CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Four space station astronauts returned to Earth late Saturday after a quick SpaceX flight home.
Their capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast.
The U.S.-Russian-Japanese crew spent five months at the International Space Station, arriving last October. Besides dodging space junk, the astronauts had to deal with a pair of leaking Russian capsules docked to the orbiting outpost and the urgent delivery of a replacement craft for the station’s other crew members.
European Space Agency’s suggestions were made for implementing time zones on the Moon.
During a meeting at the European Space Agency’s ESTEC technology center, reports Endgadget, in the Netherlands last year, proposals were made to implement a standard time zone for the moon. This is because people are again interested in returning to the nearest celestial body.
At present, public and private bodies are working on returning to the moon in different parts of the world and in different time zones. This can make it harder for people planning their missions to the moon over the next few years to work together.
“NASA and SpaceX continue to evaluate the weather for the return of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission from the International Space Station,” NASA wrote. “Teams conducted a weather briefing overnight and decided to waive off the initial undocking opportunity for early Thursday, March 9, due to high winds at the splashdown sites. Teams are currently targeting undocking for no earlier than Thursday evening, pending weather.”
It’s the latest in a series of interesting events for Crew-5.
“The universe started throwing curveballs our way, and then it got really crazy,” NASA astronaut Josh Cassada said during a livestreamed in-orbit farewell today (March 8) reflecting on Crew-5’s six-month mission. During their time aboard the orbital lab, two spacecraft docked at the ISS experienced coolant leaks (a Soyuz crew capsule and a Progress cargo vessel, both Russian) and the orbiting complex had to dodge space debris a few times. Nevertheless, all has been righted in time for Crew-5’s departure.
The mission to return humans to the Moon is moving on to its next phase, NASA has announced. While reporting the current analysis of the successful uncrewed Artemis I mission, the agency revealed when the first crewed mission will take place.
Artemis I was the first test flight for NASA’s megarocket Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft and spent 25.5 days in space. Artemis II will be the first crewed flight to the Moon before Artemis III actually lands on the lunar surface.
NASA revealed that as the Orion capsule successfully survived Earth reentry without burning up, the next launch is now expected for November 2024. The four-astronaut crew, including one Canadian, will be announced later this year.
During a conference with Morgan Stanley, Tesla CEO Elon Musk reiterated the promise that the company’s next-generation vehicle will operate mostly in autonomous mode. The event was primarily focused on Twitter, but Musk fielded questions about Tesla and SpaceX during the latter half of the conference. One of the questions was about the potential capabilities of the company’s upcoming vehicle, which was previously discussed at Tesla’s Investor Day event. The promise of a mostly autonomous vehicle is not new for Tesla, but it continues to generate interest and speculation from investors and the public alike.
Tesla’s upcoming vehicle, which will be manufactured at the company’s latest factory in Mexico, is anticipated to function in “almost entirely autonomous mode.” Tesla has been working on developing Full Self-Driving for a few years now, and the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, has consistently stated for at least four years that Teslas will be able to drive themselves. Despite impressive strides made in this area, Tesla’s vehicles are still not completely capable of autonomous driving.
Well, after this, I read one opinion under Teslarati that said “We need a cheap practical everyday driver that my mom can drive. Not another autonomous dream car. I really hope Tesla has a plan B for when the next gen car is ready and FSD is not.” Now, some of you guys may say, if you want a cheap EV go get a Chevy Bolt. But here is the thing: If Tesla wants to sell 20 million teslas per year they are going to have to appeal to the masses.
“Now is the moment for a rigorous portrait of Elon Musk.”
Alex Gibney, an award-winning filmmaker, is working on a new documentary about Elon Musk. The movie “Musk” aims to be “a definitive and unvarnished investigation” of the multibillionaire CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter. The project has been in the works for months.
Other documentaries by Gibney have explored topics such as Steve Jobs, Enron, WikiLeaks, Elizabeth Holmes, Scientology, and more.
Wikimedia Commons.
“I have been working on this film, off and on, for some time and am hugely excited about it,” said Gibney, as reported by Business Insider. “I am delighted by this extraordinary group who are working with me. Onward!”
Researchers claimed to have found a way to build a spacecraft that can travel at one-fifth of the speed of light, making traveling to another solar system a reality. Read the article to learn how this could be possible.
The field equations of Einstein’s General Relativity theory say that faster-than-light (FTL) travel is possible, so a handful of researchers are working to see whether a Star Trek-style warp drive, or perhaps a kind of artificial wormhole, could be created through our technology.
But even if shown feasible tomorrow, it’s possible that designs for an FTL system could be as far ahead of a functional starship as Leonardo da Vinci’s 16th century drawings of flying machines were ahead of the Wright Flyer of 1903. But this need not be a showstopper against human interstellar flight in the next century or two. Short of FTL travel, there are technologies in the works that could enable human expeditions to planets orbiting some of the nearest stars.
Certainly, feasibility of such missions will depend on geopolitical-economic factors. But it also will depend on the distance to nearest Earth-like exoplanet. Located roughly 4.37 light years away, Alpha Centauri is the Sun’s closest neighbor; thus science fiction, including Star Trek, has envisioned it as humanity’s first interstellar destination.
FULL AudioBook | GreatestAudioBooks | Science Fiction / Fantasy — Early victories by the USSR in a global nuclear war cause the United Nations government to retreat to the moon leaving behind troops and fierce autonomous robots called “Claws”, which reproduce and redesign themselves in unmanned subterranean factories. After six bloody years of conflict the Soviets call for an urgent conference and UN Major Joseph Hendricks sets out to meet them. Along the way he will discover what the Claws have been up to, and it isn’t good… — Second Variety was first published in the May 1953 edition of Space Science Fiction Magazine. (Summary by Gregg Margarite)
About the Author, Philip K. Dick: Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American writer notable for publishing works of science fiction. Dick explored philosophical, social, and political themes in novels with plots dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments, alternate universes, and altered states of consciousness. His work reflected his personal interest in metaphysics and theology, and often drew upon his life experiences in addressing the nature of reality, identity, drug abuse, schizophrenia, and transcendental experiences.
Born in Illinois before moving to California, Dick began publishing science fiction stories in the 1950s, initially finding little commercial success. His 1962 alternate history novel The Man in the High Castle earned Dick early acclaim, including a Hugo Award for Best Novel. He followed with science fiction novels such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and Ubik (1969). His 1974 novel Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel. Following a series of religious experiences in February–March 1974, Dick’s work engaged more explicitly with issues of theology, philosophy, and the nature of reality, as in such novels as A Scanner Darkly (1977) and VALIS (1981). A collection of his non-fiction writing on these themes was published posthumously as The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick (2011). He died in 1982 of a stroke, aged 53.
In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. A variety of popular films based on his works have been produced, including Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990), Minority Report (2002), A Scanner Darkly (2006), Paycheck (2003), Next (2007), and The Adjustment Bureau (2011). In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. [6] In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia.org — Attribution: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Philip_K._Dick&action=history)
Martial arts enthusiast Sultan AlNeyadi, who will be the second person from the United Arab Emirates to blast off into space, considers fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in orbit.
AlNeyadi, 41, dubbed the “Sultan of Space” by his alma mater, will blast off on Feb. 26 for the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
