On A Bad Day, Try SpaceX Patience

"(W)e want to make sure that if this is their worst day...it's not their last day." Elon Musk's private SpaceX company and tax-payer-funded NASA use this saying to motivate the preparations for sending astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station and for bringing them home safely one to four months later.

     In these troubled times, like astronauts, we all need a motivating motto and an escape plan to avoid things like viruses, food shortages and excessive government control over our religious and gender preferences.

      To protect astronauts, there is now an abort system that enables sensors to detect rocket malfunctions, to separate the capsule carrying the astronauts from the rocket and to parachute the capsule down into the ocean. Consequently, preparations for launching the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket require precise calculations of ocean water temperature and wave velocity and height over a vast area anywhere a team may have to rescue the downed astronauts near Cape Canaveral or on their route to Newfoundland, over the Atlantic Ocean and on to Ireland.

     Although the SpaceX launch is scheduled for May 27, 2020 at 4:33 p.m. EDT, a delay due to rough seas should be expected. For astronauts, as well as each of us, taking time to correct problems may be the surest path to survival.

     After a three day delay, SpaceX took off on Saturday, May 30, and docked safely with the International Space Station on May 31, 2020.

The astronauts returned safely with a successful splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, August 2, 2020.      

Artificial Skies

Look up on a clear night and you might see the moon, stars, an airplane, a Pentagon observation balloon, police drone, one of Elon Musk's Starlink communication satellites, or a Loon balloon from Google's Alphabet fleet that can provide wireless internet access to rural and remote areas.

     Shortly after a Starlink rocket launch, a satellite is almost as bright as the North Star, a magnitude 2. When it reaches its orbiting height 342 miles above Earth, unless sunlight hits just the right angle, the satellite dims to magnitude 5 to 7. Beginning three to four hours after sunset in a summer, satellites can be visible to the naked eye all night.

     With U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, Musk's SpaceX program is in the process of launching 12,000 satellites in a Starlink network designed to facilitate high-speed, global broadband internet access. Sometime in June, 2020, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is expected to launch the eighth batch of satellites, about 60 more, for the broadband network.  His artificial satellite constellation raises concerns about space safety and the impact on ground-based telescopes exploring deep space.

     At different heights above Earth, the orbits of satellites pose different problems. At about 300 miles or less, atmospheric drag downs and vaporizes satellites. Starlink system satellites designed to orbit 700 miles above Earth are too high for a quick and disintegrating re-entry. If satellites carry fuel, working ones can be maneuvered back to higher levels, and high-level ones that no longer work can be lowered and subjected to disintegration. Of course, the presence of fuel in a satellite increases the chance of an explosion.

     Whether working or out-of-service, at any level above Earth satellites can collide and break apart into "space junk." Fragments of debris go into their own separate orbits ready to cause additional collisions and, therefore, even more space junk. That is what happened when the Chinese sent a missile to hit a satellite no longer in use. Resulting shrapnel fanned out into numerous orbits of space junk. Potentially, damaged debris could necessitate avoiding whole regions of space.

     Besides the danger of collisions, bright satellites that compete with the stars are a problem for astronomers who have been exploring deep space for centuries. Since photographing objects light years away can require exposing an image for hours, satellites orbiting the Earth already spoil the view. Those who use radio telescopes to study the universe expect interference from satellite transmissions that use frequencies close to the radio waves from distant objects.

     Loon's internet balloons fly at 10 to 15 miles above Earth. With five to 10 balloons, Loon is especially useful in providing temporary service to an area in need of communication after a disaster. Service is now provided in Puerto Rico, Peru's rainforest, and Kenya.

     Problems associated with space, including satellites, balloons, spacecrafts, and military applications, are expected to worsen. In addition to the approximately 5000 satellites already orbiting Earth and 12,000 launched by SpaceX, the OneWeb company plans to add 650 and Amazon's broadband project would deploy 3200. Along with the satellites powering the U.S. GPS, other navigation systems: Russia's GLONASS, China's BeiDou, the EU's Galileo and OneWeb, now owned by the UK and India's Bharti Global, also have launched satellites. Unless atmospheric drag is allowed to remove space junk and satellites no longer in use, the likelihood of collisions and interference with deep space research will increase unchecked.

     At present, no international agreements govern the safe use of space, observes Dr. Lisa Ruth Rand, a research associate at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and post doctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin. To date, the use of space seems to rely on the ambitions of Elon Musk, individual countries and companies, and aliens exploring new frontiers. Urgent international negotiations are needed, at least by Earthlings. 

   

   

   

Time to Make Futuristic Travel Plans

Travel by air land, and water is being reimagined these days. Tesla is the well-known stock market darling of driverless cars, and Elon Musk also promises travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes in his frictionless train. Later, on February 6, 2018, Musk successfully launched his
 SpaceX rocket to signal what could be the beginning of commercial space travel. Richard Branson also is in the commercial space travel mix with his plans to take us to Mars.

     We've heard about Amazon using drones to deliver our e-commerce orders. But, when it comes to delivering supplies in a medical emergency, drones can be life savers if they fly over traffic congestion, take the most direct route over lakes and hills, and avoid washed-out and impassable roads to reach rural areas. Yet, there are still challenges of battery life, bad weather, and urban neighbors disturbed by the oncoming buzzing sound.

     Matternet of California, Mercedes-Benz vans, and the Swiss firm Siroop are partners in a pilot project, approved by Switzerland's aviation authority, in which a drone successfully returned lab samples to the roof of a waiting van that delivered them to a hospital in heavily-populated Zurich, Switzerland. E-commerce firms could follow a similar procedure using UPS or other trucking services for the last leg in the delivery process.

     In Norway, Yara is investing in crewless, electric container ships that are expected to cost three times as much as conventional models but offer an operational savings of up to 90% over the costs of fuel and crews on comparable cargo ships. Since travel on autonomous ships in international waters could take until at least 2020 to gain approval by the International Maritime Organization, you're likely to be traveling on an autonomous ferry first.

   

Will African Roses Replace Dutch Tulips?

World events can have both positive and negative effects on countries. By voting to leave the EU, Britain's new tariff relationships hold promise for Africa. On the other hand, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explosion on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on September 1, 2016 casts doubt on a deal between a US and Chinese company and much more.

     While the UK currently imports most of its fresh fruit from Spain and 70% of its fresh vegetables from Spain and the Netherlands, African countries anticipate they will gain a larger share of the UK market for flowers, vegetables, fruit, and tea, should tariffs on EU goods increase and tariffs on African imports end. South Africa already is the second largest source of the UK's fresh fruit, and a quarter of Kenya's fresh produce exports go to Britain. Changes in taste also might continue to boost UK imports of African produce, like pineapples, melons, and avocados, not grown domestically. Retailers caution African exporters, however, that regulations require imported produce to be safe and responsibly produced.

     Although African countries might gain from Britain's EU exit, they suffered from the Falcon 9 rocket explosion. The Amos-6 satellite that was destroyed would have given Africa internet access to Facebook.



   

   

Space Explorers

Kids everywhere in the world see the same sun, moon, stars, and comets. Astronauts can launch into space from any place on the globe, and those from different countries have lived together in International Space Stations.

     New countries are joining the U.S. and Russian space pioneers. On June 11, 2013, China sent a manned space craft  to its experimental Tiangong 1 space station from a launch pad  near the Gobi Desert. China's Long March rocket successfully launched an unmanned    8-day mission around the moon and back in October 2014, while its Jade Rabbit rover has been sending back data about the moon's surface every since December, 2013.  From Sriharikota island on November 5, 2013, India launched its first mission to Mars. The Mangalyaan ("Mars-craft" in Hindi) began to orbit its target and send back information on the Red Planet's atmosphere and to map the planet's surface on September 24, 2014. Earlier in the month, Maven (Mars Atmospheric and Volatile Evolution), NASA's robotic vehicle launched on November 18, 2013, also went into orbit around Mars and began its mission to discover what happened to the planet's water before it became hot and dry.

     In November, 2014, the European Space Agency's Philae probe attached itself to a comet and began sending back images. This first time event enables scientists to look at ice and organic molecules that have survived for more than 4.6 billion years in the solar system. Could comets have carried water to Earth?

     Playground equipment lends itself to space exploration and imagination. Any object that children can crawl into, a stack of tires or a playhouse, can serve as a space station. Swinging is like flying to the moon with an adult providing the rocket blaster push. Despite danger similar to that faced by astronauts, older kids often launch themselves into space by jumping off high flying swings and teeter-totters. Then, there are the climbing domes that look like half a globe. Those who make it to the top can feel like they are sitting on top of the world looking out at the universe. Zip lines can carry a child from Earth to any heavenly destination. Climb up a slide into a rocket and slide back down to Mother Earth. Name each step or swinging step for a planet and travel through space. Orbit the Earth on a merry-go-round or spinning toy. And it's always fun for children to play the roles of various planets that orbit around a child who plays the Sun.

     The "Schoolhouse Rock" DVD provides a catchy tune kids can sing when they are pretending to be space explorers. While traveling throughout the solar system, "Interplanet Janet," a song about a galaxy girl, mentions a fact about each planet, including Pluto which has since been declassified as a dwarf planet too small to be a real planet. (However, in Steve Metzger's book, Pluto Visits Earth the former planet gets advice about size from a little Earth boy.)

     A book, such as Rand McNally's Children's Atlas of the Universe, gives even more information about the planets than Interplanet Janet does. It also explains an eclipse, stars, quasars, supernovas, asteroids, and comets. With spectacular photographs, Hubble Telescope Book and The Hubble Cosmos from National Geographic (shopng.org), look at planetary nebulae, galaxies, "dark energy," the birth and death of stars, and the expansion of the universe that this space-based telescope has seen in the past 25 years. It may have been the Hubble Telescope that enabled scientists to discover Sedna and another dwarf planet 80 astronomical units from the sun. (One astronomical unit is the distance from Earth to the sun.)

     Little ones might like the book, Toys in Space by Mini Gray, or Sue Ganz-Schmitt's book, Planet Kindergarten, which introduces children aged 3 to 5 to space travel. Older readers would enjoy the adventures of Zita the Space Girl, a series by Ben Hatke. Girls interested going into space themselves would like to read about the first women who trained to be astronauts in Tanya Stone's book Almost Astronauts. Also, be on the lookout for National Geographic's publication, Illustrated Mission to Mars. In it, Buzz Aldrin tells about the projects that could take human travelers to Mars by the 2030s.

     Not only is the 13.8 billion year old universe expanding, but it also is dying. We can help children understand the concept of an expanding universe by putting dots on a deflated balloon. As the balloon is blown up, the dots, like stars, move farther away. Scientists observe the increasing rate of expansion in the universe by measuring how fast the brightness of an exploding star dims as it dies. Since stars, quasars, and other radiant objects in the universe have been converting matter into energy for billions of years, astronomers have discovered that the energy output from 200,000 nearby galaxies is about half what it was two billion years ago. As the universe, like a star releasing its gases, has less and less mass to convert into energy, through the centuries space will become colder and darker.

      Enabled by a wide variety of telescopes, students can study the night sky. And local observatories and planetariums offer programs for the public. In Washington, DC, for example, visitors can look through the telescope at the Naval Observatory on nights of a full moon, when a lack of shadows prevents astrophysicists from studying the moon's surface. North of Chicago, Yerkes Observatory in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, home of 40-inch and 24-inch diameter refractor telescopes, offers Saturday tours and visits to its Quester Museum. Kitt Peak National Observatory also hosts day and night tours in Tucson, Arizona, and at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, there are events as well as tours.

     Researchers are finding more and more space to explore. Of the 1,010 planetary bodies said to lie outside our solar system, about 1% are in positions where water could exist in a liquid state, according to the November, 2013 issue of The Futurist, the magazine of the World Future Society.
The book, The Pioneer Detectives by Konstantin Kakaes, questions the reason why a space probe went off course and kept sending back signals even after it passed Pluto.

     Viewing outer space is best where skies are darkest away from city lights. In US locations, such as Highland Park, Tonopah, Nevada; Cherry Springs State Park, Pennsylvania; Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California; and Baxter State Park in north-central, Maine, the bright green nucleus and tail of the comet ISON (International Scientific Optical Network), which was discovered by two Russian amateur astronomers in September, 2012, easily could be seen by the naked eye before it reached the sun November 28, 2013. Indoors, some teachers use dry ice and dirt to demonstrate why comets, formed far out in the solar system before they fall toward the sun, are called dirty snowballs.

      YoungExplorers.com offers a kit that enables kids to build and launch their own Meteor Rocket and a set of die cast and plastic replicas of ten U.S. space vehicles, plus study information cards about the U.S. space program. National Geographic also sells space-oriented "toys," such as a Talking Planetarium, Interactive "Laptop" Planetarium, and Space Exploration Kit.

     Last summer's Star Trek Into Darkness (PG-13) film reminds us that TV shows and movies often transport children and adults to galaxies far, far away. Kids who once played with sticks and swords switched to lightsabers after the first Star Wars movie was screened in 1977. The Star Wars theme also is captured in action figures, like Darth Vader and the Ewoks, LEGO characters and weapons, books, comics, board and video games, and music. Star Trek fans, known as Trekkies, even dress up and attend annual conventions such as the one just concluded in Boston. Lady Gaga claims she'll be performing from space in a couple of years.

     Planet of the Apes may have given a child nightmares on an episode of Mad Men, but the story of astronauts who crashed into a world where humans were treated like animals and apes ruled has merited more than one movie treatment. In E.T., however, children learn it's possible to be friends with other forms of life.

     The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) runs a day camp for children 8 and up in Florida and works with other organizations that sponsor similar programs. One of these organizations, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, invites interested parties to sign up on its mailing list to receive information about its Space Camp programs.

     Private companies now are very much involved in space exploration. On the website, virgingalactic.com, you can follow what Virgin Galactic is doing to advance the future of commercial space travel. Unfortunately, the crash of a Virgin Galactic's spacecraft killed a test pilot and injured another on November 1, 2014. An attempt to resupply the International Space Station using a rocket from Orbital Sciences also failed when it exploded in Virginia in October, 2014. Elon Musk's privately owned SpaceX company has contracts to launch satellites for businesses and to resupply the International Space Station, but a SpaceX launch carrying cargo for the space station exploded in June, 2015. Another SpaceX craft designed to carry a satellite that would connect Africans with Facebook exploded on and destroyed a launch pad in August, 2016.  With a government contribution of $6.8 billion, NASA had hoped to rely on the private space industry to provide access to and from the International Space Station. The U.S. also planned to use private companies, SpaceX and Boeing, to run its manned space program. And the successful launch of a SpaceX rocket on February 6 2018 showed the idea of commercial space travel was still alive.

(See the later blog post, "Hunt for Moon Rocks.").