Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS NEARLY 13 YEARS AND 4 MONTH.
ON /30/09/2024 MORE THAN 2.230.520
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
13-09-2024
Martian ‘Spiders’ Re-Created in Lab for First Time
Martian ‘Spiders’ Re-Created in Lab for First Time
Martian ‘spiders’ are small, dark, spider-shaped features up to 1 km (0.6 miles) across. The leading theory is that they form when spring sunshine falls on layers of carbon dioxide deposited over the dark winter months. Thanks to new experiments, a team of scientists at NASA has, for the first time, re-created those formation processes in simulated Martian temperatures and air pressure.
Examples of the ‘Kieffer zoo’ features proposed to be formed by seasonal carbon dioxide sublimation dynamics on Mars: (a) ‘thin’ spiders within the south polar layered deposits; (b) dark spots on top of a layer of translucent carbon dioxide slab ice covering a cluster of ‘fat’ spiders at Martian ‘Inca City;’ (c) ‘fried eggs’ showing rings of dark dust surrounded by bright halos; (d) patterned ground within the high south polar latitudes with dark oriented fans indicative of wind direction and some bright, white fans; (e) bright halos surrounding Swiss cheese depressions; (f) ‘lace terrain,’ a type of patterned ground suggested to be polygonally patterned ground later scoured and eroded by surface-flowing carbon dioxide gas from the Kieffer model.
Image credit: HiRISE / NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory / University of Arizona.
Present-day Mars is a dynamic planet, rich with surface change despite its tenuous atmosphere and cold climate.
In winter, a significant portion of Mars’ primarily carbon dioxide-atmosphere accumulates onto the surface as frost.
In the spring, it sublimes, revealing some morphologies that are unlike anything seen on Earth.
These include dark dalmatian spots and oriented fans, ‘fried eggs,’ gullies sometimes accompanied by dark digitate flows and bright ‘halos’ in spring, dendritic ‘spiders’, sand furrows on active dunes, and growing dendritic troughs.
These features have been detected on loose material around the south pole and on interdune material toward the south polar midlatitudes. However, some minor phenomena have been detected in the north.
Araneiform features on the surface of Mars, as imaged by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2009.
Many of these features compose the so-called ‘Kieffer zoo,’ a collection of surface expressions first described in 2003 and proposed to be created by the solid-state greenhouse effect.
“In the Kieffer model, sunlight penetrates translucent slab ice in spring and thermal-wavelength radiation gets trapped, heating the regolith beneath the ice and causing the impermeable ice slab to sublimate from its base,” explained Dr. Lauren Mc Keown of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and colleagues.
“Through this process, spiders are proposed to be eroded via high-velocity gas scouring the sub-slab regolith, while fans and variations of spots are strewn on the ice surface, deposited by a plume of dust and gas.”
The study authors were able to create the full cycle of the Kieffer model in a lab and confirm the formation of several types of Kieffer zoo features.
“The hardest part of conducting the experiments was re-creating conditions found on the Martian polar surface: extremely low air pressure and temperatures as low as minus 185 degrees Celsius (minus 301 degrees Fahrenheit),” they said.
Araneiforms imaged on the surface of Mars by the Trace Gas Orbiter. (ESA/TGO/CaSSIS)"The spiders are strange, beautiful geologic features in their own right,"
“To do that, we used a liquid-nitrogen-cooled test chamber: the Dirty Under-vacuum Simulation Testbed for Icy Environments (DUSTIE).”
“For the experiments, we chilled Martian soil simulant in a container submerged within a liquid nitrogen bath.”
“We placed it in the DUSTIE chamber, where the air pressure was reduced to be similar to that of Mars’ southern hemisphere.”
“Carbon dioxide gas then flowed into the chamber and condensed from gas to ice over the course of three to five hours.”
“It took many tries before we found just the right conditions for the ice to become thick and translucent enough for the experiments to work.”
“Once we got ice with the right properties, we placed a heater inside the chamber below the simulant to warm it up and crack the ice.”
“We were ecstatic when we finally saw a plume of carbon dioxide gas erupting from within the powdery simulant.”
Inside the DUSTIE chamber. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)The researchers took a simulant of the Martian regolith – a mixture of minerals in size and composition to replicate the dirt on Mars – and cooled it in liquid nitrogen before placing it in the chamber, which had been tuned to the pressure and temperature conditions of Martian winter.
Crack formations similar to the Martian araneiforms that appeared in the DUSTIE experiment. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)Sure enough, the conditions in the chamber had produced, in miniature, the same spider-like shape seen at the south pole of Mars. The gas had streamed out, carrying dust with it, creating the tendrilled form on the surface. But there was a surprise.
A paper describing these experiments appears in the Planetary Science Journal.
Lauren E. Mc Keown et al. 2024. A Lab-scale Investigation of the Mars Kieffer Model. Planet. Sci. J 5, 195; doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ad67c8
VIDEOS
NASA reveals how spiders growing on Mars | Oneindia News
New NASA Image Shows Spiders Crawling Over Mars Surface | TIME
NASA reveals how spiders growing on Mars | Oneindia News
NASA’s Webb Reveals Distorted Galaxy Forming Cosmic Question Mark
NASA’s Webb Reveals Distorted Galaxy Forming Cosmic Question Mark
The galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154. Full image below.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, V. Estrada-Carpenter (Saint Mary's University).
It’s 7 billion years ago, and the universe’s heyday of star formation is beginning to slow. What might our Milky Way galaxy have looked like at that time? Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found clues in the form of a cosmic question mark, the result of a rare alignment across light-years of space.
“We know of only three or four occurrences of similar gravitational lens configurations in the observable universe, which makes this find exciting, as it demonstrates the power of Webb and suggests maybe now we will find more of these,” said astronomer Guillaume Desprez of Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a member of the team presenting the Webb results.
Image A: Lensed Question Mark (NIRCam)
The galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154 is so massive it is warping the fabric of space-time and distorting the appearance of galaxies behind it, an effect known as gravitational lensing. This natural phenomenon magnifies distant galaxies and can also make them appear in an image multiple times, as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope saw here. Two distant, interacting galaxies — a face-on spiral and a dusty red galaxy seen from the side — appear multiple times, tracing a familiar shape across the sky. Active star formation, and the face-on galaxy’s remarkably intact spiral shape, indicate that these galaxies’ interaction is just beginning.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, V. Estrada-Carpenter (Saint Mary's University).
While this region has been observed previously with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the dusty red galaxy that forms the intriguing question-mark shape only came into view with Webb. This is a result of the wavelengths of light that Hubble detects getting trapped in cosmic dust, while longer wavelengths of infrared light are able to pass through and be detected by Webb’s instruments.
Astronomers used both telescopes to observe the galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154, which acts like a magnifying glass because the cluster is so massive it warps the fabric of space-time. This allows astronomers to see enhanced detail in much more distant galaxies behind the cluster. However, the same gravitational effects that magnify the galaxies also cause distortion, resulting in galaxies that appear smeared across the sky in arcs and even appear multiple times. These optical illusions in space are called gravitational lensing.
The red galaxy revealed by Webb, along with a spiral galaxy it is interacting with that was previously detected by Hubble, are being magnified and distorted in an unusual way, which requires a particular, rare alignment between the distant galaxies, the lens, and the observer — something astronomers call a hyperbolic umbilic gravitational lens. This accounts for the five images of the galaxy pair seen in Webb’s image, four of which trace the top of the question mark. The dot of the question mark is an unrelated galaxy that happens to be in the right place and space-time, from our perspective.
Image B: Hubble and Webb Side by Side
In addition to producing a case study of the Webb NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) instrument’s ability to detect star formation locations within a galaxy billions of light-years away, the research team also couldn’t resist highlighting the question mark shape. “This is just cool looking. Amazing images like this are why I got into astronomy when I was young,” said astronomer Marcin Sawicki of Saint Mary’s University, one of the lead researchers on the team.
“Knowing when, where, and how star formation occurs within galaxies is crucial to understanding how galaxies have evolved over the history of the universe,” said astronomer Vicente Estrada-Carpenter of Saint Mary’s University, who used both Hubble’s ultraviolet and Webb’s infrared data to show where new stars are forming in the galaxies. The results show that star formation is widespread in both. The spectral data also confirmed that the newfound dusty galaxy is located at the same distance as the face-on spiral galaxy, and they are likely beginning to interact.
“Both galaxies in the Question Mark Pair show active star formation in several compact regions, likely a result of gas from the two galaxies colliding,” said Estrada-Carpenter. “However, neither galaxy’s shape appears too disrupted, so we are probably seeing the beginning of their interaction with each other.”
“These galaxies, seen billions of years ago when star formation was at its peak, are similar to the mass that the Milky Way galaxy would have been at that time. Webb is allowing us to study what the teenage years of our own galaxy would have been like,” said Sawicki.
Image C: Wide Field - Lensed Question Mark (NIRCam)
Wide Field View: The galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154 is so massive it is warping the fabric of space-time and distorting the appearance of galaxies behind it, an effect known as gravitational lensing. This natural phenomenon magnifies distant galaxies and can also make them appear in an image multiple times, as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope saw here. Two distant, interacting galaxies — a face-on spiral and a dusty red galaxy seen from the side — appear multiple times, tracing a familiar shape across the sky. Active star formation, and the face-on galaxy’s remarkably intact spiral shape, indicate that these galaxies’ interaction is just beginning.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, V. Estrada-Carpenter (Saint Mary's University).
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
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Vergeleken met een paar decennia geleden weten we nu veel meer over het heelal en zijn samenstelling, geschiedenis en toekomst. Maar ondanks de antwoorden die zijn gevonden dankzij de voortdurende ontdekkingen van wetenschappers en de beelden van telescopen, blijven er nog veel vraagtekens bestaan. Letterlijk, soms. In feite is de ontdekking van een vraagteken in de ruimte, gefotografeerd door de James Webb Space Telescope, recent. Wat is het precies? En probeert het universum ons echt iets te vertellen? Laten we het samen ontdekken!
Een ongelooflijke zwaartekrachtlens
Als je naar de foto kijkt die door de JWST is gemaakt, lijkt het echt op een enorm vraagteken in de ruimte. Probeert het universum ook met ons te communiceren? Nou, ja en nee, want het vraagteken dat we zien is in werkelijkheid een geval van pareidolia, dat wil zeggen een illusie die ons ertoe brengt bekende objecten in willekeurige vormen te zien. En in feite bestaat het vreemde kosmische object uit drie sterrenstelsels die dit visuele effect bieden dankzij een zwaartekrachtlens.
Een zwaartekrachtlens, een effect dat al door Einstein werd voorspeld, is een verschijnsel dat optreedt wanneer het pad van licht van een object dat ver van ons vandaan is, wordt vervormd als gevolg van de vervorming van de ruimtetijd. Als licht een enorme massa passeert, buigt de ruimtetijd en dus ook het licht, waardoor gekromde sterrenstelsels, vreemde visuele effecten... en vraagtekens in de ruimte ontstaan.
Drie sterrenstelsels voor een vraag
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, V. Estrada-Carpenter (Saint Mary's University)
De foto die is gemaakt door de James Webb Space Telescope laat drie sterrenstelsels zien die in onze ogen een vraagteken in de ruimte vormen. Twee daarvan vormen de bovenkant van het bijzondere symbool: de eerste zit vol kosmisch stof en is rood van kleur, terwijl de tweede een wit spiraalvormig sterrenstelsel is. Tot slot is er de stip die wordt gevormd door een derde sterrenstelsel dat perfect is uitgelijnd met de telescoop. Jaren geleden had zelfs de Hubble dezelfde scène gefotografeerd, maar het detailniveau daarvan was veel lager dan dat van de JWST, waardoor het sommige details die we nu kunnen zien, niet kon vastleggen.
Bovendien zijn de eerste twee sterrenstelsels ongeveer 7 miljard lichtjaar van ons verwijderd, dus wat wij zien is wat er ongeveer 7 miljard jaar geleden is gebeurd. Het is heel goed mogelijk dat die twee sterrenstelsels vandaag zijn gefuseerd of al ver weg zijn, maar dat kunnen we niet weten. Nog niet, tenminste.
Voorbij het kosmische vraagteken
De ontdekking van een vraagteken in de ruimte is, afgezien van simpele humor of een subtiele metafoor, buitengewoon. Allereerst laat het opnieuw dat ongelooflijke instrument zien dat de JWST is, zelfs vergeleken met de Hubble-telescoop die ook de hemel blijft afspeuren. Ten tweede is het observeren van een zwaartekrachtlens altijd een kans voor astronomen en astrofysici, omdat het hen in staat stelt verder te kijken dan onoverkomelijke sterrenstelsels en te bestuderen wat daarachter ligt.
Kortom, deze ontdekking lijkt misschien eenvoudig en banaal: het was tenslotte gewoon een kwestie van het analyseren en inkleuren van enkele beelden verkregen op het infraroodspectrum, en het bekijken van de verschillende delen. Maar in werkelijkheid is de reikwijdte ervan veel breder: het toont opnieuw aan dat het vandaag de dag mogelijk is om het universum als nooit tevoren te zien en misschien enkele van de meest ondoorgrondelijke mysteries ervan te beantwoorden. Beginnend met de juiste vraagtekens.
Mysterious UFO Encounter: Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson’s Unforgettable Experience
Mysterious UFO Encounter: Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson’s Unforgettable Experience
On August 27, 1979, a seemingly routine night for Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson of Marshall County, Minnesota, turned into one of the most puzzling and widely discussed UFO encounters in history. What began as a standard patrol near the town of Stephen took a mysterious turn when Johnson experienced an inexplicable encounter with a bright beam of light. This incident has remained one of the most credible and well-documented UFO cases, leaving both investigators and skeptics baffled.
The Mysterious Encounter
In the early hours of the morning, Johnson was patrolling a rural road in northern Minnesota when he noticed an unusual light shining down on the highway ahead of him. Initially, he thought it might be a plane or possibly smugglers dropping cargo, as drug trafficking was not uncommon in the area at the time. But as Johnson drove closer, the beam of light suddenly grew brighter and engulfed his vehicle, blinding him.
At that moment, Johnson lost consciousness. When he regained awareness, he found his patrol car had skidded off the road. His windshield was cracked, his car’s antenna was bent, and both the dashboard clock and his wristwatch were running 14 minutes behind. Johnson also sustained physical injuries, including eye damage resembling welder’s burns—a condition often associated with exposure to intense light.
Investigating the Aftermath
Once Johnson called for help, local authorities quickly arrived at the scene. His injuries and the damage to his patrol car sparked an immediate investigation. The cracks on the windshield and the bent antenna were analyzed by forensic experts and engineers, but no conclusive explanation could be provided for the damage. Moreover, the fact that both his wristwatch and the car’s clock were exactly 14 minutes behind pointed to an electromagnetic anomaly, as UFOs are often linked to disruptions in electronic devices.
This time discrepancy became one of the most puzzling aspects of the case, leading some investigators to speculate that Johnson may have experienced a form of time distortion—a phenomenon sometimes reported in UFO encounters. The detailed physical evidence, combined with the deputy’s injuries, elevated this case to national attention and made it difficult to dismiss as a mere fabrication or hallucination.
Theories and Explanations
Over the years, several theories have been proposed to explain what happened to Val Johnson that night. Some believe Johnson may have collided with a low-flying aircraft, despite there being no evidence of debris or other signs of such an impact. Others have suggested that he may have been struck by lightning, though no storms were reported in the area at the time.
UFO skeptics have tried to rationalize the incident as a misinterpretation of natural phenomena, but these explanations fall short due to the lack of weather anomalies and the unique nature of Johnson’s injuries and the clock discrepancies.
A Credible Witness
One of the key reasons why the Val Johnson UFO encounter has been taken so seriously is the credibility of the witness. As a deputy sheriff, Johnson was a respected figure in the community and known for his professionalism and reliability. His account of the incident remained consistent throughout the investigation, and he showed no signs of trying to gain publicity or financial benefit from the story.
Moreover, Johnson’s injuries were real and documented by medical professionals. His eyes showed symptoms consistent with exposure to a high-intensity light source, and he exhibited signs of physical trauma, including bruising and a concussion. These details make it harder to dismiss his account as a simple hallucination or misjudgment.
The Case That Still Baffles
Despite the extensive investigation into the Val Johnson encounter, no definitive explanation has ever been found. The case remains one of the most perplexing UFO incidents, largely due to the physical evidence and the credible testimony of a law enforcement officer. While some theories have been floated, none adequately account for all the strange phenomena that occurred that night.
Today, the Val Johnson incident stands as one of the most credible and well-documented UFO encounters in history. It is a case that continues to intrigue researchers, UFO enthusiasts, and skeptics alike, as it raises profound questions about what Johnson encountered that night on the lonely rural roads of Minnesota.
VIDEO:
Shocking UFO Encounter: Deputy Sheriff Speaks Out | Close Encounters 104
The Val Johnson UFO encounter is a prime example of how some UFO sightings and experiences defy logical explanations. The combination of physical evidence, personal injuries, and a credible witness makes this case stand out in the long history of unexplained aerial phenomena. Even after decades of investigation, the encounter remains shrouded in mystery, reminding us of the complexities and unknowns that still exist in our world.
While no answers have been definitively provided, the incident continues to fuel discussions about the potential existence of extraterrestrial life and unexplained aerial encounters, making it a cornerstone in the annals of UFO research.
Deputy Fired Over UFO Investigation | News First 5
Minnesota’s most notorious UFO sighting remains a mystery four decades later
Ocean Explorers Discovered a Massive Underwater Mountain That's Taller Than Mt. Olympus
Ocean Explorers Discovered a Massive Underwater Mountain That's Taller Than Mt. Olympus
Story by Connor Lagore
Courtesy of the Schmidt Ocean Institute
Oceanographers explored an area around the Pacific Ocean’s Nazca Ridge and found a massive underwater mountain.
Using a sonar system, the researchers digitally mapped the seafloor of the area and observed the rare and largely unknown species of wildlife that make their homes on the underwater mountains’s ridges.
Of the 71 percent of the Earth’s surface that is ocean floor, only 26 percent of it has been mapped with the level of resolution used on this expedition by the institute.
Summiting Greece’s towering Mount Olympus is an impressive feet for the 1-million-plus people who have accomplished the climb. But it would be even more impressive if they could do it underwater.
That’s impossible—for now. But oceanographers led by the Schmidt Ocean Institute exploring the depths of the Pacific Ocean just discovered a massive underwater mountain that at least presents the opportunity.
Regardless of climb-ability, the 3,109-meter seamount is a massive find. It’s one of many made during the oceanographers’ 28-day late-summer exploration in the research vessel Falkor (too), whimsically named for the famous luckdragon from The Neverending Story.
The team discovered the mountain along the Nazca Ridge, which is located about 900 miles west of the Chilean coast—a region that itself contains a chain of underwater mountains. But this particular peak was towering above the rest. The submerged mountain is about 200 meters taller from base to peak than Mount Olympus, and roughly four times the size of the tallest building in the world (Dubai’s Burj Khalifa), according to a press release from the institut
Related video:
Oceanographers Discover Massive Seamount in Southeast Pacific (Newsweek)
The Falkor (too) crew mapped the mountain and the surrounding area using a sonar system on the bottom of the vessel’s hull. “Sound waves go down and they bounce back off the surface, and we measure the time it takes to come back and get measured. From that we get a really good idea (of the seabed topography),” Jyotika Virmani, the institute’s executive director, told CNN.
The area plotted by the expedition is a drop in the ocean (pun intended), but every drop counts. Just under three-quarters of the Earth’s surface (about 71 percent) is ocean floor, but of that expanse, we’ve only mapped about 26 percent in high resolution—including this recent Nazca Ridge mission. The oceanographers also studied nine other features of the area, including a smaller, neighboring mountain’s sprawling coral garden that stretches the size of three tennis courts.
The rocky slopes on the Nazca Ridge mountains, and other mountains like them across the ocean, are perfect homes for ancient coral and sponge gardens in which some sea life can live largely undisturbed. In addition to mapping the mountains, the researchers used a robot to explore the region and made some pretty major wildlife discoveries. This includes the thePromachoteuthis squid, which is so rare that everything we previously knew about it came from the small handful of specimens that were collected as long ago as the late 1800s.
The Promachoteuthis squid, an extremely rare genus of squid known only from a few collected specimens that have been found as long ago as the late 1800s.
“The seamounts of the Southeastern Pacific host remarkable biological diversity,” Alex David Rogers, Science Director of Ocean Census, said in a press release from the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
The researchers also spotted a Caspar octopus—the first confirmed appearance of the cephalopod in the southern Pacific Ocean—and Bathyphysa siphonophores, which are more commonly and ridiculously known as “flying spaghetti monsters” (an apt description).
The Bathyphysa siphonophore, which is more commonly and ridiculously known as “flying spaghetti monsters.”
This was the institute’s third expedition of the year to that region of the ocean floor. During the previous two, researchers documented over 150 previously unknown species.
Scientists hope the results of these Nazca Ridge expeditions will help push forward policies to safeguard these areas of the natural world that—despite the fact that we don’t often see them—are no less worth protecting than what we can see.
“We’ve explored around 25 seamounts on the Nazca and Salas y Gómez Ridges,” Co-Chief Scientist and Schmidt Ocean Institute Marine Technician Tomer Ketter said in the press release. “Our findings highlight the remarkable diversity of theseecosystems, while simultaneously revealing the gaps in our understanding of how the seamount ecosystems are interconnected. We hope the data gathered from these expeditions will help inform future policies, safeguarding these pristine environments for future generations.”
VIDEOS
Rare species caught on camera in underwater mountain range
The Hidden World of Seamounts
Stunning Display of Biodiversity on Un-surveyed Seamount | Nautilus Live
SpaceX Drains Air From Spacecraft While Astronauts Are Inside
SpaceX Drains Air From Spacecraft While Astronauts Are Inside
Story by Victor Tangermann
SpaceX Drains Air From Spacecraft While Astronauts Are Inside
One Small Step
SpaceX's all-civilian Polaris Dawn mission has pulled off an incredible feat: the first-ever commercial spacewalk.
After fully depressurizing their entire spacecraft, billionaire and mission commander Jared Isaacman and crewmate Sarah Gillis carefully clambered outside their Crew Dragon capsule early Thursday morning to have a once-in-a-lifetime peek at the Earth below.
Footage shows Isaacman standing up and stretching his arms while holding onto the spacecraft's "Skywalker" platform, a pool ladder-like structure to ensure he and Gillis could keep in constant contact with the capsule.
The stunt was performed at an altitude of 458 miles, almost twice the height of the International Space Station's usual orbit.
"SpaceX, back at home we have a lot of work to do, but from here it looks like a perfect world," Isaacman told mission control while getting an unparalleled view of Australia.
Giant Private Leap
Another video of the stunt shows a first-person perspective of Isaacman climbing out as SpaceX employees cheered him on at the company's headquarters. In total, Isaacman and Gillis spent roughly eight minutes outside the capsule.
Prior to venturing outside, the crew began slowly lowering the pressure inside the spacecraft to become accustomed to the thin air. Hours into their journey, the cabin pressure was lowered to 8.6 psi, which is just above the conditions at the base camp of Mount Everest. They also began to breathe pure oxygen through the connections of their spacesuits.
Related video:
SpaceX Completes 1st-Ever Spacewalk By A Commercial Company As Part Of Polaris Dawn Mission (Dailymotion)
SpaceX to launch Polaris Dawn mission featuring 1st commercial spacewalk
By the time Isaacman and Gillis ventured outside, the pressure inside their suits was a mere 5 psi, just below the summit of Mount Everest.
But even with SpaceX's newfangled extravehicular activities (EVA) suit, Isaacman and Gillis were still fully connected to their Dragon spacecraft via an umbilical, providing them with a steady supply of oxygen and thermal controls.
The mission isn't just historic as the first commercial spacewalk. Just hours into their mission, the Polaris Dawn crew reached an apogee of 869 miles — roughly three times the altitude of the space station — marking the farthest from Earth that any human has ventured since NASA's Apollo missions half a century ago.
The spacewalk is yet another major achievement for the Elon Musk-led SpaceX, setting the stage for similar missions to come.
And NASA is absolutely thrilled as well.
"Today’s success represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and NASA's long-term goal to build a vibrant U.S. space economy," said NASA administrator Bill Nelson in a statement.
Japans ruimtevaartbedrijf ispace wil maanlanding herdefiniëren met Hakuto-R Missie 2
Japans ruimtevaartbedrijf ispace wil maanlanding herdefiniëren met Hakuto-R Missie 2
Artikel door businessam.be
apans ruimtevaartbedrijf ispace wil maanlanding herdefiniëren met Hakuto-R Missie 2
Key takeaways
Tweede maanlandingsmissie, “Hakuto-R Missie 2”, voorlopig gepland voor december.
Het ruimtevaartuig zal worden afgeleverd via een SpaceX Falcon 9 raket vanuit Florida en zal proberen de maan te raken na ongeveer vier tot vijf maanden ruimtevlucht.
Het doel van de missie is om het goed te maken na de mislukte eerste poging in april 2023 door een misrekening van de hoogte.
Het Japanse ruimteverkenningsbedrijf ispace heeft plannen aangekondigd voor een tweede maanlandingsmissie, voorlopig gepland voor december. De “Hakuto-R Missie 2” zal bestaan uit het afleveren van een ruimtevaartuig via een SpaceX Falcon 9 raket vanuit Florida en een maanlanding proberen te maken na een ruimtevlucht van ongeveer vier tot vijf maanden.
Na de mislukte eerste poging in april 2023 als gevolg van een misrekening met de hoogte, is ispace erop gebrand om zichzelf te verlossen. Het bedrijf is gemotiveerd door het succes van Intuitive Machines, dat in februari ’s werelds eerste particuliere maanlanding realiseerde.
Achtergrond en motivatie
Ispace, opgericht in 2010, heeft ongeveer 300 mensen in dienst in Japan, de Verenigde Staten en Luxemburg. Net als andere landen onderzoekt Japan de maan op zoek naar water, brandstof en andere bronnen die het menselijk leven in de toekomst kunnen ondersteunen.
In de afgelopen jaren zijn verschillende landen, waaronder India, Japan en China, met succes op de maan geland. De Verenigde Staten plannen hun eerste maanlanding met astronauten sinds 1972 als onderdeel van het Artemis-programma, gepland voor 2026.
ispace HAKUTO-R Mission 1: Landing Live Stream
Why Japan's Moon Lander Crashed Due to An Unbelievable Computer Bug
An unidentified object that was traveling under the ocean at a speed greater than the speed of sound came dangerously close to a nuclear submarine. This claim was made by a researcher who was working on a classified operation aboard the USS Hampton when he made the statement. For many years, Bob McGwier worked in clandestine intelligence. He disclosed two incidents about underwater UFOs or USOs, that he saw while performing covert operations. This claim was made several months after a video had been made public by the United States military, in which it appeared to show an unidentified flying object moving from the sky into the water in the year 2019.
UFO researcher and former fighter pilot Chris Lehto heard the story from Bob McGwire, who said that the submarine passed at incredible speed while “going deep and fast” in the late 1990s. McGwire stated that this encounter was corroborated by a member of the crew who was surprised by the speed of the Unidentified Submerged Object, also known as the USO. (Source)
“We were underway and all of a sudden I hear the sound it was really strange… it was moving so fast. I just cannot believe it because this submarine is limited in the speed it can go by the incompressibility of the water in front of it and this thing blew by us like we were standing still. I’m not going to throw anybody else under the bus here but I guarantee you the following happened: a person with knowledge of onboard systems came out and said ‘oh my God’ this goddamn thing is going faster than the speed of sound underwater but that’s faster than the speed of sound in air.”
Robert G. McGwier is the founder and Technical Advisor at Hawkeye 360. He serves as Technical Director of Federated Wireless, Inc. Dr. McGwier is the Director of Research for the Ted and Karyn Hume Center for National Security and Technology, and Research Professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. At Virginia Tech, he leads the overall execution of the Center’s research mission and leads the university’s program development efforts in national security applications of wireless and space systems. His area of expertise is in radio frequency communications and digital signal processing.
UFO researcher Chris Lehto with Scientist Bob McGwier: Image credit: YouTube screencap
McGwire had another USO encounter that took place onboard the USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) in 2008 while it was in a violent Typhoon. “I wanted to look outside and see what I could see and I was on the bridge so I was right up there underneath the American flag looking out the windows. When I noticed that even though we were in a typhoon and it was raining like mad there was no rain hitting the ship and I’m going what the heck and I looked out the window and looked up and I could see a glow above us in the sky. It was not very bright but I could see it and whatever it was blocking off the rain from the entire ship stem to stern.”
McGwire continued: “I believe I was on the port side and the reason I say that is because I took a peek outside and I could do that because I was Leeward in other words the winds were from behind me and the bulkhead of the ship were blocking the winds. So, I could look up easily so anyway it suddenly grew brighter and took off straight up and the rain returned.”
Similar to McGwire’s second encounter, in 1991, USS Kirk FF108 USO Encounter took place off the west coast of South America. The witness stated that at that time, he was a Chief of Operations and Intelligence serving aboard the Knox-class escort destroyer USS Kirk FF1087 and that they were part of a drug interdiction force consisting of the USS Kirk and three other Navy ships. Their main task was to patrol using a network of radars to track and then intercept drug planes flying out of Colombia, Panama and Guatemala, as well as to seize any smuggling ships that they could find. (Source)
USS Kirk (FF-1087). Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
The witness said that his primary position was at the CIC Combat Information Center, which he and 22 other specialists maintained 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, rotating in two shifts of 11 people.
At 2 a.m. on December 16, he was on duty at CIC. The night was calm and nothing unusual happened. He said he used the break to go up to the bridge. At this time, the entire ship was in a status called “darkened ship,” when all external lights were turned off, as well as on the bridge, that is, everything around was dimly lit only by instrument panels. His friend was on deck duty that night, and they chatted when they had some free time. And suddenly, everything around was lit up in the red color:
“All of a sudden and out of nowhere, like a huge flash from a camera, emanating from the starboard bow sea level upward was a huge flash of red glowing light, which lit up our entire ship. It only lit up our ship, not the surrounding ocean, just our ship. It happened so fast, that the OOD, the navigator and I were speechless for about 5 seconds, at which time I looked at the OOD and asked him if he just saw that light. He stated yes in a sullen voice.
I then asked the navigator and he replied yes. I then took the navigator’s sound powered headset, and asked the forward and aft look outs, if they had just seen the same red flash, to which the forward look out stated, “YES! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?”
After lookout said yes as well. I then immediately contacted CIC, and asked the CIC officer if we had any aircraft or surface ships in our vicinity, to which he replied clear as a whistle. I asked if we had any submarine activity in the area, to which he replied, no. At this point I looked at the OOD and asked him if we should wake up the captain or as we would call him, The Old Man. The OOD sat there stunned for a minute, as did I and everyone else.
What had just happened did not make any sense. The flash emanated from the sea, directly off of our starboard bow (like it was touching our bow), and ascended upwardly so rapidly, creating the effect of the bright red flash. The other weird aspect of this event was that only our ship was lit up within the red flash, not the surrounding sea, but our vessel only. The OOD elected not to wake the captain, and the entire incident was logged in our ship’s log as an unexplained phenomenon.
Up until this event, I did not believe in UFOss or USOss. I have no doubt that our ship, steaming along at 12 knots, came right up on a submerged unidentifiable aircraft. I don’t think the aircraft or USO had any idea we were sailing up to them. I think whatever it was, took off in a very unplanned and fast manner, and wanted to quickly identify us, thus the flash.”
In the end, after much deliberation, they decided not to wake the captain up, but simply to register it in the ship’s log as an “unexplained phenomenon.”
Many members of the United States Navy have reported fascinating sightings, and video showing UFOs entering water has even been made public. A video that was shot by the sailors of the USS Omaha in July 2019 off the coast of San Diego is one of the pieces of evidence that are being put up to support this claim. A spherical object is seen soaring over the ship and then plunging into the ocean in a video that was shared by UFO researcher and investigative director Jeremy Corbell. During this time, a member of the crew can be heard saying, “Wow, it splashed!”
The video generated considerable interest online, and when Corbell revealed that a Navy submarine had been dispatched to look for the object without success, things got even more intriguing. It is interesting to note that at around the same time, American submarines also spotted other mysterious anomalous objects that defied the laws of physics in the water nearby. The Navy has verified the authenticity of the video but claims to have no explanation for its existence.
More specifically, Luis Elizondo, a former director of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, said:
“Imagine a technology that can do 6-700 g-forces, which can fly at 13,000 miles per hour, which can evade radar and which can fly through air and water and eventually. in the space. And oh, by the way, has no obvious signs of propulsion, no wings, no control surfaces and yet can still defy the natural effects of Earth’s gravity. This is precisely what we are seeing.” (Source)
The experimental fusion reactor sustained temperatures of 180 million degrees Fahrenheit for a record-breaking 48 seconds.
The inside of a tokamak fusion reactor.
(Image credit: Monty Rakusen/Getty Images)
South Korea's "artificial sun" has set a new fusion record after superheating aplasma loop to 180 million degrees Fahrenheit (100 million degrees Celsius) for 48 seconds, scientists have announced.
The Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) reactor broke the previous world record of 31 seconds, which was set by the same reactor in 2021.The breakthrough is a small but impressive step on the long road to a source of near-unlimited clean energy.
Scientists have been trying to harness the power of nuclear fusion — the process by which stars burn — for more than 70 years. By fusing hydrogen atoms to make helium under extremely high pressures and temperatures, so-called main-sequence stars convert matter into light and heat, generating enormous amounts of energy without producing greenhouse gases or long-lasting radioactive waste.
But replicating the conditions found inside the hearts of stars is no simple task. The most common design for fusion reactors — the tokamak — works by superheating plasma (one of the four states of matter, consisting of positive ions and negatively charged free electrons) and trapping it inside a donut-shaped reactor chamber with powerful magnetic fields.
Keeping the turbulent and superheated coils of plasma in place long enough for nuclear fusion to happen, however, has been a painstaking process. Soviet scientist Natan Yavlinsky designed the first tokamak in 1958, but no one has ever managed to create a reactor that is able to put out more energy than it takes in.
One of the main stumbling blocks has been how to handle a plasma that's hot enough to fuse. Fusion reactors require very high temperatures — many times hotter than the sun — because they have to operate at much lower pressures than where fusion naturally takes place inside the cores of stars. The core of the actual sun, for example, reaches temperatures of around 27 million F (15 million C) but has pressures roughly equal to 340 billion times the air pressure at sea level on Earth.
A photo of South Korea's KSTAR nuclear fusion reactor. (Image credit: Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KFE))
Cooking plasma to these temperatures is the relatively easy part, but finding a way to corral it so that it doesn't burn through the reactor without also ruining the fusion process is technically tricky. This is usually done either with lasers or magnetic fields.
To extend their plasma's burning time from the previous record-breaking run, the scientists tweaked aspects of their reactor's design, including replacing carbon with tungsten to improve the efficiency of the tokamak’s "divertors," which extract heat and ash from the reactor.
"Despite being the first experiment run in the environment of the new tungsten divertors, thorough hardware testing and campaign preparation enabled us to achieve results surpassing those of previous KSTAR records in a short period," Si-Woo Yoon, the director of the KSTAR Research Center, said in a statement.
KSTAR scientists are aiming to push the reactor to sustain temperatures of 180 million F for 300 seconds by 2026.
The record joins others made by competing fusion reactors around the world, including one by the U.S. government-funded National Ignition Facility (NIF), which sparked headlines after the reactor core briefly put out more energy than was put into it.
Just two years before his death, William M. Tompkins had written “Selected by Extraterrestrials,” which induced sudden chaos in the UFO community with his incredible testimony about the US Navy’s secret development of space battle groups with the assistance of major aerospace companies beginning with Douglas Aircraft. He can be considered one of the most incredible whistleblowers to step forward and disclose the Secret Space Programs, E.T. Agendas, and hidden governments. He claimed to be part of an operation involving US Navy spies who stole UFO plans and antigravity technological secrets from the Nazis during World War II.
In July 2017, at a press conference, Tompkins made an unprecedented statement. He worked for the Douglas Aircraft Company alongside extraterrestrials (Nordic alien women). It had been 4-7 years before NASA appeared. He claimed about it in his book (mentioned above) that was published in 2015.
William Tompkins of Oceanside, CA displays one of the 307 ships in his fleet. A modeler since age 9, he started in earnest in his teens and built an entire fleet that illustrates naval history throughout America’s history. Image Credit: Craftsmanshipmuseum.com/Tompkins
Additionally, he revealed that the Nazis had already had operational UFOs during the war, and because of the information that the US spies were able to obtain, the US later developed its fleet of UFOs – which then got siphoned off into the black military sphere under the control of Majestic 12, the ultra-secretive group that controlled and managed the UFO/alien issue in the 1940s.
During the time of World War, there were secret societies such as the Thule Society and the Vril Society. Famous British historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clark wrote a whole chapter about Maria Orsic in his book “Black Sun” published in 2001, where he connected her with Vril society.
The author mentioned that Orsic could communicate with alien civilizations and one of them was from the planet Aldebaran, which is located in the Taurus system.
According to Tompkins, the Nazis were in contact with Extraterrestrial Reptilians at the same time
According to Tompkins, Hitler allowed Orsic (and the Nordics with whom she was working) to continue to work on their UFO program because the Nazis were already in contact with the Reptilians, and because Hitler knew he could always take over Orsic’s project at any time.
Robert Wood, who was interviewed alongside William Tompkins by Search4TruthReality (source), claimed that the Nazis’ technology rapidly advanced due to their relationship with the Reptilians so that they got to the far side of the moon before the end of WW2.
William Tompkins and Dr. Robert Wood during an interview in 2016.
Dr. Wood worked in research and development management in Douglas Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas from 1956 to 1993. Later he became a Board member of MUFON. He was given $500,000 to disseminate UFO documents and $250,000 to make a UFO documentary. Later, Robert and his son Ryan scanned hundreds of MJ-12 documents and made them available on their website MajesticDocuments.com.
According to William Tompkins, he was recruited at a young age by the Navy due to his precocious ability to build highly accurate model ships. After working at North American Aviation and Northrop, he was hired by Douglas Aircraft Company in 1950.
In interviews such as with Project Camelot and in his book “Selected by Extraterrestrials,” Tompkins revealed much of his story. He explained that MJ-12 began in 1942 with the senior Douglas (the man who started the company).
Tompkins stated that right after the Battle of LA in 1942, to handle the implications of UFOs openly showing themselves in the skies, Douglas pulled some key men into a group (or think tank) that later became MJ-12.
Seventeen-year-old Bill Tompkins points out the detail on his models to naval Captain H. C. Gearing, commandant of the 11th Naval District in San Diego. Bill was soon inducted into the navy and is shown in the second photo in his uniform holding one of his aircraft carriers. He went on to help design com on the real ships. Image Credit: Craftsmanshipmuseum.com/Tompkins
Dr. Wood stated that MJ-12 is mostly associated with the Air Force, not other branches of the US military. He explained that the US Navy started back-engineering Nazi UFO crafts in 1942 before MJ-12 came into existence. It took the Navy around a decade to produce functional UFO craft, but they did so eventually.
Tompkins stated that when the first astronauts went to the moon, they were shocked to discover it had already been occupied by Draco Reptilians. He said that the Reptilians, over 9 feet tall, were standing next to their advanced craft.
Bill Tompkins: They were parked around the side of the crater. Okay. They were not parked on it. They were floating above it. So there were hundreds of these nine-foot reptilian guys standing with their legs. Yeah. They were all the way across underneath their vehicles, standing on the crater.
Interviewer: And what do they look like?
Bill Tompkins: They’re ugly-looking lizard, alligator-type people. They got the same skin as the lizards got. Okay. And terrible-looking faces. But then they have the ability to shift and look like a human. All of them do. Okay.
Interviewer. Do you think Von Braun was a reptilian?
Bill Tompkins: No. Your president. Yes.
Interviewer: Oh, which one?
Bill Tompkins: [George Bush senior] And Bill Clinton and this guy you just got rid. Yeah. They all were. Right. Okay. And they all have this ability to make themselves look like real good-looking people.
Interviewer: And you’re saying Trump isn’t one?
Bill Tompkins: No, he’s not. That’s a relief. And he knows more about this subject than people realize. But trying to get back to your earlier question, these groups of extraterrestrials who work together but are at war with other extraterrestrials, okay, have these vehicles that look like a planet, like our moon is a vehicle. It’s a command center for this arm. The easiest way to look at this is to put your arm out like this, and you be the center of the galaxy. (Source)
According to both Tompkins and Dr. Wood, the Reptilians had already made a deal with the Nazis. Amazingly, Tompkins himself claimed he saw ancient structures on the far side of the moon and that he saw a floating building – 1.5 miles above the lunar surface.
According to Tompkins, many ET species are interacting with humanity currently, including Dracos/Reptilians and Nordics which have a great influence on the world.
In his Project Camelot interview, Tompkins prevented himself from disclosing more information about Reptilians as it was harmful to his credibility. Tompkins also described the US Military’s concerns about UFOs and alien beings and the Military’s rush to create advanced space-based weapons, which could be used to defend the planet Earth against an ET threat to our civilization.
He revealed US Navy has Battle Groups operating outside the Earth. He designed five spaceships and thirty support ships. Using the latest technology, he designed different spaceships for Northrop Aviation Company. Northrop started building the huge craft underground in Utah.
Tompkins claimed we are now building even better Battle Groups. The Apollo moon landings were also designed to build a base on the moon. We have had bases on the moon along with bases on Mars and Jupiter’s moons.
A month after the shocking conference, Tompkins passed away unexpectedly on August 21, 2017, in San Diego, California, at the age of 94.
If humans are ever going to become a spacefaring species then we need to figure out a few more efficient ways to traverse the cosmos. That’s why NASA’s latest futuristic solar sail tech should be raising eyebrows.
Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Public Domain
More reality than fiction
Solar sails may seem more science fiction than reality, but just four months after a new NASA solar sail project hitched a ride into space, it spread out its sails and proved that the concept could be a viable option for space travel.
Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Andrzej Mirecki, Own Work, CC BY-SA 3.0
It won’t be taking us to Mars anytime soon Obviously, solar sails will not be able to take humans to other planets quite yet, but the technology could be used for a wide variety of missions in space. But how exactly does a sail work in the vacuum of space (a place with no wind)?
Not like the sails back on Earth Solar sails aren’t exactly like the sails on a boat here on Earth but the concept is quite similar according to Space.com. Just like how wind can guide a sailboat, solar energy (photons) can be harnessed to help guide vessels through space.
How does a solar sail work? “It only takes a slight amount of sunlight to guide solar sails through space,” Space.com noted, adding that although “photons don't have mass, they can force momentum when they hit an object,” which is how solar sails can move objects in space.
Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Scott Andrews, Public Domain
Launched into space in April 2024 On April 24th, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) headed up to space with Rocket Lab's Electron vehicle, and on August 29th, the ACS3 spread its solar sails in space for the first time, and it was captured by cameras fixed to its sails.
Photo Credit: NASA
The solar sails are fully deployed NASA published the first image from the ACS3’s sail deployment on September 5th, and it was a sight to see—even if its orientation was a bit confusing, something that NASA noted in its press release alongside the image.
Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By NASA Ames Research Center / NASA/Aero Animation/Ben Schweighart
The mission’s success is pretty awesome “The success so far of this mission is pretty awesome because solar sail technology is an incredibly impressive concept both in practice and in theory,” reported Live Science’s Monisha Ravisetti. But now the real work has begun for NASA's ACS3 team.
Photo Credit: NASA/Aero Animation/Ben Schweighart
The ACS3 will be put to the test NASA’s new solar sail system will be put to the test over the next few weeks according to Space.com’s Meredith Garofalo, who reported that the maneuverability of the system will be observed so that more can be learned about how to improve the system.
Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By NASA, Public Domain
Valuable information will be gathered Raising and lowering the orbit of the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System spacecraft will provide valuable information that may help guide future concepts of operations and designs for solar sail-equipped science and exploration missions,” NASA noted.
Half the size of a tennis court
The ACS3 spacecraft orbits the Earth at nearly double the altitude of the International Space Station according to NASA, which also pointed out its sails span roughly 860 square feet or about 80 square meters (half the size of a tennis court for reference).
Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Visible with the naked eye “Now, with the sail fully extended, the Solar Sail System may be visible to some keen skywatchers on Earth who look up at the right time,” a NASA press release noted. So be sure to try and spot the spacecraft the next time you’re gazing up at the stars! It looks like a diamond according to NASA.
If humans are ever going to become a spacefaring species then we need to figure out a few more efficient ways to traverse the cosmos. That’s why NASA’s latest futuristic solar sail tech should be raising eyebrows.
Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Public Domain
More reality than fiction
Solar sails may seem more science fiction than reality, but just four months after a new NASA solar sail project hitched a ride into space, it spread out its sails and proved that the concept could be a viable option for space travel.
Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Andrzej Mirecki, Own Work, CC BY-SA 3.0
It won’t be taking us to Mars anytime soon Obviously, solar sails will not be able to take humans to other planets quite yet, but the technology could be used for a wide variety of missions in space. But how exactly does a sail work in the vacuum of space (a place with no wind)?
Not like the sails back on Earth Solar sails aren’t exactly like the sails on a boat here on Earth but the concept is quite similar according to Space.com. Just like how wind can guide a sailboat, solar energy (photons) can be harnessed to help guide vessels through space.
How does a solar sail work? “It only takes a slight amount of sunlight to guide solar sails through space,” Space.com noted, adding that although “photons don't have mass, they can force momentum when they hit an object,” which is how solar sails can move objects in space.
Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Scott Andrews, Public Domain
Launched into space in April 2024 On April 24th, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) headed up to space with Rocket Lab's Electron vehicle, and on August 29th, the ACS3 spread its solar sails in space for the first time, and it was captured by cameras fixed to its sails.
Photo Credit: NASA
The solar sails are fully deployed NASA published the first image from the ACS3’s sail deployment on September 5th, and it was a sight to see—even if its orientation was a bit confusing, something that NASA noted in its press release alongside the image.
Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By NASA Ames Research Center / NASA/Aero Animation/Ben Schweighart
The mission’s success is pretty awesome “The success so far of this mission is pretty awesome because solar sail technology is an incredibly impressive concept both in practice and in theory,” reported Live Science’s Monisha Ravisetti. But now the real work has begun for NASA's ACS3 team.
SpaceX-Polaris crew exits capsule for first private spacewalk
SpaceX-Polaris crew exits capsule for first private spacewalk
Story by Joey Roulette
FILE PHOTO: Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, commander Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis, crew members of Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission, attend a press conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. August 19, 2024.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A crew of four aboard a SpaceX capsule embarked on the world's first private spacewalk on Thursday, as an astronaut eased out of the Crew Dragon spacecraft on a tether into the vacuum of space, hundreds of miles from Earth.
Billionaire Jared Isaacman, 41, exited first about 6:52 a.m. ET (1052 GMT). After he returned a few minutes later, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, was scheduled to take her turn in space, all their maneuvers streaming live on the company's website.
"Back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world," Isaacman said after emerging from the spacecraft, the planet glittering in half shadow below him.
Before the spacewalk began, the capsule was completely depressurized, with the whole crew relying on their slim, SpaceX-developed spacesuits for oxygen, provided via an umbilical connection to Crew Dragon.
The spacewalk was scheduled to last only about 30 minutes, but the procedures to prepare for it and to finish it safely last about two hours. It was meant to test the new spacesuit designs and procedures for the capsule, among other things.
Related video:
SpaceX Polaris Dawn crew set to begin first private spacewalk (France 24)
A still image from the video of the SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission shows crew member Jared Isaacman outside the capsule during the first-ever private spacewalk on September 12, 2024.
Isaacman, Gillis, Scott Poteet, 50, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon, 38, had been orbiting Earth aboard Crew Dragon since Tuesday's pre-dawn launch from Florida of the Polaris Dawn mission. Menon and Poteet remained inside the spacecraft during the spacewalk.
It is the Elon Musk-led company's latest and riskiest bid to push the boundaries of commercial spaceflight.
Isaacman, a pilot and the billionaire founder of electronic payments company Shift4, is bankrolling the Polaris mission, as he did his Inspiration4 flight with SpaceX in 2021.
He has declined to say how much he is paying, but the missions are likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, based on Crew Dragon's price of roughly $55 million a seat for other flights.
FARTHEST SINCE APOLLO
Throughout Wednesday, the craft circled Earth at least six times in an oval orbit as shallow as 190 km (118 miles) and stretching out as far as 1,400 km (870 miles), the farthest in space that humans have traveled since the last U.S. Apollo mission in 1972.
The gumdrop-shaped spacecraft then began to lower its orbit into a peak 700-km (435-mile) position and adjust cabin pressure to ready for the spacewalk, formally called Extravehicular Activity (EVA), the Polaris program said on social media on Wednesday.
"The crew also spent a few hours demonstrating the suit’s pressurized mobility, verifying positions and accessibility in microgravity along with preparing the cabin for the EVA," it said.
Only government astronauts with several years of training have done spacewalks in the past.
There have been roughly 270 on the International Space Station (ISS) since it was set up in 2000, and 16 by Chinese astronauts on Beijing's Tiangong space station.
The Polaris crew has spent 2-1/2 years training with SpaceX mission simulations and "experiential learning" in challenging, uncomfortable environments, said Poteet.
A record 19 astronauts are now in orbit, after Russia's Soyuz MS-26 mission ferried two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut to the International Space Station on Wednesday, taking its headcount to 12.
Three Chinese astronauts are aboard the Tiangong space station.
The first U.S. spacewalk in 1965, aboard a Gemini capsule, used a similar procedure to the one planned for Polaris Dawn: the capsule was depressurized, the hatch opened, and a spacesuited astronaut ventured outside on a tether.
Since 2001, Crew Dragon, the only U.S. vehicle capable of reliably putting humans in orbit and returning them to Earth, has flown more than a dozen astronaut missions, mainly for NASA.
The agency seeded development of the capsule under a program meant to establish commercial, privately-built U.S. vehicles capable of ferrying astronauts with the ISS.
Also developed under that program was Boeing's Starliner capsule, but it is farther behind.
Starliner launched its first astronauts to the ISS in June in a troubled test mission that ended this month with the capsule returning empty, leaving its crew on the space station for a Crew Dragon capsule to fetch next year.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette and Gerry Doyle; Editing by Jamie Freed and Clarence Fernandez)
"Spacewalk is now complete": Eerste ruimtewandeling ooit door niet-professionele astronauten succesvol afgerond
"Spacewalk is now complete": Eerste ruimtewandeling ooit door niet-professionele astronauten succesvol afgerond
De eerste ruimtewandeling door 2 niet-professionele astronauten is succesvol afgerond. Zowel Jared Isaacman als Sarah Gillis verlieten het ruimteschip langs een luik en waren ongeveer 10 minuten in de ruimte. Ze deden dat in compleet nieuwe ruimtepakken, die nog nooit in de ruimte getest waren. Bij SpaceX kunnen ze nu gerust ademhalen, want dit was het gevaarlijkste en spannendste moment van de Polaris Dawn-missie, die dinsdag werd gelanceerd.
Giel Bosmans, Wim De Maeseneer
Voor de eerste keer ooit hebben 2 "gewone" mensen een ruimtewandeling kunnen maken. Ze deden dat door op zo'n 700 kilometer boven de aarde hun ruimteschip te verlaten, terwijl ze met 26.000 kilometer per uur door de ruimte vlogen. Het risicovolle onderdeel van de ruimtemissie verliep zoals gepland.
De Amerikaanse zakenman en miljardair Jared Isaacman was als gezagvoerder (en geldschieter) de eerste die het ruimteschip verliet. Daarna maakte ook de 30-jarige Amerikaanse ingenieur Sarah Gillis een ruimtewandeling.
Bekijk: "Het was een groot risico, maar het is belangrijk dat de pakken getest werden", ruimtevaartjournalist Wim De Maeseneer
Isaacman en Gillis gingen elk om de beurt ongeveer 10 minuten naar buiten. Met het openen en opnieuw sluiten van het luik en het regelen van de luchtdruk in de capsule nam alles in totaal zo'n 2 uur in beslag.
Gillis staat bij SpaceX aan het hoofd van het trainingsprogramma voor de astronauten. Zelf ging ze nog nooit de ruimte in, net als de 2 andere astronauten Scott Poteet en Anna Menon. Enkel Isaacman maakte in 2021 al eens een ruimtevlucht.
Anders dan bij de ruimtewandelingen door professionele astronauten, zweefden de astronauten niet echt door de ruimte. Ze bleven de hele tijd fysiek contact houden met het ruimteschip en gingen niet verder dan net buiten het luik. Ze bleven ook de hele tijd verbonden via een kabel die hen onder meer voorzag van zuurstof. Toch zijn ruimtewandelingen, ook onder die omstandigheden, uiterst gevaarlijk.
Veel risico
Wat deze ruimtewandeling extra risicovol maakte, is dat de gloednieuwe ruimtepakken die de astronauten droegen nog nooit getest waren in de ruimte. Het ruimteschip heeft ook geen luchtsluis, waardoor het hele ruimteschip werd blootgesteld aan het vacuüm van de ruimte. Ook de 2 astronauten die binnen bleven zitten en de wandeling begeleidden, liepen dus risico.
"Ik ga met een bang hartje kijken, ik ben er niet gerust op", vertelde ruimtevaartexpert Nancy Vermeulen op voorhand. "Het is de eerste keer dat niet-professionele, onervaren astronauten een ruimtewandeling doen. Er kan echt van alles misgaan."
"Het zijn eigenlijk 4 beginners", zei de Nederlandse astronaut André Kuipers in de podcast 'Space Cowboys'. "Ze gaan allemaal nieuwe dingen tegelijk doen. Dat is absoluut niet zonder gevaar. Normaal wordt een ruimtewandeling ook nooit zo vroeg in een ruimtevlucht gedaan, omdat je de eerste dagen ruimteziek kan worden."
Grensverleggende ruimtevlucht
De ruimtewandeling maakt deel uit van de Polaris Dawn-missie: een commerciële ruimtevlucht van SpaceX, het ruimtebedrijf van Elon Musk. De 4 zitjes aan boord zijn gekocht door de Amerikaanse zakenman en miljardair Jared Isaacman. Samen met 3 andere ruimtevaarders vliegt hij sinds dinsdag rond de aarde in een Dragon-capsule van SpaceX.
Polaris Dawn vloog op de 2e dag van de missie tot op 1.400 kilometer hoog. Het was al van de laatste maanvlucht in 1972 geleden dat een bemande ruimtemissie zo ver weg van de aarde reisde. Het was ook de eerste keer dat vrouwelijke astronauten zo ver in de ruimte zijn geweest.
Polaris Dawn and Dragon at 1,400 km above Earth – the farthest humans have traveled since the Apollo program over 50 years agopic.twitter.com/rRDeD1dY1e
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Nieuwe ruimtepakken
De pakken zijn ontworpen door SpaceX, het ruimtebedrijf van de Amerikaanse zakenman Elon Musk. Zijn uiteindelijke doel is om de mensheid ooit op Mars te laten wonen. Om daar ooit te geraken, zijn er eerst nog vele ruimtereizen nodig, ter voorbereiding. En dus ook veel ruimtepakken.
De ruimtewandeling van Polaris Dawn dient vooral als eerste test voor de nieuwe pakken: zijn de pakken soepel genoeg en werkt alle apparatuur binnenin zoals het hoort? Daarnaast is het ook belangrijk om te bekijken of de pakken genoeg beschermen tegen de kosmische straling en extreme temperaturen.
"Het idee is om zoveel mogelijk over het pak te leren als we kunnen en dit terug te geven aan de ingenieurs zodat ze het pak in de toekomst verder kunnen ontwerpen", zei Isaacman eerder in een interview.
Wie zijn de astronauten aan boord van Polaris Dawn-missie?
Gezagvoerder van de missie is Jared Isaacman(41), een Amerikaanse miljardair en CEO van Shift4-payments, een betalingsdienst. Hij is ook de grote geldschieter van het hele project. Isaacman nam in 2021 al deel aan de 'Inspiration4', de eerste volledig commerciële bemande ruimtevlucht.
Scott "Kidd" Poteet (50), een gepensioneerde luitenant-kolonel van de Amerikaanse luchtmacht, is de piloot van de missie. Poteet en Isaacman zijn goede vrienden en kennen elkaar al jaren.
Sarah Gillis (30) is een Amerikaanse ingenieur en werkt voor SpaceX. Bij het bedrijf leidt ze het trainingsprogramma voor de astronauten. Zo trainde ze ook Isaacman en de andere ruimtetoeristen van de 'Inspiration4'. Gillis zal samen met Isaacman een ruimtewandeling maken tijdens deze missie.
Ook Anna Menon (38) is een Amerikaanse ingenieur die voor SpaceX werkt. Daarvoor werkte Menon al bij de NASA voor het ISS, het internationaal ruimtestation. Tijdens de Polaris Dawn-missie zal Menon dienen als de medisch officier van het team.
De eerste ruimtewandeling ooit was door de Russische kosmonaut Aleksej Leonov op 18 maart 1965. En bijna ging het mis. Leonov raakte met moeite terug in zijn ruimteschip. Zijn pak was in het vacuüm van de ruimte helemaal opgeblazen waardoor hij bijna niet meer kon bewegen. Door wat lucht uit zijn pak te laten lopen, kon hij uiteindelijk terug naar binnen. Hij nam daardoor wel een groot risico.
Minder dan 3 maanden later volgde de Amerikaanse astronaut Edward White. Sindsdien maakten al zo'n 260 astronauten uit 12 landen een ruimtewandeling. De eerste ruimtewandeling door een vrouw gebeurde pas in 1984. In totaal hebben nog maar 16 vrouwen een ruimtewandeling gemaakt.
Van links naar rechts: Scott Poteet, Anna Menon, Sarah Gillis en Jared Isaacman
Megatsunami van 200 meter hoog blijkt oorzaak van dagenlange wereldwijde aardtrillingen, ontdekken Belgische onderzoekers
Foto: Soren Rysgaar
Megatsunami van 200 meter hoog blijkt oorzaak van dagenlange wereldwijde aardtrillingen, ontdekken Belgische onderzoekers
Belgische wetenschappers hebben de oorzaak ontdekt van mysterieuze trillingen in de aarde, die vorig jaar 9 dagen lang en wereldwijd meetbaar waren. De oorzaak bleek een megatsunami van 200 meter hoog, die heen en weer bleef klotsen in een fjord in Groenland. Een bergtop en gletsjer waren neergestort in het water.
Artikel door Wim De Maeseneer
Het is 16 september 2023 wanneer seismologen van over de hele wereld plots een mysterieus signaal zien op hun uiterst gevoelige meettoestellen. Het signaal lijkt tot hun verbazing helemaal niet op een aardbeving en houdt maar liefst 9 dagen aan.
De trillingen gaan de wereld rond en worden gedetecteerd in Engeland, de Verenigde Staten, Japan, West-Australië en van de Noord- tot de Zuidpool. En dus ook in België.
"We hebben een oproep gedaan aan seismologen over de hele wereld en kregen al snel de reactie dat ook zij allemaal hetzelfde signaal hadden gedetecteerd", zegt seismoloog Koen Van Noten van de Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van België. "We hebben dan kunnen achterhalen dat de trillingen waarschijnlijk uit Oost-Groenland afkomstig waren, maar we hadden geen flauw idee wat de oorzaak kon zijn."
Overview of seismic stations on Greenland (black triangles), the location of the tsunami (red circle) and the nearest seismic station (red triangle), whose filtered signals are shown.Credit: Angela Carillo Ponce et al.
Op hetzelfde moment krijgen onderzoekers van het Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ) bericht dat er een grote tsunami is waargenomen vlak bij een van hun meetstations waar ze onderzoek doen naar de klimaatverandering.
"Onze metingen en berekeningen bevestigden dat er inderdaad een grote tsunami moet zijn geweest", zegt onderzoeker Wieter Boone van het VLIZ. "We zijn dan meteen op satellietbeelden gaan zoeken wat en waar er iets gebeurd zou kunnen zijn."
On 16 September 2023, a massive landslide in Greenland triggered a megatsunami, creating a standing wave that oscillated in Dickson Fjord for over a week, observed worldwide through seismic stations. This unusual long-duration signal from the standing wave offers new insights into megatsunami dynamics, with implications for understanding climate change impacts on glacier retreat and landslide frequency.
(Artist’s concept).
Megatsunami
Op die beelden, en op foto's die enkele dagen later door het Deense leger zijn gemaakt, was duidelijk te zien dat een van de hoge bergtoppen langs de Dicksonfjord volledig was ingestort. "Door die massa rotsen en de grote snelheid waarmee ze naar beneden zijn gekomen, is ook de gletsjer eronder afgebroken en in de fjord terechtgekomen", zegt Boone.
"In totaal moet zo'n 25 miljoen kubieke meter rotsen en ijs in de smalle kloof zijn gevallen. Dat komt overeen met de inhoud van 10.000 Olympische zwembaden of 27 van de grootste containerschepen."
"Dat heeft een tsunami veroorzaakt tot wel 200 meter hoog. En omdat de fjord een bocht van bijna 90 graden heeft, zat de golf gevangen en is het water heen en weer blijven klotsen, zoals in een bad, 9 dagen lang. De trillingen die dat heeft veroorzaakt zijn de wereld rondgegaan."
Foto voor en na het instorten van de bergtop en gletsjer
Foto: Soren Rysgaard
Klimaatverandering
Volgens de onderzoekers gaan er door de klimaatopwarming nog meer grote landverschuivingen voorkomen. "Typisch in Noordoost-Groenland is dat er steile bergen en hoge gletsjer zijn, die aan elkaar zijn gevroren tot een geheel. Maar door de klimaatopwarming smelten ze van elkaar los en worden ze instabiel. Daardoor zien we nu al meer landverschuivingen in die regio", zegt Boone.
Gelukkig waren er die dag geen schepen in de buurt. Anders waren de gevolgen van de enorme tsunami niet te overzien geweest
"Onze instrumenten hebben de tsunami gelukkig overleefd. Maar 72 kilometer verder, op Ella Island, hadden ze minder geluk. Daar is wel een onderzoeksbasis vernield, door de deining van de tsunami die nog steeds 4 meter hoge golven veroorzaakte."
De Diksonfjord is ook populair bij toeristen die de Groenlandse fjorden per cruiseschip bezoeken. "Gelukkig waren er die dag geen schepen in de buurt. Anders waren de gevolgen van de enorme tsunami niet te overzien geweest", zeggen de onderzoekers. "Het zal belangrijk zijn om deze gebieden goed te monitoren."
Depending on the frequency range filtered out, the rockfall triggering the tsunami can be seen as a single peak (top), the standing wave sloshing back and forth as an undulating pattern in the recordings (middle, with several hours depicted) or the overall signal of the rockfall and the tsunami over the course of a week with strongly decreasing intensity of the oscillations (bottom).
Credit: Angela Carillo Ponce et al.
Het onderzoek van onder meer de Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van België, het VLIZ en de Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) is gepubliceerd in het wetenschappelijk tijdschrift Science.
What Did We Learn From Manufacturing the ACS3 Solar Sail Mission?
We recently reported on the successful deployment of the solar sail of the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) technology demonstration mission. That huge achievement advances one of the most important technologies available to CubeSats – a different form of propulsion. But getting there wasn’t easy, and back in May, a team of engineers from NASA’s Langley Research Center who worked on ACS3 published a paper detailing the trials and tribulations they went through to prepare the mission for prime time. Let’s take a look at what they learned.
ACS3 was only a technology demonstration mission—it had no science payload to deal with. And that’s a good thing, too, because fitting the solar sail into the housing of a CubeSat was a challenge even without any scientific equipment.
The technology demonstrated was the deployable boom system that created an 81 square meter surface of solar sail to catch the photon particles used to propel the mission forward. That sounds much easier than it was, as is evident from the descriptions of the problems the team had to overcome.
Fraser describes how useful solar sails are.
Eventually, the mission launched in a 12U CubeSat configuration, weighing about 16 kg (36 lbs) in total mass. However, the mission was initially prototyped to fit into a 6U configuration—about half the size and weight of the 12U. With the amount of deployable material and the necessary motors to drive their deployment, the engineers couldn’t fit other essential components, like reaction wheels, to steady the CubeSat’s orientation.
However, the 12U design “came with several technical challenges,” according to the paper. One was whether to use four independent spools of material, each tied to an independent boom or one central hub spool with all four booms coiled around a central axis. As was the case with almost all engineering projects, the team’s decision wasn’t based on what was technically best. They decided to use the four independent spools since that required the least modification from the original 6U design.
Another lesson described in the paper was the timing of the launch coordination. Both the “dispenser” (i.e., the system that sends the CubeSats out into space after a successful launch) and the launch contract weren’t submitted until ACS3 was already in testing. By then, modifications had been made to the design, which made it difficult to integrate into an existing dispenser, as the team had modified the edges of the satellite to fit the sails better. But doing so messed up one of the critical touchpoints for standard CubeSat dispensers.
Here’s Fraser’s overview of what a solar sail is.
To make matters worse, without a known launch date and inclination, the team had to overengineer many of the CubeSat systems. They had to meet a much wider range of temperatures and shock/vibration environments. But when they finally got their launch date of April 23rd on an Electron rocket from New Zealand, the system had been engineered for an environment much harsher than what it was subjected to, causing increased cost and delays in the delivery.
To meet these challenges, the team took the approach of rapidly prototyping, including developing several different 3D-printed prototypes before finally making the full system out of metal. At one point, a management decision was made not to replace any insert fasteners that were never intended to be used on the final flight but ended up being included anyway because of the cost of replacing them.
Again, these kinds of management decisions are commonplace to anyone involved in an engineering project. However, it’s nice to see that, in this case, it didn’t affect the project’s overall success. Despite some indications that it might be either tumbling or wobbling, ACS3 undoubtedly achieved its primary objective of deploying its solar sail. So, after all the effort and compromises that the team at Langley and elsewhere at NASA put into it, now you just need to look up into the night sky, and you might see the fruits of their labor streaking across it.
The discovery of numerous exoplanets, some seemingly habitable, and rumors and claims about UFOs have piqued public interest in the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life. In this article, I will discuss four questions: (1) How likely is it that intelligent ETs exist? (2) How likely is it that they have ever visited earth or that humans will ever encounter them? (3) Would the existence of intelligent ETs conflict with Catholic belief? And (4) how might such beings be redeemed, if indeed they exist and stand in need of redemption?
How Likely is it That Intelligent ETs Exist?
The answer to this question is that no one knows. We cannot assert that it is likely, nor can we assert that it is unlikely. There is simply no way to estimate the probability. It depends on two unknown factors: (a) the number of habitable planets, and (b) the probability that on a typical habitable planet intelligent life would evolve. About the first factor, one can only give a lower bound, because we only have information about the part of the universe that is within our cosmic “horizon,” i.e. the part from which light has had time to reach us since the Big Bang. Within this so-called “observable universe,” which is tens of billions of light-years across, there are roughly 1022 stars; and it is thought that a substantial fraction of them have habitable planets, based on what recent exoplanet research has shown. But there are very strong theoretical reasons to believe that the entire universe is exponentially larger than the observable part. (This would explain the remarkable “flatness” of the spatial geometry of the observable part. An analogy is that the Earth’s surface appears flat if you can only see a small part of it.) In fact, in the standard Big Bang theory, the universe can be of infinite spatial volume, and nothing we know at present proves that it is not. Therefore, all we can say, and probably ever will be able to say, is that the number of habitable planets is at least 1022, probably exponentially larger than that, and possibly infinite.
As far as the second factor, the probability of highly intelligent life evolving on a typical habitable planet, we only know that it is not zero, because we exist. It could be, however, exponentially small. For example, there could be some hurdles on the road to intelligent life that it is very difficult for evolution to surmount. One such hurdle might be the formation of the first living and self-reproducing one-celled organism. A second might be the making of eukaryotic cells (cells with nuclei) from simpler prokaryotic cells. A third might be making multicellular organisms—on Earth that step took several billion years. Another might be developing high intelligence. Suppose (using round numbers for the sake of illustration) that there were five such high hurdles and that the chance of evolution surmounting each of them on a typical habitable planet was one in a thousand. Then the chance of surmounting all of them would be (1/1000) raised to the fifth power or 10-15. Because the probabilities of getting over multiple hurdles get multiplied, one sees that the chances of highly intelligent life evolving on a typical habitable planet could be exponentially small—though it might not be.
So the statistically “expected” number of planets in the universe with highly intelligent life is some exponentially large number times some number which could be exponentially small, where the exponent in each case is unknown to us. The answer, therefore, could be anything. If it is very small compared to one, it would mean that our existence is an amazing statistical fluke, and that we are almost certainly alone in the universe. If it is very large compared to one, then almost certainly there are a vast number of intelligent species scattered throughout the universe. Could the answer come out in between, say a number like 2 or 3? That would be very strange, as it would require that the large number of habitable planets and the small probability per habitable planet closely counterbalance each other, which they have no reason to do. In short, if there are intelligent extraterrestrials at all, it seems most likely that a vast number of planets have them rather than just a few. And, as we will see, that has some bearing on some theological questions.
Have We Been Confusing the Pleiadians as Angels?
How Likely is it That Humans and Rational ETs Have Met or Will Ever Meet?
There has been a lot of hoopla in the press recently about UFOs (or UAPs as they have been rebranded). Whatever UFOs are, it seems extremely unlikely from a scientific standpoint that ETs have ever visited us humans or ever will. There are two reasons for this. The first is that faster-than-light (or FTL) travel is almost certainly impossible in light of what is presently known about fundamental physics. It is easily shown on the basis of Special Relativity that if FTL travel were possible then time travel would also be, and that would lead to bizarre “temporal paradoxes” (such as the famous “grandfather paradox,” in which a person travels back in time and prevents his own parents from being born). While the equations of General Relativity seem to allow the hypothetical possibility of “traversable wormholes” in spacetime, which would permit both time travel and FTL travel, the formation of such wormholes would require the existence of negative-energy matter that does not exist in the real world. The impossibility of FTL travel means that any ETs who wanted to make a round trip to Earth would have to be from a planet very close to us. And the number of habitable planets within, say, forty light years of Earth is only in the tens, not hundreds, let alone 1022.
The second reason that alien visitations are extremely unlikely is that even if an intelligent species were to evolve on a planet of a nearby star the probability that they would exist at the same time as humans do in the history of the cosmos would seem to be utterly negligible. Our species has been around for about 200,000 years, which sounds like a lot but is a blink of an eye in comparison to the 14 billion years of cosmic history. It is vastly more likely that we and any given species of intelligent ETs would miss each other by hundreds of millions of years than that we would overlap in time. So, the idea that any humans have encountered ETs or ever will is quite far-fetched, even if theoretically possible.
However, even though the existence of intelligent extraterrestrials will probably always remain in the realm of pure speculation, it is important to reflect on it theologically. For, given what we know, intelligent ETs might well exist, and surveys indicate that a large fraction of the general public believes that they do. Therefore, it is a pastorally important question whether the existence of such beings would be consistent with the Catholic faith.
Face-to-Face Encounters with the Greys
Would the Existence of Intelligent Alien Species be Contrary to the Catholic Faith?
It is important to clarify that what is at issue here is not “intelligence” in the sense that one might talk about a dog or dolphin being intelligent. Many terrestrial creatures have intelligence of that sort, and no one has ever imagined this to be theologically problematic. Rather, one is talking about what in Catholic tradition is called “intellect” or “rationality,” which is conceived of as a spiritual power. Even in this regard one must remember that angels are traditionally taught to be purely intellectual, spiritual beings, and their existence is not only unproblematic theologically, but an article of faith. What is specifically at issue, then, is the existence elsewhere in the physical universe of other embodied creatures who possess rationality—and thus also free will—and who would therefore possess “immortal spiritual souls” and be made in the “image of God.” For clarity, let us call such hypothetical creatures “rational extraterrestrials.” Of course, by Catholic teaching, if such beings do exist, they are not purely the result of an evolutionary process, since their rational souls would be “directly” created by God.
Now, certainly it is the case that the existence of such rational extraterrestrial species is nowhere mentioned in Scripture and does not seem even to have been contemplated by any of the scriptural writers. Therefore, it would be out of place to read into scriptural verses answers to questions about ET life that their authors did not ask themselves. That would be to commit what one theologian (in another context) has aptly called “the fallacy of the unasked question.” For example, when St. Paul says in Philippians 2:10-11 that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,” he doubtless was thinking of the blessed in heaven rather than space aliens.
The question naturally arises whether one would expect Scripture to mention ETs, if they do exist. It is hard to see why one would. There are many aspects of the universe that Scripture is silent about, including the very existence of planets outside the solar system, the vast size of the universe, and its immense age. It is also silent about the existence of many kinds of terrestrial life, including dinosaurs. Even on many matters that are important in a practical sense, Scripture tells us nothing, whether it be electricity, or agriculture, or medicine. God has left it to human reason, effort, and responsibility to learn about this world and how to make our way in it. Scripture is not about Nature and its secrets, but about God and mankind’s relationship to him, as well as our relationship to each other. For reasons mentioned in the previous section, the human race is extremely unlikely ever to encounter rational extraterrestrials, and so they are not a part of the story of mankind and its redemption. Nor would we humans be part of their story or their “salvation history.”
Even though there is no obvious reason why God would reveal anything to us about rational extraterrestrials, there also is no obvious reason why he would not create them, and some reasons to think he might. Generally, a composer does not create just one work, a novelist just one novel, or a poet just one poem. And God is not stingy with his love. After all, the human race itself comprises many tens of billions of individuals, and God does not love any of them any less for that.
In fact, Christians have been speculating for centuries about life elsewhere in the universe, and the prevailing view seems to have been that it is more in accord with God’s generosity and munificence to have created life all throughout the universe. Some even suggested a “principle of plenitude,” according to which the universe should be as full of life as possible. There is nothing in Christian tradition or teaching that militates against the possibility that rational ET life exists and perhaps in great abundance. Where things get trickier is with the question of how such beings would be saved.
Did God Create Aliens?
How Would Rational ETs be Saved?
The first question to consider is whether ETs, if they exist, stand in need of redemption. Perhaps all rational ETs species are unfallen, as are those in C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy. However, if the number of rational species in the universe is exponentially large—which is the most likely case if ETs exist at all—it would be an astonishing coincidence if only we humans were fallen. The problem lies not in the notion that only one rational species has fallen, but rather with the idea that we would happen to be that one. So if rational ET species exist, it seems most likely that many of them, if not all, are fallen and stand in need of redemption. The question is how God would save them.
There are two theories. One is that all rational embodied creatures throughout the universe would be saved through the unique and unrepeatable sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth on a cross on Calvary two thousand years ago. The other is that God the Son would have multiple Incarnations, taking the forms (or in the traditional terminology “assuming the natures”) of every kind of rational embodied species in the universe, or at least those that had fallen. (Though here one must note that some of the Church Fathers as well as later theologians held that God would have become incarnate as a man even had humanity not fallen.)
Of course, we do not know which of these theories is correct (if there are rational ETs), as God has not revealed anything about it, and consequently there is no Catholic teaching on the matter. One is in the realm of free speculation. That has not stopped theologians from having strong opinions. (I vividly recall the vehement negative reaction of a friend of mine, who was a Jesuit theologian of considerable reputation, when I broached the topic of multiple Incarnations to him some years ago.) Opinion, however, is divided among Catholic theologians who have considered the question.
There seem to be three main arguments given by proponents of the single-Incarnation theory. First, if the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary can be the means of salvation for human beings who lived before the time of Christ and for those who have lived since but have never heard of Christ, why could it not also be the means by which ETs are saved? Second, there are a number of scriptural verses that suggest a cosmic scope to Christ’s salvific work and others that state that there is just a single mediator of salvation; though, as we will see, these do not necessarily prove the single-Incarnation theory. And, third, the very notion of multiple Incarnations seems problematic and even scandalous to some, as for example the Jesuit friend I referred to.
The first argument is quite logical, but its plausibility would be diminished in two ways if the number of planets with rational ET life is exponentially large. For while it might not be surprising that an Incarnation would happen on only one planet, it would be surprising if that one just happened to be ours. Moreover, it would be making the exception into the rule. It is true that there have existed many human beings—tens of billions, in fact—who never heard of Christ; but it is likely that by the end of human history a majority of all humans who will have ever lived will have heard of him, assuming that the human race carries on for at least a few more centuries and the gospel continues to be preached. So, one can regard those human beings who never heard of Christ but were nonetheless saved as exceptions to the rule. But if there are, say, trillions of rational ET species throughout the universe, and there is only the one Incarnation here on Earth, then the embodied rational beings who will never have heard of Christ would vastly outnumber those who will have. In that case, being saved by hearing “Christ crucified” preached would not be the rule, but rather the very rare exception. That would be analogous to the salvation of the human race being accomplished through an Incarnation that happened on some remote South Sea island with a population of only a few people, who witnessed the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God and were then wiped out by a tsunami, leaving the rest of humanity completely unaware that the Incarnation had ever happened. That would be a strange “plan of salvation,” especially as it seems that Christ wanted the human race to learn of his mission, given that he commanded his disciples to “baptize all nations.”
Having looked at the single-Incarnation theory, let us see what can be said for and against the alternative.
Evidence a Race of GIANTS Once Inhabited Earth
Multiple Incarnations?
For many people, no doubt, the idea of multiple Incarnations is so strange as to seem absurd or even impious. However, so great a theologian as St. Thomas Aquinas did not regard it as such. Of course, he was not thinking of extraterrestrials, but of multiple human Incarnations of the Son of God. He posed the question, in Summa Theologiae, part III, question 3, article 7, “Whether One Divine Person Can Assume Two Human Natures.” His answer was yes. In fact, St. Thomas argued that the Son of God is able in principle to assume numerous distinct human natures, in the sense that it would be neither logically nor metaphysically impossible for him to do so. And, if that is the case, then it would seem also to be possible for the Son of God to assume the natures of a multiplicity of different rational species.
I will return in the last section to the question of whether and how this makes metaphysical sense. But first let us examine the question why multiple Incarnations might make sense as a means of saving extraterrestrials, if they exist. There are at least three interconnected reasons why it would.
The first reason has to do with the connection between the Incarnation of Christ and the Fall of Man. Christ, the “last Adam” or “second Adam” (1 Cor 15: 45-47), came to undo what had been done by the “first Adam.” By Catholic teaching, the first human beings had enjoyed a friendship with God and certain graces and “preternatural gifts,” which by turning away from God they forfeited for themselves and their descendants—that is, for the human race. And only the human race, not any ET races that there might be; for the effects of that primordial Fall, according to the Council of Trent, are passed on “by propagation.” If the work of the “second Adam,” Christ, is to repair the damage done by the first, it would seem that it is to spiritually heal the human race, and only the human race, and restore it to friendship with God.
This leads us directly to the second reason, which is a theological principle enunciated by many of the Fathers of the Early Church, namely that “what has not been assumed cannot be healed.” Human nature, which had been wounded by the transgression of our “first parents,” can only be healed if that nature is “assumed” by the Son of God, i.e. taken up into himself in the Incarnation. This principle was used to answer those in the early centuries of Christianity who argued that Christ was not fully human—that he lacked, for example, a truly human body or a human soul. It was answered that if he did not possess humanity fully then humanity would not be redeemed fully. That is why, in the words of the Letter to the Hebrews, Christ had to be a “man like us in all things but sin.” But if we generalize this principle it would appear that the nature of a rational ET species, if wounded by sin, could not be healed unless that ET nature were assumed into the Son of God as well. Their redeemer must be like them in all things but sin. In 1 Timothy 2:5, one reads, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.” Here again we see it emphasized that the mediator shares the nature of those whose relationship to God he mediates.
And this brings us to a third and most fundamental point. Some who discuss the Incarnation seem to conceive of it as merely a means to an end, salvation. However, it is not just the means to salvation, but the very substance of salvation. Salvation is not merely the avoidance of punishment or perdition, nor is it merely traveling to Heaven conceived of as a place; rather it is total union with God. God desired to unite humanity to himself in an intimate and indeed “nuptial” union. This nuptial union is both spiritual and corporeal. It began in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, who in himself unites the divine and human; but others were to be brought into this union by becoming joined to Christ as members of his Body, the Church, which is Christ’s body in a quite literal sense (though not a “biological” sense). Thus, being members of this Body as it will be in its glorified state, and intimately united thereby with God and with each other, is the substance of being “in Heaven.” The Body of Christ, when it reaches its ultimate completion on the “last Day” will be the “whole Christ” (or “totus Christus”), in which God and Man achieve that definitive union. That is what Heaven is. That is why Joseph Ratzinger in his book Eschatology wrote,
The perfecting of the Lord’s body in the pleroma of the “whole Christ” brings heaven to its true cosmic completion. Let us say it once more before we end: the individual’s salvation is whole and entire only when the salvation of the cosmos and all the elect has come to full fruition. For the redeemed are not simply adjacent to each other in heaven. Rather, in their being together as the one Christ, they are heaven.
When one recognizes this, one sees that Incarnation is not just one good way among others for God to save his creatures, it is the very substance of the salvation and the life he offers. Indeed, this is why some of the early Church Fathers said that God would have become Incarnate as a man even if man had not sinned.
Incidentally, this perspective sheds light on what some regard as a “hard saying” of the Church’s tradition, namely that “extra ecclesiam nulla salus” (“outside the Church there is no salvation”). The Church has explained that this does not mean that all human beings who never heard of Christ in this life or who never received baptism cannot be saved. But it does mean that those of them who are saved and end up in heaven, also by definition end up in the “totus Christus,” the Body of Christ, the “Church Triumphant.” So, in the end, they will not be “extra ecclesiam.”
So, applying all this to other rational species that might exist elsewhere in the universe, it suggests that if any such species is to be redeemed it would be through an Incarnation by which that species, its nature, and its members collectively and as individuals are united to the Son of God.
Now, if this is true, it would lead to some corollaries. More than one Incarnation would imply more than one Body of Christ—as many as there are rational species whose natures God assumed. And perhaps one should also say, therefore, as many “Heavens.” The human race had an original unity with itself and with God that was shattered by sin. In the human Body of Christ, when it achieves completion, that unity will be restored. But there was no original unity of the human race with ET rational species (if they exist), except, of course, that all rational species have their origin in God. So, while all rational creatures in this universe who are redeemed will be united to God in his Son, we do not know whether they will be united in a single Body with those of other rational species.
And finally we come to an absolutely vital point. Even if, hypothetically, there were multiple Incarnations of the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, they would all be Incarnations of one and the same divine Person. While, as St. Paul wrote, our knees must bend “at the name of Jesus,” it may be that those in other parts of the universe bend their knees (or make whatever the analogous bodily gesture would be) at a different-sounding name, but not the name of a different Person. It would be the name of the same Son of God as he came among them and “dwelt among them” as one like them “in all things but sin.” And if the Son of God undergoes rejection, suffering, and death on multiple planets, it would be the same divine Person undergoing them in every case. It would be one and the same eternal decision on the part of that divine Person to humble himself and offer himself for all his children. It is that eternal decision of the Son of God that is referred to in Revelation 13:8, which speaks of the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Similarly, 1 Peter 1:19-20 refers to “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” That one and only Lamb was manifest for us humans as Jesus Christ, but perhaps could be manifest in a different form for other rational species. Therefore, it can be argued that scriptural passages that emphasize a single sacrifice and a single mediator and passages that imply a cosmic dimension to Christ’s sacrifice do not have to be interpreted to exclude multiple Incarnations.
Are Interdimensional Beings Contacting Us?
Would Multiple Incarnations Make Metaphysical Sense?
Before getting to that question, one must review how it is that the human Incarnation of the Son of God makes metaphysical sense. It raises some very puzzling questions that were much debated in the early Church. At first it seems like a contradiction in terms. How can the same Christ be both God and man, if God is infinite and man is finite? If Jesus of Nazareth is human, then as a human his thoughts, emotions, and sensations would change from moment to moment and his memory would have finite capacity. He would be capable of forgetting and of learning. Hebrews 5:8 tells us he “learned obedience by what he suffered.” Luke 2:52 says that “he grew in wisdom.” On the other hand, if Jesus of Nazareth is God, then as God his mind is infinite and unchanging, and he knows all things in one timeless act of understanding. To resolve the puzzle, some denied his full humanity, saying that it was swallowed up in his divinity, or that he only appeared human. Others denied that he was fully God, saying that he was only an exalted creature, or that while on earth he laid aside his divinity. But all of these were false solutions and dead ends. They were contrary to both Scripture and Apostolic Tradition and were condemned by a series of Ecumenical Councils. The Church resolved the apparent contradiction in a different way that accorded with both Scripture and Apostolic Tradition, by teaching that Christ, though “one Person,” has “two natures,” a divine nature and a human nature, and therefore must have two minds and two wills. He has both a divine intellect and a human intellect; he has both a divine will and a human will; and so on. (Those who denied that Christ had two wills were called “monothelites,” or one-willers, and monothelitism was condemned by the Third Council of Constantinople in 680-1 AD.)
This resolves the apparent contradiction, but not, of course, the mystery. How can one person have two minds? We, who have only a human nature, obviously cannot imagine it. But perhaps we can make the mystery seem a bit less strange by an analogy, taken from the Athanasian Creed, a doctrinal statement dating to about the late fifth century. That creed makes an analogy between the union of the divine and human natures in Christ and the union within a human being of the spiritual soul and the body: “For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ.”
Let us push this analogy further. The “one Christ” is both God and Man, and so he has two ways of knowing, through his divine Intellect and through his human intellect. In a human being, there is both the “rational soul” and “flesh,” and, correspondingly, a human being has two ways of knowing: namely through rational intellectual knowledge and through the bodily senses. And so even we who are just human, experience having two quite disparate modes of knowledge. In fact, the analogy can be pushed further still. Ordinarily, what I know through the bodily senses I also know rationally; but I know many things rationally that my senses cannot. Thus, for example, my reason knows that I am feeling pain or having the sensation of warmth or seeing the color red. But my senses cannot know most truths that are grasped by my reason, such as, for example, moral truths and mathematical truths. By analogy, Christ’s divine Intellect knows all things, including what his human mind knows; but his human mind, being finite, cannot know everything grasped by his divine Intellect. Of course, any analogy between created things and God must be extremely inadequate. We should not push them too far, but they can be useful.
As the foregoing analogy can help us see how the Incarnation of the Son of God as a man does not involve a contradiction, it can also help us understand how multiple Incarnations might also be consistent. A human being does not just have two modes of knowing, the rational and the sensory, but many: namely the rational and several bodily senses. Moreover, while what is known by the reason encompasses (generally) what is known by all the senses, each sense is ignorant of most of what the reason knows as well as what is known by all the other senses. My sense of sight does not know sounds, nor my sense of hearing know smells, for instance. The analogy would be that the Son of God would know in his divine Intellect all that is known through his many assumed natures, but each assumed nature would be ignorant of most of what the divine Intellect knew as well as what all the other assumed natures knew (unless by supernaturally “infused knowledge”).
Of course, all this is at the extreme limit of speculation. And the analogy made in the Athanasian Creed is, like all analogies, imperfect. Nevertheless, it may help at least to make the idea of multiple Incarnations seem less problematic.
How Would Religion React to Proof of Intelligent Alien Life? | Unveiled
Conclusion
We do not know whether rational ETs exist or have existed or will exist. We do not even know enough to say whether their existence is probable or improbable, scientifically speaking. In any case, it is highly unlikely that we will ever encounter them. Nevertheless, their possible existence raises theological questions that many wonder about. There seems to be no conflict between the existence of such beings and anything Christianity teaches. Indeed, many Catholics and other Christians have argued over the centuries that if the universe can harbor such life one might expect such life to exist in abundance, because of God’s boundless creativity and generosity. We do not know whether such beings, if they exist, would require redemption, or how God would choose to redeem them. But there seem to be good reasons to suppose that it would be by God dwelling among them as one like them, as he “dwelt among us” as “one like us.” But as the Church has taught nothing about all these possibilities, one is at present free to weigh the evidence and arguments and form one’s own conclusions.
Are the Gods and Angels of the Bible REALLY Extraterrestrial Beings?
EDITORIAL NOTE: This article is part of a collaboration with the Society of Catholic Scientists (click here to read about becoming a member). You can ask questions and join a wider discussion of this essay at the bottom of this page where the original version of it is linked, which includes extensive notes.
That time UFOs attacked 2,000 people who were hit by light beams
That time UFOs attacked 2,000 people who were hit by light beams
The Colares UFO incidents refer to a series of unusual sightings and encounters that took place in 1977 on the Brazilian island of Colares. During this period, numerous residents from the Amazon River community of Colares reported being attacked by UFOs.
These mysterious objects allegedly descended from the sky, and in some cases, emerged from the water, emitting intense beams of light. The beams caused physical harm, including burn marks, puncture wounds, fatigue, and memory loss, affecting as many as 2,000 people.
In response to the alarming situation, the Brazilian Air Force initiated a thorough investigation. Years later, their findings were made public, revealing details of this bizarre chapter in UFO history.
Images from the 1977 Colares Island Incident
Weaponized hosts Jeremy and George speak with Thiago Ticchetti, Brazil's leading UFO investigator and author, to discuss the Colares case and the once-classified military files.
According to Thiago, the Brazilian military captured remarkably clear film footage and photographs of the UFOs. However, he claims that this evidence was sent to the U.S. and has never been released to the public.
In this episode, they also explores various conspiracy theories and recent debunking efforts surrounding the topic of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).
The discussion on the Colares UFO incidents begins at the 37-minute mark in the video.
Missie geslaagd: eerste commerciële ruimtewandeling ooit afgerond
De astronauten van de commerciële ruimtereis Polaris Dawn maakten vanmiddag de eerste ruimtewandeling door burgers ooit. Twee astronauten gingen elk om de beurt enkele minuten de ruimte in, terwijl ze bleven vasthangen aan het ruimteschip. De ruimtewandeling is met succes afgerond.
Het luik van het ruimteschip Crew Dragon werd na ongeveer een uur gesloten en de cabine stond nog een uur later weer onder de benodigde druk. Daarmee werd de eerste commerciële ruimtewandeling ooit afgelopen.
Thuis hebben we allemaal heel wat werk te doen, maar van hier lijkt het een perfecte wereld
Jared Isaacman, missieleider Polaris Dawn
Isaacman in zijn ruimtepak.
Als eerste verliet miljardair en missieleider Jared Isaacman donderdagmiddag omstreeks 12.53 uur Belgische tijd het ruimteschip, op een hoogte van zowat 730 kilometer boven de aarde. “Thuis hebben we allemaal heel wat werk te doen, maar van hier lijkt het een perfecte wereld”, zei Isaacman toen hij uit het ruimteschip ging. Na zijn uitje van een tiental minuten keerde hij terug naar binnen en verliet ook Sarah Gillis, missiespecialist en medewerker van SpaceX dat het ruimtevaartuig bouwde, de Crew Dragon.
Het is voor het eerst dat burgers een ruimtewandeling maakten. Isaacman en Gillis voerden enkele beweeglijkheidstests uit met de nieuwe ruimtepakken. Isaacman en Gillis bleven de hele tijd via een zuurstoflijn aan Crew Dragon verbonden.
De twee andere bemanningsleden - Scott “Kidd” Poteet, een gepensioneerd luitenant-kolonel van de Amerikaanse luchtmacht, en SpaceX-medewerker Anna Menon - bleven in het ruimtevaartuig tijdens de ruimtewandeling. Omdat de twee astronauten die de ruimte ingingen deels in de cabine bleven met het luik open, werden ook de andere astronauten de hele tijd blootgesteld aan het vacuüm van de ruimte. Ook dat was een primeur.
Eens Gillis weer in het ruimteschip was, ging het luik weer dicht, begon de cabine opnieuw vol te lopen met zuurstof en werd die opnieuw onder druk gezet. Eens de benodigde druk was bereikt, kwam de ruimtewandeling - of ‘extravehicular activity’ (EVA) - ook officieel ten einde. “De Polaris Dawn-ruimtewandeling is nu afgerond, wat de eerste keer was dat commerciële astronauten een ruimtewandeling hebben uitgevoerd van een commercieel ruimtevaartuig”, aldus SpaceX, omstreeks 14 uur Belgische tijd.
De privémissie Polaris Dawn is gefinancierd door SpaceX en Isaacman. De bemanning is daarvoor uitgebreid getraind. Het gaat om een nieuwe stap in de commerciële ruimtevaart. Tot vandaag werden alle ruimtewandelingen uitgevoerd door professionele ruimtevaarders en niet door burgers.
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Astronauten voeren eerste commerciële ruimtewandeling ooit uit
Astronauten voeren eerste commerciële ruimtewandeling ooit uit
Astronaut Jared Isaacman heeft de eerste commerciële ruimtewandeling uitgevoerd. De ruimtevaarder maakte die ruimtewandeling samen met Sarah Gillis vanuit een Crew Dragon-ruimteschip van SpaceX op de Polaris Dawn-missie.
Isaacman opende het luik van de Crew Dragon rond 12.50 uur Nederlandse tijd op een apogeehoogte van zo'n 700 kilometer. Isaacman verliet het ruimteschip kort daarna voor een ruimtewandeling. "Het ziet eruit als een perfecte wereld", zei Isaacman daar. De Crew Dragon heeft een enkel luik, waardoor alle vier de passagiers een ruimtepak moesten dragen. In tegenstelling tot de meeste ruimtevaartuigen en -stations van waaruit ruimtewandeling worden uitgevoerd, heeft de Crew Dragon geen luchtsluis. Dat betekent dat het zuurstofgehalte in de capsule al direct na de lancering werd opgevoerd en de luchtdruk naar beneden ging.
Isaacman, de enige astronaut met enige ervaring op de vlucht, verbleef een kleine tien minuten buiten de capsule. Hij oefende daar met verschillende lichaamsbewegingen. Nadat Isaacman weer naar binnen ging, vertrok astronaut Sarah Gillis ook naar buiten. Zij deed dezelfde oefeningen. Gillis bleef ook zo'n tien minuten buiten het ruimteschip. Beide astronauten bleven wel met hun benen in het schip en lieten dat niet los, wat ook niet de bedoeling was. Naast Isaacman en Gillis waren er ook twee andere astronauten aan boord: Scott Poteet en Anna Menon. Zij verlieten het ruimteschip niet.
De astronauten sloten het luik rond 13.18 uur Nederlandse tijd weer. De komende tijd worden daarbij het zuurstofgehalte en de luchtdruk weer teruggebracht naar hun beginwaarden.
De missie werd uitgevoerd in samenwerking met SpaceX, dat de Crew Dragon op 10 september lanceerde naar een baan om de aarde en ook de ruimtepakken maakte. Maar het was miljardair Isaacman die de missie bekostigde en uitvoerde. De Polaris-missies, waarvan deze Dawn-missie er een is, hebben als voornaamste doel om de ruimtepakken van SpaceX in de praktijk te testen. De ruimtepakken zijn aangepaste versies van de drukpakken die astronauten al dragen bij het opstijgen en landen met de Crew Dragon. De belangrijkste toevoegingen daarbij zijn nieuwe temperatuurregulatoren en een HUD waarop astronauten informatie over hun druk en temperatuur zien. Ook zijn de pakken gemaakt om wendbaarder te zijn, wat belangrijk is als astronauten in de toekomst bijvoorbeeld reparaties moeten uitvoeren aan hun ruimteschip.
Ook de Crew Dragon werd aangepast voor de missie. Er werden hand- en voetrailingen toegevoegd aan de buitenkant, waarmee de astronauten zich over de capsule kunnen verplaatsen. Ook het life support system werd aangepast zodat de astronauten zuurstof kunnen krijgen via de toevoerslangen die naar de ruimtepakken leiden.
Four private Axiom Space astronauts await liftoff in their SpaceX IVA suits.
(SpaceX)
Polaris-missies
Het Polaris-programma bestaat uiteindelijk uit drie missies. Die moeten verschillende aspecten testen waarop astronauten in de toekomst verdere ruimtereizen moeten maken met SpaceX-vaartuigen. De missie werd van tevoren als risicovol gezien; er worden veel verschillende nieuwe technieken ingezet die nooit eerder zijn getest. Bovendien zijn alle crewleden onervaren. Voor Gillis, Poteet en Menon is het hun eerste ruimtevlucht. Isaacman is de enige met ervaring, maar ook dat is niet erg veel. In 2021 was hij al een van de astronauten op de Inspiration4-missie, de eerste commerciële ruimtevaartmissie. Ook dat was aan boord van de Crew Dragon. Daarmee heeft Isaacman weliswaar ervaring met dat ruimtevaartuig, maar de missie duurde slechts drie dagen. De huidige capsule, Resilience, is dezelfde capsule als die op Inspiration4 werd gebruikt.
De ruimtewandeling is ook de verste die sinds de jaren 70 is gemaakt. Toen voerden astronauten ruimtewandelingen uit op weg naar de maan, waarbij ze op duizenden kilometers hoogte de Apollo-capsules verlieten. Polaris Dawn werd aanvankelijk in een aardbaan van 190 tot 1408 kilometer geplaatst, al werd dat voor de ruimtewandeling teruggebracht naar een lagere baan. De ruimtewandeling vond uiteindelijk plaats op een hoogte van zo'n 700 kilometer, een kleine 300 kilometer hoger dan waarop huidige ruimtestations als het International Space Station of het Chinese Tiangong nu vliegen.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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