Category Archives: Mars Colonization

Mars colonization architecture proposing no return vehicles

Mars to Stay missions propose astronauts sent to Mars for the first time should intend to stay. Unused emergency return vehicles would be recycled into settlement construction as soon as the habitability of Mars becomes evident to the initial pioneers. Mars to Stay missions are advocated both to reduce cost and to ensure permanent settlement of Mars. Among many notable Mars to Stay advocates, former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin has been particularly outspoken, suggesting in numerous forums "Forget the Moon, Lets Head to Mars!"[1] and, in June 2013, Aldrin promoted a crewed mission "to homestead Mars and become a two-planet species".[2] In August 2015, Aldrin, in association with the Florida Institute of Technology, presented a "master plan", for NASA consideration, for astronauts, with a "tour of duty of ten years", to colonize Mars before the year 2040.[3] The Mars Underground, Mars Homestead Project / Mars Foundation, Mars One (defunct in 2019), and Mars Artists Community advocacy groups and business organizations have also adopted Mars to Stay policy initiatives.[4]

The earliest formal outline of a Mars to Stay mission architecture was given at the Case for Mars VI Workshop in 1996, during a presentation by George Herbert titled "One Way to Mars".[5]

Since returning the astronauts from the surface of Mars is one of the most difficult parts of a Mars mission, the idea of a one-way trip to Mars has been proposed several times. Space activist Bruce Mackenzie, for example, proposed a one-way trip to Mars in a presentation "One Way to Mars a Permanent Settlement on the First Mission" at the 1998 International Space Development Conference,[6] arguing that since the mission could be done with less difficulty and expense if the astronauts were not required to return to Earth, the first mission to Mars should be a settlement, not a visit.

Paul Davies, writing in the New York Times in 2004, made similar arguments.[7] Under Davies' plan, an initial colony of four astronauts equipped with a small nuclear reactor and a couple of rover vehicles would make their own oxygen, grow food, and even initiate building projects using local raw materials. Supplemented by food shipments, medical supplies, and replacement gadgets from Earth, the colony would be indefinitely sustained.

Under Mars to Stay mission architectures, the first humans to travel to Mars would typically be in six-member teams. After this initial landing, subsequent missions would raise the number of persons on Mars to 30, thereby beginning a Martian settlement. Since the Martian surface offers some of the natural resources and elements necessary to sustain a robust, mature, industrialized human settlement[8]unlike, for example the Moon[9]a permanent Martian settlement is thought to be the most effective way to ensure that humanity becomes a space-faring, multi-planet species.[10]

A Mars to Stay mission following Aldrin's proposal would enlist astronauts in the following timeline:[11]

As Aldrin has said, "who knows what advances will have taken place. The first generation can retire there, or maybe we can bring them back."[11]

An article by Dirk Schulze-Makuch (Washington State University) and Paul Davies (Arizona State University) from the book The Human Mission to Mars: Colonizing the Red Planet[12] highlights their mission plans as:

The astronauts would be sent supplies from Earth regularly. This proposal was picked up for discussion in a number of public sources.[13]

A proposal for a one-way human settlement mission to Mars was put forward in 2012 by the Mars One, a private spaceflight project led by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp to establish a permanent human colony on Mars.[14]Mars One was a Dutch not-for-profit foundation, a Stichting.[15][16]The proposal was to send a communication satellite and pathfinder lander to the planet by 2018 and, after several stages, land four humans on Mars for permanent settlement in 2027.[17] A new set of four astronauts would then arrive every two years.[18] 200,000 applications were started; about 2,500 were complete enough for consideration, from which one hundred applicants were chosen. Further selections were planned to narrow this down to six groups of four before training began in 2016.[19][needs update] It was hoped that a reality television show, participant fees, and donations would generate the funding for the project.[20]

The project was criticized by experts as a 'scam'[21][22][23][24][25] and as 'delusional'.[26][27][20][28] On January 15, 2019, a court decision was settled to liquidate the organization, sending it into bankruptcy administration.[29][30]

In response to feedback following the EarthLight Institute's "Mars Colony 2030" project at NewSpace 2012 and the announcement of Mars One, Eric Machmer proposed conjunction-class missions be planned with a bias to stay (if low gravity, radiation, and other factors present no pressing health issues),[31][32] so that, if at the end of each 550-day period during a conjunction-class launch window no adverse health effects were observed, settlers would continue research and construction through another 550-day period. In the meantime, additional crews and supplies would continue to arrive, starting their own 550-day evaluation periods. Health tests would be repeated during subsequent 550-day periods until the viability of human life on Mars was proven. Once settlers determine that humans can live on Mars without negative health effects, emergency return vehicles would be recycled into permanent research bases.

Initial explorers leave equipment in orbit and at landing zones scattered considerable distances from the main settlement. Subsequent missions therefore are assumed to become easier and safer to undertake, with the likelihood of back-up equipment being present if accidents in transit or landing occur.

Large subsurface, pressurized habitats would be the first step toward human settlement; as Dr. Robert Zubrin suggests in the first chapter of his book Mars Direct, these structures can be built as Roman-style atria in mountainsides or underground with easily produced Martian brick. During and after this initial phase of habitat construction, hard-plastic radiation and abrasion-resistant geodesic domes could be deployed on the surface for eventual habitation and crop growth. Nascent industry would begin using indigenous resources: the manufacture of plastics, ceramics and glass could be easily achieved.

The longer-term work of terraforming Mars requires an initial phase of global warming to release atmosphere from the Martian regolith and to create a water-cycle. Three methods of global warming are described by Zubrin, who suggests they are best deployed in tandem: orbital mirrors to heat the surface; factories on the ground to pump halocarbons into the atmosphere; and the seeding of bacteria that can metabolize water, nitrogen and carbon to produce ammonia and methane (these gases would aid in global warming). While the work of terraforming Mars is on-going, robust settlement of Mars would continue.

Zubrin, in his 1996 book (revised 2011) The Case for Mars, acknowledges any Martian colony will be partially Earth-dependent for centuries. However, Zubrin suggests Mars may be profitable for two reasons. First, it may contain concentrated supplies of metals equal to or of greater value than silver, which have not been subjected to millennia of human scavenging; it is suggested such ores may be sold on Earth for profit. Secondly, the concentration of deuteriuman extremely expensive but essential fuel for the as-yet non-existent nuclear fusion power industryis five times greater on Mars. Humans emigrating to Mars, under this paradigm, are presumed to have an industry; it is assumed the planet will be a magnet for settlers as wage costs will be high. Because of the labor shortage on Mars and its subsequent high pay-scale, Martian civilization and the value placed upon each individual's productivity is proposed as a future engine of both technological and social advancement.[citation needed]

In the fifth chapter of "Mars Direct", Zubrin addresses the idea that radiation and zero-gravity are unduly hazardous. He claims cancer rates do increase for astronauts who have spent extensive time in space, but only marginally. Similarly, while zero-gravity presents challenges, near total recovery of musculature and immune system vitality is presumed by all Mars to Stay mission plans once settlers are on the Martian surface. Several experiments, such as the Mars Gravity Biosatellite, have been proposed to test this hypothetical assumption, but until humans have lived in Martian gravity conditions (38% of Earth's), human long-term viability in such low gravity will remain only a working assumption. Back-contaminationhumans acquiring and spreading hypothetical Martian virusesis described as "just plain nuts", because there are no host organisms on Mars for disease organisms to have evolved.

In the same chapter, Zubrin rejects suggestions the Moon should be used as waypoint to Mars or as a preliminary training area. "It is ultimately much easier to journey to Mars from low Earth orbit than from the Moon and using the latter as a staging point is a pointless diversion of resources." While the Moon may superficially appear a good place to perfect Mars exploration and habitation techniques, the two bodies are radically different. The Moon has no atmosphere, no analogous geology and a much greater temperature range and rotational period of illumination. It is argued Antarctica, deserts of Earth, and precisely controlled chilled vacuum chambers on easily accessible NASA centers on Earth provide much better training grounds at lesser cost.

"Should the United States space program send a mission to Mars, those astronauts should be prepared to stay there," said Lunar astronaut Buzz Aldrin during an interview on "Mars to Stay" initiative.[33] The time and expense required to send astronauts to Mars, argues Aldrin, "warrants more than a brief sojourn, so those who are on board should think of themselves as pioneers. Like the Pilgrims who came to the New World or the families who headed to the Wild West, they should not plan on coming back home." The Moon is a shorter trip of two or three days, but according to Mars advocates it offers virtually no potential for independent settlements. Studies have found that Mars, on the other hand, has vast reserves of frozen water, all of the basic elements, and more closely mimics both gravitational (roughly 13 of Earth's while the moon is 16) and illumination conditions on Earth. "It is easier to subsist, to provide the support needed for people there than on the Moon." In an interview with reporters, Aldrin said Mars offers greater potential than Earth's satellite as a place for habitation:

If we are going to put a few people down there and ensure their appropriate safety, would you then go through all that trouble and then bring them back immediately, after a year, a year and a half? ... They need to go there more with the psychology of knowing that you are a pioneering settler and you don't look forward to go back home again after a couple of years.[34]

A comprehensive statement of a rationale for "Mars to Stay" was laid out by Buzz Aldrin in a May 2009 Popular Mechanics article, as follows:

The agency's current Vision for Space Exploration will waste decades and hundreds of billions of dollars trying to reach the Moon by 2020a glorified rehash of what we did 40 years ago. Instead of a steppingstone to Mars, NASA's current lunar plan is a detour. It will derail our Mars effort, siphoning off money and engineering talent for the next two decades. If we aspire to a long-term human presence on Marsand I believe that should be our overarching goal for the foreseeable futurewe must drastically change our focus. Our purely exploratory efforts should aim higher than a place we've already set foot on six times. In recent years my philosophy on colonizing Mars has evolved. I now believe that human visitors to the Red Planet should commit to staying there permanently. One-way tickets to Mars will make the missions technically easier and less expensive and get us there sooner. More importantly, they will ensure that our Martian outpost steadily grows as more homesteaders arrive. Instead of explorers, one-way Mars travelers will be 21st-century pilgrims, pioneering a new way of life. It will take a special kind of person. Instead of the traditional pilot/scientist/engineer, Martian homesteaders will be selected more for their personalitiesflexible, inventive and determined in the face of unpredictability. In short, survivors.[35]

The Mars Artists Community has adopted Mars to Stay as their primary policy initiative.[36] During a 2009 public hearing of the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee at which Dr. Robert Zubrin presented a summary of the arguments in his book The Case for Mars, dozens of placards reading "Mars Direct Cowards Return to the Moon" were placed throughout the Carnegie Institute.[37] The passionate uproar among space exploration advocatesboth favorable and criticalresulted in the Mars Artists Community creating several dozen more designs, with such slogans as, "Traitors Return to Earth" and "What Would Zheng He Do?"

In October 2009, Eric Berger of the Houston Chronicle wrote of "Mars to Stay" as perhaps the only program that can revitalize the United States' space program:

What if NASA could land astronauts on Mars in a decade, for not ridiculously more money than the $10 billion the agency spends annually on human spaceflight? It's possible ... relieving NASA of the need to send fuel and rocketry to blast humans off the Martian surface, which has slightly more than twice the gravity of the moon, would actually reduce costs by about a factor of 10, by some estimates.[38]

Hard Science Fiction writer Mike Brotherton has found "Mars to Stay" appealing for both economic and safety reasons, but more emphatically, as a fulfillment of the ultimate mandate by which "our manned space program is sold, at least philosophically and long-term, as a step to colonizing other worlds". Two-thirds of the respondents to a poll on his website expressed interest in a one-way ticket to Mars "if mission parameters are well-defined" (not suicidal).[39]

In June 2010, Buzz Aldrin gave an interview to Vanity Fair in which he restated "Mars to Stay":

Did the Pilgrims on the Mayflower sit around Plymouth Rock waiting for a return trip? They came here to settle. And that's what we should be doing on Mars. When you go to Mars, you need to have made the decision that you're there permanently. The more people we have there, the more it can become a sustaining environment. Except for very rare exceptions, the people who go to Mars shouldn't be coming back. Once you get on the surface, you're there.[40]

An article by Dirk Schulze-Makuch (Washington State University) and Paul Davies (Arizona State University) from the book The Human Mission to Mars: Colonizing the Red Planet[12] summarizes their rationale for Mars to Stay:

[Mars to stay] would obviate the need for years of rehabilitation for returning astronauts, which would not be an issue if the astronauts were to remain in the low-gravity environment of Mars. We envision that Mars exploration would begin and proceed for a long time on the basis of outbound journeys only.[12]

In November 2010, Keith Olbermann started an interview with Derrick Pitts, Planetarium Director at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, by quoting from the Dirk Schulze-Makuch and Paul Davies article, saying, "The Astronauts would go to Mars with the intention of staying for the rest of their lives, as trailblazers of a permanent human Mars colony." In response to Olbermann's statement that "the authors claim a one-way ticket to Mars is no more outlandish than a one-way ticket to America was in 1620", Pitts defends Mars to Stay initiatives by saying "they begin to open the doors in a way that haven't been opened before".[41]

In a January 2011 interview, X Prize founder Peter Diamandis expressed his preference for Mars to Stay research settlements:

Privately funded missions are the only way to go to Mars with humans because I think the best way to go is on "one-way" colonization flights and no government will likely sanction such a risk. The timing for this could well be within the next 20 years. It will fall within the hands of a small group of tech billionaires who view such missions as the way to leave their mark on humanity.[42]

In March 2011, Apollo 14 pilot Edgar Mitchell and Apollo 17's geologist Harrison Schmitt, among other noted Mars exploration advocates published an anthology of Mars to Stay architectures titled, A One Way Mission to Mars: Colonizing the Red Planet". From the publisher's review:

Answers are provided by a veritable who's who of the top experts in the world. And what would it be like to live on Mars? What dangers would they face? Learn first hand, in the final, visionary chapter about life in a Martian colony, and the adventures of a young woman, Aurora, who is born on Mars. Exploration, discovery, and journeys into the unknown are part of the human spirit. Colonizing the cosmos is our destiny. The Greatest Adventure in the History of Humanity awaits us. Onward to Mars![43]

August 2011, Professor Paul Davies gave a plenary address to the opening session of the 14th Annual International Mars Society Convention on cost-effective human mission plans for Mars titled "One-Way Mission to Mars".[44]

"Mars to Stay" has been explicitly proposed by two op-ed pieces in the New York Times.[7][45]

Following a similar line of argument to Buzz Aldrin, Lawrence Krauss asks in an op-ed, "Why are we so interested in bringing the Mars astronauts home again?"[45] While the idea of sending astronauts aloft never to return may be jarring upon first hearing, the rationale for one-way exploration and settlement trips has both historical and practical roots. For example, colonists and pilgrims seldom set off to the New World with the expectation of a return trip. As Lawrence Krauss writes, "To boldly go where no one has gone before does not require coming home again."

If it sounds unrealistic to suggest that astronauts would be willing to leave home never to return ... consider the results of several informal surveys I and several colleagues have conducted recently. One of my peers in Arizona recently accompanied a group of scientists and engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a geological survey. He asked how many would be willing to go on a one-way mission into space. Every member of the group raised their hand.[45]

Additional immediate and pragmatic reasons to consider one-way human space exploration missions are explored by Krauss. Since much of the cost of a voyage to Mars will be spent on returning to Earth, if the fuel for the return is carried on board, this greatly increases the mission mass requirement that in turn requires even more fuel. According to Krauss, "Human space travel is so expensive and so dangerous ... we are going to need novel, even extreme solutions if we really want to expand the range of human civilization beyond our own planet." Delivering food and supplies to pioneers via uncrewed spacecraft is less expensive than designing an immediate return trip.

In an earlier 2004 op-ed for the New York Times, Paul Davies says motivation for the less expensive, permanent "one-way to stay option" arises from a theme common in "Mars to Stay" advocacy: "Mars is one of the few accessible places beyond Earth that could have sustained life [...and] alone among our sister planets, it is able to support a permanent human presence."[7]

Why is going to Mars so expensive? ... It takes a lot of fuel to blast off Mars and get back home. If the propellant has to be transported there from Earth, costs of a launching soar.Without some radical improvements in technology, the prospects for sending astronauts on a round-trip to Mars any time soon are slim, whatever the presidential rhetoric. What's more, the president's suggestion of using the Moon as a base a place to assemble equipment and produce fuel for a Mars mission less expensively has the potential to turn into a costly sideshow. There is, however, an obvious way to slash the costs and bring Mars within reach of early human exploration. The answer lies with a one-way mission.[7]

Davies argues that since "some people gleefully dice with death in the name of sport or adventure [and since] dangerous occupations that reduce life expectancy through exposure to hazardous conditions or substances are commonplace", we ought to not find the risks involved in a Mars to Stay architecture unusual. "A century ago, explorers set out to trek across Antarctica in the full knowledge that they could die in the process, and that even if they succeeded their health[31] might be irreversibly harmed. Yet governments and scientific societies were willing sponsors of these enterprises." Davies then asks, "Why should it be different today?"[7]

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Mars to Stay - Wikipedia

Colonization of the Red Planet may seem like the plot of a classic sci-fi page turner, but, as of late, NASA has made significant headway into creating a livable, sustainable, human-ready environment on Mars.

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In April, NASAs Perseverance robot was able to convert some of the planets atmosphere into oxygen no easy feat, seeing as the planets atmosphere is ultra-thin and mainly made of carbon dioxide. Scientists believe that this significant accomplishment could pave the way for future successes in both isolating and storing oxygen there, marking a huge step for mankind and its ultimate goal of colonizing Mars.

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One of the greatest obstacles to creating livable colonies on the Red Planet boils down to one word: resources. The cost of shipping quantities of necessary resources, including oxygen, would be astronomical (pun fully intended), so scientists have instead been working on ways to develop those resources on the planet itself, or at least find ways to create more sustainable technology that would minimize the amount of supplies needed from Earth.

This is where our precious bodily fluids come in.

A recent study published in Materials Today Bio discusses the possibility that the answer to sustainable resources for Mars colonization efforts could lie within the astronauts themselves, namely in their blood, sweat, tears, urine, and feces.

Though this may sound grim (and potentially like another sci-fi storyline), the study suggests that these organic materials could be utilized as a way to supplement raw materials already found on Mars, potentially saving time, money, and other valuable resources necessary for interplanetary supply runs from Earth.

According to Aled D. Roberts, a research scientist at the University of Manchester, and leader of the new study, there is one significant, but chronically overlooked, source of natural resources that will by definition also be available on any crewed mission to Mars: the crew themselves.

So how, exactly, would this technology work? As part of the new research, the study suggests that human blood could, in part, be used to form a material similar to concrete when combined with Martian dust. Furthermore, adding urea (which is found in human fluids like sweat, tears, and urine), would increase the strength and durability of this astro-crete by up to 300 percent. The potential to create and 3D print this concrete-like material could be an important step in astronauts ongoing quest to build on Mars.

The study also suggests that other human bi-products like dead skin, hair, nails, mucus, and feces could potentially be combined with already existing Martian materials and be exploited for their material properties on early extraterrestrial colonies.

The study is an important (if unglamorous) step toward solving one of the most critical obstacles to creating Martian colonies. Now that researchers have identified the potential of harvesting bodily fluids from humans, more studies will likely be on the horizon to develop further materials similar to astro-crete that could be used to build on Mars. And who knows? One day we could all be sitting in our oxygen-rich Martian apartments built from donations of astronaut sweat, blood, and feces a literal Martian wonderland created from humanitys greatest resource: ourselves.

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The Key to Mars Colonization May (Literally) Lie in Human ...

World War II Hero

Please ask Steven Spielberg to bring The Righteous Defiance of Aristides de Sousa Mendes to the big screen. What a magnificent person Sousa Mendes was. In tragic times, the best and worst of humanity rises to the top and sinks to the bottom.

D J W | Smithsonianmag.com

Well Read

New Chapter was fabulous and inspiring! I love the innovation and trend-setting of the Memphis Public Library system. What a shining example for others to follow. Kudos to Keenon McCloy and her staff and volunteers. May this spur on libraries in many other cities and states to broaden their services and conceive new ideas to serve and educate their communities.

Diane Busch | North Canton, Ohio

The Red Planet

The most striking phrase in Welcome to Mars for me was, If living together on Mars can make us into better versions of ourselves.... Ive always thought space exploration was only about technology and figuring out ways to do things weve never done before, but it seems that without human empathy and compassion at the foundation, any attempts at colonization will surely fail.

Karin Spiezia | Whitestone, New York

When I was younger, the idea of traveling to Mars was exciting. But now I believe that we are not ready to inhabit other planets until we learn how to make the best of this one.

Marileta Robinson | Milanville, Pennsylvania

Something Fishy

As an environmental scientist and a registered nurse, I enjoyed reading about preserving culture and honoring a culture through food (The Sauce Detectives). As a society we are all about bonding over food and culture. With the pandemic there is no better time to experiment with new and old sauces and the food that we cook. Bringing back a lost period of history is amazing.

Jamie Smith | Cave Creek, Arizona

King of America

King George III wasnt quite the monster he was portrayed to be (In Defense of King George). However, several things still taint his legacy. For one, he didnt exactly bring an end to slavery in the British Empire, despite acknowledging its evils and the hypocrisy of slavery. Also, it was at his insistence that Britain fight to keep the American colonies, prolonging the Revolutionary War. To his credit, though, he acknowledged Washingtons virtue of not clinging to power, and he did seem to respect his limitations as a constitutional monarch. We should take the good and the bad into account when judging historical figures, as they are often far more complex than their critics and supporters make them out to be.

John Paul Wilson | Facebook

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Readers Respond to the November 2021 Issue | Magazine - Smithsonian

Theres no sex in space.

At least according to NASA.

When the first married couple, both NASA astronauts, flew into orbit together in 1992, the media became obsessed with whether theyd be the first couple to have sex in space. The event launched a minor scandal for the space agency, along with plenty of fodder for newspapers and magazines. Throughout the years, the agency has denied multiple times that any sex has ever occurred in space.

What practically everyone involved failed to appreciate, though, was the fact that even before the couple launched on their mission, 277 astronauts had already flown into space and they could have been having sex with each other up there that entire time.

After all, why not? If a man and a woman could have sex in space, why not two men or two women, or any other combination of horny astronauts?

Theres been no shortage of articles, podcasts, TV shows, and movies depicting space sex think James Bond in Moonraker, or 2016s Passengers and that makes sense. Its a fascinating and steamy topic, and a key expression of the universal experience of pleasure. Plus, with the rise of the 21st century space race and conversations about colonizing Mars and the Moon being taken more seriously, the topic of extraterrestrial reproduction, in particular, is more geopolitically relevant than ever.

Despite all that, gay space sex remains a huge blindspot.

If we treat the idea of straight space sex as an inevitability, we need to treat queer space sex the same way. In fact, its ridiculous that we havent done so already. Men have been going up into space together since 1964 when the Soviet Union launched the first multi-crewed spacecraft. Theres no reason those dudes couldnt have been boning in orbit.

The mechanics would likely be trivial. In fact, Dr. Alex Layendecker, a US Air Force pilot and researcher into human sexuality and reproduction in off-Earth environments, suggests that gay space sex might be easier to accomplish than hetereosexual intercourse.

It would actually probably be easier for a homosexual couple because theyd likely have similar mass sizes, Layendecker explained to Futurism. If you have two males, for example, that are roughly the same size and weight, theyre going to have roughly the same centers of gravity so it might actually be more stable and easier for them to interact.

Layendecker adds that technique would play a role here too. Whereas missionary position would be a more difficult position to achieve while having sex in space because its harder to get a grip on your partner, spooning or doggy-style would be much easier, because its easier for one to hold onto the other.

Space sex might also be perfect for those inclined to BDSM, which is equally accessible to same-gender lovers. Since theres no leverage in a microgravity environment, one or both partners would likely need to be strapped in or secured in some way; otherwise theyd run the risk of awkwardly floating away mid-thrust. Luckily, NASA already has a solution to that.

If [astronauts] need to secure somebody on the floor and stabilize them against the spacecraft, they use duct tape, Layendecker explained. You can also use holsters or whatever too to somehow anchor at least one partner, and then the other one can you know.

So are you into BDSM? You might be a perfect candidate to have some incredible gay space sex.

Unfortunately, theres still precious little being done to research and develop systems for sex in space regardless of whether its gay or straight. Much of this has to do with the fact that space agencies like NASA are very politically bound, according to Layendecker. Since much of NASAs funding comes from tax dollars, he says, many lawmakers who approve the agencys budget are hesitant about putting resources towards space sex research, which he characterized as conservative elements tied to their funding.

Theres also the agencys fraught relationship with the LGBT community at large. Throughout NASAs history, its had a stifling and sometimes hostile approach to queer employees.

In 1963, just a few years after NASA was founded, the US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine released the Aeromedical Evaluation for Space Pilots, which provided the physical and psychiatric benchmarks a recruit would need to meet to become an astronaut. Among its many requirements was an actual heterosexuality scale which used deeply questionable techniques including Rorschach inkblot tests yes, really to putatively measure prospective astronauts sexual orientation.

Even though the agency attempted to weed out gay astronauts, there were some that got through the most famous being Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. Despite her prominence and reputation in the space community, though, she didnt choose to come out as a lesbian until her death in 2012 via her obituary.

Sally didnt feel comfortable ever coming out as who she was because she knew the conservative nature of that institution that she was a part of, Michelle Evans, a space historian and author of The X-15 Rocket Plane: Flying the First Wings into Space, told Futurism. Both NASA and the federal government as a whole was very, very conservative.

Along with being a space historian, Evans is also a transgender and an LGBT advocate in the aerospace community. Her read is that NASAs culture has remained just as stifling as ever. In fact, just two other astronauts Wendy Lawrence and Anne McClain have come out of the closet since Ride.

Its also notable that they were all lesbians. No male astronaut has ever come out of the closet. And there has yet to be a publicly nonbinary or trans astronaut.

Yet the reality is that more astronauts have almost certainly hidden their queer identities, and will continue to do so. Thats not speculation, either, but a statistical near-certainty.

Theres the often cited though disputed statistic that 10 percent of Americans are gay. That means of the 574 people who have gone into space, about 57 were probably gay. Even if you use the more recent Gallup poll conducted in 2020 found that 5.6 percent of Americans identify as LGBT, that means about 32 of them wouldnt have been straight.

Are we to believe, then, that just three astronauts in the history of international space travel have been queer? Its almost statistically impossible.

Unfortunately, theres still precious little being done to research and develop systems for sex in space regardless of orientation but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. With the burgeoning billionaire space race, experts like Layendecker and Evans are hopeful that private entities like SpaceX or Blue Origin will prove to be less prudish than its public counterparts at NASA, and more willing to invest in space sex research.

When that happens, well hopefully see space sex innovations that are inclusive and accessible to all astronauts. After all, its more than a tricky logistical problem well have to contend with if we want to colonize the galaxy. Pleasure is a fundamental part of what it means to be human. That means anyone who wants to should be able to get off, even after they get off the planet.

This is humanity, its not just about populating beyond the Earth, Evans said. You need to have outlets for aspects of your humanity and one of those things is sex.

More on sex:Scientists Discover Creature That Never Has Sex

Care about supporting clean energy adoption? Find out how much money (and planet!) you could save by switching to solar power at UnderstandSolar.com. By signing up through this link, Futurism.com may receive a small commission.

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We Need to Talk About Gay Sex in Space - Futurism

Did you think that General Hospitals Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) was the only one who ever lived out of this world? Nope. While Burton was dating a girl from outer space, Kirsten Storms actually was one!

Yes, Burton was on Out of This World while Zenon was a Girl of the 21st Century (which, pretty much all babies born in the past 21 years are, but it seemed futuristic back in 1999). In 2049 (which is only 28 years from now; think about that for a while), 13-year-old Zenon (Kirsten Storms) lives on a space station (still 28 years from now).

But Zenon is a mischievous little thing, and shes banished to live on Earth, among normal, Earth-raised children. Zenon has a hard time fitting in. Kind of like Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls.

However, little misfit Zenon unearths (ha, see what we did there?) a plan to crash the space station via a computer virus (remember, it was 1999, we were all convinced that, come 2000, all computers would stop working and planes would fall out of the sky while life as we knew it came screeching to a halt).

Then plot twist! Zenon, the friendless wonder makes friends. Two guys named Andrew and Greg, and Raven-Symon as Nebula. So, basically, were talking Belle Black, Shawn-Douglas Brady, Philip Kiriakis, and Mimi Lockhart (Storms played Belle on Days of our Lives before she made the move to Maxie on GH). Much wackiness ensued, and the space station was saved! Yay!

So was this the end of Zenon? Nope! Then 2001 brought Zenon: The Sequel, and 2004 gave us Zenon: Z3. In the latter, theyre colonizing Mars. In the year 2054. Which is 33 years from now. So thats something to look forward to. But dont take our word for it, watch this trailer, starring an itty, bitty Kirsten Storms for yourself.

General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about whats coming up in Port Charles, check out all the latest thats been posted on General Hospital spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the shows history, click here.

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Before They Were Soap Stars: GHs Kirsten Storms Blasts Off - Soap Hub

The project will focus on Mars, the 'red planet', due to its shared characteristics with Esch-sur-Alzette's red earth

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Scientists and artists are clubbing together to build a fictional second earth as part of Esch-sur-Alzette becoming European Capital of Culture next year.

The experts will focus on Mars the red planet due to its shared characteristics with the southern Luxembourg citys red earth, which allowed the region to have a successful steel industry.

The project, dubbed Esch Mars, is at the intersection of science, art, and utopic societies and will end with an exhibition in October next year, posing the question of what if we were to colonize a completely new world?

The idea behind Esch Mars is to build a fictional mission to question our current reality. If we had the chance to contribute to a new world order, what would that world look like? What kind of science would be needed? What social structures should be put in place? And, what would a combination of experts' and citizens' perspectives generate?

Artists will discuss with experts, such as scientists and astronauts, for 40 days to establish ideas on how to build a new society. The artists will then ask citizens to share their opinions on what they think is crucial to live together.

Seven artists from various backgrounds will then use the information they gather from scientists and citizens to create artworks.

Esch Mars allows people to imagine a utopic scenario where everyone can combine their knowledge and opinions to create a better alternative world, giving a glimpse into a world where everyones opinions are valued and integrated into an improved version of current societies. The aim is to give hope that it is possible to build a better world through the creation of a fictitious one.

Esch Mars portrayal of colonisation as an opportune moment can be problematic. Colonialism, especially western colonialism, has shown the negative impact of a group of people appropriating a foreign land. Genocide, oppression, and racism are just some of the long-term costs of a civilisation imposing their ideas of what a new society should be.

Experts specialising in the history of colonisation will be taking part in the project, organisers said. Hopefully, through the acknowledgment of the suffering rooted in histories of colonisation, Esch Mars will not only create a utopic society far away from earth but also a society far away from intolerance.

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What if we were to colonize a completely new world? - Luxembourg Times

Perseverance and Ingenuity landed on Mars almost exactly nine months ago. Over that time, both vehicles have already expanded our understanding of Mars, which will only increase over time as both vehicles will continue to conduct further experiments in the months and years to come. Perseverance is a rover based on Curiositys general design but with its own unique capabilities and some features Curiosity lacked. Ingenuity is the small helicopter that became the first human-built vehicle to fly on another world in the spring of 2021. Together, they fight crime do science.

Weve rounded up the major discoveries made by both the rover and its copter buddy, as well as the technologies deployed on each.

The principal mission of Perseverance and Ingenuity is to search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. In service to that goal, the Perseverance rover is loaded with imaging hardware, with which it can capture EM emissions from radio to hard UV. With these instruments, the rover is equipped to make on-the-spot judgments about whats in the Martian regolith, rocks and atmosphere.

One such piece of imaging tech aboard Perseverance is the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC) instrument. SHERLOC is a boresighted resonance Raman and fluorescence spectrometer. To break that down a bit, it uses a UV laser to ping tiny bits of grit with photons of controlled wavelength, so we can analyze the photons thrown back off the sample to record their wavelength, polarization and other metadata. SHERLOCs sidekick and second eye, WATSON, zooms out where SHERLOC zooms in: WATSON is a wide-angle camera used to document the spectrometers samples on the macro scale, just like a terrestrial photographer would try to get good macros of a subject with a DSLR.

Another instrument is the ground-penetrating Radar Imager for Mars Subsurface Experiment, known as RIMFAX. Radar waves are sensitive to the dielectric properties of the materials they survey, much like X-rays are sensitive to the absorptive properties of the materials they move through. RIMFAX will peer below the surface, as far as ten meters down into the regolith. Ultimately, this differential response allows us to make a 3D radar model of the subsurface stratigraphy of Mars, with a resolution or voxel size of ten centimeters. RIMFAX is there to characterize what lies below the landing site, but also to look for water ice hidden below the Martian surface where it might not have been sublimated away.

Ingenuity and Perseverance, in a selfie they sent from Mars. Image credit: NASA

So far, perhaps the biggest discovery is that there is montmorillonite clay in the bottom of Jezero Crater. Clay is formed by the weathering of silicate rock in the presence of water. Even if theres no detectable water ice in the deposit at the moment, clay is taken as a dead giveaway that water was present at one point. Evidence indicates that Jezero once held a crater lake, fed by a river whose delta opens up into a formation called Three Forks on the northwestern edge of the crater.

The Mars 2020 mission is looking for a lot of things, but one of the most important is water and Jezero was full of it. Here on Earth, water is life: we think the very first amino acids stumbled into being from water full of organic building blocks. Its believed that if there are traces of life on Mars, theyll be where the water is, or at least where it was. (Martian lava tubes are another hopeful candidate, because of the traces of early life found in terrestrial lava tubes.) Whats more, we think that the delta is full of boulders. How did they get there? On Earth, rocks that size are only lifted and carried by sizeable floods. Images and data that RIMFAX, SHERLOC and WATSON gather will help us learn more about the history of Mars geological features, including just how wet ancient Mars might have been.

The total combined mass of Perseverance is just over a metric ton, with the chassis and instrumentation accounting for much of its weight. But Perseverance also carries an ultralight lab, in which its carrying out several side experiments to test how things behave in the Martian atmosphere, gravity, and radiation.

The star of the onboard material science show is the SHERLOC spectrometers calibration panel. Perseverance is carrying a plate inlaid with swatches of almost a dozen different materials, which SHERLOC will use to calibrate itself. One standout is a section of the polycarbonate material NASA uses in helmet visors. Confirming NASAs awareness of their weapons-grade backronym habits, the polycarbonate is backed with a piece of opal glass bearing the fictional Sherlocks street address. It doubles as a geocache for the public. You know, because were all just hanging out up there with our GoPros. (Please, please, let me live long enough for my response to the idea of a geocache on Mars is to change into sincere excitement at the ability to buy tickets.)

Also on the swatch plate are sections of certain ultra-high-performance flexible composite materials that we use to make the rest of the space suit. Theres a piece of Ortho-Fabric, a tiramisu of thermal/MMOD protective fabrics including Teflon, Kevlar, elastic Dacron for compression, and insulating Gore-Tex fleece. Theres also a piece of the Teflon-coated fiberglass fabric that shields the space suits gauntlets, and one of an upgraded version with a new dust coating. In between using them to calibrate its sensors, SHERLOC will periodically examine these swatches to see how they fare under constant exposure to the radiation on Mars surface, and the abrasion of its pervasive regolith dust.

SHERLOCs calibration plate. Top row, from left: aluminum gallium nitride on sapphire; a quartz diffuser; a slice of Martian meteorite; a maze for testing laser intensity; a separate aluminum gallium nitride on sapphire with different properties. Bottom row, from left: fanservice; Vectran; Ortho-Fabric; Teflon; and coated Teflon. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

While SHERLOC will stare unblinking at our own materials to see how they behave, MOXIE does its work by chemically changing matter it gathers onsite. It speaks to the Mars 2020 mission directive to gather data and test technologies that will help prepare for crewed missions to Mars. MOXIE, short for the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment instrument, is on Mars to see what it takes to make breathable amounts of oxygen out of Mars CO2 atmosphere. To do this, it draws in CO2 and pressurizes it to about one atmosphere. Then it electrolytically snaps the CO2 apart right at the cathode, leaving good old diatomic oxygen along with some carbon monoxide waste and some residual CO2.

MOXIE also serves the broader mission goal of using in-situ resources to answer in-situ needs. We are trying to explore, and potentially colonize, other planets. With our current best propulsion technology, the trip between Earth and Mars is still most easily described in months, not miles. Its not plausible to ship bottled air to another planet as the sole source of everyones next breath let alone to send bulk metal and concrete to space, when theres a whole rocky planet underfoot to source our infrastructure from if we can. This is another entry in NASAs long history of launching one mission along with hardware and intent to clear the way for the next.

After fifteen flights, Ingenuity is still going strong. It has now flown almost three kilometers, and now that it has finished its demo phase, its now engaging with Perseverance on their joint objective to pore over the Jezero Crater.

Ingenuity began its illustrious career on Mars as a technology demo for rotorcraft flight in a low-pressure environment, well below anything we encounter here on Earth. Mars atmosphere at surface level is about one and a half percent the density of Earths atmosphere at sea level. For comparison, the all-time helicopter altitude record on Earth reached the high-end of the passenger jet cruising altitude range, at approximately 42,500 feet. Even at that height the air on Earth is thirty times denser than Martian STP (Standard Temperature and Pressure). That makes piloting Ingenuity not just a first for aerodynamics, but a game-changer for offworld exploration as a whole.

Jezero Crater, as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Image credit: NASA

Beyond getting into the record books, being able to fly around on Mars opens up a whole new class of possibilities for exploration. NASA is exploring new pathfinding and problem-solving methods and investing in off-world flight as part of its broad effort to get traction in the second great space race: the rush to commercialize low-earth orbit, and eventually to push the human sphere of influence outward into the greater solar system. Rovers are limited in their abilities by the fact that they have to contend with boulders, cliffs and crevasses, but NASAs showing at DARPAs 2021 rescue robot Olympics showed that the whole game changes if a robot can just use the Z axis to opt out of a terrain hazard altogether.

In addition to being the literal pilot project for powered flight on another planet, Ingenuity has two different cameras on board that enable high-res imaging of its environment. One is a downward-facing black-and-white camera for navigation, and the other is a forward-facing 13-megapixel color camera with stereoscopic imaging capabilities. The ability to photograph the landscape and terrain with this kind of resolution and fidelity is important all on its own for reasons of navigation: we need to know just where Ingenuity is, because it would be terribly unfortunate to perform unplanned lithobraking, what with the communications delay between Earth and Mars. But between those two cameras, Ingenuity is also capturing enough information to make a high-fidelity 3D map of the Martian landscape. Heres one such image, in stereoscopic red and blue 3D:

Depicted: the Martian rock formation named Faillefeu, located within the Jezero crater. This stereoscopic image should work with standard red and blue 3D glasses! Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Between the stereoscopic 3D and the repeated imaging of the terrain at different times on different sols, the amount of data produced can be used to map the Martian landscape right down to the individual rocks. Not so long ago, we werent even certain there was water anywhere else in the cosmos. Now we have a small population of robots on another planet, looking for traces of the emergence of life, and squinting down into the soil to see about the water were almost certain is there. This is valuable for legitimate, very serious, and very important scientific reasons. Its also just incredibly cool that anyone with internet access can watch videos beamed to us from the surface of another planet.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Because of how it aced its initial objectives, Ingenuitys documentary mission got an extension in 2021. Until theyre decommissioned, Ingenuity and Perseverance will both be working in concert with the other landers, rovers, and probes we have surveying Mars. Percy and the MRO are already checking each others work concerning the evidence of water on Mars. The rovers samples, including the rock cores it has already collected, will be stored in caches on Mars. A future Mars mission in cooperation with the ESA (European Space Agency) will eventually retrieve them.

As time goes by and these results continue to roll in, well update this article. If you have questions about what Ingenuity and Perseverance have been up to on Mars, or what weve learned from their tenure there, do let us know in the comments we will address them in a future update.

Between now and then, if you want to get involved with Perseverance and Ingenuity yourself, you can! Anyone interested is formally invited to dive headfirst into Percys photostream as part of the open-access AI4Mars project, which labels the terrain the images depict in order to help train SPOC, the navigation AI that guides our robots on Mars. (No, Sulu was the navigator but I digress.)

If youre feeling extra creative, you could even take a shot at improving the algorithm under the hood of AI4Mars itself. The project is committed to making its data and code freely available, both libre and gratis. If someone outside JPL creates an algorithm that works better than ours using our dataset, thats great, too, explained Hiro Ono, the JPL researcher and AI expert who led the development of AI4Mars. It just makes it easier to make more discoveries.

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What Ingenuity and Perseverance Have Discovered on Mars So Far - ExtremeTech

Billionaire Jeff Bezos doesnt see us lasting much longer on earth. Speaking at the Ignatius Forum in Washington, DC this week, Bezos provided his vision for where humanity is headed.

He claimed earth might one day become a vacation destination, just like our national parks. All manufacturing would be in outer space, with workers permitted occasional visits to the surface.

Yes, humans will be born in space and then visit,The way you visit Yellowstone National Park.

Bezos dreams of floating space cities that contain rivers, forests and wildlife, he said during his panel discussion, the Independent reported.

Over centuries, many people will be born in space, it will be their first home, said the Amazon entrepreneur. They will be born on these colonies, live on these colonies, then theyll visit Earth the way you would visit, you know, Yellowstone National Park.

He added that the floating cities of the future are more likely than colonizing distant planets, a subtle dig at Elon Musks predictions of Mars.

Bezos didnt indicate whether Amazon would deliver to the floating cities.

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Jeff Bezos Makes Out There Prediction About Humanitys Future - Deadline

Jessica Watkins is set to becomethe first Black woman to join the crew atthe International Space Station next year.

What Happened: U.S. space agency NASA on Tuesday named Watkins to serve as a mission specialist on the agencys upcoming SpaceX Crew-4 mission.

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk-owned SpaceX'sFalcon 9 rocket is expected toferry Watkins and three other astronauts to the International Space Station in April 2022, who would then spend six months at the microgravity laboratory.

Watkinswas selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017.

The other astronauts joining Watkins include Kjell Lindgren and Robert Hines, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, as crewfor the Crew-4 mission.

Watkins has a bachelor's degree in geological and environmental sciences from Stanford University and a doctorate in geology from University of California.

See Also: SpaceX Docks Crew-3 Astronauts With International Space Station Nearly A Day After Taking Flight

In September, Sian Proctor, a member of SpaceXs Inspiration4 amateur astronaut mission that went to orbit but not to the space station, became the first Black woman to serve as a spacecraft pilot.

Falcon 9 capsule last week delivered four Crew-3 astronauts to the ISS, uniting them with the three crew members aboard the space station that orbits on, average, 248 miles above earth.

The Crew-3 astronauts are expected to leave the orbiting laboratory and return to Earth after a six-month stay.

The Big Picture: SpaceX and NASA are working on multiple projects including a $2.9 billion lunar landing contract. Musk dreams of colonizing Mars and has in the past said he remains highly confident that SpaceX would land humans on Mars by 2026.

2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Jessica Watkins Set To Become First Black Woman To Join International Space Station Crew As NASA Names Her For SpaceX Crew-4 Mission - Benzinga

NBC 5 Exclusive: Read part one and two of our special three-night event, "SpaceX Effect," below. The event continues Wednesday night at 10 p.m. with Brian Curtis, only on NBC 5. Check back and refresh this page to read and see the full story.

NBC 5 launches the SpaceX Effect Monday on NBC 5 News at 10 p.m.

Humanity's greatest adventure ever may launch from Texas. At the southernmost tip of the state, Elon Musk's company, SpaceX, is building and testing giant rockets. The hope is to send them to Mars someday to colonize the red planet.

SpaceX has two major facilities taking shape in a remote location near Brownsville called Boca Chica. They are along State Highway 4, which runs from the city to the Gulf of Mexico. One is a manufacturing site. The other is a launch and landing complex. SpaceX has dubbed the area "Starbase."

SpaceX's towering stainless steel vehicle is called Starship. Several of them point skyward from the flat landscape at Boca Chica. There have already been unmanned tests, with the rockets soaring into the South Texas sky. The most recent launch ended with a successful landing. But there have also been crashes and explosions.

Starship is massive. When it's fully stacked atop its Super Heavy booster, it stands nearly 400 feet tall, making it the largest rocket ever built. It is designed to carry cargo and astronauts into low Earth orbit as well as to the Moon and Mars.

SpaceX is still in the early stages of its plans for Boca Chica. The manufacturing and launch sites continue to grow. The first Starship destined for orbit, known as SN20, test-fired all six of its engines for the first time last week.

Work continues on the launch tower, which will have the ability to catch landing Starships using a mechanism likened to giant chopsticks. The goal is a fully reusable rocket that can be quickly relaunched.

Elon Musk has said that Starship could be ready for an attempted orbital launch as soon as this month. But that depends on clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the project.

Most observers believe the first unmanned orbital flight might come in early 2022.

Whenever it happens, SpaceX said it hopes Starship SN20 will reach orbit and then splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.

Not everyone is happy about what SpaceX is doing at Boca Chica. Environmentalists say the industrial complex thats rising near the Gulf coast is a disaster in the making.

Not everyone is happy about what SpaceX is doing at Boca Chica. Environmentalists say the industrial complex that's rising near the Gulf coast is a disaster in the making.

The SpaceX sites are on private property the company owns just off Highway 4.But they're surrounded by protected public lands including the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Boca Chica State Park and Brazos Island State Park.

"This is a bad place to do what they want to do," said Jim Chapman with Friends of the Wildlife Corridor. "You have these habitats for especially wading birds and shorebirds that exist in very few other places," said Chapman. The area is also home to endangered species such as Kemp's ridley sea turtles and ocelots.

SpaceX, which declined to be interviewed for this story, has said in public documents that research from launch activity at Cape Canaveral in Florida shows that environmental damage at Boca Chica would not be significant.

Some people fear explosions, which SpaceX calls 'anomalies.'They have already happened during testing, raining debris outside SpaceX property. No one has been hurt. "I am worried," said Molly Smith with the group Save RGV.

SpaceX always clears the area for safety. Smith's concern is a rocket malfunction that could threaten nearby South Padre Island, the tourist and retirement mecca where she lives."How are you going to face up to an explosion that could be so much bigger than the explosions we've already had?" Smith said. SpaceX says it has the ability to end any flight that goes off course.In the future, SpaceX plans to launch Starships from platforms far out at sea.

There is also the question of access to Boca Chica Beach, which is popular with many local residents."I know people that spend the day collecting shells, and fishing and the family can come out," said Molly Smith with Save RGV.Highway 4 is the only way out to Boca Chica, and SpaceX wants permission to close the road for up to 500 hours per year.

There has been talk of building a tunnel from nearby South Padre Island to provide access to Boca Chica. Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevio says it is a real idea from one of Elon Musk's other companies, The Boring Company, which specializes in building tunnels. "They came down, took a look.Our staff met with them.They believe it's possible," said Trevio.

As the top elected official in Cameron County, Trevio says he understands the value of preserving Boca Chica and its environment. "The concerns that have been raised by environmental groups are extremely valid and have to be taken into consideration," said Trevio.

But Trevio also believes there's a way to move forward with the Starship project without sacrificing a community treasure."It can't be an all-or-nothing scenario.It has to be a win-win for everybody," said Trevio.

Trevio says he has spoken directly to Elon Musk about the environmental concerns raised by people in Cameron County. "The conversations that I've had with Mr. Musk and the members of his team at SpaceX all have voiced their concern and their support that they don't negatively impact the environment," said Trevio.

The job of regulating the project lies with the federal government, specifically the Federal Aviation Administration.SpaceX must have a permit from the FAA to continue its work and launch Starships into orbit from Boca Chica.

The FAA is in process of evaluating what's called the Draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA).It's a lengthy document outlining SpaceX's plans at Boca Chica and their impact on the environment.It was prepared by SpaceX with oversight from the FAA.Chapman says that's a big problem."When the company that wants to do it gets to write it, this is what you get," he said.The FAA says its evaluation will be independent.

During a recent public hearing process, the FAA says it received more than 17,000 written comments and 121 verbal comments on the Draft PEA. The agency says it will take all of that information into account before making a decision on what comes next. The FAA says it hopes to complete that process by December 31, 2021 - a date now highly anticipated by SpaceX and environmentalists alike.

The SpaceX Effect, a three-night special event, continues Wednesday on NBC 5 News at 10 p.m.

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The SpaceX Effect' on the Lone Star State - NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth