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

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A pioneering project in <keyword id="20060502" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Peru" source="keywords">Peru</keyword> is giving $2.30 a day to people in <keyword id="20360813" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="indigenous-communities" source="keywords">Indigenous communities</keyword>.</li><li>Reducing poverty removes a lot of the incentives for <keyword id="20657663" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="deforestation" source="keywords">deforestation</keyword>, the organizers told BI.</li></ul>Groups backing a basic-income trial in Peru are hoping that unconditional payments to Indigenous communities will help preserve the <keyword id="21095716" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amazon-rainforest" source="keywords">Amazon rainforest</keyword>. Since November, 188 people living in three Amazonian reserves in central Peru have received <keyword id="21274590" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cash-transfers" source="keywords">cash transfers</keyword> equivalent to 8.6 Peruvian Soles, or about $2.30, a day. The project — developed by climate action NGO <keyword id="23150686" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cool-Earth" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Cool Earth" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Cool Earth">Cool Earth</keyword> in conjunction with female-led Indigenous groups — is due to run for two years, with payments totaling about $310,000. <div type="image" title="Three people of a Peruvian Amazonian community viewed from the knees down, wearing red robes and sandals, as they walk along a dirt track." height="667" width="1000" msid="112744186" hostid="261"></div>The idea is that providing a guaranteed income will remove some of the incentives to become involved in activities that destroy the rainforest. Poverty in these communities is one of the main drivers of deforestation in the region, Isabel Felandro, Cool Earth's head of programs, told Business Insider. "Those communities face a lot of challenges in terms of threats like illegal deforestation that goes on around the territories, drug cartels, illegal mining," Felandro said. They can end up "selling the forest, or engaging in other activities that are not very sustainable because they have this financial worry," she said. Communities are often faced with agonizing decisions, Felandro added. "If you don't have the money to send your kid to a hospital, what do you do? <h2></h2><h2><keyword id="22441332" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="basic-income" source="keywords">Basic income</keyword> — for the rainforest</h2> <div type="image" title="An aerial view of Asháninka territory in the Peruvian Amazon, showing mist-shrouded forest and a cluster of small huts." height="667" width="1000" msid="112744187" hostid="261"></div>$2.30 a day wouldn't go far in the US or Europe. But in these communities, it can have a huge impact, Felandro said. With the income, "a whole family can eat for a day," she said. She added that people have been using the money to complement their diets, or have clubbed together to hire a van to take their kids the long distances to school. Numerous basic-income trials have proliferated worldwide, but most are focused on social and economic outcomes. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/universal-basic-income-ubi"></a> In the US, cities like <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/los-angeles-guaranteed-basic-income-pilot-ubi-partner-violence-employment-2024-7">Los Angeles</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chicago-basic-income-helped-mother-rent-an-apartment-ubi-gbi2024-5">Chicago</a>, Denver, and Atlanta have offered participants direct cash payments, no strings attached. But Cool Earth believes theirs is among the first to aim at a positive <keyword id="20224419" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="environmental-impact" source="keywords">environmental impact</keyword>. The NGO has run numerous cash transfer projects over the last 17 years, sending money to communities in the Amazon, New Guinea, and Congo rainforests, who band together to decide how to spend it. But this latest pilot — where every person over the age of 18 receives money independently — is seen as an even more direct way to get money working for the rainforest. <div type="image" title="A thatched hut in the Peruvian Amazon, surrounded by lush greenery." height="667" width="1000" msid="112744188" hostid="261"></div>The impact and efficacy of basic-income programs are still being investigated, and Johan Oldekop, an academic specializing in the environment and development at the UK's University of Manchester, sounded a note of caution when commenting on this project to The Guardian. Oldekop praised the goal of supporting Indigenous communities, who are leaders in preserving rainforests. But, he added, there is "little and mixed evidence on the environmental effects of cash transfers around the world." Some data shows that these programs can actually lead to deforestation because families can use the cash to expand their agricultural businesses, and chop down trees to do so, he said. Felandro told BI that this is a fair concern, but added that here "the scale is very minor." Families often only have small plots of land that they use primarily to feed themselves. "We're not talking about large-scale production of cacao or coffee," she said. Communities that participated in Cool Earth's prior cash transfer projects saw up to 46% less deforestation compared to similar neighboring communities, Felandro added. Correction: August 28, 2024 — An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the project. It provides basic income to a select group of participants; it is not a universal-basic-income program.

A $2.30-a-day basic income trial is trying to save the Amazon rainforest

Perth: (The Conversation) Last week, three tiny Australian satellites from Curtin University's <keyword id="23932163" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Binar-Space-Program" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Binar Space Program" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Binar Space Program">Binar Space Program</keyword> burned up in Earth's atmosphere. That was always going to happen. In fact, Binar means "fireball" in the Noongar language of the First Nations people of Perth. When a satellite is in low Earth orbit (2,000km or less), it experiences orbital decay as it drags closer and closer to the surface, eventually burning up. But these cube satellites (<keyword id="21533654" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CubeSats" source="keywords">CubeSats</keyword>), known as Binar-2, 3 and 4, entered the atmosphere much sooner than originally planned. They only lasted for two months - a third of what was expected. This significantly reduced valuable time for science and testing new systems. The reason for their untimely demise? Our Sun has kicked into high gear, and the Binar satellites are far from the only casualty. Recent high <keyword id="20792842" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Solar-activity" source="keywords">solar activity</keyword> has been causing an unexpected headache for satellite operators in the last few years, and it's only increasing. <h2>Why is the Sun so active? </h2> Solar activity includes phenomena such as sunspots, solar flares and solar wind - the stream of charged particles that flows toward Earth. This activity is a product of the Sun's ever-changing magnetic field, and approximately every 11 years, it completely flips. At the midpoint of this cycle, solar activity is at its highest. While this cycle is known, specific solar activity is challenging to predict - the dynamics are complex and solar forecasting is in its infancy. In the last few months, indicators of solar activity were more than one and a half times higher than predictions for this point in the current cycle, labelled <keyword id="22712826" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="solar-cycle-25" source="keywords">solar cycle 25</keyword>. <h2>The impact of <keyword id="20087207" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="space-weather" source="keywords">space weather</keyword> </h2> Space weather refers to the environmental effects that originate from outside our atmosphere (mostly the Sun). It affects us on Earth in a variety of noticeable and unnoticeable ways. The most obvious is the presence of auroras. In the past few months, auroras have been visible far more intensely and closer to the equator than in the last two decades. This is a direct result of the increased solar activity. Space weather, and solar activity in particular, also creates additional challenges for satellites and satellite operators. Higher solar activity means more solar flares and stronger solar wind - resulting in a higher flux of charged particles that can damage or disrupt electrical components on satellites. It also means an increase in ionising radiation, resulting in a higher dose for astronauts and pilots, and potential disruptions to long-distance radio communications. But for satellites in low Earth orbit, the most consistent effect of solar activity is that the extra energy gets absorbed into the outer atmosphere, causing it to balloon outward. As a result, all satellites less than 1,000km from Earth experience a significant increase in <keyword id="23473319" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="atmospheric-drag" source="keywords">atmospheric drag</keyword>. This is a force that disrupts their orbit and causes them to fall towards the planet's surface. Notable satellites in this region include the International Space Station and the Starlink constellation. These satellites have thrusters to counteract this effect, but these corrections can be expensive. Low Earth orbit also contains many university satellites, such as the Binar CubeSats. Cube satellites are rarely equipped with tools that can adjust their altitude, so they're entirely at the mercy of space weather. <h2>What happened to Binar? </h2> The Binar Space Program is a satellite research program operating out of Curtin University. It aims to advance our understanding of the Solar System and lower the barrier for operating in space. The program began operations with its first satellite, Binar-1, in September 2021. This was less than a year into solar cycle 25 when solar activity was relatively low. In these conditions, the ten-centimetre cube satellite started at an altitude of 420km and survived a full 364 days in orbit. The program's follow-up mission - Binar-2, 3, and 4 - were three equally sized CubeSats. However, they were expected to last approximately six months owing to the extra surface area from new deployable solar arrays and a forecast increase in solar activity. Instead, they only made it to two months before burning up. While cube satellite missions are relatively cheap, the premature ending of a mission will always be costly. This is even more true for commercial satellites, highlighting the need for more accurate space weather forecasting. The good news is the Sun will calm down again. Despite the current unexpectedly high solar activity, it will likely slow down by 2026, and is expected to return to a solar minimum in 2030. While this was not an explicit goal of the mission, the Binar Space Program has now poignantly demonstrated the dramatic effects of solar activity on space operations. While the untimely loss of Binar-2, 3 and 4 was unfortunate, work has already begun on future missions. They are expected to launch into far more forgiving space weather. (The Conversation).

Right now, the Sun is far more active than predicted - and small satellites are paying the price

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Housing costs are the big factor keeping inflation high, according to the July CPI reading.</li><li>Shelter costs posted a surprise jump, rising 0.4% compared to a 0.2% increase in June.</li></ul>Wednesday's consumer price index report showed <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inflation-consumer-price-index-in-july-fed-interest-rates-2024-8">inflation is decisively cooling in most areas of the economy</a>, but one area remains particularly stubborn: housing.There was much for investors to cheer in the latest consumer price index. Major stock averages rose broadly after the data, with the Dow up more than 200 points shortly after midday. The good news was that goods prices fell yet again, with previously sticky areas like new and used auto inflation declining from the prior month. The other bright spot was in core services inflation, which Bank of America analysts note remains elevated but is definitely slowing. The final piece of the puzzle seems to be housing. July shelter costs posted a surprise jump, rising 0.4% compared to a 0.2% increase in June, and the shelter index has risen over 5% since July of last year."Heading into this report, the key factor for us was whether last month's deceleration in shelter would hold. The July CPI report indicated it did not," the BofA analysts wrote. That rise has an outsize impact on the overall inflation reading, with the shelter index accounting for 90% of the rise in core CPI, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday."[Shelter inflation] will offset some of the good news we saw from July PPI data on medical care services inflation when it comes to the PCE inflation report later this month," the BofA analysts wrote, referring to the release of the Fed's preferred inflation gauge on August 30. Shelter costs account for 36% of the overall CPI, a far greater share than that of food or energy.Yet, analysts say that since shelter costs have such an outsized impact and tend to lag behind actual real estate trends, the most recent shelter data may be keeping the CPI reading artificially high. "[S]helter costs are also notoriously hard to measure accurately and are often perceived to move with a lag," Jim Baird, CIO of Plante Moran Financial Advisors, said in a Wednesday note.In June, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that when market-based rents increase sharply, there's a slower rollover for existing tenants than for new tenants, creating the delay."We've found now that there are big lags," he explained, adding that it may take years for the housing inflation index to reflect changes in the real estate market."There's a bulge of high past increases in market rents. It has to get worked off, and that may take, you know, several years," he said.Even as housing inflation remains stubborn, inflation slowed last month, with overall CPI rising 2.9% year-over-year in July. It was the first time the rate has been below 3% since March 2021.Analysts say that data will give the Fed <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/inflation-cpi-report-stock-market-today-fed-rate-cuts-outlook-2024-8">further confidence to cut rates in September</a>, though it may not warrant as dramatic of a cut as previously expected."With supercore inflation up from last month and a sustained deceleration in shelter inflation still elusive, a gradual reduction in policy rates may be all the Fed can provide at this time - and all that it needs to deliver," Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Asset Management, said.

Housing costs are the final obstacle to inflation falling back to earth

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Baiju Bhatt, the cofounder of trading app Robinhood, has a new space startup.</li><li>Aetherflux aims to launch a constellation of satellites to transmit solar power to Earth using infrared lasers.</li></ul>When Baiju Bhatt co-founded the stock trading app <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/robinhood-collapse-what-happened-retail-investing-meme-stocks-future-finance-2022-2">Robinhood</a> in 2013 with his college best friend, Vlad Tenev, the aim was to "democratize finance for all."Robinhood's no-fee, gamified approach to investing made capital markets more accessible than ever before, leading to an IPO in 2021.After over a decade at the company, Bhatt stood down as Robinhood's chief creative officer in March to pursue what was described at the time as "other entrepreneurial interests."In October, Bhatt announced he was launching Aetherflux, a Silicon Valley-based space startup.Aetherflux aims to create a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) that will collect solar power and beam it down to receptors on Earth using infrared lasers.Just as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-starlink-spacex-satellite-internet-business-constellation-fleet-elon-musk-mars">Elon Musk's Starlink</a> constellation has transformed communications, Bhatt hopes Aetherflux will revolutionize energy, he told Business Insider in an interview.The receptors will be just 10 meters in diameter, Bhatt said, meaning they can be placed virtually anywhere and theoretically provide power to remote locations that would otherwise be too expensive or dangerous to reach."If we succeed, we unlock a renewable energy source for humanity that can be delivered virtually anywhere," he wrote in a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/allow-me-re-introduce-myself-baiju-bhatt-nu1ic/?trackingId=xecx1MNjQxGa6fapJvT2fA%3D%3D">LinkedIn post</a> announcing Aetherflux.If it works, far more solar power can be captured in orbit than through the atmosphere at ground level, and there would be no nighttime or weather disruptions to the power source. It would also free up land used for solar farms on Earth.Aetherflux plans to start by powering military operations in remote locations or remote mining operations, Bhatt said.<div type="image" title="A profile of Baiju Bhatt smiling in a black t-shirt in front of a beige background." height="3553" width="5324" msid="114432481" hostid="261" sizebytes="611312"></div>Bhatt hopes that a single receptor will one day be able to capture enough power for a small neighborhood of homes. He added that they'd need around 100 satellites to provide continuous power to one location.The idea of space-based solar power has existed for decades, but theories have generally rested on large constructions being sent into orbit and using microwaves to transmit energy.In January 2023, the California Institute of Technology launched a solar space-power demonstrator satellite into orbit for a yearlong mission to test out a range of potential approaches.Caltech's president, Thomas F. Rosenbaum, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/space-solar-power-project-ends-first-in-space-mission-with-successes-and-lessons">said the project</a> had shown them that solar power beamed from space "is still a future prospect" but that it "should be an achievable future."Aetherflux wants to do things differently by using infrared lasers and a modular approach.The science has already been demonstrated; it's just going to be an engineering and economic feat to prove it can be done from space, Bhatt said.To begin with, Aetherflux plans to send a single satellite into orbit by the first quarter of 2026 to demonstrate that solar energy transmission is possible.<h2 id="f76e6857-d783-49d8-94bf-ab950b9759df">The right time to be in space</h2>Though the career jump from finance to the space industry may seem unusual, Bhatt said space has been his "lifelong calling."NASA was a part of Bhatt's childhood. His father moved to the US from India to pursue physics and got a job at NASA's Langley Research Center in the 1990s studying atmospheric sciences.With a bachelor's in physics and a master's in mathematics, both from Stanford, Bhatt thought he'd be a physicist too. So, Robinhood was a "bit of a detour," he told BI.He is still a board member but has stepped back from day-to-day operations.One lesson Bhatt said he learned from running the trading app was how powerful capitalism could be in accelerating innovation."If you can take a problem that's been stagnating and you can create a capitalist system around it where people can make money doing something, you'll see the rate of progress really speed up," he said.<div type="image" title="Baiju Bhatt (right) and Vlad Tenev, founders of the online brokerage Robinhood." height="4160" width="6240" msid="114432476" hostid="261" sizebytes="601100"></div>After meeting with people working on power for DARPA at the beginning of this year and seeing the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-spacex-starship-launch-five-huge-deal-space-travel-2024-10">timeline Starship is on</a>, Bhatt decided that the best opportunities were now in space.Since 2009, the sum of private investments in space startups has soared from essentially nothing to $327.3 billion, according to the latest "<a target="_blank" href="https://spacecapital.docsend.com/view/9d69zpfz4ddms3ry">Space Investment Quarterly</a>" report published by venture capital and angel-investment firm Space Angels.The industry's value is expected to continue booming. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/aerospace-and-defense/our-insights/space-the-1-point-8-trillion-dollar-opportunity-for-global-economic-growth">McKinsey</a> estimates that the global space economy will be worth $1.8 trillion by 2035, accounting for inflation, up from $630 billion in 2023."It's hard to find something more exciting and impactful than space," said Matthew Weinzierl, a professor of the economics of space at Harvard Business School and coauthor of the upcoming book "Space to Grow.""This really is a new frontier, one where technological innovation can create new markets and solve real problems, often in ways we haven't thought of before," he said.Weinzierl said that in the past two decades, the US government has created pathways for commercial players, enabling market forces to take hold."Prices to orbit have dropped, launch availability has soared, and a wave of entrepreneurs are finding new ways to create value," he said.<div type="image" title="SpaceX's Super Heavy booster as it returned to its launch site, with the sun rising in the background." height="1031" width="1920" msid="114432482" hostid="261" sizebytes="52022"></div>With so many more commercially available products, space has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starship-launch-success-elon-musk-vision-cheap-space-travel-closer-2024-3#:~:text=%22With%20Starship%2C%20SpaceX%20is%20poised,in%20an%20email%20on%20Thursday.">never been cheaper</a>.Aetherflux is an example of how companies are using off-the-shelf solutions to speed up development. Its satellites are purchased readymade from satellite bus provider <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/palmer-luckey-anduril-apex-defense-tech-space-satellite-surveillance-2024-10">Apex</a>, the high-powered lasers it plans to use are commercially available, and it'll be using <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch">SpaceX</a> as a launch partner for its 2026 mission."The part that we're building is the actual optical design, the control systems, and the power transmission link, as well as the ground station," said Bhatt.<h2 id="5dda5318-030a-431a-91ff-f205b537a068">The future of Aetherflux</h2>When he spoke with BI, Bhatt had just moved into a lab facility in the Bay Area. With a team of 10 employees, he will begin iterating ground tests, developing the system design, and working with regulators.He's self-funding the project "completely," he told BI. As one of Robinhood's cofounders, Bhatt's net worth spiked after its IPO in 2021. He is worth around $1.7 billion, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/baiju-bhatt/">Forbes reports.</a>Although access to space has become more routine and affordable, Weinzierl said there is still a lot of uncertainty around the industry. Some of the ideas and businesses being developed today won't survive, but they'll be "the foundation that tomorrow's entrepreneurs will learn from and build on," he said.A self-proclaimed science nerd, Bhatt named his startup after a 19th-century theory about a pervasive medium called the aether, which physicists believed light traveled through."Einstein came along in 1905 and was basically like, nah, that stuff's all wrong. Light is the same in every reference frame," said Bhatt.So Aetherflux is named after a disproven scientific theory? Yes, Bhatt agreed with amusement. But he's "laser-focused" on the first mission and adamant that Aetherflux won't fall into the same bracket as its namesake."Space is hard," he admitted, "but we're committed to demonstrating this and making it happen."

Robinhood's cofounder has joined the rapidly growing commercial space race, and wants to beam solar power from satellites to earth

<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

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA conducted a new tabletop simulation of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/potentially-hazardous-asteroids-fly-by-earth-this-week-watch-live-2024-6">discovering a large asteroid headed for Earth</a>.</li><li>Experts feared Congress wouldn't fund a mission to an asteroid with a 72% chance of impacting Earth.</li></ul>NASA recently brought together about 100 experts to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-simulated-asteroid-couldnt-stop-impact-europe-2021-5">pretend that an asteroid was heading for Earth</a>.The tabletop <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-impact-simulations-difficult-to-stop-2021-5">simulation presented a hypothetical scenario</a> in which cities like Dallas, Washington, DC, and Madrid were at risk of a large asteroid impact."A <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-driver-asks-nasa-save-earth-from-world-ending-asteroids-2023-3">large asteroid impact</a> is potentially the only natural disaster humanity has the technology to predict years in advance and take action to prevent," Lindley Johnson, a NASA planetary defense officer emeritus, said in a press release.But it wasn't clear that they could prevent such a catastrophe — even with 14 years to figure it out.The simulation revealed that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">technology wasn't the problem</a> that could ultimately doom a city, region, or entire country. It was politics.<div type="image" title="Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the Capitol on December 12, 2023." height="1500" width="2000" msid="111347083" hostid="261"></div>"I know what I would prefer [to do], but Congress will tell us to wait," one participant said of their asteroid-response plan, in a selection of anonymized comments in NASA's summary of the exercise, published on June 20."The most important item of the morning was the discussion involving the political nature of the decision-making," another participant said.<h2 id="fff0e374-634e-421c-bed3-007449857a08">Congress may not move fast enough</h2>NASA has conducted nearly a dozen tabletop simulations since 2013. This one happened in May and included participants from the US State Department, FEMA, and the space agencies of Europe, the UK, Japan, and Canada.<div type="image" title="large conference room with long desks full of people in suits sitting at laptops and looking at a large presentation screen with a person at a podium presenting" height="900" width="1634" msid="111347084" hostid="261"></div>Past exercises showed that, in order to save the world, NASA would need at least <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5">five years' notice that an asteroid was headed toward us</a>, maybe even 10 years.This time the simulators learned that, even when they had plenty of time, they might not be able to launch their preferred anti-asteroid offensive.That's because they didn't think Congress would approve funding for a critical space mission to study the asteroid "unless impact became certain," NASA's summary said.A major part of the simulation was figuring out how to impress the "seriousness" of the situation upon Congress and other leadership, Johnson said.What's more, the 14-year timeline spanned multiple budget cycles and presidential elections. At any of those junctures, the president, Congress, or NASA's own leadership could change priorities and disrupt the asteroid plan.<h2 id="16c29872-b78b-4870-bb8a-e51b843db37f">The most likely incoming asteroid scenario</h2>Here are the hypothetical conditions the participants were given in this year's exercise: Scientists have determined a 72% chance of this asteroid impacting Earth in 14 years. It could strike anywhere across a swath of North America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.The asteroid's size was unclear. It could be anywhere from 60 to 800 meters (half a mile) wide — possibly big enough to devastate an entire country.All that uncertainty made this "a very realistic scenario," Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist at MIT who specializes in potentially hazardous asteroids, but did not participate in the simulation, told Business Insider."In fact, it's the most likely type of scenario we will face, where an asteroid is discovered and we have limited information," Binzel said.Options for preventing an asteroid impact include shooting the asteroid with lasers, launching a nuclear bomb at it, or simply smacking a space probe into it to nudge it away from Earth.NASA has tested one of those options in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-crashes-dart-spacecraft-into-asteroid-to-test-planetary-defense-2022-9">mission that punched an asteroid</a> and dramatically changed its path in 2022, just to prove the technique could work.<div type="image" title="sequence of images showing asteroid from a distance then close up then video cutting out" height="1000" width="2000" msid="111347087" hostid="261"></div>In the simulation, experts wanted more information to understand their anti-asteroid options.Unfortunately, the fictional space rock was about to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">pass behind the sun and disappear</a> from view for seven months. To avoid wasting precious time, scientists would have to send a spacecraft to the asteroid to learn more about it.That's where they feared politics would get in the way. Participants weren't sure Congress would fund the mission unless the asteroid was a certain threat — not a 72% chance of threat.So far, NASA has not discovered any large asteroids on track to impact Earth.But scientists have identified fewer than 11,000 near-Earth asteroids that are at least 140 meters (460 feet) wide — big enough to crush a city. They believe there are 15,000 of them in our vicinity, meaning more than a quarter of city killers remain undiscovered.<h2 id="8dbc0625-4426-4bc0-ba2d-99b4f3dc63a5">NASA could plan a mission just in case</h2>Binzel says NASA could get political and bureaucratic barriers out of the way now, before any asteroid threats are identified, by developing a reconnaissance mission to have on standby."It's an adult thing to do that can protect us from becoming surprised," he said.The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine made a similar recommendation in its last decadal survey of planetary science priorities.In that 2022 <a target="_blank" href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/26522/interactive/">report</a>, the Academies said that NASA should "develop an approach for a rapid-response, flyby" spacecraft to closely study newly-discovered threats. That way, it could launch a reconnaissance mission in less than three years if it became necessary. The Academies also recommended a demonstration to practice reconnaissance on a real asteroid.So why isn't NASA working on that right now?"It's not in the budget," Binzel said.First NASA has to make a proposal for such a mission, with a thumbs up from the White House, and then Congress would have to authorize and fund it."If there's an asteroid out there with our name on it, it's already there," Binzel said. "Fortunately, the chance in the next century or so is incredibly small. But it's not zero."

NASA simulated an incoming asteroid impact, and the biggest roadblock to action was penny pinching

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Two astronauts will be at the ISS for longer than planned, following issues with Boeing's Starliner.</li><li>The spacecraft has experienced helium leaks and thruster failures during its first crewed launch.</li></ul>Two NASA astronauts have been left waiting to return home from the International Space Station because of issues with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.NASA and Boeing <a target="_blank" href="https://starlinerupdates.com/nasa-boeing-update-starliner-crew-flight-test-return-from-station/">announced on Tuesday</a> that Starliner's return had been delayed to June 26 after the troubled vessel's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-starliner-takes-off-crewed-astronauts-onboard-delays-2024-6">first crewed launch</a> was hampered by technical issues.It's the latest delay to hit the Starliner mission and means an ISS mission that was expected to last<a target="_blank" href="https://starlinerupdates.com/starliner-completes-1st-crewed-docking/"> eight-10 days is now extended</a> to at least 20 for astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.The space capsule had a difficult time docking with the ISS, with <a target="_blank" href="https://gizmodo.com/watch-boeing-starliner-dock-iss-astronauts-1851521917">five thrusters failing on approach</a>, though four were subsequently recovered.NASA <a target="_blank" href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/boeing-crew-flight-test/2024/06/10/nasa-boeing-progress-on-testing-starliner-with-crew-at-space-station/">said last week</a> that ground teams were also assessing the potential impact of <a target="_blank" href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/boeings-starliner-5-small-helium-leaks-astronauts-iss/story?id=111012781">five small helium leaks</a>.In a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TXDedBlyBI">press briefing</a> on Tuesday, NASA and Boeing officials said that Starliner had plenty of helium left and that they felt "comfortable" about the craft's ability to re-enter Earth's atmosphere safely. They added, however, that they were taking time to review data from the launch and docking before giving Starliner the green light to return home.Starliner's first crewed launch, which <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-starliner-takes-off-crewed-astronauts-onboard-delays-2024-6">took place on June 5</a>, was delayed multiple times because of technical concerns.The launch was a crucial moment for the US aviation giant, which is attempting to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-boeing-spaceship-flying-nasa-astronauts-despite-airplane-safety-incidents-2024-5">challenge SpaceX's stranglehold</a> on the commercial space industry.SpaceX has been transporting astronauts to and from the ISS since 2020, but Boeing, the other company <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-chooses-american-companies-to-transport-u-s-astronauts-to-international-space-station/">selected by NASA for the task in 2014</a>, has lagged behind.SpaceX founder Elon Musk <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-bashes-boeing-astronaut-flight-spacex-did-years-ago-2024-5">criticized Boeing about a month before Starliner's launch</a>, writing on X that the company had "too many non-technical managers."The issues with Starliner come at a bad time for Boeing, which is grappling with new safety concerns <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-737-max-plane-safety-faa-production-timeline-2024-6">over its 737 Max</a> after a door plug on an Alaska Airlines passenger plane detached mid-flight in January.Boeing and NASA declined to add to the comments made in the Tuesday briefing and a<a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TXDedBlyBI"> joint teleconference</a> after being contacted by Business Insider.

You Searched For "earth impact" and got 7 results

A $2.30-a-day basic income trial is trying to save the Amazon rainforest

Mia Jankowicz

Right now, the Sun is far more active than predicted - and small satellites are paying the price

PTI

Housing costs are the final obstacle to inflation falling back to earth

Kelly Cloonan

Robinhood's cofounder has joined the rapidly growing commercial space race, and wants to beam solar power from satellites to earth

Polly Thompson

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

NASA simulated an incoming asteroid impact, and the biggest roadblock to action was penny pinching

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Boeing's leaking Starliner spacecraft has delayed 2 astronauts' return to Earth

Tom Carter

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides