Category Archives: Moon Colonization

Hopes of one day making a lunar colony may have found some extra encouragement. Normally, the surface of the Moon reaches upwards of 260 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. Then, it drops to a chilling minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit at night. However, research shows some lunar pits stay around 63 degrees Fahrenheit, providing much-needed safety from the elements.

These stable temperatures could provide additional protection for a possible Moon-based colony. Additionally, access to caves and other formations that humans can shelter it may be found within such pits. If we were to create a lunar colony on the surface of the Moon, building it within such a pit may prove worthwhile in helping protect from intense temperatures.

We first discovered pits on the Moon in 2009. Since then, scientists have long wondered whether they might lead to caves or underground structures. While we cant say for sure, this new research proves that they have much more stable temperatures than other surface areas on the Moon.

These stable temperatures are important for the viability of a lunar colony for multiple reasons. First, if the temperatures are stable and stick around 63 degrees Fahrenheit, we could build systems that work well within those areas. Whereas if we built those same structures on the main surface, wed have to account for the wild temperature changes.

NASA is already planning to send humans back to the Moon in the next few years. However, being able to create a long-term lunar colony would be astounding. Additionally, doing so would allow us to open a new door to studying the Moon and its surface.

Not only could be test the long-term effects of the lower gravity on humans, but we might also be able to make some breakthroughs on creating artificial gravity. That would help combat any long-term effects the lower gravity of places like the Moon and Mars might have on the human body.

Additionally, building a lunar colony could allow us better on-site testing of growing plants in lunar soil. Growing plants in places that arent normally acclimated for it would be a huge breakthrough for space exploration ad colonization. The researchers published their findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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Heres where we might really be able to set up a colony on the Moon - BGR

Elon Musk is a singular visionary driving humanity toward a better futureor at least thats what he and his admirers want us to believe. For the past two decades, supporters and news outlets have praised him for the bold narratives hes woven around Tesla and SpaceX, and by extension allowed him to evade scrutiny and become the worlds richest man. Any time Musk sends a tweet, you can check his replies to see the devotion of his millions of followers.

As his profile has been elevated by relentless media attention, Musk has become the figure everyone was looking for: a powerful man who sold the fantasy that faith in the combined power of technology and the market could change the world without needing a role for the government. (Just dont talk about the billions in subsidies that kept his companies going over the years.)

But that collective admiration has only served to bolster an unaccountable and increasingly hostile billionaire. The holes in those future visions, and the dangers of applauding billionaire visionaries, have only become harder to ignore.

As CEO of Tesla, Musks plan was to use luxury vehicles to fund a more affordable electric car. The Model 3 was supposed to be that vehicle, starting at $35,000. But the current starting price is $46,990, and most buyers end up paying even more. Teslas are supposed to be the model for green automobility, but the emissions required for the production of each individual vehicle are on the rise, and there are persistent problems with production quality which means theyre at risk of not lasting as long as vehicles from other carmakers.

More importantly, those vehicles dont have a clean, green supply chain. Around the world, mining companies are salivating at the opportunity presented by a shift to battery-powered vehicles because theyre so much more mineral-intensive than the ones we drive today. The International Energy Agency expects demand for battery minerals to soar by 2040, including up to 2,100 percent for cobalt and 4,200 percent for lithium.

But that extraction comes with serious consequences for local environments and nearby communities. In 2019, Tesla was named in a lawsuit over the deaths of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo who died mining cobalt at sites owned by British mining company Glencore. Despite talking about cobalt-free batteries, Musk proceeded to sign a deal with Glencore in 2020 to supply its Berlin and Shanghai factories. The lawsuit was dismissed in November 2021, but in April of this year, an investigation from Global Witness found that Tesla was among a number of companies that may be getting minerals from mines using child workers in the DRC.

It may be easy to overlook consequences that exist at the other end of Teslas supply chain, but these problems extend deep into the heart of its manufacturing operation. Black workers dubbed the companys Fremont factory the plantation after being subject to racist abuse and a number of women described sexual harassment at the facility as nightmarish. Meanwhile, workers at the Nevada Gigafactory are suing after a mass firing of over 500 people, following reports that Musk praised workers in Teslas Shanghai factory for burning the 3 am oil by working 12-hour shifts and six-day weeks while sleeping on the factory floor.

To top it off, Teslas customers are also being put in harms way. Its vehicles have slammed into highway medians, emergency vehicles, transport trucks, and more, while using its supposedly self-driving Autopilot feature. Musk continually misleads the public about how safe and capable the system really is, even as the U.S. traffic safety regulator is poised to recall hundreds of thousands of vehicles. And Tesla is just the tip of the iceberg.

Elon Musk has wielded a virtual monopoly on how we think about the future, but will his visions really deliver better lives for most people in our society? For all the tech industrys talk of disruption, keeping us all trapped in cars for decades into the future by equipping them with batteries or upgraded computers doesnt feel like much of a revolution.

A much more sustainable alternative to mass ownership of electric vehicles is to get people out of cars altogetherthat entails making serious investments to create more reliable public transit networks, building out cycling infrastructure so people can safely ride a bike, and revitalizing the rail network after decades of underinvestment. But Musk has continually tried to stand in the way of such alternatives.

He has a history of floating false solutions to the drawbacks of our over-reliance on cars that stifle efforts to give people other options. The Boring Company was supposed to solve traffic, not be the Las Vegas amusement ride it is now. As Ive written in my book, Musk admitted to his biographer Ashlee Vance that Hyperloop was all about trying to get legislators to cancel plans for high-speed rail in Californiaeven though he had no plans to build it.

Several years ago, Musk said that public transit was a pain in the ass where you were surrounded by strangers, including possible serial killers, to justify his opposition. But the futures sold to us by Musk and many others in Silicon Valley didnt just suit their personal preferences. They were designed to meet business needs, and were the cause of just as many problems as they claimed to solveif not more.

As Musk sets our collective sights on Mars, a town in south Texas and nearby wildlife reserve are being sacrificed on the altar of his personal ambition. SpaceX recently fired employees who wrote an open letter asking it to distance itself from its increasingly controversial CEO, while astronomers and Indigenous groups have expressed concern about what Starlink is doing to the night sky. Meanwhile, scientists will tell you living on Mars wont be an easy task. In service of his dreams, Musk is purposefully obscuring those challenges.

In crafting his future visions, Musk draws on the libertarian tendencies of Robert Heinlein and a technocratic longtermism inspired by Isaac Asimovs Foundation series, not to mention the dreams of Nazi-turned-NASA rocket engineer Wernher von Braun. Future visions cribbed from the pages of science fictionoften of the dystopian varietyand reshaped to fit the desires of the richest man in the world dont serve the broader public. But there are other authors who provide very different answers to the questions of technology and the future.

In 1985, Ursula K. Le Guin took aim at this imperialistic kind of science fiction that inspires Musk, in which space and the future are synonymous: they are a place we are going to get to, invade, colonize, exploit, and suburbanize. The renowned novelist explained that science fiction is not actually about the future; its about us and our thoughts and our dreams. But when we get confused about that, we succumb to wishful thinking and escapism, and our science fiction gets megalomania and thinks that instead of being fiction its prediction.

Thats exactly where we find ourselves now: having our future dictated by powerful people who seek to recreate the space colonies or dystopian virtual reality worlds they read about as kids without considering the consequences. Kim Stanley Robinson, whose Mars trilogy helped inspire some of the recent interest in colonizing the red planet, has called Musks plan the 1920s science-fiction clich of the boy who builds a rocket to the moon in his backyard and one thats dangerously distracting us from the real problems we face here on Earth.

For Le Guin, part of the problem is how we tell the human story: as one where a singular hero aggressively pushes it toward resolution, whether its the hunter with their bow or the Great Man driving society forward. It also infects our conception of technology, positioning it as a heroic undertaking, Herculean, Promethean, conceived as triumphor as a call to buildrather than the active human interface with the material world and the more mundane technologies we rely on every day.

Make no mistake: there is a need for people to think about the future and what a better one looks like, especially as we face serious challenges like the climate crisis. But we also need to question the idea of progress being sold to us and who it ultimately benefits. The tech industry enjoys casting itself as our savior, delivering empowerment and convenience, but along with it has come an unprecedented expansion of surveillance, an erosion of workers rights, and the empowerment of white nationalist and fascist groups.

For years, Elon Musk sold us fantasies to distract from the reality of the future hes trying to build, and to get people to accept his growing belligerence. What we really need right now is not more cars, colonization dreams, and technokings, but a collective project to improve the lives of billions of people around the world while taking on the immediate challenges we face regardless of whether it generates corporate profits. Thats something Elon Musk can never deliver.

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Elon Musk's Flawed Vision and the Dangers of Trusting Billionaires - TIME

Living in Micronesia means youre just a quick plane ride away from experiencing the rich cultural and ecological diversity all over the region.

Palau is a popular destination thanks to its unparalleled diving but is it worth it for those of us who dont relish trying to breathe normally 60 feet underwater while surrounded by sharks?

As someone still working up the courage to get dive-certified, I can confidently tell you that yes, Palau is filled to the brim with beauty everywhere you look.

Though the flight is a brief two hours, a round trip flight to Koror, Palau, will run you just about $1,300 in the economy cabin. Pricey, yes, and so if you arent diving or visiting loved ones the cost may not be worth it to you.

For now flights from Guam are every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday night, and departures from Palau are very early as in 1 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Most hotels have a shuttle you can arrange for pickup, or you can opt to rent a car.

Palau, like Guam, is not designed to be particularly walkable. There are taxi services your hotel can connect you to but if you can rent a car, do. Your visit will be much more comfortable.

Good vibes abound at The Canoe House, where you can mingle with locals and visitors alike as they enjoy drinks and live music in Koror, Palau.

Three days is enough time to hit Korors highlights, though it wont leave much time for relaxation. If you can stay through Tuesday night and leave Wednesday morning, you wont need to rush your excursions, and it will leave you ample time for poolside lounging.

We stayed in Koror at Cove Resort Palau, which is near several other hotel properties and is a 45-minute walk into downtown. It has its own restaurant and bar, The Hungry Marlin, as well as a pool. The rooms are spacious and the showers are spectacular.

A reconstructed bai, or traditional meeting house, outside the Belau National Museum on July 16, 2022. The bai has been constructed using traditional methods, meaning it is fit together without using any nails, screws, or pegs.

There are also hotels closer to the city center, like the Palau Central Hotel, which allow for more walkability to restaurants and shopping or hotels off the beaten path that offer a touch of nature, like Ngellil Nature Island Resort.

It may not make much of a difference for your airfare, but booking your hotel well in advance can save you some money. Most rates in Koror span from $80 to $400 a night depending on location, amenities and timing.

A golden jellyfish beneath the surface of Jellyfish Lake in Palau on July 17, 2022.

Alright, so youre not into diving. I get it! But youd be a fool to visit Palau without at least snorkeling. Lucky for you, there are multiple companies offering day or half day trips that include a visit to the famed Jellyfish Lake and snorkeling spots throughout the Rock Islands.

You can poke around for one that suits your interests and schedule, but we booked a half day tour with Sams Tours that cost about $215, including lunch and the $100 permit to access Jellyfish Lake.

Bring your own snorkeling equipment or borrow from the company, and be warned that the trail to Jellyfish Lake includes a steep staircase.

For me, this was the absolute highlight of the trip. The journey via boat to Jellyfish Lake is magical in its own right sailing through rich, teal water amidst the verdant Rock Islands is hard to beat.

If youre unfamiliar, Jellyfish Lake is nothing short of a miracle. Thousands of years ago it was below sea level and as water levels receded, the jellyfish were left behind.

A golden jellyfish beneath the surface of Jellyfish Lake in Palau on July 17, 2022.

Now, an estimated 12,000 years later with no natural predator, they have evolved without the ability to sting. This allows visitors to serenely snorkel alongside thousands of stunning golden and moon jellyfish, who gracefully bob alongside you completely unbothered. Its unlike anything Ive ever experienced.

Following our Jellyfish Lake adventure, we headed to Cemetery Reef to snorkel with a wider variety of ocean life.

This area was teeming with vibrant fish, but the real delight for me was seeing the coral reef itself. To be so close to this elegant, natural architecture when so many around the world are disappearing feels sacred.

Goodies at the Q-Lala Snack House tent at the 680 Night Market in Airai on July 17, 2022.

Since we stuck to downtown Koror restaurants, I have to admit to not finding much in the way of authentic Palauan food. Learn from my mistakes and do some research on where to go! Otherwise youll be stuck with a surprising amount of pizza, pasta and burgers.

Standout restaurants included The Taj, an Indian restaurant downtown featuring an extensive, mouthwatering menu and warm atmosphere. I will be dreaming about their lamb vindaloo and kashmiri naan for weeks.

Koror mangrove clams in white wine and garlic at Elilai Seaside Dining on July 18, 2022.

Elilai Seaside Dining was also spectacular, both for its magnificent waterfront sunset views and for its food. The Koror mangrove clams were melt-in-your-mouth creamy, and the local white snapper served Korean style with red chili paste, leeks, and jasmine rice was divine.

If you find yourself in Palau on a Saturday night, make sure to visit the 680 Night Market if theyre on that week you can visit their Facebook page to check.

Located on the Airai side of the Japan-Palau Friendship Bridge connecting Koror and Babeldaob Islands, the market is often themed and features local dance groups, live music, food vendors and artisans.

You can also catch live music at The Drop Off or The Canoe House in Koror, both of which have lively weekend crowds enjoying drinks and dancing with family and friends.

A lover bag in the Searching for Indigenous Art exhibit, which highlights the indigenous people of Taiwan, at the Belau National Museum on July 16, 2022. This bag, carried by the Amis people, traditionally features patterns that reflect their family background and is used as part of a matchmaking ritual.

There are two major museums in Palau, and both are worth your time. Etpison Museum has a $10 entry fee and features a remarkable exhibit about the traditional first child birth ceremony in Palau. At the time of my visit, it also had an extensive collection of works by storyboard masters.

LAmarena, a charming gelato shop owned by an Italian family from Verona, is just up the street and is the perfect place to relax after an hour or two of learning. Their signature cherry gelato is not to be missed!

The Belau National Museum is much larger and costs $15 for nonresidents. You could easily spend two or more hours here, soaking up the wealth of information starting with the origin story of Palau and carrying visitors through the known history of the area pre-contact, through the colonization of the Spanish, German, and Japanese, through World War II, and finally as an independent nation.

Robiul Alam hard at work carving a storyboard at the Tebang Woodcarving Shop in Koror on July 19, 2022.

Among the treasures in this museum are many stories shared from locals about their experiences before, during and after World War II, drawings of daily life from Japanese artist Toshiko Akamatsu, and examples of Palauan glass money.

At the time of my visit there was also a beautiful exhibit focused on indigenous people of Taiwan, called Search for Indigenous Art.

The exhibit included examples of bright textiles, baskets, and tools from the 16 indigenous tribes recognized in Taiwan.

A lover bag in the Searching for Indigenous Art exhibit, which highlights the indigenous people of Taiwan, at the Belau National Museum on July 16, 2022. This bag, carried by the Amis people, traditionally features patterns that reflect their family background and is used as part of a matchmaking ritual.

Finally, if youre seeking a souvenir, storyboards are widely available in gift shops all over Koror but the cream of the crop is at the Tebang Woodcarving Shop.

Located just off the main road you can easily visit this shop to watch the woodcarvers at work, chat with owner Ling Inabo, and choose a handmade storyboard to bring home.

If you know youll be back to pick it up, you can even commission a piece with a story of your choice.

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Travel Bug: You don't have to be a diver to enjoy Palau - Pacific Daily News

Sonic Youth carved their path to becoming the quintessential band of the American underground on the very thing their name projects: Sound. From their early no wave recordings on deeper into the 80s, Sonic Youth found inspiration not just in songwriting but in manipulating their instruments to warp and bend in ways not intended by manufacturer specifications, whether through homemade modifications, unusual tunings or playing them with implements other than a pick. Which might not have been half as effective had they not also written great songs, they just werent great songs that sounded like anyone elses.

Sound was their medium, but every artist likewise has a subject, and for Sonic Youth that often shifted, from abstract variations on songs of love and lust to actual pop cultural critique. But for much of their career, particularly during an intensely productive period in the mid-1980s, Sonic Youths songs displayed a particular doomed fascination with the ideas of America that reached dubiously mythical status in the Reagan years. As the groups atypically constructed noise rock anthems found a nationwide audience through regular touring and increased presence on college radio, Sonic Youth entered a creative streak that produced three albums that represent a masterful trilogy of albums informed by the myth of America as well as being haunted by its shadow: Bad Moon Rising, EVOL and Sister.

A kind of woozy, amorphous darkness pervaded Sonic Youths music from the mutant dissonance of their earliest no wave recordings, but on Bad Moon Rising that darkness began to take on a more defined shape. The album shares a title with a ubiquitous entry in the classic rock canon by Creedence Clearwater Revival, both suggesting something quintessentially American while evoking the impending doom of apocalypse. Its cover art, likewise, depicts a similar intersection of ominous Americana, the Jack-O-lantern head of a scarecrow burning bright in front of a cityscape, which only looks out of place if you dont imagine the metropolis in the background descending into dystopia.

Where 1983s Confusion is Sex thrived on a kind of stylized atonality, the songs on Bad Moon Rising were just that, not always entirely congealed from the eerie mist whence they came, but taking on a hypnotic form all the same. The groove in a track like opener Brave Men Run (In My Family) is undeniable even if its not so overtly catchy, though the off-kilter tonal quality it harbors, as does much of the album, lends it an unsettling quality that shadows the burning pumpkin head and its suggestion of a coming endtimes.

Implied though that apocalypse might be, its uniquely American, from the atrocities committed in the name of colonization (They gave birth to my bastard kin, Kim Gordon chants in Ghost Bitch, America it is called) to the sensationalism of the Manson family cult murders in Death Valley 69. Death Valley, still deeply unnerving more than 35 years later, paired Sonic Youths first proper college radio-ready single with what remains their most nightmarish imagery. It opens with a blood-curdling scream and descends deeper into Hell, Thurston Moore and Lydia Lunch depicting a gradually unfolding scene of violence (I didnt wanna, but she started to holler, so I had to hit it) as the tension in the music grows precarious close to climactic collapse. Its harrowing; its exquisite.

Moments of abrasion disrupt otherwise more immediate pop songs in much the same way the bands evocations of chaos and infamy emerge alongside images of celebrity and glamour.

The release of 1986s EVOL signaled the completion of Sonic Youths evolution from mutant atonalists into the pioneering noise rock group that eventually released the game-changing Daydream Nation. Two notable events coincided with this arrival; the first, drummer Steve Shelley became a permanent member of the group, replacing Bob Bert and remaining the urgent, versatile backbone of the band up until their breakup in 2011. And second, it was the bands first release for iconic California punk label SST, signaling both Sonic Youths escalation toward greater visibility while the label itself was moving farther away from its hardcore punk roots. The partnership didnt last very longas was the case with many famous SST-affiliated artistsbut it yielded two of their best albums, EVOL included.

Sonic Youth understood the language of pop but, during the first half of the 80s at least, rarely chose to speak it. That changed in large part with EVOL, which boasted at least one bonafide pop song, Starpower, at least a pop song created in their own image. Both dissonant and disorienting yet brimming with hooks, Starpower seems like a contradiction on its face, but its more aligned with the driving post-punk singles of the early 80s than what Sonic Youth were creating just a few years before. Whats more, its a love song, or at least a depiction of infatuation. Spinning dreams with angel wings, torn blue jeans, a foolish grin, Kim Gordon sings, her delivery evoking detached cool even in describing a moment of ecstasy.

Theres a different kind of star power on album closer Madonna, Sean and Me, or at least the suggestion of it, one of many references to Madonnaa frequent subject of fascination for Sonic Youththat would show up throughout their career, culminating in the release of the experimetal-but-fun one-off Ciccone Youth album in 1988, featuring covers of both Burning Up and Into the Groove. Both Madonna and Sonic Youth had risen up from the same New York underground scene in the early 80s, and performed at the same clubsthe band had even sent Ciccone Youths The Whitey Album to Madonnas sister to earn her blessing, which she graciously gave them. But Madonna, Sean and Me isnt about Madonna any more than opener Tom Violence is strictly about Tom Verlaine (or violence), its droning noise-rock freakout and ominous lyrics sharing more in common with the Manson family visions of Bad Moon Rising standout Death Valley 69, opening with Moores portentous threat, Were gonna kill the California girls. It ends in a locked groove repeating the notes F# and A, just a half-step away from the infinite loop as noted (and very likely influenced by this brief snippet of music) on Godspeed You! Black Emperors debut LP.

Elsewhere Lee Ranaldo offers dark visions of highway violence on In the Kingdom #19, his recitations of lines like Still out ghosting the road/Death on the highway take on an eerier quality in the aftermath of the death of The Minutemens D. Boon in a van accident the year prior. It, incidentally, features the first recorded music from the bands Mike Watt since Boons death, in addition to the sound of actual firecracker explosions happening inside the studio, lending even more chaos and terror to the tense, spoken-word track. And Shadow of a Doubt nods to another American icon, Alfred Hitchcock, referencing two of his films, the titular Shadow of a Doubt and Strangers on a Train.

Where Sonic Youth waded into pop on EVOL, they fully dive in on Sister, embracing accessibility without leaving behind the darkness or abstraction that defined their material up to that point. Simply put, Sister remains a very weird album, but its a weird album thats driven by more overt melodies than those that precede it. Even its most urgent moments, like Tuff Gnarl or Pipeline/Kill Time, still descend into middle sections of scrape and drone. Moments of abrasion disrupt otherwise more immediate pop songs in much the same way the bands evocations of chaos and infamy emerge alongside images of celebrity and glamour.

Pop culture by and large informs Sister as much as actual pop music, particularly the science fiction of Philip K. Dickthe sister referenced in the title is Dicks fraternal twin, who died shortly after being born and which left a heavy impression on the writer that followed him throughout his life. The authors influence appears in songs like Stereo Sanctity, where Moore references Dicks novel Valis with Satellites flashing down Orchard and Delancey and how I cant get laid because everyone is dead. The connection to his sister arises in Schizophrenia, which is intertwined with Gordons relationship with her own brother, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. But the insidious influence of American pop culture shows up more subtly in other places, the original release of the album featuring an image of Disneys Magic Kingdom that was later covered up due to unauthorized use.

Sister is also, by and large, a remarkably beautiful album by the standards of a band that emerged from a kind of loosely organized noise. The hazy Beauty Lies in the Eye is gorgeous in its melancholy, but obscured and distant, dripping with mystique. And for the first time on any Sonic Youth album, Moore and Gordon can be heard singing together in harmony (sort of) against an unsteady squall on Cotton Crown, its narcotic romance still carrying a strange sort of sweetness as they sing, Angels are dreaming of you. Even amid the sublime moments and the driving, rhythmic post-punk that define Sister as one of Sonic Youths most focused and simply best albums, the terror of the fringe menace of Bad Moon Rising still simmers under the surface, bubbling up to a boil on the abrasive grind of Pacific Coast Highway as Gordon chants, Come on get in the car, lets go for a ride somewhere/I wont hurt you, as much as you hurt me. Though Sister is as much about a kind of intoxicated dreaminess as much as it is an imagining of a potentially broken futurean American hallucination as much as an American dreamviolence somehow still feels inescapable.

If Sister isnt regarded as Sonic Youths finest momentthe place where each disparate part connects and the groups yen for dissonance finds a suitable companion in rhythmic drive and immediacyits only because Daydream Nation showed up one year later. From the epic opening anthem Teen Age Riot, they signaled a step toward brighter frontiers, with the bloodthirsty cults, junkie couples and flashy Disney and MTV figures fading to a blur in the background as Sonic Youth became icons themselves. Moving away from the reflections of the flawed and sometimes harsh America as it was, they imagined an entirely new one, guided by President J Mascis to unite the youth under a new platform of freedom and noise.

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Sonic Youth : Sister, EVOL, Bad Moon Rising - The trilogy | Treble - Treble

James Cameron's politically charged film is spellbinding for a multitude of reasons. While "Avatar" tells a moving story, the film also achieved a lot in its technical aspects through its complex level of cinematography that made the sweeping, colorful landscapes of Pandora possible. Cameron was inspired by the works of Ray Harryhausen, a pioneer of stop-motion animation, and paid him tribute through the film.

With films such as "Jason and the Argonauts" and "One Million Years B.C.," the special effects legend inspired a generation of filmmakers, including Cameron, who, with "Avatar," hoped to capture the kind of "wonder" he experienced as a kid watching Harryhausen's films. In an interview with FilmFestivals.com, Cameron noted that he wanted to do something "beyond the ordinary" with "Avatar":

"I've made other big-budget Hollywood action movies that were not transformative, so there was an evolution to it and a consciousness about 'Avatar' that we were going to do something beyond the ordinary."

The legendary filmmaker went on to list his goal for the film, to replicate the visuals as seen in the fantasy film "Jason and the Argonauts" and others.

"I didn't know how it was done, I couldn't begin to guess how it was done. But I didn't care, whether it was "Mysterious Island" or "Jason and the Argonauts" with the skeletons coming out with swords and fighting. I didn't know what stop-motion animation was, it didn't matter."

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Avatar Was James Cameron's Tribute To A Legend Of VFX Filmmaking - /Film

Data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has led scientists to conclude that the Moon hosts around 200 "pits" that offer stable and human-friendly temperatures.

The pits "always hover around a comfortable 63F/17C, NASA stated on Wednesday.

A steady 17C contrasts markedly with the rest of the Moon's surface, which fluctuates between 127C/260F to -173C/-280F across a full Lunar day.

Coping with those temperatures vastly complicates lunar exploration, for machines and humans.

Warm spots on the Moon are therefore hot property.

Since the discovery of pits on the Moon by JAXA's SELENE spacecraft in 2009, there has been interest in whether they provide access to caves that could be explored by rovers and astronauts, wrote researchers who published information on the pits in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The paper's three authors, UCLA professor of planetary science David Paige, Paul Hayne of the University of Colorado Boulder, and UCLA researcher Tyler Horvath, used data from The Diviner instrument onboard the LRO, which had monitored temps on the lunar surface for more than 11 years.

The researchers focused on a mostly cylindrical pit inside Mare Tranquillitatis, the same region visited by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969, as its thermal environment was more hospitable than any other place on the lunar surface.

The group ran time-dependent 2-D and 3-D models using the data to understand the geometry and heat transfer that could lead to the elevated temperatures.

The researchers concluded that the temperature inside the pit was not only a comfortable temperature, it was very possibly attached to a cave that would also have a similar stable environment.

The Mare Tranquillitatis pit crater. Image: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University. Click to enlarge.

If a cave extends from a pit such as this, it too would maintain this comfortable temperature throughout its length, varying by less than 1C over an entire lunar day, wrote the researchers, who hypothesized the pit and others like it were created by the ceiling of a collapsed cave.

For long term colonization and exploration of the Moon, pits may provide a desirable habitat: they are largely free from the constant threats of harmful radiation, impacts, and extreme temperatures, wrote the researchers. Thus, pits and caves may offer greater mission safety than other potential base station locales, providing a valuable stepping stone for sustaining human life beyond Earth.

Better still, the boffins have spotted many pits on the Moons nearside, a location that offers the chance for direct-to-Earth communications.

NASA is returning to the Moon with commercial and international partners to both further scientific knowledge and expand human presence in space.

The space orgs Artemis program aims to take humans to the lunar south pole by 2025 in the first crewed lunar landing since 1972s Apollo 17.

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NASA's Lunar Orbiter spots comfortably warm 'pits' all over the Moon - The Register

If you have been following along for a while, you certainly know that additive manufacturing is playing an important role in the aerospace sector and especially in space travel. Already it is being used for applications in missions to both Mars and the moon and now there is another we can add to the list. Impulse Space and Relativity Space have announced the first commercial mission to Mars where Relativitys 3D printed launch vehicle, Terran R will be used to deliver Impulses Mars Cruise Vehicle and Mars Lander. The companies note that they hope the partnership will help to rapidly advance their shared goal of a multiplanetary existence for humanity.

Relativity Space is one of the leading companies using additive manufacturing for space travel. They are especially known for their Terran R which is the first entirely 3D printed rocket in the world. Though the Terran R is not expected to launch from Cape Canaveral, FL until 2024, already its younger, partially 3D printed sibling Terra 1 is undergoing testing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The company strongly believes in using 3D printing as a way to make more innovative, optimized rockets for cheaper, allowing for lower-cost space travel.

The Terran 1 (left) and Terran R (right) side by side (photo credits: Relativity Space)

As fellow commercial providers working on more affordable space travel, the partnership between Impulse and Relativity is a logical one. Under the deal, Relativity will launch Impulses Mars Cruise Vehicle and Mars Lander in Terran R from Cape Canaveral, FL until 2029. By working together, the two companies hope to overcome the difficulties in landing on Mars as well as enable research and development on the surface which will help build toward humanitys multiplanetary future. This mission will be the first commercial flight to Mars, a huge step forward for the industry, though it should be noted that commercial launches are already underway through companies like SpaceX for travel to the moon.

The Importance of 3D Printing for Multiplanetary Existence and Travel to Mars

The idea of multiplanetary existence is one that has been around since humanity achieved space flight in the 60s. Whether through speculation over whether other species might be alive somewhere else in the galaxy or if it would be possible for humans to live on another planet, as a species we are consistently fascinated with the idea of space colonization. But it is an idea that is increasingly coming closer to fruition at least partly thanks to 3D printing. In this latest case, Relativitys 3D printed rockets are helping pave the way for Impulse to explore Mars in the coming years.

Though it may seem that the traditional methods of constructing rockets may be preferable, additive manufacturing actually has a number of benefits that are enabling this impressive feat. In order to travel to Mars, rocket designs need to be more complicated in order to include an aeroshell for the necessary glide stage before landing. The more intricate a design, the harder it is to make using traditional methods, whereas additive manufacturing is often used for more optimized, geometrically complex parts. Not to mention, additive manufacturing should enable cheaper production of rockets faster and more efficiently, both key factors in space travel.

Tim Ellis, Cofounder and CEO of Relativity concluded, We believe building a multiplanetary future on Mars is only possible if we inspire dozens to hundreds of companies to work toward a singular goal. This is a monumental challenge, but one that successfully achieved will expand the possibilities for human experience in our lifetime across two planets. With the delivery capabilities of Terran R coupled with Impulses in-space transportation, we are bringing humanity one step closer to making Mars a reality. This is a historic, impactful partnership with Tom and the entire Impulse team through the collaboration of two low-cost commercial providers that will establish and expand our presence on Mars.You can find out more about the mission in Impulse Spaces press release HERE.

What do you think of Relativity Space and Impulse Spaces announcement for the first commercial mission to Mars? Do you think 3D printing is playing a critical role in the future of space travel? Let us know in a comment below or on ourLinkedIn,Facebook,andTwitterpages! Dont forget to sign up for our free weeklyNewsletter here, the latest 3D printing news straight to your inbox! You can also find all our videos on ourYouTubechannel.

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Will 3D Printing Be Used for the First Commercial Mission to Mars? - 3Dnatives

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The assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, as widely reported, caused a ripple of sadness in public opinion internationally. It also invited thinking into the legacy of Japans longest-serving prime minister. The overwhelming opinion both in Japan and internationally is that Abe, who held the prime ministers office twice in the past two decades, first in 2006-7 and then from 2012 to 2020 succeeded in bringing his country to a prominent position on the global stage.

Considered an astute practitioner of diplomacy, Abe was respected in the West for playing a seminal role in expanding Japans role including its military role as a more forward-leaning defender of the liberal order. The academic journal Telos, well known for its New Left theoretical leanings, has described Abes assassination as an incredible loss for Japan and for the rest of the world.

However, given the Japanese militarys recent history of brutal attacks and war crimes beginning in the late 19th century in China and in the first half of the 20th century in both Korea and China there have been mixed reactions to the assassination and Abes legacy in China and South Korea. In both China and South Korea, public reactions to Abes gruesome killing were heavily marked by the word but. As one Chinese commentator noted, No doubt Abe, especially during his first term as prime minister, did a few things beneficial to China-Japan relations but overall, he was a far-right, staunch anti-China politician.

While far-away foreign leaders rushed to send their sympathies as soon as the news of the brutal killing of Abe spread, Chinese President Xi Jinping and incumbent South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol reacted relatively slowly. While the two leaders did maintain diplomatic protocols, they took time in conveying condolences and personal sympathies to the aggrieved family. Similarly, while some of Japans closest allies and partner countries observed one day of flying national flags at half-staff to honor the assassinated global statesman, those reactions were starkly at variance in Japans two closest neighboring countries.

Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific.

The lack of reverence for the late prime minister was a reflection of Abes having repeatedly angered the Chinese and Korean people with his visits six in total to Yasukuni Shrine.

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The shrine honors Japanese war dead including 14 designated war criminals and the affiliated museum glorifies the Japanese militarys actions during World War II. Conservative, right-wing Japanese politicians visits to the shrine are perceived in China and the two Koreas as glorifying Japans war of aggression. A visit to Yasukuni Shrine also serves the purpose of reminding China and the Koreas that Japan continues to be proud of its colonial past.

Abes Relations With South Korea

Just as President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol was preparing to send a goodwill delegation to Tokyo in late April, indicative of a potential turnaround and departure from the outgoing anti-Japan Moon Jae-in government, Abe paid a visit to Yakusuni Shrine. At the time, Abe was out of office yet remained the most influential voice in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The Korean government expressed regret over the provocative move and urged Japans responsible figures to face up to history and show humble and genuine reflection on history with appropriate actions.

On three contentious issues the people of Korea feel most sensitive about Koreans forced into labor by Japan during the war, Korean women coerced into sexual slavery as comfort women, and Japans adamant, rigid defense of distortion of history in its textbooks Abe unabashedly downplayed the Korean sentiments. While he was prime minister, he not only downplayed the extent to which Japan used Koreans as enslaved labor, but he even suggested that the Japanese colonization helped modernize the Korean Peninsula. Additionally, throughout his tenure, his government denied Japan had forcibly recruited Korean (and other) comfort women or that they were sex slaves.

As a sign of how strongly the Korean people feel about this issue, it is important to recall that, since 1992, a crowd has gathered once every week in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, demanding that the government in Tokyo acknowledge that the imperial Japanese military forced Korean women into sexual enslavement during World War II.

Chinas Relationship With Abe

Abe was even more disliked in China than in South Korea. As mentioned, the Abe governments policy of denying Imperial Japans war crimes and refusal to acknowledge the forced recruitment of comfort women and enslavement of hundreds and thousands of Asian men as slave labor caused fury in China as well, as many Chinese were also victims.

Moreover, owing to the century-old feud between China and Japan, few Chinese people felt deeply sad about Abes murder. Some Chinese social media users even welcomed the news of his death with open joy.

However, what did not get mentioned in the international press is that some Chinese intellectuals also cited the Confucian classic Book of Rites and asked fellow citizens to view Abes death with rationality. Furthermore, the news of Japan-based Chinese reporter Zeng Ying crying bitterly while breaking the news of Abes assassination was widely circulated in the Chinese media even though some harshly criticized her for it on Weibo, Chinas largest social media, calling her unpatriotic.

Nevertheless, people in China, in general, are not in mourning over Abes killing, and they rationalize it for the following reasons. First, as one Chinese commentator pointed out, the joy of [some] Chinese toward Abes death shows their true feelings about Japan.

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More specific to Abe personally, he was known to most Chinese as a far-right nationalist closely connected with the Japanese ruling class remilitarization drive. As prime minister, Abe not only did not apologize for Japans war of aggression against China, but he also downplayed the Nanjing Massacre, or Rape of Nanjing (1937-38), when Japanese soldiers rampaged for over a month and a half through the then-Chinese capital city, killing an estimated 300,000 Chinese.

For many Chinese, though, more than Abes defense of Imperial Japans military brutalities, his more recent anti-China belligerence was a cause for concern. Abe challenged the One China policy by working to increase ties with Taiwan and suggesting Japan would become involved in any cross-strait conflict. He advocated introducing U.S. nuclear weapons to Japan in order to thwart the threat posed by China. He also exerted all efforts to achieve constitutional reform in the Diet, including establishing the legality of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) and the eventual abolition of Article 9, in order to more aggressively coordinate with U.S. war preparations targeting China. While Abe did not succeed at this last point during his tenure, the current government is well-positioned to achieve his dream.

To conclude, Seoul now has a newly elected leader willing to put aside past acrimony toward Tokyo and keen to join a Japan-South Korea-U.S. security alliance aimed at containing China. Yet Abes strain of historical revisionism could still scuttle that. The South Korean government is not willing to interfere in the lawsuit filed against Japanese companies by Koreas wartime forced laborers, as Japan is demanding.

On the other hand, the majority of Japanese affairs specialists in China believe Abes passing away will further strengthen the conservative trend in Japanese politics. Pointing out that since stepping down in late 2020 Abe proactively continued his belligerent attitude toward China, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) researcher L Yaodong pointed out that Abes visit to Nara [the city near Osaka where he was fatally shot] was to promote the ruling Liberal Democratic Partys constitutional revision program.

After Abes death, some in China might have been quiet simply out of cultural etiquette, recalling the ancient saying: When there is a funeral in the neighborhood, dont sing work songs when pounding rice, and dont sing in the alleys. But there is no denying that in China and South Korea, Abes death evoked little sympathy or empathy for a leader the whole world is eulogizing.

Originally posted here:
Abe Leaves Behind Complex Legacy in Japan's Neighborhood - The Diplomat

"One of the other firsts that we've done here at General Motors is we put the first lunar rover on the Moon," said Brent Deep, chief developmental engineer for the joint program between GM and Lockheed Martin. "We're proud to be able to supply the first rover [...] It's very humbling for me to be a part of [the rover's history], and to look at what [the Lunar Roving Vehicle engineers] did back in the Sixties to develop that rover for a really unknown environment."

Fast-forward to today, GM and Lockheed Martin are gunning for the big contract with NASA to build the Lunar Terrain Vehicle. Unlike the partnership between the General and Boeing, which was more to determine if driving on the Moon was even possible, the new partnership takes the knowledge gained from the LRV as part of the foundation in building a ride for the long-term. After all, the main mission of the Artemis program is to establish a base of operations on the Moon's South Pole, the first step in the push to colonization of the Solar System and beyond, with Mars as the next step.

Of course, it's going to take a lot to get there from here. Luckily for GM and Lockheed Martin, the key piece of the puzzle is already being drip-fed into showrooms. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here; we've got a simulator to check out first.

Original post:
Moon Off-Roading In The Wild GM Electric Car That Makes Hummer EV Look Normal - SlashGear

In a new collection of poetry, Open Zero, Pakistani-American poet Sophia Naz explores her grief over the loss of her Glen Ellen, California, home.

In 2017, dangerous wildfires raged across California, burning forests, businesses, and houses, including the one where Naz lived with her husband and son.

Yale Climate Connections talked with Naz about how she uses poetry to process her personal tragedy and to reflect on the consequences of climate change.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Yale Climate Connections: Tell me a little bit about your home.

Sophia Naz: Glen Ellen is a tiny little village. Its nestled in the beautiful valley called the Valley of the Moon. Its also part of the wine country of California. And we fell in love with this house because it was kind of a tree house. All the trees were growing all around it, and some of them were growing through its decks, so we were attracted to it. And so we bought this place in 2010 and then in 2017 is when the wildfires struck.

YCC: Can you tell me what happened when the fires came through?

Naz: I usually work at night, and I had built a little office cabin across from the main house where I was sitting and working. And around 10 oclock at night, when I opened the sliding glass doors, there was a very strong smell of smoke in the air. But I couldnt see any smoke. And I checked my phone to see whats going on, but there was no alert. Sometimes there are wildfires, but theyre far away, and the smoke comes from far away. So in the absence of an alert, I didnt know what to do, so I didnt do anything. I went to bed, but I couldnt really sleep, felt a bit restless.

And then around 2 oclock in the morning, the fire truck came up our lane with the megaphone saying, The fires coming at your home, and you need to leave. You need to evacuate right now. So I woke up our son, whos 14. And then we piled into the car and we left, and that was the last time I saw my home.

YCC: When you went back, was there anything left?

Naz: No, not of the house. I work as a healer. I work in traditional medicine from India. So we had renovated our old barn into a wellness center. So that was untouched by the fire. And we had a yurt on the lower part of our property. That had not been burned. And the swimming pool was there. But that was all that was left.

We did decide to, out of sheer necessity because our workplace was not burnt, to move back. And we bought a trailer. And living in the destroyed landscape was really instructive as well. Because then you realize that its not just your home thats been destroyed, its the home of all the living beings. The loss of one life form ripples out and destroys the habitat of all the other life forms.

Left: Nazs home in Glen Ellen, California, before it was destroyed in a 2017 wildfire. Right: The aftermath. (Photos: Courtesy of Sophia Naz)

YCC: Did what you were seeing around you after you moved back begin to work its way into your poetry?

Naz: Absolutely. One part of my book Open Zero is about the everyday ground realities of loss, the changed landscape the burned redwoods, the destroyed manzanitas, all of the ecology that has been so devastated. And in a way, Open Zero, part of it refers to Im living on ground zero of the loss.

YCC: Can you talk about the emotions you began wrestling with after the fire?

Naz: The immediate emotion that one feels is grief, and then the grief gives way to the feeling of loss. And those two are not exactly the same things, because grief is an immediate emotion, and loss a larger perception.

So losing my home to the wildfires, it crystallized the linkages between topics that I had written about previously as separate things like geography, history, politics, migration, racism, feminism, power structures. When you lose your home, it gives you this immediacy, an urgency, and it broadens your perspective.

These things are inextricably linked, because without the colonization of North America, and without the view of the Earth as simply a resource to be plundered and then the idea that you simply needed to remove the obstacles to that plundering, that is, the Native inhabitants without this world view, and without the enormous wealth that white settler colonialism accumulated, you wont have the current dispensation, right? So all of these things are inextricably linked.

YCC: Was writing Open Zero cathartic?

Naz: Of course. Writing is an absolute cathartic process. [Another writer] has said that writing is a way to avenge the loss. Because there are many ways in which one can avenge loss. Some people do it by singing, some people do it by painting. But if youre a writer, one of the most potent means of doing it is through writing, because it is through writing that one can recreate, as if conjuring out of thin air, a landscape that no longer exists. Because it does exist in your mind. And you can bring what exists in your mind, in your memory, and you can put it down on paper and resurrect it again in a way.

Listen: Poet Sophia Naz grieves after a wildfire took her home

YCC: Its been a few years since the fire. Has the landscape recovered?

Naz: In my home, there were 32 large trees. Im talking trees that were over 100 years old. This is not something that can be replaced and certainly will not be replaced in my lifetime. And that is just the devastating truth about climate change, the climate crisis. Behind me, as I speak, is a hillock or mound of earth where my previous house stood. The earth was rendered too unstable to build where it was built before. So we built slightly below it. So as a result, I see this pile of earth, rubble, every day. Theres a few scattered pieces of scrub growing on it, but its a perverse kind of thing. Its only partially covered by the scrub and a few grasses, but it stubbornly remains as a reminder of everything that has gone.

YCC: And knowing that youre still in the midst of this drought, and that climate change is only likely to bring more severe droughts and fires, you still made the choice to stay there. What is it like living there now?

Naz: Honestly, I dont know how long I will be able to sustain this choice, because it is getting more and more worrisome by the day, really. For now, were here and I do love being here, even though its traumatic.

Weve evacuated twice since the initial fire, and its been absolutely terrifying. There is definitely PTSD in in my life at the moment. And honestly, I do think about moving away, because Im not sure that Ill be able to sustain it literally, physically, and psychologically. It continues to take a toll on me, because every time theres a fire alarm, you can imagine what happens to my heartbeat. Its a palpable reality.

It would be a very strange thing to say that loss is a gift. But I think the gift is the realization that every day of your life is enormously precious. And in a way, its all that you have. All that you will ever know is right this minute. And as a poet, that is an enormous gift, because it changes the way that you view everything around you, and your own being, and all your relationships with the environment, with people.

YCC: Is there a poem from your book that youd be willing to share?

Naz: This poem is called After, Math.

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A conversation with a poet whose home burned to the ground - Yale Climate Connections