cell phone for just an hour a day via massive server networks, which consume a huge amount of electricity, translates into more than a ton of carbon dioxide a year.

In the latest report of the World Meteorological Organization, projections of rising global temperatures due to unrestrained emissions of greenhouse gases, aided and abetted by technology, underscore that Earth's climate is moving to greater and greater extremes at an accelerated pace. Indeed, the fury unleashed by climate change is not just making us live in a radically transformed world, but also negatively impacting our health, economic infrastructure, supply chains, and will eventually induce widespread famine and mass migration. Anticipating a grim future for Earth, we are now exploring the possibility of colonising Mars by terraforming it into a habitable planet.

Is it possible to go far back in time to a period when the air was pure? If we think of pure air as we think of pure water, probably not. Long before man, dust storms, fires and volcanoes polluted the air with vast quantities of particles and impurities of various sorts. They threw very fine dust into the atmosphere that finally dispersed and settled on the ground. Our appearance, of course, compounded the picture. When we discovered that fossil fuels could generate more heat than wood, we said goodbye to a halcyon period when the air was relatively pure.

Today, some of the major pollutants in the atmosphere are by-products of technology, such as emissions from vehicles, industries and power plants using fossil fuels, brick fields, foundries, refineries and waste incineration facilities. The pollutants from these sources not only add significantly to local air pollution levels, they also interact with environmental components to form secondary pollutants, thereby making a bad situation worse. The primary pollutants together with the secondary ones are precursors to the formation of smog, the worst form of air pollution against which our body has very little defence.

There is no other environmental issue more important than safe and clean drinking water. A continuous supply of clean water is our inalienable right. As noted by the Anglo-American poet W. H. Auden, "Thousands have lived without love, not one without water."

How does technology contribute to groundwater pollution? The lifetime of new technologies is very short. They become obsolete after only a few years of use, which leads consumers to dispose of their old ones to buy the newest versions. It is estimated that globally, we throw away roughly 50 million tonnes of electronic waste every year. More often than not, we throw them away as household trash that ends up in landfills. The toxic material they contain or are made of may eventually leach into the ground and make their way to the water table which is a major source of our drinking water.

Being a mineral intensive industry, technology contributes towards depletion of resources. Increased industrial activity to meet the demands of a digital society requires raw material, some toxic and carcinogenic, whose reserves are finite and are on the decline. Lest we forget, it takes minerals and fossil fuels hundreds of millions of years to form, but only a few hundred years to use up all the reserves.

Mining itself comes with a high carbon cost. Even if factories reuse or recycle material, they still need space because high-tech industries are growing at a rapid rate. Making space for new facilities often involves deforestation, which in turn results in loss of habitat for the animals. Besides, in the long run, over-exploitation of resources ceases to be beneficial and becomes an environmental threat.

All told, at the end of a typical day, in view of our over-dependence on technology, the Earth's atmosphere becomes a little warmer, the water a little more polluted, the soil a little more chemically altered, and natural resources a little more depleted. Crime-ridden and overcrowded cities become even more crowded, while the air in and around them, already choked with pollution, becomes a little more toxic. In sum, the web of life becomes a bit more torn. And tomorrow, it will start all over again.

Although these statistics are extremely depressing, my intention is not to discourage the readers but rather to make the point that we are on an unsustainable course. This is not to say that we and the rich biological world we live in are doomed. True, we cannot turn the clock back, but we still have a chance. We need to get our heads out of the sand, we have to get active, we have to be bold, we have to make profound changes to reverse the environmental mess of our own making, and soon.

A final thought on the World Environment Day 2021. It is possible to coexist with nature regardless of all the technological advances by finding sustainable solutions that meet the needs of the present without compromising the future. But they have to be affordable and equitable for all people and all nations. However, if we continue to ignore the modest demands that the environment makes upon our use of it, then all the technology we can devise will not suffice to put right the endless environmental traumas that we have created. On the contrary, it will only impoverish our future generations, who will have enough dilemmas to deal with. Let us give them at least a glimpse of how our planet once looked like.

Quamrul Haider is a Professor of Physics at Fordham University, New York.

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Man, technology and the environment - The Daily Star

From strategically conquering an entire galaxy, to co-operative investigations into Lovecraftian madness and just building a simple train route, these board games are all essential ingredients for a fun-filled game night a bit easier, weve put together another list of boards games that deserve a spot on your shelf.

If youre lucky, you might be able to snag one or two of these board games while on sale.

This article has been updated since its original publication.

In Cosmic Encounter, you play as the leader of an alien race, and intergalactic conquest is the name of the game. Your aim is to spread your influence throughout the galaxy, establishing colonies in the planetary systems of the other players.

This board game has been around since 1977, and its easy to understand why it has been beloved for so long. The strategy is both fun and fulfilling, with the different gameplay cards available allowing for an enjoyable variation of tactics.

I think the big draw of Cosmic Encounterare the table politics. The gameplay requires you to form alliances and negotiate deals with other players to help screw over the other players while also potentially setting up your ally for a masterful double-cross.

Buy Cosmic Encounterhere.

If you dig the world of Dungeons & Dragons, but want something thats less of a commitment than a long RPG campaign, try Lord of Waterdeep. Its a game where you play as one of the titular Lords of Waterdeep and attempt to gain the most influence over the City of Splendours.

The game works by placing your factions agents at various locations that will help you gain resources, like gold or various types of adventurers, and then sending those resources to complete quests. The goal is to collect the most victory points from the various quests you complete over the games eight rounds. Throw in some intrigue cards that can give you a much needed hand (usually at the expense of your opponents), and youve got a great strategy game.

If youve never played D&D before, dont worry. Lord of Waterdeep requires no pre-existing knowledge of the franchise. And if youre a long time fan, youll appreciate the familiar faces.

Buy Lords of Waterdeephere.

Kings of Tokyois a very easy to pick up board game that is a lot of fun to play. You pick one of six giant monsters to play as, and your aim is to become the King of Tokyo by battling it out with your opponents. Thats it, thats the game.

Its a king of the hill game that uses a combination of dice rolls and strategising with the power up cards in your hands to stake your claim on the Japanese capital. The goal is to be the first to 20 victory points or be the last monster standing.

If you really enjoy this game, theres a heap of different King of Tokyo expansion packs currently available. Theyll give you new monsters and power cards to battle with, so theres an option to add even more content to this game to keep it fresh.

Buy King Of Tokyohere.

Based on the video game series,Fallout: The Board Gameis a pretty faithful adaption. Start by choosing a scenarioand then set off to explore the wasteland, complete quests and fight the various monsters, mutants and marauders that come across their path.

If youre a fan of Bethesdas Fallout games, this thing is great. It keeps the RPG elements of the source material, by allowing you to spend points to increase your characters ability skills and customise your equipment loadout. It even manages to keep the VAT system, with dice that let you target specific body parts of your enemies. It does a good job of ticking the boxes of what I like about Fallout. Theres also an expansion set, New California,which adds two scenarios, along with a bunch of new quests, companions and items.

If I have one big criticism of Fallout, its that the game moves much slower when playing with four people. Theres a delicate balancing act, because more players help increase the fun but the threat of gaming fatigue is real.

Buy Fallout: The Board Gamehere.

Buy Fallout: New Californiahere.

This resource management game does it exactly what it says on the box. In Terraforming Mars, each player takes on the role of a different corporation and are tasked with making the red planet habitable for humankind. While you work together on the terraforming process as a whole, the aim is to see which player has the most contributions.

You build various projects, gaining income and resources that you can spend on further productions. Once Mars has the appropriate temperature, oxygen levels and quantity of oceans, the game is over.

Terraforming Mars is very card heavy, and you really need to keep track of what youre holding during any given round. Its also one of the more aggressive resource management games that Ive played, as theres a lot of cards you can play that directly target your opponent.

Buy Terraforming Marshere.

Mansions Of Madness is a co-operative board game inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. In it, you play as investigators who are tasked with exploring a cursed mansion to solve the mystery of a chosen scenario. This edition of the game uses a companion app that tracks your progress, and also takes care of randomly spawning monsters, triggering events and randomising the layout of the mansion.

Its very easy to immerse yourself into Mansions Of Madness spooky atmosphere, and Ive had a lot of fun investigating and trying to solve the puzzles of the scenarios Ive played. If youre some who loves a good game piece, Mansions Of Madness monster figures are fantastic. Being able to throw down a giant Cthulhu figure onto the board really helps to sell the enormity of the threat.

A single game will eat up a couple of hours, so make sure youve set enough time to adequately lose your mind to an eldritch horror. The app lets you save your progress, so you can easily jump back into a game you couldnt finish.

If youre still not sold on it, you can check out our in-depth review of Mansions of Madness.

Buy Mansions Of Madnesshere.

If you enjoy the euro-style gameplay of something like Settlers of Catan and what to pick up something similar, then you might get some miles out ofTicket To Ride. The aim of the game is to be the player who can build the longest continuous train, claiming routes and connecting cities.

Ticket To Rideis an incredibly easy game to pick (especially compared to some of the other titles on this list) and isnt too intensive when it comes to strategising. Each player is randomly assigned Destination Tickets at the start of each match, giving you set goal cities that you need to reach.

Theres an economy of knowing which cards you need to play or stockpile, as you need these specific cards to claim certain routes. The last thing you want to do is lose out on the route that will connect your assigned destinations.

Buy Ticket To Ridehere.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW - prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

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Find More Room On Your Shelf For These Must Play Board Games - Kotaku Australia

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has designed two T-shirts to promote his idea to drop nuclear weapons on Mars. Musk revealed the theory of nuking Mars recently which, according to him, will transform the exterior of the planet liveable for human beings. The billionaire CEO was also spotted wearing the T-shirt in the first look of his upcoming appearance on Saturday Night Live. SNL shared an image of Musk in the t-shirt on Twitter.

Musk himself posted the image of the T-shirts on Twitter with the caption reading, NUKE MARS," and had a link that redirected the users to the SpaceX shop, where they are being retailed.

The T-shirts express Musk endorsing the theory he first announced in 2015. He wants to ignite nuclear bombs at Mars poles with the ambition of terraforming the planet, making the Red Planet liveable for humans. The fast method is to release thermonuclear weapons over the poles according to Musk that could make Mars habitable for settlers by heating it with greenhouse gases.

The aim would be to evaporate the water currently confined in ice at Mars poles, discharging CO2 into the environment and therefore, engineering a greenhouse effect on the planet. Rigel Woida, an undergraduate student from the University of Arizona, bagged NASA prize to examine the usage of lightweight orbital mirrors and large aperture for terraforming the surface of Mars so human beings could comfortably settle on the Red Planet.

Musk also recently trolled tech companies engaged in developing electric vehicles stating that demonstrating concept cars is easy but making them production-ready is hard. This tweet by Musk was retweeted 9,000 times by netizens.

Musk believes that the process will be crucial to his dream to colonize Mars. In the year 2018, two researchers from Northern Arizona and Colorado universities examined the feasibility of utilising CO2 to terraform Mars and concluded that it wouldnt be achievable with the technology of the current times.

Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here

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Elon Musk Spotted Wearing a Nuke Mars T-shirt in First Look of Controversial SNL Gig - News18

The Long March 5B rocket is falling back to Earth after launching part of Chinas next space station.

The 30-meter long rocket entered orbital velocity, meaning it is now traveling around the world every 90 minutes too fast for space agencies to tell where it is going to land.

Last year, a similar prototype craft came within 13 minutes of hitting New York City. The craft was eventuallyconfirmedby the US Space Forces 18th Space Control Squadron to have landed in the Atlantic Ocean.

If the rocket re-enters the atmosphere above a populated area, the result will be akin to a small plane crash scattered over 100 miles, Jonathan McDowell, Astrophysicist at the Astrophysics Centre at Harvard University, has said.

Fortunately, the likelihood is that people will remain safe and there will be little damage to buildings or the environment. This is not due to preventative or defensive measures, however, but rather a question of statistics.

For an uncontrolled re-entry event like this, it is not possible to accurately predict where the object or parts of the object will fall, the European Space Agency (ESA) says.

This is mainly because atmospheric density, which is what will push the rockets altitude to eventual re-entry, is not known below 300 kilometres because spacecraft do not fly at such low heights.

The Long March 5B rocket is currently fluctuatingat an altitude of between 170 and 372 kilometres, but has been seen dropping to 160 kilometres today.

It is also likely that the object will simply burn up on re-entry, but parts of the rocket with a high melting point could make it to the ground. Experts struggle to know exactly how the rocket will make it through its re-entry, because the Chinese space agency only gives limited information about its spacecraft.

Yet because the Earth is 75 per cent water, and because large areas of land are uninhabited, the risk of any single individual is quite small with people at more risk driving a car than from this rocket.

Worst case [scenario] is one of the structural rods hits someone, potentially a fatality but unlikely to see multiple casualties, McDowell told The Independent. He added that the debris will be travelling at approximately 100 miles-per-hour, so there could be expensive property damage, but because it will be spread over 100 miles, only one or two pieces are likely to hit a populated area.

In the past decade, about 100 satellites and rocket bodies have re-entered the atmosphere each year, with a total annual mass of about 150 tonnes, and the issue of space debris is one that is only going to be exacerbated with time due to a lack of legislation around cleaning up the space around our planet.

Nasa scientist Donald Kessler warned that the domino effect of a crash between two pieces of space detritus could create an impenetrable layer of debris that would make terrestrial space launches impossible essentially trapping us on Earth.

This potential problem is much greater than the small probability of debris hitting buildings, or even people. In such an event, planned missions to the moon or even terraforming Mars could be irrevocably scuppered.

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Chinas falling rocket: What happens if out-of-control Long March 5B hits the Earth? - The Independent

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Seeds of Health Executive Director Marcia Spector states, The pandemic has affected all of us in ways we cant imagine. While our children are very resilient, it has been very difficult for them to understand and deal with all that has happened in our world and in their personal lives. At Seeds of Health, we have created a summer learning experience that not only addresses the gaps in education but also addresses the social and emotional needs of our students. This summer, were offering our students many unique opportunities to learn, and we want those experiences to be joyful. Our students need and deserve that.

A Summer Class Lineup with Something for Everyone

Students from Seeds of Health Schools (Tenor High Schools, Veritas High School, and Seeds of Health Elementary) can choose courses designed to target physical, social, emotional, and academic growth as well as classes for credit recovery. As the course guide title suggests, the variety of courses wont be a typical summer selection. The Learning in Concert, Summer 2021 Catalogue is full of enriching, interesting, and stimulating courses designed to address gaps in learning while students partake in non-traditional classes that offer children a chance to explore areas of interest.

Many Options for Seeds of Health Elementary Students

Seeds of Health Elementary (SOHE) students will participate in grade-level reading and math courses and have options for additional learning activities, to be scheduled between June 21 and July 29.

The basics (math and reading) will be covered, but in fun and innovative ways through courses like Math is As Easy As 1-2-3, Reading is Foundational, or Read to Succeed. Younger elementary students can sharpen reading skills in the Adventures with Picture Books; 3rd-5th graders might like to explore the Graphic Novelsclass; and older students might enjoy the Author Study class where they study a book and its author, and then meet the author online. Hands-on classes like Lets Go with LEGOS! or LEGO Robotics combine learning opportunities with life skills and fun. Other courses like Sports in Action and Tae Kwon Do aim to help students get moving. In addition, kids will have the opportunity to learn self-care tips for overall well-being.

Credit Recovery and More for High School Students

At both Tenor High School campuses and Veritas High School, students will be able to choose from a variety of summer activities that extend and enrich student learning beyond the traditional school term. Students who have failed classes have the opportunity to earn credits back through summer credit recovery classes.

In addition to those opportunities, each high school has its own unique lineup of courses that allow students to enrich their skills while exploring areas of interest that may help guide them on career paths. Highlights include Career Interest Science, Science (Terraforming Mars), English- Explore the City You Live In, Social Studies (American History Through Film), Math (Building Life Skills through Math), and Debunking Conspiracy Theories. These classes give students the chance to explore content areas in a new way. There are also great non-traditional offerings like Ecology Club, Nature and Writing, Summer Fitness, Upcycling, or Photography.

The Mission of Seeds of Health Doesnt Stop in the Summer

Time and again, Seeds of Health has proven that nothing will get in the way of its mission To meet the unique needs of urban children through small schools in a caring, personal environment. Seeds of Health Schools have found innovative ways to address their students needs during the pandemic and will continue to do so moving forward, thanks to innovative programs like their Seeds of Health Learning in Concert Seriesfor the Summer of 2021. For more information about the Learning in Concert Summer Learning at Seeds of Health Schools, contact Assistant Executive Director Jodi Weber at 414-390-0830.

About Seeds of Health, Inc.

Founded in 1983, Seeds of Health, Inc. is the only K4-12 charter school agency in the state of Wisconsin serving approximately 1,300 students in three high schools with a total of four locations and a K4-8 elementary program. The individual and unique education programs at each Seeds of Health school serve a broad range of student needs from at-risk to the college-bound. Seeds of Health is Milwaukees innovative homegrown answer to imaginative, collaborative, and cutting-edge education options, with the vision to positively impact the growth and development of urban children. Tenor High School, a program of Seeds of Health, is a high-performing charter school authorized by the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (UWM). For more information, please visit http://www.seedsofhealth.org.

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Post from Community: Summer learning will Be productive and joyful at Seeds of Health Schools: Infusing joy into summer learning at Seeds of Health -...

Elon Musk wants humans to colonize the moon. He may not be the only one anymore. The Tesla CEO and SpaceX boss has mentioned putting humans on the red planet multiple times, and even put a timeline to it: 2026. While NASA has had a later date, he may finally have someone backing him up. NASA recently announced its partnership with SpaceX to return to the moon by 2024. Following this announcement, Scott Hubbard, who formerly led the agencys Mars program, was hopeful there would be some news about future crewed trips to the Red Planet. And it happened - NASAs press release did mention Mars.

Elon Musk has often said he wanted to get people to Mars as soon as possible. He expected to have 1 million people on Mars by 2050, he said in 2020.

Musk in February 2021 for the first time ever mentioned a timeline to get humans on the red planet. Five and a half years," Musk said.

While thats not a hard deadline. Musk listed a number of caveats theres a raft of technological advances that must be made in the intervening year. The important thing is that we establish Mars as a self-sustaining civilization," he said.

The strange thing is the deadline may be a little ambitious, as even USAs leading space agency, NASA, had a much more different date, one which is seven years after Musks time but the first humans arent due to arrive on a NASA funded rocket until at least 2033. That will be part of the Artemis - to the Moon and Mars - mission that will first see a sustainable presence established on the lunar surface.

Musk also answered other questions about Mars. Over time you can make Mars Earth like by terraforming the planet by warming it up, said Musk.

When asked if he would allow his children to go to Mars on a future rocket trip he said if were talking about the third or fourth set of landings on Mars Id be ok with that, adding that so far none of them are jumping to go to Mars.

But humans surviving the journey to Mars may be a little ambitious - A study found that energy-producing structures in cells might be the reason astronauts face health risk while in space.

Over the years astronauts have reported loss of bone and muscle, while some have developed immune disorders or heart and liver issues - all which have been may be triggered by the same thing.

Frank Borman was probably the first person to barf in space. Borman was part of NASAs Apollo 8 mission, which lifted off a launch pad in Florida on December 21, 1968. Over the next six days, the mission made history as it circled the moon and returned home. But Borman, who led the mission, became queasy near the beginning. I threw up a couple of times, he recalled in an interview in 1999.

Space sickness isnt the only side effect to accompany the thrill of leaving Earth. A 2015 NASA report identified 30 factors that could make astronauts sick and unable to do their jobs. And there may be more, it said. Until people visit Mars it will be difficult to fully predict what could go wrong.

Some of the known risks arent simple or minor: Along with space sickness, there is radiation high-energy subatomic particles that will pass through an astronauts skin, damaging cells inside and out. Space travelers bones and muscles also can weaken as those body parts no longer have to constantly work against gravity. Blood and other fluids from the lower parts of the body can accumulate in upper body parts, including around the brain. One side effect: Astronauts may suffer hearing loss.

The new study by systems biologist, Afshin Beheshti, which was conducted by Dataf from NASAs GeneLab, looked at proteins and RNAs in each sample. The team also examined blood and urine from 59 astronauts. Spaceflight seemed to have caused many biochemical changes in them. One symptom: Space travelers had more chemicals known to trigger inflammation. The researchers also found signs of oxidative stress, a type of cell damage. That damage can be due to poorly functioning mitochondria.

Read all the Latest News and Breaking News here

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Elon Musk and NASA May Finally Have the Same Goal: Putting Humans on Mars - News18

[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press.]

Luden.io is happy to announce that the first major update for Learning Factory, itsfactory automation game with machine learning elements (and lots of cats), is now live. In this new update, players will be able to enjoy a new game mode, create their own maps thanks to a new procedural map generator, and enjoy a bunch of quality of life improvements.Learning Factory is available for11.99/$14.99on Steam.Luden.io has started a series of dev diaries and livestreams-- be sure to follow themso you don't miss out on any updates about Learning Factory!

Just like Luden.io'sprevious game, the acclaimed puzzle game about machine learning while True: learn(), Learning Factory is backed by specialists in the subject, and implements real-world machine learning models. If you want to learn more about this key discipline in today's world, you will get to understand how big data is collected and processed to get useful information out of it. Or you can just focus on making the biggest, quirkiest factories for your cats, of course!

Beta access for this update andreview keys are available, ask us for yours!

Learning Factory is a factory automation gamewhere you have to build an increasingly bigger and complex factory, named KOTOVOD and located on Mars,to make goods for cats.Then you get data about sales analyzing what cats liked or disliked, and use this data with machine learning models to optimize prices and make sure youre selling what cats really long for.Backed by actual specialists in the matter and using real-world machine learning models, the game aims also at teaching how big data is collected and processed in machine learning. You will be learning about two of the most relevant technologies of our time while you play a super fun strategy game -- if you want to, that is; because at its true heart its above all a quirkily engaging factory automation game with lots of cats in it!

CONTACT INFOJoin us at Discord!Follow on TwitterYou can contact us at [emailprotected].

ABOUT LUDEN.IOLuden.io started as a research and development group within Nival, an independent developer with top-selling games like Blitzkrieg, Heroes of Might & Magic V, and Silent Storm under their belt. In their first years, they released successful games for virtual reality platforms, such as InMind, InCell, and VRobot, as well as the lauded AR game for iOS ARrived. In 2016 they started working with artificial intelligence, releasing AIDraw in 2016. while True: Learn() was released in March 2018 on Steam Early Access, a new step in their path of entertainment, learning, and innovation, following their motto:to satisfy curiosity and enlighten people, using the best achievements of the gaming industry. Learning Factory is their latest release.

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GET YOUR HOVERBOARD AND TERRAFORM MARS! LEARNING FACTORY LAUNCHES TODAY ITS FIRST MAJOR CONTENT UPDATE - Gamasutra

Planet Earth, as viewed by NASA's Messenger spacecraft as it departed from our location, clearly ... [+] shows the spheroidal nature of our planet. This is an observation that cannot be made from a single vantage point on our surface. This view showcases the smallness, unity, and fragility of Earth, which everyone who's experienced the journey into space themselves has reported on.

If you want to understand our planet, the best way to go about it is scientifically: by asking the Earth questions about itself. Through the process of careful observation, measurement, and even experimentation, we can learn how the planet and everything on and within it responds under a wide variety of conditions. We can also observe other planets, other star systems in various stages of formation and evolution, and objects in interstellar space itself, to better piece together the behavior of our home world.

From the outermost reaches of Earths atmosphere all the way down into the center of our core, our studies have revealed a tremendous amount of information about our planet. From the thin biosphere, teeming with life, going both way out into space and way down into the interior, Earth is full of physics, chemistry, geology and biology to marvel at. But unless, as humans, we band together to take collective action to responsibly steward our planet for future generations, well wind up creating a future riddled with disaster for our descendants to reckon with. Heres why we need Earth Day.

The Solar System formed from a cloud of gas, which gave rise to a proto-star, a proto-planetary ... [+] disk, and eventually the seeds of what would become planets. The crowning achievement of our own Solar System's history is the creation and formation of Earth exactly as we have it today, which may not have been as special a cosmic rarity as once thought.

As far as we can tell, Earth formed just like every other planet: from a collapsing cloud of molecular gas that fragmented to form new stars. When these interstellar gas clouds grow large enough, they gravitationally contract, radiating excess energy away primarily through heavy elements and bound molecules. If they can cool successfully, the largest masses within them will gravitationally grow relatively quickly, heating up and forming proto-stars.

Surrounding these proto-stars are large disks of material: mostly hydrogen and volatile molecules, but with a small but substantial fraction of heavier elements in there. Due to a combination of factors pressure, radiation, high-energy particles emitted from the proto-star, etc. the lighter elements closest to the proto-star get expelled, leaving primarily denser elements there.

After a few tens of millions of years, we wind up with a system of planets, along with an asteroid belt at the old frost line and a series of smaller, icy bodies in a disk and then a cloud out beyond the final planet.

A schematic of a protoplanetary disk, showing the Soot and Frost Lines. For a star like the Sun, ... [+] estimates put the Frost Line at somewhere around three times the initial Earth-Sun distance, while the Soot Line is significantly further in. The exact locations of these lines in our Solar System's past is hard to pin down.

Although the mass distribution of planets in our Solar System may not be the most common way the Universe arranges its planets, we dont quite believe were far from typical. Rather, a number of things happened in Earths early history that we have indications are quite common, including the following.

A multiwavelength view of the galactic center shows stars, gas, radiation and black holes, among ... [+] other sources. There is a tremendous amount of material there, including the heavy elements and organic compounds that are the necessary precursors to life. Ethyl formate, the molecule that gives raspberries and rum their unique scent, is found here.

Although life successfully took hold on Earth from at least a very early time its been present for more than 90% of our planets history we believe it only exists in a thin shell on, above, and just slightly beneath Earths surface. Our biosphere, though it covers the surface area of Earth and extends all the way down to the ocean bottoms, beneath the surface and into the crust, and well up into the atmosphere, represents only a tiny fraction of the full volume of Earth.

Beneath our feet, an incredible array of processes are constantly taking place. In the early stages of our planets history, back when the Earth was first forming, the lightest, lowest-density, most buoyant elements were driven away from Earths center, while the heaviest, densest elements sank to the core. A tremendous amount of heat, left over from the formation of the planets in the Solar System and from gravitational contraction, became trapped within our planet, while the radioactive elements present throughout Earth started to decay.

Over the history of our planet, gravitational contraction and radioactive decay each contribute about half of our planets internal energy, while the external energy received is overwhelmingly dominated by the Sun.

A depiction of Earth's interior, showing the movement of molten rock, which makes up the mantle. The ... [+] crust of Earth is the thinnest layer, while the mantle beneath it is the most massive layer. Although the inner layers make up the vast majority of what's present on Earth, life only exists on or near the surface: Earth's biosphere.

This internal energy which we sometimes attempt to harness as geothermal energy leads to some surprising facts. As we dig into the Earth, even in regions where there arent magma chambers nearby or a history of volcanic activity, the temperature gradually but swiftly increases. The increase in heat that we encounter is heavily responsible for limiting our attempts to drill beneath Earths crust and into the mantle; despite the fact that weve drilled thousands of meters down beneath the surface, requiring that we break into the bedrock, we havent come close due to the heat.

If we could, however, wed see that temperatures increase extremely rapidly. Every few hundred meters, the temperature rises by a full degree Celsius. By the time we get somewhere between about 0.5%-to-1% of the way to the Earths core, corresponding to only a few dozen kilometers, the Earth itself will no longer be dark. At a temperature of around 500 C (a little over 900 F), the Earth itself gets so hot that it will start to glow in visible light, appearing a dull brownish-red from blackbody radiation.

The actual colors that you would see inside the Earth, based on the temperature of black-body ... [+] radiation produced at the temperatures found inside Earth's interior at this specific depth. You would only experience "darkness" inside the Earth for less than 1% of the journey to the core; beyond that, it glows luminously, rivaling the Sun in color at the center of the inner core.

But this is just the start of what goes on in the interior of Earth. As we further descend into the Earths mantle, the temperature heats rapidly. At ~660 C, certain softer, common metals, like lead, will melt. At ~1300 C, iron and steel melt as well. But not everything that we encounter, once we exceed these temperatures, becomes liquid. Another factor is also at play: beneath the surface of the Earth, the pressure increases very rapidly. As the pressure goes up, certain materials are far more likely to be found in solid form, rather than liquid or any other.

In fact, once you get below the crust/mantle boundary, where the magma chambers that lead to volcanoes and deep sea vents are frequently found, the Earth is not only largely solid, but far denser than the rocky material found in the crust. The deeper we go, the more the density increases. As far as we can tell, the Earths mantle makes up the majority of our planet by volume and by mass and then transitions to a liquid state: where the outer core is.

The Earth's crust is thinnest over the ocean and thickest over mountains and plateaus, as the ... [+] principle of buoyancy dictates and as gravitational experiments confirm. Just as a balloon submerged in water will accelerate away from the center of the Earth, a region with below-average energy density will accelerate away from an overdense region, as average-density regions will be more preferentially attracted to the overdense region than the underdense region will.

This liquid outer core was discovered seismically: by examining the way that earthquakes travel through our planet to be felt at different locations on the surface. Whenever you have a phase transition from solid to liquid or liquid to solid, for instance you will observe these waves bend as the material they pass through changes, the same way the light from a pencil or straw immersed in a glass of water appears to bend when you view it from the side.

If we go to the deepest insides of the Earth, to the inner core, things go back to solid again. This is the densest, hottest, most extremely pressurized part of the Earth, with temperatures exceeding 5000 C: making the Earths center almost as hot (and causing it to glow almost as white) as the surface of the Sun. Although the inner core is only about ~750 km in radius, representing about ~12% of the Earth, it was recently discovered that the inner core itself may consist of two separate layers, dividing our planet into five components, rather than the traditional four.

Taken by the Cassini spacecraft with the Sun hidden behind Saturn, this backlit view of our Solar ... [+] System's great ringed world contains a bonus: a few pixels that reveal the Earth-Moon system. This is one of the most distant photographs of Earth ever taken, but it still reveals our world as larger than a single pixel, and reveals our large satellite's presence as well.

Weve also traveled in the opposite direction: far away from our planet, enabling us to view it from great distances. From about ~40 kilometers up, the height that balloons can routinely reach, we can see and measure the curvature of Earth. From the height of the International Space Station stably in low-Earth orbit we can circle the globe in just 90 minutes. And from farther away, as we break away from the gravitational bonds of our planet, we can even see the entire spheroid of Earth all at once, and watch it rotate about its axis in real time.

Weve obtained even more distant views as well. Weve viewed Earth through the lens of many of our different spacecraft visiting many different planets. Weve looked back at Earth from the Moon, from Mercury, from Mars, from Jupiter and Saturn, and even from out beyond the final planet in our Solar System. Our views of Earth from space are iconic, reminding us how small, fragile, and precious our world is. For any question we may have about the physical nature of our planet, the appropriate scientific investigations can reveal extraordinarily accurate answers.

From the late 18th century until today, the carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere have ... [+] increased by 50%: an extraordinarily fast change driven entirely by human activities on this planet. The concentration is not only still increasing, but the rate of the increase is speeding up. If we do nothing to mitigate this trend, the results will only make life on Earth more difficult for humans.

But what science cannot do, on its own, is spur us to collective action. We can track how our planet is changing how its changed over the course of its natural history, as well as how its changed due to the recent influences of human civilization and science can inform us on that front. For example, it can tell us:

The part thats up to us, however, goes far beyond what science tells us: what are we going to do about it? Science can tell us what certain likely outcomes are for certain paths of actions and inactions, but it cannot compel us to be good stewards of the planet. Science can point the way towards a responsible future, but its up to us, collectively, to make that our reality.

The increased emission of greenhouse gases, regardless of their origin, is having a massive impact ... [+] on Earth's climate. This is not so different from natural events, where an organism's waste products poison its environment. Science can tell us what needs to be done to maintain our current way of life, but cannot, on its own, compel us to take the necessary actions.

51 years after the inception of Earth Day, humanity finds itself on the brink of a new era. With the Earth warming, sea levels rising, the climate changing, and our atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases the driving factor behind it all now increasing at a faster rate than ever before, the next few decades will be critical, and will impact the Earth significantly for millennia to come.

Will we take drastic measures to reduce our carbon emissions, or will we blow past unprecedented CO2 milestones: 500, 600, even 1000 parts-per-million?

Will we reorganize the way humans live and produce food and power, effectively re-wilding the Earth, or will we continue to remove our natural, wild places until the planet suffers various forms of ecological collapse?

Will we attempt a variety of geoengineering solutions to climate change, such as blocking out sunlight or seeding clouds in the atmosphere, and if so, what unforeseen consequences will they have?

Or will we do nothing, and simply resign ourselves to a future where nature will do its worst, with the climate changing swiftly and dramatically in an unabated fashion?

In all the known Universe, theres no evidence that any other force will save us from ourselves. This is the only inhabited planet known, and the cost of terraforming any other world is far, far greater than the cost to maintain Earths ideal habitability for humans.

Today, moreso than any other day, lets remember to think about something bigger than ourselves. Lets think about the one planet that gave rise to us all, and that innumerable future generations of humans will someday call home. Lets think about the Earth as a whole, and lets do the best job we can of passing it on to our descendants in a better fashion than we found it.

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Science, And Its Limitations, Showcase The Need For Earth Day - Forbes