Category Archives: Moon Colonization

Halloween, it's one of the most popular holidays if not THE most popular one in our house. And yes, we start decorating after Labor Day. Every year, it seems that there are at least a few things that are super popular and timely for costumes. While I can barely remember why I walk into the kitchen, I can remember most of my Halloween costumes (at least my favorites) that I wore over the years.

Popsugar put together some of the most popular costumes year by year, starting in 1996. I thought it would be fun to take a nostalgic look at what was hot back in the day, and who knows, it may spawn a few ideas for you this year! I'm going to be honest with you, I am stuck on what to do this year.

The one thing pretty much every year has in common is that pop culture plays a massive role in what we want to do for Halloween.

Outside of the traditional witch, pirate, ghost, dinosaur (which is constantly in the top 3 or 4 EVERY year for us here in Colorado), whatever trend in pop culture, movie, show etc. has dictated the popularity of a costume for that particular year.

Let's take a look back now.

Colorado's Most Popular Halloween Costumes Over The Past 25 Years

12 Authentic Colorado Ghost Towns

8 Colorado Legends That Every Coloradan Should Know

More:
Colorado's Most Popular Halloween Costumes Over The Past 25 Years - New Country 99.1

Motherly @ Work features the stories and insights of modern women growing their careersand their families.

Jessica Birak is one of those mamas.

With three beautiful children under the age of five, Jessica is no stranger to hard work and multi-tasking. A strong advocate for extended breastfeeding, birth empowerment and baby wearing, she cares deeply about other mothers, and shares their unique stories through the custom jewelry she makes by hand.

I have the honour of hearing the stories behind the pieces I make. Stories of new life, milestones, celebrations, but also of grief and loss. I am so humbled to be making these special pieces. The most important thing that I have learned as the owner of Mint & Birch is not how to run a business or how to make pretty jewellery. But instead, it's shown me the importance of the people and relationships in our lives. I am in awe of the love that there is in the world." - Jessica Birak

Set to double revenue in this, their third year of business, Mint & Birch was born out of Jessica's generous spirit. What started as a way to hand-make gifts for her friends and family soon grew bigger. But even when the opportunity to outsource arose, she decided that this particular entrepreneurial endeavour deserved to be kept under her caring fingers, one necklace or bracelet at a time.

Now, making a six figure income for her family is a reality, but Jessica keeps her down-to-earth roots, hippie-esque outlook on life, and above all, a loving and kind spirit.

This is her story, in her words.

How did you start Mint & Birch?

Jessica Birak: I actually started making just the nest necklaces, and honestly it was a bit of an accident. I was making Mother's Day gifts, went to the craft store, and threw something together. Once I started giving them to friends and family, everyone wanted them. I loved making them and I loved the reaction that they got.

The eggs in the nest would often symbolize children - living or lost - and was a touching gift to give and receive.

Once you launched, how was your first line of products received?

Jessica Birak: People loved how unique they were. They loved giving them away as gifts. They were sentimental and unique and my launch was timed well so that a lot of people ordered them for Christmas. I had a huge influx of orders as gifts for moms, aunts and grandmothers. The timing was really great because it catapulted me to success early.

How did you expand your product line?

Jessica Birak: Next I launched a line of brass bar necklaces. Stamping custom phrases into metal isn't exactly easy - it's definitely a technical skillso I wanted a material that wasn't expensive if I made lots of mistakes. We also weren't in the financial place to invest in gold or the equipment needed to cut it. Brass was affordable, and a low risk investment.

Once I got good at stamping, I decided to add some more luxurious items to my shop, so my bar necklaces are now available in gold-fill, and I actually cut every single blank out of big sheets of gold by hand. The sheets are thicker than average to create a real luxury and quality feel and finish.

What is most important to you as a designer when you decide how to expand your product line?

Jessica Birak: Above all, the pieces need to be versatile. It takes an immense amount of time and energy to design a new product, so I always want to make something that appeals to all different types of people: those who like really simple products and also those who are looking for something more ornate. It's tricky to come up with designs that everyone will like - sometimes people don't like them!

But honestly, a lot of times I make what I personally would want to wear. People buy my jewelry because they like my brand and the general feel of our company. I feel that if I put myself into what I make, that I'll naturally attract customers who are drawn to what I want to achieve. It's authentic.

Are you led by what your customers are asking for, or by your own creativity?

Jessica Birak: A bit of both. I'm really drawn to trees and nature; I'm a bit of a crunchy mom. One of my dreams is to give birth outside, under the stars, so I like that aesthetic and I recently worked that into my pieces by offering custom stamped moon phases that match important dates.

Why is expanding your product line important to your business?

Jessica Birak: Jewelry is an intensely competitive arena. It's everywhere and there are LOTS of designers. You need to keep things fresh and constantly evolve. Styles change and trends come and go and if you keep your momentum going with new offerings then it definitely gives you that edge.

Especially now with all the changes Facebook and Instagram have made, you are really looking for those comments and likes. I feel like the only way to do that organically is to keep expanding, keep people on their toes, and give them a reason to follow you.

Is there a difference between having a product and having a brand?

Jessica Birak: Definitely. I started out as a hobby-type shop on Facebook. I didn't have a website, an email, or any branding at all. I think the worst part of that is that I wasn't giving a consistent message to my customers and my followers. I feel like a brand is something that tells a story. It's consistent, coherent, has a mission, is captivating, and it it draws customers in to wonder, What's behind the brand?"

Anybody can make anything and sell it at farmer's markets right? Building a brand takes much more work.

Why do you still make everything by hand?

Jessica Birak: *Laughs* I get this question a lot. My annual revenue isn't as high as other shops. Last year we grossed $65,000. And this year we will definitely double that number. but by making things myself I definitely limit the brand's ability to grow indefinitely.

But part of why my brand is so unique, and why people buy from me, is that they know everything is made by hand. By my hands.

Making custom jewelry isn't easy. It takes a lot of practice and precision to stamp everything perfectly. I'm in such a rhythm now; I can't imagine anyone else doing it. I can honestly make them better with my eyes closed.

I guess the truth is that I'm kind of a control freak. But I really love doing it, and I don't want to give it up. I'm actually trying to find a way to slow down our growth. Sometimes it's about lifestyle and happiness above money. Quality over quantity.

Everything is made one by one. It's easy for people to see my prices and think, I can get a bar necklace cheaper elsewhere!" I can't judge what other shops do, but I can say I stand behind our pieces 100%. I test out the materials rigorously - with my kids, out and about, I immerse them in water and all sorts of rough stuff - to make the highest quality jewelry. I'm really proud of every piece I send out.

How does being a mother affect the way you run your business?

Jessica Birak: I treat my business like a baby. I follow my gut instincts like I follow my mama bear instincts with my babies. I think I've learned that there isn't always a one-size-fits-all solution.

And my kids will always come first. Because the needs of my children are always changing, my business will always be adapting. Being a mother has actually helped me in my business; I know how to multi-task, how to adapt, and how to be flexible.

Is there any advice you'd give to aspiring lady bosses?

Jessica Birak: Always remember what drove you to become so passionate about your businesses. For me, it was to tell special stories - and that's something I strive to always keep in mind. It's an honour to be trusted with the innermost feelings of my customers - with the things that are most important to them. That will help you not get caught up in the numbers or the drama.

Make success follow you - don't chase it.

What does Motherly" mean to you?

Jessica Birak: It means to nourish and to give life to something. To be a mother means to accept and honour the uniqueness of each person and each child. I feel like this world can be exhausting.

We're expected to behave a certain way, have certain things, look a certain way, accomplish certain things, and this pressure starts when you're born. As women we're expected to bounce back" after having kids, and kids are expected to act as adults.

Haley Campbell is the founder of Beluga Baby, and a regular contributor to Motherly. She is is an avid advocate for entrepreneurs, and for the new generation of mothers making the world their own.

The rest is here:
Love manifestedhow one mama is telling stories through jewelry and raising babies - Motherly Inc.

My daughter was born in mid-June and my life has been filled with an indescribable joy since she came along.

After many discussions and a lot of planning with my husband, I began to carve out my identity as a homemaker a few months ago: I left a job I held for six years both because my position was being eliminated from my department and because it seemed like a good time to transition into motherhood.

My husband owns a small business and has been growing his company, which is based out of our home. This makes for a wonderful, family-centered lifestyle, which we love.

Interestingly, I have felt pressure from a few people I know regarding my choice to be a homemaker and to raise my baby without daily childcare in her early years.

They have subtly suggested that Im selling myself short by not prioritizing my career, and that Im naively letting my husband pursue his career dreams while putting mine on hold.

I dislike these comments because I have chosenwith great self-awareness and robust, loving support from my husbandto prioritize raising our daughter, cooking meals for my family, gardening outside, caring for our pets and cleaning our house. Writing and teaching yoga part-time are passions of mine, which I plan to continue weaving into my schedule.

I absolutely love doing these things because I feel like Im building our home and nurturing my family. This feeling is so satisfying to me.

I think that is the key: I feel deep satisfaction in my choice to make home full time. If another woman feels deep satisfaction going to work every day that is equally valuable and worthwhile. But, in our quest for a just and equal world where women and men have equal opportunities, it doesnt seem right that some people chastise women who choose home life over the office.

In fact, to suggest that women should do anything other than what they feel is right for them and their families is anti-feminist, in my opinion. My definition of feminism is a woman doing for herself what brings her joy, and makes her feel confident and respected as an individual.

To be fair, there are plenty of women in my life who are happy for me and encouraging my choices. But I feel like the culture of ambition and cut-throat career success that so many of us millennials have been raised to espouseand which I, too, pursued and enjoyed for many yearsis portrayed as the only path to happiness.

Some women with an academic profile similar to minean Ivy League education and a prestigious careerare putting down my choice to be a homemaker and suggesting that if youre a strong woman than you must go back to work and not change or let go of climbing the career ladder.

But I dont believe in living my life like a ladder. Life means more to me than simply having name recognition or fame or widespread success. In fact, Im OK without having any of those things.

This realization has become even more evident to me as I get older and move farther away from the competitive what-college-are-you-going-to-and-what-did-you-get-on-your-SAT? mindset.

I feel more grounded and satisfied doing things that go unrecognized yet feel incredibly rewardingsuch as community service, teaching, caring for people in nursing homes and nurturing my family.

At a time in history when digital technology seems to revolve around the infamous selfie and constantly putting ourselves on display, Im happy to find deep contentment in ordinary, everyday living that is often anonymous.

Now that my daughter has been born, I feel contentment in quiet moments together with her that I know will fade over several lifetimes and which will not be written into history books Precious moments between us that do not requireand in fact would be hindered byan audience.

In such intimacy, love is the only truth and therefore becomes the overwhelming reality.

Nothing else matters.

My body swells with love, electricity and milk when I pick my daughter up from her nap. Shes ready to feed, her dark blue eyes blinking open and focusing on mine like large blueberries in a full moon. Her chubby cheeks swell and her mouth opens in a big, happy, gummy smile.

Then her lips draw into tight little button shape that I call her owl face and she poops in her diaper.

Whoooo, Whoooo, I coo to her.

I kiss the top of her head, and feel her soft black hair with my cheek.

I brush my nose lightly against her powdery-sweet forehead and kiss her temples.

I savor the way it feels when she restscompletely trusting meon my heart and turns her head so that one sleeping cheek rests against my sternum.

My belly is soft, receiving her presence, receiving her trust and shining my love back into her. Our hearts beat gently together.

For every womanfor every personmaking a home, caring for a family and building a career are unique experiences.

I know that often, it is not always financially possible for one partner to stay at home.

I support all women, men, families and caregivers making choices that suit their circumstances. But I think its important that women knowand are even willing to fight and make sacrifices forthe choice to raise a family in place of a making a name for oneself. We had to make adjustments to our budget and lifestyle so that I could be at home.

I know that for me, being at home right now is what feels right. I am happy, my husband is happy, and our daughter is growing healthy and strong.

Thats my kind of feminism.

See the article here:
For me, feminism means the freedom to be a stay-at-home mom - Motherly Inc.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed that his firm might be ready to fly to the Moon in the next three years.

Musk responded to a question about the timeframe on Twitter on Saturday, saying that SpaceX's lunar lander will be ready for its moon trip "probably sooner" than 2024.

In April, SpaceX won NASA's lunar lander contract, beating over Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Dynetics, a division of Leidos.

Artemis, a NASA program, will launch humans, including women, to the Moon in 2024. If Musk's long-term goals are achieved, SpaceX will build a reusable lander called Starship to ultimately transport humans to Mars.

In response, Elon Musk was contacted by Twitter user Everything Artemis (@artemis360_moon). This unofficial account follows news about the Artemis Program.

Everything Artemis noted that NASA began its SpaceX Lunar Lander Payments and hoped SpaceX would work quickly. Hence, the netizen asked Elon Musk if he is already preparing the Lunar Starship for its mission this 2024. Elon Musk said: "Probably sooner."

ALSO READ:Elon Musk's SpaceX Orbital Stack to Roll Its 1st Orbital Test Flight 'In a Few Weeks'

The SpaceX HLS idea is a modified version of the Starship, developed at SpaceX's launch site in Boca Chica (together with the Super Heavy rocket). According to the newest mockup and earlier remarks by Musk, the HLS Starship will have a larger cargo capacity since it will not require heat shields, flaps, or huge gas thruster packs.

NASA is currentlyattempting to go backto the Moon by 2024. They'd had to rush things, reprioritize some mission aspects, and rely on contractors (namely SpaceX) to help fill in the gaps. They've teamed up with the ESA and other space organizations to see this through. In contrast, Russia and Chinahave teamed upto establish a rival lunar exploration and colonization program.

(Photo: Getty Images)BOCA CHICA, TX - SEPTEMBER 28: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk updates the next-generation Starship spacecraft at the company's Texas launch facility on September 28, 2019, in Boca Chica near Brownsville Texas. (Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Images)

Blue Origincontested SpaceX's victoryandsued NASA, whileDyneticsobjected to the space agency's verdict. At the end of July,GAOdismissed the protests. On July 30, the day the Blue Origin and Dynetics objections were denied,Tesmaniansaid NASA paid SpaceX $300 million of the entire $3 billion contract allocation.

Universe Todaysaid Musk offered SpaceX's assistance here, stating that they could get this other critical mission component ready sooner. Of course, there are the well-publicized delays that have dogged the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion capsule from the start. As a result, it's been suggested that NASA contract out the responsibility of returning the Artemis crew using the Starship and Super Heavy.

Although no launch date has been established, SpaceX is preparing for Starship to make its first orbital journey worldwide. The ship has been placed through its paces, with remarkable results, but a few early prototypes have blown up.

The Starship and its booster rocket areover 400 feet tallif assembled. If you add the pedestal, the Statue of Liberty rises nearly 300 feet tall.

RELATED ARTICLE: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin vs. Elon Musk's SpaceX: Who Won the Space Race?

Check out more news and information on SpaceX in Science Times.

More here:
Elon Musk Really Thinks That SpaceX Can Send Humans to the Moon 'Sooner' Than 2024 - Science Times

Guns Germs and Steel was first published in 1997 and received the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction the following year. Reading this book has been an incredible experience. Each time I put the book down for the day I had to gasp for air because I had been totally immersed, rather like deep sea diving and looking at the world in a new dimension.

The depth and breadth of the knowledge that Diamond has passed on is vast, and the questions that he has raised remain a challenge. One does not have to agree with his opinions but the book serves to activate the mind in a hitherto unknown manner.

Jared Diamond is one of the US's most celebrated scholars. A Professor of Geography and Physiology at the University of California, he is equally renowned for his work in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology and for his ground breaking studies of the birds of Papua New Guinea. Other than the Pulitzer, his prizes and honours include the U.S National Medal of Science, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Science, and election to the U.S National Academy of Sciences etc. As a biological explorer his most publicized finding was the rediscovery, on the New Guinea highlands, of the Golden Fronted Bower Bird which had not been seen for almost a century.

Guns, Germs and Steel starts around 11000 BC and is divided into four parts, within which, each chapter covers different issues. To summarize the book, if at all possible, the author states that he was inspired by a question from Yali a local politician in New Guinea who asked him, "Why is that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea when we black people had little cargo of our own?"

Throughout the book, Diamond seeks an answer to that query but not from a racist point of view. He is an American and his constitutional belief that 'all men are created equal' forms the premise of his research.

Using the equality of man as his cornerstone, he examines in great detail the growth of certain ancient human settlements in the world and the reason why some of them achieved the basics of food production earlier than others. Food production and food surplus being the basic requirement for humans to move upwards into the next stage of development. Diamond, however, does not make any references to the Indus Valley civilization, and when writing about linguistic development, fails to mention the Indo Aryan group of languages. His emphasis in on the parts of the world that he is familiar with, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, North and South America and Europe and Africa with most of his focus on the America's and Australia/ New Guinea.

Diamond compares world history to an onion, "One has to keep taking off the layers. History is not just one damned fact after another. There really are broad patterns to history and the search for their explanation is as productive as it is fascinating."

Diamond commences by giving an analysis of the world prior to 11000 BC. He proceeds to write about the effect of geography on shaping societies on Polynesian Islands, with human movement from the mainland to Islands, across the seas, in ancient times being his prime focus. Continuing with migration, he covers the defeat of the Inca Emperor by the Spanish. The result of the victory, was the subsequent colonization of the New World by Europeans, the resultant disappearance of most groups of Native Americans and the biggest population shift of modern times.

The second section talks about the rise of food production and how farmer power forms the root of Guns, Germs and Steel. He puts forward his theory that geographic differences provided the greatest advantage in the onset of food production and the major reason why people from certain areas flourished over others. His views are especially important in the context of geographic changes that are likely to be caused by climate change.

Diamond goes from food to guns germs and steel in the third section in which he covers the evolution of germs, writing, technology, government and organized religion.

His views on the evolution of germs and the connection to domesticated animals is of particular importance in the present pandemic as he states that given human proximity to the animals that are kept as pets and those that have been domesticated, the human body is getting constantly bombarded by their microbes. He cites four stages in the evolution of a specialized human disease from an animal precursor with the first being the diseases directly transmitted to us from our pets and domestic animals. Examples of such diseases are cat scratch fever from our cats and leptospirosis from dogs. Human beings are similarly liable to pick up diseases from wild animals such as the tularemia from skinning wild rabbits.

In the second stage, a former animal pathogen evolves to the point where it does get transmitted directly and causes epidemics. However, the epidemic dies out for any of several reasons, such as being cured by modern medicine, or being stopped when everybody around has already been infected and either becomes immune or dies. He gives the example of Onyong-nyong fever which appeared in East Africa in 1959 and proceeded to infect several million Africans. The fact that the patients recovered quickly and became immune to further attack helped the new disease to die out quickly.

Interestingly, Diamond refrains from mentioning Spanish flu although it killed millions all over the world. The final stage of this evolution of germs is represented by the major long established epidemic diseases which remain confined to humans.

He emphasizes the importance of lethal microbes in human history and uses the European conquest and depopulation of the America's as an example. "Far more Native Americans died in bed from Eurasian germs than on the battlefield from European guns and swords." Small pox, measles influenza and typhus competed for the top rank among the killers. The Aborigines of Australia and the Maori population of New Zealand faced similar extinction.

The book ends with a whirlwind tour of the histories of Australia and New Guinea, East Asia, Austronesian expansion, a historical comparison of Eurasia and the Americas, and Africa.

A singularly fascinating in Guns Germs and Steel is the detailed description of the defeat of the Inca Emperor on the 16th of November 1532 on his home turf in Peru, by the Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro with only 168 Spanish soldiers. Diamond traces the chain of causation in this confrontation and the role played by guns, germs and steel.

Pizarro's military advantage lay in the Spaniards steel swords and other weapons, steel armor, guns and horses. In comparison, Atahualpa's troops were foot soldiers and had only stone, bronze or wooden clubs, hand axes, plus slingshots and quilted armors.

The Inca Empire was divided because of a battle between Atahualpa and his half-brother. The reason for this civil war was that an epidemic of small pox had spread among native South American Indians, after the germ arrived with Spanish Settlers in Panama and Colombia. The disease had killed the Inca Emperor Capac, his designated heir and most of the court officials. These deaths led to a contest for the throne between Atahualpa and his half-brother with the latter gaining ascendancy of the throne but not having the necessary training for the position.

Diamond concludes by making a passionate plea for history to be treated as a science in much the same way as Political Science and Economics and recommends a Nobel Prize be established for history.

At times, Diamond meanders, in other instances he places too much information for the reader to digest but it is an incredible journey that he takes us on. The book is as meaningful as it was when first published and perhaps in the context of the present human versus virus encounter even more so.

Shireen S. Mainuddin is a former banker and a member of The Reading Circle.

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On Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel - The Daily Star

There's been a lot of finger pointing and head shaking over the past week as Afghanistan rolled over for the Taliban in record time.

Of course, most of us had the luxury of sitting at a distance and marvelling as the chaos unfolded, second-guessing and bemoaning all the blunders of the last 20 years that brought us to this point.

And that's going to go on for a while as political pundits and politicians (many of which bear at least some responsibility for this disastrous undertaking) feign outrage and indignation for new infotainment.

Not me though.

I don't need to sit here and whine and scold and condemn.

We all know what happened. We all saw it in real time.

So what I want to do is look forward.

No lamentation of the massive failure that was Afghanistan is going to change anything.

And it surely won't make you any money.

Looking ahead toward the technologies that will revolutionize combat in the decades ahead, though?

That could be profitable indeed.

For example, way back in 2018, I wrote an article about military robotics drones.

I even offered a special report on the three best drone stocks to buy. And one of those stocks, Kratos Defense and Security Solutions (NASDAQ: KTOS), surged for a 115% gain.

A year later, when everyone else was making fun of the newly announced Space Force, I once again seized the opportunity to profit.

I found a rocket-maker, recommended it, and watched it jump 40% when it was bought out just like I said it would be.

No doubt, following the Pentagon and its enormous budget is a great way to find potential profit plays.

And that's why, when everyone else was watching the Kabul collapse, I zeroed in on another story.

It seems the Department of Defense is looking for ways to use commercial rockets to rapidly transport cargo and potentially troops across the globe.

Indeed, it turns out rocket trips aren't just for billionaires and wealthy thrill-seekers.

So join Outsider Club today for FREE. You'll learn how to take control of your finances, manage your own investments, and beat "the system" on your own terms. Become a member today, and get our latest free report: "5 Defense Contractors Crushing the Market."

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And this is something I noted previously, when the Space Force was first established.

The list of its potential responsibilities included the following:

Well, now the Air Force Research Laboratory has designated its new Rocket Cargo effort a Vanguard program, making it a top science and technology priority.

Logistics speed is at the heart of military supremacy, the AFRL said. If a commercial company is in advanced development for a new capability to move material faster, then DoD needs to promptly engage and seek to be early adopters.

The latter part of that statement means the Space Force is looking to partner with commercial space companies. And AFRL Commander Major General Heather Pringle told reporters that the main goal is to deliver up to 100 tons of supplies and equipment anywhere on the planet within tactical timelines.

So the military clearly envisions procuring this capability as a service rather than buying or building its own rockets.

And as it happens I just recommended a new space stock (another rocket company) that has already signed several deals with the U.S. Space Force.

It's even set to put a small Space Force satellite into orbit this week as part of a capabilities demonstration.

If all goes well this company, which just listed on the NASDAQ in July will have a long and profitable partnership with America's newest military branch.

So I once again encourage you to check out my latest report here.

Fight on,

Jason Simpkins

@OCSimpkins on Twitter

Jason Simpkins is Assistant Managing Editor of the Outsider Club and Investment Director of Wall Street's Proving Ground, a financial advisory focused on security companies and defense contractors. For more on Jason, check out his editor's page.

*Follow Outsider Club on Facebook and Twitter.

So, join Outsider Club today for FREE! You'll learn how to take control of your finances, manage your own investments, and beat "the system" on your own terms. Become a member today, and get our latest FREE report: "Three Big Profit Opportunities in Solar"!

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Let's Put the Kabul Collapse Behind Us and Look to a Profitable Future - Outsider Club

On an isolated archipelago off the coast of Georgia, where the vestiges of Americas Gilded Age aristocracy keep sprawling estates in tropical wilds, a controversy is roiling over a proposed spaceport.

On one side of the fight are the commissioners of Camden County, Ga., who have put nine years and close to 10 million taxpayer dollars toward the construction of a rocket launch facility on the mainland that they say will bring jobs, tourism and cachet to the area of about 55,000 people.

On the other are residents of the nearby barrier islands and coastline who fear falling debris, toxic plumes and catastrophic fire.

The heirs to the Coca-Cola fortune have homes on one of these islands, as do descendants of the Carnegies and other families known for generational wealth, so its easy for the spaceports most ardent champions to paint opposition to it as elitist.

But the fears arent based on nothing: Last September, one of the same class of rockets for which Camden County is tailoring its application tumbled from the sky in flaming pieces, igniting fires on public land near its launch site on Kodiak Island in Alaska. In 2014, a different type of rocket, launched from Wallops Island, Va., flew for six seconds before it fell to the ground and exploded, burning 15 acres and blowing windows and doors off buildings over a mile away.

And at Space Xs launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, there have been multiple massive explosions, which the company has referred to in public statements as awesome. One 2019 mishap the official term for when a rocket fails to launch, veers off course or explodes and comes crashing back to Earth caused a fire that consumed some 130 acres of a nearby state park before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was notified of the blaze.

The two barrier islands in the rockets proposed flight path, Cumberland Island and Little Cumberland, are federally protected sanctuaries where endangered sea turtles nest, horses run wild, and some of the worlds fewer than 400 remaining North Atlantic right whales calve off the coast.

The islands are also home to dozens of historical sites, including settlements established by formerly enslaved families and Grey Gardens-style crumbling estates. John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette were married here at the First African Baptist Church, a one-room chapel built of heart pine, in a secret ceremony in 1996.

The biggest controversy, however, is that the proposed rocket trajectory would come very close to peoples homes, blasting over populated areas only five miles downrange a situation that would be without precedent in U.S. history, according to a 2019 Federal Aviation Administration memo.

The National Park Service and Department of the Interior have recently questioned the safety of the plan. A diverse group of critics, including fishermen and shrimpers, sea turtle researchers, island residents, and the chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee nation have pushed to halt it entirely.

A spokesman for the F.A.A., which regulates the commercial space industry and is charged with supporting and promoting its growth, said in a statement to The New York Times: Every proposed launch site presents unique circumstances. The agencys decision about whether the site is appropriate for rocket launches is expected in September.

Increasingly, private companies with money to burn including Jeff Bezoss Blue Origin and Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic are spending billions to launch rockets and C.E.O.s toward the cosmos.

Businesses are springing up to support those goals, in addition to loftier aims including moon tourism and Mars colonization. But there is already plenty of money to be made in less speculative space pursuits.

Peter Beck, the chief executive of Rocket Lab in New Zealand, builds and launches spacecraft that carry GPS and radar satellites into orbit. So far, his company makes one of the only small-grade orbital launch vehicles in operation, but its only a matter of time until other companies crack the code. The race is part of what Mr. Beck calls a gold rush moment.

Space is incredibly integrated into our everyday lives, he said. If you turn off GPS, then all the ships and planes go around in circles, Seamless never turns up, even Tinder doesnt work. All of that is coming from space.

The space industry is expected to reach $1 trillion or more in value by 2040, according to a report by Morgan Stanley. Satellites are a huge part of that. According to Mr. Beck, over 100 other companies are working to design and launch the kind of small-satellite-carrying rockets (about the size of a semi-truck trailer) that his company makes.

There are currently 12 spaceports in the United States where companies can launch this type of rocket, and most are federally subsidized. But as of June 2020, another dozen spaceports were in the works.

Steve Howard, the Camden County administrator, has spent a decade preparing for this moment.

Mr. Howard, 49, envisions a future where astronauts make classroom visits, local students graduate into aeronautics jobs and high school robotics clubs are funded by rocket manufacturers. This part of the Georgia Coast could come to be known as Silicon Marsh, he said part of a space corridor of innovation that could extend from Cape Canaveral to South Carolina.

This area was a mill town. That mills gone now, Mr. Howard said of the county. Its largest employer is the Kings Bay naval submarine base. Weve got to make sure we have economic diversity, he said. What can we do to build for the future?

Supporters, including retired military generals, Cape Canaveral commanders and the Georgia Hunting and Fishing Federation, feel the spaceport is the countys best hope.

But critics hate the open-endedness of Mr. Howards proposal: The county wants to use the site of a former chemical plant for the port, without knowing what company may lease the space or further develop it. This makes it hard for a community to know just what they are signing up for.

There is some historical precedent. In 1965, NASA contracted the Thiokol Chemical company to test solid-propellant rocket engines designed for the Moon mission. Testing took place at a plant in Camden County. Also, at one point, Cumberland Island was a front-runner in NASAs search for a site for the Kennedy Space Center. (Cape Canaveral won.)

But that legacy includes tragedy. In 1971, an explosion at the plant killed more than two dozen people, two-thirds of whom were, as The Atlanta Constitution reported during the personal injury hearings in 1984, poor Black women from rural Camden County who earned slightly more than the then-minimum wage of $1.60 an hour.

Bought and then abandoned by another chemical company, the site has been contaminated with toxic waste and unexploded ordnance for decades. The spaceport proposal calls for much of that to be cleared away without explaining how.

Life magazine declared us the gateway to space in the 60s, Mr. Howard said. This is an opportunity to make history again.

The largest and southernmost of Georgias 14 barrier islands, Cumberland is more than double the size of Manhattan, covered in saw-toothed palmetto and live oak, ringed with white sand and marsh, and home to wild boar, deer, alligators, armadillos and over 300 species of breeding or migrating bird. Only 300 visitors are permitted per day.

Those staying at the islands lone hotel, the Greyfield Inn, where rooms start at $855 per night, arrive via private ferry from Amelia Island, just south of the Florida-Georgia border. (Campers can take the National Park Service ferry from St. Marys, Ga.) The 15-bedroom Colonial Revival manor was built in 1901, a gift from Thomas and Lucy Carnegie to their daughter Margaret Ricketson, whose own daughter Lucy Ferguson first opened the home to paying guests in the early 1960s.

The white house with its wide porch is still furnished with the Carnegies velvet couches and dusty books; there is no Wi-Fi or television. The living room window sills are lined with animal skulls and crystals, and the walls are hung with Carnegie portraits, including a painting of Lucy seated upon a buckskin, wearing a red head scarf and sheathed knife. (Not pictured: her pet buzzard.)

Lucys granddaughter Janet Ferguson, known as Gogo, lives part-time just beyond the bicycle barn of the Greyfield compound, in a house with an art studio where she makes and sells jewelry and tableware cast from locally scavenged armadillo scales, boar tusks and jacaranda seed pods. (One of her brothers, Mitty Ferguson, runs the inn with his wife, Mary.)

Ive spent my entire life on the island seven generations of my family lived here, Ms. Ferguson, 70, said over the phone.

She was here 25 years ago for the Kennedy-Bessette wedding. (It was Ms. Ferguson who molded their wedding bands from the ribs of a rattlesnake.) And her family remembers 25 years before that when the Thiokol-Woodbine explosion on the mainland shook the island, rattling the inns windows.

Ms. Ferguson is one of the islands few private stewards. In the early 1970s, the Carnegies sold or deeded most of the island to the federal government, so the National Park Service could preserve the wild coastal forest as a national seashore.

Since 2015, the National Park Service has been sending anxious letters to the F.A.A. about the spaceports environmental impact. After the 2020 presidential election, those letters have become more strongly worded but the F.A.A. still has the final say.

We never wouldve entrusted the island to the government or anyone knowing that a space launch site would be in our future, Ms. Ferguson said.

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It was to be protected in perpetuity, for the wilderness experience and the enjoyment of the public, she said. It feels like this is really going to alter that.

If the spaceport moves forward, the part of Cumberland Island most affected will be the islands least populous north end, 12 miles north of the Greyfield. It can be reached by appealing to one of the few people on the island with a permit to operate a motor vehicle and then riding up on a bumpy sand road (slowed by the occasional alligator sighting). Or hiking.

By either of these methods, youll reach the homestead of Carol Ruckdeschel, a 79-year-old self-taught biologist and the founder of Wild Cumberland, a conservation nonprofit. She moved to the island in the employ of a wealthy family in the 1970s and has lived in this loamy wilderness in a rustic, hand-hewn building next to the First African Baptist Church, for the most part alone, ever since. A 1973 New Yorker profile by John McPhee referred to her as the wild woman of Georgia.

Do me a favor. Dont call it pristine, she said of Cumberland Island. Beyond its postcard-perfect scenery, she sees the roads, limited beach traffic and other land management strategies in conflict with the wilderness.

In a brimmed hat over gray pigtails, with a compass in her pack, Ms. Ruckdeschel trekked to the islands northernmost beach and pointed out the oyster-lined marsh of Christmas Creek, a brackish waterway that separates the land she lives on from Little Cumberland.

Overhead is the proposed rocket flight path. The straight-east trajectory goes right over my house, Ms. Ruckdeschel said, pointing up at the invisible arc a rocket would take across the sky.

Typically, any land or marine space in the flight path of a rocket would be off-limits to humans for hours before tests or launches. But in Georgia a constitutional amendment was passed in 2006 that precludes removing citizens from their land if commercial gain is involved.

Camden County officials have proposed some creative alternatives, including monitoring island occupation by heat-seeking drone, or instituting a first-of-its-kind authorized persons status that would allow locals to stay put during launches if they register at various established checkpoints.

Should residents wish to relocate on a launch day, the latest application materials read, county personnel would need to escort them, or offer appropriate temporary accommodations, along with V.I.P. viewing passes for the hassle.

This is little comfort to landowners. Jennifer Candler, 57, who has a small apiary on her familys estate near Ms. Ruckdeschels homestead, said that to her knowledge, no county official has reached out to anyone in her family to discuss drones, evacuations or checkpoints.

I understand Camden County officials goals for this revenue stream jobs, tourism, for a generation growing up with a spaceport in their backyards and the inspiration that could provide for them for a career in science or as an astronaut, she said. But then I look at the other spaceports around the country and none of them have people right in their launch trajectory.

For Richard Parker, a 64-year-old journalist with a home on Little Cumberland, the possible repercussions could be apocalyptic.

This is not a place where fire is a natural part of things, he said. Palmettos burn hot and fast. These live oaks are hundreds of years old.

The fire preparedness plan that Camden County submitted seems unworkable to him. The homes on Little Cumberland are not mansions but well-worn beach houses some kit ranchers from the 60s, others modest stilted homes finished in weather-faded wood. Residents here made their own agreement with the Department of the Interior in the 1970s to fold the island into the national seashore while continuing to own it privately, adhering to rigorous conservation principles.

On the more rustic and more remote Little Cumberland, the tap water smells like sulfur, the power goes out often, and the sand dunes have grown so high over the years that they obscure some homes second-story windows. Municipal and county services are nonexistent.

If a patch of the island goes up in flames, the call made is not to a fire department, but to a phone tree of neighbors. Wooden trunks, set out along the islands few sand lanes, contain tools for wildland firefighting: rakes, pickaxes, backpacks that can be filled with water, and fire extinguishers.

The Spaceport Camden team maintains that mishaps are highly unlikely, and the chance of debris landing on Little Cumberland are extremely remote. But on the off-chance of fire, the suggested emergency preparedness plan involves marine landing craft with firefighters and rescue A.T.V.s.

That plan apparently has made certain assumptions from looking at satellite images taken at low tide, Mr. Parker wrote to the F.A.A. An actual visit to the island, he wrote, would have revealed 30-foot dunes across the entire north point of Little Cumberland preventing A.T.V. access to the interior, and no water or air evacuation possibilities.

The wooden trunks have been successfully used by residents to put out small blazes, Mr. Parker noted, but trying to imagine them as recourse against flaming fuselage, he just shook his head.

There have been two plane crashes here, said his neighbor Rebecca Lang, a 44-year-old chef and cookbook author, whose father bought a two-acre plot on the island for less than $8,000 in 1969.

One hit a house and burned it down, she said. So its not like were making this stuff up. (That was in the late 1980s, and the house belonged to the parents of Rob Portman, the senator from Ohio.)

Were normal people, and we knew nothing about space four years ago, said Shelley Renner, another landowner on Little Cumberland who is also a board member of 100 Miles, a coastal conservation group.

Ms. Renner has worked with Mr. Parker, Ms. Lang and other neighbors to develop a baseline understanding of F.A.A. evaluation processes, rocket failure probability rates, casualty areas, overflight exclusion zones and debris dispersion areas. There has been nary a cocktail party in the past half decade where these topics are not discussed, she said.

Do you know how many hours weve spent at this point? she added. Literally thousands of hours.

The stalemate has steadily deepened, compounded by a growing lack of trust.

Ms. Langs husband, Kevin Lang, 45, a partner at a law firm in Athens, Ga., and a publicly vocal opponent of the spaceport, said that F.A.A. officials he met at public hearings didnt seem to be aware that Little Cumberland Island was inhabited.

Some of that confusion may have arisen from testimony by a former Georgia state representative, Jason Spencer, who resigned from office in 2018 after appearing on Sacha Baron Cohens Who Is America? He said in State Senate hearings early on that the residential island was very fairly much barren and told constituents there were no voters in the flight path.

Brian Gist, a lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center Senior in Atlanta, said that Camden County refused, with a few minor exceptions, to provide documentation about the project and was essentially forced to disclose any details through public records requests.

Mr. Howard, meanwhile, thinks that environmental advocacy organizations have inflated the risks to bolster their own fund-raising efforts.

People say, Hey, safety, safety. But whats the real impact? Mr. Howard said. If you look at Kennedy Space Center, their spaceports in the middle of the wildlife sanctuary on seashores.

The science and data will show you, fireballs and things like that, it just cant happen based on the fuel thats left on the rocket, the trajectory, the elevation, the safety and the environment, he said. Plus, the rocket itself goes quick.

According to risk models produced by consultants, he said, the chances of someone getting hurt, or worse in the six to 10 seconds a rocket would take to pass over the archipelago range from less than 1 in 10 million to less than 1 in 1 billion.

His team has run the numbers again and again, he said, adding, this spaceport, Im confident, will be the most vetted of all time.

But these risk models are based on a representative rocket the team is betting will be sleeker and safer than the ones made by Rocket Lab and it has yet to be invented.

That idealized super-small, super-nimble orbital vehicle was conceived by industry experts including Andrew Nelson, a Spaceport Camden consultant whom the county government has paid more than $1 million so far. He was formerly the C.O.O. and president of XCOR, a space travel company that filed for bankruptcy in 2017 after selling a number of $100,000 tickets to space on a rocket that was never built.

From the Scottish Highlands to the Hawaiian islands to the Michigan coast of Lake Superior, at least a dozen other communities are weighing the gains that could come from a spaceport against the possible disruption to fragile, biodiverse environments.

Legal challenges and petitions have been generated by constituencies on all sides.

G. Scott Hubbard, a Stanford aeronautics professor, former director of the Ames Research Center at NASA and the chair of the SpaceX Safety Advisory Panel, predicts that this kind of development (and disputes over it) will become more common across the United States in the coming years.

In the first 50 years of aviation from Kitty Hawk 1903 to 1953, there were more than a million aircraft built and used multiple times, he said. We gained a lot of experience very fast.

But space is different. In the first 50 years of the space program, there were only 45 launches total worldwide, he said. The difference in experience here is huge.

He thinks that trying to build a spaceport in a populated area complicates things for the commissioners in Camden County. But he cant predict whether humans in the flight path will prove insurmountable to spaceport construction.

My personal opinion is that there is an overpopulation of spaceports right now, but this is how new businesses start, he said. At the beginning of the 20th century, every bicycle shop was building cars.

The future of commercial space development, then, leaves bystanders in two camps: those who champion forward movement often at a relentless pace in the name of progress, and those who are focused on protecting what already exists, and is already valued.

These companies are vying for the licensing, grabbing up everything they can in space, with no regard for the impact down below, Ms. Ferguson said.

The Spaceport Camden team sees tons of possibilities for the down below. What if 10 years from now, county initiatives soar, weve got green tech, satellite tech, Department of Defense initiatives, your child or your neighbors child cannot only graduate but become an individual who contributes to the next space race? Mr. Howard said.

Lately, he has found himself invoking one of his favorite quotes, from Jeff Bezos: If you absolutely cant tolerate critics, then dont do anything new or interesting.

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Last Stop on the Way to the Cosmos? No Thanks. - The New York Times

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The Redwire Regolith 3D Printer 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. 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 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. 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.

Redwire Space (@RedwireSpace) August 11, 2021 #ICYMI: Our Redwire Regolith Print launched from @NASA_Wallops yesterday aboard NG-16. This payload will use our existing 3D printer aboard @Space_Station to print 3 slabs using lunar regolith simulant! (: @NASA) pic.twitter.com/240ymugIyD

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

Artemis Exploration Spacesuit Testing NASAs 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 Musks 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.

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NASA Space Construction: ISS Tests Regolith 3D Printer for Artemis Lunar Program; Is this the beginning of space colonization? - Space Bollyinside -...

In addition to cucumbers, basil, mint, tomatoes, parsley, Bunchek is also growing varieties of peas, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, and new pepper and mustard green cultivars, all of which were selected either because of their size, shape, or other physical characteristics, or for their nutritional value.

So often in space, were constrained by power, volume, mass, things like that, said Wheeler. We try to look for shorter growing species, maybe dwarf varieties within those species. Growing sugarcane thats 12 feet tall just isnt a good match. They also want varieties that grow quickly and have high yields.

In addition to size and shape, theyre looking at the nutritional content of plants, and specifically for nutrients that can be difficult to deliver by other means, or that degrade over time, like Vitamin C and Vitamin B1.

Youre not going to get a lot of nutrition out of lettuce, Wheeler explains. But: Choose a colored variety, then you can get anthocyanin. Thats a pigment that has some antioxidant qualities.

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Gardening could be an essential part of astronaut self-care - The Counter

The US Space Agency announced in a statement the launch of a test campaign for a future manned mission to Mars. The simulation will immerse the candidate astronauts in the Red Planets extreme conditions for a year beginning in the fall of 2022.

distance moon, March destination for NASA. The US agency takes another step towards conquering the red planet in Press release issued on August 6 Announcing the highly anticipated implementation of a series of manned mission simulations on Mars. His name is Shabiya (Crew health and peer performance exploration), the first test campaign will take place in a habitat that reproduces the planets living conditions in the southern United States. Three courses, each lasting one year, will be organized starting fromAutumn 2022.

If NASAs ambition is to land astronauts on the moon again, Artemis missions It is a real starting point for the Mars adventure. The most optimistic forecast predicts the first flights to Mars between 2028 and 2030. Yet the utopia of a Mars colony faces the harsh reality of facts: the constraints of the round trip and daily life there.

Given the optimal approach between Earth and Mars, astronauts would have to live in the confined space of a space shuttle for several months, between 200 and 350 days. This trip requires an improvement in time spent on the nearby planet, and the researchers want to install future Mars explorers while 360 to 500 days. L Atmosphere Mars is so weak that it makes life in the open air impossible, which is why in order to recreate these harsh living conditions, NASA called the company icon To build a base of 157 m2 Allowing ambitious adventurers to immerse themselves in a realistic replica of the habitat of Mars.

3D printed, Mars Alpha Sand Dunes It will be installed in the heart Johnson Space Center, in Texas. The mission will test the astronauts ability to resist isolation and allow them to conduct several experiments: managing food supplies, responding to unexpected accidents or even exports from regions of Mars thanks to Virtual Reality.

Exploration of Mars is beginning to take shape, but it is still difficult to implement. Elon Musk, very optimistic, hopes to bring the next generation of astronauts to the planet At the earliest in 2026 Thanks to his company, Space X. But researchers like Sylvester Morris insist on the hostility of life on Mars and the impossibility of true colonization. On the microphone of France Inter, NSastrophysicist Last August 4, the French reported that they live on Mars. It was not a matter of life, but a matter of survival..

While waiting to see the first humans set foot on the Red Planet, new teams of astronauts are expected to set foot on the Moon in the middle of the decade during the Artemis missions, 50 years after the end of the Apollo program in 1972. New challenges and the introduction of new technologies should pave the way for colonization space for scientific purposes. NASA hopes to shape the next human on our natural satellite by 2024.

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NASA recruits for a year-long simulation mission to Mars - Tech News Inc