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Letting AI models communicate with each other in their internal mathematical language, rather than translating back and forth to English, could accelerate their task-solving abilities

China's Chang'e 8 mission to test resource technologies at the moon's south pole is taking shape — and may even include a humanoid form.

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Space tourism here is here to stay, and will likely remain a permanent fixture of near-Earth activities for the foreseeable future. But is it worth it? 

While for decades private individuals have been able to negotiate with national space agencies to get rides to the International Space Station, it wasn’t until the advent of private aerospace that many more opportunities opened up. With wealthy billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson all creating their own rocket companies, it changed the playing field. Now if you are a private individual wanting to take a hop into space you can shop around with a lot more options.

While Elon Musk’s SpaceX does not have a stated goal of space tourism, if you are willing to front the money you can get a ride on a Crew Dragon capsule, like Jared Isaacman recently did with his Polaris Dawn mission. On the other end of the spectrum, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is explicitly designed around space tourism. They offer short sub-orbital hops for a few hundred thousand dollars each.

Space tourism certainly has several positives. For one there is more interest and activity in space which generally brings positive attention to the industry. Second, by companies chasing after a new market niche, these companies are developing new technologies and approaches which can have further beneficial effects on the larger industry. Lastly, there’s the well-reported “overview effect” where people finally get a view of our fragile home planet and gain a new perspective on what is important in human life.

On the other hand, it’s not exactly like many people get to be space tourists. Even the cheapest tickets are comparable to the cost of a home, making it inaccessible to all but the wealthiest people in our society. So it’s not like many people are getting to appreciate the view or participate in this new market. In fact, space tourism can lead to negative feelings as people just think of space as the province of the rich and elite.

Lastly, there are precious few dollars available for rocket development and space exploration. Many might argue that these dollars would be better suited to scientific exploration or experimental development of new technologies rather than creating a new pastime for the ultra wealthy.

Ultimately space tourism is going to be a thing whether we like it or not. It’s also not going to be a big thing. For the foreseeable future it will remain incredibly expensive, and most rocket companies are more interested in scientific and industrial pursuits in low-Earth orbit and beyond. So either way, whether it’s a good or bad thing, it’s simply not going to make a huge difference.

The post Space Tourism: The Good, The Bad, The Meh appeared first on Universe Today.

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Hubble Takes a Look at Tangled Galaxies This Hubble image features a pair of interacting spiral galaxies called MCG+05-31-045. ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz)
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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image depicts the cosmic tangle that is MCG+05-31-045, a pair of interacting galaxies located 390 million light-years away and a part of the Coma galaxy cluster.

The Coma Cluster is a particularly rich cluster that contains over a thousand known galaxies. Amateur astronomers can easily spot several of these in a backyard telescope (See Caldwell 35). Most of them are elliptical galaxies, and that’s typical of a dense galaxy cluster like the Coma Cluster: many elliptical galaxies form through close encounters between galaxies that stir them up, or even collisions that rip them apart. While the stars in interacting galaxies can stay together, their gas is twisted and compressed by gravitational forces and rapidly used up to form new stars. When the hot, massive, blue stars die, there is little gas left to form new generations of young stars to replace them. As spiral galaxies interact, gravity disrupts the regular orbits that produce their striking spiral arms. Whether through mergers or simple near misses, the result is a galaxy almost devoid of gas, with aging stars orbiting in uncoordinated circles: an elliptical galaxy.

It’s very likely that a similar fate will befall MCG+05-31-045. As the smaller spiral galaxy is torn up and integrated into the larger galaxy, many new stars will form, and the hot, blue ones will quickly burn out, leaving cooler, redder stars behind in an elliptical galaxy, much like others in the Coma Cluster. But this process won’t be complete for many millions of years.

Explore more Coma Cluster images from Hubble.

• Hubble Uncovers Thousands of Globular Star Clusters Scattered Among Galaxies
• Hubble’s Galaxies With Knots, Bursts
• Hubble Sees Near and Far
• Hubble Sees Plunging Galaxy Losing Its Gas
• Hubble Catches Galaxies Swarmed by Star Clusters

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Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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Last Updated

Nov 15, 2024

Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Related Terms

• Astrophysics
• Astrophysics Division
• Hubble Space Telescope
• Spiral Galaxies

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