Category Archives: Transhuman News

The deadly Australian fires are now so vast, they have spread smoke around the world. NASA astronauts on the International Space Station are closely monitoring and photographing the fires as Australia continues to burn.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch is among those on the Expedition 61 ISS crew to share aerial photos of dust flying across Australia and smoke rising from numerous fires.

Ms Koch, who recently set a new record for the longest space mission by a woman, published a series of fire photos with the caption: Australia. Our hearts and thoughts are with you.

The American crew members post swiftly received thousands of likes, with several users expressing their sadness at the continuing tragedy in Australia.

Twitter user Roman replied to the post: Very sad. If this keeps happening the planet is going to end up just like Venus.

READ MORE:NASA unveils stunning photo of ISS transiting Sun

Other images from the ISS astronaut showed thick dust streaming over the ocean near Australia.

Mr Parmitano said in another tweet: Australia fires: lives, hopes, dreams in ashes.

The Australian fires have killed at least 27 people since September last year, while the inferno is now spewing dangerous smog around major Australian cities.

The US space agency NASA is tracking smoke spreading around the globe, a phenomenon easily visible from space.

Thunderstorms caused by the wildfires are accelerating the smoke plume in its path around the world.

The smoke is forecast to soon return to Australian airspace, according to ABC Australia.

Lisa Harvey-Smith, an astrophysicist at the University of New South Wales, told ABC the resulting smoke can rise at least 10 miles (17km) into the atmosphere and travel relatively unimpeded, above most of the atmosphere and weather.

A NASA Earth Observatory blog post revealed different types of clouds are accompanying the fire smoke plumes, such as pyrocumulonimbus and flammagenitus.

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Australia fires from space: Astronauts send out 'hearts and thoughts' from Space Station - Express.co.uk

Michael D. Shaw is a biochemist and freelance writer. A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, and a protg of the late Willard Libby, winner of the 1960 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Shaw also did postgraduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Based in Virginia, he covers technology, health care and entrepreneurship, among other topics.

Astronauts sometimes face the gravest threats after they return to Earth. Facing depression, alcoholism and substance abuse in general, astronauts are not immune from addiction.

As Buzz Aldrin has explained in his memoirs and interviews, addiction among NASA astronauts is real, prevalent and serious. In an interview with The Telegraph, Aldrin talked about his "lost decade" in the 1970s, when he went through two marriages and worked as a car salesman at a Cadillac dealership in the years following his historic Apollo 11 moon landing. He said he was marginalized and shunned by NASA and the Air Force when he revealed his struggles with alcoholism and depression.

It was not until 2007, when NASA reviewed allegations (since disproved) of "heavy use of alcohol" by two shuttle astronauts within 12 hours of flying, that things began to change. And yet, despite a 1991 law directing NASA to create a policy for alcohol and drug testing of its employees, no such policy was in place in 2007.

Related: 10 ways that astronauts are helping you stay healthy

NASA now has a Drug Free Workplace Program Employee & Supervisor Guide that consolidates several of our previous publications into a single booklet for both supervisors and employees, and is suitable for training. The guide has sections involving testing and privacy, employee rights, mental health services, and more.

More recently, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine ordered a workplace safety review at SpaceX and Boeing, two companies contracted to launch NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, after SpaceX founder Elon Musk smoked marijuana and drank whiskey publicly. Musk's activities happened on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast in September 2018.

"I will tell you, that was not helpful and that did not inspire confidence, and the leaders of these organizations need to take that as an example of what to do when you lead an organization that's going to launch American astronauts," Bridenstine told reporters during a news conference in Washington two months later, referring to Musk's actions. Bridenstine added that the workplace culture assessment would "ensure the companies are meeting NASA's requirements for workplace safety, including the adherence to a drug-free environment."

If NASA wants to be more proactive about workplace safety, the agency should also consider how astronauts deal with depression in space, not only how its workforce could be using drugs or alcohol on Earth. In a live broadcast from the International Space Station on Feb. 7, 2019, Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques said, "The problem you develop here is that everything is a little bit the same every day. It can be depressing sometimes if you're not careful."

Further increasing the risk of substance abuse disorders among astronauts, the medical treatment astronauts may receive for injuries sustained during spaceflight can also be addictive. For example, because back pain is common among astronauts, it is not uncommon for doctors to write an opioid prescription to treat this ailment.

Now, consider that more Americans die from opioid overdoses than car crashes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 47,600 overdose deaths, or 67.8% of all overdose deaths in 2017, were due to opioids.

How we treat opioid addiction or polysubstance abuse, then, is crucial. Take, for instance, the use of ibogaine: a naturally occurring, plant-based psychoactive substance, which, along with medical treatment in general, can help reduce opioid addiction. While not available in the U.S., which is a separate matter involving law and politics, ibogaine is, in my opinion, a credible way to lessen or eliminate opioid dependency.

"While ibogaine treatment is an extremely effective solution for interrupting polysubstance abuse disorders, the full continuum of care is required to maintain lasting abstinence," said Dr. Alberto Sol, an emergency medicine physician and medical director of Clear Sky Recovery in Cancn, Mexico.

As a biochemist, I agree with Sola's statement. I also think NASA needs to focus more on astronauts' vulnerability to injury and opioid dependency, as the physical demands of training for a mission may cause or worsen back pain.

Between acknowledging the existence of a problem and treating it, between screening for alcohol and drug abuse and having a plan to help people who recover from addiction, NASA has a lot to do. Society has a lot to do, too.

Rather than firing or ostracizing workers who have chemical dependencies, all of us can take a giant leap to improve humankind. We can be more candid about addiction, without letting fear of rejection or reprisals hold us back. We can save lives, and offer hope, to those who need it, now more than ever.

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Astronauts and addiction: Ending the stigma (op-ed) - Space.com

Gus Clemens, Special to San Angelo Standard-Times Published 7:55 a.m. CT Jan. 15, 2020

You may have missed the out-of-this-world wine news late last year when a dozen bottles of Bordeaux wine arrived at the International Space Station.

No, this was not a bon vivant venture to pair quality wine with the astronauts desiccated dinners. The bottles are stored in individual custom-designed aluminum canisters with form-fitting foam inserts and redundant O-ring seals. The canisters cannot be opened until the vino returns to Earth after a year in microgravity.

The research project is acronymed WISE (all research projects must have a clever acronym). WISE stands for Vitis Vinum in Spatium Experimentia. Try saying that three times after drinking a bottle of Bordeaux.

In this Saturday, Nov. 2, 2019 photo provided by Space Cargo Unlimited, researchers with Space Cargo Unlimited prepare bottles of French red wine to be flown aboard a Northrop Grumman capsule from Wallops Island, Va., to the International Space Station. The wine will age for a year up there before returning to the Luxembourg company.(Photo: AP)

Wine as a complex multi-component system is a great model for the understanding of these processes, Dr. Michael Lebert, the missions scientific manager and a cell biologist at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, told the publication Unfiltered. The exposure of life to the absence of gravity allows us to provoke an organism in a unique way, which cannot be simulated on Earth.

Twelve identical bottles are stored on Earth. When the WISE bottles return from the space station, experts will test and taste them against the earth-bound bottles to see if the next big thing will be to age your trophy wine in orbit. Yes, the 21st century is shaping up to be weird in so many ways.

Tasting notes:

Gus Clemens(Photo: San Angelo Standard-Times graphic)

Les Dauphins Ctes du Rhne Reserve Blanc 2017: People not really into wine will enjoy. Light vivacity is its major note. $10-14

Mt. Tabor Gewrztraminer, Galilee 2016: Semi-sweet wine from Israel with vivid aromaswhat you expect from gewrztraminerand exuberant fruitiness. $14-16

Lucien Albrecht Crmant dAlsace Brut Ros: Crmant delivers great value in French sparkling made in the traditional method. Do not hesitate to put this on your shopping list. $20-24

P+S Prats & Symington Post Scriptum de Chryseia, Duoro 2017: Smooth, big, bold. Portuguese red blend with extraordinary quality-to-price ratio. $22-26

Gioacchino Garofoli Podium Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Superiore 2016: Outstanding fruit with balancing acidity, minerality, and splash of saline on the lengthy finish. $26

Fort Ross Winery Sea Slopes Chardonnay Sonoma Coast 2017: Silky with tasty chardonnay flavors presented without overlay of oak and butter. Nice saline notes. $27-30

Last round: Coffee gets me started in the morning, but I count on wine to carry me past the finish line in the evening.

Email: wine@cwadv.com. Facebook: Gus Clemens on Wine. Twitter: @gusclemens. Website: gusclemensonwine.com.

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Wine in space? Yep, that's a thing - Standard-Times

File photo of the liftoff of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5-551 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Credit: United Launch Alliance

The sixth and final satellite in the U.S. militarys network of ultra-secure, nuclear-hardened AEHF communications relay stations has arrived in Florida for final preparations for liftoff in March on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, the first of nearly 20 U.S. Space Force missions planned for launch in the first year of operations for the new military service.

A military C-5 transport plane flew the AEHF 6 satellite Saturday from Moffett Field, California near the crafts Lockheed Martin factory in Sunnyvale to the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Ground crews moved the satellite safely stored inside a climate-controlled shipping container to the nearby Astrotech payload processing facility for final pre-launch testing, inspections and fueling.

The launch of the sixth Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite is scheduled for mid-March from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard the most powerful version of ULAs Atlas 5 rocket, known as the 551 configuration, with five strap-on solid rocket boosters and a 5.4-meter (17.7-foot-diameter) payload fairing.

The March launch of the AEHF 6 satellite is next in line for ULA after the scheduled Feb. 5 liftoff of an Atlas 5 rocket with the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, a joint U.S.- European science probe to study the physics of the sun.

The AEHF 6 satellite will be the first major U.S. Space Force payload to launch after the creation of the new military branch in December. It joins five previous AEHF satellites launched on Atlas 5 rockets since 2010, continuing and expanding secure communications services for U.S. military commanders and the president provided by the militarys earlier generation of Milstar spacecraft.

The Space Force is comprised of military units that previously operated under the umbrella of the now-defunct U.S. Air Force Space Command, including space wings that manage launch ranges at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The new Space Force military branch remains part of the Department of the Air Force, and also includes the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, which oversees launch and spacecraft procurement and development programs, such as AEHF, GPS and SBIRS satellites for communications, navigation and early warning missions.

Its an exciting time to be part of SMCs launch enterprise, a Space and Missile Systems Center spokesperson said. We expect eight to 10 National Security Space Launch missions and nine small launch missions in 2020.

The National Security Space Launch missions include flights with operational military and intelligence-gathering satellites on ULAs Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets, and SpaceXs Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launcher family. The small launch missions planned for liftoff this year will primarily loft experimental, scientific and technology demonstration payloads on light-class launch vehicles.

Heres a list of the publicly-disclosed Space Force missions scheduled for launch in 2020:

The first of the Space Forces small launch missions scheduled for flight this year will take off on a Northrop Grumman Minotaur 4 rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia. The Minotaur 4, derived from the militarys decommissioned Peacekeeper ballistic missile, will fire into orbit with a top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, which owns the U.S. governments spy satellites.

The NROL-129 mission on the Minotaur 4 rocket is scheduled for launch from Virginia in March, according to a Space Force spokesperson.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch up to three GPS navigation satellites for the Space Force this year, all from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The first of the three GPS satellites is scheduled for liftoff in April, followed by another GPS mission in the August timeframe. If those two launches occur as scheduled, the Space Force says another GPS satellite could be ready for liftoff in late 2020.

Manufactured by Lockheed Martin, the newest generation of GPS satellites broadcast positioning and timing signals to U.S. military troops, airplanes and naval ships. The GPS network is also used worldwide by civilians for road navigation, commercial air travel, search-and-rescue, and banking transactions.

The first two GPS 3-series satellites launched in December 2018 and August 2019 aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 and ULA Delta 4 rockets.

The sixth flight of the Space Forces X-37B space plane is scheduled for launch in May on an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral. The reusable Boeing-built space plane resembles a miniature space shuttle, taking off off on top of a conventional rocket and returning to a runway landing at the end of each mission.

The May launch of the next X-37B mission is officially designated as the AFSPC-7 mission. An Atlas 5-501 rocket with a five-meter payload shroud and no solid rocket boosters will deliver one of the two X-37B space planes in the Space Forces inventory to an orbit several hundred miles above Earth for a top secret mission expected to last months or years.

The largest rocket in ULAs fleet the Delta 4-Heavy is scheduled for launch in June from pad 37 at Cape Canaveral with a classified NRO spy satellite. The purpose of the spacecraft planned for liftoff on the Delta 4-Heavys NROL-44 mission has not been disclosed, but previous large NRO spy satellites launched on Delta 4-Heavys from Cape Canaveral have been designed to intercept radio and electronic signals for U.S. government intelligence analysts.

The Air Force last year announced new contracts procured through the militarys Rapid Agile Launch Initiative, or RALI, program aimed at securing relatively low-cost launch services with new commercial small satellite launchers.

At least two of the RALI missions are scheduled for launch in 2020.

The STP-27RM mission will carry the Air Force Research Laboratorys Monolith technology demonstration microsatellite into orbit on top of a Rocket Lab Electron booster. The mission is planned for liftoff in the spring timeframe, and will mark the first Rocket Lab launch from the companys new launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Virginias Eastern Shore.

A rideshare launch with multiple small satellites is planned for the summer on Virgin Orbits LauncherOne booster, which is scheduled for an inaugural test flight in the coming months. The air-launched rocket will fire into orbit from a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet after taking off from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.

Two additional orbital RALI missions are also scheduled this year, but their launch vehicles and launch schedules have not been announced. A rideshare launch with multiple experimental small satellites for the militarys Space Test Program is also planned for liftoff this year on an unidentified rocket.

The Space Forces small launch program also plans to perform a Minotaur 1 rocket launch in late 2020 from Wallops Island, Virginia. The Minotaur 1 mission for the National Reconnaissance is designated NROL-111, and no information has been disclosed about its payload.

There are two suborbital missions on the Space Forces small launch manifest this year.

Several more Space Force missions are being readied for launches in the second half of 2020.

ULA will launch an Atlas 5 rocket in the September timeframe with a classified payload for the NRO. The launch from Cape Canaveral, codenamed NROL-101, is scheduled after the departure of NASAs Mars 2020 rover mission on an Atlas 5 flight in July.

Another Space Force mission is also on ULAs Atlas 5 manifest in late 2020, according to a military spokesperson. The AFSPC-8 mission from Cape Canaveral will carry the fifth and sixth satellites for the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, or GSSAP, which is designed to help the military track and observe objects in geosynchronous orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above Earth.

The Space Forces launches on Atlas 5 rockets this year will be scheduled among several other critical Atlas 5 missions on ULAs 2020 manifest. Besides the Solar Orbiter and Mars 2020 launches for NASA, ULA is on contract with Boeing to launch the first piloted flight of the companys CST-100 Starliner commercial crew capsule with three astronauts heading for the International Space Station.

A launch date for the Starliners first crewed mission has not been announced.

Just one Space Force launch is planned this year from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the usual launch site for military surveillance satellites heading into polar orbit.

ULA is planning to launch a Delta 4-Heavy rocket some time between October and the end of the year from Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg with the National Reconnaissance Offices NROL-82 mission.

The fourth flight of SpaceXs Falcon Heavy rocket the most powerful launcher in the world currently in operation is also scheduled before the end of 2020 with the Space Forces AFSPC-44 mission. Little is known about the purpose of the payloads on the AFSPC-44 launch, but officials have indicated the mission will loft at least two satellites into a high-altitude geosynchronous orbit.

The Falcon Heavy will lift off from pad 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the only SpaceX launch site configured to launch the heavy-lifter.

SpaceX is building three new boosters for the triple-body Falcon Heavy rockets AFSPC-44 mission.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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AEHF satellite arrives in Florida for first of nearly 20 Space Force launches this year - Spaceflight Now

Planned for 2022, The Indian Space Research Organisation is on its way to launch the country's first human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan.

According to The Economic Times , ISRO Chairman Dr K Sivan said that once the Gaganyaan mission has been successfully launched, the space agency plans to carry out more manned missions in the future and a space station has also been planned.

In an interview, Dr K Sivan said,

To carry a three-member crew to space, ISRO has designed an autonomous 3.7 tonnes of spacecraft, however, it is likely to have only one astronaut in its maiden human space flight.

Dr Sivan said that for this high-profile mission, four IAF pilots will head to Russia later this month to begin an intensive programme to train as astronauts. For this mission, Russia will train Indian astronauts and build the life support systems in the crew capsule.

Before sending astronauts into space, later this year, ISRO will send a humanoid into space using its most powerful rocket, Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle GSLV-MkIII. To make it suitable for a human, the rocket will be fine-tuned to be safe enough with zero to minimum errors to carry a human on board. This will be the first of the two unmanned missions.

For the human space flight mission, which has been in the works for nearly two decades, India has earmarked over10,000 crores.

See more here:
ISRO Is About To Make India Proud Again With India's First Orbital Space Station By 2022 - ScoopWhoop

When Apollo 11s lunar module, Eagle, landed on the Moon in July 1969, the world media scrambled to cover the momentous occasion. A leading Indian newspaper carried an article, courtesy The New York Times, by the then administrator of US space agency Nasa, Thomas Paine, describing how the lunar surface would accommodate domed cities in the future. It was headlined: Earth-Moon Flights May Become Common Soon".

Paine also wrote that these bases would evolve into self-sustaining communities thanks to the use of modern technology powered by solar and nuclear energy that would find a way to process lunar resources".

While humans havent visited the Moon since 1972, a return mission is now just four years away, with the Artemis programme aiming to land the first woman astronaut there in 2024. It all begins in 2020 though, with space agencies in China and Europe also working on lunar missions. This year is also big on launches for Mars, owing to the favourable alignment of the two planets (the distance between Earth and Mars reduces). Heres a closer look at some of the most exciting space missions slated to launch in 2020.

Nasa Mars 2020 rover

Launch date: July

Nasas Mars 2020 rover mission will take off on the Atlas V rocket, hoping to land in the planets Jezero crater, which was once thought to be a lake. The aim is to take the scientific goals of Nasas Mars Exploration Program to a whole new level. According to Nasa, the new rover comes with a drill that can collect rock, soil samples and store them in a cache on the planets surface. The plan is to get these samples to Earth through a future mission. Apart from studying the planets geology, the Mars 2020 rover will also try to understand if earlier environments on Mars were enough to support microbial life, seeking biosignatures in rocks that are known to preserve signs of life. In addition, the aim is to test oxygen production in the Martian atmosphereimperative to plans for establishing human colonies on the planet. The current rovers design is inspired by the Curiosity rover, which landed in 2012 and is still operational on Mars. The proposed mission has a duration of one Mars year, or around 687 Earth days.

ESA solar orbiter

Launch date: February

The European Space Agencys (ESAs) Solar Orbiterwill take off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in February and aim to perform close, high-resolution studies of the Sun and inner heliosphere. The orbiter will carry its telescopes and other scientific instruments to just one-fifth of Earths distance from the Sun. It will also provide the first images of the Suns polar regions and become only the second spacecraft to study the Sun from close proximity after the ongoing mission of the Parker Solar Probe, which was launched in 2018. The data and imagery collected from the Solar Orbiter could tell scientists more about solar winds and eruptions, and how the Sun creates and controls the heliosphere. The Solar Orbiter is expected to go closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft beforeit will be exposed to sunlight 13 times more intense than what we experience on Earth. In order to protect it from the searing heat, the Orbiters Sun-facing side is protected by a sunshield. According to the ESA, the spacecraft will also be kept cool with the help of special radiators that will dissipate excess heat into space.

Indias maiden solar mission

Launch dates: To be decided

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) successfully launched its GSAT-30 communications satellite aboard the Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana on 17 JanuaryIndias first launch of 2020. But it wont be its last this year. After recently announcing another lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, and sharing big developments on the countrys first manned mission, Gaganyaan, Isro will also launch its first solar mission, Aditya-L1, to study the Suns corona. According to Isro, the Aditya-L1 mission will be inserted into a halo orbit around the L1, or the Lagrangian point of the Sun-Earth system, roughly 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. The missions primary payload is a coronagraph (a visible emission line coronagraph designed by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics), which is like a telescope that can see and capture things close to the Sun. Isro also aims to conduct an orbital test flight of its small satellite launch vehicle, or SSLV, this year. The SSLV is designed to carry small satellites into low Earth orbit and can be assembled within days for quick launches. It is smaller and cheaper than bigger launch vehicles like the PSLV and GSLV.

Virgin Galactic

Launch dates: To be decided

Space tourism is all set to take flight with Virgin Galactic, the commercial spaceline launched by British investor and philanthropist Richard Branson, which hopes to start commercial operations this year. Earlier this month, the company achieved a major construction milestone after assembling all the major structural elements of its second rocket spaceship, which now stands on its own landing gear at the Mojave Air & Space Port in California. According to an official statement, the spaceships assembly team will now work on connecting the vehicles integrated systems, including the flight control systems and fuselage. Virgin Galactic wants to open space travel to private astronauts and researchers. Last year, Nasa also announced that the International Space Station was open to commercial opportunities and hosting tourists.

The idea of space tourism is expected to reel in some big numbers. In 2019, Swiss investment bank UBS estimated that space tourism would become a $3 billion (around 21,000 crore now) market by 2030. The entire space sector, it added in a report, could grow to a staggering $926 billion by 2040. With private space enthusiasts willing to shell out as much as $250,000 per ticket for a seat on the Virgin Galactic spaceships, these numbers dont look far-fetched.

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Watch out for these space missions in 2020 - Livemint