Thursday, October 1, 2020

America's Space Dreams Might Change After the Pandemic - The Atlantic

The swatches of spacesuit material that Perseverance carries are, in a way, an emblem of American optimism. They posit that one day these fabrics might be wrapped around the bodies of astronauts, sheltering them from an environment they weren't made to survive. These Armstrongs and Aldrins might walk up to Perseverance, its batteries long dead, and see, next to one of its wheels, beneath a blanket of rust-colored dust, a plaque of a snake coiled around a rod.

Publisher: The Atlantic
Date: 2020-10-01T14:46:00-04:00
Author: Marina Koren
Twitter: @theatlantic
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Other things to check out:

DARPA Is Considering a Nuclear Rocket for Moon Missions

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) just handed out a $14 million dollar contract to develop and test a nuclear thermal space propulsion system (NTP), Space.com reports .

The concept is simple: an on-board reactor generates heat, which is then pushed through a nozzle to produce thrust.

The contract, to a company called Gryphon Technologies, is meant to support DARPA's Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program — essentially a project investigating whether the extreme temperatures produced by nuclear reactions can be used as a propulsion system.

Publisher: Futurism
Twitter: @futurism
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San Diego Weekend Arts Events: 'Move American', Jazz at the Athenaeum, Space-Travel

Above: A still of the dance film "By Any Means Necessary," by Derion Loman, performed by Loman and Simon Greenberg. The film is available online as part of "Move American," which screens this Saturday at Art Produce in North Park.

Another pandemic month down means another month of constantly reevaluating how to safely and authentically experience or share art. But, there's something relatively (dare I say) normal in the air this weekend. Based partly on a general sense of vibrancy and partly on the to-do list on my desk, events are happening. Lots of them, in many shapes and forms.

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Publisher: KPBS Public Media
Date: 2020-10-01
Author: Julia Dixon Evans
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Astoria Park Elementary School students sending postcards to space

Students at Astoria Park Elementary School won't have to imagine: Their postcards will launch and return sometime this school year, with a postmark from outside Earth's atmosphere.

Led by Media Specialist Beth Freeman-Dorband, more than 100 children at the school near Hartsfield Road have written postcards to themselves that will be flown into space.

Why? Because engaging with space, that final frontier, may inspire young minds to think about science, technology, engineering and math fields, according to Freeman.

Publisher: Tallahassee Democrat
Author: CD Davidson Hiers
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This may worth something:

Virgin Galactic Up as Space-Travel Potential Draws Buy Ratings - TheStreet

Virgin Galactic  ( SPCE )  shares jumped Monday after the space-travel company drew buy-equivalent ratings from two major investment firms. 

Susquehanna analyst Charles Minervino initiated coverage of Virgin Galactic with a positive rating and $20 share-price target.

Founded by the U.K. entrepreneur Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic is an “innovator of space technology with a truly unique offering that will allow civilians and professionals alike to access space for entertainment and research purposes,” Minervino wrote in a commentary cited by Bloomberg.

Publisher: TheStreet
Date: 2020-09-28T14:17:09Z
Author: Dan Weil
Twitter: @thestreet
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The Space Force wants to deploy service members to ... space - Task & Purpose

The Space Force absolutely plans on deploying U.S. service members to defend freedom in the great expanse of outer space, according to one of the service's top officials.

Maj. Gen. John E. Shaw said Tuesday that the service will someday deploy so-called  space warfighters  into orbit around the Earth, even raising the prospect of a Space Force moon base.

“At some point, yes, we will be putting humans into space,” Shaw, the command of the service's Space Operations Command, said Tuesday. “They may be operating command centers somewhere in the lunar environment or someplace else.” 

Publisher: Task & Purpose
Date: 2020-09-30T19:58:09Z
Author: Jared Keller
Twitter: @TaskandPurpose
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NASA Is Launching a $23 Million Dollar Toilet to Space This Week | Travel + Leisure

You never think about the everyday things that astronauts have to do on the International Space Station (ISS) — including basic, human functions like, say, going to the bathroom.

According to Space.com , NASA is hoping to improve bathroom technology on future missions by sending a brand new, $23 million toilet system to the ISS. Going to the bathroom has been a tricky situation in space for a long time, to the point that NASA launched a crowdsourcing campaign to look for new toilet designs back in June.

Publisher: Travel + Leisure
Twitter: @TravelLeisure
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NASA's new $30M space toilet is smaller, better smelling and more female-friendly | CBC Radio

NASA's new $30-million space toilet, the Universal Waste Management System (UWMS) , will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) this weekend, where astronauts will test how well it works in micro-gravity.

Designed with astronaut feedback in mind, the new toilet is lighter, smaller, better smelling and more gender-inclusive than the Russian-made toilet currently in use aboard the ISS.

"It's a fun project to work on because of the technical challenges, and because of the big impact on the crew. Obviously, going to the bathroom is something that the crew has to deal with multiple times a day," McKinley, a systems project manager at NASA, told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann.

Publisher: CBC
Twitter: @cbc
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