It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, August 24, 2023
German lawmaker Goekay Akbulut says she was detained in Turkey for social media posts
Goekay Akbulut, a Bundestag member for far-left Die Linke party, was detained in Antalya airport on August 3 after an arrest warrant was issued by the Turkish public prosecutor. (X)
Reuters Published: 14 August ,2023
A German lawmaker said on Sunday she was detained for several hours when entering Turkey earlier this month based on social media posts she made in 2019, adding that she would still travel to Turkey and speak her mind about its government.
Goekay Akbulut, a Bundestag member for far-left Die Linke party, was detained in Antalya airport on August 3 after an arrest warrant was issued by the Turkish public prosecutor for alleged “terror propaganda,” she said.
Germany is home to the world’s largest Turkish diaspora community, but relations between Berlin and Ankara have been strained in recent years by German criticism of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown on suspected opponents after a failed coup in 2016 and Turkey’s military offensive against Kurdish militia in Syria in 2019.
Akbulut, a Turkey-born German citizen of Kurdish heritage, was released after making contact with the German foreign ministry, she said. Turkish authorities were not immediately available to comment.
Akbulut has criticized the Turkish government for “waging a brutal war against the Kurdish population inside and outside its borders,” according to her official website.
“I will travel to #Tuerkei in October again as part of the delegation trip of the German-Turkish Parliamentary Group and, as always, will not mince my words: #FreeThemAll,” she said in a post on social media platform X on Sunday.
It was not clear exactly what she was referring to, nor which social media posts she believed triggered the Turkish arrest warrant.
The German embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Antalya were in contact with lawmaker, a source at the German foreign ministry told Reuters. Akbulut, 40, has called for the lifting of a German ban on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.
Saleh Muslim: “Damascus Government Does not Have Strength to Take Decision to Remove Turkey from Syrian Territory”
Monday August 14th, 2023 by DAMAS POST (Opposition website)
The co-chairman of the PYD highlighted the ongoing conflict among major powers in Syria, according to Damas Post.
Saleh Muslim, the co-chairman of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), a prominent party within Syria’s Autonomous Administration, emphasized that the current Damascus government lacks the strength and capacity to expel Turkey from Syrian territory unilaterally.
Muslim highlighted the ongoing conflict among major powers in Syria, noting their lack of consensus on Turkey’s withdrawal from the region. He elaborated that Tehran maintains certain interests with Ankara, hindering its support for Turkey’s departure, whereas Russia aims to advance its strategic plans in collaboration with Turkey.
Muslim further pointed out that the international coalition is cautious not to antagonize Turkey, a NATO ally, even though their objectives are not aligned with Turkey’s stance. He previously reported that despite being led by the United States, the international coalition has been unable to prevent Turkey’s incursions into areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration in northeastern Syria.
Saleh Muslim emphasized that the reticence of concerned parties is a recurring issue. He underlined their lack of insight into closed-door discussions and denied any engagement with Damascus or Moscow on this matter.
Megan Bodette, the director of research at the Kurdish Peace Institute, shared her perspective that the United States tends to focus on northern and eastern Syria and the Kurdish question solely during crises. She emphasized the necessity for a proactive approach from Washington to foster peace between Turkey and the regions of northern and eastern Syria.
The Autonomous Administration of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expressed discontent with the silence exhibited by its allies in the international coalition, as well as the guarantor states (Russia and the United States), regarding the persistent Turkish assaults on northeastern Syria. They viewed these attacks as contradictory to efforts aimed at stability promotion and counter-terrorism endeavours.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Drunk raccoons are terrorizing German towns
Story by Sam Riches • While initially limited to the countryside, raccoons have increasingly moved into cities like Hamburg, Berlin and Munich
Germany is dealing with a raccoon rampage as the non-native mammals are reportedly robbing homes and cottages in search of food and drink.
According to The Telegraph , raccoons have caused up to $15,000 in damages to some properties, raided kitchens and pantries, killed pets like rabbits and fish, and are drinking beer wherever they can source it.
“Raccoons are funny and clever … and they like beer,” Berthold Langenhorst of the German Nature Conservation Association (NABU), said, adding he’s witnessed the animals deliberately knock over beer bottles to get at the liquid inside.
Raccoons were introduced to Germany in the 1930s and their population has increased by up to 17 per cent annually. It’s now estimated that about a million of the masked marauders call Deutschland home.
While initially limited to the countryside, raccoons have increasingly moved into cities like Hamburg, Berlin and Munich, as they’ve “discovered better food and nicer accommodation,” Ulf Hohmann, a raccoon expert and biologist at Göttingen University, told German publication DW.com .
Germany’s raccoon population is believed to have surged during the Second World War, after a bomb reportedly hit a raccoon farm east of Berlin and the escaped raccoons began breeding in the wild. Now listed as an Invasive Alien Species by the European Union, raccoons are not allowed to be imported, kept, transported, bred or released.
There are also no natural predators for the animals. Hunting raccoons is banned in several German cities, including Berlin, but is allowed in other areas.
Germany’s National Hunting Association (DJV) said it killed a record 200,000 raccoons in 2022 in an attempt to control the population, a significant spike from the 10,000 that were culled annually a few decades ago.
And while their population continues to climb, others have called for humane management methods to curb their growth. These measures include things like fertility control and catch, neuter and release strategies.
In fact, some reports indicate that hunting raccoons has only pushed their populations into new areas and caused them to reproduce at a faster rate.
And while the damage they are causing to homes is not insignificant, humans themselves need not worry as, unlike their North American counterparts, raccoons in Germany aren’t known to carry rabies.
However, beyond economic damage, and the potential peril raccoons can pose to household pets, they also leave behind more than just paw prints.
There is a growing problem with fecal and urine contamination as the animals select areas to act as “communal toilets.” With a new-found taste for beer, that’s an issue that seems likely to get messier.
Mysterious naked ‘wolf man’ spotted in German mountains
Jorg Luyken Thu, August 24, 2023 The 'wolf man', photographed by two hikers near Blankenburg in the Harz mountains - BILD
Blurry photos of an unkempt man carrying a “spear” in a German forest have stoked speculation that legends of a “wolf man” stalking the woods of the Harz region are true.
Two photos captured by hikers show a naked and shaggy man sitting on a rock holding a long stick in his left hand and scratching the rock with another instrument in his right hand.
Gina Weiss and her friend Tobi claim to have taken the pictures on their mobile phones while walking beneath a set of sandstone caves in Harz national park on Tuesday.
“We saw the ‘wolf man’ when we reached the sandstone caves,” Ms Weiss told the German tabloid Bild. “He was standing on top of one of the caves, holding a long wooden stick like a spear in his arm.”
“He didn’t take his eyes off us and didn’t say a word,” she recounted, adding that the encounter lasted for nearly 10 minutes.
“He looked dirty and behaved like a stone age man from a history book,” she added.
Mysterious hermit or just ‘a prank’?
According to Bild, there have been intermittent sightings of the man since 2015, with local authorities claiming to have found evidence that someone was starting fires and building rudimentary dwellings in the forest.
However, one volunteer with the local fire service told The Telegraph that they had not noticed anything unusual in the forest, describing the story as “nonsense” and speculating that the photos were “a prank”.
With a third of Germany’s landmass covered by dense forest, stories of hermits living off the land occasionally crop up in the local media.
In 2007 a US citizen was found living in a hut in the depths of the Eifel, a low mountain range in western Germany, where he had cultivated a small marijuana plantation.
Modern legends attached to the woods, which inspired many popular fairy tales by the German Brothers Grimm, loom large in the public imagination.
Authorities in the wealthy suburb of Kleinmachnow told people to stay at home after they claimed to have video evidence that showed the rear end of a lioness.
After helicopters and drones scoured the scene without success, local authorities were forced to concede that this was a case of mistaken identity.
Chandrayaan-3: Rover exits Moon lander to explore lunar south pole Vishwam Sankaran Thu, 24 August 2023 Chandrayaan-3: Rover exits Moon lander to explore lunar south pole
India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission has crossed another milestone with the exit of the mission’s rover from its lander to explore the lunar surface just hours after the country made history with a successful soft landing near the Moon’s uncharted south pole.
The six-wheeled 27kg (60lb) rover – named Pragyan, which means “wisdom” in Sanskrit – rolled out onto the lunar surface at about 1.30am Indian Standard Time on Thursday (8pm GMT Wednesday), using the lander’s ramp, about four hours after Indian space agency Isro achieved the historic Moon landing.
Both the rover and the lander are designed to function for one lunar day, which is about 14 days on Earth.
The rover, designed to move at a speed of 1 cm/s, is equipped with instruments to study the composition of the Moon’s atmosphere. These include the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS).
APXS will analyse the elemental composition of the Moon’s surface and assess the composition of elements like magnesium and aluminium in lunar soil around the landing site. Portion of Chandrayaan-3 landing site taken after landing (Isro)
The rover’s wheels are also designed to leave imprints of Isro and India’s national emblem – the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath – on the lunar surface.
Since the Moon lacks any wind that could disturb its soil, the rover’s imprints are expected to last forever on the lunar surface.
“I once again congratulate the ISRO team and all fellow citizens for successful deployment of Pragyan-rover from inside Vikram-lander. Its rolling out a few hours after the landing of Vikram marked the success of yet another stage of Chandrayan 3,” said India’s president Droupadi Murmu on X, formerly Twitter.
If the rover manages to find water ice on the lunar surface, it could begin a rush to use it as a resource to help extract fuel and oxygen from the Moon.
The estimation of water ice on the lunar surface could also raise hopes for longer-term human presence on the Moon, and facilitate future missions to other planets.
Both the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover are set to conduct science experiments on the Moon at a total cost of about £63m ($82m).
The mission would assess the Moon’s surface thermal properties using an instrument called Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE), and one dubbed ILSA for measuring lunar seismic activity.
They would also conduct ranging studies and analyse the gas and plasma environment of the Moon.
India's rover sends mission's first photos from moon's south pole
Clyde Hughes Thu, August 24, 2023 A simulated image is played on screen during live telecast of the landing of Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the south pole of the Moon at the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) center in Bengaluru on Wednesday. India's rover rolled on the moon's surface on Thursday. Photo courtesy of Indian Space Research Organization
Aug. 24 (UPI) -- India took another step in solidifying its historic status on the moon's south pole, sharing the Chandrayaan-3 mission's first photos of the surface.
The 57-pound Pragyaan rover slid down a ramp deployed by the Vikram lander Wednesday and will now start its scientific work of roaming around rocks and material and analyzing them for researchers back on Earth. Researchers believe water trapped within rocks could be the key to permanent human settlement on the moon.
"The Ch-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander and India took a walk on the moon!" The Indian Space Research Organization said on X.
The country celebrated Wednesday after the lander touched down on the south pole of the moon, making India the first country to do so and only one of four countries to ever make a soft landing anywhere on the satellite, joining the United States, the former Soviet Union and China.
Chandrayaan-3 was India's second attempt at landing on the moon. The lander from Chandrayaan-2 crashed into the moon due to a software glitch. Chandrayaan-2 continues to orbit the moon.
Russia nearly became the first country to make a soft landing on the south pole, but its lander lost control and crashed just days before India made its successful landing on Wednesday.
See 1st photos of the moon's south pole by India's Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander
Tereza Pultarova
SPACE Wed, August 23, 2023 the gray surface of the moon can be seen beside the leg of a lunar lander
The first images from India's Chandrayaan-3 mission taken after the probe's historic moon touchdown reveal a pockmarked surface near the lunar south pole.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) shared the images on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday (Aug. 23), about four hours after the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft completed its smooth descent.
The first set of four images were taken by the lander's Horizontal Velocity Camera as it was nearing the surface of the moon. An additional image from the Landing Imager Camera, shared a little later, shows a glimpse of the landing site, including a portion of the spacecraft's landing leg and its shadow.
"The communication link is established between the Ch-3 Lander and MOX-ISTRAC, Bengaluru," ISRO said in a post on X. "Chandrayaan-3 chose a relatively flat region on the lunar surface," the agency added in the subsequent post.
The landing made India only the fourth country in history to successfully put a spacecraft on the surface of the moon, after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China. Chandrayaan-3 is also the first spacecraft in history to touch down near the lunar south pole, an area that is currently attracting the attention of scientists and space agencies from all over the world.
Scientists think that the permanently shadowed polar craters contain water ice trapped in the rocks, which could be extracted and used to support a permanent human presence on Earth's natural companion. Moreover, these lunar craters could be used to build next-generation telescopes that would allow astronomers to see farther than they can today. A sequence of images of the moon's surface taken by India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft during its descent to the lunar south pole.
A small rover called Pragyan arrived on board Chandrayaan-3 and will soon deploy and commence its exploration of the exciting region, so many more fascinating images are likely to come soon. Both the rover and the lander, however, are unlikely to remain operational for more than two weeks, as ISRO doesn't expect the vehicles' batteries to make it through the two-week lunar night.
Chandrayaan-3 was India's second try at landing near the moon's south pole. The country's first attempt at a lunar touchdown, in September 2019, failed when the Chandrayaan-2 lander crashed into the moon due to a software glitch.
India's triumph comes only three days after Russia lost its Luna-25 mission, its first attempt to put a spacecraft on the moon's surface in 47 years. Luna-25, too, was aiming for the lunar south pole, but crashed into the moon instead after a botched orbital maneuver on Saturday (Aug. 19).
Opinion: India’s moon landing shines an uncomfortable light on Russia’s failures
Opinion by Leroy Chiao Wed, August 23, 2023
Editor’s Note: Leroy Chiao, PhD, works as a consultant, and is the CEO and co-founder of One Orbit LLC, a motivational training, education and talent management company. He served as a NASA astronaut from 1990-2005 and flew four missions into space aboard three Space Shuttles – and once as the copilot of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, where he served as the commander during Expedition 10. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion at CNN.
There are many reasons why nations create and continue civil space programs. Some hope to advance their civilian efforts in science and technology, others seek to expand their technical workforce, and still others are seeking a way to motivate the next generation of young workers . Leroy Chiao - CNN
Since the dawn of the space race however, the biggest motivation by far has been enhancing the sense of national prestige, at home and internationally.
The milestone marks a huge accomplishment for its nascent space program, which has made steady progress over the years. I expect future success to follow: Delhi has shown it is committed to making significant investments in space exploration efforts.
At the dawn of the space age, the Soviet Union, which understood only too well how a successful space program could bolster its standing on the national stage, struck first with the launch of Sputnik, the first satellite in 1957.
Although it transmitted only a simple beeping signal, the implications of the launch were huge; the Soviet Union could now strike its enemies, including the United States, with nuclear missiles. Moscow followed that breakthrough with others, including the first animal in orbit (the dog Laika in 1957) and the first human in space (Yuri Gagarin in 1961).
As Russia notched success after success in space, America was in a near panic. Although the US followed with our own successes, the early impression was that we trailed the Soviets technologically. That’s why President John F. Kennedy’s call to land American astronauts on the Moon resonated so profoundly for our nation, garnering enthusiastic support from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, as well as with the American public more broadly.
The race to space was seen as being almost as a war of survival, one which we could not afford to lose.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is the latest in a long line of leaders to attempt to use a successful space venture to reflect his nation’s greatness. Putin had hoped this week to bask in the glow of a successful landing of the Russian Luna-25 moon lander.
Russia won the race but lost the game: A malfunction caused Luna-25 to crash instead of soft-land on the lunar surface. Had it been successful, Luna-25 doubtless would have been touted as “proof” that Russia was still a great nation, despite its setbacks in its disastrous war in Ukraine. (This type of mission is especially difficult because the orbit change maneauvers to land at one of the poles have to be done precisely).
If these space programs are mirrors of greatness for nations, then it is interesting to more closely examine them. On the rise are the programs of Asia, most notably China and India. Both countries have developed sophisticated cryogenic rocket engines, launchers and spacecraft. Both operate several constellations of satellites for communication, Earth imaging and remote sensing, and China has its own navigation satellite constellation.
Students hold posters as they gather in support of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft in Mumbai on August 22, 2023. - Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images
In the International Space Station (ISS) partnership, the US, Europe, Japan and Canada also continue to move forward with space exploration. After years of delay and cost overruns, the Artemis I mission was finally launched last year and NASA has named the Artemis II crew which includes a Canadian astronaut. NASA plans to return humans to the Moon in the coming years, something that hasn’t happened since the last Apollo landing in 1972.
These countries also continue to launch satellites and other spacecraft. NASA continues, meanwhile, to operate rovers on Mars. And one of the most exciting developments in the West are the partnerships between commercial space companies and NASA.
SpaceX has been a NASA partner for many years, sending supplies and crew to the ISS. They are also developing a lunar lander for NASA, as is a team led by billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Several smaller companies are participating in contracts to provide spacecraft and services for lunar exploration, in what is proving to be a relentless forward push into space on multiple fronts.
Their program was arguably saved by the US, which supported the Mir space station and brought Russia into what became the ISS program, with cash for services and contracts to produce the core modules and other equipment.
Make no mistake, Russia has also been a key partner in the ISS program. They have provided crew and cargo transportation (including for my crew during Expedition-10), while the Space Shuttle was grounded after the Columbia accident.
In recent years, Russia has seen failures of Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and launchers, including the 2018 launch abort of Soyuz MS-10 which had US astronaut Nick Hague onboard. Luna-25 is just the latest in a string of failures. Thankfully, none of these has yet resulted in any deaths or injuries.
India's first attempt failed and Russia has also crashed a lander on the water-rich south pole.
"India is now on the moon," said Indian prime Minister Narendra Modi as engineers celebrated on Wednesday.
India on Wednesday achieved a historic feat in the history of space exploration: landing a robot on the moon's south pole.
"India is now on the moon," said Indian prime Minister Narendra Modi from South Africa, as engineers celebrated the nation's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landing on the south pole of the moon.
Watch the livestream of the mission in its final moments, with mission control erupting in applause and Prime Minister Narendra Modi cracking a smile as the lander touches down:
And a CGI rendering of what the landing could have looked like: A still from a livestream shows a 3D reconstitution of India's historic moon landing on August 23. India became the first nation to land a robotic mission to the crucial south pole of the Moon.ISRO
The landing means India beat Russia, China and the US, who have all announced missions to the south pole.
Whoever can mine that water-ice and break it down into oxygen and hydrogen, will then have the resources to lead future space exploration including building crewed bases on the moon and manufacturing rocket fuel for missions to Mars and beyond.
This is "a pretty significant achievement," Robert Braun, head of the Space Exploration Center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, told Insider. India and Russia tried and failed
Russia was the latest nation to fumble a lunar south-pole landing.
During a maneuver to push itself into an orbit that would carry it to its descent, the Luna-25 spacecraft fired its engines for too long, Roscosmos reported.
The agency lost contact with the spacecraft on Saturday and determined that it crashed into the moon.
Luna-25 joins the wreckage of India's failed first attempt.
If first you don't succeed try, try, again The landing attempt was India's second try.
Members of India's Bharatiya Janata Party perform Hindu rituals for the success of Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 inside a temple in Mumbai.Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo
Its space agency sent its first craft to the moon's south pole in September 2019. The Chandrayaan-2 mission dropped a lander called Vikram toward the lunar surface.
On its descent, just 1.3 miles above the moon's surface, the Vikram lander diverged from its intended path and lost communication with operators on Earth.
Later, NASA's lunar orbiter spotted the wreckage of Vikram on the moon below. India took another swing with Chandrayaan-3, and it worked.
As with any descent and landing operation, hundreds of pre-programmed actions had to go perfectly, in the correct sequence, for the spacecraft to make it to the surface intact and functioning. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan displays a model of Chandrayaan 2 orbiter and rover during a press conference at their headquarters in Bangalore, India.Aijaz Rahi/AP Photo
"Spaceflight is hard, and landing on another planetary surface is among the hardest things that we do in spaceflight. So it's the hardest of the hard," said Braun, who has worked on landing and descent teams for multiple NASA missions to Mars.
Correction August 23, 2023: An earlier version of this article misstated how many countries tried to land on the lunar south pole. Two countries have attempted this feat so far: India and Russia. Only India has succeeded. This post has also been updated to reflect the outcome of the Chandrayaan-3 moon landing. It was originally published on August 22, 2023.
How humans will colonise the Moon – and when it will happen
Boris Starling Thu, 24 August 2023 Like any Earth city, settlements would need supplies of energy and food
It was in 1962, 61 years ago, that President John F Kennedy pledged to put a man on the Moon before that decade was through. Now NASA has stated that humans will be living and working there within the next 10 years – an ambition that shuffled just a little closer to reality this week, after India became the first country to successfully land a craft near the Moon’s south pole.
If that sounds like an extraordinarily expensive, ferociously ambitious project, remember the words of President Kennedy, who, during that same speech, pointed out that humans choose to do these things, “not because they are easy, but because they are hard”. That sentiment remains as true today as it was then. Permanent lunar habitation will be one of the most difficult things mankind has ever done, and it poses several immediate questions.
For a start, where on the Moon would such a settlement be? Not everywhere on our friendly satellite is equal when it comes to settling there. Thanks to its orbital path, the Moon has a long day-night cycle, with each day or night lasting more than an Earth fortnight.
This means that the most likely place for human settlements is near one of the poles, where light is all but permanent, and the variations between temperature extremes are much less severe than in equatorial regions. There are also thought to be considerable water deposits at the poles – though Chinese scientists have just reported that glass beads found on the lunar surface contain water, raising the prospect of another potential source for astronauts to use for fuel and drink. Two specific sites often mentioned are Mount Malapert, near the south pole, and the rim of the Peary crater, near the north.
Experts from the Goddard Space Flight Center say that Mount Malapert is probably saturated with implanted hydrogen and helium. There’s a broad, smooth landing area, demonstrably in continuous microwave visibility of Earth (for tracking and communications). And, not far away, are permanently shaded areas to the south, which could be easily reached by a vehicle driven down the south flank of the mountain.
But if that doesn’t appeal, advantages of the rim of the Peary Crater (named after the polar explorer, Robert Peary) include its large, flat topography, surrounded by four mountainous regions on the rim – known as peaks of eternal light – which stay bright all lunar day. This light source means a relatively stable temperature and solar power.
Having chosen the location, accommodation would also likely take one of two forms: below the surface in subterranean lava tubes, or on the surface in biodomes. Underground has the advantage of greater protection from meteorite strikes and from solar radiation, which is around 200 times more powerful on the Moon than on Earth.
But overground offers easier access and transport, not to mention the mental fillip of being “outside”. A mixture of the two is most likely. Lunar buildings could be created with 3D-printing technology, using regolith – moon dust – as the primary construction material: it contains aluminium, silicon, iron, calcium, magnesium and titanium.
Like any Earth city, settlements would need supplies of energy and food – so where would they be found?
The former will come from a mixture of solar power (hence the need to be near the poles) and water (broken down into its constituent parts of hydrogen and oxygen to make propulsive fuel). At first, food would need to be brought from Earth, but eventually hydroponic crops and artificial food production should be ongoing concerns. Think Matt Damon in The Martian, cultivating potatoes and using biowaste to fertilise it.
The project may sound like a Hollywood plotline, but six space agencies have lunar ambitions: NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), Russia, China, Japan and India – as do individual billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Accommodating them all, beyond an initial smattering of scientists, will pose serious legal and practical problems, and will involve building a new society from scratch.
In legal terms, the Moon is currently under the jurisdiction of the 1966 Outer Space Treaty, which states that outer space is “not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty” and shall be “free for exploration and use by all states”. This treaty will obviously need to be renegotiated and hugely expanded, finding a way to balance the demands of individuals as wealthy and powerful as entire countries.
Whatever the mix of nations and cultures, every person there will have to deal with the huge physical and psychological consequences of living in one-sixth gravity and 250,000 miles from Earth. Most of these effects are as yet unknown. For example, our bodies have evolved in Earth gravity over tens of thousands of years: how will our musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems adapt to a much lighter force?
And while it’s true that astronauts have spent more than a year at a time on board the ISS (International Space Station), Earth has always loomed vast and comforting just below them; how will it feel when their home planet is little bigger in the lunar sky than the Moon is in ours? Psychologists already warn that astrophobia – fear of outer space itself – could be a future concern. Loneliness would surely be an immediate worry. The International Space Station looking like a white dot as it passes the Moon - Peter Byrne
With so many complicating factors, the idea of setting up colonies on the Moon does seem to be fantastical still. But the rewards of achieving the goal go far beyond President Kennedy’s suggestion that humans are driven by the need to achieve the impossible for its own sake.
He could not have imagined the space-suited conquistadors of the 21st century would have their eyes on quite a different, less noble prize. To be precise, Helium-3, an element vital for producing nuclear power.
Then again, that most cynical explanation is unlikely to justify the vast effort and expense of permanent lunar habitation. Estimates of cost vary hugely; but NASA has estimated that it costs $10,000 for every pound of equipment – whether you are weighing equipment, rice or souvenirs from home – it sends to the Moon. Online science project Wendover suggests a figure of $36 billion is needed to support four astronauts for a year, or about $100 million a day.
The true rationale and imperative is likely to be much more existential, predicated on the fear that, so long as we are confined to Earth, humanity has too many eggs in one rather fragile basket. The possibilities of nuclear war, pandemics and climate change make a back-up home somewhere between desirable and essential.
Earthrise, viewed from the 'Apollo 11' mission's lunar landing module in 1969 - NASA HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/REX
“Single-planet species don’t survive,” said John Young, the ninth man to walk on the moon. “Living off the planet is probably not a bad strategy for survival. Sooner or later it will be one of the motivations of having bases on the Moon.”
Nor is lunar habitation an end in itself, but the first step in off-world living and exploration: a jumping-off point for missions to Mars, other planets, and interstellar travel.
This, however, is not a matter of just a decade, but a long process. The ISS orbits 250 miles above Earth; the Moon is around 250,000 miles away; and Mars can at times be 250 million miles away. Each destination is therefore a thousand times further away than the previous one.
“You don’t want to send humans to the Moon,” said Andy Weir, author of The Martian. “You want to send robots. Humans are soft and squishy and they die. Robots are hard and nobody gets upset when they die.”
But we are going back, soft and squishy or not. “There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet,” Kennedy said in that 1962 speech. “Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again.” The second part still holds: how long the same can be said for the first part remains to be seen.
SCOTLAND Corbyn: I hope indyref2 will happen soon and Labour should support it
Craig Paton, PA Scotland Deputy Political Editor Thu, 24 August 2023
Jeremy Corbyn has said he hopes there is a referendum on Scottish independence “soon” and that a future Labour government would support it.
Speaking at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Islington North MP was questioned by a member of the audience about his stance on independence.
During his time as Labour leader, Mr Corbyn held a number of positions on Scottish independence, telling journalists during a visit north of the border in the lead-up to the 2019 election there would not be a vote on independence in the first term of a government he led, before saying later there would not be one “in the early years” of a new parliament.
At the event on Thursday, Mr Corbyn said he would not have allowed another referendum in the first two years of his premiership.
He told the crowd at the Freemason’s Hall in Edinburgh: “Yes, I do support the principle of having a referendum and I hope that happens soon.
Jeremy Corbyn, right, was speaking during an event at the Edinburgh Fringe (PA)
“I suspect the British Government will try and oppose it – I hope that a Labour majority would also support a referendum.
“I think it’s a democratic right to decide your own future.” Mr Corbyn later added: “My view is that if the people of Scotland want that referendum to defend their future, then they should have that right.
“I don’t think there should be a power of veto by the UK Government or the UK prime minister on this.
“I made clear before the 2019 election that if we went into government we would be accepting of the principle that if Scotland wanted a referendum after two years, that would be what we would agree to do – that’s what I said at the time and that’s what I stand by.”
Mr Corbyn – who was kicked out of Labour in a row over antisemitism – also told the event he had “been very badly treated” by the party, but he pledged to work for his constituents if he is returned to the seat at the next general election, which is expected next year.
SNP deputy Westminster leader Mhairi Black said: “The former Labour leader recognises it is wrong to deny Scotland its democratic right to choose its own future – it’s time Sir Keir Starmer woke up to that reality.
“Scotland’s future should be decided by the people who live here, and not by those in the pro-Brexit, pro-austerity Westminster establishment, who we in Scotland have rejected at elections time and again.”
Watch ‘curious’ sea creature hang out with jet skiers in Australia. ‘Magic encounter’
Moira Ritter Wed, August 23, 2023 Photo by Sean on Unsplash
Linda Reynolds and Vicki Jenkins were out on a Jet Ski south of Australia’s Gold Coast when they got a surprising visit from a huge creature.
A massive humpback whale swam up to the women, and it stayed for about an hour, Reynolds said in an Aug. 20 Instagram post.
“This humpback just couldn’t leave us alone,” Reynolds wrote in a comment on her post. “He was so curious and so gentle. He came back to the ski, over and over and over again. One of the best days of my life.”
“It was a truly beautiful and breathtaking encounter. He hung around for over an hour,” she wrote in another comment. “I’m exhausted tonight. Mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally.
A video shows the whale bobbing in and out of the ocean just feet in front of the ski.
“A dream came true for me today,” Reynolds captioned the video.
As Reynolds and Jenkins “played” with the creature, a photographer happened to catch their encounter on a drone.
“Just on time to capture this magic encounter with enormous humpback whale connecting and playing with this two lucky girls,” Wavedraline wrote on Instagram.
“The whale approached by itself and had energy to play and connect with these two people, this happens very rarely, so if you are sailing and a whale approaches you should turn off your engine and let the whale take its course. In this case the whale decided to play because did not feel disturbed,” the account said.
Instagram users shared their excitement about the interactions on Reynolds’ post.
