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If the state of the planet is getting you down or you’re just terrified that ducks can now speak human words 0 then I advise you to stop what you’re doing for a few moments and gaze in awe at this photo by Thomas Pesquet, a French astronaut currently residing inside the International Space Station.

Pesquet, an engineer with the European Space Agency, is one of the members of the SpaceX Crew-2 mission and member of NASA’s Expedition 65, which launched to the station in April. It’s his second spaceflight and he’s become known around these parts for delivering some absolutely surreal images of our home planet.

This may be his best yet.

The long-awaited $355 million development of Little Island New York has finally been made reality, offering the Big Apple a unique new space.


Although it’s unlikely travel to the US will be on the cards for Aussies anytime soon, it’s good to keep track of the developments that await us when we eventually graduate from tiny travel bubbles to full-scale international adventure once again. The latest development: the ambitious new US$260 million (AU$335 million) Little Island New York, an offshore public park in the Hudson River that has been one of the city’s most anticipated openings for a couple of years now.

Located at Pier 55 the fascinating public park has been designed to resemble a supersized leaf drifting on the Hudson, buoyed by a base of 280 concrete piles and precast columns driven down as far as 60 metres below water, as well as 132 tulip-shaped concrete pots positioned at various elevations from 4 metres to 18 metres above water, designed specifically by Heatherwick Studio, and developed by engineering firm Arup, to hold the soil, overlooks, and trees. This support base allows for the two-acre park to stay securely afloat so its 687-seat amphitheatre, smaller stage, and plaza don’t suddenly drop to the depths of the Hudson.

The waterborne engineering is almost as fascinating as the park itself, but it’s what’s on top this mini-island that represents what many reports are (hopefully not naively) likening to a bridge between New York City’s pre-and post-COVID era.

It’ll take about seven months to send humans to Mars using today’s spaceships. That’s not exactly a quick jaunt, but it is doable.

Trips to other planets could take years, though, and if we want to explore the rest of our solar system — or the places beyond it — we’re going to need a faster way to travel.

Now, a physicist has designed a new rocket thruster that could potentially allow humans to travel 10 times faster in space — and it’s inspired by nuclear fusion.