Category Archives: Space Station

Ajax Axe has heard the apocalypse narrative: The world is on fire. The billionaires are going to space. And the rest of us are doomed.

But what if were not?

People want to take action to secure our best future and to protect the environment, she said. But you know, when it's all doom and gloom, and it's just such a bummer, then people they just disengage, they check out, and so I think when we make it playful, that brings people back to the table.

Thats the concept behind Kairos Futura, the mothership organization for conceptual art initiatives such as the Aspen Space Station that aim to convince people that Earth is still worth saving and that we still stand a chance to actually save it.

Axe, an artist based in Aspen, is director of Kairos Futura, which also involves other artists, scientists and community members.

Our goal is making it so that it's fun and exciting to engage around often very challenging and serious issues, and that's by using play, and by using crazy narratives, Axe said. We have this ability to make people want to participate and to make it easier for people to pay attention to an issue that otherwise might be ignored.

Locally, that effort looks like the Aspen Space Station project, which wraps up a second summer of art installations and live events this weekend.

Dinners, brainstorming sessions, book clubs and happy hours were part of the expanded slate of events this year.

Also featured are an NFT art show at a secret location in the woods, a party on the backside of Aspen Mountain where the theme was Solar Punk and a series of workshops where people carved messages for the future into clay tablets that will be buried for the next 200 years.

Axe said the plan is to register the project with the Aspen Historical Society so theres a record when it comes time to dig them up.

The burial is happening Sunday, by invitation only, along with a full moon future ritual led by local artist Nori Pao.

Pao said she saw a lot of optimism and some introspection in the workshops to make the tablets, where people shared ideas they hope will resonate two centuries from now.

I have always been able to see the joy in the moment in the future, even when things are pretty dark, Pao said.

She recognizes that there is some darkness to the idea of our climate future, but there is also a broad sense of hope, she said.

She encouraged workshop participants to channel that hope, returning to a feeling of childlike curiosity and being present and open.

That perspective can point people toward new solutions, she says.

Quite naturally, when people come together, they tend to have more of a positive outlook, and look at things as problem-solving and solution-oriented, she said, rather than when you're alone, and you feel alone, and you're just, like, ready to give up.

The community element of the Aspen Space Station project bolsters that, Pao said.

If you don't have the energy to keep going, but there's someone to the left of you that does, she said, you feed off each other's energy and kind of keep that high and that curiosity and just willingness to maybe approach things differently.

Axe said that willingness does exist and that she sees a positive outlook as a much more effective mechanism for change than a negative one.

As the Kairos Futura project moves forward, the focus is shifting from messaging to action, she said.

A lot of the programming we've done until now has been about building community and creating awareness around imagining the future and getting the community together to talk about challenges that we have here, Axe said. Now, we want to start to use the momentum we've created to catalyze action so that people are engaging in these issues in ways that are productive.

That was evident in some of this summers events, where attendees were strongly urged to sign petitions for climate initiatives before they could get a drink.

At the solar punk party, for instance, Axe says about 50 to 60 people signed a petition for the CORE Act that aims to protect 400,000 acres of public land in Colorado.

The action is also manifesting in a partnership with Wilderness Workshop, a conservation nonprofit based in Carbondale that is focused on advocacy for public lands.

We're essentially drawing attention to these really important projects that they're working on around conservation, Axe said. And we, as a group of artists, have the power to make these things sexy and sticky in a way that I think is more difficult without creativity.

Sticky, as in engaging, Axe said, at a time when people can get so overwhelmed by information that they end up tuning out rather than tuning in.

It's not that people don't know about these issues, Axe said. It's that they're so overwhelmed by the cascade of information and issues that they just switch off and they don't want to engage.

According to Axe, the strategy is working.

To get into some of the Aspen Space Station events this summer, people had to take a Future Proof exam that asked them how they think about their future and the future of our planet.

Click the most-optimistic, solutions-focused answers, and youll be deemed a Wild Futurist.

Nearly 80% to 90% of the respondents got that result, Axe said.

The apocalypse narrative is growing more and more uninspiring for people, Axe said. People are really starting to challenge the fact that the apocalypse narrative is just so cheap and so easy. And I think if we can find ways to make engagement fun and exciting, I think that that is a way to grow optimism.

She recognizes that not every idea sticks with everyone.

The really crazy stuff that appeals to the younger crowd might not click with older participants, she said.

Reconciling those things together is definitely an ongoing challenge, but one worth taking on, she said. I think bringing community together, though, in a creative way is the most amazing powerful thing.

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The Aspen Space Station keeps the future in its orbit - Aspen Public Radio

NASA's moon-bound CAPSTONE probe is coming under control.

The microwave oven-sized CAPSTONE, which has been in safe mode for a month since an engine burn Sept. 8, finally stopped tumbling in cislunar space following a command from ground control.

The command executed Friday (Oct. 7) resulted in "clearing a major hurdle in returning the spacecraft to normal operations," NASA wrote in an update (opens in new tab) to its Artemis blog. (CAPSTONE is a pathfinder for the planned NASA Gateway space station's orbit, which will support moon operations under the Artemis program.)

The 55-pound (25 kilogram) spacecraft initially entered trouble following "a valve-related issue in one of the spacecraft's eight thrusters," NASA added, noting one of those thrusters was partially open and causing a spin. The team is now moving further ahead on their recovery plan before the cubesat's expected arrival at the moon on Nov. 13.

Related: Why it'll take NASA's tiny CAPSTONE probe so long to reach the moon

After reviewing CAPSTONE's telemetry and other observational information, NASA and the Colorado company Advanced Space (which operates the spacecraft on behalf of the agency) said engineers now have command of yaw, pitch and roll (the three axes of a craft's orientation) to control the cubesat's position in space.

"CAPSTONE now has oriented its solar arrays to the sun and adjusted the pointing of its antennas to provide a better data connection to Earth," NASA said, which presumably will allow further commands to stabilize the spacecraft even further.

The agency hedged its success bets, however, noting the risks of this procedure alone were "significant" and that more tweaks might be needed to stop the partially open thruster valve from interfering again with CAPSTONE's position in space.

Nevertheless, the spacecraft "remains on track" to occupy and characterize a lunar near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), NASA emphasized, to test its stability ahead of Gateway's arrival in a few years.

Advanced Space did several spacecraft tests and ground simulations ahead of attempting the recovery, the company said in its own CAPSTONE update (opens in new tab) on Friday. The company added it is committed to helping the spacecraft along for "upcoming critical events" and to troubleshoot the valve closure "to further reduce the risk of future propulsive operations."

"The CAPSTONE mission team is grateful for the public and private support provided to the team during this challenging phase of the mission." added Advanced Space.

CAPSTONE, short for Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, launched atop a Rocket Lab Electron booster on June 28 and has already overcome another major glitch.

On July 4, the spacecraft went darkshortly after separation from Rocket Lab's Photon spacecraft bus. An improperly formatted command caused the issue and engineers addressed it successfully the next day.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter@howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcom (opens in new tab)orFacebook (opens in new tab).

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NASA's tiny CAPSTONE moon probe has finally stopped tumbling in space - Space.com

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

A 'cataclysmic' celestial couple gone wrong - a star eats its mate

Unlike the lonely sun, about half the stars in our Milky Way galaxy are in a long-term committed relationship with another star, orbiting each another in a celestial marriage called a binary system. Researchers this week described one of these marriages gone wrong - a twosome that borders on the extreme, with the pair whirling around each other every 51 minutes in the fastest such orbital period known for a rare class of binary stars. As part of the drama, one star is eating its companion.

Rugby-Research shows huge spike in MND risk among former international players

A new study looking at the impact of concussion on a group of former Scottish international rugby players has found that they were 15 times more likely to develop motor neurone disease (MND) than the general population. The figure is likely to send shock waves through the sport, which is already embroiled in a legal fight over the link between concussion and early onset dementia and which is scrambling to find ways of reducing incidences of concussion in matches and training at all levels.

Puny critter shows humble beginnings of magnificent flying reptiles

Pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that thrived during the age of dinosaurs, achieved great size - some with wingspans like a fighter jet - and displayed striking anatomy including exotic head crests and a hugely elongated finger to support their wings. While the ancestry and early evolution of these creatures have long puzzled scientists, a fresh examination of remains found in Scotland of a small reptile that lived about 230 million years ago during the Triassic Period is helping shed light on the humble origins of pterosaurs, researchers said on Wednesday.

Nobel prize goes to pioneers of Lego-like "click chemistry"

Scientists Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for discovering reactions that let molecules snap together to create new compounds and that offer insight into cell biology. The field of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry has been harnessed to improve the targeting of cancer pharmaceuticals now being tested in clinical trials, along with a host of health, agricultural and industrial applications.

SpaceX capsule heads to space station ferrying NASA crew and Russian

A SpaceX rocket soared into orbit from Florida on Wednesday carrying the next long-term International Space Station crew, with a Russian cosmonaut, two Americans and a Japanese astronaut flying together in a demonstration of U.S.-Russian teamwork in space despite Ukraine war tensions. A high-ranking official of the Russian space agency Roscosmos said shortly after the launch that the flight marked "a new phase of our cooperation" with the U.S. space agency NASA.

(With inputs from agencies.)

Originally posted here:
Science News Roundup: SpaceX capsule heads to space station ferrying NASA crew and Russian; Nobel prize goes to pioneers of Lego-like "click...

Just shy of one year ago, the Jeff Bezos space company Blue Origin dropped a bombshell.

To date, the rising space tourism star hasn't done much more than carry a couple dozen celebrities and high-net-worth individuals to the edge of space and back -- and has yet to put so much as a satellite in actual orbit. But working in cooperation with privately held Sierra Space, tiny space start-up Redwire (RDW 2.99%), and aerospace giant Boeing (BA -0.17%) as well, Blue Origin intends to form a new company called Orbital Reef -- and build a whole space station in orbit to help replace the aging International Space Station(ISS).

Eleven months later, this project took a step forward when NASA confirmed last month that Orbital Reef passed a system definition review. The agency alsoauthorized the companies to proceed with design work on the station -- and to keep collecting on NASA's $130 million Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations, or CLD, contract for this work.

It's important to note: It is still very early innings on NASA's effort to use private companies to develop alternatives to the ISS before the latter goes out of service sometime toward the end of this decade. Passing the CLD review really just means that Orbital Reef, Sierra Space, Blue Origin, Redwire, and Boeing aren't having their project nixed at an early stage -- and will keep access to the funds they will need to build it.

It doesn't mean they will succeed in building a private space station. It just means they get to keep trying.

That being said, details are starting to firm up on how this project might progress. As SpaceNews reported late last month, the plan is for Orbital Reef to launch its first modules -- the building blocks from which Orbital Reef will be assembled -- in 2027. Assuming at least one of these modules is habitable, it's possible that in as little as five years from now, America could have two operational space stations in orbit around Earth: ISS and Orbital Reef

And there could be more.

In additional to the Orbital Reef team, two other groups are working on similar contracts for NASA. Last year, Nanoracks and Lockheed Martin (LMT 0.45%) received $160 million to design a station concept called Starlab. Northrop Grumman (NOC 0.34%) won $125.6 million for a space station derived from its Habitation and Logistics Outpost module built for the Lunar Gateway. In theory at least, both of these stations should also begin launching by the end of this decade (if not by 2027).

For that matter, predating all of the above, in January 2020, privately held Axiom Space won a $140 million contract from NASA to build, launch, and attach to ISS "at least one habitable commercial module" -- also by 2027.

As SpaceNews notes, multiple critics have emerged to suggest that building a new space station from the ground up in just five, or even eight years, may not be realistic. But here's the thing: By awarding contracts to not just one, not just two, but four separate teams of contractors, NASA has quadrupled its chances of at least one (if not more) of these teams succeeding in their audacious goal to build the world's first private space station in orbit. What's more, because three of these teams have publicly traded aerospace companies involved in their efforts, investors have three separate chances to profit from this effort.

Will Boeing -- former lead contractor in the construction of ISS itself -- lead Orbital Reef to success?

Perhaps. But I wouldn't rule out Lockheed Martin, either. With its expertise keeping astronauts alive in space, derived from its role building the Orion space capsule for NASA's Project Artemis, Lockheed gives the Starlab space station a similar chance of success. And don't forget Northrop Grumman. After all, it's already building a habitable space station of sorts, in the form of the HALO module for the Lunar Gateway station.

As America's best and brightest space companies vie to make commercial space stations a reality, trust that we'll keep an eye on their progress -- and keep you informed which of them are climbing fastest to orbit.

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Lockheed Martin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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3 Ways to Invest in America's Brand-New Space Station - The Motley Fool

NASA's Mars rovers shouldn't expect to detect biomarkers on the surface of the Red Planet, according to a new study based on an experiment on board the International Space Station (ISS) that suggests ultraviolet radiation will break down such molecules after just a year or two.

Both Curiosity and Perseverance utilize Raman spectrometers to identify organic compounds and, potentially, biological molecules on Mars' surface. A Raman spectrometer uses a laser to excite molecules, and then the way these excited molecules scatter light tells scientists what kind of molecules they are. In particular, they are sensitive to organic compounds, which is why they are a key tool for both rovers.

However, new research at International Space Station led by Mickael Baqu of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has placed doubts on how useful the instruments might be on Mars. Because of its thin atmosphere and lack of magnetic shielding, Mars is deluged by a torrent of ultraviolet light from the sun, which can be harmful to biological cells.

Related: 12 amazing photos from the Perseverance rover's 1st year on Mars

Baqu's team exposed a sample of seven different types of biomolecule to Mars-like conditions for 469 days in the Biology and Mars Experiment (BIOMEX), which is installed on the Expose-R2 platform on the outside of the ISS. Temperature, daily light cycles and levels of ionizing radiation were tailored to mimic Mars, and the sample was placed among simulated Mars regolith.

The biomolecules involved in the experiment were all ones commonly found in organisms: -carotene (which is an antioxidant and a pigment that responds to light), chlorophyllin (derived from the chlorophyll plants use to process sunlight), naringenin (a common antioxidant), quercetin (another common antioxidant), melanin (a pigment that provides protection from ultraviolet light), cellulose (a component of cell walls in plants) and chitin (found in bug skeletons).

Ordinarily, Raman spectroscopy can detect all seven of these biomolecules. However, by the end of the experiment, Baqu's team discovered that only three chlorophyllin, quercetin and melanin remained detectable, and even their signal had weakened by 30% to 50%. The ultraviolet light that the molecules had been exposed to had degraded them to the point that Raman spectroscopy could not recognize them.

Importantly, the technique could still detect the biomolecules from a control sample that was shielded from the radiation by deeper layers of regolith. Those detections imply that Perseverance or future rover missions could still identify biomarkers buried in the surface.

"Ultraviolet [radiation] only penetrates the first few micrometers to millimeters of the Martian surface, so organic compounds and potential biomolecules should be protected beyond these depths," Baqu told Space.com. (One micrometer is about 1% the width of a strand of hair; 1 millimeter is smaller than a grain of sand.) Dig a little deeper, and the Martian regolith should provide adequate shielding from the radiation.

Meanwhile, the European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover will take robotic drill to Mars that will be able to dig 6.6 feet (2 meters) down into the surface. That rover's launch has been delayed because a Russian lander was to deposit it on the surface, and Europe will no longer cooperate with Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine. Even facing a launch no earlier than 2028, the Rosalind Franklin rover offers our best chance of finding life on Mars since the Viking missions, scientists say.

If the Rosalind Franklin rover does find evidence for microbial life, then those microbes will have evolved in a very harsh environment.

"The Martian surface appears very deleterious to organic compounds because of ultraviolet radiation, but also [because of] oxidative substances and finally but most importantly for long-term preservation across billions of years ionizing radiation," Baqu said.

Intriguingly, the results differ from those of similar BIOMEX experiments that exposed intact organisms, both living and dead, to similar conditions bathed in ultraviolet radiation. Those experiments found that biomolecules within the organism remain intact. Baqu said he puts this discrepancy down to life's ability to protect its own cells.

"Just as regolith can protect directly exposed molecules from photodegradation by ultraviolet radiation, other cellular components can play the same role in organisms," he said.

The results do mean, however, that Raman spectroscopy may play a lesser role in the search for Martian life, part or present, than scientists expected. Baqu's team conclude that any biomarkers on the surface would degrade within a few years at most, meaning that unless Mars is teeming with enough life to constantly replenish such biomarkers, the surface will appear dead which may or may not be the true picture.

The research was published Wednesday (Sept. 7) in Science Advances.

Follow Keith Cooper on Twitter @21stCenturySETI. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Space station experiment suggests Mars rovers will need to dig deep to find life - Space.com

At the height of the Cold War, large-scale investigations beyond our planet served as the dramatic stage for the post-nuclear era power struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. This anxious tension fueled the early days of the space racecatapulting new technologies, forming space agencies, and laying the foundation for future advancements in nearly every mechanical aspect of our society.

Between the US and what is now Russia, the two nations have long been titans in the space industry, but todays space race has a new challenger. Later this year, China will put the finishing touches on the Tiangong space station, (which translates to Heavenly Palace) the countrys first space outpost. The Chinese National Space Administration launched the first phase of the multi-module station more than a decade ago, and now the stations construction will end with the addition of the laboratory cabin Mengtian, the third and final module needed to complete the compact T-shaped structure. Tiangong station will be Chinas most adventurous space endeavor, the agency states.

Unlike the International Space Station (ISS) which exists thanks to a conglomerate of many other countries and their space agencies, Tiangong will be the only independent space station once in operation, a feat that in all likelihood will heighten geopolitical tensions. The ability to create and support such a fixture in orbit is often a reflection of a nations total global power and influence. Yet, Chinas rsum of successful space enterprises, while certainly not robust, has been surprisingly packed in the decades leading up to Tiangongat the near-end of the 20th century, it had been the fifth country in the world to successfully launch a satellite in space. The newest fire fueling their fierce determination lies in how space science has become intertwined with development, including Chinas national security, economic progress, and their public science and education initiatives.

It hasnt always been unquestioned. It hasnt always been perfectly consistent, says Alanna Krolikowski, a political scientist at the Missouri University of Science and Technology who specializes in science and technology policy. But Chinas leaders have been eyeing space activities for a very long time.

Much of the nations initial push to invest time and resources into the space scene in part stemmed from both international foresight and isolation from many early cooperative space programs. Particularly, in the 80s and 90s, the country faced many domestic and economic challenges (such as the overturning of fiscal and cultural policies that had choked off growth and global commerce), but China quickly realized the space sector would become a very important domain in the years to come, says Krolikowski. Such avid commitment and self-sufficiency towards more advanced space exploration is one of the reasons why Chinas achievements (and at times, their failures) have so often been in the limelight.

In recent years, Chinas frenzied push to increase the scope of their space activities has resulted in a satellite navigation network (strong enough to rival the US-supported GPS system), an unmanned probe to Mars, and the first craft to explore the far side of the moon, Chang-e 4. The discoveries the robotic probes companion, the semi-autonomous Yutu-2 rover, made also could help pave the way for future robotic treks of the southern pole of Earths satellite.

[Related: Take a closer look at Tiangong 3]

Simultaneously, the nations commercial space industry is beginning to bloom, as many private ventures are beginning to launch new vehicles like cargo-carrying spacecraft and other satellites. A fully independent space station could act as a launchpad for future endeavors, catapulting scientific inquiry to new heights, including progressing Chinas long-held objective of getting taikonauts (the Chinese counterpart to NASA astronauts) to someday land on the moon. While the station will be a gateway for many planned ventures, Tiangong will be notably much smaller and have less crew capacity than the International Space Station. Despite these constraints, the vessel will still have more than enough room to conduct vitally important scientific experiments.

Along with the second module, Wentian, the newly-added Mengtian module is a nearly 60-foot-long pressurized laboratory where researchers will be able to conduct microgravity experiments as well as other physics and aerospace technology research for human exploration. Tiangong will also allow China to explore mutually beneficial partnerships with other countries. Once in action, the station will support over 1,000 experiments during its lifetime, many of which were submitted from researchers all over the world.

Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard and Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and an astronautics historian, is especially interested to see how well the station will support Xuntian, the Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST). While Xuntian is reputedly said to be a counterpart to the Hubble Space Telescope, because its field of view will be 300 times greater than the 32-year-old observatory, McDowell says its actually more similar to NASAs upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

This new generation of telescopes looks at a much larger area of sky at once, perhaps in somewhat less detail [than Hubble or the James Webb Telescope], McDowell says. Its mapping out large areas of the sky, rather than looking at things you already know are there and sort of probing with precision.

[Related: With a new set of cracks, the ISS is really showing its age]

Itll be a while before either telescope is ready to gaze into the abyss, but what is obvious is that many of Chinas projects follow a deliberate pattern of replicating whats already been achieved, applying the lessons learned by their competitors to advance and improve their own designs. For example, from the outside, Tiangong station is a near identical copy of Russias Mir space station, which survived nearly 15 years in orbit before breaking up over the southern Pacific Ocean in 2001. One glaring difference in Chinas design is the addition of a nearly 20 foot-tall robotic arm that will be able to move different modules around as well as provide support for other spaceflight activities. As Earths atmosphere begins to get more crowded with human-made refuse, Chinas past issues with uncontrolled rocket debris will also have to be better addressed if the agency wants to support sustainable space exploration. While there are no public plans on how the country will handle these concerns going forward, the nation is still the first and only to test experimental space debris mitigation technologies.

At present, NASA is banned from collaborating with China or Chinese-owned ventures, including providing funding and any other operational partnerships. Future collaboration between Tiangong and the ISS is also highly unlikely, given that any international scientific effort would at least in part be headed by the US. Given the United States tendency to take charge in its international operations, China may be wary of joining a partnership that the US has so much pull over, says McDowell.

However, the station is very attractive to a lot of international partners that dont have such comprehensive space programs, says Krolikowski. Not just developing countries that want to participate in a smaller way or in a supporting role, but even major European countries, can find attractive areas of cooperation with China.

Still, while the nation may be behind in adopting the dos and donts of responsible space practices, many in the political and scientific community are optimistic that as Chinas presence in the cosmos grows, theyll begin to catch on.

As time goes on and as they mature as a space power, says McDowell, theyll also mature in the sense of being good space citizens.

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How Tiangong station will make China a force in the space race - Popular Science

The Aspen Space Station continues its astonishing run of artistic expression around the Roaring Fork Valley with new programs being introduced in very late summer and into the fall. Self-deprecatingly described benign dictator of the endeavor artist Ajax Phillips recently invited a group to participate in the newest offering, a blend of culinary and performance art presented as The Wild Food Lab.

Attendees were picked up by artist and Aspenaut Axel Livingston at the base of the property. As we drove up through the forest on the backside of Aspen Mountain, we observed the flora and fauna alongside the winding, steep dirt road; those were the forest floor items that would eventually land on our laps for dinner.

The group of about 12 participants who registered in advance for a nominally priced ticket were greeted at a small cabin at the top of the hill. The cabin is one of several unique structures that dot the dozens of acres nestled beneath a variety of large-scale sculptures and the now-ubiquitous sign the property and art exhibition are known for, which reads, EARTH IS SEXIER THAN MARS.

Led by Phillips, a group of artists, activists and design thinkers, alongside other supporting organizations and donors, have formed a network called Kairos Futura. It operates within the framework of the existing Aspen Space Station project, hosting events, both educational and social in nature, as well as exhibitions and art-making exercises. Wild Food Lab pairs these creative concepts with a duo of local chefs, Brian Mallon and Jeff Porterfield of Stick & Bindle, who, on Aug. 22, led our group of dinner guests through the hunting, gathering and preparing of a foraged meal over open flame (and over enriching conversation about art, sustainability and planning for our collective future).

We imagine a food scene that is truly celebratory of the bounty right in our backyard, said Mallon about their partnership with the Aspen Space Station. The theme of this years Space Station is particularlyresonant for that very reason it is easy to imagine a future where climate or political disruptions mandate a return to local economies, and while that mandate can seem frightening and suggest scarcity, I have found in my time farming that the inverse is true. There is an abundance of food, art, music and communal joy when we slow down and work with our surroundings.

Phillips agrees.

How do we forge a local, sexy future? Food is a part of that, she said, while adding logs to the fire, which would eventually become the groups cooktop and continual source of heat on the rainy evening. We are building our own futurist movement.

Her curated and committed community helps create visions and solutions for the future, and how we eat is an essential piece of the puzzle, she said. Its all about adaptability.

Our crew of Almost Aspenauts ventured down one of the trails from the dinner prep station and went on a guided hike, led by Mallon and Porterfield, but not before the two chefs one a former farmer, the other previously a sous chef at Bosq gave the group a detailed rundown of many of the plants and flowers wed both discover, and eventually eat, throughout the adventure. Details included a brief lesson on what to look for when foraging for mushrooms (expert advice: dont go without an expert in tow), the fact that fireweed is as delicious as it is beautiful (the leaves are lemony) and how the weather, water, warmth and other factors affected both what was gathered that night and created considerations on how to build sustainable, adaptable eating practices in the future. After about 40 minutes of hiking, we were ready to return to the outdoor kitchen to enjoy a vegetarian feast of Asian-style noodles in vegetable broth and homemade chili oil, topped with foraged accoutrements.

Mallon and Porterfield brought pre-made pasta dough, mixed with vegetable ash, which turned the noodles (hand-pulled by the group) as black as squid ink. Boiled in water alongside cabbage, celery and scallions, they were tossed in bowls, topped with a combination of garlic paste, Sichuan chili flake and gochujang (a mild Korean chili flake), then topped with boiling oil to create an aromatic, spicy but not too spicy broth. The foraged ingredients were incorporated just before eating. In addition to the fireweed, the team added wild vetch (a cousin of the pea tendril), yellow coral mushrooms, lambs quarter, cow parsnip and dandelion all picked that day literally in Phillips backyard.

Everyone ate, then ate a second helping (or maybe that was just me), and discussed the overall mission of Kairos Futura and the Aspen Space Station, which plans on more Wild Food Labs in the coming weeks and months, as well as additional events, such as a party with edible art in late September and a Prophecy Future Ritual in mid-October.

We want to imagine a future that may look more like our ancestral past, when we are determined to work with and appreciate the Earth, said Mallon.

A delicious vision, indeed.

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Wild Art: The Aspen Space Station crew feasts for art's sake - The Aspen Times

Companies and engineers are ignoring facts because they do not fit with their thinking and interests, the former director general of the European Space Agency has said in a sombre speech.

Jean-Jacques Dordain, who led the agency between 2003 and 2015, said in a speech at the Starmus space conference that humans must change the world according to reality, not according to short-term wishes.

In a stark reflection on humanitys development, Mr Dordain told how the population of the planet has gone up by a factor of three since he was born, but that the consumption of electrical resources has increased by a factor of 20, and that there are limits to the finite world we are on despite people treating the Earth as if it was an infinite planet.

He added: Everything has changed, but unfortunately the human point of view has not changed.

Mr Dordain said that he was still an optimist, noting that the International Space Station has been a key signifier of the cooperation that humans can achieve.

This is a baby Earth, he said, we have six crew members living and working together. They have to trust each other and rely upon each other. And they are living with limited resources. They have to recycle those resources this is a most fantastic laboratory by which we can try and teach the humans on planet Earth.

However, his comments come shortly after Russia has said that it will leave the ISS in 2024 following tense a geopolitical situation caused by its invasion of Ukraine. Many western countries, including the US and UK, have been assisting Ukraine with funds and weapons to help the country defend itself.

Last month, Russia unveiled a model of a new space station known as the Russian Orbital Service Station or ROSS, which is expected to be finalised by 2035.

Nasa and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, has said that astronauts can continue riding Russian rockets and Russian cosmonauts can still travel to the International Space Station until SpaceX begins transporting spacefarers this autumn.

Space can help, but we need to teach humans. And you can help. And you have no excuse, Mr Dordain concluded.

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International Space Station must be treated like a baby Earth says former European Space Agency chief - The Independent

A video of an astronaut climbing back into a spacecraft is drawing ridicule from Instagram users who believe Earth is flat.

In the clip, as a line from the Red Hot Chili Peppers "Californication" plays "Space may be the final frontier, but its made in a Hollywood basement" a spacesuited astronaut climbs back into an entrance and grabs at what looks like a soft, pliable material to cover a hole accessing space.

"Look at that airtight flap!" a description of the video recently shared on Instagram says. "Go NASA! Space is fake. Research flat earth."

The Instagram post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The footage is authentic, a NASA spokesperson confirmed for PolitiFact in an emailed statement. It shows a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station. But the suggestion that it shows a large-scale game of pretend is wrong..

The flap visible in the video is a fabric flap that protects the space stations hatch from environmental hazards such as debris and solar radiation.

Unlike the fabric flap visible in the video, which opens outward and closes inward, the space stations hatch opens inward, so it can be opened only when the airlock, a resealable airtight compartment with two doors, is in a vacuum, the statement from NASA said.

"Otherwise, the air pressure inside would hold it closed," NASAs statement said of the hatch.

That hatch isnt visible in the video because its inside the airlock, according to the NASA statement.

The agency also rebutted claims that the earth is flat.

"Humans have known that the Earth is round for more than 2,000 years," NASA said in the statement. "The ancient Greeks measured shadows during summer solstice and also calculated Earths circumference. They used positions of stars and constellations to estimate distances on Earth. They could even see the planets round shadow on the moon during a lunar eclipse."

Today scientists use GPS and satellites to measure Earths size and shape.

We rate claims that this video proves space is fake Pants on Fire!

RELATED: NASA photos of the moon and Earth show that "space is fake."

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No, this video doesnt prove space is fake - PolitiFact

The International Space Station delights us with unique and high-quality images of the Earth. Here is a profile to enjoy them. 09/11/2022 16:00

The International Space Station (ISS) is, without a doubt, a highly relevant data collection center for the worlds main space agencies. For years, it has become a structure capable of carrying out important missions on climate change and other proposals for the investigation of the Universe. With the passage of time, in the same way, it has been possible to carry out a taking of images of all kinds and of all areas of the Planet.

Due to its high installation and maintenance cost, we are faced with a set of rooms that require control, mainly by NASA and the European Space Agency. Countries like China are creating their own spatial structures, which can cause great competition in the medium and long term, also, in the field of space research. Be that as it may, are we facing a key moment at the gates of the possible arrival on the Moon, for the second time, or on Mars?

There is a portal where you can see images with a great quality of detail about the globe in which we live. The International Space Station, thanks to its altitude, allows you to see the sphere perfectly, at the same time as an analysis of the situation of forests, seas and mountains is being carried out. It draws particular attention, in the night spaces, where the main social areas of the world are concentrated.

Thanks to the International Space Station it is possible to enjoy a set of incredible images on Earth. We are, without a doubt, before a space on the Internet that is responsible for collecting all the snapshots. In addition, they are available in all size quality, with an option to increase the zoom. Do you like to see what you can find when accessing this curious profile of the Flikr social network? Heres one of so many photographs that you can enjoy on our Planet.

The International Space Station is a constant hotbed for imaging the Earth. Image: Flickr

As can be seen, we are faced with excellent quality photographic material that stands out, above all, for its great level of detail. In these shots you can see information that is later used to check water levels or, simply, to know how people work. Activities such as those related to the timber industry in Brazil allow us to see, for example, how the uncontrolled felling of trees can affect the future of the Earth.

One of the most striking curiosities of this platform is that you can see, for example, the contrast between the various societies present in the world. A clear example is shown by South Korea and North Korea, whose policies clearly differ from each other. The communist part has a very poor level of technology, something that can be clearly seen at night. On the contrary, an advanced society in its neighbor to the south allows you to enjoy a much more illuminated space.

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Here you can see the best shots of the Earth from the International Space Station - Gearrice