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Donald Trump would like to see Americans walk on Mars during his presidency within three to seven years depending on the whims of the voting public. Nasa would love to get there that quickly too. The reality of space travel is slightly more complicated. On Monday during a call with astronaut Peggy Whitson who was aboard the International Space Station Trump pressed her for a timeline on a crewed mission to Mars one of Nasa s longest standing and most daunting goals. Tell me Mars he asked her from the Oval Office what do you see a timing for actually sending humans to Mars? Is there a schedule and when would you see that happening? Whitson answered by pointing out that Trump by signing a Nasa funding bill last month had already approved a timeline for a mission in the 2030s. She added that Nasa was building a new heavy-launch rocket which would need testing. Unfortunately space flight takes a lot of time and money she said. But it is so worthwhile doing. Trump replied: Well we want to try and do it during my first term or at worst during my second term so we ll have to speed that up a little bit OK? It was not clear whether the president meant the remark as a quip or something more serious. Nasa s current plan aims for a 2033 launch of a crewed mission to orbit Mars with a later mission to land there just as the Apollo missions circled the moon before touching down. Even with private partnerships that Trump has encouraged for instance with Elon Musk s SpaceX getting to Mars will take years. With Nasa s current budget it would be challenging to go to Mars without a massive increase Phil Larson a former senior adviser for space and innovation to Barack Obama told the Guardian. Larson said that Nasa is far more prepared to go to Mars today than it was to go to the moon in the 1960s but stressed: The devil s in the detail and the devil s in the funding. In the bill last month Trump and Congress kept most of the agency s funds intact at about 19bn but cut 200m for climate science education programs and an asteroid mission that Nasa had hoped would be a stepping stone to Mars. Although 100 days into his presidency Trump has not yet named anyone as Nasa s administrator. Nasa has estimated that the total cost of missions to Mars would be hundreds of billions of dollars. Larson wrote in an op-ed last month that at the rate set by Trump s budget request sending humans to Mars in less than a decade is not just impossible it s laughable . Depending on launch timing it takes seven to nine months simply to reach Mars from Earth the Apollo missions to the moon took on average three days and Nasa has to overhaul its rockets and spacecraft for such a long mission. The agency is currently building the most powerful rocket the agency has ever designed called the Space Launch System (SLS). On Thursday the agency pushed back its planned 2018 test flight to 2019 after a report by the Government Accountability Office cast doubt on the rocket system s readiness to fly. The private spaceflight company SpaceX is also developing a new rocket the Falcon Heavy and has announced an ambitious plan to use it to take two private citizens around the moon in 2018. That rocket also remains untested in flight. SpaceX s CEO Musk wants to reach Mars by 2024 but has acknowledged that his private company would probably need help and luck for that optimistic timeline. Any organization public or private needs to solve the challenges of fueling radiation bombardment and if it wants to land how to do so safely and with the ability to take off again from the surface of Mars. The planet s atmosphere is about 100 times thinner than Earth s making descent faster and more perilous than when astronauts return home. Deep space is full of hazards to life and Nasa has said that a crewed mission to Mars and back could take as long as three years. The agency plans to send a crewed mission into deep space in the 2020s as a readiness gauge a test of whether it has technology for a long-term space habitat protected against effects of radiation and microgravity which over time weakens bones muscles and eyesight. Lockheed Martin Nasa s partner for the project is working toward a main base camp spacecraft for 2028. Astronauts on a Mars mission will also face psychological tests of extreme isolation and close quarters whose only comparisons might be the journeys of 16th-century mariners 19th-century whalers and the Arctic explorers in centuries past. Space agencies have had several teams do mock missions for as long as 500 days and Nasa researchers have stressed that psychological tests and prep will be key for any crew. Though the International Space Station has had humans on board for over a decade it receives regular supplies and only a handful of people have logged more than 340 continuous days in space (Whitson holds the US record). A mission to Mars requires food oxygen water and fuel for as much as three times as long. Astronauts who land on the surface would not only need those resources they would have to contend with uncertain terrain high winds and even dust that could be toxic. And while the moon is sterile Nasa also does not want to contaminate a planet where liquid water still flows nor have Mars contaminate the astronauts. We re absolutely very ready to go to Mars all of us would be very happy to go Whitson told Trump on Monday. She did not say when.
Washington: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Peggy Whitson on Monday set a new US record for most cumulative days spent in space surpassing cosmonaut Jeff Williams record of 534 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS). With the recent extension of her stay at the ISS the Expedition 51 commander has five months to rack up another record NASA said. In 2008 Whitson became the first woman to command the space station and on April 9 this year became the first woman to command it twice. In March she seized the record for most spacewalks spanning over 53 hours by a female breaking Indian-American Sunita Williams record of seven spacewalks totalling 50 hours and 40 minutes. Now after launching on November 17 last year with 377 days in space already under her belt she https://designshack.net/member/fiorisap has surpassed astronaut Jeff Williams previous US record of 534 days 2 hours and 48 minutes of cumulative time in space.This is Whitson s third long-duration stay onboard the space station and in March her mission was extended into September increasing the amount of valuable astronaut time available for experiments on board the station. When she returns to Earth she will have spent more than 650 days in space and decades supporting spaceflight from the ground NASA said. Whitson began her NASA career in the 1980s. She held a number of research-related positions and in 1992 was named project scientist of the Shuttle-Mir Programme. She made her first trip to the ISS in 2002. Space shuttle Endeavour delivered her and her Expedition 5 crewmates for a 184-day stay in the four modules that made up the space station at the time. While there she took part in 21 science investigations and became the first NASA science officer. In 2008 Whitson returned as commander of Expedition 16 and was on hand for the installation of the Harmony node the Columbus laboratory and the Kibo logistics module. She spent another 192 days in space and performed her first five spacewalks. Since returning for her third stay in November last year Whitson has added another three spacewalks to her list bringing her total time spent outside the space station to more than 53 hours. With the title for most spacewalks by a female and most time spent spacewalking by a female already secure she will add to both numbers on May 12 when she is scheduled to venture out of the station s airlock again. Between trips to space Whitson was named chief of the astronaut office in 2009 becoming the first female to hold the position which she remained in until 2012. PTITopics: NASA Peggy Whitson most time spent in space cumulative spacewalk records International Space Station
Photo Luciano Pavarotti in 2002. Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times It is not just rockers who are objecting to the use of their songs by Donald J. Trump the Republican presidential nominee. Now the family of the tenor Luciano Pavarotti who died in 2007 is protesting the Trump campaign s use of his recording of Puccini s aria Nessun Dorma. Pavarotti s widow Nicoletta Mantovani Pavarotti and three daughters issued a statement this week calling on the campaign to stop using his music saying that the values of brotherhood and solidarity which Luciano Pavarotti expressed throughout the course of his artistic career are entirely incompatible with the worldview offered by the candidate Donald Trump. The Trump campaign has been using the rousing aria at its rallies. It is from the opera Turandot and became a popular phenomenon and a soccer anthem after it was sung at the first Three Tenors concert in Rome in conjunction with the 1990 World Cup. The aria ends with a soaring cry of vincerò or I will win. While Mr. Trump has called for a temporary ban on immigration to the United States by Muslims and proposed building a wall along the Mexican border and deporting the 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States Mr. Pavarotti worked during his career to help refugees and support human rights. He served as a United Nations Messenger of Peace and when he died in 2007 the program said that he had raised significant amounts of money to help it protect human rights and refugees around the world. The Pavarotti family initially made its statement to the Gazzetta di Modena in his hometown. They sent an English translation to The New York Times that was signed by his widow Mrs. Pavarotti and his daughters Lorenza Cristina and Giuliana. A version of this article appears in print on July 23 2016 on Page C3 of the New York edition with the headline: An Operatic Twist in Trump s Campaign. Order Reprints| Today s Paper|Subscribe Continue reading the main story
Breaking Newsvicinity Guariglia also blanketed a view of the Wall Street Bull. The iconic statue will be underwater by the end of the century if carbon emissions aren t reduce.The enjoy with the app is brief a chum sitting next to me dubbed it a 3 minute app. But Guariglia is likewise ensuring the experience extends beyond the screen. Users can print out stickers and placed them on phone poles buildings or other (legally on hand) surfaces at the peak in which water will be via the 2080s. The idea is that you can actually have interaction personally but you may help engage humans in your community Guariglia stated noting that we need to be having greater open dialogues approximately the future we are facing.The undertaking is a herbal extension of Guariglia s paintings. He s flown with NASA over the enormous expanses of the Greenland ice sheet. Using aerial pictures as a base he then paints massive landscapes using a high tech printer that renders shimmering scenes of undulating ice.He focuses on the ones locations due to the fact they re inaccessible but they re vitally critical to recognize what s at stake with weather trade. The app is a way to make it a touch clearer to human beings. More Brian Kahn.
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