Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

As it readies its constellation of <keyword id="21665619" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Earth-observation-satellites" source="keywords">Earth observation satellites</keyword>, <keyword id="22385578" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bengaluru-based-startup" source="keywords">Bengaluru-based startup</keyword> <keyword id="22317867" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Pixxel-Space" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Pixxel Space" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Pixxel Space">Pixxel Space</keyword> has plans to map the Moon and <keyword id="20578027" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="asteroids" source="keywords">asteroids</keyword>, and look for materials required to build settlements in outer space. In an interaction with PTI editors at the agency's headquarters here, Pixxel Space co-founder and CEO Awais Ahmed spelt out the long-term plans of the startup and these include exploration of asteroids with the intention of finding building materials or possible <keyword id="22407481" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fuel-sources" source="keywords">fuel sources</keyword> for future settlements in space. "We are building hyper-spectral cameras that look at the Earth. The same cameras can be turned outwards to look at other objects in space. We can send these spacecraft to the Moon, <keyword id="19901192" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mars" source="keywords">Mars</keyword> or the asteroid belt, and build a map of the solar system," Ahmed said. He said the startup would also like to place satellites in orbits around the Moon -- cis-lunar orbits -- to explore the Earth's only natural satellite in greater detail. "We can go between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt and identify which of these asteroids are stunning and useless, and which of them have certain precious materials that can be useful in space," Ahmed said. Satellites can look for ice on asteroids which can be used as fuel by splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen, and can also be stored as water, he said. "So, when humanity expands towards space it does not make sense to mine all of that material from Earth when there's so much more material actually available in space," ahmed said. He said Elon Musk's SpaceX was building railroads for the space revolution, while Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and others were building habitats for space. "We want to be the ones to provide the material to sort of make it all happen. But very long term vision," Ahmed said. Pixxel Space plans to launch six hyper-spectral satellites later this year as part of its constellation to map the Earth in greater detail. Another 18 satellites are slated for launch next year that will complete the Bengaluru-based startup's constellation in low Earth orbit.

Bengaluru-based Pixxel Space plans to mine asteroids for building settlements in space

<ul class="summary-list"><li>SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew has returned to Earth.</li><li><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-plan-colonize-mars-plan-unrealistic-scientists-explain-2023-10">Elon Musk's dreams of building a city on Mars</a> got a major boost from the Polaris Dawn mission.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/polaris-dawn-crew-spacex-commercial-astronauts-first-private-spacewalk-2024-9">SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew</a> successfully returned to Earth on Sunday, bringing Elon Musk one step closer to his dream of settling Mars.The five-day mission saw the four commercial astronauts complete a list of historic firsts: They traveled further than anyone has gone in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">more than 50 years, since the last Apollo missions</a>. The two female crew members, in particular, set the record for the farthest any woman has traveled in space.They donned new SpaceX spacesuits that had never been tested in orbit, opened their ship to the vacuum of space, and conducted the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/polaris-dawn-spacewalk-watch-live-spacex-crew-dragon-commercial-astronauts-2024-9">first-ever commercial spacewalk</a>.On top of that, they exposed themselves to high levels of space radiation, much higher than what astronauts aboard the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photo-international-space-station-hidden-passing-sun-2023-4">International Space Station</a> undergo in the same time period. And they endured a fiery plummet back to Earth.It was all in the name of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-invest-mars-pulsed-plasma-rocket-shorten-space-time-travel-2024-7">paving the way to Mars</a>.<div type="image" title="Polaris Dawn landing." height="1604" width="2852" msid="113365917" hostid="261" sizebytes="221754"></div>If you ask <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jared-isaacman-net-worth-career-spacex-polaris-dawn-2024-8">Jared Isaacman</a>, the billionaire who funded and commanded the mission, it was also in the name of raising funds for childhood-cancer research at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.As he previously told Business Insider, before his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-inspiration4-first-space-tourists-return-to-earth-2021-9">first flight with SpaceX</a> in 2021, he wanted to "take care of some of the problems that we have here on Earth, so we earn the right to go and explore among the stars."<div type="image" title="jared isaacman spacex crew dragon" height="2560" width="3840" msid="113365923" hostid="261" sizebytes="991006"></div>But the technical aspects of the mission — the spacewalk, the spacesuits, the laser Starlink communication, flying through a radiation belt — were critical tests of technologies SpaceX will need in order to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-havent-we-been-to-mars-yet-2024-5">fly humans to the red planet</a>.Isaacman's future plans fit the Mars bill, too. He's planning two more Polaris missions and says the third one will ditch Crew Dragon for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-flight-four-ocean-splashdown-elon-musk-plans-2024-6">Starship</a>. That's the Statue-of-Liberty-sized mega-rocket SpaceX is developing in South Texas for the express purpose of colonizing Mars.<h2 id="1637b34d-1546-42ca-a615-916aa98a2919">Mars trailblazers return home</h2>As the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-discovers-urine-leak-on-crew-dragon-spaceships-2021-10">Crew Dragon</a> hurtled back toward Earth, plowing through the atmosphere, superheated plasma roared at the edges of its protective heat shield.Isaacman had done this before, but it was the first spaceflight for the three other crew members: a former US Air Force pilot named Scott Poteet and two <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/working-for-elon-musk-spacex-workplace-culture-twitter-jim-cantrell-2022-11">SpaceX engineers</a>, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.They felt a jerk as the spaceship deployed parachutes to drift down into the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas. It bobbed in the waves, looking like a toasted marshmallow, until a ship hauled it on board and SpaceX workers helped the crew off.<div type="image" title="Screenshot of the crew and spacecraft." height="1800" width="2880" msid="113365930" hostid="261" sizebytes="100324"></div>Five days after launch, they had officially completed the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch-risky-polaris-dawn-mission-first-commercial-spacewalk-radiation-2024-8">most daring crewed commercial spaceflight yet</a>.<h2 id="de02c9b0-79f8-43b9-aa69-40373e49bcd1">Spacewalks and spacesuits for Mars</h2>The main event of the mission was its spacewalk.<div type="image" title="astronaut in white suit and helmet standing at the open hatch of a spaceship in space holding onto a railing looking out over earth" height="540" width="960" msid="113365926" hostid="261" sizebytes="13622"></div>The crew spent 48 hours slowly depressurizing their spacecraft so that they could open the hatch to the vacuum of space, sending Isaacman and Gillis out to gaze over Earth and conduct a few mobility exercises.They were testing SpaceX's new extravehicular <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacesuit-design-history-timeline-changes-nasa-2018-3">spacesuits</a>, designed for the purpose of leaving a spacecraft to conduct maintenance or repairs — an ability that future Mars-bound people will need, since the journey takes months."It might be 10 iterations from now and a bunch of evolutions of the suit," but someday someone may even wear a version of these spacesuits "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-made-oxygen-out-of-thin-air-on-mars-2023-9">walking on Mars</a>," Isaacman said in a prelaunch briefing in August.<div type="image" title="four people in spacesuits with their visors up smiling and pointing at a black spacex logo on a spaceship behind them" height="1500" width="2270" msid="113365919" hostid="261" sizebytes="208520"></div>"There's going to be an armada of Starships arriving on Mars at some point in the future," he added. "Those people are going to have to be able to get out of it and walk around and do important things."<h2 id="175335c0-7c23-487c-a845-a51ae47e64b7">Radiation on the way to Mars</h2>Polaris Dawn also tackled another big challenge for crewed Mars missions: extreme radiation exposure. People traveling to Mars would be exposed to immense amounts of space radiation for months.So the Crew Dragon spacecraft flew through two donuts of intense radiation surrounding Earth, called the Van Allen belts. The crew conducted tests and measurements to see how it affected their bodies.<div type="image" title="spaceship mouth with railings in the foreground with the huge round curvature of Earth dominating the background from a distance beneath the blackness of space" height="713" width="1273" msid="113365933" hostid="261" sizebytes="31010"></div>"If we get to Mars someday, we'd love to be able to come back and be healthy enough to tell people about it," Isaacman said in August.Other medical experiments on the mission checked their eyes, veins, and airways, to help SpaceX better understand the impacts of long-distance spaceflight.<h2 id="2a23b528-e8d9-4a1e-aa8a-c67599b035ad">Communications for Mars</h2>Polaris Dawn also tested <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-laser-beam-message-10-million-miles-away-streaming-mars-2023-11">laser-based communications</a> using Starlink, the network of internet satellites that SpaceX has built throughout Earth's orbit.The commercial astronauts posted on X mid-mission, saying they'd uploaded their photos there using Starlink internet.Those space lasers lay the groundwork for future communications with deep-space missions — that is, as the Polaris website says, "for missions to the moon, Mars and beyond."Isaacman seems to be vested in making that happen."I'd certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the moon and Mars and venturing out and exploring our solar system," he said ahead of the launch.

SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew returns to Earth victorious, making huge gains in Elon Musk's plans to send humans to Mars

<keyword id="19905255" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="SpaceX" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="SpaceX" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="SpaceX">SpaceX</keyword> will launch its first uncrewed <keyword id="23083681" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Starships" source="keywords">Starships</keyword> to <keyword id="19901192" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mars" source="keywords">Mars</keyword> in two years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens, Chief Executive Officer <keyword id="19903807" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Elon-Musk" source="keywords">Elon Musk</keyword> announced on Saturday. Elon Musk stated that these will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. He added that if those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in four years. Taking to X, Elon Musk stated, "The first Starships to Mars will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. "If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years. Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years. Being multiplanetary will vastly increase the probable lifespan of consciousness, as we will no longer have all our eggs, literally and metabolically, on one planet," he added. In another post on X, Musk stated that SpaceX created the first fully reusable rocket stage and made the reuse economically viable. "SpaceX created the first fully reusable rocket stage and, much more importantly, made the reuse economically viable. Making life multiplanetary is fundamentally a cost per ton to Mars problem," Musk posted on X. "It currently costs about a billion dollars per ton of useful payload to the surface of Mars. That needs to be improved to USD 100k/ton to build a self-sustaining city there, so the technology needs to be 10,000 times better. Extremely difficult, but not impossible," he added. In June this year, SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful launch vehicle ever made, launched and achieved key objectives planned for its fourth test flight that showcased the vehicle's reusability, CNN reported. It was launched from a private Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on June 6 at 8:50 am ET, and the company streamed live coverage on X. The Starship launch system has the upper Starship spacecraft and a rocket booster known as the Super Heavy. According to SpaceX broadcast, of the rocket's 33 engines, 32 lit during the launch of the Starship, according to CNN report. The vehicle achieved multiple milestones during the test flight, including the survival of the Starship capsule upon reentry during peak heating in Earth's atmosphere and splashdown of both the capsule and booster. After separating from the spacecraft, the Super Heavy booster for the first time executed a landing burn and had a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico after eight minutes of the launch. Meanwhile, the Starship capsule achieved orbital insertion. Around 50 minutes following the launch, the spacecraft started its controlled reentry journey, and a colourful buildup of plasma could be witnessed around the vehicle as its heat shield faced the extreme temperatures of Earth's atmosphere, CNN reported. The Starlink satellites of the company helped in the livestream that was continuously available during reentry. A flap near the camera view on Starship seemed to scorch during reentry, and particulate matter blocked some of the view of the camera, the report said. In the end, Starship was able to achieve its expected landing burn into the <keyword id="19899989" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="indian-ocean" source="keywords">Indian Ocean</keyword>.

Elon Musk: SpaceX to launch first Starships to Mars in two years

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Elon Musk set out SpaceX's timeline for getting humanity to Mars this week.</li><li>He said SpaceX plans to send five Starship rockets to Mars in 2026, with crewed missions following two to four years later.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> has set out his latest timeline for getting humans to Mars, and experts say it's a classic <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk">SpaceX</a> move.The SpaceX founder said in a recent post on X that the company plans to launch around five uncrewed Starship rockets to Mars in 2026. Depending on the success of the unmanned missions, the first manned missions will be launched two or four years later.Musk has previously set ambitious timelines for getting humanity to Mars. In 2016, he told an audience at a keynote speech in Mexico that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-mars-colony-talk-iac-2016-9">manned missions to the Red Planet could begin as soon as 2022</a>.Unlike then, SpaceX now regularly delivers astronauts and cargo to orbit and has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-flight-four-ocean-splashdown-elon-musk-plans-2024-6">successfully tested Starship</a>, the massive rocket that Musk has said it will use to travel to Mars.Experts told Business Insider that SpaceX's timeline is still ambitious and maybe a little optimistic — but said it was in line with the company's method of setting ambitious goals that drive the industry forward, even if they don't quite meet them."We have never been so close to sending humans to Mars," said Philip Metzger, a former NASA scientist and professor of Planetary Science at the University of Central Florida."I think Musk's timeline will prove a bit optimistic, but even accounting for that, we are on the threshold of a new era," he added.<h2 id="fe283628-d93e-4bd0-ba0f-d2cc9796ba10">Engineering challenges</h2>The primary challenge with any mission to Mars is timing. Space agencies time their missions in windows <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/three-mars-missions-arrive-february-from-nasa-china-uae-2021-1">when Mars and Earth are closest — roughly every 26 months — to save fuel and money.</a>SpaceX is planning to launch five uncrewed Starship rockets to Mars in the first window in 2026, according to Musk.Because Starship uses most of its fuel to get into orbit, the giant spacecraft must be <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.spacex.com/humanspaceflight/mars/">refueled in space</a> to reach Mars.Metzger estimated that each Starship would require at least four refueling flights. This means that SpaceX will need to launch a lot of rockets in a very short period of time and perfect technologies such as Starship-to-Starship docking and fuel transfer between two spacecraft."The Mars departure window is limited to roughly a month by the alignment of the planets," said Metzger. "Musk plans to send five Starships to Mars in the first cycle, so that will require about 25 launches in a short period."Analysing Musk's plans <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/peterrhague/status/1838181493023052151">in a post on X</a>, astrophysicist and scientific software engineer Peter Hague said that SpaceX wants to "take a Saturn V-class rocket they fly quarterly and make it fly weekly in two years.""I have little doubt they can fly something towards Mars in that timeframe, but they will almost certainly fall short of the target," said Hague, who concluded that crewed flights to Mars in 2031 or 2033 were a more realistic aim for SpaceX.<h2 id="88f529a2-b75f-4f5c-85ca-961e01ed5d30">Red tape is the biggest hurdle of all</h2>Metzger said the biggest barrier Musk will face in achieving his timeline may be dealing with regulators rather than technical hurdles."The biggest challenge will probably be getting mission launch approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)," he said."The FAA is not used to working at such a fast pace, and it will be painful convincing them to adapt. They have already been <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-faa-overtime-regulations-2024-9">fighting over environmental impacts</a> on Earth even with a very slow launch rate, and Mars missions will introduce a new dimension because they could impact the environment of Mars," Metzger added.Musk and SpaceX have already been <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/faa-chief-boeing-and-spacex-should-be-treated-the-same-2024-9">sparring with regulators</a> in recent weeks.Musk has criticized the FAA over a proposed $633,000 fine and regulatory delays that have seen Starship's next launch pushed back by two months.Musk slammed the delay in a post on X, warning that "we will never get humanity to Mars" if these delays continue. "I would argue that it's less important whether SpaceX gets to Mars with crew in four to six years than that SpaceX is authentically trying to do so," Matthew Weinzierl, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and expert in the economics of space, said.He added that much of SpaceX's success has come from setting such ambitious targets in short timeframes."That kind of vision will continue to draw talent and capital to space that will fuel countless innovations on the way to Mars settlement, most of which will benefit primarily those of us on Earth," he added.SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment, sent outside normal working hours.

Elon Musk wants to put people on Mars by 2030. Don't count on it.   

<ul class="summary-list"><li>SpaceX will launch its first uncrewed flight to Mars in two years time, Elon Musk said on Saturday.</li><li>"If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years," Musk added.</li></ul>The first uncrewed flight to Mars on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk">SpaceX's </a><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/see-elon-musk-starship-shred-almost-lose-fin-2024-6">Starship</a> will take place in two years time, the company's CEO <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> said on Saturday."The first Starships to Mars will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars," Musk wrote in an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1832550322293837833">X post</a>."If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years," he added.Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, said that he expects flight rates to "grow exponentially" if both those dates are met. The end goal, he said, would be to construct a "self-sustaining city in about 20 years."Musk's latest remarks mark a slight shift from the timeline he'd initially shared in April."Starship will be on Mars within 5 years," Musk wrote in an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1768810190718009446">X post</a> on March 15. Musk did not specify then if the flight would be crewed or uncrewed.To be sure, Musk's plans to colonize Mars have long been a moving target. The mercurial billionaire has repeatedly announced then switched target dates.In June 2016, Musk told attendees at Vox's Code Conference that he planned on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-humans-mars-mission-2025-spacex-2016-6">sending astronauts to Mars in 2024</a>."If things go according to plan, we should be able to launch people probably in 2024 with arrival in 2025," Musk said at the time.Then, in 2020, Musk said in an interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner that he thought <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/musk-highly-confident-spacex-will-send-humans-to-mars-2026-2020-12">humans could reach Mars in 2026</a>."If we get lucky, maybe four years," Musk told Döpfner, adding that he hoped to send an "uncrewed vehicle there in two years."But in March 2022, Musk said he expected <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-predicts-people-will-get-to-mars-2029-2022-3">humans to land on Mars in 2029</a> instead."If we don't improve our pace of progress, I'm definitely going to be dead before we go," Musk told attendees of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mars-ill-be-dead-before-humans-reach-2020-3">Satellite 2020 conference</a> in March 2020.Representatives for SpaceX didn't immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.

Elon Musk says the first Starship launch to Mars will happen in 2 years

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The second moon that Earth has captured in its orbit this month is an asteroid called 2024 PT5.</li><li>Mini-moons like this could be ideal targets for asteroid mining to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-havent-we-been-to-mars-yet-2024-5">send humans deeper into space</a>.</li></ul>The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/second-moon-orbiting-earth-when-why-what-to-know-2024-9 ">second moon that Earth now has for two months</a> may seem like just a fun curiosity, but it's also a sneak peek at a future space industry that could change our global economy.An asteroid called 2024 PT5, which normally orbits the sun as part of the Arjuna asteroid belt, was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-photograph-mini-moon-small-object-in-orbit-2020-2">captured in Earth's orbit</a> on Sunday, according to astronomers' projections. Astronomers expect it to spend about 57 days traveling along a horseshoe-shaped path around Earth before rejoining its asteroid belt.For those 57 days, the school-bus-sized <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-impact-simulation-experts-fear-congress-would-delay-action-2024-6">asteroid</a> will be a "natural satellite" of Earth — basically another, temporary moon.<div type="image" title="screenshot of asteroid profile page showing illustration of a bumpy candy-corn-shaped grey asteroid in space with a text box labeling it 2024 PT5 and saying its average estimated diameter is 10.76 m" height="1537" width="2864" msid="113817839" hostid="261" sizebytes="68552"></div>That makes it economically intriguing. "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-moon-asteroid-orbiting-sun-alongside-earth-astronomers-discover-2023-6">Mini-moons</a>" like this are ideal targets for mining, according to Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, one of the scientists who charted 2024 PT5's path around our planet.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-company-earth-startups-raw-materials-cobalt-gold-platinum-2021-3">Asteroid mining</a> could someday help humans travel further out into the cosmos and extend our presence through the solar system. That's because some asteroids contain valuable metals like iron or platinum, as well as water.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-plan-colonize-mars-plan-unrealistic-scientists-explain-2023-10">Elon Musk's vision of a city on Mars</a>, for example, depends on asteroid mining. Temporary moons like 2024 PT5 could be a key stepping stone."Mini-moons are very important for the nascent global <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">space economy</a>," Marcos told Business Insider in an email. Because they come so close to Earth and take a sojourn in our orbit, he added, "they are among the objects easier to reach using low-cost missions."<h2 id="462c4c69-18b1-4a3f-8e7d-7cb0491d6b39">Asteroids can be worth quintillions</h2>Asteroid 2024 PT5 may not be worth much, since scientists think it's made of basalt.It's basically "a giant boulder," Teddy Kareta, a planetary scientist at the Lowell Observatory, told Business Insider.But some asteroids contain so much metal that they're <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-visit-psyche-asteroid-worth-more-than-entire-world-economy-2023-10">worth more than our entire global economy</a>.Take Psyche, for example, an asteroid that NASA is sending a spacecraft to for scientific study, since the agency believes it to be the core of a long-dead planet.Psyche's metal-rich makeup — mostly iron and nickel — makes it worth an estimated $100 quintillion if it were here on Earth.<div type="image" title="graphic of what the asteroid is thought to look like" height="900" width="1600" msid="113817842" hostid="261" sizebytes="175866"></div>Some asteroids even have precious metals like platinum, gold, and cobalt.Nobody has mined an asteroid yet, though <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-video-osiris-rex-probe-landing-on-asteroid-kicking-dust-2020-10">NASA punched one</a> in 2020 to grab scientific samples from it.Some startups are trying to figure out how to start mining space rocks, and do it in a cost-effective way. Flying to an asteroid isn't cheap.One of them, called <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-startup-has-booked-its-first-test-mission-spacex-2022-6">AstroForge, has launched a small probe with SpaceX</a>, though the spacecraft wasn't able to conduct the testing they'd planned, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.space.com/asteroid-mining-astroforge-docking-mission-2025">Space.com</a>. The company is now planning two more missions, which it hopes will culminate in its first landing on a metallic asteroid in 2025.<h2 id="e5b0dd4a-bb61-4c4d-a49c-2d9e9a2960a9">Pit stops on the way to Mars</h2>Long-distance <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-invest-mars-pulsed-plasma-rocket-shorten-space-time-travel-2024-7">deep-space missions</a>, especially if they're carrying humans and cargo, will have a fuel problem.Fuel is heavy, so the less of it you have to load onto a spacecraft the better. On the long flight to Mars or other planets, asteroids could become gas stations.That's because <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article/506/1/L6/6298231?login=false">research</a> <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018JE005584">suggests</a> that many asteroids in Earth's neighborhood are rich in water, which can be mined and split into its elementary components — hydrogen and oxygen, both of which are critical for making rocket fuel.Mini-moons are perfect places to start, some scientists think, because of their proximity to Earth but also because of how small they are.It takes an immense amount of rocket fuel to escape Earth's powerful gravitational pull. But little asteroids don't have much gravity, making it easy to leapfrog off of them."It only takes a puff of fuel to leave the mini-moon and head back towards Earth," Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist at MIT, previously told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/undiscovered-minimoons-may-orbit-earth-could-they-help-us-become-an-interplanetary-species">Live Science</a>.<h2 id="bf8bc193-7a0a-4a09-9d9c-2c6ac7e8d411">Mini-moon missions at the ready</h2>One problem with mini-moons is that scientists sometimes don't see them coming until a few weeks before they're captured in our planet's orbit.Asteroid 2024 PT5, for example, was first identified as a mini-moon in early September and will only be in Earth's orbit for about 57 days.That's a tight timeline for preparing and launching a mining mission. For any asteroid, "you need to learn enough about it to know whether it's worth sending a rocket up," Kareta said.Asteroid-mining companies can work around that by having mining spacecraft ready in Earth's orbit, waiting for the right space rock to zoom by, Marcos said."Either if you are thinking about collecting mineral samples for research or starting a space mining venture, mini-moons are your best bet to get your business off the ground," he said.

Mini-moons like the one Earth just captured could be huge business opportunities

Watching the <keyword id="19915128" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chandrayaan-3" source="keywords">Chandrayaan-3</keyword> lander complete its soft-landing on the far side of the Moon was undoubtedly one of the most proud moments for all Indians in 2023. And yet, we tend to forget that this was an achievement that was somehow completed with a budget less than that of some Bollywood movies. Thanks to monumental achievements such as Chandrayaan and Aditya-L1, in addition to increased government support and a surge in private sector involvement, India’s <keyword id="20242397" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="space-sector" source="keywords">space sector</keyword> has been rapidly evolving. However, a defining theme of all the past successful missions in the space sector for <keyword id="19915124" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ISRO" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="ISRO" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="ISRO">ISRO</keyword> has been its ability to achieve them in the most economical way possible, often at one-tenth of the cost compared to its western counterparts. Now, as more funds flow in from both public and private routes, India’s space sector is at the precipice of a unmatched growth phase. With another hike in the pipeline for the space sector, the <keyword id="19955368" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Budget-2024" source="keywords">Budget 2024</keyword> is poised to further boost India’s position in the <keyword id="22469635" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="global-space-race" source="keywords">global space race</keyword> by enhancing funding, providing incentives, and fostering international collaborations. <h2>How does India’s space budget compare to other countries?</h2>As per the interim budget announcement, India’s space budget for 2024-25 will stand at around Rs 13,042.75 crores, a 4% increase from the previous year’s Rs 12,545 crore. To truly contextualise this, let’s compare it with other leading space-faring nations. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111827903" title="Union Budget 2024 for Railways: Expectations focused on improving passenger safety, experience, infrastructure" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>The USA, through <keyword id="19935155" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NASA" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="NASA" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="NASA">NASA</keyword>, allocated about Rs 2,12,000 crores ($25.4 billion) in 2023, focusing on the Artemis program, <keyword id="20999262" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mars-exploration" source="keywords">Mars exploration</keyword>, and advanced satellite technologies, as per the The Planetary Society. China’s space program received approximately Rs 1,18,000 crores ($11 billion), supporting lunar missions, Mars exploration, and building its own space station, as per media reports. Meanwhile, The European Space Agency (ESA) had a budget of around Rs 63,700 crores ($7.6 billion) last year to fund a range of scientific missions, Earth observation, and international collaborations. While India's budget remains categorically minuscule in comparison, it prioritises cost-effective missions and innovative technologies, often achieving impressive results with fewer resources. However, many are concerned how this financial constraint could affect infrastructure development, cause delays in critical projects like <keyword id="6797456" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="gaganyaan" source="Orion">Gaganyaan</keyword>, and restrict the private sector's growth and innovation. Furthermore, it may also limit India's influence in global space governance and international collaborations, at a time when most countries seem to be set on a race to transform themselves into a space-faring society. <h2>Upcoming missions and international collaborations</h2>While space spending can be useful for many quality of life aspects — such as agriculture and climate preparedness — it is often the major space missions that steal the spotlight. Key projects in the 2024 budget include the Gaganyaan mission, which aims to send Indian astronauts into space. Additionally, the Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (<keyword id="20475168" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mangalyaan" source="keywords">Mangalyaan</keyword> 2) is slated for a 2024 launch, which — if successful — could mark a significant step in India's interplanetary exploration prowess. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111689743" title="Union Budget 2024: A handy FAQ guide to decode the upcoming budget" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>International collaborations are also a significant cornerstone of India’s space strategy. The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, scheduled for 2024, exemplifies such partnerships. This mission will provide critical data for understanding Earth’s changing ecosystems, ice mass, and natural hazards. International collaborations are crucial because they help a great deal with enhancing technical expertise and shared resources. As such, joint ventures like NISAR and partnerships with other space agencies help India stay competitive globally. Another significant collaboration is with the United States, where an Indian astronaut will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of 2024. <h2>Indian leadership in space tech</h2>The budget may be low, but India’s space spirit is certainly not weak. Despite limited resources, India has demonstrated strengths in many aspects of space technologies. For instance, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is known for its reliable and cost-effective launch vehicles, like the PSLV and GSLV, which have successfully placed numerous satellites into orbit. In a tremendous feat, the PSLV-C37 successfully launched 104 satellites in a single flight in September 2023! <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111688482" title="Budget A-Z, for the GenZ: A fun and handy guide for major terms around upcoming Union Budget" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>India also excels in manufacturing satellites for communication, weather monitoring, and Earth observation. The upcoming deployment of 50 AI-powered GEOINT satellites will enhance national security and surveillance. With the right investments, India could lead globally in low-cost space missions and innovative satellite technologies. <h2>Long-term visions for India’s space program</h2>The long-term vision for India's space program, as outlined in the Budget, includes establishing a dedicated space station by 2035 and increasing the country’s share in the global space economy. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111807009" title="Despite pandemic and growing health scares, India’s budget share for healthcare continues to decline" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>The Indian government aims to capture nearly 10% of the global space market by 2030, up from its current 2-3% share. This ambition aligns with broader geopolitical and economic goals, positioning India as a key player in space exploration and satellite services. Budget 2024 will be crucial for strengthening India’s position in the global space race. As the country gears up for upcoming missions and technological advancements, the global space community will be closely watching India's progress.

Budget 2024: How will budget affect India’s position in the global space race?

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Barack Obama hit out at Silicon Valley tycoons' aspirations to colonize Mars.</li><li>Earth would be more liveable than Mars "even after a nuclear war" and climate change, he said.</li></ul>Barack Obama took a shot at the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos by saying that Earth would be more liveable than the red planet "even after a nuclear war."Speaking on Wednesday, the former US president said that Silicon Valley "tycoons, many of whom are building spaceships," should be focusing on saving Earth rather than investing in flying humans off to space."When I hear some of the people talk about the plan to colonize Mars because the Earth environment may become so degraded that it becomes unliveable, I look at them like, what are you talking about?" said Obama at the opening of the 2024 POwR.Earth Summit in Paris <a target="_blank" href="https://www.barrons.com/news/protect-earth-instead-of-colonising-mars-obama-says-1df83940">per Barron's.</a>"Even after a nuclear war, Earth would be more liveable than Mars, even if we didn't do anything about CC [climate change] it would still have oxygen — as far as we can tell, Mars does not," he said.Obama emphasized that the development of space exploration should continue for the sake of knowledge and discovery.But when it comes to relocating humans to outer space, "I would rather us invest in taking care of this planet here," said Obama."We were designed for this place, and it would be good if we kept this place in a way that's liveable," he said.<div type="image" title="A picture shows Starship fully stacked on its launchpad." height="3923" width="2938" msid="108496383" hostid="261" sizebytes="1201580"></div>The comments came a day before Musk's SpaceX aimed to test its behemoth <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-rocket-launch-watch-live-2024-3">Starship mega-rocket for a third time</a>. The prototype rocket, which is a crucial part of Musk's plan to colonize the red planet, blew up on its previous attempts.The billionaire has previously said he wants to send millions of humans to Mars by 2050 and that it was <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1623824862673518592?s=20">"highly likely"</a> humans would land on the red planet within the next decade.Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin plans to test its own mega-rocket, New Glenn, for the first time in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.space.com/blue-origin-new-glenn-rocket-launch-pad-photo">August this year</a>.The rocket could compete with Starship for NASA's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-artemis-megarocket-launches-orion-spaceship-toward-moon-2022-11">plans to return to the moon</a> ahead of heading to Mars.The former Amazon CEO said last year he saw more potential in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-space-stations-elon-musk-mars-colonization-lex-fridman-2023-12">putting humans on gargantuan space stations</a> rather than sending them to another planet.

Obama takes a shot at the likes of Musk and Bezos, says we must protect Earth before colonizing Mars

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Mars just scored another <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-discovers-potential-alien-life-evidence-biosignature-perseverance-rover-mars-2024-7">point in favor of alien life</a>.</li><li>Scientists discovered signs of an ocean's worth of liquid water miles below Mars' surface.</li></ul>Mars is looking more and more like a place for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-could-tell-us-aliens-are-real-2023-2">NASA to find the first signs of alien life</a>.Scientists discovered evidence of a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/groundwater-pumping-causes-earth-rotational-pole-to-shift-study-finds-2023-7">reservoir of liquid water</a> seven to 13 miles below the Martian surface, lingering in the pores of the planet's crust.They believe there's enough to cover the entire planet with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saturns-death-star-moon-mimas-may-have-a-secret-ocean-2022-1">an ocean</a> about one mile deep.The water, if it exists, is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-discover-underground-moon-cave-astronauts-could-live-2024-7">too deep to access</a> in the foreseeable future. Still, it's another promising sign that Mars could one day yield the most disruptive discovery in human history — that of life beyond Earth.The discovery, announced Monday, comes just weeks after <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asks-help-retrieving-perseverance-mars-samples-alien-life-2024-4">NASA's Perseverance rover</a> drilled a rock sample on Mars that could contain evidence of microbial life from a bygone era.<div type="image" title="gritty yellow ring with speckled solid rock sample inside" height="1400" width="1471" msid="112479167" hostid="261" sizebytes="125234"></div>Ancient remnants of long-extinct <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-no-contact-with-aliens-2019-9">alien life</a> are all NASA can hope for on the parched Martian surface. But any sizeable source of liquid water, like these potential underground reservoirs, is a place to check for active microbial life — even though water 10 miles underground would never see the light of day."It's certainly true on Earth — deep, deep mines host life, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/seamount-new-species-schmidt-ocean-institute-expedition-marine-chile-2024-2">the bottom of the ocean hosts life</a>. We haven't found any evidence for life on Mars, but at least we have identified a place that should, in principle, be able to sustain life," Michael Manga, a co-author of the study and planetary scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/08/12/scientists-find-oceans-of-water-on-mars-its-just-too-deep-to-tap/">said</a> in a press release.<h2 id="aaa09a5d-96fd-42cc-8177-e2c4153862f8">Marsquakes helped NASA find water clues</h2>When <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-detects-big-mars-quakes-2021-9">NASA put a seismometer on Mars</a>, aboard its InSight lander, the goal was to peer into the planet's interior.<div type="image" title="mars brown planet with blue-black and white splotches in the black of space" height="1920" width="1920" msid="112479165" hostid="261" sizebytes="112220"></div>Though <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-mars-lander-mission-ending-dust-power-crisis-2022-12">the InSight mission ended</a> in 2022, scientists are still sifting through all the data it collected in hopes of learning something new about Mars's depths.InSight's seismometer instrument <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-insight-lander-missing-big-mars-quakes-2021-4">measured Marsquake activity</a>, mapping seismic waves. As those waves move through the Martian interior, their timing and the direction they travel are influenced by the material they're traveling through deep underground.So, by measuring the waves, the scientists of the new study can tell what's underneath the planet's surface. It's similar to how the waves of an X-ray or CAT scan can reveal what's inside a human body.Manga and his colleagues used mathematical modeling to determine that a deep layer of fractured igneous rock, saturated with water, best explains InSight's data. Their findings were <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2409983121">published</a> in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday.<div type="image" title="illustration of a column cutout of mars planetary interior beneath the insight lander with a deep layer of cracked rock with water in the cracks" height="825" width="1000" msid="112479161" hostid="261" sizebytes="95798"></div><h2 id="a0164bcd-c556-4a64-a741-6c029fdf4ce2">A clue in a Mars mystery</h2>In addition to being downright fascinating and potentially overturning humanity's conception of Mars as a lifeless, dry red rock, the new findings may help solve one of the planet's greatest mysteries: where all the water went.Mars's surface was once lush with water. Heck, the Perseverance rover is exploring a basin that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-rover-landing-jezero-crater-search-for-alien-life-2021-2">used to be a giant lake and river delta</a>.But the planet didn't have a strong magnetic field, like Earth's, to help it hold onto its atmosphere. As a result, the sun's radiation wore away what little protective layer of atmospheric gases existed, and the planet dried up.By about 3 billion years ago, all the water was gone. Some of it is still frozen in Mars's ice caps. Perhaps some simply vaporized in the harsh space environment. But scientists haven't really figured out where it all went.The new findings suggest some of the water seeped deep into the planet's crust.

Another point for life on Mars: Signs of liquid water discovered under the planet's surface

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Perseids meteor shower is often the best of the year, with bright fireballs and colorful tails.</li><li>A <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/when-how-see-planetary-alignment-five-planets-visible-march-sky-2023-3">planetary conjunction</a> of Jupiter and Mars will also be visible to the naked eye this weekend.</li></ul>The Perseids <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/double-meteor-shower-how-when-where-to-watch-aquariids-capricornids-2024-7">meteor shower</a> — the summer's biggest celestial event — is finally here, and it's bringing some friends.Widely considered to be the best meteor shower of the year, according to NASA, the Perseids will be on full display this Saturday and Sunday.These meteors are leftover bits of dust and debris from <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-comet-ztf-viewing-where-when-how-see-2023-1">comet</a> Swift-Tuttle. As Earth passes through the comet's trail this weekend, the Perseids will burn up in its atmosphere, creating bright, colorful streaks of blue, green, white, orange, purple, and even pink across the sky.They're known for their long tails that linger, as well as some <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amateur-astronomer-video-jupiter-bright-fireball-comet-asteroid-impact-2023-9">fireballs — especially bright, explosive</a> meteors that last much longer.The Perseids can produce about one to two meteors per minute or between 50 to 100 per hour, according to NASA. But you can only <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/eta-aquarids-meteor-shower-shooting-stars-how-to-watch-peak-2023-4">catch a show like</a> that under ideal viewing conditions.Turns out, this year is an especially <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/eta-aquarids-meteor-shower-shooting-stars-how-to-watch-peak-2023-4">good time to watch</a> because the moon will set around midnight, leaving the skies dark for ideal viewing.In addition, those shooting stars will streak <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jupiter-venus-conjunction-planets-align-sky-how-where-when-see-2023-2">alongside Jupiter</a> and Mars, which will appear exceptionally close in the pre-dawn skies this weekend.Another reason to get outside this weekend is that the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saw-northern-lights-surprising-photos-misleading-2024-5">northern lights, or aurora borealis</a>, may appear in some northern parts of the US, from New York to Idaho, on Friday and Saturday.The best thing about all of this? You don't <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tried-see-green-comet-fail-2023-2">need a telescope or binoculars</a>. This will all be plainly visible to the naked eye.Basically, the heavens are on full display this weekend, and you don't want to miss it. Here's what you need to know.<h2 id="27455de5-626c-42e9-9424-a7bd408bcb05">How, when, and where to see the Perseids</h2>The Perseids <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lyrid-meteor-shower-will-reach-its-peak-heres-how-to-watch-2023-4">will peak</a> Monday morning, so your best opportunities to see them are overnight on Saturday and Sunday (that is, the wee morning hours of Sunday or Monday).The meteors will still be <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-see-lyrid-meteor-shower-during-pink-supermoon-2024-4">visible for a few days</a> before and after the peak, just in much smaller numbers. They're visible all over the world, but the Northern Hemisphere gets the most meteors.<div type="image" title="Perseids meteor shower" height="1628" width="2048" msid="112411088" hostid="261" sizebytes="468342"></div><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/darkest-skies-by-state-watch-space-events-stargazing">Choose a spot away from city lights</a>, preferably with wide open skies. Check the weather before you go, as clouds could ruin your view.Bring a picnic blanket or a reclining lawn chair. Staring directly upward with no neck support becomes uncomfortable more quickly than you might think.Once <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-discover-underground-moon-cave-astronauts-could-live-2024-7">the moon</a> sets, around midnight, the sky will be much darker and you'll be primely positioned to see the most meteors. Lay back, give your eyes 20 minutes to adjust to the dark, and enjoy the show.Resist the temptation to look at your phone — it could undo all the time you've spent adjusting your eyes to the dark.<h2 id="71879db0-40ee-4a4a-ac2d-e5afa374d5d9">Catch a Jupiter-Mars conjunction</h2>Jupiter and Mars are <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-see-conjunction-mercury-jupiter-saturn-planetary-trio-2021-1">creeping close together in the sky</a>, and you can see them if you stay up late enough.In the early morning hours, starting around 2 a.m., look to the east and turn slightly toward the north. Mars and Jupiter will <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jupiter-venus-conjunction-planets-align-sky-how-where-when-see-2023-2">rise side-by-side</a> between the horns of Taurus, the bull-shaped constellation. They'll appear as two bright stars, with Mars having a reddish hue.If you don't have a keen eye for constellations, you can find Taurus, Mars, and Jupiter using a phone app like Sky Safari ($4.99 in the App Store) or a website like Stellarium (free).Though the two planets will be visible together for days, including over this weekend, the conjunction peaks in the early morning hours of August 14.At that point, you could stretch your arm out and easily cover both planets with your pinky finger, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://skyandtelescope.org/press-releases/prepare-for-the-perseids-and-a-pretty-planetary-pairing/">according</a> to Sky &amp; Telescope, a publication of the American Astronomical Society. That's how close Jupiter and Mars will appear.Out in space, of course, the planets will still be hundreds of millions of miles apart.<h2 id="0d767b3e-1872-45aa-9920-678f55e3aa4e">Watch the meteor shower live online</h2>If you can't get out of the city, you can watch a live broadcast of the Perseids.The Virtual Telescope Project will have an online <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/2024/07/19/perseid-meteor-shower-2024-online-observation-12-aug-2024/">livestream</a> from its all-sky camera in Manciano, Italy, which has some of the country's darkest skies, on Sunday and Monday starting at 9 p.m. ET.

How to see the year's best meteor shower this weekend, with fireballs, colorful trails, and a Jupiter-Mars conjunction

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-children">Elon Musk</a> offered his sperm to seed a settlement on Mars, anonymous sources told The New York Times.</li><li>Secretive teams at SpaceX are investigating options for a Mars colony, including reproduction, according to the report.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-plan-colonize-mars-plan-unrealistic-scientists-explain-2023-10">Elon Musk's obsession with Mars</a> has reached new heights.The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/working-for-elon-musk-spacex-workplace-culture-twitter-jim-cantrell-2022-11">billionaire SpaceX CEO</a> is so enamored with his vision of starting a colony on the red planet that he's offered to donate his sperm to the cause, according to a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/11/technology/elon-musk-spacex-mars.html">report</a> The New York Times published on Thursday.According to the report, which is based on over 20 interviews the NYT conducted and internal SpaceX documents, Musk has quietly directed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-asked-spacex-employee-to-have-his-babies-report-2024-6">SpaceX employees</a> to investigate the details of how a Mars colony would work, with one team focusing on dome habitats, another team on spacesuits, and another on reproduction. Two anonymous sources told the Times that Musk had volunteered his sperm.Musk has long touted a thriving Mars settlement as his life's top ambition, saying it's necessary to make the human species interplanetary in case of an extinction event like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/potentially-hazardous-asteroids-fly-by-earth-this-week-watch-live-2024-6">an asteroid impact</a>.But Musk has also been waging a personal battle against his <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pronatalism-elon-musk-simone-malcolm-collins-underpopulation-breeding-tech-2022-11">fears of underpopulation</a> — which he has called "the biggest danger civilization faces" — by fathering a lot of children.He has had 12 known children with three different women, including with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-shivon-zilis-secret-twins-neuralink-tesla">Shivon Zilis, one of his top executives</a>.<div type="image" title="Elon Musk and his son, X" height="1448" width="2150" msid="111670201" hostid="261" sizebytes="137906"></div>It's only fitting that Musk might take that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-flight-four-ocean-splashdown-elon-musk-plans-2024-6">mission to Mars</a>. However, it's not yet clear whether human reproduction is possible on the red planet.<h2 id="6fccabfd-0e50-48d9-bf76-a13697bedd1f">Making babies in space</h2>"Studies have shown that you can send freeze-dried sperm into space sealed, like freeze-dried coffee effectively," Adam Watkins, associate professor of reproductive biology at the University of Nottingham, previously told Business Insider."You would then do something like IVF with those sperm and eggs and transfer the embryos into females who are already established at the other end," such as in a Mars settlement, he explained.At that point, though, things get complicated and risky. Being in space, with reduced gravity and lots of radiation, is tough on the human body."We don't even know if it's possible for someone to become pregnant in space," Dr. Kris Lehnhardt, who leads research at NASA on medical systems for deep-space exploration, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-tourists-sex-pregnancy-risk-2023-8">previously told BI</a>.Even if a person could become pregnant beyond Earth, the intense radiation in space could be harmful to a developing embryo or fetus. Mars offers little protection from solar and cosmic rays. It's atmosphere is just 1% the volume of Earth's.Musk has previously indicated that giant glass domes and possibly even living underground could help protect Mars residents from harmful radiation, but by how much is unclear.A person standing on the surface of Mars would also experience only 38% of the gravity on Earth. It's uncertain how that would affect a pregnancy.Musk isn't the only one trying to figure this out. A company called SpaceBorn United is researching the feasibility of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in space, planning to try space IVF on mouse embryos. Eventually, the initiative aims to test on human embryos."When you look at what will be needed for us to be an off-planet species, that starts to stick out as one of the really, really big unknowns," David Cullen, a professor of space biotechnology at Cranfield University who is working with SpaceBorn United, previously told BI.Musk and SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.

Elon Musk has reportedly offered his sperm to help colonize Mars. It's unclear if that's possible.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>An explosion from the sun blasted radiation into space, reaching the Earth, Mars, and the moon in 2021.</li><li>These particles cannot harm humans on Earth, but they may harm people in space, research shows.</li></ul>Sometimes the sun erupts, spewing <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronal-hole-on-sun-blasts-solar-wind-toward-earth-2023-3">high-energy particles</a> across space, like a lactose-intolerant person heading to the bathroom after a glass of milk.These are called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-storms-flares-dangerous-effects-earth-sun#spacex-said-it-lost-40-satellites-to-solar-flares-2">coronal mass ejections</a>, and a particularly intense one produced particles that hit Mars, Earth, and the moon in October of 2021. It's the first time one of these events has been recorded on all three bodies, the European Space Agencies reported <a href="https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Exploration/ExoMars/Giant_solar_eruption_felt_on_Earth_Moon_and_Mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">last week</a>. If there had been an astronaut up on the moon or Mars at the time these particles hit, they would've been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/martian-radiation-levels-crewed-mission-2017-7">exposed to radiation</a>, though the levels were below a lethal dose. In 1972, however, a solar outburst delivered a high dose of radiation that could have threatened astronauts' health, but no astronauts were in space at the time, per <a href="https://www.space.com/expansive-solar-eruption-illustrates-risk-of-radiation-for-future-space-missions">Space.com</a>. As the sun begins entering a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sun-more-active-solar-storms-auroras-power-outages-grounded-flights-2023-2">more active stage</a>, CMEs will likely become more common and stronger, which means more radiation risk for astronauts. These events are especially important to keep an eye on when considering that NASA intends to send people back to the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-nasa-artemis-best-chance-sending-humans-back-moon-2023-7">moon as soon as 2025</a>.<h2>A more active sun means more coronal mass ejections and space radiation</h2>There are two things that might explain why the particles from the October 2021 event went so far and wide, Robert Steenburgh, a space weather scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Insider.First, we've only been able to monitor activity on all three planets <a href="https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/ExoMars_TGO_operations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">since 2016</a>, and second, it was a particularly big ejection. The reason the ejection was so large likely has to do with the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/next-solar-maximum-2025-what-expect-cycle-2023-4#:~:text=The%20sun's%20magnetic%20field%20reaches%20peak%20strength%20during%20solar%20maximum,atmosphere%20and%20disrupt%20radio%20communications.">stage of life the sun</a> is in, Steenburgh said. It goes through a cycle of phases roughly every 11 years.Right now it's in its active phase, where more <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sunspots-record-concerns-over-power-outages-grounded-flights-radio-blackouts-2023-7?_gl=1*8wkpxs*_ga*MTYzNjQwMTc0MS4xNjg4NjU4MzY4*_ga_E21CV80ZCZ*MTY5MTQ0MjI1Ny41LjEuMTY5MTQ0MjI3My40NC4wLjA.">sunspots</a> begin blooming, like a <a href="https://www.insider.com/teenagers-tiktok-account-banned-for-showing-her-acne-2023-1">pimply teenager</a>. During these active periods, it's common for space scientists to observe <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/x-class-solar-flare-blasts-earth-more-sun-activity-likely-2023-3">two or three eruptions</a> a day on the sun's surface. In more dormant periods, there's an average of one per week, <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/nmp/st5/SCIENCE/cme.html#:~:text=CMEs%20often%20occur%20along%20with,to%20three%20CMEs%20per%20day." target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to NASA</a>. We're likely going to hit <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-maximum-could-sooner-than-expected-2023-6">solar maximum</a>, when these events will be their most intense and frequent, <a href="https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/time-lapse-of-solar-cycle-25-displays-increasing-activity-the-sun" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in late 2024</a>. After that, the sun will slowly return to a more dormant state, where some CME's still happen, but are less common. <div type="image" title="illustration shows astronauts using equipment on mars" height="1080" width="1440" msid="102546512" hostid="261"></div><h2>Safe on Earth but not the moon</h2>People on Earth don't have to worry about being radiated by these particles because <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/earth-north-south-poles-flip-magnetic-field-2018-4#:~:text=But%20the%20reality%20is%20that,electronic%20circuits%20and%20electrical%20grids.">Earth's magnetic field</a> shields us from them Steenburgh said. This field is like a "'quicker picker upper' for most of the particles. So that's why people on the ground you know, don't have to worry about this stuff," he said.Astronauts in space or on the moon <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scott-kellys-radiation-exposure-in-space-2016-3">don't have this protection</a>. Yet <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-nasa-launch-new-mega-moon-rocket-artemis-one-mission-2022-8">research in outer space</a> continues. So if astronauts are up on the moon at the wrong time, they may be exposed to life-threatening levels of radiation coming from an ejection. It could also be dangerous to be on Mars, though its sparse atmosphere does filter out some of the radiation, <a href="https://www.space.com/expansive-solar-eruption-illustrates-risk-of-radiation-for-future-space-missions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Space.com reported</a>. The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronauts-cannot-wear-axiom-black-spacesuit-on-moon-2023-3">spacesuits that astronauts wear</a> may help up to a certain point, but if they're outside when particles from a CME hit, the suits wouldn't be enough, Steenburgh said. That's why his team is in near constant communication with the Space Radiation Analysis group. They're a division of NASA that monitors how much radiation each person takes in during a space mission to determine if they've reached a level that is too dangerous for them to return again. Steenburgh said parts of the International Space Station can be refuges from radiation. In the future, similar safeguards could be established on the moon and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-colonization-human-survival-radiation-food-biosphere-2018-4">Mars</a>. So for now, the best response space authorities have is to monitor these events. Then, groups like Steenburgh's can alert governments to move their astronauts to safer areas."Our job is to help them understand when it's okay to be outside," he said.

You Searched For "Mars on Earth" and got 12 results

Bengaluru-based Pixxel Space plans to mine asteroids for building settlements in space

PTI

SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew returns to Earth victorious, making huge gains in Elon Musk's plans to send humans to Mars

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Elon Musk: SpaceX to launch first Starships to Mars in two years

ANI

Elon Musk wants to put people on Mars by 2030. Don't count on it.

Tom Carter

Elon Musk says the first Starship launch to Mars will happen in 2 years

Kwan Wei Kevin Tan

Mini-moons like the one Earth just captured could be huge business opportunities

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Budget 2024: How will budget affect India’s position in the global space race?

Ankush Banerjee

Obama takes a shot at the likes of Musk and Bezos, says we must protect Earth before colonizing Mars

Marianne Guenot

Another point for life on Mars: Signs of liquid water discovered under the planet's surface

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

How to see the year's best meteor shower this weekend, with fireballs, colorful trails, and a Jupiter-Mars conjunction

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Elon Musk has reportedly offered his sperm to help colonize Mars. It's unclear if that's possible.

Morgan McFall-Johnsen,Ellyn L…

Massive explosions from the sun pose a radioactive triple threat to the moon, Earth, and Mars

Maiya Focht

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides