Timeline of Movies and TV Series About Space

NOTE: Some years are my best estimates
• 1719 Prey (2022 sci-fi)
• 1944–1949 Space Race (2005 BBC documentary series) Episode 1: "Race For Rockets"
• 1947-1963 The Right Stuff (1983)
• 1953–1958 Space Race (2005 BBC documentary series) Episode 2: "Race For Satellites"
• 1959–1961 Space Race (2005 BBC documentary series) Episode 3: "Race For Survival"
• 1963 Ascension (2014 sci-fi series)
• 1964–1969 Space Race (2005 BBC documentary series) Episode 4: "Race for the Moon"
• 1965-1966 Project Gemini: Bridge to the Moon (2008 documentary)
• 1968 - 1970 Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo (2017 documentary)
• 1968 - 1972 In the Shadow of the Moon (2007)
• 1969 Apollo 12 (1996)
• 1970 Apollo 13 (1995)
• 1970 Apollo 13 (1994 documentary)
• 1970 13 Factors that Saved Apollo 13 (2014 documentary)
• 1970 Marooned (1970 sci-fi)
• 1977 - Present The Farthest: Voyager in Space (2017 documentary)
• 1977 Starman (1984 sci-fi)
• 1987 Predator (1987 sci-fi)
• 1997 Kingdom of Saturn: Cassini's Epic Quest (2017 documentary)
• 1997 Predator 2 (1990 sci-fi)
• 1998 - 2021 The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station (2021 documentary)
• 1999 Galaxy Quest (1999 sci-fi comedy)
• 2000 and 1958 Space cowboys (2000 sci-fi)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968 sci-fi)
• 2003 Farscape (1999 sci-fi series)
• 2003 Space Disasters (2016 documentary series) Episode 6 Return to Disaster - Columbia 2003 Space Disasters (2016 TV Documentary series) Episode 2 Mars or Bust - Mars Exploration Rover
• 2003 Space Disasters (2016 documentary series) Episode 3 Space Shuttle Shuffle – Space Mistakes
• 2004 Space Disasters (2016 documentary series) Episode 4 The End Of Genesis
• 2004 Space Disasters (2016 documentary series) Episode 5 Trains, Rockets and Pains
• 2004 Alien vs. Predator (2004 sci-fi)
• 2005 Wild Wild Space (2024 documentary)
• 2007 Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007 sci-fi)
• 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984 sci-fi)
• ~2010s Gravity (2013 sci-fi)
• 2010 The Search For Life: The Drake Equation (2010 documentary)
• 2011 Space Disasters (2016 documentary series) Episode 1 Return to Disaster - Second return to flight test after Columbia
• 2013 Exploding Sun (2013 sci-fi)
• 2013 Origin Unknown (2018 sci-fi)
• 2017 Órbita 9 (2017 sci-fi Spanish with English subtitles)
• 2019 The Beyond (2017 sci-fi)
• 2021 Invasion (2021 sci-fi series)
• 2024 Solis (2018 sci-fi)
• 2025 Pluribus (2025 sci-fi series)
• 2028 The Cloverfield Paradox (2018 sci-fi)
• 2033 MARS (2016 documentary and sci-fi series)
• 2034 Extant (2014 sci-fi series)
• 2035 The Martian (2015 sci-fi)
• 2035 Moon (2009 sci-fi)
• 2039 Love (2011 sci-fi)
• ~2040s The Last Days on Mars (2013 sci-fi)
• 2046 Europa Report (2013 sci-fi)
• ~2040s Forbidden Planet (1956 sci-fi)
• 2046 Lost in Space (1998 sci-fi)
• 2046 Lost in Space (2018 sci-fi series)
• 2048 The Titan (2018 sci-fi)
• 2060 Outcasts (2011 sci-fi series)
• ~2060s Gattaca (1997 sci-fi)
• 2093 Prometheus (2012 sci-fi)
• 2104 Alien: Covenant (2017 sci-fi)
• 2122 Alien (1979 sci-fi)
• 2142 Alien: Romulus (2024 sci-fi)
• ~2100s Dark Space (2013 sci-fi)
• ~2100s Solaris (1972 sci-fi Russian: Солярис, Solyaris)
• ~2100s Solaris (2002 sci-fi)
• ~2100s Arrowhead (2015 sci-fi also released as Alien Arrival)
• ~2100s Battle for Terra (2007 sci-fi)
• 2149 Terra Nova (2011 sci-fi series)
• 2151-2155 Star Trek: Enterprise (2001 sci-fi series)
• 2168 Lifepod (1993 sci-fi)
• 2170 Raised by Wolves (2020 sci-fi series)
• 2179 Aliens (1986 sci-fi)
• 2179 Alien 3 (1992 sci-fi)
• 2192 Earth 2 (1994 sci-fi series)
• ~2200s Infini (2015 sci-fi)
• 2256-2258 Star Trek: Discovery (2017 sci-fi series) Seasons 1, 2
• 2257 Babylon 5 (1994 sci-fi series)
• 2259-TBD Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022 sci-fi series)
• 2265-2269 Star Trek: The Original Series (1966 sci-fi series)
• 2267 Cargo Space is Cold (2012 sci-fi)
• 2269-2270 Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973 sci-fi series)
• 2270s Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979 sci-fi)
• 2285 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982 sci-fi)
• 2285 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984 sci-fi)
• 2286 and 1986 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986 sci-fi)
• 2287 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989 sci-fi)
• 2293 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991 sci-fi)
• 2297 Starship Troopers (1997 sci-fi)
• 2364-2370 Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 sci-fi series)
• 2293 Star Trek Generations (1994 sci-fi)
• 2373 Star Trek: First Contact (1996 sci-fi)
• 2375 Star Trek: Insurrection (1998 sci-fi)
• 2379 Star Trek: Nemesis (2002 sci-fi)
• 2369-2375 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993 sci-fi series)
• 2371-2378 Star Trek: Voyager (1995 sci-fi series)
• 2380-TBD Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020 sci-fi series)
• 2381 Alien: Resurrection (1997 sci-fi)
• 2383-TBD Star Trek: Prodigy (2021 sci-fi series)
• 2399-2402 Star Trek: Picard (2020 sci-fi series)
• 2517 Firefly (2002 sci-fi series)
• 2517 Serenity (2005 sci-fi)
• ~2600s Dark Matter (2015 sci-fi series)
• 2654 Wing Commander (1999 sci-fi)
• 3188-3191 Star Trek: Discovery (2020 sci-fi series) Seasons 3, 4, 5
• 150,000 Caprica (2011 sci-fi series)
• 150,500 BattleStar Galactica: The Mini-Series (2003 sci-fi)
• 150,510 Battlestar Galactica (2004 sci-fi series)

Mastodon And The Fediverse

If you already have an account in the Fediverse, you might want to follow one of my accounts. I separate my interests and toots by topic:

https://gluck.cc/@calvin STEM fun topics

https://gluck.cc/@tech computer work stuff

https://gluck.cc/@w7kyg amateur radio

https://gluck.cc/@news current events politics

If you don’t yet have a Fediverse account then I recommend using the following tools while you can. 

First figure out where most of your Twitter friends hang out in the Fediverse.

First go to https://debirdify.pruvisto.org
 

Click “Authorise With Twitter”, enter your Twitter account and password if prompted and then “Authorize Debirdify to access your account”.

Follow the prompts and you’ll eventually see information including data visualization shown below.

You may have a better experience with “local” and “federated” feeds if you create account(s) on servers (instances) where most of your favorite Twitter follows are. Read the “about” page for instances that look like they might focus on some of your interests. Add “/about” to the end of the instance name to read server rules, moderation information and other information the owners/moderators are willing to share.

EXAMPLE: https://astrodon.social/about

Take special notice if they share “Moderated servers”, donation information or location or legal jurisdiction information. It can be frustrating if the moderation team doesn’t let you know when they decide to block instances of people you interact with.

Next, add “/local/public” to the end of an instance name to review recent posts from people who are local to that instance.

EXAMPLE: https://astrodon.social/public/local

If you like what you see, go back to the instance home page and request an account. Be polite, follow people who post interesting things in the local and federated timelines,. Click those stars to let the author of the post know that you “like” or “favorite” their posts. “Boost” is similar to retweet. Be patient as you get used to how things work and the unique culture of the Fediverse.

House NASA authorization bill changes Moon Mars and Gateway priorities

Yesterday the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee introduced H.R.­­ 5666, the “National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2020” that would cause a significant shift in priorities if passed into law.

There are many proposals in this bill which are improvements over the current "plan" that NASA calls "Moon to Mars". I wanted to share some of the most interesting improvements I see. There are several changes to important deadlines.

"The Moon to Mars program shall have the interim goal of sending a crewed mission to the lunar surface by 2028 and a goal of sending a crewed mission to orbit Mars by 2033." It's much more reasonable to safely land aeronauts on the Moon by 2028 than the 2024 deadline that was announced by Mike Pence.

I think the best sentence in this bill is, "The Gateway to Mars shall not be required for the conduct of human lunar landing missions."  I'm disappointed that the Gateway is still part of the proposed plan, but this bill allows Astronauts to land on the Moon without the increased cost and risk of stopping at the Gateway along the way. 

The requirement to build a Gateway is a boondoggle. Let me briefly explain why. Let's use the SpaceX Starship as the example of a Moon and Mars direct mission. SpaceX plans for Starship to go directly to the Moon and Mars without stopping to dock with a space station along the way. 

Somehow the Aerospace industry convinced members of Congress to require that a space station called "Gateway" be assembled in orbit around the Moon and to force every mission to dock with the space station before descending to the lunar surface. Robert Zubrin has aptly nicknamed it a "tollbooth" because it adds significant cost and risk with little benefit. 

So, this bill still requires that a Gateway be built but it allows the astronauts to go direct to the Moon and reduces the chance that we will kill those astronauts by rushing to get "boots on the Moon" with an unnecessary stop at the Gateway. 

I think there is a fun loophole in the language that might allow the "Gateway" space station to be near Mars rather than in orbit around the Moon. As this bill is currently written, I would argue that it could allow the Gateway to be positioned at any number of Lagrangian points in the solar system. If the Gateway was positioned at the Sun-Mars L1 or L2 Lagrangian point then it wouldn't be as stupid as putting it in orbit around the Moon.

Let me explain the loophole. The bill says, "The Moon to Mars Program shall consist of" ... "A Gateway to Mars in cis-lunar space or at a Lagrangian point". The bill defines the term ‘‘cis-lunar space’’ as "the region of space from the Earth out to and including the region around the surface of the Moon." It does not provide any legal definition of "Lagrangian point", nor does it elaborate on any requirement about which Lagrangian point at which the Gateway must be positioned. Also, one could argue that if the Gateway had an orbit closely around the Lagrangian point that it would technically be "at" the Lagrangian point.

I think they probably intended to suggest that the Gateway could be placed at one of the Earth-Moon Lagrangian points but they that. I'm not sure if this loophole was intentional, but it could significantly increase the value of the Gateway by putting it at the Earth-Mars L1, L2, L4 or L5 points near Mars. 

It's also great to see that this bill is bipartisan. It's co-sponsored by Chairwoman Kendra Horn (D-OK) along with Ranking Member Brian Babin (R-TX), Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), and Ranking Member Frank Lucas (R-OK).  Horn said, “Space should not be a partisan issue, and I am proud of the across-the-aisle teamwork which made this legislation possible. Americans should be the first to set foot on the red planet, and H.R. 5666 moves us closer to that goal by directing a steady and sustainable course of action."

This bill will also, "require at least one uncrewed and one crewed in-space test and demonstration prior to its use to carry astronauts to the surface of the Moon and a plan for testing of a Mars human lander in a suitable environment." That's going to reduce the risk that we kill astronauts.

It's also great to see that they recommend several other requirements be removed from the "Moon to Mars" program because they are not helpful to the goal of landing on Mars. Below are the important excerpts.

"Any establishment of a continuously crewed lunar outpost or research station shall not be considered an element of the Moon to Mars Program and shall be budgeted separately from the Moon to Mars program."

"Crewed activities on or around the surface of the Moon that do not contribute to the goal of landing humans on Mars in as sustainable manner as practical shall not be included in the Moon to Mars Program and shall be budgeted separately from the Moon to Mars Program."

"Lunar in-situ resource utilization shall not be considered as risk reduction for the initial crewed missions to orbit and land on Mars. Any lunar in-situ resource utilization activities and shall not be included in the Moon to Mars Program and shall be budgeted separately from the Moon to Mars Program."

Those are the significant changes I was able to find. Did you read the bill? What other interesting changes did I miss?

System Integrity Protection in Mac OS 10.15 causes Operation not permitted errors

I am still suffering many pains related to my recent transition to a new MacBook that is running the latest Mac OS 10.15 Catalina OS.

Today I wasted hours learning about "System Integrity Protection" changes in Catalina that cause unix system utilities such as cron to get "Operation not permitted" errors when they try to access certain system paths.

This is described by Apple on this web page and provides a list of paths that are restricted:

System Integrity Protection includes protection for these parts of the system:

• /System
• /usr
• /bin
• /sbin
• /var

Apps that are pre-installed with OS X
Paths and apps that third-party apps and installers can continue to write to include:

• /Applications
• /Library
• /usr/local

I learned about this because any script and all child processes that are executed by cron will get "Operation not permitted" errors until you grant them access.

Open "System Preferences" > "Security & Privacy" > "Privacy" > "Full Disk Access".
Open Finder, click "Go" > "Go to Folder...", type in the path that includes the utility in and drag the utility into the list to grant "Full Disk Access".

You have to go out of your way to add cron and each system utility and application to be granted "Full Disk Access".

See /System/Library/Sandbox/rootless.conf for a complete list of protected paths.

I understand that most Mac users aren't UNIX nerds and don't use these features. I understand that restricting access for these utilities has probably reduced the security risk from malware and cyberattacks.

However, I still have to ask why does Apple make these radical changes in every new release of Mac OS and why do they not have clear documentation about the impacts and work-arounds? There must be UNIX nerds at Apple who experience these same pains and they could make sure that documentation is updated.

I can't find any way from the command-line to make these updates or to list which applications are granted access.  I can only do it in the GUI with these exact steps.  I also can't figure out how to modify the list of paths that are guarded by System Integrity Protection.  I wish I could modify the list of paths that each utility and application are allowed to access.  Please let me know if you figure out how these things.

Zero-G Blood And The Many Horrors Of Space Surgery

In Expanse Season 3 Episode 11 "Fallen World", a medic described the risks of injury in microgravity. He said, "there is nothing you can do for the wounded in zero G except ease their pain. Without gravity, wounds can't drain. Blood pools and clots, tissue swells, any internal bleeding in a death sentence." I wondered if there were medical studies that supported this theory. Here's what I found.

Source: Vice

no astronaut has ever had a major injury or needed surgery in space. If humans ever again venture past low Earth orbit and outward toward, say, Mars, someone is going to get hurt. 

...

In space, blood can splatter even more than it usually does on Earth, unconstrained by gravity. Or it can pool into a kind of dome around a wound or incision, making it hard to see the actual trauma. (Fun fact: If you are bleeding more than 100 milliliters per minute, you are probably doomed.)

Favorite Movies and TV Series About Space

Below is a list of space themed movies and TV series that I recommend and challenge everyone to watch as many as possible.  Some are excellent and others are terrible, but all are recommended for various reasons.  These documentaries have tremendous educational value, much of this science fiction is based upon a combination of settled science, theoretical concepts, speculation and scientifically impossible events.  As I watch these, over and again, I will share notes with careful warnings about spoiler alerts that should be reviewed after your first viewing.

The next few decades will be paramount in the history of human space travel. Be entertained while educating and preparing yourself mentally for the complex scientific and ethical challenges we will experience in our lifetime.

Movies About Space Exploration:

The Right Stuff (1983) Prime Video - This is the story of the space program from the tie when Chuck Yaeger broke to sound barrier through Project Mercury.

Project Gemini: Bridge to the Moon - Documentary about Gemini.

In the Shadow of the Moon (2007) - This is a Documentary about the Apollo astronauts who landed on the moon.

Apollo 12 (1996) - Documentary about Apollo 12 with interviews of all three crewmembers and top officials.

Apollo 13 - The story of Apollo 13 from the perspective of the astronauts and Mission Control.

Apollo 13 (1994) - Documentary about Apollo 13

13 Factors that Saved Apollo 13 - This is an amazing documentary of the disastrous Apollo 13 mission.

Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo - Great

Space Station
The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station -This documentary features stunning visuals and interviews with astronauts to build a snapshot of life on the International Space Station.

The Farthest: Voyager in Space - This 2017 documentary tells the 40 year history of the Voyager 1 and 2 probes from design and launch in 1977 to their exploration of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, until they left our solar system and are now in interstellar space. It won Best Feature Documentary at Ireland's 2018 IFTA Film and Drama Awards.

Kingdom of Saturn: Cassini's Epic Quest Prime Video - Documentary about the Cassini spacecraft.

The Martian - An astronaut fights to survive after he is stranded on Mars.

Gravity (2013) Prime Video - A routine spacewalk becomes disastrous when satellites collide and cause a cascade of collisions in low earth orbit.  Debris destroys the shuttle and space stations and astronauts struggle to survive.

Space cowboys (2000) Prime Video - Forty years after their original space mission was scrapped, a retired Air Force "space cowboy" leads a group of former astronauts on a dangerous mission.

2001: A Space Odyssey Prime Video - Director Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece about a space voyage to Jupiter with a misbehaving computer control system.  NOTE: Do some reading about a "Von Neumann Probe" as that's what I think the monoliths are.

2010: The Year We Make Contact Prime Video - An American astronaut is sent on a joint U.S.-Soviet space mission to Jupiter to find out what happened to the missing crew of the original Jupiter mission.

Galaxy Quest Prime Video - The alumni cast of a cult space TV show have to play their roles as the real thing when an alien race needs their help.

Moon (2009) Prime Video - Sam Bell is alone on the Moon, nearing the end of his 3-year-long contract with Lunar Industries, mining Earth's primary source of energy on the dark side of the moon.

Solaris (1972) (Russian with English Subtitles) Prime Video - Ground control has been receiving mysterious transmissions from the three remaining residents of the Solaris space station. A cosmonaut and psychologist are dispatched to investigate.

Solaris (2002) Prime Video - A psychologist investigates mysterious happenings aboard a space station in this remake of the Russian sci-fi classic.

Europa Report - An international crew goes on a privately funded mission to search for life in the sea under the ice on Jupiter's moon Europa.

2013 Origin Unknown (2018) Prime Video - After a deadly crash a mission commander assists an artificial intelligence system to uncover mysterious object under the surface of mars.

The Last Days on Mars - Astronauts discover fossilized evidence of life on Mars.

Love (2011) Netflix, Prime Video - An astronaut spends years alone on the space station wondering what happened after loosing radio contact with Earth.

Marooned (1970) - Three astronauts are unable to reenter Earth's atmosphere.

Stranded - The crew of a lunar space station battles a shape-shifting alien life form.

Forbidden Planet (1956) Prime Video - A dutiful robot named Robby speaks 188 languages. An underground lair provides astonishing evidence of a populace a million years more advanced than Earthlings.

Lost in Space (1998) - See also the TV Series in the list below.  The Robinson family After crash-landing on an alien planet, the Robinson family fight against all odds to survive and escape, but they're surrounded by hidden dangers.go to space and struggle to survive as they find a way home.

Serenity - First watch the Firefly TV series listed below and then see Joss Whedon's movie.

Gattaca - A young man who is born naturally aspires to be an astronaut in a world where one must be genetically engineered to qualify for the space program and many other aspects of society.

Wing Commander - Two young space fighter pilots must warn Earth about an attack from an evil empire.

Starship Troopers - Warriors travel to the home world of giant bugs that spit fire, eat brains and attacked Earth.

Alien Arrival - An escaped prisoner crash-landed on a moon where she struggles to survive.

The Beyond (2018) Prime Video - Astronauts are augmented with robotics and sent through a wormhole.

The Titan - Much of the Earth is uninhabitable due to overpopulation, climate change and nuclear fallout. Scientists perform genetic engineering experiments on volunteers from the military in an attempt to evolve the human race for life on Titan.

The Cloverfield Paradox - A multinational crew test a particle accelerator with hopes of solving an energy crisis but the experiment goes terribly wrong.

Exploding Sun - An experimental space shuttle is hit by a solar flare during its maiden voyage and hurtles toward the sun.

Infini - An elite search and rescue team investigate a biological outbreak on an off-world mining-facility.

Cargo Space is Cold (2012) Prime Video - (Deutsch with English Subtitles)

Orbiter 9 (Spanish with English subtitles) - A young girl spent all her life in a space pod after her birth and is traveling from Earth to a distant planet.

Battle for Terra - This is an animation about the peaceful aliens on a planet that face destruction by the surviving humans who want to settle there.

Dark Space - Six young friends go on a leisure spacecraft and try to survive after crash-landing on an alien planet.

The Search For Life: The Drake Equation - This is a good documentary about the Frank Drake's equation and how is is used in our search for life on other worlds.

Lifepod (1993) - This is a futuristic retelling of Hitchcock's classic thriller in which nine passengers escape a luxury space liner that is destroyed.

Solis (2018) - An asteroid mining engineer wakes up in an escape pod that is hurtling toward the Sun.

Incoming - Not very good? I didn't finish it.

Predator and Alien movies - See IMDB for recommended viewing chronological order. Viewing in order of release date jumps around in time and seems very disjointed.

Alien: Covenant (2017) IMDB, Prime Video -

Movies About Topics That Might Be Of Interest If You Like Space Exploration:

This is intended as a section for movies that get an honorable mention from me because they seem related to space but there are very few or no scenes about space.

Starman (1984) - Prime Video Jeff Bridges stars as an alien from a distant planet who accepts the invitation found on the gold record installed on the Voyager 2 space probe and visits Earth.

TV Series About Space Exploration:

Space Race - This BBC documentary miniseries covers the space race from the end of World War II until the Moon Landing.  I strongly suggest this series for exposure to some of the lessor known and more uncomfortable parts of history such as Wernher von Braun's complicity in war crimes.

MARS (2016) - National Geographic channel created this amazing mix of documentary and sci-fi about the first to explore, colonize and mine Mars.

Disasters in Space Prime Video - Documentary about how NASA dealt with many disasters

BattleStar Galactica: The Mini-Series (2003) - This is a reboot of the original series from the 70s.

Battlestar Galactica (2004) - Watch the Mini-Series First, then this series and finally Caprica.

Caprica (2011) - This is a prequel to the Battlestar Galactica reboot series.

Star Trek: Enterprise - This series is a prequel to the original Star Trek series and movies from the 1960s.  The Enterprise pre-dates the United Federation of Planets

Star Trek: Discovery - This series comes chronologically after Enterprise and before the original series.

Star Trek: The Original Series - 

Star Trek: The Next Generation

The 100 - Post-apocalyptic life on space stations and return to Earth

Lost in Space (2018)  See also the 1998 movie in the list above.  Human survival on Earth is at risk and the Robinson family are among the few who pass tests and are selected to make a new life for themselves in a better world.

Extant (2014) Astronaut Molly Woods (Halle Berry) tries to reconnect with her husband, John (Goran Visnjic), and son Ethan (Pierce Gagnon) , after returning home to earth after a 13-month solo mission in outer space. The series integrates memories from missions throughout her career and shared experiences with other astronauts and scientists. Astronaut Harmon Kryger (Brad Beyer), doctor Sam Barton (Camryn Manheim) 

Ascension - This series follows a secret century-long mission that launches in 1963 to colonize a new world.

Farscape - An astronaut accidentally passes through a wormhole and spends the series with alien fugitives on a sentient spaceship.

Firefly - This cult series follows the eclectic crew of a small ship called the Serenity.

Babylon 5 - A giant spaceship serves as a sort of UN in space where ambassadors from many alien races meet and work out their differences.

The New Frontier - Each episode covers a Space Exploration topic.

Dark Matter - The crew of a ship awakens with no memories, suspect each other and have to slowly get to now each other and build trust.  They learn about evil corporations that rule the galaxy as they visit many space stations and worlds.

Terra Nova - Refugees from Earth land and settle on a mysterious planet.

Outcasts - Refugees from a nuclear devastated Earth settle on a planet

Earth 2 - Explorers establish an outpost on a planet where they face hostile natives.


TV Series About Topics That Might Be Of Interest If You Like Space Exploration:

Ancient Aliens - This series discusses theories about why some believe that aliens may have visited Earth in the ancient past.  Ancient alien theories could solve many mysteries on Earth. You'll learn about the similarities in design features that have been discovered at the ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire in India, the Mayan cities in Latin America and the Pyramids in Egypt.  You'll also hear theories about some of the design features that cannot be reproduced with modern technology.

The 4400 - People disappear across multiple decades and are all returned at once.  Everybody thinks it was aliens.  Interesting topics include genetic engineering, special powers, time and/or space travel.

Continuum - A detective from the future travels to present day Vancouver in search of terrorists from the future. Interesting topics include time travel.

You Bunch Of Idiots, Bill Requiring Encryption Backdoors Will Damage Australia's IT Industry.

Many in the Australian IT industry have signed an open letter to the Australian Labor Party condemning their recent passage of a bill that requires encryption backdoors.

Source: ALP.fail

Words cannot describe how angry we feel after your gutless and spineless decision to blindly support the Government's so-called "Assistance and Access Bill" (#aabill). ...

You let us down. You let the entire industry down.

You have shown us what you really are - a bunch of spineless weasels.

Every tech expert agrees that the so-called "Assistance and Access Bill" will do significant damage to Australia's IT industry.

It weakens security for everyone. We do not want to deliberately build backdoors or make our products insecure. This means everyone else's data will be vulnerable. ...

You have made it harder for international companies to hire Australian talent, or have offices in Australia filled with Australian talent. Companies such as Amazon, Apple, Atlassian, Microsoft, Slack, Zendesk and others now have to view their Australian staff and teams as "potentially compromised". This is because law enforcement can force a person to build a backdoor and they cannot tell their bosses. They might sack them and leave Australia because of the law you just passed.

You have also just made it almost impossible to export Australian tech services because no-one wants a potentially vulnerable system that might contain a backdoor. Who in their right mind will buy a product like that? ...

We are against the bill because it is a destructive and shortsighted law. In addition, most of (if not all) the services that law enforcement want to target with this law are based outside of Australia. This law is effectively useless in forcing them to build backdoors or break encryption. ...

We Urgently Need a Legal Framework for Space Colonisation

Season 2 of National Geographic Channel's MARS TV series prominently features space colonization governance challenges and how those might complicate the exploration and exploitation of other worlds.

So, this article by Marko Kovic comes at a convenient time for those of us who are watching MARS. Kovic discusses four significant challenges that humankind will face in various stages of our settlement and occupation beyond low Earth orbit. Below are a few excerpts. 

Source: Aeon

There is no meaningful space-colonisation governance framework to speak of. As of now, in 2018, space colonisation is a veritable free-for-all.

From a conceptual, birds-eye view, however, possible space-colonisation governance problems fall into one of four general categories.

First, we need to answer a deceptively simple question: who is allowed to engage in colonisation activities? 

when one or several colonies become truly sustainable, a third question emerges: what do we do with colonies that want to secede and become independent? 

Finally, we will need an answer to the fourth question: how exactly should different independent human habitats such as Earth, Mars, Venus or others interact with one another?

In theory, the first question, regarding who is allowed to engage in space colonisation, is addressed in the Outer Space Treaty from 1967

it is more of a symbolic agreement than a detailed governance structure. It does not really solve the problem of who is allowed to engage in space colonisation.

The second challenge, the problem of governance within early colonies, is also touched upon by the Outer Space Treaty. The jurisdiction of any spacecraft and any personnel on that spacecraft, the treaty stipulates, is the jurisdiction of the spacecraft’s and/or the personnel’s country of origin.

Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has proposed direct democracy as the governance system for a future Mars colony in which all colonists directly exert law-making power instead of appointing representatives in legislative bodies.

should early colonies move in the other direction by adopting some kind of authoritarian framework in order to simply get things done? 

Governance within early colonies should, ideally, find a middle ground between sound democratic decision making and technocratic expertise and analysis

The third challenge of colonisation governance, the problem of secession and independence, could prove to be a crucial juncture in the future of humankind. 

The fourth and quite possibly biggest governance challenge of space colonisation arises: the problem of pan- human governance. 

A good approach might be to continue using the system that we currently have, and try to expand it in order to incorporate the new layer of extraterrestrial expansion. 

Organics on Ceres may be more abundant than originally thought

A new study concluded that organic material on Ceres could be greater in concentration than previously thought. This is important information for scientists to consider as they evaluate data from two sample return missions over the next few years.

The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 is scheduled for orbital insertion around asteroid Ryugu in July, survey for a year and a half, land at least once, and return to Earth in December 2020.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled for orbital insertion around the asteroid Bennu in August with two years of planned survey, landing at least once and returning to Earth in September 2023.

Source: Brown University

“What this paper shows is that you can get really different results depending upon the type of organic material you use to compare with and interpret the Ceres data,” said Hannah Kaplan, a postdoctoral researcher at the Southwest Research Institute who led the research while completing her Ph.D. at Brown. “That’s important not only for Ceres, but also for missions that will soon explore asteroids that may also contain organic material.”

"Organic molecules are the chemical building blocks for life. Their detection on Ceres doesn’t mean life exists there or ever existed there; non-biological processes can give rise to organic molecules as well. But because life as we know it can’t exist without organic material, scientists are interested in how it’s distributed through the solar system."

“What we find is that if we model the Ceres data using extraterrestrial organics, which may be a more appropriate analog than those found on Earth, then we need a lot more organic matter on Ceres to explain the strength of the spectral absorption that we see there,” Kaplan said. “We estimate that as much as 40 to 50 percent of the spectral signal we see on Ceres is explained by organics. That’s a huge difference compared to the six to 10 percent previously reported based on terrestrial organic compounds.”

Evacuated Airship for Mars Missions

Source: NASA

"We propose ... a vacuum airship. This concept is similar to a standard balloon, whereas a balloon uses helium or hydrogen to displace air and provide lift, a vacuum airship uses a rigid structure to maintain a vacuum to displace air and provide lift. ...
... Mars appears to have an atmosphere in which the operation of a vacuum airship would not only be possible, but beneficial over a conventional balloon or dirigible.
... The Martian atmosphere has a pressure to density ratio that is very beneficial to the operation of a vacuum airship ...
...one need not worry about the vacuum airship getting stuck in a trench or being unable to traverse terrain. The vacuum airship could be used as a communication relay for other vehicular probes ...
...Since the vacuum airship does not use a lifting gas, it can perform a near infinite number of compensation maneuvers to adjust or stabilize its altitude in a temperature variant environment. ...
...Even though the vacuum airship would be aerially base, the vehicle would still be able to touch down and perform tasks on the ground ...
...the large surface area of the vacuum airship would provide plenty of area for solar cells which would allow the vehicle to gather a large amount of solar energy ..."

Computers, Phones and IoT Devices Have the BlueBorne Vulnerability

Source: Wired

"Once an attacker identifies vulnerable targets, the hack is quick (it can happen in about 10 seconds) and flexible. The impacted devices don't need to connect to anything, and the attack can even work when the Bluetooth on the victim device is already paired to something else."
...
"As with virtually all Bluetooth remote exploits, attackers would still need to be in range of the device (roughly 33 feet) to pull off a BlueBorne attack. But even with the extensive and productive BlueBorne patching that has already happened, there are still likely plenty of vulnerable devices in any populated area or building."

Source: Armis

"hackers can leverage Bluetooth connections to penetrate and take complete control over targeted devices. BlueBorne affects ordinary computers, mobile phones, and the expanding realm of IoT devices. The attack does not require the targeted device to be paired to the attacker’s device, or even to be set on discoverable mode."

Recommended actions:
1) Install Blueborne Detector on your Android devices.
2) Click "Tap to Check" and heed the warning if your Android device is vulnerable.
3) Set each of your Bluetooth devices to discoverable
4) Click "Check Devices Around Me"

Repeat steps 3 and 4 for every Bluetooth capable device.

We’re a Cheap Battery Away From Phasing Out Fossil Fuels

Source: VICE Motherboard

Fossil fuels are the most widely used source of energy because of base load power, which means they provide energy at all times, night and day. In contrast, renewables have faced the 'intermittency' challenge—the sun doesn't always shine, and the wind doesn't always blow.
...
By 2050, these irresistible technological and market forces could make oil, gas and coal seem too costly and cumbersome, leading renewables to account for "100 percent of global energy demand."
... There will be an immediate impact within just three years.
...
"Solar storage is pitched to become so cheap it will make relying on natural gas peaker plants pointless…It will lead to rapid adoption of solar by businesses, local governments, and households—not because people are environmentally conscious, but simply because it will make more economic sense." --Vicente Lopez-Ibor Mayor, chairman of Lightsource—the biggest solar energy company in Europe

EXTRATERRESTRIAL ORIGIN OF FAST RADIO BURST PHENOMENON CONFIRMED

Source: Universe Today

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs)

Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST)

The BURST project will perform deep FRB searches with MOSTS’s wide field-of-view and nearly constant single pulse searches of the radio sky.

MOST provides a huge collecting area of about 18,000 square meters for a very large field of view, about 8 square degrees of the sky.

1,000 terabytes of data produced by MOST each day

They determined the three new FRBs really were from space because the events were well beyond the 10,000 km near-field limit of the telescope, which ruled out local (terrestrial) sources of interference as a possible origin.

​Have a verified Twitter account? WikiLeaks might track you

Source: CNET

"We are thinking of making an online database with all 'verified' twitter accounts & their family/job/financial/housing relationships," the WikiLeaks Task Force said on Twitter

Source: Twitter

"The blue verified badge  on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic.

We approve account types maintained by users in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas."

Still No Proof Or Compelling Evidence Of Russian Involvement In DNC Leaks

On Dec 29, 2016 the FBI and DHS released a Joint Analysis Report (JAR-16-20296) in which federal investigators claim that "technical indicators" link the Russian government to hacks of "a U.S. political party". For unexplained reasons the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta are not mentioned by name but it's clear that this report is intended as a reaction to Wikileaks' publishing emails that appear to be theirs.

The technical details in the report are limited and include a short list of tools and infrastructure that were allegedly used to “compromise and exploit networks and endpoints associated with the U.S. election, as well as a range of U.S. Government, political, and private sector entities.”

The technical indicators are provided in Structured Threat Information Expression (STIX) and Coma Separated (CSV) format and could be used to search for attack patterns, malware, exploits and to defend networks or systems against cyber threats.  Unfortunately this report has been released too late to be of much use to security experts who potentially review thousands of port scans every minute.

The "technical indicators" include tools and techniques such as Powershell Backdoor and HAVEX which are commonly known to an average white hat hacker. The list of IP addresses and fully-qualified domain names are not very useful to identify the perpetrators of these cyber attacks because the compromised systems have probably been repaired or taken offline by now.

UPDATE on Jan 4, 2017 Micah Lee from The Intercept determined that since 367 of the 876 IP addresses in the Grizzly Steppe report "are actually just Tor exit nodes, this means that anyone in the world — not just Russian hackers — can use the internet from those IP addresses."

A "Fact Sheet" published by the White House says that the Joint Analysis Report "includes information on computers around the world that Russian intelligence services have co-opted without the knowledge of their owners in order to conduct their malicious activity in a way that makes it difficult to trace back to Russia." So even the Obama administration plainly admits that this is not proof of Russia's involvement.

During a presidential debate, Hillary Clinton claimed, "We have 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyberattacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin, and they are designed to influence our election." However, there is still no proof or compelling evidence provided to justify why these intelligence agencies believe that Russia was involved in the hacking of Democratic Party emails.

Furthermore,  the U.S. has a long history of influencing elections in other countries and their tactics frequently include cyber espionage and dissemination of propaganda. So the hypocrisy and double standard applied to Russia's alleged action is quite perplexing.

This Joint Analysis Report is too little too late and those responsible for its content should be ashamed of its tardiness and limited usefulness. Congress must investigate the gross negligence in handling this public disclosure. We the people of these Unites States deserve better explanation of the reasons behind our government's sanctions against Russia and the labeling of their diplomats as "persona non grata."

The Obama administration's actions are tantamount to a declaration of war on Russia. We deserve proof or at least compelling evidence of Russia's involvement in the DNC leaks. We also deserve a select committee investigation into the alleged authors of the leaked emails to determine if indeed the DNC rigged the Democratic Party primaries against Bernie Sanders and laundered money from the Democratic Party into the Clinton campaign instead of the down-ballot candidates who should have received funds.

UPDATE: On Jan 6, 2017 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a new report that states, "We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election. The US Intelligence Community is charged with monitoring and assessing the intentions, capabilities, and actions of foreign actors; it does not analyze US political processes or US public opinion."

Police seek Amazon Echo data in murder case

The Internet of Things (IoT) requires some risk to security and privacy in exchange for convenience.

Source: Engadget

An Amazon spokesperson gave Engadget the following statement on the matter:

"Amazon will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us. Amazon objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course."

Echo only captures audio and streams it to the cloud when the device hears the wake word "Alexa."

Those clips, or "utterances" as the company calls them, are stored in the cloud until a customer deletes them either individually or all at once.

Understanding Antennas For The Non-Technical Ham

I haven't had time to review this book, but wanted to add it to my reading list.

Source: Hamuniverse

Understanding Antennas For The Non-Technical Ham
A Book By Jim Abercrombie, N4JA (SK)

Illustrations by Frank Wamsley, K4EFW
Edited by Judy Haynes, KC4NOR
Copyright July 2005. Second Edition

Edited for the web , N4UJW
Editors Note: This is a book length web article provided by the author FREE for all hams.
This is copyrighted material and is the property of Hamuniverse.com and/or the article author and is to be used only for personal non-profit educational use.
You may download a pdf copy of it here....74 pages!

It is HUGE!
Bookmark this page for future reading or see more options for saving at bottom of page!
The original book contained 60 pages and illustrations.
They are all here!
Many of the antennas described here are in project form on this web site.

Here are some of the main topics in the book that you will learn more about.

Antenna systems, antennas, simple antenna formulas, basic antenna theory, feed-lines, matching units, how antennas work, polarization of electromagnetic waves, frequency, the ionosphere and modes of propagation, Ground-Wave Propagation, Direct Wave or Line of Sight Propagation, Propagation by Refraction,

Skywave Propagation, Greyline Propagation, Long Path Propagation, ham bands propagation, antenna myths, standing wave ratio, real antenna systems, Flat Top Dipole, Inverted-V Dipole, Dipole Shape Variations, Calculating the Length of a Half-Wave Resonant Dipole, The Decibel, Resistances and Reactance, Feeding Dipoles Efficiently,

Cause of Feed-Line Radiation, Baluns, Other types of dipoles, Shortened Loaded Dipole,

All Band Dipoles, Sloping Dipole, Folded Dipole, Double Bazooka Dipole, Broad-Banded Coax-Fed Fan Dipole, Two-Element Collinear Dipole, Four-Element Collinear Dipole, Coax-Fed Dipoles Operated on Odd Harmonic Frequencies, Three Half-wave Dipole, All Band Random Length Dipole, All Band Center-Fed Random Length Dipole,

A Two-Band Fan Dipole, Trapped Dipole for 75 and 40 Meters, The Extended Double Zepp Dipole, The G5RV Dipole, Off-Center Fed Dipoles, One wavelength Off-Center Fed Dipole, Carolina Windom, Windom Dipole (Fritzel Type), End-Fed Antennas, End-Fed Zepp, Alternate Method of Feeding an End-Fed Zepp, End-Fed Random Length Antenna, The Half-Sloper antenna, Vertical antennas, Ground Mounted Trapped Verticals, Disadvantages of Using Quarter-Wave Verticals, Long and Short Verticals,

Unscientific Observations of Verticals, The Inverted-L Vertical , Vertical Mobile Antennas, HF mobile antenna comparisons, One wave-length single loop antennas, Horizontally Oriented Loop, Vertically Oriented Single Loop for 40 and 80 Meters,

Single-Element Vertical Delta Loop, Directional beam antennas, Monoband Yagi, Three-Element Yagi, Trapped Multi-band Yagis, SteppIR Antenna, The Log-Periodic Array,

Directional Cubical Quad and Delta Loop Antennas, Single Band Cubical Quad, field-strength meter, The Quagi, Gain vs front to back radio, Feed lines, Antenna Safety,

Erecting Antennas on Masts, Tower Safety, Quarter Wave Matching Sections of 70-ohm Coax chart, and much more!

VOA Radiogram, DigiDX and Mighty KBC

Thanks to Bill Adams AF4B for sharing this with me. This appears to be a fairly consistent schedule from week to week and I added local times in US/CDT for my own reference.

Source: VOAradiogram.net

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, program 160, 23-24 April 2016, all in MFSK32 except where noted:

1:34  Program preview
2:44  Can AC and DC power integrate?*
12:13  Radio Farda TV signal jammed in Iran*
16:38  New report finds media freedom declined globally*
26:53  Closing announcements*
28:17  Olivia 64-2000: Frequency schedule under music

* with image

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com. 

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC):
Sat 0930-1000 5745 kHz  0430-0500 CDT
Sat 1600-1630 17580 kHz  1100-1130 CDT
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz  2130-2200 CDT
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz  0230-0300 CDT
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina

The Mighty KBC will transmit a minute of MFSK32 Sunday at about 0220 UTC (Saturday 2120 CDT) on 6040 kHz, via Germany. This is part of KBC’s North America broadcast at 0000-0300 UTC (1900-2200 CDT). Reception reports to Eric: themightykbc@gmail.com .

DigiDX will transmit DX news in MFSK32 and perhaps other modes: 

Sunday 2130 UTC - 15770kHz via WRMI Florida  1630 CDT
Sunday 2330 UTC - 11580kHz via WRMI Florida  1830 CDT
Monday 2000 UTC - 6070kHz via Channel 292 Germany  1500 CDT

Consult https://www.facebook.com/digidx/ for any additions or changes to this schedule.

Save Crypto

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation

Magical Thinking on Golden Keys

One of the biggest proponents of a “balanced” solution to the so-called Going Dark problem is FBI Director James Comey. At hearings in July and again this month, Comey has claimed that because some companies offer non-end-to-end encrypted communications tools, that’s proof that there is a way to achieve both user security and law enforcement access. He’s been backed up by the Washington Post editorial board and state and local law enforcement officials who all call on geniuses in Silicon Valley to “figure out” the balance.

The problem is that they don’t seem to have listened to the geniuses.

In fact, pushing back on the other side of this debate is a unified coalition of technologists, mega technology companies, and privacy advocates with a remarkably consistent message: weakening encryption is a terrible idea.

...

Apple CEO Tim Cook has vociferously opposed any new backdoor mandates, echoing cryptography experts with the statement "you can’t have a back door that’s only for the good guys."

...

Google, which has made full-disk encryption mandatory for smartphones running Android Marshmallow, joined Apple as well as over 140 other organizations and individuals (including EFF) in a joint letter delivered to President Obama in late May urging the administration to reject any proposal weakening the security of their products.

The White House Thinks It Can Make a Deal With Companies to Break Encryption

Source: Motherboard

... a passage in a document recently leaked by an anonymous source reveals that the White House might have a solution in mind: The administration would promise not to push any law forcing tech companies to weaken encryption at the request of the FBI, which would then encourage the tech companies to voluntarily install backdoors in their products.
...
Facebook and Microsoft declined to comment for this story. We also reached out to Apple, Google, and Yahoo and will update this story if we hear back.