Category Archives: Mars Colonization

It was a time of political uncertainty, cultural conflict and social change. Private ventures exploited technological advances and natural resources, generating unprecedented fortunes while wreaking havoc on local communities and environments. The working poor crowded cities, spurring property-holders to develop increased surveillance and incarceration regimes. Rural areas lay desolate, buildings vacant, churches empty the stuff of moralistic elegies.

Epidemics raged, forcing quarantines in the ports and lockdowns in the streets. Mortality data was the stuff of weekly news and commentary.

Depending on the perspective, mobility chosen or compelled was either the cause or the consequence of general disorder. Uncontrolled mobility was associated with political instability, moral degeneracy and social breakdown. However, one form of planned mobility promised to solve these problems: colonization.

Europe and its former empires have changed a lot since the 17th century. But the persistence of colonialism as a supposed panacea suggests we are not as far from the early modern period as we think.

Seventeenth-century colonial schemes involved plantations around the Atlantic, and motivations that now sound archaic. Advocates of expansion such as the English writer Richard Hakluyt, whose Discourse of Western Planting (1584) outlined the benefits of empire for Queen Elizabeth: the colonization of the New World would prevent Spanish Catholic hegemony and provide a chance to claim Indigenous souls for Protestantism.

But a key promise was the economic and social renewal of the mother country through new commodities, trades and territory. Above all, planned mobility would cure the ills of apparent overpopulation. Sending the poor overseas to cut timber, mine gold or farm cane would, according to Hakluyt, turn the multitudes of loiterers and idle vagabonds that swarm(ed) Englands streets and pestered and stuffed its prisons into industrious workers, providing raw materials and a reason to multiply. Colonization would fuel limitless growth.

As English plantations took shape in Ulster, Virginia, New England and the Caribbean, projectors individuals (nearly always men) who promised to use new kinds of knowledge to radically and profitably transform society tied mobility to new sciences and technologies. They were inspired as much by English philosopher Francis Bacons vision of a tech-centred state in The New Atlantis as by his advocacy of observation and experiment.

The English agriculturalist Gabriel Plattes cautioned in 1639 that the finding of new worlds is not like to be a perpetual trade. But many more saw a supposedly vacant America as an invitation to transplant people, plants and machinery.

The inventor Cressy Dymock (from Lincolnshire, where fen-drainage schemes were turning wetlands dry) sought support for a perpetual motion engine that would plough fields in England, clear forest in Virginia and drive sugar mills in Barbados. Dymock identified private profit and the public good by speeding plantation and replacing costly draught animals with cheaper enslaved labour. Projects across the empire would employ the idle, create elbow-room, heal unnatural divisions and make England the garden of the world.

Today, the moon and Mars are in projectors sights. And the promises billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos make for colonization are similar in ambition to those of four centuries ago.

As Bezos told an audience at the International Space Development Conference in 2018: We will have to leave this planet, and were going to leave it, and its going to make this planet better.

Bezos traces his thinking to Princeton physicist Gerald ONeill, whose 1974 article The Colonization of Space (and 1977 book, The High Frontier) presented orbiting settlements as solutions to nearly every major problem facing the Earth. Bezos echoes ONeills proposal to move heavy industry and industrial labour off the planet, rezoning Earth as a mostly residential, green space. A garden, as it were.

Musks plans for Mars are at once more cynical and more grandiose, in timeline and technical requirements if not in ultimate extent. They center on the dubious possibility of terraforming Mars using resources and technologies that dont yet exist.

Musk planned to send the first humans to Mars in 2024, and by 2030, he envisioned breaking ground on a city, launching as many as 100,000 voyages from Earth to Mars within a century.

As of 2020, the timeline had been pushed back slightly, in part because terraforming may require bombarding Mars with 10,000 nuclear missiles to start. But the vision a Mars of thriving crops, pizza joints and entrepreneurial opportunities, preserving life and paying dividends while Earth becomes increasingly uninhabitable remains. Like the colonial company-states of the 17th and 18th centuries, Musks SpaceX leans heavily on government backing but will make its own laws on its newly settled planet.

The techno-utopian visions of Musk and Bezos betray some of the same assumptions as their early modern forebears. They offer colonialism as a panacea for complex social, political and economic ills, rather than attempting to work towards a better world within the constraints of our environment.

And rather than facing the palpably devastating consequences of an ideology of limitless growth on our planet, they seek to export it, unaltered, into space. They imagine themselves capable of creating liveable environments where none exist.

But for all their futuristic imagery, they have failed to imagine a different world. And they have ignored the history of colonialism on this one. Empire never recreated Eden, but it did fuel centuries of growth based on expropriation, enslavement and environmental transformation in defiance of all limits. We are struggling with these consequences today.

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The billionaire space race reflects a colonial mindset that fails to imagine a different world - The Conversation US

With NASA's plans to make living in other planetary bodies more feasible, that includes the need to make infrastructure for humans in space easier and cheaper. The answer could lie with the success of a 3D printer.

Find out why this 3D printer is special.

The Northrop Grumman Cygnus Cargo Ship resupply missionsuccessfully sent up 8,200 pounds of cargo for NASA to the International Space Station. The cargo included crew supplies like fresh apples, tomatoes, kiwi, a pizza kit, and a cheese smorgasbord.

What were also of most importance were the science and research equipment and investigations included in the cargo. One, in particular, is the Redwire Regolith 3D Print study.

The Redwire Regolith Print study aims to demonstrate 3D printing on the space station using a material simulating regolith or the loose rock and dust found on the surfaces of planetary bodies such as the Moon and Mars, Stuffsaid. Being able to construct habitats and other infrastructures using resources already found on the planetary bodies can significantly reduce launch mass and cost, NASApointed out.

By reducing the launch mass of construction materials, this allows for more space for other necessary cargo that can keep the explorers living on the planetary body for longer.

The results of this study could help determine whether or not it is possible to use regolith as a raw material, as well as use 3D printing as a construction technique in space.

Read Also: NASA Moon Mission 2024: Elon Musk Pitches to Make Spacesuits for Moon Landing!

NASA's investigation on the feasibility of a Regolith 3D Printer to solve the infrastructure construction on the surface of planetary bodies ties with its upcoming Artemis missions. Elon Musk's SpaceXis working with NASA to bring back humans to the moon and possibly live there by 2024.

The NASA Artemis missionwill land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon and use the findings learned on the Moon to take the first set of astronauts to Mars.

The American space agency is already taking leaps to prepare for that big Mars journey by opening up recruitment for crew members on its series of analog missions that will simulate one-year stays on the Martian surface.

The Mars Simulation Missionaims to prepare crew members for the Martian mission of living on the Red Planet's Dune Alpha, a unique 3D printed 1,700 square-foot habitat. The analog mission will include simulated spacewalks and provide data on a variety of factors like physical and behavioral health and performance.

The members of this Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, or CHAPEA, mission can enjoy the amenities the 3D printed habitat has to offer, like private quarters, a kitchen, dedicated areas for recreation, medical, fitness, and work and crop growth activities. A technical work area is also available, as well as two bathrooms.

The habitat will be set up to be as Mars-realistic as possible to obtain the most accurate data during the analog mission. The crew will experience environmental stressors such as resource limitations, isolation, equipment failure, and significant workloads included in the simulation.

NASA has begun accepting applications for CHAPEAsince August 6. Interested applicants can send in their application until September 17, 2021 by 5pm CST.

Related Article: NASA Mars Rover Rock Sample Disappears! How Did Perseverance Take Sample, Why Did It Vanish?

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NASA Space Construction: ISS Tests Regolith 3D Printer for Artemis Lunar Program; Is This the Start of Space Colonization? - iTech Post

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 14 August 2021, 04:08 pm

NASA wants to go back to the moon. And you probably already know this, otherwise, you wouldn't be on this site reading this article. Their next mission after Apollo is called Artemis, though it will be delayed a little bit due to several circumstances.

The NASA Artemis mission will cost an insane $86 billion in total through 2025, according toSpacePolicyOnline. But why spend that kind of money on a return trip when there are already other worlds within reach for manned missions: say, Mars? To answer that question, here are five great reasons why sending a new manned expedition back to the moon is a great idea.

(Photo : MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images)NASA and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronauts acknowledge the audience after their graduation ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas, on January 10, 2020. - The 13 astronauts, 11 from NASA and 2 from CSA, are the first candidates to graduate under the Artemis program and will become eligible for spaceflight, including assignments to the International Space Station, Artemis missions to the Moon, and ultimately, missions to Mars, according to NASA.

In an article onScienceFocus, astronaut commander Chris Hadfield shared his insight. According to him, a manned mission will be far better equipped than a remote-controlled, machine-based one because of humanity's inquisitive nature.

Considering the moon as a still unknown frontier, Hadfield likens exploring it to build a Antarctica weather station. All that the station can do is record the wind and temperature, but discovering the secrets beneath the ice can never be found by machines that lack inquisitiveness. Only humans have that quality. This means that the moon (or any other planetary body) would yield far more secrets and teach scientists way better than just letting robots run about there.

These secrets can then be used to inform future missions and improve them tenfold. Failing is a natural part of the exploration process, andthe NASA Artemis missionwon't be short of that. But these failures would make it so much easier to expand and improve space exploration technologies for the near future. This then leads to the next item on this list...

Read also:NASA Announces Official Name for Artemis I's Manekin: Commander Moonikin Campos

Going back to Chris Hadfield's reasoning, a new NASA moon mission will serve as a massive and easier-to-reach stepping stone. It's easier to reach because, well, the moon is much closer to Earth than Mars is. But if the grand plans of colonizing Mars are to come true, humanity must get even more familiar with the moon first.

This is what businessman Robet Bigelow believes, as written inSpace.com. His company Bigelow Aerospace aims to be among the first private companies to launch private space station modules into space. He says that it needs to start with the moon to get humanity even more prepared for potentially colonizing Mars.

(Photo : Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Bright and beautiful full moon illumination in the dark night sky the traditionally known Beaver Moon, as seen from Eindhoven, a city in mainland Europe. The Moon or Luna or Selene is an astronomical body, the natural satellite of Earth, orbiting around the planet. Eindhoven, Netherlands on November 30, 2020

NASA can use the moon to train astronauts for further manned missions. They could build forward bases, training grounds, and perhaps even a resupplying station that could make it easier to reach further into the stars. NASA could also use the moon to host experiments that will improve resource usage and cultivation.

While this sounds a little problematic, all you need to do is take a closer look to see that it isn't. Technically, there is no such thing as "polluting" the moon. How can you pollute something that is dead to begin with?

According toLeaps.org, the moon's relatively "dead" nature makes it a perfect location for building factories. There's no air, water, or fertile soil to pollute there. In the near future, once NASA has figured out how to establish a forward station on the moon, Earth could offload several of its factories there and ease the grit and grime that our planet has to deal with.

Related:NASA Moon Mission 2024 Planned Date Now Being Evaluated? Rumors Claim Spacesuit and Other Challenges Could Delay It

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Written by RJ Pierce

2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

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NASA Artemis Moon Mission: 3 Reasons Why We Should Go Back To The Moon - Tech Times

This article was originally published atThe Conversation.The publication contributed the article to Space.com'sExpert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

What do cyberspace and outer space have in common? As we make clear in a newreportto the Department of Defence, both are new frontiers for national security that blur traditional ideas about borders,sovereigntyand defense strategy.

These "areas" are important elements of Australia's critical infrastructure and are vital to our ability to defend our nation and keep it secure. They also have a "dual use" character: both areas (and often even individual pieces of equipment) are used for both military and civilian purposes.

Related: Why satellites need cybersecurity just like you

Sovereignty is a legal and political concept. It generally refers to the authority of a country (nation state) to exercise control over matters within its jurisdiction including by passing laws and enforcing them.

Historically, this jurisdiction was based primarily on geography. However, cyberspace and outer space are not limited by borders in the same way as territorial spaces.

Sovereignty also includes the power to give up certain sovereign rights, such as when countries agree to limit their own actions so as to cooperate internationally on human rights and national security.

Read more:Star laws: what happens if you commit a crime in space?

Cyberspace and outer space enhance our defence and national security capabilities, but our increasing dependence on continuous access to both also makes us vulnerable. These domains can be a source of unity and vision for humanity, but they can also be a source of tension and discord and could easily be misused in the conduct of war.

The world's dependence on the internet has outpaced efforts at effective cybersecurity. For every "solution," another threat arises. This can create serious vulnerabilities for defense and national security.

There is a general understanding thatinternational law applies to cyber activities. However, the details of preciselyhoware not agreed. The debate generally concerns what military cyber activities are "acceptable" or "peaceful," and which are prohibited or might be considered acts of war.

For example, during peacetime, international law is largely silent on espionage. Nation-states can generally engage in cyber espionage without clearly violating their legal obligations to other countries.

However, it can be hard to tell the difference between a simple espionage cyber operation (which might be permitted) and one carried out to prepare for a more disruptive operation (which might count as an "attack"). Both involve unauthorized access to computer systems and networks within another nation-state, but working out who is responsible for such intrusions and their intentions can be an imprecise art.

Different countries have suggested various approaches to the problem.FranceandIransay any unauthorized penetration of their cyber systems "automatically" constitutes a violation of sovereignty, irrespective of the reason.

Others, such as theUnited KingdomandNew Zealand, say a cyber operation must be sufficiently disruptive or destructive to count as a violation of sovereignty principles. These might seem like legal niceties, but they matter they can determine how the impacted country might retaliate.

Outer space is no less challenging. The "militarization" and possible "weaponization" of space represent a significant defense and national security challenge for all countries.

Outer space, like the high seas, is often seen as a global commons: it belongs to everyone and is governed by international law. A key tenet of international space law is that space may not be appropriated, which would prevent plans such ascolonizingthe Moon or Mars.

The1967 Outer Space Treaty, ratified by almost every spacefaring country, provides that the Moon and other celestial bodies are to be used "exclusively for peaceful purposes." It also forbids the placement of weapons of mass destruction in outer space and the militarisation of celestial bodies.

The treaty also imposes international responsibilities and liabilities on the countries themselves even for transgressions carried out by a private entity. Everything revolves around the imperative to promote responsible behavior in space and minimize the possibility of conflict.

Read more:Giant leap for corporations? The Trump administration wants to mine resources in space, but is it legal?

Initially, there were different views as to whether the peaceful use of space meant that only "non-military" rather than "non-aggressive" activities were permissible. However, the reality is that outer space has been and continues to be used for terrestrial military activities.

The 1991 Gulf War is often referred to as thefirst "space war." The use of satellite technology undeniably represents an integral part of modern military strategy and armed conflict for Australia and many other countries.

The situation is made more complex by the increasing interest in possible futuremining in spaceand the potential rise ofspace tourism. There is also no clear international agreement about where to draw the line between sovereign airspace and outer space, or about what (and whose)criminal law applies in space.

At present, some 70-80 countries have some degree of sovereign space capability, including an ability to independently launch or operate their own satellites.

On the other hand, this means nearly two-thirds of the world's countries do not have any national space capability. They are completely dependent on others for access to space infrastructure and to space itself. Their ability to enjoy the benefits of space technology for development and well-being relies on strategic and geopolitical networks and understandings.

Even Australia, which is a sophisticated space participant, currently has relatively limited sovereign capability for space launches, Earth observation, GPS and other critical space activities.

However, it is not economically feasible for Australia to be wholly independent in every aspect of space. For this reason, Australia's twin policy of ensuring access to space through strategic alliances with selected spacefaring nations, while also developing further sovereign space capability in specific areas, is essential to Australia's defense and national security interests.

Addressing the intersection between cyberspace and outer space is vital for Australia's defense and national security policies. Both civilian and military actors participate in these domains, and the range of possible activities is rapidly developing.

We will need to understand the increasingly close intersection between cyberspace and outer space technologies to be in the best possible position to develop effective and integrated defense and national security strategies to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.

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Cyberspace and outer space are new frontiers for national security, according to an expert report - Space.com

The production was shot on site in the countryside/woods before a live socially distanced audience whom we see at the start. Characters move from the house to its grounds. Those in attendance wear earphones. Sound (terrific storm!) lighting, and camera work are pristine. This is a streamed performance.

Were sometime in the future. Stella (Diana Oh) and Bryan (Gabriel Brown) live off the grid in a very small, wood and glass house (marvelous design.) They grow most of their own food and have disconnected from tech except for an electric car, phone, and radio. In fact, Bryan is an EA = Earth Advocate against tech, cloning, printed foodStella is adapting. Bryan is affectionate, verbal, and upbeat. Stella is finding her footing, wrestling with something in her past, she keeps to herself. Theyve known one another about a year and plan to marry.

Millions have died from climate change. Resources are vastly diminished. There are tsunamis. The planet is channeling financial resources, perhaps too late, into testing colonization of the moon and Mars. EAs are against this. Money should, they believe, be used to rescue what of our planet can be salvaged. There are demonstrations. The movement is shifting to small communities outside cities. Air is clean where the couple have settled. How long will it be before our reality (fully) resembles theirs?

Stellas younger sister, Cassie (Yeena Yi), a molecular botanist just returned from a year on the moon, is coming to visit. The young women are estranged, awkward. Cassie is surprised how much her sister has changed. It seems their father was an astronaut. Both were raised (and trained) with only that goal in mind. Stella had been a NASA architect in the astronaut training program (a revelation to Bryan), but left the organization under a cloud.

Cassie is skeptical of both her sisters fianc and the belief system by which she and Bryan live. There are discussions, arguments -some familiar; lines are drawn in the sand. Research is evident. Relationships feel authentic. The astronaut has been offered an enormous, life-changing job and is agonizing over whether to accept. Stella has yet to make peace with her own future. Weighing each others choices, both women are swayed. Stella thinks back on the taste of duty, adventure. Cassie recalls she never felt human on the moon. Fresh commitments must be made.

Playwright Amy Berryman offers a look at topical issues through unusual personal alternatives. Though set one step ahead in time,possibilities are relevant, balanced, and credible. Were concerned with humans here, not just politics. The play revs up too slowly which may be direction and is in itself, somewhat too long. Editing exposition would serve. It is however, well written, occasionally gripping, and uncomfortably apropos.

Director Mei Ann Teo gives us entirely natural characters, each with his own manner and tempo. Talk is attentive, incendiary disagreements well played and never over the top. Evolution of relationships is skillfully signaled.

Diana Ohs Stella is believably, frustratingly stolid until she erupts. Resolution is hard won. Yeena Yis Cassie is discernibly needy, seeming to regress beside her older sibling. Signs of the capable, focused scientist would make the character more as her life describes. Gabriel Brown seems organically warm, calm, supportive, secure in his life path. As if he walked off the street this way.

Henry David Thoreaus time in Walden Woods became a model of deliberate and ethical living. He said, With all your science can you tell how it is & whence it is, that light comes into the soul?

Photos by Christopher Coppezielloo

TheaterWorks Hartford presentsWalden by Amy BerrymanDirected by Mei Ann TeoFeaturing Diana Oh, Yeena Yi, Gabriel BrownSet -You-Shin ChenCostumes- Alice TavenerLighting- Jeanette O-Suk YewSound Hao BaiVideo- Miceli Productions

THROUGH AUGUST 29, 2021

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Walden Is Where You Find It - womanaroundtown.com

Make sure you dont have any major plans set for August 11 because, apparently, aliens are going to land on Earth and start an intergalactic war.

Those arent our words but the words of TikTok user @aesthetictimewarper, or Aery Yormany, who claims to be a time traveller from the year 2714. Yep... its one of those stories.

According to our intrepid traveller from the future, we have been told to look out for something amazing that is due to happen on 11th August as Earth passes through the Perseid meteor shower.

The time traveller writes: There will be a very large meteor shower that lasts for two weeks, it will be seen in the Northern hemisphere, containing the Nozic message.

There is no real explanation of what the Nozic message is but they add: One of the meteors will seem different than all the others, that is because it is a ship landing on Earth, starting preparations for the first Nozic War.

In another post, they claim that the so-called Nozic war will kick-off between the aliens and humanity in 2025 and good news; humanity wins but at a large cost. Still, with a four year headstart, we should be fine.

Also, the Perseid Shower isnt a rare phenomenon. It literally happens every August and is viewed by millions of astrologers around the world.

These fascinating glimpses into the future dont stop there either. The time traveller also predicts that the lost city of Atlantis will be discovered in 2022, the colonization of Mars will begin by 2028 and that people will start using Elon Musks Neuralink to extend the lifespan of their minds.

You have to say that peoples imagination really is quite something. Youd almost be willing to believe @aesthetictimerwarper until you realise they are spreading misinformation about the Covid vaccines on their account too.

Despite all this, the account has more than 625,000 followers and has amassed more than four million likes on TikTok. That being said the majority of people are very sceptical of the account and have asked things like: How about this guy shows us what he looks like? and Nothing hes said has come true. Tell us something legit. One person also asked why as a time traveller they would travel so far back into the past to just set up a TikTok account...

This is just another example of bogus TikTok accounts pretending to be time travellers or showing supposed evidence of time travel. Last week an account went viral after claiming it had found a homeless man who was building a time machine.

People often say dont believe everything you see on the internet and, unless humanity has made the first contact with an alien lifeforce by this time tomorrow, then you can scratch this one off too.

Update: August 11th has passed and there are no signs of any aliens landing on Earth. @aesthetictimewarper is yet to post another video about why nothing happened but the peak of the shower isnt until 12th August so who knows.

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Man claiming to be from 2714 said aliens would land on Earth on August 11th and start a war - indy100

If everything goes according to plan, and it probably wont, were looking at a 2050 timeline for the colonization of Mars. A lot of things could happen in three decades and a lot will, including inevitable aging so, to the aspiring astronauts of today, NASA has the second-best thing to living on Mars.

Wannabe astronauts can now apply for one of the four positions offered for live-in astronauts at the Mars habitat, known as the Mars Dune Alpha Habitat. The first one-year test mission kicks off in the fall of 2022, and applications are now open. Perhaps even better than getting to be part of history and working with NASA is the fact that NASA will be paying you to pretend you live on Mars.

Jokes aside, this is a serious program that will help research and develop new methods and tech for future problems human missions to Mars could encounter. This is a rigorous simulated mission, one that will try to anticipate issues associated with flying to and colonizing Mars, including but not limited to resource limitations, equipment failure, communication delays, other environmental stressors, spacewalks, scientific research, and virtual reality and robotic controls.All conditions applicable to astronaut applications still stand here: the ideal candidate must hold a masters degree in engineering, mathematics, biological, physical or computer science, or have a minimum experience of one thousand hours piloting an aircraft. The ideal candidate is 30 to 55 years old, lives in the United States, and is healthy, doesnt smoke and is proficient in English. If you meet this very strict set of criteria, Mars is calling!, as NASA puts it.

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NASA Will Pay You to Pretend You Live on Mars for a Full Year - autoevolution

With researchers and scientists creating breakthrough technologies and vehicles to access space, there has been a recent surge of advancement in the sector. The world is even ready for commercial and touristic flights to and from orbit. In addition to this, more work is being done to inspect the atmosphere of space so it can be used for settlements. Also, the plan of Elon Musk to colonize mars seems to be on track.

Amidst all these success stories, the fact often gets shadowed that it took a myriad of failures for the teams of researchers and scientists to be this successful. Every successful flight to space or even the smallest functionality in the project being right has an uncountable amount of effort and failures behind it.

Boeings CST-100 Starliner is considerably behind its schedule. On August 3, the spacecraft was supposed to depart for its first solo flight to space which was going to be uncrewed. However, just before 3 hours of the mission, it had to be called off due to a technical issue in the valves of the propulsion system.

It is being speculated that the vehicle has been destroyed in the rain while it was being transported. It was supposed to reach International Space Station and be back by now, but it seems that the problem is not getting fixed anytime soon. In fact, the spot it had is also in a vulnerable position and can be passed on to the next party.

Faulty software and hardware, along with the violations of safety have been associated with Boeing earlier as well. It is most likely that the company will not be able to deliver what it promised. However, it chooses to stay optimistic and expects the fix to be fast and in time. Nevertheless, missions of NASA and SpaceX are next and ready to soar.

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There Is A Big Problem With Boeings Starliner Aircraft - Wonderful Engineering

Elon Musk's SpaceX has apparently agreed to launch a satellite with its Falcon 9 rocket that would project ads in space. Even better, a "selfie stick" with a camera attached will livestream a feed so that you can watch it on YouTube or Twitch. I'm not entirely sure why anyone would tune in to YouTube purely to watch a livestream of space ads, but there are a lot of people with interesting content consumption habits, so hey, maybe they'll find a market.

If you're thinking this sounds rather absurd, I'm with you. The fact that the Canadian startup behind this, Geometric Energy Corporation, plans to eventually let anyone buy an ad, and eventually do so with Dogecoin, doesn't do a lot to make me feel like it's anything more than a publicity stunt.

Of course, I can't think of anyone that has mastered the modern publicity stunt better than Elon Musk. Which is why, despite the bizarre premise, it might also be brilliant. Hear me out.

While it might seem like SpaceX is only really providing a ride for the satellite, the company has already partnered with GEC in a venture meant to bring "Space Art" to the moon. First, however, it appears they plan to launch it into orbit. I don't know if the thing our solar system really needs is Space Art, but it's hard not to thinkit's probably inevitable.

The private space race has at least some degree of "we're doing this because we can." For now, that's true of sending rockets into space, and sending people into low orbit joyrides. Sure, someday the goal might be to send people back to the moon or to colonize Mars, but that's not happening yet. Besides, that's all fine, but not all that practical.

This, on the other hand, might actually be useful. Honestly, I can think of three reasons this is brilliant.

The first is that advertising is big money. Before you argue that the last thing we need is more ads, I don't disagree, but I'd just offer that the pursuit of where to put more ads isn't ending anytime soon. Companies, however, only have so much money to spend on ads. If they start spending them on ads in space, there's at least a chance we won't have to look at it here on earth.

Seriously, though, considering that advertisers don't blink at spending a few million dollars to run a 30-second or one minute spot at the Super Bowl, or to take over a digital billboard in Times Square, it isn't hard to believe there might be a market for a space billboard.

The second reason is that, even if the entire thing is a stunt, that's perfectly in character with Musk. Even if GEC never perfects the technology needed to instantly send large digital files over long distances, that's really not SpaceX's problem. It still gets the benefit of all the hype associated with launching a digital billboard into space. I don't think Musk has ever met a publicity stunt he didn't like, and this is right up his alley.

Finally, unlike billionaires with extra disposable income they're willing to set on fire in exchange for a ticket into low orbit, the rest of us are pretty much stuck here on earth. This might be the only opportunity the rest of us have to spend money we can't really afford on the experience of sending a little part of ourselves--albeit digitally--to space.

If naming a star after your first girlfriend, or proposing to her on the Jumbotron at a sporting event, isn't enough, now you can take out an ad on a satellite in orbit. It's hard to imagine a better way to impress, well, anyone.

Who wouldn't want to be the reason behind it all. Even more than that, doing things that no one else is doing is literally the driving purpose behind an entrepreneur. Even when the idea is bizarre, that doesn't automatically mean it's bad. Even if it seems a little far out there, that's fine--it is space, after all.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Of All the Bizarre Things Elon Musk Has Done, This Tops the List. It Also Might Just Be Brilliant - Inc.com

Science fiction (sci-fi) movies and books make a lot of predictions about the future, but not all of them were right in the 21st century.

The Covid-19 pandemic is still not over in some countries, and there is no magical pill to live an eternal life.

Here are nine things that were supposed to happen in our modern society based on science fiction predictions, but didn't:

1. Flying cars -This is a popular one to gripe about, a flying car is not happening yet as automobile companies are still struggling with self-driving cars. It's not that flying cars are technically impossible, but today's technology is still behind to create safe commercial flying cars.

2. The destruction of earth -We still live on earth, but countries need to pay more attention to global warming.

3. Artificial intelligence takeover - None of the existent robots and machines have risen up to overthrow the human race.

4. Magic pills replacing food- We still eat the same food, nothing has changed except people are more cautious about the planet and what they are eating.

5. Fighting aliens - While some movies do make an effort to be original, most of sci-fi is awfully locked on humanoid aliens, which we haven't met yet.

6. Living on another planet - We still live on earth despite Elon Musk's best efforts to colonize Mars in the future.

7. Laser beams - The military is vaporizing large chunks of buildings without the need of a laser beam.

8. Time travel -Traveling in time, especially to the past, is most likely impossible.

9. Teleportation - In reality, we can't pass particles of matter through most materialsbecause they interact too strongly with the atoms inside.

Sci-fi is supposed to explore all the possible consequences of scientific, social, and technological discoveries, innovations and inventions.

A good sci-fi work, novel, movies or TV series, should come with the most realistic vision for the future, among many possibilities, which is built on a deep knowledge of future science and emerging technologies.

In other words, to be a great sci-fi creator, you must be a visionary or a great researcher or inventor or technologist.

Or, you must be Nikola Tesla to predict smartphones 100 years before:

When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.

Many sci-fi predictions were inaccurate, but some have proven to be correct decades later such as space travel, earbuds, virtual calls, mobile phones, smart homes and military drones.

The rest is here:
Which Things Science Fiction Got Wrong About Today's Technology? - BBN Times