Space Magazine by LASA Ezine

magazine

Once in a Blue-ish Moon How Europa Could Change Our View of Life Forever

Opening Space for the Human Race

Figuring Out Ways for Getting (and Staying) in Outer Space

Mission to Mars

The Next Frontier for Human Space Colonization

Learn about fascinating new rockets like this Atlas V!

The Platinum Rush

The Lucrative Future of Asteroid Mining and its Possibilities

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5 Cover photo courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0)

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Letter from the Editor We created Space to give our readers insight into the fascinating and rapidly changing field of Astronomy. This magazine is intended both for space junkies and for the casual reader who clicked on our magazine because they thought the cover was pretty. No matter your experience level, we hope Space informs, excites, and challenges you just as much as it did us. Yes, Space was a challenge. With four group members, it was difficult to come to an agreement about everything from the cover to the color scheme. At times, I feared the information inaccurate, the layouts lackadaisical and the magazine marginal, at best. Thankfully, we had backup. Without the help of some wonderful experts who kindly helped us, Space would be a picture of a paraphrased Wikipedia article scrawled in crayon on my math homework. Mrs. Harrison, our E-Zine teacher, tolerated questions as numerous as the stars in the Milky Way and many amazing astronomers shared their expertise and insight to make our magazine an informative source. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t space out, Rachel Fuller

A few candid shots of group work.

Meet the AuthorS Rachel Fuller

Rachel is interested in space because of its limitless possibilities. The study and exploration of space involves all branches of science and technology from biology to aerospace engineering. No single event inspired her love of space, but astronomy’s combination of concrete mechanics and fantastical theories has always interested her. Her favorite planet is Venus, because its toxic, hot atmosphere may be the future of Earth if climate change continues.

Edward Lee

Edward has been fascinated about space since kindergarten, when he first learned about the other planets. His interests soon expanded, and has been reading all he could about space. His interest was rekindled after a visit to McDonald Observatory in eighth grade, and a presentation about asteroid mining inspired him to write his feature “The Platinum Rush.” Edward’s favorite planet is Uranus.

Mihir Kamble

Mihir has always loved everything to do about aeronautics and space. He used to rent movies of airshows from the library and watch them many times. After his first visit to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas as a 2nd grader, Mihir’s dream has since been becoming an aerospace engineer or an astronaut. Recently, he heard about the Mars One program and was astonished by their goals for the future. He also attended a talk by one of the finalists from program and got inspired to write his story about Mars One. Mihir’s favorite planet is Jupiter.

Sian Yazdani

Sian became interested in space after he discovered its amazing potential. He is interested in flight and what the future holds for us. He loves planes and would love to learn how to fly someday. He would like to become an aerospace engineer someday, so then he could design aircraft. His favorite planet is Saturn, because it is the most different out of all of the planets in the solar system. After all, no other planet is sideways and has rings, right?

Once In a Blue-ISH moon by Rachel Fuller

View of Europa from the Galileo spacecraft Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

Courtesy of NASA/JPL

“ t could be bacteria, Europa sharks, whales, who knows.” said J. Craig Wheeler, Ph.D., an astronomy professor at the University of Texas. 39.4 million miles away from Earth, life may lurk on an icy moon orbiting Jupiter. Europa’s liquid water ocean has led many astrobiologists to believe that the planet plays host to hardy microbes beneath its icy crust. The origin of life has always been mysterious, and the presence of extraterrestrial life would raise as many questions as it would answer. The practical implications for society, science and technology make astrobiology exhilarating, but with NASA’s budget on the decline and with diverse science fields competing for resources, astrobiology is not always at the forefront of research. Recent discoveries about Europa’s liquid water intrigue astrobiologists because of its relative proximity to Earth. With technological advancements in rovers and spacecraft,

discovering Europan life transforms from wild imagining to plausible future. “Finding out about this ocean moon in our own solar system to me, that was enough to make me want to change what I was doing.” said Britney Schmidt, Ph.D., a researcher of planetary habitability at Georgia Tech University. Schmidt previously was interested in science, but she explained learning about Europa made her realize Astronomy was a career option. Europa appears an inhospitable location for life due to its extremely low temperature, down to -370 degrees fahrenheit, which keeps its icy surface solid. Astronomers believe a liquid water ocean lies below, heated by a phenomenon known as tidal flexing. Jupiter pulls and flexes Europa as the moon orbits, creating internal heat to drive hydrothermal vents or volcanoes.

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Life finds a way to survive in just every conceivable environment.

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A potential model of the internal structure of Europa, illustrating the liquid ocean beneath an icy crust.

Extraterrestrial life is often illustrated as humanoid, or at the very least, intelligent. In truth, life on Europa would likely be microbes to withstand the temperatures of Europa’s sub-glacial ocean and heating sources because they are known to thrive under such conditions on Earth, according to NASA. “Certainly within our closest neighbors we know that life is not going to be little green men,” University of Texas professor Dr. J. Craig Wheeler said. Despite the far-off location, conditions on Europa parallel some of Earth’s most inhospitable habitats where life flourishes. “What we have learned over the last decade or so is that at least on this planet, life finds a way to live in just every conceivable environment. Hot, cold, salty, not salty, acidic, radiation dominated,” Wheeler said. When astronomers discovered the conditions on Europa, scientists clamored to study the alien moon. Europa orbits 39.4 million miles from Earth, which makes research difficult. “If you’re studying, even life in the Atacama Desert, a very hostile place you can at least take samples and bring them back to lab,” Schmidt said. “But on Europa we have to ask questions, the right questions in the first place and how to figure it out using robotic spacecraft.” Due to the distance and radiation on the journey to Europa, even an unmanned spacecraft could cost, conservatively, $1 billion, according to NASA. Since

Courtesy of OAR/National Undersea Research Program (NURP); NOAA

Europa may not harbor life, the cost of an expedition proves to be prohibitive to sending a probe for the time being. Without a probe, astrobiologists cannot definitively confirm or deny life on Europa. Currently, astrobiologists studying the icy moon explore terrestrial analogs to Europa such as the subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica. “We take measurements in the ocean beneath the ice to try to understand that environment. I look at spacecraft data. It’s me and my computer looking at that data,” Schmidt said. Microbes on Europa appear far removed from the wealth of natural life found on Earth, but discovering extraterrestrial life could help illuminate the state of early life on Earth. Researchers can’t model the early conditions on Earth that led to the origin of life. Biologists do not know the mechanism that allowed inorganic elements to coalesce into organic chemicals, and eventually life. A comparison between conditions on Europa and Earth would allow biologists to synthesize how life began. “The study of understanding how life came to be on our planet evolved, which is likely microbes, has a direct implication for us looking for that type of life on other planets like Mars or even farther out. Unless we find some other version of life we can compare it to, if all we really have is what we have here on Earth, the extant life, I think its going to be very difficult [to discover the origin of life].” Rice University professor and origin of life researcher Janet Siefert, Ph.D. said. Despite the differences in habitat and form, the same elements that make up terrestrial life compose Europan life. In particular, water is an important component for life. Europa’s briny ocean offers a source of liquid water. Regardless of how life evolved on Europa, it formed from the same building blocks of life. “I think the first sort of concrete fact that you can use is that no matter where you are in the universe you have the same periodic table. ” Siefert said. NASA, universities and other private organizations provide most of the funding for astrobiology research, but even governmental support dwindles. In 2011, NASA commanded $18 billion, or about 0.05% of the U.S. Federal Budget, according to NASA’s budget report. Those $18 billion spread thinly across many departments. Of the funds devoted to space exploration, Mars is often the focus, with companies such as Mars 1 and SpaceX garnering federal money and public inter-

Terrestrial hydrothermal vent in the Atlantic Ocean, similar to hydrothermal vents theorized to be present on Europa.

est. The exploration of Europa has few commercial implications because colonization is not the goal, which some companies aim to fund with reality TV. “There is no direct way to make money off of what I do, or what planetary scientists or astrobiologists do,” Schmidt said. Funding challenges force some scientists to stealthily continue their research while working on other projects. Groups such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institute for Health fund some projects related to their own narrow interests, explained Siefert. “A lot of the researchers that do origin of life work, I would say 80 percent of their work, actual research work is funded through other work,” Siefert said. “That is transcendental to origin of life work.” Extraterrestrial life and origin of life studies carry surprising benefits; discoveries made during research can have a large impact on other branches of science.

“Applications for origin of life can explain how you get antibiotic resistance or GMO products or anything to do with environmental catastrophes can be mediated with superbugs,” Siefert said. Te c h n o l o g y used by astrobiologists impact fields outside of science or technology, reaching into topics like huCourtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech man rights. NASA’s The Mars Curiosity Rover, for which a miniature mass spectrometer was developed. Curiosity Rover analyzed Martian astrobiology transfixes the imagination. Astronomy brims with samples using a mass spectrometer. A mass new ideas with the potential to answer age-old musings. spectrometer identifies the amount and type “I have always been fascinated by the question of ‘Are we of chemicals in a sample, used by Curiosity to alone in the universe?’ When I was growing up I loved thinksearch for elements indicative of life such as ing about the sky and looking out at it through telescopes,” said Schmidt. Beyond satisfying curiosity, the discovery and understanding of life could refashion the way we think about Earth forever. Knowledge transcends nations, cultures and ages. “We tend to worry so much about what we’re wearing today, what job we have, how much money we make, you know what your favorite celebrity is doing, someone yells at you on Twitter. I think the value would be that we kind of think about something bigger carbon and methane. Limited space on board than ourselves, something that brings us all together,” said Curiosity required the mass spectrometer to Schmidt. be downsized, explained Schmidt. Without further research, Europa sharks may glide through “Because its already been miniaturized by a frigid sea in anonymity. Exploration on Europa could put an NASA investment and by the investment of sciend to conjecture about the origin of life forever. If we do entists, human rights organization and companot look to a frigid alien moon, humanity may never answer nies have been able to use this small mass test our most basic questions “Where did we come from? Are we to look for things like medication in third world alone?”. countries that have been faked or falsified or stolen,” said Schmidt. Even without the benefit of new technology,

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Applications for origin of life can explain how you get antibiotic resistance or GMO products

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Dream Destination: Space Edition by Rachel Fuller

Human exploration (and colonization) of space is an fascinating and expanding field, but with so many diverse opportunities it can be hard to know where you should travel. Space Magazine canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t perform a complex psychological examination of you, but we can use your likes and dislikes to match you with your dream destination!

cold or hot climate?

The beach or the mountains?

aliens or cowboys?

Space ice cream or space pizza?

was the moon landing fake or real?

are you afraid of heights?

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have you ever comMited arson?

coffee or tea?

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Mission to Mars Mars One intends to send humans to colonize Mars within a decade, according to the Mars One website. A journey to Mars would be a one way trip, with the colonizers living and dying on Mars. You may never see Earth again, but Mars offers the chance to find signs of ancient, or current, life. Your obituary would be pretty cool too: Born an Earthling, died a Martian.

Mission to VENUS NASA’s theoretical Project HAVOC would send you floating in the Vesuvian atmosphere. The surface of Venus may be inhospitable, but a floating lighter-than-air ship would allow you to venture down to the surface of Venus to collect scientific information, according to the project’s NASA webpage. Venus is the closest planet to Earth, so you could expect to return to Earth after about 30 days on Venus.

Mission to the moon The European Space Agency has expressed interest in sending astronauts to the Moon in a recent press release on their website, so you may need to brush up on your French. 12 people have walked on Earth’s satellite, but there are still more scientific opportunities awaiting you on the Moon. You could even see Earth from the Moon, so you wouldn’t get too homesick waiting on your return journey.

Mission to Europa Objective Europa aims to send a manned mission to Europa, though it is currently in its preliminary theoretical planning stage. The surface of Europa is covered in water ice. But due to the pull of Jupiter, the frigid moon may have a liquid water ocean under the surface. You may discover extraterrestrial life or just enjoy your permanent living arrangements; no return journey is planned for you.

Opening Space for the human race by Sian Yazdani

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Courtesy of NASA Ames Research Center

The inside of an O’neill cylinder, a type of rotating colony designed by Gerard K O’neill

about how to develop infrastructure in space. “I would hope that we can get safe passage to Mars while I’m still here,” said Strickland. “I just turned 72 two days ago, you know, I’ve been following this for 60 years.” Strickland has always had a liking for exploration. Whether it is hiking, caving, or wondering about how to get into the new frontier of space, he enjoys discovering how beautiful the world is, and thinking about how to preserve it. As a child, he remembered things like knowing what an asteroid was, and getting a book about space that got him interested in the new frontier. He believes that he “probably would have gotten interested anyways, because I [sought] out things like that.” Strickland believes that it is essential for mankind to move into space because there are so many things, both self-inflicted and from outside, that could destroy the human race. When asked at what point in the future it will be absolutely critical for humans to make home in space in order to survive, he stated that “it already is.” The examples that it seemed worried Strickland the most were Carrington events, nanotechnology becoming rampant, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) advancing to the point of surpassing human ability to stop it. What Strickland referred to

as Carrington Events were actually hypothetical future occurrences of the original Carrington Event, a solar storm observed by astronomer Richard Carrington in 1859 which took out the entire telegraph system for a large area. If a solar flare of that size happened again, it

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Would you

want to do Russian Roulette every year with a one percent

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e don’t know much about the entirety of the universe, but what little we do know does include a chance that all life on Earth could be wiped out. As author, programmer, and space aficionado John Strickland puts it, “would you want to do Russian Roulette every year with a 1% of dying? I don’t.” The space that we occupy is full of dangerous hazards such as solar flares, comets, asteroids, and Carrington events. In order to have a chance to eliminate the possibility of the scenario above, John Strickland believes we should start the move into space. John Strickland believes that the way to solve this problem is to move out into the cosmos around us. He has written many papers and articles for organizations such as thespacereview.com, the National Space Society and Space News arguing against people who think that Earth’s problems should be solved before any consideration is given to space technology. Strickland is on the Board of Directors of and is the Awards Chairman of the National Space Society. He studied Anthropology and Biology at the State University of New York and Computer Science at St. Edwards University in Austin. Strickland worked as a programmer and analyst for the city of Austin. Strickland is currently designing a rotating colony and writing a book

chance of dying? I don’t.

could devastate communications in today’s technology reliant society. National Geographic states that “if something similar happened today, the world’s high-tech infrastructure could grind to a halt”. The difference of it happening back then and now is that “the only wires we had at the time actually were telegraph wires” said Strickland. “Imagine what that would do to us today.” The extent of the damage could also affect the electricity transformers, which would take decades to replace because there are just no spare electric transformers lying around anywhere.

Courtesy of NASA Ames Research Center

How the inside of a rotating colony could look.

Strickland gave nanotechnology as his second reason for colonizing space. Specifically he gave the example of gray goo, which is a hypothetical scenario in which engineered nanobacteria or nanobots consume the biosphere while making more of themselves. These nanomachines could have been made for any purpose, and already nanotechnology plays a bigger role in everyday life than most people expect. It is found in everything from batteries to sunscreen to food. These limitswitch-lacking nanoorganisms would replicate exponentially to overwhelming numbers. Strickland used this example to show how advancements in technology come quickly and with risk. “Have you ever seen the Fantasia with the sorcerer’s apprentice and the brooms? You’ve seen what happens to the broomstick right? It’s just like the nano assembler,” said Strickland. Strickland had many ideas on how to make space travel cheaper and more efficient. He believes that the first step is reusable rockets. To understand the cost and risk of a rocket now and how it can become cheaper and more efficient in the future, he used the following example: “How much would it cost you, as a ticket holder, if you flew to Los Angeles, and they throw the airliner away for scrap metal. Then they put in another airliner, thats

never been flown before, never been tested before, alright? So you have to pay for insurance that if you get killed in this test flight, you know, the company won’t be liable for your death. Then you fly back to Austin, and they throw that airplane away. How much would the ticket cost?” As you have seen, rocket technology could use an overhaul. We throw away every single part of the vehicles that we use and must make new, untested ones for huge prices. If we could consistently reuse even some parts of the rocket, this would save us millions of dollars per flight. The cost to launch a space shuttle was 450 million dollars on average (nasa.gov). Already, prices have dropped through efficiency improvement. SpaceX can launch the Falcon 9 for 50-56 million dollars (spaceflight101.com), and Virgin Galactic tickets are projected to cost 250,000 dollars (space.com). The second step would be to build what Strickland refers to as “infrastructure” in space. By this, he means things such as fuel stations, storage depots, pressurized and unpressurized docking areas, and more. “What good is an interstate if you have no gas stations, no restaurants, no truck stops, and no loading areas?” he said. It would help if our capability to move objects and humans around in space needs to be close to, if not the same

as, our capability to do the same things on Earth. The third step would be transporting everything to the place where you want to build your colony. This can be done by storing things at bases in Lagrange points-places where objects can be held in a stable orbital configuration between two planets--and then transporting those materials to the colony. These materials could be transported and mined cheaper and more efficiently through asteroid mining. John Strickland detailed a very intricate construction system for a rotating colony. John Strickland believes that in order for mankind to survive in the future, we must colonize space. He gives many examples of things that exemplify the need to push into space. It is a new frontier that holds many surprises and advancements for us. As Teddy Roosevelt said, “keep yours eyes on the stars but your feet on the ground.” Strickland adds to this by saying, “in other words, don’t fall up the crevasse right in front of you as you’re walking up the mountain.”

John Strickland

Done it, doing IT, will do It by Sian Yazdani

SpaceX

#1 Virgin Galactic

#2 Lockheed Martin

OVERVIEW:

One of the leading companies in the field right now. Lots of testing and progress going on-with both success and failure

OVERVIEW:

OBJECTIVES:

Virgin Galactic has opened up a space tourism industry, and it aims to make spaceflight available to anyone--if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re willing to spend $250,000.

PROGRESS:

To get people into space for relatively cheap prices.

To eventually reach a safe, cheap reusable rocket design. Testing abort systems and upright landing.

SPACECRAFT:

Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Dragon Capsule.

OBJECTIVES: PROGRESS:

OVERVIEW:

Known for its military contracts, Lockheed Martin is also running contracts with agencies like NASA to develop technologies to go to places like Mars.

OBJECTIVES:

To develop communications from space, to launch cargo effectively, and to develop Mars technology.

Testing was going well until a rePROGRESS: cent crash, meaning they will have Fulfilling contracts, and developing to rebuild their spacecraft. launch systems

SPACECRAFT:

SpaceShipTwo.

SPACECRAFT:

Satellites, Atlas V and Athena launch systems, Orion (under contract for NASA)

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve all sat back and wished we could go into space. But only astronauts can go into space, right? Not for long. Spaceflight is becoming cheaper, more efficient, and more convenient with the work of some of most prestigious companies in the world.

XCOR

#4 Blue Origin

Art by Sian Yazdani

#5 Boeing

OVERVIEW:

XCOR was started to bring spaceflight to private citizens. They are a relatively small company, but have developed many technologies.

OVERVIEW:

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos created Blue Origin because he wanted to get in on the benefits of the space frontier.

OBJECTIVES:

OVERVIEW:

You probably know Boeing as a maker of commercial airplanes. What you might not know is that they have plans to go into space However, these plans have not been given much thought to.

OBJECTIVES: Contracted by NASA to develop Developing their reusable launch astronaut escape system and space OBJECTIVES: Making planes, not really any vehicle called Lynx. capsule. drive to go to space. PROGRESS: PROGRESS: PROGRESS: XCORâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rocket engines have been Developed a rocket prototype tested, and they have made capable of reaching 75 miles from Still stuck in the atmosphere. other vehicles such as the X-rac- vertical takeoff. SPACECRAFT: er that test their ideas. N/A SPACECRAFT: SPACECRAFT: New Shepard. Lynx (in development).

MARS ONE

CARGO

MARS ONE

Do you have stars in your eyes? Enjoy a guided tour of amazing constellations in the heart of Texas at a star party hosted by the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis.

r sta II i h n t o e ti lg i a s s : o o a p y! D R r p o r e at To t O athe th v a r w e e n s e -Vi Satur lear w ld Ob c e na o -Se e for cD p M o he -H t t si -Vi

Image courtesy of Ryan Wick (CC Attribution 2.0)