Category Archives: Transhuman News

When news of China becoming the second nation after the United States to land a rover on Mars reached us, some were quick to slam what is otherwise a tremendous achievement for a country that is relatively new to this whole space exploration thing. And others wished the small Chinese rover all the worst, betting it wont be long until it breaks down.

For all intents and purposes, the Zhurong is now a few days past its expected demise date. But just a few days seem to be enough for the Chinese to dream about exploring Mars further, now that theyre there and have a working machine on the surface.

In the time it spent on the planet, the rover recorded according to CNSA about 10 GB of data about the planet, and covered a distance of roughly 900 meters (2,953 feet), completing all of its tasks in the process. Those numbers will likely increase, as the things operators here on Earth will now point it at an ancient coastal area of Utopia Planitia.

Come mid-September, the rover will be put to sleep until late October due to the anticipated disruption of its communications with Earth caused by solar electromagnetic radiation. After that, it is expected to resume normal operations.

Since the exploration of the Red Planet began, humans landed six rovers on the planet, five of which belong to the United States. No matter how you feel about it, more nations achieving the same can do nothing but advance our common goals, which are in the mid-term the discovery of signs of life there, and in the longer term the colonization of the planet.

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Chinese Zhurong Rover Is Killing It on Mars, Exceeds Life Expectancy and Keeps Going - autoevolution

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Find out why this 3D printer is special.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Written by RJ Pierce

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

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

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

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

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

Related: Why satellites need cybersecurity just like you

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photos by Christopher Coppezielloo

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

THROUGH AUGUST 29, 2021

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Walden Is Where You Find It - womanaroundtown.com