Myanmar: Thousands Displaced In Mandalay Region

 June 30, 2024  

By RFA

Intense fighting between the military and rebel forces in central Myanmar’s Mandalay region this week has displaced thousands of civilians from more than 10 villages, anti-junta fighters and residents said.

Fighting in Mandalay’s Madaya township began on Tuesday as part of the second round of “Operation 1027” – an anti-junta offensive launched in October by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, along with two other ethnic armies that comprise the Three Brotherhood Alliance.

On Thursday, a member of the Madaya township defense force who took part in frontline fighting told Radio Free Asia that his group had captured the junta’s No. 1014 Air Defense Battalion in Madaya’s Myaing village. 

Madaya is about 32 km (20 miles) north of junta-controlled Mandalay, which is Myanmar’s second largest city. 

“They [the military] are conducting airstrikes, as we have seized their battalion,” said the defense force fighter who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. “We took control of this battalion [on Wednesday].”

The Madaya township defense force is one of scores of anti-junta rebel groups that formed in response to the military’s Feb. 2021 coup and are collectively known as the People’s Defense Force, or PDF. 

In addition to local PDF groups, the Mandalay People’s Defense Force, the Danu People’s Liberation Army, and the Northern Shan State Alliance Army have joined the TNLA in this week’s offensive operations.

The air defense battalion in Madaya is one of 26 military outposts that the TNLA said it had jointly seized with PDF groups in Mandalay and the neighboring Shan state townships of Nawnghkio, Kyaukme and Mongmit over the past several days. 

The junta has yet to issue a statement related to the takeover of its battalion in Madaya. Attempts by RFA to contact junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun went unanswered Thursday.

Nonetheless, rebel scout groups reported Thursday that the military had tightened security at the entrance to Madaya township and dispatched reinforcements to the area from Mandalay.

Clashes in Mogoke

Amid the fighting, thousands of civilians have been forced to flee from more than 10 villages in the township, as fighting intensified near Gyin Myaing village, residents said. Many had escaped with “nothing except the clothes we were wearing,” one recounted. 

A volunteer assisting the displaced said that they are sheltering in “safe locations that airstrikes and artillery attacks cannot reach.”

Additionally, clashes are intensifying between the junta and joint forces of the TNLA and PDF in Mogoke township in an area known for its ruby mines, according to the TNLA and residents. Mogoke is about 200 km (120 miles) north of Mandalay.

The TNLA said Thursday that it had started an offensive against the military’s No. 148 Infantry Battalion, stationed in Mogoke’s Aye Pagoda.

A Mogoke resident told RFA that those who have not fled the fighting are sheltering in their homes.

“No one dares to go outside – it’s too dangerous,” he said, adding that the military is targeting the area with heavy artillery.

Another resident said that three Buddhist monks were killed by an artillery shell that hit a monastery Thursday night. It was unclear who launched the shell.

“The weapons fell without any active combat,” the resident said. “Moreover, it was far from the battlefield where the conflict occurred.”

Two other injured monks were sent to Mogoke township’s public hospital.

RFA attempted to contact Thein Htay, the junta’s Mandalay regional spokesperson, to gather further information about the incident, but received no response.

Weapons and ammo seized

On Friday, the TNLA announced it had seized about 380 large and small weapons during an attack on a military junta camp in Nawnghkio in Shan state near the Mandalay border.

Among the seized weapons were 81 mm and 60 mm heavy weapons, RPG-7s, machine guns and assault rifles.

Additionally, the TNLA confiscated mines, communication equipment, more than 50,000 rounds of small arms ammunition and more than 500 rounds of ammunition for RPGs and other heavy weapons.

The TNLA and their allies now control nearly all areas in the township, including government offices in Nawnghkio.

The military council has not issued any official statement on this situation. RFA attempted to contact Khun Thein Maung, the junta’s spokesperson for Shan state, but received no response. Also in Shan state, aid workers in Kyaukme township told RFA that they had buried 23 bodies since fighting began there on Tuesday, including those of six civilians killed by artillery fire.

An aid worker who took part in the burials said that corpses of junta soldiers were among the dead.

The junta has not released any news about the latest fighting in Shan state, and RFA was unable to contact Khun Thein Maung, the junta’s spokesperson and economic minister in the state, for additional information

TNLA rebels on June 27, 2024, in an unknown location inside Myanmar. Photo Credit: PSLF/TNLA via Telegram, RFA

RFA

Radio Free Asia’s mission is to provide accurate and timely news and information to Asian countries whose governments prohibit access to a free press. Content used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

CGTN interview: Bolivian President Luis Arce discusses failed coup attempt 

Dan Collyns
@yachay_dc
Published June 29, 2024 

Bolivian President Luis Arce is rejecting accusations that the failed mutiny in his country earlier this week was a sham. He said the “take over” failed. Arce sat down with CGTN’s Dan Collyns in La Paz to discuss what happened.

 Investigation after Ryanair Boeing 737 plunges 2,000ft in 17 seconds reaching 321mph

A Ryanair Boeing 737-Max airliner is under investigation after it descended at high speed on approach to Stansted Airport last year.

Flight FR1269 dived at 321mph after a two-hour journey from Klagenfurt, Austria to London on 4 December 2023.

According to flight data, the Boeing 737-Max made a steady descent to 2,350ft to prepare for landing in light rain at Stansted, but aborted the approach to climb for a go-around.

 

Debunking Boeing's 'ridiculous' safety sabotage claims

While Boeing grapples with a series of safety concerns, some people, including Donald Trump, have been falsely suggesting that the company's crisis could be down to 'sabotage.' But who do these people claim is behind this 'sabotage'? Hebe Campbell takes a look into this conspiracy theory. 

Far-right Alternative for Germany reports surge in membership

June 29, 2024 8:00 PM
By Reuters

Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) party co-leader Tino Chrupalla attends a party convention in Essen, Germany, June 29, 2024.

ESSEN, GERMANY —

Leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany on Saturday reported a surge in membership and vowed to build on the party's success in the European Parliament election, as they target wins in three state votes in the east this year.

The AfD jumped to second place in nationwide polls last year amid frustration with infighting in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition, worries over sluggish growth in Europe's largest economy, and concerns over the impact of the war in Ukraine.

While a string of scandals and anti-extremism protests has dampened the AfD's support in recent months, the nationalist, Eurosceptic party nonetheless came second with 15.9% in the European vote this month, ahead of the three parties in Scholz's coalition.

AfD membership had grown by 60% to 46,881 members since January 2023, co-chief Tino Chrupalla told nearly 600 delegates at a party convention in the western city of Essen. Some 22,000 people had joined while 4,000 had left.

"Despite all the harassment you have to endure as a member of the AfD, this is an absolutely sensational figure," Chrupalla told the convention.

The figure is still a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of members boasted by the "big tent" parties in Germany, Scholz’s Social Democrats and the opposition conservatives.

The congress was held despite resistance from city authorities — marked by the rainbow and EU flags flying on flagpoles outside the convention center — and protesters who sought to prevent AfD delegates from making it there.

Two riot police officers who had been escorting a politician were seriously injured after protesters kicked them in the head after they fell to the ground and had to be hospitalized, police reported. A further seven officers were also injured.

'We are here to stay'

"Melt the AfD snowball before it becomes an avalanche" and "AfD = Despiser of mankind" read some of the signs that protesters carried at an anti-AfD march through the city.

The interior ministry estimated some 20,000 people participated in the demonstration, state broadcaster ZDF said.

The party congress will run until Sunday, the same day neighboring France holds the first round of a snap parliamentary election that could bring the far right to power.

"We will not be intimidated," said co-chief Alice Weidel. "We are here, and we are here to stay."

The AfD is on track to come first in elections in the eastern states of Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg in September, according to polls, which will likely further complicate governance there as other parties refuse to form a coalition with it.

In discussing the party's policy platform, Weidel said AfD's future allies in the European Parliament should oppose the disbursal of taxpayer money to the "debt states" of Europe — a reference to countries such as Italy and Greece — and the idea that Ukraine belongs to the European Union, after it opened membership talks this week.

The AfD is on course to form a new political group in the European Parliament — a move which would require 23 MEPs from at least seven EU countries — after being expelled from the Identity and Democracy grouping last month, Weidel said.

Chinese Golf Carts Surging Into US Prompt Pleas for 100% Tariff

Brendan Murray, Bloomberg News

, Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The two largest golf cart producers in the US are asking for relief from an existential hazard: a flood of Chinese imports.

Club Car LLC and Textron Specialized Vehicles Inc., both based near Augusta, Georgia, asked the Biden administration this week to slap a 100% tariff on golf carts and other low-speed, often battery-powered personal vehicles made in China — putting them on par with the US tariff on regular Chinese electric automobiles.

“Chinese import volumes have rapidly increased, taking greater consumer vehicle market share while using price benefits from Chinese government subsidies to drive their advantage,” Club Car President and CEO Mark Wagner said in an emailed statement Friday. “We had to take action.”

US imports of Chinese golf carts and other recreational buggies have increased sixfold since 2020, partly because they’re shipped under a product classification where the tariff is lower than those coded as normal-sized EVs. The Chinese carts often avoid higher levies by crossing the border at the lower tariff rate and then undergoing modifications in the US, according to the American companies’ attorneys.

As a result, the golf carts and similar vehicles “are able to skirt the proposed increased duties on electric vehicles” announced by the Biden administration in May, according to a letter filed this week with the US Trade Representative in Washington.

The skirmish between the world’s largest economies is narrow, but it illustrates the scores of loopholes, workarounds, unintended consequences and legal quandaries that accompany the imposition of tariffs across a swath of the economy.

Comment Deadline

Friday was the deadline for public comment on USTR’s so-called 301 case, under which tariffs on Chinese goods are justified.

The filing from Club Car and Textron, which makes E-Z-GO and Cushman carts, was among hundreds of other pleas for either tariff protection or relief posted during USTR’s comment window. The two companies made their case jointly under a group called the American Personal Transportation Vehicle Manufacturers Coalition. 

According to the filing, imports of Chinese golf carts and another tariff classification for similar products called “specially designated vehicles” totaled $916 million last year, up from $148 million in 2020.

Club Car and Textron’s competitors in China have “substantially and systematically undersold domestically produced” vehicles, “resulting in a deterioration in the domestic industry’s performance and a sharp decline in the US industry’s production, capacity utilization, shipments, employment, and financial performance in 2024,” according to the June 25 letter to USTR from the Wiley law firm in Washington.

Their outreach to USTR follows a related case filed with the US Commerce Department and the US International Trade Commission, which alleged dumping of Chinese golf carts and sought relief in the form of anti-dumping and countervailing duties. 

Robert DeFrancesco, a partner in Wiley’s international trade practice, said the process in that case will take about a year.

--With assistance from Chris Miller.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

Chinese automakers retain grip over

Southeast Asia's booming electric car

market

By Devjyot Ghoshal

June 21, 2024



Fully-electric Toyota Hilux Revo pickup trucks as public transportation vehicles are seen in the Thai seaside town of Pattaya, Chonburi province, Thailand, April 25, 2024. 

 REUTERS/Artorn Pookasook/File Photo 

BANGKOK, June 21 (Reuters) - Electric vehicle sales are surging in Southeast Asia, led by China's BYD (002594.SZ), opens new tab and Vietnam's VinFast , eating into the internal combustion engine car market dominated by Japanese and Korean firms, Counterpoint Research said on Friday.

EV sales in the region more than doubled in the January to March quarter from a year before, according to the research firm. Sales of ICE cars, meanwhile, slid by 7%.

"As Japanese and Korean automakers, who dominate conventional vehicle sales, lag in EV adoption, Chinese OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are stepping in to fill the gap," said Counterpoint analyst Abhik Mukherjee.

"Over 70% of EV sales in the region are from Chinese brands, led by BYD," he said. In the first quarter of last year, 75% of all EVs sold in Southeast Asia were made by Chinese car makers.

Thailand, Southeast Asia's second largest economy where Chinese car makers have committed more than $1.44 billion to set up new EV production facilities, is leading the charge.

The regional auto manufacturing hub where Japan's Toyota Motor (7203.T), opens new tab and Honda Motor (7267.T), opens new tab have a major presence accounted for 55% of all Southeast Asia's EV sales in the first quarter, with the segment growing 44% compared to last year.

"Vietnam saw an even more impressive growth, with BEV (battery electric vehicle) sales increasing by more than 400%, contributing to nearly 17% of regional sales," the research firm said.

Across the region, China's top-selling EV maker BYD maintained pole position, cornering 47% of the regional market leader, followed by Vietnam's VinFast.

BYD has had early success in Southeast Asia, which is still a small EV market compared to other regions, on the back of distribution partnerships with large local conglomerates.

U.S. electric carmaker Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab saw its market share in the region drop two percentage points to 4% in the first quarter, in spite of its sales growing 37% in the same period.

A number of Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand and Indonesia, have rolled out incentives to stimulate EV demand and attract new investments - a call answered by Chinese car makers locked in a bruising price competition at home.

"Southeast Asia is becoming a major expansion region for Chinese OEMs," Mukherjee said.

SPACE

 

Dawn Of Self-Repairing Spacecraft: Perovskite’s Potential To Transform Orbital Infra – Analysis

 June 30, 2024

By Girish Linganna

Space is a tough place filled with strong radiation. Spacecraft and satellite manufacturers need to use materials that can overcome harsh conditions.

In a paper published in January 2024, Ahmad Kirmani from the Rochester Institute of Technology shared with astronomy.com that his team of materials researchers had found that a new semiconductor material, called ‘metal-halide perovskite’—a material discovered back in 1839 and commonly found in Earth’s crust—can actually repair itself after being damaged by radiation.

From the surface, Earth’s crust extends about 5-70 kilometres into the interiors. It covers the entire planet’s surface. The crust is rich in such minerals as silicon, aluminium and oxygen. Temperatures range from cool at the surface to about 500°C-1,000°C in the deepest parts.

Metal-halide perovskites are effective in absorbing sunlight and converting it into electricity. This makes them a promising option for solar panels in space, which could power satellites or future space habitats. Scientists produce perovskites as inks, which they then apply to glass or plastic surfaces. This process creates thin, film-like devices that are both lightweight and flexible.

Amazingly, these thin-film solar cells work just as well as regular silicon solar cells in lab tests, despite being nearly 100 times thinner than traditional ones. However, these thin films can break down when they come into contact with moisture or oxygen. Scientists and companies are now trying to solve these stability problems to make them suitable for use on Earth.

To see how they would perform in space, a technical team created a radiation test. Perovskite solar cells were exposed to both low- and high-energy protons and a unique property was discovered. The high-energy protons repaired the damage caused by the low-energy protons, enabling the device to recover and keep working. Traditional and conventional semiconductors used in space electronics do not have this self-healing ability.

The technical team was astonished by the discovery. How is it possible for a material that breaks down on exposure to moisture and oxygen not only withstand the powerful radiation of space, but also self-repair under conditions that typically damage conventional silicon semiconductors?

Resilient Perovskite Crystals

The team’s research highlights an interesting property of perovskites—their ability to withstand damage and defects. These crystals belong to a category of soft materials, allowing their atoms to shift into various vibrational states, which scientists refer to as ‘vibrational modes’.

Perovskite’s atoms are normally formed into a lattice structure. However, radiation can displace these atoms, causing damage to the material. The vibrations within the material might help realign the atoms, although the technical team is still uncertain about the exact mechanism behind this process.

Soft Materials for Use in Space

The research suggests that soft materials could be particularly useful in harsh environments, such as those found in space. Radiation is just one of the many challenges that materials face in space. Scientists are still unsure how perovskites will perform when subjected to vacuum conditions, extreme temperature changes and radiation—all at the same time. Temperature might influence the healing behaviour observed by researchers, but more studies are necessary to understand its exact role.

These findings indicate that soft materials could help scientists create technology that functions well in extreme conditions. Scientists now want to research what role vibrations play in enhancing the self-healing abilities of these materials.

The Future of Space Materials

Scientists believe that, in the next 10 years, the number of satellites launched into near-Earth orbit will grow rapidly. Additionally, such space agencies as NASA plan to set up bases on the Moon. Materials that can withstand extreme radiation and repair themselves would be a game-changer.

Researchers estimate that sending just a few pounds of perovskite materials into space could produce up to 10 million watts of power. Currently, it costs about $4,000 (INR 3.3 lakh) per kilogram to launch materials into space, so using efficient materials is crucial.

ScreenshotCrystals of perovskite on matrix. Photo Credit: Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com, Wikipedia Commons

Girish Linganna is a Defence, Aerospace & Political Analyst based in Bengaluru. He is also Director of ADD Engineering Components, India, Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany. You can reach him at: girishlinganna@gmail.com

Spectacular new "3D" Pillars of Creation merges Hubble and Webb views

Scott Sutherland

Meteorologist, Science Writer
Published on Jun. 28, 2024

"When we combine observations from NASA's space telescopes across different wavelengths of light, we broaden our understanding of the universe."

One of the most famous objects in space has been imaged by our most powerful telescopes, and now scientists have produced an amazing 3D visualization of The Pillars of Creation, revealing it in greater detail than ever before.

Roughly 7,000 light years away from Earth is an immense cloud of dust and gas known as the Eagle Nebula. At the heart of this cloud is one of the most well-imaged objects in space — The Pillars of Creation

.
The Eagle Nebula, a cluster of stars, dust and gas, located in the Serpens constellation. Standing out against the bright core of the nebula are the famous Pillars of Creation. (NASA/STSci)

First revealed to us nearly 30 years ago by the Hubble Space Telescope, our view of the Pillars of Creation has been updated again and again. First, Hubble returned to observe it nearly a decade ago, returning even higher resolution images of this star-forming region.

Then, in 2022, astronomers aimed the new James Webb Space Telescope at this same region of space.

A comparison of Hubble's visible light image (left) with Webb's infrared view (right) of the Pillars of Creation. (Hubble image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Webb image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI))

With Webb's more advanced cameras and deeper view into the infrared spectrum, it treated us to the best, and highest resolution view of the Pillars that we had ever seen.

Now, though, a team of scientists has combined the Hubble and Webb observations, producing a three-dimensional model of the Pillars of Creation.

Watch below: The Pillars of Creation and the Interplay of Stars and Dust



According to NASA, the narrated video above "combines a direct connection to the science and scientists of NASA's Astrophysics missions with attention to the needs of an audience of youth, families, and lifelong learners. It enables viewers to explore fundamental questions in science, experience how science is done, and discover the universe for themselves."

"Several stages of star formation are highlighted in the visualization. As viewers approach the central pillar, they see at its top an embedded, infant protostar glimmering bright red in infrared light," NASA explained. "Near the top of the left pillar is a diagonal jet of material ejected from a newborn star. Though the jet is evidence of star birth, viewers can't see the star itself. Finally, at the end of one of the left pillar's protruding 'fingers' is a blazing, brand-new star."

A mosaic of Hubble and Webb images of the Pillars of creation reveal the different formations in the gas clouds that are highlighted by each individual telescope — wispy gas streamers by Hubble and the stunning details of the pillars themselves by Webb. (Greg Bacon, Ralf Crawford, Joseph DePasquale, Leah Hustak, Christian Nieves, Joseph Olmsted, Alyssa Pagan, and Frank Summers (STScI), NASA's Universe of Learning)

"By flying past and amongst the pillars, viewers experience their three-dimensional structure and see how they look different in the Hubble visible-light view versus the Webb infrared-light view," Frank Summers of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) explained in a NASA press release. "The contrast helps them understand why we have more than one space telescope to observe different aspects of the same object."

"When we combine observations from NASA’s space telescopes across different wavelengths of light, we broaden our understanding of the universe," added Mark Clampin, the Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters. "The Pillars of Creation region continues to offer us new insights that hone our understanding of how stars form. Now, with this new visualization, everyone can experience this rich, captivating landscape in a new way."

Thumbnail image combines Hubble visible light images with Webb infrared data, resulting in a highly detailed view of the Pillars of Creation. Courtesy NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

INDEFINITE STAY

Starliner to remain on ISS for more thruster tests

Jeff FoustJune 28, 2024

Boeing's CST-100 Starliner approaches the ISS on the Crew Flight Test mission June 6. Credit: NASA TV

WASHINGTON — NASA and Boeing plan to keep the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft at the International Space Station well into July to conduct additional tests, while emphasizing its two-person crew is not “stranded” in space.

At a June 28 briefing, about the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, the first in 10 days, agency and company officials said they would not set a return date for Starliner, bringing back NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, until after completing additional tests to better understand thruster malfunctions and helium leaks the spacecraft has experienced.

“Butch and Suni are not stranded in space,” said Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager. “Our plan is to continue to return them on Starliner and return them home at the right time. We have a little bit more work to do to get there for the final return.”

That additional work now includes thruster tests that NASA plans to perform at its White Sands Test Facility. Stich said NASA will take a reaction control system thruster like those on Starliner and put it through the same profile of burns used on Starliner during its approach to the ISS. The goal is to see if they can replicate the issues that caused the spacecraft to “de-select” those thrusters and perform inspections of them not possible while in orbit.

Those tests are scheduled to begin no earlier than July 2 and last a couple weeks, he said. “This will be the real opportunity to examine the thruster just like we had in space on the ground, with detailed inspections.”

Only after completing those tests and reviewing their results would NASA set a landing date for Starliner, which would push it out to no earlier than the latter half of July. That process will also include an agency-level review of the spacecraft to confirm that they have all the data they need to understand the cause of the problems and that the spacecraft is safe to return home.

While original plans called for Starliner to remain docked to the ISS for only eight days, officials said there was no rush to return home while they can still gather data, particularly from the service module section that is jettisoned and not recovered at the end of the mission. “We have the luxury of time,” said Ken Bowersox, NASA associate administrator for space operations.

“We understand these issues for a safe return,” Mark Nappi, Boeing vice president and commercial crew program manager, of the thruster and helium leak problems. “But we don’t understand these issues enough yet for us to fix them permanently.”

He said the results of the thruster tests on the ground could lead controllers to perform additional tests with Starliner’s thrusters while docked to the station, which is why the ground tests will be performed before Starliner returns, not after.

NASA has originally set a 45-day limit on the length of the CFT mission based on the batteries in the crew module. However, Stich said that can be extended because of the performance of the batteries so far in the mission, with no change in risk to the mission.

The extended duration of the mission, along with the problems with the thrusters and helium leaks, will pose challenges to certify the vehicle for crew rotation missions. NASA had hoped to have Starliner certified by November, in time for a February crew rotation mission called Starliner-1.

“We understand it’s going to take a little bit longer,” Stich said of certification. He said that NASA is working on preparations for both Starliner-1 and Crew-10, a Crew Dragon mission planned for launch in late summer of next year, in parallel, allowing NASA to push off a decision on whether to move up Crew-10 to February.

“We can take our time and get through the Crew Flight Test and have the vehicle return with Butch and Suni, and then we can make decisions afterwards,” he said. “We still have time.”

During the briefing, Nappi expressed frustration with what he considered negative media coverage of the CFT mission. “Being a representative of Boeing and a representative of the Starliner program, it’s pretty painful to read the things that are out there,” he said. “We’ve gotten a really good test flight that’s been accomplished so far and it’s being viewed rather negatively.”

However, many reporters on the call complained of a lack of updates about the mission as well as details about why the timeline for Starliner’s return kept being pushed back. “I think we probably need to be doing a little bit more frequent interaction with the media to keep you up to date,” Stich acknowledged.
Spacewalk updates

NASA also used the briefing, lasting a little more than an hour, to discuss both the scrubbed spacewalk at the station June 24 as well as the agency’s award of a contract to SpaceX June 26 for the U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV).

The June 24 spacewalk was postponed when water leaked into the airlock after astronaut Tracy Dyson disconnected a suit umbilical just as the spacewalk was starting. Astronauts have not been able to recreate the leak, said Bill Spetch, operations integration manager for the ISS program at NASA, and the cause remains under study.

Emily Nelson, chief flight director, said leaks from fluid connectors are not uncommon, but they had not seen this specific leak before. “We just need to understand this particular one in more detail before we can get the crew lined up to try again.”

NASA had planned a spacewalk for July 2, but that has been pushed back to the end of July, Spetch said. That spacewalk will have a different set of tasks as the June 24 spacewalk, combining tasks for what had been projected to be a series of three spacewalks. That work will include relocating an antenna, doing preparatory work for future repairs of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, replace a rate gyro assembly and swab parts of the station’s exterior to study any microorganisms that may live there.

When NASA announced the selection of SpaceX as the developer of the USDV, neither the company nor the agency disclosed details about the design of the spacecraft, which will be used to perform the final maneuvers to deorbit the station at the end of its life.

“That’s based off of a Dragon heritage design,” said Spetch, with modifications to the trunk section. He did not go into details about the design and declined to discuss what set it apart from other proposals, noting that NASA had not yet issued a source selection statement for procurement.

Kremlin’s Nuclear Russian Roulette In Orbit Could Trigger NATO Clash

Kevin Holden Platt
Contributor
Writing at the intersection of space and defense, focus on SpaceX, Mars' 1st cosmopolis.

Jun 28, 2024


Visitors scan a model of the Soviet-era Tsar Bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created. ... [+]AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

As Russia escalates its nuclear brinkmanship - with a top-secret drive to launch the first plutonium warhead into orbit and with simulated explosions of tactical bombs near Ukraine - it is edging closer to sparking a conflict with the 32-nation NATO alliance, say leading defense scholars in the U.S.

The White House has already called out Moscow’s clandestine mission to launch a spacecraft capped with a nuclear warhead, even as space defense experts across the U.S. war-game how to prevent this new space super-bomb from threatening American satellites, and how to respond if the weapon is ever ignited.

President Vladimir V. Putin has been scaling a pyramid of nuclear escalation, but it remains unclear whether this process will end with Russia’s explosion of a powerful warhead in low Earth orbit, says Spenser Warren, a scholar on Russia’s nuclear modernisation drive under Putin’s reign at the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.

“Russian nuclear threats reached peaks at several points,” Warren told me in an interview, including its recent virtual detonations of tactical bombs on a mock Ukrainian battlefield, its suspension of the U.S.-Russian New START arms control treaty, and now its race to perfect an orbital bomb to shake up the heavens.

Hypothetically, the White House could opt to respond to Russia’s lofting a nuclear-tipped spacecraft by shooting it down with an anti-satellite missile as an act of self-defense, says Dr. Laura Grego, a preeminent expert on nuclear weapons, missile defense, and space security at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“One can use a conventionally armed interceptor of the type the U.S. and others have developed to destroy the nuclear weapon,” she told me.

But that mission would be extremely high risk, she warns.

“Russia could preemptively detonate the nuclear weapon if it saw the interceptor launch and suspected where it was headed,” she says.

As a co-drafter of the Outer Space Treaty, Russia is obligated never to send a nuclear bomb into orbit, she points out. “The best place to verify compliance with the obligation not to station nuclear weapons in space is before launch.”

“It’s very much harder once such a weapon is launched.”

But Russia has suspended nuclear inspections required under the New START Treaty, and is certain to balk at any U.S. or UN request to visit its nuclear weapons centers to find the orbit-bound bomb.

“There may be contextual clues about whether a satellite is actually carrying a nuclear weapon,” Dr. Grego says, “but I expect that there are pretty good techniques for disguising it as something else, at least for a while.”

Russian rockets take center stage in central Moscow. 

“Back when we had civil engagement with Russia, there was a general consensus not to put nuclear weapons in space,” says John Hamre, a former deputy secretary of defense who is now President and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, one of the top defense think tanks in Washington DC.

But Russia might now be abandoning that space détente, he told me in an interview.

During a fascinating CSIS fireside chat that Dr. Hamre hosted, "The Nuclear Option: Deciphering Russia's New Space Threat,” he stated: “This is an implication there’s now a weapon in orbit or could be a weapon in orbit and that's a very profound thing. Nuclear weapons in space are really profoundly different from nuclear weapons here on planet Earth.”

"We're used to thinking about blast effects and there's the shock wave and all that sort of thing. All of that is the product of an Earthly environment,” he added.

In an interview right after that gathering, Dr. Hamre told me: “Much of the destructive quality of nuclear weapons on Earth comes from the heat (the detonation heating air molecules) and blast effects (the air compression that is pushed violently through the atmosphere). Some energy from the blast is consumed by impact on the ground, generating ejecta. You have none of that in space. So almost all the energy is dissipated as x-rays.”

“A nuclear detonation in space,” he says, “would reach out hundreds of miles.”

Even during the ultimate arms contest that marked Cold War I, when Moscow and Washington competed to test thermonuclear bombs that could set entire continents afire, the two sides agreed to a ban on celestial weapons to ensure their race to the Moon would remain peaceful.

Russia’s repudiation of the outer space pact by stationing its doomsday warheads in orbit would end that longstanding truce.

Now just a shadow of the one-time Soviet space superpower, Russia is operating “a structurally failing space program,” says James Clay Moltz, one of the top space defense scholars in the U.S. and a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey.

To mask Russia’s decline as a space power, “Putin seems to have decided that his only card is to threaten U.S. satellites and even the space environment itself,” Professor Moltz told me in an interview.

“But the use of a nuclear weapon in orbit would be an act of international terrorism,” he says.

“The electro-magnetic pulse and radiation would indiscriminately kill astronauts on the International Space Station and taikonauts on China’s Tiangong space station.”

The blast could destroy “thousands of satellites that provide information critical to the world economy and human safety on the ground, at sea, and in the air,” adds Professor Moltz, who has written a series of internationally acclaimed books on the expanding dangers of great power conflicts in space, including Crowded Orbits.

“Any country that carries out such an act,” he says, “would be become an instant international pariah.”

If Russia did explode a powerful nuclear warhead in the vicinity of the International Space Station, killing its American and European astronauts, and destroying a swath of U.S. satellites, this act of aggression could swiftly cascade into a superpower confrontation, says Professor Jack Beard, one of the world’s leading experts on the mosaic of UN treaties governing space defense and director of the Space, Cyber & National Security Law Program at the University of Nebraska College of Law.

Russian Soyuz rocket set to launch to the ISS.

Professor Beard, who recently published the globe’s first comprehensive “Manual on the International Law of Military Space Activities and Operations,” says the blast would likely annihilate not only a ring of SpaceX satellites, but also American defense spacecraft circling the Earth along the same orbital plane.

If part of a three-pronged assault on the U.S. - including its astronauts, New Space allies, and military satellites - it would likely be recognised as an “armed attack” under the UN Charter that justifies the use of force in self-defense, Professor Beard told me.

Although this hypothetical warhead was not detonated on American territory, he says, the White House and Defense Department would be highly likely to treat it “as an armed attack against the United States itself.”

The president would likely quickly declare that the U.S. is reserving the right to respond with armed force.

And though the bombing was carried out beyond American borders, Professor Beard says, that does not necessarily preclude a strike against the territory of the responsible state.

Formerly a high-ranking counsel at the Pentagon, Professor Beard recounts that when Libyan state-sponsored terrorists were implicated in the bombing of a Berlin discotheque that killed three Americans back in 1986, President Ronald Reagan responded with a series of airstrikes across Libya.

In addition to the deaths of American astronauts in outer space, the destruction of the US military satellites could also likely justify the use of force in response, Professor Beard says.

If the U.S. did opt to use force in its self-defense, it could also seek to invoke Article 5 of the NATO agreement, which provides for a collective defense following an attack on any single member of the alliance, he says.

The beginnings of the next world war, ignited in space, would be set in motion.

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Kevin Holden Platt
I cover world-leading breakthroughs in science and hyper-technology, with stories reported across three continents, published in National Geographic

Making Rocket Fuel Out of Lunar Regolith

An illustration of a Moon base that could be built using 3D printing and ISRU, In-Situ Resource Utilization. Credit: RegoLight, visualisation: Liquifer Systems Group, 2018

POSTED ONJUNE 28, 2024 BY MATT WILLIAMS

In the coming years, NASA and other space agencies plan to extend the reach of human exploration. This will include creating infrastructure on the Moon that will allow for crewed missions on a regular basis. This infrastructure will allow NASA and its international partners to make the next great leap by sending crewed missions to Mars (by 2039 at the earliest). Having missions operate this far from Earth for extended periods means that opportunities for resupply will be few and far between. As a result, crews will need to rely on In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), where local resources are leveraged to provide for basic needs.

In addition to air, water, and building materials, the ability to create propellant from local resources is essential. According to current mission architectures, this would consist of harvesting water ice in the polar regions and breaking it down to create liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH2). However, according to a new study led by engineers from McGill University, rocket propellant could be fashioned from lunar regolith as well. Their findings could present new opportunities for future missions to the Moon, which would no longer be restricted to the polar regions.

The research team was led by Sebastian K. Hampl, a M.Sc. Candidate in Mechanical Engineering at McGill University and part of the Alternative Fuels Laboratory. He was joined by multiple colleagues from McGill’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, as well as researchers from the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso, the Research Institute of Advanced Materials in Seoul, and the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. Their paper, “Conceptual design of rocket engines using regolith-derived propellants,” recently appeared in Acta 

Bootprint in the lunar regolith left behind by the Apollo 11 crew. Credit: NASA

Producing propellant from lunar resources is one of several measures designed to reduce the cost of missions to deep space. Whereas resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS) can be mounted within a few hours, sending one to the Moon would take about three days. Based on current launch costs, sending one to the Moon would cost over $35,000 per kg ($15,909 per lb). When you factor in the time it takes to make a one-way transit to Mars using current propulsion technology – 6 to 9 months – the importance of ISRU becomes all the more apparent.

The need to produce propellant in situ will also reduce the mass and payload requirements of ships. As the Rocket Equation establishes, rockets generate thrust by expelling some of their mass (i.e. propellant). The amount of propellant is directly related to the spacecraft’s full mass and payload, which makes propellant the single greatest source of spacecraft mass. Consider the Block 1 variant of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) – the rocket sent the uncrewed Artemis I spacecraft beyond the Moon and farther from Earth than any crew-capable vehicle in history.

While the SLS weighs 1,588 metric tons (3.5 million lbs) when unfueled (aka. dry mass), it weighs up to 2,603 metric tons (5.74 million lbs) fully-fueled. The Starship and Super Heavy, the most powerful launch system in the world, has a total dry mass of 285 metric tons (~630,000 lbs) but weighs a whopping 4,885 metric tons (10.77 million lbs) fully fueled. In short, propellant mass makes up 64% and 94% of these spacecraft launch masses, respectively. As Hampl explained to Universe Today via email:

“We need to produce resources locally as they take up a lot of space in terms of payload on the rocket. That limits the amount of resources we can carry to the lunar surface. Without refueling, the range of the missions is very limited as every drop of propellant needs to be budgeted and if something goes wrong that uses extra propellant, the astronauts might not be able to return back to Earth. The system we currently have could be compared to a car infrastructure where you could only fuel up in one place on the whole globe and any “exploration mission” you want to do would have to be planned meticulously and every mistake could leave you stranded.”

Exposed water ice (green or blue dots) in lunar polar regions and temperature. Credit: Shuai Li

The concept of ISRU is time-honored, though no attempts were made during the Apollo Era when astronauts last stood on the lunar surface. Currently, the main ISRU concept calls for harvested water ice from surface regolith and subjecting it to electrolysis to produce hydrogen and oxygen. But as Hampl indicated, surface water is localized on the Moon, existing in Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) around the poles. In the South Pole-Aitken Basin, craters like Shoemaker, Shackleton, and Faustini all act as “cold traps,” ensuring that water ice does not sublimate from exposure to the Sun.

Furthermore, extraction is a challenge, and hydrogen storage for longer periods of time is very problematic. This imposes many limits, which is why Hampl and his colleagues began investigating an alternative that NASA investigated back in the 80s (but never developed). As Hampl explained:


“We proposed to use lunar regolith to derive propellants that are ubiquitous. From regolith, you can extract metallic components (which will be the fuel) and oxygen (which will be used as the oxidizer). We also investigate how extracting sulfur (which is abundant enough, albeit, not as abundant as the metallic components) to expand our options for rocket engine configurations. As oxygen production from regolith is vital for sustaining the lunar habitat, the reduction technology to extract oxygen from the regolith is being developed. The metallic powder will be a byproduct of the process and we conveniently propose to use it as the rocket fuel.”

A benefit of this process is that it will rely on space mining technologies developed by startups hoping to take advantage of the commercialization of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Cis-Lunar space in the coming decades. The process is also “fuel lean,” which refers to having more oxidizer than fuel in a rocket engine. “In our case, a small amount of metallic powder and a large amount of oxygen,” said Hampl. “The ratio of oxidizer and fuel can be adjusted and greatly influences combustion parameters such as temperatures and performance.”

Artist’s concept of an Artemis astronaut deploying an instrument on the lunar surface. Credits: NASA

The advantages of their proposed system are numerous. For starters, it would allow future missions to produce propellant anywhere on the lunar surface with electricity. “The only things one would need, obviously, are the production facility and an electrolyte, which probably will have to be brought from Earth (but the quantities are manageable),” said Hampl. “There are reduction methods only requiring electricity but they are less efficient and do not seem to work as well (research ongoing). Additionally, the propellant is easier to store, more dense than hydrogen, and could be transported more easily.”

Moreover, engines that rely on metallic powder propellant are currently being developed, especially with ramjets and applications for air-breathing propulsion. The one trade-off is that the predicted performance of a rocket using this propellant is less than what a rocket relying on LH2/LOX can deliver. However, the “fuel lean” nature of their propellant results in much lower combustion temperatures, causing less material strain and reducing the cost of repair and refurbishment. In addition, the performance decrease compared to LH2/LOX at lower combustion temperatures is not as pronounced.

This proposed method could open new doors for ISRU on the Moon and greater flexibility when it comes to refueling missions. “Our work focused on the thermodynamic calculations and proposing ways how this could be implemented as well as making the case where the advantages of this technology lie,” said Hampl. “We hope that someone will pick up the idea and start developing and testing such an engine since we strongly believe that this would be a better concept than using hydrogen/oxygen and should get more attention.”

It is fitting that in their plans to return to the Moon (this time, to stay), space agencies like NASA are reexamining concepts that were proposed during the Apollo Era but never developed. These concepts, which include everything from metallic propellants, ISRU, closed-loop habitats, and nuclear propulsion, will also be vital in exploring Mars and beyond. They will also be vital in our efforts to extend humanity’s presence beyond Earth and the Earth-Moon system.

Further Reading: Acta Astronautica

Robert Reich: Debunking Myth #5: ‘The Market Doesn’t Play Favorites’ – OpEd

June 30, 2024 0 Comments

By Robert Reich


As I’ve emphasized in this debunk series, the “free market” is nothing but a set of rules, established and enforced by government.



The real question — hidden behind the supposedly neutral supply-and-demand curves of textbook economics — is whether the system is improving the lives of most people or is mainly making the rich even richer. Unfortunately, the answer has been the latter.

The market is playing favorites, because of all the money flowing into politics. And the favorites are the sources of the big money — large corporations and the wealthy.

I saw the stream of money into politics in the late 1970s turn into a rivulet by the 1980s and a vast river by the 1990s, then a floodplain by the 2000s, an ocean by the 2010s, and a tsunami by the 2020s.

Laws that limit campaign donations have been weakened or repealed by the Supreme Court, allowing wealthy individuals and corporations to essentially bribe politicians.

On Wednesday, the court dealt its latest blow to federal anti-corruption law in Snyder v. United States, which held that “gratuities” — gifts and payments provided after a public official does what the briber wants — are not technically “bribes” and therefore not illegal. Bribes, said the court, in this bizarre 6-3 decision, are only issued before the desired official act. The court has thereby continued its ongoing effort to legalize official corruption, using the flimsiest logic to rob federal anti-corruption statutes of all meaning.

As bribes have rigged the game in favor of powerful corporations and the wealthy, I have seen the disillusionment of working Americans in the 1990s turn to frustration and rage — especially after the bailout of the biggest banks in the financial crisis of 2008.

Joe Biden has done a good job trying to reverse the rigging, but far more needs to be done. If Trump gets another term and is able to stack the Supreme Court with more corporate stooges, the court will allow big money to drown democracy.

A sampling of how the market has been altered because of big money in politics:

Trade agreements have encouraged corporations to outsource jobs abroad — protecting the firms’ intellectual property and financial assets but not the jobs and wages of the people who had worked for those firms.

Safety nets that emerged from the Depression decade of the 1930s have been shredded, along with the implicit social contract that if a corporation did well, its workers would too. Full-time workers who put in decades with a corporation have found themselves without a job overnight — with no severance pay, no help finding another job, and no health insurance.

Employment benefits have shriveled. The proportion of workers with any pension connected to their job has fallen from just over half in 1979 to under 35 percent.

Labor unions have shrunk. The unionized share of the American workforce dropped from 35 percent of all private-sector workers in the 1950s to just 6 percent today. Fifty years ago, when General Motors was the largest employer in America, the typical GM worker earned $35 an hour in today’s dollars. Today, America’s largest employer is Walmart, and the typical entry-level Walmart worker earns about $9 an hour. The GM worker was not better educated or motivated than the Walmart worker.

The deregulation of finance has enabled corporate raiders — now dubbed “shareholder activists” and “private-equity managers” — to force CEOs to abandon all other stakeholders. It allowed high-paid bankers to pocket huge sums while exposing most Americans to extraordinary economic risks, culminating in the financial crisis of 2008 and the taxpayer-funded bailout of large Wall Street firms.

Taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals have been lowered, while taxes on estates have been almost eliminated. An increasing portion of government revenue now comes from Social Security taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, and user fees (such as tolls), that fall heaviest on the bottom 80 percent. Tax loopholes have been created for the partners of hedge funds and private-equity funds, the oil and gas industry, pharmaceuticals, Wall Street, Big Agriculture, and Big Tech.

Intellectual property rights — patents, trademarks, and copyrights — have been enlarged and extended, thereby allowing pharmaceutical, high tech, biotechnology, and entertainment corporations to preserve their monopolies longer — which has meant higher prices for American consumers, including the highest pharmaceutical costs of any advanced nation.

Antitrust laws have been relaxed (until the Biden administration revived antitrust), resulting in large profits for firms like Monsanto, which sets the prices for most of the nation’s seed corn; for a handful of high-tech companies with market power over network portals and platforms (Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google); cable companies with little or no broadband competition (Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T, Verizon); and the largest Wall Street banks, among others. Two-thirds of all corporate sectors have become more concentrated since the 1990s, making corporations far more profitable than at any time since the 1920s. All this has also meant higher prices for consumers, fewer choices of employer for workers, and greater political power for the monopolistic corporations.

Bankruptcy laws have been loosened for large corporations, allowing them to rip up labor contracts, threaten closures unless they receive wage concessions, and leave workers and communities stranded. Notably, bankruptcy has not been extended to homeowners who owe more on their homes than the homes are worth, or to graduates overburdened with student debt.

Contract laws have been altered to require mandatory arbitration before private judges selected by big corporations.

Securities laws have been relaxed to allow insider trading of confidential information and permit corporations to manipulate stock prices through stock buybacks. CEOs have been allowed to use stock buybacks to boost share prices and cash in their stock options.

Public funds have been withdrawn from higher education, requiring students to take out massive college loans.

These and thousands of other policy decisions didn’t just happen. They were pushed by wealthy elites on Wall Street and corporate C-suite executives, who made mammoth donations to politicians on both sides of the aisle — mostly but not exclusively Republican — to ensure that their wishes would be honored. As these changes — and thousands like them — have gone into effect, wealth and power have further shifted upward.

As a result, bargaining power has shifted away from workers to large corporations and Wall Street. This has caused a giant but hidden upward distribution of income and wealth from the bottom 90 percent up to the top.

It’s been a vicious cycle. Each change in laws has ratcheted wealth and power upward, making it easier for the wealthy and powerful to gain further legal changes that ratchet even more wealth and power upward.

We must get big money out of politics

This article was published at Robert Reich’s Substack


Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, and writes at robertreich.substack.com. Reich served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and"Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent, "The Common Good," which is available in bookstores now. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality For All." He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.