This mission is put together by Axiom Space, a private space company based in Texas. Axiom is at the forefront of promoting a future for humans in space. The company is part of a growing list of private space firms that are making the journey to space a lot more accessible to private individuals.

Michael Lopez-Alegria, who is now the vice president of Axiom Space, disclosed that this particular trip will be a trend-setter, blazing the trail for the future of space missions. He noted that the team in charge of the journey intends to exceed all expectations.

Larry Connor, one of the private citizens participating in the ride, is the managing partner of a real estate investment company in Ohio – the Connor Group. Mark Pathy is the CEO of Mavrik Corp – a Canadian Investment company. Eytan Stibbe is a former Israeli Air Force fighter pilot but now a businessman.

What the three have in common is that they’re extremely wealthy, with the finance to fund this exotic trip. Axiom Space revealed the identities of the three men on Tuesday morning. Axiom revealed that the trip to the ISS will take two days, and the passengers will spend about eight days in the orbital laboratory, taking part in a broad range of research and charity projects, Washington Post reports.

NASA had initially banned missions to space by private citizens. Wealthy citizens who desperately wanted a space trip experience had to make do with the Russian Soyuz craft that allowed private citizens.

However, the US space agency reversed its decision in 2019 to promote the growing commercial space industry. It was also a way for NASA to make money. The agency charges $35,000 a day for each passenger, providing them with essentials such as food, storage, and communication while on the ISS. So, for the eight-day duration, NASA will be making about $1 million from four individuals.

With the entrance of commercial players such as SpaceX, Boeing, Axiom Space, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin, space tourism has turned into a thriving industry, attracting the super-rich. Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, said he is on a mission to make space travel a routine affair. He has promised to colonize Mars and make it habitable for humans.

Most of Axiom Space’s top management team are NASA veterans. The current CEO of the company, Mike Suffredini, was NASA’s ISS program manager. He left NASA to form Axiom in 2016. Training programs have already commenced for the three space tourists, with Lopez-Alegria coordinating the training.

On Wednesday, the company’s Starship test model SN10 made a high altitude test flight to 10 kilometers and landed back on the launch pad. The previous two attempts with SN8 and SN9 reached their test altitude but suffered RUDs (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly, or in simpler terms, exploding) at the point of landing.

SpaceX attempted SN10’s high altitude test in the mid afternoon, but was automatically aborted by the system at T-0 due to a detected anomaly.

The second attempt successfully launched, with Starship reaching the 10 kilometer test altitude, freefalling back to earth horizontally, and thrust pivoting back to the vertical position to land. 

You can watch the full launch event here:

Starship SN10 did, however, experience an RUD a few minutes after landing, from what some are speculating to be a methane leak. However this is only a minor problem at this development stage, and landing the Starship without an RUD at the landing stage itself is a gigantic step forward. 

Watch SN10’s RUD below:

This successful test of the SN10 stage comes the day after Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, who previously purchased a civilian space flight, announced a chance for you to join him on what he calls the Dear Moon Project. The flight will go around the moon and come back to earth. Musk states that this flight will actually go a little bit past the moon in order to be the furthest humans have ever been in space.

In a joint video released with Elon Musk, Yusaku Maezawa details his vision to bring 8 people who consider themselves to be creative or artistic along with him for the ride on Starship in 2023. 

If you describe yourself as creative or artistic, as Maezawa details in the video that anyone can be, you can enter for your chance at one of the seats at DearMoon.earth. 

Judging from his Twitter handle of @yousuckMZ, yes, he’s very aware of what his first name phonetically sounds like in English.

The successful landing of Starship the day after this announcement should hopefully give people confidence that SpaceX is on track for Starship to carry people in 2 years. Under development by SpaceX, it is intended to take humans to Mars and will be the world’s first fully reusable spacecraft.

Many of the photographs capture historic moments, such as the first humans in space, the first spacewalk and the first moon landing. Commenting on the works in the sale, Ania Hanrahan, Dreweatts Autographs and Ephemera specialist says, “These iconic images are sure to draw interest from around the globe, from historians, space and photography aficionados, private collectors and those wanting to obtain a true piece of history”.

Amongst the highlights is the first still photograph of a human in space, which is a vintage chromogenic print of American astronaut Ed White during the first U.S. spacewalk. The image shows him taking his historic 23 minute space walk on June 3, 1965, attached to the Gemini 4 spacecraft by a 7.6 metre tether line.

As well as being the first still photograph of a human in space, the shot is also the first taken by another human (James McDivitt), as up until that moment all images released, were taken by television or monitoring cameras. This photograph, estimated to fetch £1,000-£2,000 is the first in a series of photographs taken by McDivitt of Ed White, during the first US spacewalk, several of which are included in the sale.

Another momentous image is the world’s first image of the earth rising above the moon’s horizon, captured and sent back by Lunar Orbiter 1, the first U.S. robotic spacecraft to orbit the moon. The famous image, titled Earthrise was taken on August 23, 1966 Each of the five orbiters subsequently sent 200 photographs, which helped NASA select safe landing sites for the Apollo missions. It is estimated to fetch £800-£1,200.

NASA astronaut William Anders illuminated the world (quite literally) on Apollo Mission 8, when he took the first ever photograph by a human from beyond the earth’s orbit. The photograph featured on the cover of Time Magazine in January 10, 1969 and became one of the 20th century’s most iconic space images. During the Apollo 8 mission the earth appeared as a ‘disc’, which is what Anders captured on December 21, 1968 at 13:06 GMT. Commenting on this Anders said: “We came all the way to see the moon and the most important thing is that we discovered the earth”. The photograph is estimated to fetch £2,000-£4,000 at auction.

Also on the Apollo 8 mission a near-full moon was captured in all of its’ glory during the crew’s homeward journey. Just after the trans-earth injection the crew were afforded the opportunity to view different aspects of the moon never visible to terrestrial viewers. This astonishing image is estimated to fetch £1,000-£2,000.

One of the most prized and highly sought-after images in history is the Apollo 8 ‘Earthrise’ image, which shows the earth rising above the lunar horizon. Taken by William Anders on December 24, 1968, it is the most famous view of planet earth and is the first photograph of ‘earthrise’ taken by human hand. It was the view observed by the Apollo 8 crew during the fourth orbit of the moon. It has been given an estimate of £3,000-£5,000 but due to its’ popularity may well exceed this.

Elsewhere in the sale is a vintage photograph of Buzz Aldrin, taken by fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong. The photograph taken in 1972, is one of the most iconic images from the Apollo 11 mission. The reflection of Armstrong in this image makes it exceptionally rare. It was so breath-taking that it featured on the front cover of Time Magazine. It is estimated to fetch £2,000-£3,000.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, the country will also invest 52.6 billion won on space exploration, which includes its lunar orbiter project that is currently preparing for a launch next year.

The 200-ton Nuri rocket to be launched later this year will have a mock payload, while the launch of another carrying a real satellite is slated for May next year.

In 2013, South Korea sent its 140-ton Naro rocket into space after two failed attempts. However, the main rocket on that launch was Russian-built.

The ministry plans to launch a mid-sized observation next-generation satellite next month in Kazakhstan and is working on developing a new public communications geostationary orbit satellite.

The mission has not paused because Mars won’t, either. Owing to planetary alignment, the only time to launch a large payload to Earth’s second closest planetary neighbor occurs just three weeks out of every 26 months. If Perseverance doesn’t make it off the launch pad before the end of this launch opportunity, the project will have to wait until September 2022 to try again. Perseverance is the only NASA mission in the next several months with such an orbital constraint.

The women and men of Perseverance will tell you that their efforts pale in comparison to the inspiring work being performed by our frontline healthcare workers and first responders fighting COVID-19 across the globe. Like all of us, they worry about their families and communities.

However, by staying focused on the challenge at hand, preparation for the launch of Perseverance — humanity’s first step in returning samples from another planet — remains on track. Getting to this point has required the team to be nimble, adhere to necessary health precautions, and gather support across the agency.

Persevering at Home

Based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the project has transitioned 90% of the team to telework. In this new mode, the team has continued to mature its software, mission planning and operations procedures, and systems engineering readiness for launch. Like many Americans, they are persevering from home.

The team created a community page to share thoughts on best practices and provide moral support to each other. They’ve changed their meeting cadence, making time for “hallway conversations.” They’re also making time for “virtual walk-ins” and one-on-one virtual exchanges with project management.

But for some critical spacecraft tasks, a physical presence in a laboratory setting is required. Just last week at JPL, mission-essential staff successfully completed the assembly and cleaning of the sample tubes that will hold Martian sediment and rock for return to Earth on a future mission. Other mission-essential personnel will continue to go to the Lab for the foreseeable future, running assessments on critical rover systems and computer programs that must be completed before launch.

The Lab instituted a suite of safe@work procedures — based on the guidance of occupational safety medical personnel — to ensure those working on-Lab are social distancing, wearing protective equipment, and have ready access to hand sanitizer and other cleaning supplies. Limiting the number of personnel on-Lab to the minimal critical set has allowed the Mars 2020 Perseverance team to continue to focus on their work while the Lab’s support network focuses on their safety.

“NASA has determined that Perseverance is the science program that has the agency’s highest priority and the project has responded superbly to this challenge,” said Michael Watkins, director of JPL. “When we realized the pandemic would affect Lab access, we were quick to define their chief objective as being workplace safety for team members and their families, and then built a plan around that providing the clearest path to the launch pad.”

Persevering at Cape Canaveral

Another 80 mission-critical team members are performing final processing and checkout of the spacecraft components at Kennedy Space Center in central Florida. Adhering to strict cleanliness guidelines and working in personal protective equipment is second nature to this team, since they adhere to strict cleanliness protocols with all spacecraft going to Mars.

More challenging was figuring out how key personnel could travel from Southern California to Florida and back while minimizing their risk of exposure to coronavirus.

“These are people with a very special skillset — they know how to put all the pieces together,” said JPL’s Matt Wallace, deputy project manager for Perseverance. “While this team has done a remarkable job in a very difficult time for our nation and the world, we would not have been able to continue through this global emergency without the support of colleagues across the agency.”

A great example of commitment to the agency mission is the critical work of personnel in the Flight Operations Office at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The agency approved use of its C-20 aircraft at Armstrong for transport of mission-critical JPL staff from California.

“Getting the Perseverance team and gear safely where they need to go is just the latest in Armstrong’s affiliation with Mars exploration,” said Wayne Ringelberg, chief research pilot from NASA Armstrong. “We hosted Mars Exploration Rover evaluations at Roger’s Lake in 2003, and in 2011 we tested the descent radar used on Curiosity’s landing in 2012 as well as Perseverance’s next year. “

Trips would begin at sunrise, with Armstrong’s flight surgeon performing health screenings and protective equipment fittings. By sundown in Southern California, the aircraft crew would return home with team members whose work at the Cape was complete.

“We refer to it as One NASA,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate. “It means any part of the agency and its 19 facilities will lend a hand and come together to push back the limits of technology and increase our knowledge of the universe. One of the best demonstrations of One NASA I’ve seen in a while is playing out right now with our Perseverance rover. Together we are persevering.”

In addition to NASA, personnel from across the U.S. aerospace industry and the Department of Energy have performed critical activities in preparing Perseverance for launch.

Preflight by Smartphone

While the direct flights have been indispensable, some members have not been able to take them, despite being essential to inspections.

“Just like a pilot does a preflight inspection before going up, we have a ‘walkdown’ of the spacecraft, where subject matter experts who are most intimate with the workings of a particular spacecraft system get one last chance to spot anything that might be wrong or could be made better,” explained Wallace. “We would not launch without the ability to complete these inspections.”

So the project’s imaging scientist, Justin Maki, brought the spacecraft to them. Maki is an expert at obtaining pristine HD-quality images from the surface of Mars. Working with the JPL Communications and Public Engagement teams, who are well-versed with providing terrestrial footage, Maki and the clean room team in Florida set up a plan for the first live video walkdown of a Mars rover.

On March 31 and April 1, six Perseverance senior engineers watched from their home offices in Southern California as a technician in the rover’s clean room at Kennedy maneuvered his smartphone into every accessible nook and cranny of the rover. The walkdown’s crystal-clear video feed gave them the confidence that their part of Perseverance was ready to go.

The completed spacecraft (rover, descent stage, aeroshell and cruise stage) is scheduled to be mated with its Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 41 in June.

“While we still have our sights set on Mars, our feet are firmly planted here on Earth,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “We see the strain this pandemic is placing on our families, our healthcare workers and our livelihoods. We hope that when we leave Earth this summer, and when the Perseverance rover lands on Mars next February, our collective efforts to persevere through these challenging times will inspire the nation.”

The Perseverance rover is a robotic scientist weighing about 2,260 pounds (1,025 kilograms). The rover’s astrobiology mission will search for signs of past microbial life. It will characterize the planet’s climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. No matter what day Perseverance launches during its July 17-Aug. 5 launch period, it will land at Mars’ Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration plans.

For more information about the mission, go to:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

For more about NASA’s Moon to Mars plans, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars

SpaceX has been building Starlink satellites in space, and the American aerospace manufacturer has already deployed a total of 1,023 satellites after 18 launches so far. Now it is set to send a new batch of satellites to complete its v0.9 and v1.0 Starlink project.

This is SpaceX’s ambitious project that aims to construct an interconnected internet network with thousands of satellites. Once complete, it is expected to deliver high-speed internet to subscribers around the world.

Starlink’s latest launch was delayed

CNBC reported that SpaceX continues to launch as many as 60 satellites to its Starlink structure out of space. The company has been using its Falcon 9 rockets to bring the satellites to the site and have been successfully placing 120 satellites every month.

Elon Musk’s company is now ramping up its launch rate to keep up with the schedule, and in fact, the next launch date was supposed to happen on Sunday, Jan. 31. It did not push through, and SpaceX is now targeting Feb. 1 as the date for its next Starlink launch.

Based on the report, SpaceX was set to test-fire a Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center the past weekend, but it was called off at the last minute. If everything will go as planned and the weather is clear, the 60 Starlink satellites could be launched through the Falcon 9 on Feb. 1.

SpaceX projected that it would have already deployed around 4,425 satellites to orbit by 2024, it is still a long way from its original approved number of the Federal Communications Commission, which is 11,943 satellites. In any case, while there is still a lot to go, Starlink internet services is already in beta and serving customers in southern Canada and northern America.

SpaceX’s new issue with FAA

Meanwhile, amid the launching of more satellites for the Starlink project, SpaceX was called out for violation of Federal Aviation Administration terms. While the company has an FAA license, The New York Post reported that SpaceX is being investigated for the launch of its Starship spacecraft on Dec. 9.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s investigation is focused on the disastrous landing and SpaceX’s compliance with terms in its license. But then, it did not mention any specific violation that Elon Musk’s company might have committed. At this point, the FAA will be evaluating SpaceX’s license and revised it if the launches compromised public safety.

“We will approve the modification only after we are satisfied that SpaceX has taken the necessary steps to comply with regulatory requirements,” FAA spokesperson state.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comments regarding the issue.

Sadly, most people don’t even realize what is happening, and that is because the mainstream media only emphasizes stories that fit with the particular narratives that they are currently pushing.

But it has gotten to the point where nobody can deny that really weird things are happening.  The following are 7 major earth changes that are happening right now that everyone needs to know about…

#1 According to NASA, solar activity has dropped to the lowest level in 200 years.  The following comes from the official NASA website…

The forecast for the next solar cycle says it will be the weakest of the last 200 years. The maximum of this next cycle – measured in terms of sunspot number, a standard measure of solar activity level – could be 30 to 50% lower than the most recent one. The results show that the next cycle will start in 2020 and reach its maximum in 2025.

Of course NASA insists that everything will be just fine, but others are wondering if this lack of solar activity could potentially spawn another “Little Ice Age”…

When solar activity gets really low, it can have the effect of a “mini ice age.” The period between 1645 and 1715 was marked by a prolonged sunspot minimum, and this corresponded to a downturn in temperatures in Europe and North America. Named after astronomers Edward Maunder and his wife Annie Russell Maunder, this period became known as the Maunder Minimum. It is also known as “The Little Ice Age.”

#2 When solar activity gets very low, it has traditionally meant very cold and very snowy winters, and right now we are seeing snow in places that are extremely unusual…

The Egyptian capital, Cairo, was also turned white at the start of the month, despite the city not having snow in 112 years, and experiencing less than an inch of rain each year.

Many parts of Greece were covered in snow in early January, with low temperatures and strong frost.

The cold front named ‘Hephaestion’, after an Ancient Greek army general, thrashed the Greek landscape, bringing rain, sleet and ice in the east.

#3 Meanwhile, the oceans of the world just keep getting hotter and hotter.  In fact, ocean temperatures off the California coast have been setting new all-time record highs.  It is odd that this is taking place at a time of such low solar activity, but according to NBC News this is definitely happening…

The world’s oceans hit their warmest level in recorded history in 2019, according to a study published Monday that provides more evidence that Earth is warming at an accelerated pace.

The analysis, which also found that ocean temperatures in the last decade have been the warmest on record, shows the impact of human-caused warming on the planet’s oceans and suggests that sea-level rise, ocean acidification and extreme weather events could worsen as the oceans continue to absorb so much heat.

#4 There have always been wildfires, but we have never seen anything like this.  During the summer, countless catastrophic fires burned millions upon millions of acres in the Amazon rainforest, and this winter Australia’s fires have actually been a total of 46 percent larger than the fires that we witnessed in the Amazon.  Australia has never seen anything like this before, and according to NASA the smoke from these fires will completely circle the Earth…

Once was bad enough, but smoke from Australia’s devastating bushfires is set to return to the country to complete a round-the-world trip that has seen it impact on air quality as far away as South America.

By Jan. 8, the smoke had made its way halfway around the world and will make at least one full circuit, according to scientists at NASA, citing satellite tracking data. New Zealand experienced severe air quality issues, while hazy skies and colorful sunsets and sunrises were seen in parts of Chile and Argentina.

#5 During the first half of 2020, volcanoes all over the world have been roaring to life and have been shooting giant clouds of hot ash miles into the sky.  For example, in the Philippines the Taal volcano shot ash nine miles into the air on Sunday, it has also been shooting scorching hot lava half a mile into the air, and the ground around the volcano is starting to crack wide open.

But even after all the devastation that we have already seen, authorities are warning that it could “re-explode at any moment”…

The gray ash is knee-deep. It covers the homes, the bloated cadavers of cows and horses, their limbs protruding at unnatural angles in the shadow of a sulking volcano that could re-explode at any moment.

“My home is now gone,” said Melvin Mendoza, 39, a boatman who returned on Tuesday to Taal, the volcanic island in the middle of a freshwater lake just 40 miles south of Manila, which erupted on Sunday like an atomic bomb mushroom cloud.

Let us hope that this volcanic activity does not spread throughout that general area, because the largest super volcano caldera in the entire world has been discovered not too far from the Philippines…

A team including members from GNS Science have identified an ancient mega-volcano that could have the largest known caldera on Earth.

The 150km (93.2 miles) wide feature is on the crest of Benham Rise, an oceanic plateau off the Philippines coast. In comparison, the caldera at Taupō is about 35km (21.8 miles) wide, and that at Yellowstone about 60km (37.3 miles).

#6 All of this is taking place while the north magnetic pole is moving toward Russia at a very rapid pace.  The following comes from CNN…

The north magnetic pole has been slowly moving across the Canadian Arctic toward Russia since 1831, but its swift pace toward Siberia in recent years at a rate of around 34 miles per year has forced scientists to update the World Magnetic Model — used by civilian navigation systems, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and US and British militaries — a year ahead of schedule.

#7 On top of everything else, the Earth’s magnetic field has been steadily weakening over time, and this has some experts extremely concerned…

In a forum on Quora, science fiction writer and journalist C Stuart Hardwick revealed that satellite data, such as those collected by the European Space Agency’s SWARM mission, revealed that the magnetic field has been weakening for about 5 percent each century. He noted that currently, the strength of the magnetic field is at 29.5 microteslas, which is 14 percent weaker than its previous state three centuries ago. According to Hardwick, the SWARM satellites detected increased deterioration within regions of the magnetic field over North America. He said these regions weakened by about 3.5 percent over the span of just three years.

Without our magnetic field, life on Earth could not exist for long.

And it doesn’t have to disappear completely to be a massive problem.  If it simply gets weak enough, dwelling on the surface is going to become exceedingly difficult.

As I keep warning, our planet is becoming increasing unstable, and what we have experienced so far is just the beginning.

The demands of life can often cause us to focus on things that don’t really matter.  Hopefully, we can get more people to wake up while there is still time, because the clock is ticking for humanity and for our planet as a whole.

Like California City, envisioned as home to a Mars research station and Mars City basecamp by Vera Mulyani, The desert surrounding Dubai provides an ideal testing ground. Barren and dry as Mars itself, there’s plenty of room there for the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) to establish a project that covers 176,000 square meters. It’s called Mars Science City, and its current budget is estimated at $135 million.

The architects Bjarke Ingels Group have submitted plans for a prototype Mars Science City to be tested in the Emirati desert. To achieve this first stage, they analyzed the challenges that the hostile Martian environment presents to humans, and conceived solutions for overcoming them.

The first challenges are avoiding the powerful radiation that pierces Mar’s thin atmosphere, the low gravity, and creating an artificial temperature that permits human life. The normal Martian temperature is  -63°C (-81°F); a tad chilly for sustaining life. Given the scant air pressure due to the thin atmosphere and low gravity, fluids transform to gas quickly, such that an unprotected person’s blood would boil away.

Other challenges will doubtless arise to be dealt with, but the architect Bjarke Ingels Group has already proposed detailed plans for living on Mars.

In an interview with CNN, Jakob Lange, partner at Bjarke Ingels Group, gave a picture of how the artificial city would be made habitable. People would live inside of pressurised, oxygen-filled biodomes covered by transparent polyethylene. The oxygen would be made by passing electricity through ice stored underground.

Solar energy would power and heat the city, taking advantage of the thin atmosphere to maintain a comfortable warm temperature.

Lange explained, “Since there is very little atmosphere on Mars, the heat transfer will be very low, meaning that the air inside the domes will not cool down as fast as it would on Earth.”

Buildings would be constructed of red Martian soil and 3D-printed. Rooms 20 feet long would be built underground as insurance against radiation, dust storms, and meteor crashes. Light would filter in from water-filled skylights with living fish swimming inside them.

“In the future on Mars, you would have skylights in your underground cave that would be like aquariums,” said Lange.

Our great-grandchildren, can expect to see other fantastic forms of buildings on Mars, which has only one third of Earth’s gravity.

“… which means that you can suddenly make columns that are … slimmer and longer,” Lange said. “It creates almost like a completely new rule set that you have to follow when designing architecture in space.”

This brings to mind the covers of sci-fi magazines from the 1960s showing spacecraft hovering over tall, many-turreted buildings, and a huge pockmarked planet glimmering in the background.

Looking even longer into the future, it’s hoped that as the Martian population grows, biodome villages will be built and eventually join to become cities.

The earthly model for the Mars Science Center will be 3D-printed from desert sand and its domes will not be artificially filled with oxygen. But there will be water skylights and solar energy will power it, as projected for the building on Mars. It will contain rooms for a school, a museum, and office spaces, as per the Martian plans. Israelis show us a prototype of a 3D printed home they created for living on Mars.

Vera Mulyani in California is also building a Mars City.

Past testing grounds for space missions include Antarctica’s Concordia Station, California’s Mojave Desert, where NASA tested Mars rovers, and the Moroccan Sahara, where the European Space Agency created a Mars analog. But the MBRSC hopes that in the future, Mars Science City will be the foremost facility for testing conditions on Mars.

“This is going to be our platform where we can develop the science [and] the technology that will help us in our future missions to Mars,” said Adnan AlRais, Mars 2117 Program Manager at MBRSC. “We want to come up with a totally new facility that will help the international community.”

MBRSC hasn’t given final approval to a design for the Mars Science Centre, nor settled on an architect. They are developing a budget for the project and determining how much desert space it would need.

The MBRSC’s space program has been active since 2014. They have sent an astronaut into outer space (September of 2019) and launched a probe to Mars in July 2020. The probe is named Hope and is expected to return in February of this year, loaded with data on Martian conditions.

More plans are to send an Emirati crew member to the international analog mission in Russia that’s to test the effect of isolation and confinement on mental and physical health. The project will take place in November of this year, and will last eight months.

What began as a conceptual senior capstone design project for a group of aerospace engineering seniors two years ago has since been expanded and developed into a complex piece of hardware bound for low-Earth orbit. Once cleared for flight, the completed satellite will fulfill its mission when it launches into space aboard the Cygnus NG-15 spacecraft, scheduled for launch in February 2021.

“This project is providing students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels the unique opportunity to design, develop, test, and monitor their own experimental payload, and see it successfully launched into space,” said Jonathan Black, professor in aerospace and ocean engineering, co-director for the Center for Space Science and Engineering Research (Space@VT), and director of the Aerospace and Ocean Systems Lab at the Hume Center at Virginia Tech. “Throughout the process, they are gaining critical skills in spacecraft systems engineering and space science that will complement what they are learning in the classroom.”

Humble beginnings

At Space@VT, Virginia Tech’s ThickSat was developed by a large team of undergraduate and graduate students from across the College of Engineering and the College of Science over the past two years.

The path from design concept in the classroom to outer space is rooted in the ThinSat program. The initiative, a collaborative effort between the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (also known as Virginia Space), Twiggs Space Lab, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, and the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, seeks to increase student engagement in STEM-related fields and democratize the public’s access to space. Through the low-cost, short-term missions, students gain hands-on experience in the development of a small satellite no larger than a slice of bread.

Professor Kevin Shinpaugh encouraged student participation in the ThinSat program as part of his space vehicle design course, a year-long senior capstone design experience in the Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering.

According to Shinpaugh, the plan was to design a satellite during the first semester, complete a quick build and test with a low-altitude balloon flight prior to delivering the final space flight payload in the spring. The undergraduates designed and built a prototype but delays in the test phase occurred, and as the seniors graduated and departed Virginia Tech, a group of Space@VT students picked up the project where they left off.

Eager to see the project through to completion, the undergraduates passed the project on to a team of multi-disciplinary graduate students as an extracurricular project at Space@VT. Expanding upon the undergraduates’ conceptual design and mission, the team of graduate students worked to build a more complex satellite within the restrictive constraints of the ThinSat model. The team combined six individual ThinSat trays to create a bigger, more capable ThickSat.

“This project is unique in that it really extends the capability of traditional ThinSat,” said Shinpaugh. “With the combination of multiple trays, the final hardware looks more like a cubesat while utilizing the communications and power systems of a smaller, thinner satellite.”

Preparing for launch

Virginia Tech’s satellite will test a composite boom for the NASA Langley Research Center as part of the development of the next generation of ultra lightweight deployable boom technology. The experiment and testing of this boom, which can physically extend and support a range of small satellite deployable systems, serves to act as a risk reduction pathfinder for future spaceflight missions such as the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) mission, and demonstrates rapid, low-cost efforts to get new technology designed and flown, resulting in a cycle of continual improvements.

Virginia Tech’s completed flight unit was recently delivered to the Near Space Launch in Upland, Indiana, where it will undergo space launch qualification testing to ensure the hardware can withstand launch and deployment in the space environment. The ThickSat, along with dozens of ThinSat projects from other university and high school teams, will then be integrated into a canisterized satellite dispenser and prepared for launch. The payloads will be transported back to the NASA Wallops Flight Facility and attached onto the upper stage booster on the Cygnus NG-15 and launched into space.

The NG-15 is the 15th planned flight of Northrop Grumman’s robotic resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station and is scheduled for launch on the Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia in February 2021.

After the Cygnus spacecraft separates from the rocket, the canisterized satellite dispenser will open up and disperse the satellites at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere, in the region known as extreme low Earth orbit. The satellites will collect data or perform their intended missions for about five to seven days before burning upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

Virginia Space, Twiggs Space Lab, and Near Space Launch are providing a space data dashboard to ensure all schools can view their data. Confirmation for mission success of Virginia Tech’s satellite will be achieved via pictures taken from the on-board camera or optical encoder sensor data from deployment.

Since the ThickSat project’s inception, approximately 25 Virginia Tech undergraduate and graduate students have had a hand in this mission as part of a much larger cross-institutional team. Students from aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, computer science, and physics have worked together to make the mission a reality.

Over the course of the project, students have benefited from financial and in-kind support from NASA Langley Research Center, The Virginia SmallSat Data Consortium, and industry advisors. More importantly, the hands-on experience they’ve gained with coaching support from faculty and the dynamics they experienced working on specialized teams will prepare them for internships and career opportunities in aerospace-related industries.

Faculty advisors include professors Jonathan Black and Kevin Shinpaugh, both of the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering. Students also received guidance from research associates Zachary Leffke and Stephen Noel, both of the Hume Center for National Security and Technology. The team of students from across the College of Engineering and the College of Science includes graduate students Gustavo Gargioni, Nicholas Angle, Minzhen Du, Robert Engebretson, Theresa Furgiuele, Virginia Smith, and Derick Whited; and undergraduates Matt Broadus, Gavin Brown, Bryce Clegg, William Curtis, Collin Deans, Ryan Frodge, Brandon Griffin, Connor Haxton, John Kadan, David Kenworthy, Jordan Martin, Havy Pham, Ben Shaker, Stanley Smeltzer, Trevor Wolf, Coby Woodlief, and Ziwei Yang.

The two largest planets in the solar system have fascinated astronomers for hundreds of years. But the gas giants will do something later this month not seen since the Middle Ages — they will look like a double planet.

The rare occurrence will happen after sunset on Dec. 21, 2020, the start of the winter solstice.

“Alignments between these two planets are rather rare, occurring once every 20 years or so, but this conjunction is exceptionally rare because of how close the planets will appear to one another,” said Rice University astronomer Patrick Hartigan. “You’d have to go all the way back to just before dawn on March 4, 1226, to see a closer alignment between these objects visible in the night sky.”

As Robert Felix mentions in his book Not by Fire but by Ice:

According to studies by Rhodes W. Fairbridge and John E. Sanders of Columbia University, these alignments cause what is known as the solar retrograde cycle. This cycle involves changes in both solar spin rate and solar output (solar output declines abruptly). The retrograde motion itself is produced by the gravitational pull of the planets; primarily Saturn and Jupiter. When Saturn and Jupiter are both in the same quadrant of the solar system they exert a greater pull on the sun. The cycle is undeniable. “Solar cyclicity must now be considered as being a fact of life,” said the two Professors Emeritus. (Both Fairbridge and Sanders were Professors Emeritus of Geology at Columbia University. Each of them published extensively in geology and astronomy)

Below is a longer excerpt from Not by Fire but by Ice concerning the solar retrograde cycle:

Previously, I mentioned the Little Ice Age, which began in the early 1600s. What I didn’t mention, is that little ice ages recur in cycles. Pioneering studies by Rhodes W. Fairbridge and John E. Sanders of Columbia University show that our climate oscillates – warm to cold, cold to warm – in a dependable, predictable cycle, becoming much cooler and wetter every 178.73 (±0.27) years.

The cycle is caused by the sun’s retrograde, or clockwise, motion around the center of mass – the barycenter – of the solar system. Called the solar retrograde cycle, this cycle involves changes in both solar spin rate and solar output (solar output declines abruptly). The retrograde motion itself is produced by the gravitational pull of the planets; primarily Saturn and Jupiter. When Saturn and Jupiter are both in the same quadrant of the solar system they exert a greater pull on the sun. The cycle is undeniable. “Solar cyclicity must now be considered as being a fact of life,” said the two Professors Emeritus. (Both Fairbridge and Sanders were Professors Emeritus of Geology at Columbia University. Each of them published extensively in geology and astronomy.

Probably the most important figure in solar retrograde field was the late Dr. Theodor Landscheidt, founder of the Schroeter Institute for Research in Cycles of Solar Activity in Waldmuenchen, Germany. Dr. Landscheit began publishing his results in 1976.

On earth, the solar retrograde cycle triggers fluctuations in geomagnetic-field intensity while causing abrupt – and extreme – changes in climate. The changes are so severe that at every other beat of the cycle – approximately every 360 years – the earth plunges into a Little Ice Age.

This cycle has plagued our planet for hundreds of millions of years.

“The 360-year Little Ice Age cycle shows up in the Morrison Formation clear back in the Jurassic,” says research geologist Jack Sauers. “It correlates with the fall of the Roman Empire. It correlates with the fall of the Sumerian Empire. It correlates with the fall of the Ottoman Empire (when Ghengis Kahn swept out of the north). It correlates with the fall of the Greek Empire. And it is now coinciding with the collapse of several modern-day empires.”

Unfortunately, the last beat of the Little Ice Age cycle occurred almost exactly 360 years ago. “If this pattern holds,” said Fairbridge and Sanders, “then a comparable Little Ice Age can be expected to begin . . . early in the twenty-first century.”

But wait. It gets worse. Multiply the Little Ice Age cycle by four, and you get a 1440-year cycle of even harsher climate conditions. This cycle, discovered in the Greenland Ice Sheet, was reported by Paul Mayewski et al. in 1997. (Journal of Geophysical Research, 30 Nov 1997)

The 1440-year cycle brings with it “dramatic and rapid” changes in climate (dry in some areas, wet in others) and worldwide glacier expansion. The cycle appears to be related to internal oscillations in the ocean-climate system, says Mayewski (which I attribute to underwater volcanism, triggered by changes in geomagnetic intensity, triggered by the changes in the sun).

Whatever causes it, a similar 1440-year cycle has been found in North Atlantic deep sea cores (Bond et al., Science, 14 Nov 1997). Our climate plunged into frigid conditions about 4200 years ago, said Bond. Similar declines occurred about 2800 years ago and 1400 years ago, which means – you guessed it – that the next beat of the 1400-year cycle is due.

As if that weren’t enough, multiply the 1440-year cycle by eight, and you come up with 11,520, which is suspiciously close to the 11,500-year ice-age cycle.

So here we sit. The next beat of the 179-year solar retrograde cycle is due. The next beat of the 360-year Little Ice Age cycle is due. The next beat of the 1440-year ice-age cycle is due. The next beat of the 11,500-year ice-age cycle is due. The next beat of the 100,000-year ice-age cycle is due . . . and we’re worried about global warming?

It’s ludicrous to be worried about global warming.

We must prepare for an ice age. As Fairbridge and Sanders put it, “Nature’s dice really are somewhat loaded.” If we can heed the lessons of history writ so clearly in the geologic record, maybe we can reload those dice in our favor.

–By Robert Felix, Not by Fire but by Ice

The COLD TIMES are returning, the mid-latitudes are REFREEZING in line with historically low solar activity, cloud-nucleating Cosmic Rays, and a meridional jet stream flow.

Both NOAA and NASA appear to agree, if you read between the lines, with NOAA saying we’re entering a ‘full-blown’ Grand Solar Minimum in the late-2020s, and NASA seeing this upcoming solar cycle (25) as “the weakest of the past 200 years”, with the agency correlating previous solar shutdowns to prolonged periods of global cooling here.

Furthermore, we can’t ignore the slew of new scientific papers stating the immense impact The Beaufort Gyre could have on the Gulf Stream, and therefore the climate overall.