Category Archives: Transhuman News

By John Moriarity

Elon Musk has been talking about colonizing Mars for years. He said he only needs about 60 years to create a self-sustaining civilization there with a million people, and every time I turn on the tube I see another one of his rockets doing amazing things. But let me ask you this, Mr. Musk: Once I get to the Red Planet, where in Gods name can I find a decent cup of coffee?

Here on Earth coffee is the second most valuable commodity, after oil. Over 2.25 billion cups are consumed daily. If coffee were to suddenly disappear, a global panic would surely follow, shortly after sunrise. We simply love the stuff: Here in the U.S., 70% of the population starts the day with a cup or two or three.

Ive got coffee on the brain and in it too. I run a coffee shop in Old Towns Fontaine Caffe & Creperie where I serve some of the worlds finest coffee under my brand Roastee Toastee Coffee. I source it, roast it, brew it and sometimes add latte art, such as flowers and hearts, into ceramic cups of it. My company began in 2018 when I asked the same question I offer to Elon: Where do I get the good stuff?

This coffee question isnt easily answered. In fact, Ive found that the big players in coffee have blitzed us with propaganda and marketing for a good 100 years or so, to the point where most folks dont even know what a good cup of joe tastes like.

Lets start with a few crucial basics.

First, in order to have great coffee, you must have great beans. These beans often grow at high altitudes in volcanic soil in far-flung, off the beaten path locations, like the jungles of Guatemala or high in the mountains of Kenya.

For you DIY types that think you can do it all, you cant grow Arabica coffee shrubs in your home garden, unless you live in Kona, Hawaii, in which case Im inviting myself over to your place for a few months to help you kick-start the venture.

Even if you have the good beans and have figured out which types taste the best out of the more than 6,000 Arabica varietals, those beans need to be roasted properly to bring out the proper flavors. The alchemy that turns coffee cherry seeds into grindable, brewable beans is known as the Maillard reaction, named after French chemist Louis Camille Maillard. In 1912, Maillard scientifically identified that when roasting coffee beans, caramelizing sugars begin to combine with amino acids to form delicious molecules called melanoidins. I could go on, but I feel like I might bring on a feeling of chemistry class deja-vu. The takeaway here is that melanoidins taste darn good.

Brewing coffee is all about extraction. To take top-notch beans and transform them into a magical elixir in your cup, you must have the proper dose or amount of coffee ground to a specific fineness and combined with just the right amount of water heated to exactly 200 degrees. The literal scientific term used to describe a properly extracted cup of coffee is known as the tasty point.

It may not be as grand a plan as putting a town on Mars, but I plan to spend the rest of my life striving to find the ultimate tasty point. Why dont you join me? Itll be an otherworldly delicious experience, right here on Earth.

The writer is founder of Roastee Toastee Coffee, which operates out of Fontaine Caffe & Creperie located at 119 N. Royal St. in Old Town.

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Foodie: Coffee 101: The beans, the roast and the brew - Alexandria Times

Over the past few years, the battle to get to space has been fought primarily between two men: Jeff Bezos, the Amazon overlord who hopes to regularly propel civilians into suborbital space with Blue Origin, and Elon Musk, the Telsa baron whose SpaceX hopes to one day colonize Mars. (Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is in the mix, too.)

But what about Tom Sachs?

The American artist may not own a rocket company, but he has spent over a decade exploring an all-consuming passion for space, starting with the Moon at Gagosian in 2007, and onto Mars at Park Avenue Armory (2012) and Jupiters moon (2016). In September, he opened Space Program: Rare Earths, an experience at Hamburgs Deichtorhallen Museum that leads visitors through a series of tasks mimicking the mining rare minerals on earths closest asteroid, which are needed to continue to manufacture iPhones. More recently, he launched a capsule collection with the Canadian retailer Ssense, a sponsor of the Deichtorhallen show. The selection includes mottled ceramic mugs, folding chairs, T-shirts, a Casio watch, and more, and released last week on a microsite that allows visitors to get a sense of the project remotely. Concurrently, the Montreal store is hosting an installation of Sachs's works, and distributing a limited edition zine.

A compelling contrast driving Sachss space projects is that while space exploration is aesthetically defined by technological innovation, Sachss art is characterized by an obsession with handwork and human imperfection. Those with even a passing interest in fashion and art will recognize his handwriting, which covers his studio, films, and fashion collaborations, and pieces in a recent exhibition are made of materials like foam core, plywood, and hot glue. The best made thing ever is clearly the thing were using right nowthis phone, the supercomputer that, If its in the palm of your hand, can do endless things, he said over video chat last week. And yet the phone has no evidence that it was madetheres no sign of the hand, no sign of its construction from human work. It is utterly automated. Or, as Sachs put it, One of its greatest achievements is that its miraculous. Theres no seams. Even the software is designed to make it look like its there without even knowing it.

Sachs likes to show the seams, which is what separates art from the machine. Artists have an advantage over industry, in that Apple could never make anything as flawed, and as personal, as my sculpture, he said. It can't do fonts. [Artificial intelligence] can't do music. It makes noise that sounds like music, but it can't do it. It cant make soul. And the artist has this advantage. The artist can say, I am somebody. I exist. And thats a quality that I'm always trying to amplify in my work.

That quality is further amplified by the pieces created with Ssense, which is known for its unorthodox collaborations but envisions the Sachs project, and its attendant website, as a first-of-its-kind digital counterpart to an art exhibition. Im interested in making things that last, Sachs said. The $10 T-shirt you wear once is the most expensive T-shirt you could own. And the $100 T-shirt you wear a thousand times is the best value you could ever make. And I think all the products we made with Ssense have that quality. Everything, he pointed out, is made in the United States; hes particularly proud of the quality of the shirts. His favorite piece is a Leatherman, the Rolls Royce of pocket knives. I hope that everyone who gets one uses it, he said, [and] doesn't have it on a shelf, but they use it and they fuck it up, and if they break it, they fix it.

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Tom Sachs Is Winning the Space Race, With Merch to Match - GQ

The creation of factories in space is not a whim of billionaires detached from reality, but projects that are gradually developed and bearing fruit. Like Jeff Bezos, president of Blue Origin, which aims to send polluting industries into space, space research firm Varda Space aims to be the first to build a factory in space through a partnership with SpaceX, which should be as early as 2023.

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An industrial plant in space? Varda Space may seem far-fetched there is no shortage of space on land to design factories but it could lead to the development of industries on the ground.

Fardas interest is in using microgravity to create new materials or advance research into specific products on the International Space Station. According to TechCrunch, for example, we can make bioprinted devices or Semiconductors Even if nothing is announced at the moment because no contract has been signed with the client.

In order to make the flight, Varda Space must find partners to make the flight to low Earth orbit. This is the place SpaceX The latest offering comes in a show of companies looking to send things into space to take advantage of one of their scheduled flights to do so. In short, the two companies are on a journey through space together. When they reach their destination, they separate and each goes to work for himself. In short, a kind of spatial car sharing. A little different from your Sunday trip between Angers and Paris

Varda Space has announced that it wants to move its factory to Falcon 9, Properties SpaceXBefore the start of the year 2023 launchers From SpaceX, it will carry the supplies needed to set up the plant in space. If the companies dont reveal any of the contract terms, we know the machine will spend about three months in orbit testing these new manufacturing technologies.

However, another launch option has been explored using Electron missiles by Lab racket. But Varda Space did not want to put all its eggs in one basket, as the New Zealand company would provide the spacecraft to house supplies, as well as the capsule to return to Earth. A very important capsule since returningAtmosphere It is made at Mach 28 and the material should not break Drop.

In fact, the most complex moment from industrialization to recovery remains the moment of return. Mach 28 times the speed of sound (1,224 km/h). Think of science fiction movies where we see the capsule returning to Earth. Now imagine moving sensitive materials through this uncertain environment while absorbing many outside influences. This will undoubtedly be one of the pivotal moments of the mission.

Unlike other spacecraft specializing in communications or imaging, Varda Space and its Space Factory It does not require a specific task path. It is enough to stay there low earth orbit. Lessons learned during this first trip may enable others to implement. Varda Space hopes to launch a second or even a third by the end of 2024.

A date that remains elusive, allowing other projects to see the light of day. For example, we know that the European Union is working on this topic through the Period project, which aims to develop an orbital station. It will focus on assembling and manufacturing satellites directly from space in partnership with Airbus. Either way, these ambitious projects give us a glimpse into new horizons for industrialists and entrepreneurs from all fields.

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SpaceX launched the first factory in space - Taylor Daily Press

Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has commented that he would like to build cars on Mars before he dies.

According informs Fox Business, during a meeting of Tesla shareholders held last week in Austin, Texas, one of the attendees asked Musk when the company would start assemble cars off earth.

An off-planet factory? I like the way you think, replied the mogul. After admitting that he found it difficult to establish a plant on Mars in the near futureHe noted that he would like to see one before he dies. I do not know what we will have in about 40 years, but if hopefully it will be possible to create such a factory before we die, that would be greathe insisted.

The idea of colonize the red planet Its nothing new to Elon Musk, who aims to build a self-sufficient city of one million people there by 2050. Those people would come to mars on the Starship spacecraft, the reusable interplanetary vehicle that SpaceX is developing.

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Elon Musk wants to see Tesla build cars on Mars before he dies - Market Research Telecast

Scott Morrison has signed a deal with NASA to build a rover that will be sent to the moon. The project will be supported through the Trailblazer program under the Australian Governments $150 million Moon to Mars initiative.

The Australian government is hoping that the Trailblazer program will accelerate the growth of the Australian space industry, lift Australian involvement in national and international supply chains and be an inspiration to the Australian public.

Scott Morrison said, This mission to the moon is just one exciting way that we can create opportunity and jobs for the future, and our government will ensure Australians reap the benefits,. Morrison isaiming to triple the size of the space sector by 2030, adding $12 billion to the economy and creating up to 20,000 high-skilled jobs.

Up to $50 million in funding will be available to Australian businesses and researchers building the semi-autonomous robot that NASA will then fly to the moon. The aim is to collect lunar soil (regolith) containing oxides in the hopes of extracting oxygen. If successful, this mission could lead to establishing a man-made moon base.

The moon rover could make its landing as early as 2026, and if successful, will be the first time Australia makes its presence on its closest solar neighbour.

Finding a source of oxygen on the moon is considered crucial to establishing a sustainable human presence and supporting future missions to Mars.

Colonizing the moon could be beneficial to human civilisation in space as farming at the lunar north pole would provide eight hours of sunlight per day during the local summer, creating more efficient and substantial farming methods.

It is estimated that a 0.5 hectare of farming space could feed 100 people.

By working together with the Australian Space Agency and our partners around the world, NASA will uncover more discoveries and accomplish more research through the Artemis program, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said regarding the deal reached by the two governments.

Artemis is NASAs mission to return humans to the surface of the moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers.

Science Minister Melissa Price was in agreement that this mission would grow our space sector enormously:

With our expertise in robotics technology, NASA wants to partner with us on this project to the moon, creating our own lunar history,.

While details regarding the design remain largely in the hands of whichever businesses or researchers are granted the funding, it is expected that the mission and the rover adhere to the following criteria including, but not limited to:

Further details will be announced when the Trailblazer program guidelines are released later this year, with applications expected to be submitted in early 2022.

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Australia is going to make it to the moon for the first time in history! - Happy Mag

In a new study, researchers led by Jonathan H. Jiang, a scientist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, investigated what humans can achieve over the next few centuries when the subject is space exploration. The results showed that manned missions to moons such as Titan and Enceladus would be within reach of our resources and capabilities by the end of the 21st century, and that missions to other star systems could become a reality by the end of the 21st century.

To that end, the authors projected some of the closest release dates for the first manned missions to places in the Solar System and beyond. Then they created a model with empirical data from space exploration, added to the computational power during the first decades of the space age, the beginning of which is marked by the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1, in 1024. As a result, they got some interesting estimates.

The authors believe that manned missions to Mars can take place until the end of the decade 2020 (Image: Play/Unplash/Mike Kiev)

For the authors, the first settlements could be assembled on Mars by the end of the decade 1996. Manned missions there, to selected objects from the Asteroid Belt, and even to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn could take place before the end of this century. As early as the 23rd century, we could track interstellar mission launches destined for exoplanets up to light-years away. Missions to stars, which are half the distance to the center of the Milky Way, would be possible from the end of the XXIV century.

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Propulsion is a challenge

To reach their destinations, the crew of these missions would have to traveling in vehicles with propulsion systems that allow reaching the speed of light or, at least, approaching it. Without revolutionary inventions in propulsive engineering, human travel and any subsequent colonization to interstellar destinations would be highly unlikely, the authors point out. filter.

This is a theory coined in 1996 by the economist Robin Hanson, who proposed that there must be something inanimate that prevents matter from joining together to form living organisms through abiogenesis, and from reaching a certain level of development. Thus, life in the universe would be doomed to be extinguished by various factors, such as pandemics, climate change, nuclear wars, and various other dangers that perhaps explain why we have not yet found intelligent life out therealthough this is statistically likely to happen.

So, the authors suggest that humans entered a window of danger at the end of Monday World War due to the development and use of the first nuclear weapons. So they believe that the only way to safely close that window would be to become an interplanetary species to ensure our long-term survival. An aggressive and sustainable space exploration program, including colonization, is considered critical for the long-term survival of the human race, they warn.

The article with the results of the study is available in arXiv online repository, no peer review.

Source: Forbes.com, Universe Today

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