The job of space agencies like NASA isn’t only to research scientific topics and to push forward space exploration — it’s also to communicate with the public about that work, and to get them excited for space research. To that end, NASA frequently hosts events like astronauts in space answering questions from school children, collaborating with citizen science projects, or encouraging amateur astronomers and curious stargazers to participate in astronomical events. Now, the agency’s latest push to engage young people is to go where many of them are: on Twitch.
NASA will host its first Twitch event from the International Space Station next week, in a move hoping to draw in a new audience interested in space science and research. The event will have NASA astronauts currently living on the space station talk about their life on board and the work that they’re doing, and give Twitch viewers the opportunity to ask them questions.
The event is scheduled for Wednesday, February 12 at 11:45 a.m. ET, and will be streamed on NASA’s Twitch channel.
NASA officials say they hope they can attract new people to their work with the event. “This Twitch event from space is the first of many,” said Brittany Brown, director, Office of Communications Digital and Technology Division, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We spoke with digital creators at TwitchCon about their desire for streams designed with their communities in mind, and we listened. In addition to our spacewalks, launches, and landings, we’ll host more Twitch-exclusive streams like this one. Twitch is one of the many digital platforms we use to reach new audiences and get them excited about all things space.”
The event will include astronaut Don Pettit, who is currently living on the space station and recently took an incredible photo of the view from orbit, and astronaut Matt Dominick, who finished up his rotation on the station last year — and who is also known for his stunning photography.
As well as this Twitch event and frequent other streams like astronauts hosting events from the space station, there is also a 24/7 stream available on YouTube of the views from the ISS and video from the ISS, which includes inside views of the crew at work as well as views of Earth as seen from space.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.