Tag: Space Exploration

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967

My FYI Weekend continues……

I have been writing a lot about space and the new proposed Space Force….and in all those posts I have referenced the outer Space Treaty of 1967…..and now it has come time to explain the treaty and its functions.

But this subject means very little to most people….my posts are not what one would call popular…..that aside I keep writing and posting because this whole idea will cost billions and the taxpayer will be on the hook for the total.

Let us start with my writings so far…..

https://lobotero.com/2019/04/12/space-law/

https://lobotero.com/2019/08/01/do-laws-apply-in-space/

https://lobotero.com/2019/07/16/space-law-part-2/

In 1967 a UN Outer Space Treaty was signed into reality….and for the most part it has been a success…..but is it a treaty for the 21st century?

Space exploration is governed by a complex series of international treaties and agreements which have been in place for years. The first and probably most important of them celebrates its 50th anniversary on January 27 – The Outer Space Treaty. This treaty, which was signed in 1967, was agreed through the United Nations, and today it remain as the “constitution” of outer space. It has been signed and made official, or ratified, by 105 countries across the world.

The treaty has worked well so far but challenges have increasingly started to crop up. So will it survive another 50 years?

The Outer Space Treaty, like all international law, is technically binding to those countries who sign up to it. But the obvious lack of “space police” means that it cannot be practically enforced. So a country, individual or company could simply ignore it if they so wished. Implications for not complying could include sanctions, but mainly a lack of legitimacy and respect which is of importance in the international arena.

https://theconversation.com/the-outer-space-treaty-has-been-remarkably-successful-but-is-it-fit-for-the-modern-age-71381

Trump’s new Space Command and the proposal for a Space Force could the US violate a long standing treaty and by doing so start yet another war….this time among the stars…..

By directing the Pentagon to create a special “Space Force” as an independent branch of the US military to ensure the safety of US spacecraft and astronauts, US President Donald Trump has sparked concern that Washington would ignite an arms race in outer space.

Since outer space is the common property of humankind, China has always advocated its peaceful use and objected to its weaponisation. It also opposes attempts to turn outer space into a battlefield, and hopes all countries will make joint efforts to keep outer space peaceful.

The United Nations’ Outer Space Treaty, which came into force on October 10, 1967, stipulates that no country should take possession of outer space (including the moon and other celestial bodies) by means of sovereign claims, use or occupation, or by any other means. It also says signatory states must use outer space for peaceful purposes and should not establish military bases or facilities, or test any type of weapons or conduct military exercises in outer space or on celestial bodies.

https://www.nationthailand.com/opinion/30348429

So many questions about our extension into space and so few answers…the Treaty of 1967 was not the only document that deals with space and the handling of events……the Moon Agreement….

The Moon Agreement was considered and elaborated by the Legal Subcommittee from 1972 to 1979. The Agreement was adopted by the General Assembly in 1979 in resolution 34/68. It was not until June 1984, however, that the fifth country, Austria, ratified the Agreement, allowing it to enter into force in July 1984. The Agreement reaffirms and elaborates on many of the provisions of the Outer Space Treaty as applied to the Moon and other celestial bodies, providing that those bodies should be used exclusively for peaceful purposes, that their environments should not be disrupted, that the United Nations should be informed of the location and purpose of any station established on those bodies. In addition, the Agreement provides that the Moon and its natural resources are the common heritage of mankind and that an international regime should be established to govern the exploitation of such resources when such exploitation is about to become feasible.

http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/intromoon-agreement.html

Watch a short video that will help explain the “Treaty”……

I spend a lot of time on this subject for space will become more and more important and someone has to use their training to set up parameters….like when a corporation goes to Mars to mine…..they did not sign the Treaty of 1967…..what stops them from raping the planet of resources?

For those that are interested there is a place to go for all the news on Space Policy…….https://spacepolicyonline.com/

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Moving On Up…To The Stars

AS usual I will be posting on the developments with our search for a new home after we blow this one up…..

First, most people interested in planetary exploration knows what is meant by the “Goldilocks Zone”……if you are not one of them then Google is just a click away (look it up)……

But does this “Zone” mean we should think it is a good spot for us humans?

“Any type of planet can orbit in the habitable zone,” but only such Earthlike planets are likely to have liquid water on their surfaces, says astrophysicist Elizabeth Tasker of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. “We all secretly know this, as both the moon and Mars orbit within the habitable zone, but neither have lakeside retreats.”

Why just being in the habitable zone doesn’t make exoplanets livable

Without a proper mode of transportation we humans are stuck on this planet…regardless what we do to destroy it…..why?

Humans will never migrate to a planet outside of Earth’s solar system because it would take far too long to get there, Swiss Nobel laureate Michel Mayor said

Mayor and his colleague Didier Queloz were on Tuesday awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for their research refining techniques to detect so-called exoplanets.

“If we are talking about exoplanets, things should be clear: we will not migrate there,” Mayor told AFP near Madrid on the sidelines of a conference when asked about the possibility of humans moving to other planets.

“These planets are much, much too far away. Even in the very optimistic case of a livable planet that is not too far, say a few dozen light years, which is not a lot, it’s in the neighbourhood, the time to go there is considerable,” he added.

https://phys.org/news/2019-10-humans-migrate-planets-nobel-winner.html  Or  https://thenextweb.com/insider/2019/10/11/why-migrating-to-another-planet-is-a-stupid-and-implausible-idea/

Beyond our chances of migrating to a new home…..we have other space news…..like researchers have found large structures at the center of our galaxy….

There’s something really, really big in the middle of our Milky Way galaxy — one of the largest structures ever observed in the region, in fact. An enormous pair of bubbles in an hourglass-like arrangement is sending out radio emissions hundreds of light-years beyond our galaxy. Scientists aren’t sure how it formed, but its existence will likely teach us more about the supermassive black hole lurking in the center of the Milky Way.

https://curiosity.com/topics/scientists-have-discovered-enormous-balloon-like-structures-in-the-center-of-our-galaxy-curiosity/

Then a researcher for SETI has made an interesting claim…..

A physicist who’s on the hunt for extraterrestrial life says there’s a chance that an ancient alien civilization has been spying on Earth for millions of years.

That’s not to say that he’s suggesting they walk among us, but physicist and independent SETI researcher James Benford suggests that aliens could have visited a rock orbiting the Sun in a path similar to that or Earth, according to Live Science. While such an extraterrestrial visit is extremely unlikely, it’s technically within the realm of possibility that alien tech is sitting on one of those so-called co-orbitals, waiting to be uncovered.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/seti-aliens-spy-orbiting-sun

Speaking of SETI….after all these years of trying why have we not made contact as of yet?

Didier Queloz, a physicist from the University of Cambridge, was named a co-winner of the Nobel prize in physics on Tuesday for his discovery of the first exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star.

Queloz, who calls himself a “planet hunter,” said following the award ceremony that his work has led him to become “absolutely convinced” that humans will detect alien life in the next 100 years.

“I can’t believe we are the only living entity in the whole universe. There’s just way too many planets, way too may stars … the chemistry that led to life has to happen elsewhere,” Queloz in a talk at the Science Media Center in London on Tuesday.

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-contact-with-aliens-2019-9

Now speaking of finding life…..did we find it on Mars in the 70s?

Nasa found evidence of alien life in the 1970s, according to a former senior scientist – and ignored it.

The Viking landers were sent to the Martian surface more than 40 years ago, with the aim of exploring the planet. They included an experiment known as Labeled Release, or LR, which was intended to look for signs of life on the planet.

The results came back in 1976 – and seemed to indicate that something was happening on the surface. Gilbert V Levin – an engineer and inventor who was the principal investigator on the experiment – has now written a long article arguing that those findings were indications of life on Mars, which were ignored by Nasa.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/nasa-alien-life-proof-mars-space-viking-lr-a9156001.html

Finally, I mentioned Mars and the rover has discovered something kinda amazing……an ancient oasis….

NASA scientists believe Mars may have had an oasis environment around 3.5 billion years ago, they said Monday. Evidence of ponds scattered across a 100-mile-wide basin called the Gale Crater was found by the Curiosity rover, which discovered mineral salts mixed with sediment in rocks.

Curiosity is currently exploring each layer of the Gale Crater and Mount Sharp to uncover the history of Mars, which scientists think may have gone from an underwater landscape with deep lakes to an oasis-style series of shallow ponds.

“Streams might have laced the crater’s walls,” NASA said Monday, adding “climate fluctuations” changed the environment from wet to desert. Curiosity had previously found evidence of freshwater lakes on Mars, too.

https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-mars-curiosity-rover-finds-an-ancient-oasis/

My tour of Space News is at an end…..I read and write so you do not have to…..you are welcome.

For your musical enjoyment…..

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Up, Up And Away!

Finally!  Some much needed rain and cooler temps…..and those damn squirrels are eating up my satsuma crop…….

The weekend and I would like to talk about space, a subject that I frequently post……..

Soon we will be going to the stars….not in my life time but soon…..but how will we fuel the ship that takes us to the next world we will screw up?

Will we use some sort of FTL (Faster Than Light) propulsion?  Or maybe solar winds?  How about  a nuke powered space craft?  Then there is the old reliable the “wrap drive”……

First will FTL mean time travel as well?

Time-traveling through space might still sound like a common plot in sci-fi movies today but now some scientists actually believe that the theory is very possible in real life. 

According to a report, a wormhole could make space traveling to very distant regions of the universe happen in an instant. This theory discussing how the anomalies of physics could make time traveling real was recently discussed in a scientific paper authored by physicists from Princeton University. 

The study titled “Traversable wormholes in four dimensions,” discussed how physicists Juan Maldacena, Alexey Milekhin and Fedor Popov have “constructed a traversable wormhole solution in four dimensions.” 

https://www.ibtimes.com/time-traveling-possible-scientists-discover-how-move-through-space-seconds-2837116

How close are we to FTL?

New Scientist is reporting that NASA engineer David Burns is making some bold claims about a conceptual new spaceship thruster he calls the “helical engine” — a concept the magazine admits “may violate the laws of physics.”

“The engine itself would be able to get to 99 per cent the speed of light if you had enough time and power,” Burns told New Scientist.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-thruster-99-speed-light

A page out of a Star Trek script…..wrap drive……

It’s hard living in a relativistic Universe, where even the nearest stars are so far away and the speed of light is absolute. It is little wonder then why science fiction franchises routinely employ FTL (Faster-than-Light) as a plot device.

Push a button, press a petal, and that fancy drive system – whose workings no one can explain – will send us to another location in space-time.

However, in recent years, the scientific community has become understandably excited and skeptical about claims that a particular concept – the Alcubierre Warp Drive – might actually be feasible.

This was the subject of a presentation made at this year’s American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Propulsion and Energy Forum, which took place from August 19th to 22nd in Indianapolis.

https://www.sciencealert.com/how-feasible-is-a-warp-drive-here-s-the-science

How about those solar winds we hear about…..if it can power a satellite then why not a space craft?

LightSail 2, The Planetary Society’s solar sailing spacecraft, has spent more than two months in orbit.

During that time, the bread-box-sized spacecraft deployed a set of silver Mylar sails and began to climb, proving that the small satellite can raise its orbit without a drop of conventional fuel. Propelled solely by the power of the sun, the spacecraft has shown that solar sailing may be a viable means of propulsion. 

With LightSail 2’s primary mission complete, the rest of the spacecraft’s time in orbit — about a year, all told — provides a great chance for folks around the world to glimpse the spacecraft for themselves. According to Bill Nye “The Science Guy” and his team at The Planetary Society, skywatchers around the world can spot the spacecraft as it glides above Earth — if the conditions are just right. 

https://www.space.com/how-to-see-lightsail-2-skywatching.html

That leaves the possibility of using a nuke to power a space craft……

The War Zone has been reporting on a set of bizarre patents assigned to the U.S. Navy that describe radical new technologies that could absolutely revolutionize the aerospace field, and frankly, the very way we live our lives. These include high-energy electromagnetic fields used to create force fields and outlandish new methods of aerospace propulsion and vehicle design that basically read as UFO-like technology. You can learn all about these patents, their viability, and the issues surrounding them in these exclusive features of ours. Now, the same mysterious Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division engineer behind those patents has produced another patent—one for a compact fusion reactor that could pump out absolutely incredible amounts of power in a small space—maybe even in a craft. 

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/30256/scientist-behind-the-navys-ufo-patents-has-now-filed-one-for-a-compact-fusion-reactor

How will we get from Earth to some a waiting craft?

How about an elevator?

A growing number of scientists and space-technology enthusiasts are looking into ways to construct a huge elevator, either on Earth or the moon, that could transport cargo to and from space.

In a study published in September, which has not been peer-reviewed, two graduate students proposed a version of a space elevator that would stretch from the moon to Earth’s satellite-level orbit. They said the structure could be built with current technology.

https://www.businessinsider.com/space-elevator-on-earth-moon-2019-9

We left out “worm holes” and “Ion Drives”……

But now you have an idea/s of how this will work……

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Space Sunday

It is that time again…..time for me to bring my readers up to date on the happenings in space and our soon to be active, Space Force.

Most people could care less but I grew up with Buck Rogers, Rocky Jackson, Flash Gordon, etc……so I like space stuff and after all it is my blog so guess what?  Space News!

Lots of stuff to report…..us space nerds are on the job……

Lots of talk about settlers for the Moon……

It’s the year 3000. Having used up all of Earth’s natural resources, humans have become a spacefaring race and established colonies on the moon. Vast, sealed domes cluster across its surface, housing cities populated by hundreds of thousands of people. This cold, gray rock has somehow become humanity’s new home.

Of course, this is pure science fiction. But no vision of the future is complete without an extraterrestrial colony of humans, and since the moon is the closest celestial body to our planet, it’s the easiest to imagine as our futuristic home.

But does this vision align with reality? Will the moon one day be a hot property, and if so, how many people could its unwelcoming landscape realistically support?

https://www.livescience.com/how-many-humans-could-live-moon.html

Then those settlers will reach out to Mars……where will they call home?

The smaller of Mars’ two moons, Deimos, was named after the Greek god of terror — but the way former NASA flight surgeon Jim Logan sees it, Deimos could be a comfort zone for space settlers.

“The Mars-facing side of Deimos is probably the most valuable real estate in the solar system,” Logan, co-founder of the Space Enterprise Institute, said today at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.

Logan laid out his case for Deimos during a conference on space settlement, presented this week by the Space Studies Institute to highlight the late Princeton physicist Gerard O’Neill’s vision for humanity’s expansion into the solar system.

https://www.geekwire.com/2019/safest-bet-space-settlers-believe-inside-mars-moon-deimos/

Will we ever find life on Mars?

Nasa is close to finding life on Mars but the world is not ready for the “revolutionary” implications of the discovery, the space agency’s chief scientist has said.

Dr Jim Green has warned that two rovers from Nasa and the European Space Agency (ESA) could find evidence of life within months of arriving on Mars in March 2021.

The ExoMars Rover, which has been dubbed “Rosalind” in memory of British chemist Rosalind Franklin, will search for extra-terrestrial life by drilling 6.5 feet down into Mars’ core to take samples.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nasa-mars-life-discovery-space-exomars-rover-chief-scientist-jim-green-a9125076.html

Stay on the topic of Mars……what if “life” is found by the rovers now crawling their way across the planet?

Chief scientist at NASA Jim Green believes we’re just years away from finding life on Mars — thanks to the agency’s Mars rover and the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Rover, both scheduled to launch in 2020.

If the missions find life, Green is terrified of the implications.

“It will start a whole new line of thinking,” he told The Telegraph. “I don’t think we’re prepared for the results. I’ve been worried about that because I think we’re close to finding it and making some announcements.”

https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-scientist-find-life-mars

What about the other neighbor that we do not talk about much….Venus?

It seems that Venus once had a stable environment for awhile…

Venus likely maintained stable temperatures and hosted liquid water for billions of years before an event triggered drastic changes in the planet, according to a new study.

Now, Venus is a mostly dead planet with a toxic atmosphere 90 times thicker than ours and surface temperatures that reach 864 degrees, hot enough to melt lead. It’s often called Earth’s twin because the planets are similar in size. But the modern comparisons stop there.
However, a recent study compared five climate simulations of Venus’ past and every scenario suggested that the planet could support liquid water and a temperate climate on its surface for at least three billion years. Like the other planets in our solar system, Venus formed 4.5 billion years ago.
 
Life and water on Saturn’s moon, Enceladus…….

Scientists just found the most basic ingredients for life bursting from an ocean on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

A new analysis of NASA data reveals the presence of organic compounds in the plumes of liquid water that shoot into space from the ocean below Enceladus’s icy crust.

These compounds, which carry nitrogen and oxygen, play a key role in producing amino acids ⁠- complex molecules that serve as the building blocks of proteins. Without proteins, life as we know it on Earth couldn’t exist.

Scientists have long suspected that the ocean below Enceladus’s surface could harbour the ingredients for life. Researchers had detected other organic molecules coming from the icy moon before, but this is the first time anyone has detected them dissolved in the water.

That’s critical, since it means the compounds could undergo deep-sea chemical reactions that produce amino acids.

My Sunday Space Report……

I Read, I Wrote and now You Know!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Sunday In Space

One of my interests beyond foreign policy is our research into space and space travel. I try to give my readers an up to date look at our progress to get beyond our little blue marble.

This first bit is for my friend Pete of https://beetleypete.com/…..what would happen if aliens showed up in the UK?

If aliens were to be discovered, however, it’s not clear what we would like to happen next. A new survey in the UK carried out by researchers from the University of Oxford sought to find out what the British public would like to happen in the event E.T. did get in touch. In what came close to the cursed 48-52 percent split that has haunted British politics for the past three years, they found that just over half (53.6 percent) of people would want us to respond to communication from aliens. 

https://www.iflscience.com/space/if-aliens-got-in-contact-this-is-how-the-british-public-would-like-earth-to-respond/amp.html

Staying with the alien contact thingy…..

The study, published last month in The Astronomical Journal, posits that intelligent extraterrestrial life could be taking its time to explore the galaxy, harnessing star systems’ movement to make star-hopping easier.

The work is a new response to a question known as the Fermi Paradox, which asks why we haven’t detected signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

The paradox was first posed by physicist Enrico Fermi, who famously asked: “Where is everybody?”

Fermi was questioning the feasibility of travel between stars, but since then, his query has come to represent doubts about the very existence of extraterrestrials.

https://www.sciencealert.com/aliens-may-have-explored-the-galaxy-and-visited-earth-already-new-study-says

We have seen a thousand movies that have some sort of space travel as the subject….but is it really possible?

Interstellar space travel. Fantasy of every five-year-old kid within us. Staple of science fiction serials. Boldly going where nobody has gone before in a really fantastic way. As we grow ever more advanced with our rockets and space probes, the question arises: could we ever hope to colonize the stars? Or, barring that far-flung dream, can we at least send space probes to alien planets, letting them tell us what they see?

The truth is that interstellar travel and exploration is technically possible. There’s no law of physics that outright forbids it. But that doesn’t necessarily make it easy, and it certainly doesn’t mean we’ll achieve it in our lifetimes, let alone this century. Interstellar space travel is a real pain in the neck. 

https://www.space.com/is-interstellar-travel-possible.html

If we venture out among the stars then we will have to live in off planet outposts among the stars……how will we deal with that?

Fifty years ago, a Princeton physicist named Gerard O’Neill asked his students to help him come up with a plan for setting up settlements in space.

Just a few years later, O’Neill published the resulting vision for freestanding space colonies as a book titled “The High Frontier” — a book that helped inspire Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ vision of having millions of people living and working in space.

Now the keepers of the “High Frontier” flame at the California-based Space Studies Institute are revisiting O’Neill’s original vision, with an eye toward updating it for the 21st century.

“The fact is, a lot has changed in the last half-century,” Edward Wright, a senior researcher at the Space Studies Institute, said today at the start of a two-day conference presented by the institute at Seattle’s Museum of Flight.

https://www.geekwire.com/2019/50-years-space-settlement-experts-update-vision-off-planet-outposts/

That sums up the news I have for now……

Now for the important stuff…..daylight and someone is ready for that venture out of the house…

Image

While we are out try some music from Prince……

Space Saturday

Yep that time again….the old professor will force feed some news that has been missed….

Remember a few weeks ago Russia lost a rocket in a horrific explosion……some believe that it was an experiment in nuclear propulsion…..https://lobotero.com/2019/08/19/that-wayward-missile/

And that is the next fuel for space exploration….nukes.

Humanity’s next giant leap could be enabled by next-gen nuclear tech, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said.

During the sixth meeting of the National Space Council (NSC) today (Aug. 20), the NASA chief lauded the potential of nuclear thermal propulsion, which would harness the heat thrown off by fission reactions to accelerate propellants such as hydrogen to tremendous speeds. 

Spacecraft powered by such engines could conceivably reach Mars in just three to four months — about half the time of the fastest possible trip in a vehicle with traditional chemical propulsion, said NSC panelist Rex Geveden, the president and CEO of BWX Technologies Inc. 

https://www.space.com/nuclear-propulsion-future-spacecraft-nasa-chief.html

Think back to the SciFi movies you have seen in the past…..wormholes were the preferred way to space travel…..well looks like scientist have a formula…..

Everybody wants a wormhole. I mean, who wants to bother traveling the long-and-slow routes throughout the universe, taking tens of thousands of years just to reach yet another boring star? Not when you can pop into the nearest wormhole opening, take a short stroll, and end up in some exotic far-flung corner of the universe. 

There’s a small technical difficulty, though: Wormholes, which are bends in space-time so extreme that a shortcut tunnel forms, are catastrophically unstable. As in, as soon as you send a single photon down the hole, it collapses faster than the speed of light.

But a recent paper, published to the preprint journal arXiv on July 29, has found a way to build an almost-steady wormhole, one that does collapse but slowly enough to send messages — and potentially even things — down it before it tears itself apart. All you need are a couple of black holes and a few infinitely long cosmic strings.

https://www.space.com/building-a-wormhole-with-cosmic-strings.html

That is Saturday and I need a break…MoMo sez ….TTFN

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Sunday Space Thoughts

It is that time again……

Since I am the only one that cares I feel that I must keep my readers abreast of developments in space…..since they will be paying for it with their tax dollars for many generations to come…..

Now would it not be nice to know what you are paying for?

Bear with me and learn stuff.

August will be the launch of US Space Command……

We’re a week away from having a US Space Command—not to be confused with a US Space Force. “Next week we will formally stand up the new unified combatant command that will be known as the United States Space Command,” Vice President Mike Pence announced Tuesday during a meeting of the National Space Council, referring to space as “war-fighting domain,” per Space.com. In tweets late last year, then-Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan clarified that a potential Space Force—to be established by 2020 pending congressional approval and funding—would “serve as a force provider for personnel, assets, and capabilities supporting space operations, while Space Command will serve as the operational command that will employ space capabilities and lead space operations.”

Nearly 90 people will be under the direction of Gen. John Raymond, Space.com reports, describing a formal ceremony to establish the command on Aug. 29. Those personnel will be in charge of missile warnings, space control, satellite operations, and space support, said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, who also spoke at the meeting, per the Hill. “The direction is clear, we understand it and we’re moving out.” Shanahan noted in 2018, “This action reflects the value of space contributions to national security, the evolution of the threats to US space systems, and the importance of deterring potential adversaries from attacking US space systems.” It’ll be America’s first new combatant command in a decade, following the creation of the US Africa Command in 2009.

Virgin Galactic has announced a new Space Port in New Mexico….

Spaceport America is no longer just a shiny shell of hope that space tourism would one day launch from a remote spot in the New Mexico desert. The once-empty hangar that anchors the taxpayer-financed launch and landing facility has been transformed into a custom-tailored headquarters where Virgin Galactic will run its commercial flight operations. The interior spaces unveiled Thursday aim to connect paying customers with every aspect of the operation, providing views of the hangar and the space vehicles as well as the banks of monitors inside mission control, the AP reports. Two levels within the spaceport include mission control, a preparation area for pilots, and a lounge for customers and their friends and families. There’s also space behind two massive sliding doors to accommodate two of Virgin Galactic’s carrier planes and a fleet of six-passenger rocket ships.

Company officials say the space is meant to create “an unparalleled experience” as customers prepare for what Virgin Galactic describes as the journey of a lifetime. Just how soon customers will file into the spaceport for the first commercial flights to space has yet to be determined, but Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides says that once the test flights are complete, commercial operations can begin. He envisions a fundamental shift in humanity’s relationship with space, noting that fewer than 600 people ever have ventured beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. “We’re going to be able to send way more than that to space from this facility here,” he says. “In another 15 years, I really hope that we’ve had thousands of people go.” About 600 people have reserved a seat, according to the company, at a cost of $250,000 a ticket.

Does that come with a payment plan?

Instead of looking for cash in tourism why not come up with a plan to help clean up the space around this tiny blue planet of tired and worn out satellites?

For the low, low price of $2.25 million, SpaceX will put your small satellite on a big Falcon 9 rocket and shoot it to orbit with a bunch of similarly small satellites. It’s part of a new initiative called the SmallSat Rideshare Program, and with a first flight in late 2020 or early 2021, it will carry only diminutive instruments, a boon for their makers. While a Falcon 9 carried out a similar rideshare mission last year, that launch was organized by another company. This time, SpaceX itself is promising “regularly scheduled, dedicated Falcon 9 rideshare missions,” according to its website.

https://www.wired.com/story/here-come-the-space-tugs-ready-to-tidy-up-earths-orbits/

Lastly…..why is space so critical?

Easy answer lots of wealth possibilities……a prime motivator……

Why is space so critical to the future? Space is powerful precisely because it benefits from the attributes and principles of a network. A network can deliver power, information, and goods from one node, or all nodes, at a fraction of the increase in cost per customer compared to a linear system. The post office is an example of a linear model. If you send a letter to 100 different people, you have to pay for 100 stamps. The Internet is an example of a networked model. If you want to send an email to 100 people you can send it at a fraction of the cost. Most of our terrestrial economies are modeled on linear design, driving up cost for every delivery to a new customer. A networked space infrastructure will always win the cost war against a linear terrestrial infrastructure. Consequently, the first civilization to build a robust networked space infrastructure will dominate the global economy of the 21st century.

Space will be a multi-trillion-dollar market that will disproportionately benefit the first great power that builds a vibrant infrastructure there. Finishing second in this race means accepting defeat. Why is this the case? Whoever moves into a new marketplace first defines and sets the terms of that market. If America is first to build the infrastructure of space, its rule of law and values, including every human’s inherent right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, will underpin the marketplace. If China is first, its values will dominate. China continues to demonstrate a lack of regard for fair economic practices, the rule of law, human dignity, or liberty.

The Real Stakes in the New Space Race

But does any of this promised wealth and influence violate a standing treaty on space?

A first ever space thingy……a crime of sorts…..

It’s an unfortunate custody dispute between estranged spouses, with one element that makes it stand above all others—it has led to what the New York Times reports might be the first allegation of a crime in space. In the short version, astronaut Anne McClain is accused of improperly accessing the bank accounts of spouse Summer Worden while McClain was aboard the International Space Station, reports Click2Houston. Worden has the bank records to prove that McClain did so, and the astronaut is not denying it. McClain is not accused of taking or even moving any money. She maintains that she was simply doing what she had always done while the couple was together: keeping on an eye on finances out of concern for the boy they’d been raising together. “She strenuously denies that she did anything improper,” says her attorney.

Worden, though, says she is “appalled,” and she and her family have filed formal complaints with the FTC and with NASA. They see it as identity theft. The dispute centers around Worden’s 6-year-old son, who was 1 when the couple met. They married in 2014, but Worden resisted having McClain legally adopt him as her son, too, per the Times. Now that they’re splitting, McClain is fighting for shared parenting rights. If McClain’s name is familiar, it might be because of an odd story from earlier this year. She was supposed to take part in the first-ever all-female spacewalk, but NASA called it off at the last minute, explaining they didn’t have enough medium-sized space suits. (This even became a bit on SNL.) A NASA spokesperson tells the Times the allegations had nothing to do with the scrapped spacewalk

This sounds like an Adam Sandler movie….God knows he could use the work…..

Sunday and MoMO has me trained……she taught me to play fetch…..LOL

Have a great day and thanx to all for the visits and comments over the last week…..your time is much appreciated.

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Random Thoughts On Space

As usual I am going to post on space news for it gets so little coverage in the Age Of Trump when we go from one crisis to another.

For decades we have been on the hunt for our ET brethren out there…SETI….other tries to find our relatives (according to some)…..but instead of finding the perfect planet for life as we know it maybe we should look elsewhere as well…..

Assuming that alien life will be similar to what evolved here on Earth could severely limit the potential for big discoveries, researchers said. 

On Friday (Aug. 2) at the first annual TESS Science Conference here at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a panel of scientists  discussed what’s next in the search for signs of life on other worlds — and just how close we might be to finding such signs. (TESS is NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which just marked one year of planet hunting in Earth orbit.) 

https://www.space.com/alien-life-hunt-not-limited-earth-like-life.html

After reading that….I saw that a “super Earth” has been found…..

What was once considered pure fantasy in movies like “Avatar,” is now looking a little more plausible. Earlier this week, NASA announced the discovery of a possible Earth-like planet, located just 31 light years away – a hop, skip and a jump in cosmic terms – that may be able to support life.

“I think it’s an amazing discovery,” Lisa Kaltenegger, from the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell, said. “We have a small mission called ‘Tess’ that’s scanning the whole sky, where the brightest and closest objects are, to find planets like ours and this is the first one.”

The planet named GJ 357 d, is six times larger than Earth. It orbits a dwarf star with two other previously unknown planets.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/planet-gj357-d-potentially-habitable-super-earth-discovered/

It appears that NASA is finally getting serious about a trip and colonization of Mars…..the biggest problem other than the trip there is the habitat that will be needed to house our colonists……

If humans hope to colonize Mars someday, we’ll need to figure how to survive and grow crops on a large scale in an inhospitable environment. A new study in Nature Astronomy suggests a potential part of the solution: Build greenhouses and other structures out of an extremely light insulating material called aerogel, per NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This material, made mostly of silica and similar to Styrofoam, is nicknamed “frozen smoke” for its appearance, notes CNET. In their study, researchers mimicked the environment on Mars to show that the aerogel structures would allow in light for photosynthesis but block harmful UV radiation, all while raising temperatures beneath them to levels that would melt frozen water beneath the surface.

That, crucially, would allow habitats to be built in wide swaths of otherwise inhabitable parts of the planet. “Mars is warmer around the equator, but most of the water ice is located at higher latitudes,” says co-author Laura Kerber of NASA. “Building with silica aerogel would allow us to artificially create warm environments where there is already water ice available.” The next step is to test the concept on a larger scale in areas such as the Atacama Desert in South America and the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, reports Wired. “This regional approach to making Mars habitable is much more achievable than global atmospheric modification,” says researcher Robin Wordsworth. “Unlike the previous ideas to make Mars habitable, this is something that can be developed and tested systematically with materials and technology we already have.”

But before we build habitats……Nukes the planet…..Mars that is…

This is a private businessman that wants to nuke Mars to make it ready for humans…..Elon Musk…..

Musk believes that by hitting Mars with nuclear weapons, the planet’s polar ice caps could melt and release vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which would essentially create a greenhouse effect that raises the temperature and air pressure of the planet — like a really quick version of climate change.

Musk has shared this opinion for years, dating back to interviews with the billionaire from 2015. He even went on Stephen Colbert’s late-night talk show to discuss his idea of bombing Mars

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-wants-to-nuke-mars-plans-t-shirts-2019-8

He should check the Outer Space Treaty before he goes off half cocked (pun intended)…..

Finally I have been a critic of Trump’s proposal for a Space Force…..but apparently some in the EU do not want to be upstaged by Trump…..

Emmanuel Macron’s race into space makes Germans nervous.

The French government is poised to lay out details on Thursday of a plan to staff up a “space high command” in Toulouse, as it expands the remit of its air force to cover orbital defense and ward off potential threats to infrastructure in space from big powers including China, Russia and India.

https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-wary-emmanuel-macron-space-force/

Now you can see why I am concerned about these space force units….they will violate treaties signed in the 1960s….let me help…..https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/isn/5181.htm

Please read the treaty and tell me that we are NOT violating it….but in case there is any confusion…..

The treaty’s key arms control provisions are in Article IV. States-parties commit not to:

  • Place in orbit around the Earth or other celestial bodies any nuclear weapons or objects carrying WMD.
  • Install WMD on celestial bodies or station WMD in outer space in any other manner.
  • Establish military bases or installations, test “any type of weapons,” or conduct military exercises on the moon and other celestial bodies.

When I post on the space stuff I reference the Outer Space Treaty a lot…..so I feel I need to dedicate a post to this document so my readers can better understand where I come from….Date TBA…..

But if space is not your thing….12,000 lies, many many golf trips costing millions each and but Obama was ruining the country…..missiles in the Sea of Japan…..Afghans walk…..playing tanker bingo……255 mass shootings in 2019……the race is on.

My day is begins.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Space Tech

I am one of the few bloggers that are watching the region we call space for I believe it will become more important than it is today.

For over a year I have been a member of Dr. Parcak’s “Global Explorer” program…..it is taking satellite images and looking for the possibilities of archeological sites yet undiscovered…..

The human story—the story of us—is evolving at breakneck speed thanks to new technologies. Armed with new data sets, we can spin fresh tales that bring us closer to getting more right than wrong about our ancestors and ourselves.

What we can find with new technologies such as satellite imagery is simply astounding. It is helping us rewrite history. We’ve gone from mapping a few dozen ancient sites in one summer-long archaeological season to mapping hundreds, if not thousands, of sites in weeks. With advances in computing and artificial intelligence, we are on the verge of achieving those same results in a few hours.

In case you want to be an archaeologist and are worried that we space archaeologists will find everything first, fear not. Knowing the location of an ancient site is only the first step. We still have to survey sites on the ground, a process known as ground-truthing, and then undertake years of excavation to get a better understanding of what is there. And wow, do we have a lot of work to do.

How Space Technology is Revolutionizing Archaeology

That’s the premise that has guided Sarah Parcak in her career as an archaeologist who relies on remote sensing data gathered by airplanes, satellites and unpiloted drones. Observations from these systems can help scientists tap into visual cues that are invisible on the ground — and in turn, find long-lost traces of humans who lived millennia before we took to the skies

https://www.space.com/archaeology-from-space-sarah-parcak-book.html

Dr. Parcak is making history with her research in space tech…..

For almost 20 years, Sarah Parcak, professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, has combed through satellite images of Egypt and the Middle East to find clues to ancient landscapes.

Parcak’s resume is impressive. She won the $1 million 2016 TED prize, has written a seminal textbook on satellite archaeology, as well as numerous other scholarly publications on the topic.

https://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2017.132

That is my day on this Sunday…looking for sites yet undiscovered.

What does your day hold?

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

“et calamum quad lingua autem animi”  (The pen is the tongue of the mind…..or something like that)

Stuff For A Saturday

I have a wealth of thoughts I want to get out there……but time keeps sneaking up on me and events are spiraling…..

A few things that piss me off…..it is the Sahara not the Sahara Desert….for the word Sahara means desert…I hate redundancies

I like BBQ once in awhile…..I use the sauce for a dunking sauce for grilled meat and this one is pretty good in my opinion (no compensation involved)…..

Image

But I hate a con job…..the label says made with Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey…..but look at the back side of the same bottle…..

Image

NON-ALCOHOLIC….artificial whiskey flavor…..what part of that is made with Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey?

Can I sue?

Next, Hummus is an Arabic word meaning chick pea…..so there is no red pepper hummus if it is made from anything other than chick peas then it is a freakin’ dip.

Finally those people that equate prawns with shrimp…STOP IT! They are not the same! Prawns live in freshwater and shrimp in salt…,so stop calling large shrimp prawns…that is fake news.

I will stop the bitching and get to it……

There is research that is saying that the mind drugs from the 60s may well be beneficial for such ailments as PTSD, etc…..I tried to keep my readers informed about this research…..

https://lobotero.com/2019/02/02/freaky-saturday-02feb19/

https://lobotero.com/2019/02/23/freaky-saturday-2019-part-2/

The research continues and the results seem to be promising…..

Scientists are testing the impact on brain function of small regular doses of LSD in what they say is a “renaissance” for psychedelic drugs.

In one of the first studies of its kind, Dutch researchers are testing whether ‘microdosing’ with the illegal drug enhances mental performance and mood.

Significantly, the doses are too low to induce hallucinations.

They hope their research could ultimately lead to new, more effective treatments for depression, anxiety and even chronic pain.

https://news.sky.com/story/therapeutic-value-of-psychedelic-drugs-examined-11777072

Speaking of brain control or is it mind control?

Beware of your mobile phone….say what?

In a new study, researchers have invented a device that can control neural circuits using a tiny brain implant controlled by a smartphone.

The finding can speed up efforts to treat brain diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, addiction, depression, and pain.

The research was conducted by a team in Korea and the United States.

The device uses Lego-like replaceable drug cartridges and powerful Bluetooth low-energy to target specific neurons in the brain.

The wireless neural device enables chronic chemical and optical neuromodulation that has never been achieved before.

Scientists can use smartphone to manipulate your brain

Get off that phone and read a book or talk wigth your kids.

So much for my random thoughts for the day and my small bitches that I feel I must air.

Peace Out!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”