#Lunar Traversing Vehicle

[gaian-phoenix]

The Phoenix, the Moon and the Stone

“I am the bennu bird which is in Annu, Heliopolis, Cairo, City of the Sun, and I am the keeper of the volume of the book of things which are and of things which shall be. I came into being from unformed matter, I created myself in the image of the god Khepera, and I grew in the form of plants. I am hidden in the likeness of the Tortoise. I am formed out of the atoms of all the gods.

I am the yesterday of the four quarters of the world, and I am the seven uraei which came into existence in the East, the mighty one who illumineth the nations by his body. He is god in the likeness of Set; and Thoth dwelleth in the midst of them by judgment of the dweller in Sekhem and of the spirits of Annu.

I sail among them, and I come; I am crowned, I am become a shining one, I am mighty, I am become holy among the gods.

I am the god Khonsu, Lunar Traveller, Embracer, Pathfinder, Defender, and Healer, who driveth back all that opposeth him.”

From “The Egyptian Book of the Dead” (1550 BCE).

“The hieroglyph of the Stone of the Philosophers is ♁, which undergoing the action of Fire within the crucible becomes the Philosophers’s Stone, the resurrected Saviour or the flaming Phoenix.”

From “The Golden Game” by Stanislas Klossowski de Rola (1988).

“An effective means to achieve congress with the Phoenix is via the technique of Imaginal Projection. The Phoenix is a genuine living symbol: as such it possesses an innate mind and being which may be interacted with.

The Initiate must, however, first burn with an inward desire to do so. This is not merely a passing wish or fancy but a cultivated intention borne from a drive to commune with the Spirit of the Divine. It must be sincere and passionate, for it is from Passion alone that fire attracts Fire.

Then, with all the creativity in one's possession, one fashions the image of a Phoenix in perfect detail within one's sensorium. Every line, curve, attribute, feather and flame of Our Bird must be imagined and held in solid integrity in the Heart and Mind of the Initiate. Success in this will be achieved once the Imagined Symbol becomes the Living Creature, and this cannot be described, only experienced. Once Our Bird achieves life and movement within the sensorium of the Initiate, it must then not be allowed to escape

The Initiate unites his own soul with the spirit of the Phoenix. This is accomplished through the Heart, wherein lies a secret umbilicus that is projected into the burning center of the Aves Ignis (“Bird of Fire”). This has many names but is verily the ancient and literal Dart of Eros. The means of projection may only be learned in the moment of its projection, and this, again, cannot be described, only performed.

Once this vital communion has been established it is then possible for the Initiate as the Phoenix itself to arise as a vehicle for Ascension and traverse the realms of the Zoösphere with impunity and knowledge.

The Initiate has then become what was once imagined, and what has been imagined has once more arisen and become what it has always been, what it is, and what it shall be: the immortal Phoenix of Eternity, the veritable reality of the Zoösphere in Manifestation and Perfect Form.”

From “Arcanum Bestiarum” by Robert Fitzgerald (2012).

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

How NASA is using virtual reality to prepare for science on Moon

When astronauts walk on the moon, they'll serve as the eyes, hands, and boots-on-the-ground interpreters supporting the broader teams of scientists on Earth. NASA is leveraging virtual reality to provide high-fidelity, cost-effective support to prepare crew members, flight control teams, and science teams for a return to the moon through its Artemis campaign.

The Artemis III Geology Team, led by principal investigator Dr. Brett Denevi of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, participated in an Artemis III Surface Extra-Vehicular VR Mini-Simulation, or "sim" at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in the fall of 2024. The sim brought together science teams and flight directors and controllers from Mission Control to carry out science-focused moonwalks and test the way the teams communicate with each other and the astronauts.

"There are two worlds colliding," said Dr. Matthew Miller, co-lead for the simulation and exploration engineer, Amentum/JETSII contract with NASA. "There is the operational world and the scientific world, and they are becoming one."

NASA mission training can include field tests covering areas from navigation and communication to astronaut physical and psychological workloads. Many of these tests take place in remote locations and can require up to a year to plan and large teams to execute. VR may provide an additional option for training that can be planned and executed more quickly to keep up with the demands of preparing to land on the moon in an environment where time, budgets, and travel resources are limited.

Field testing won't be going away. Nothing can fully replace the experience crew members gain by being in an environment that puts literal rocks in their hands and includes the physical challenges that come with moonwalks, but VR has competitive advantages.

The virtual environment used in the Artemis III VR Mini-Sim was built using actual lunar surface data from one of the Artemis III candidate regions. This allowed the science team to focus on Artemis III science objectives and traverse planning directly applicable to the moon.

Eddie Paddock, engineering VR technical discipline lead at NASA Johnson, and his team used data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and planet position and velocity over time to develop a virtual software representation of a site within the Nobile Rim 1 region near the south pole of the moon.

Two stand-in crew members performed moonwalk traverses in virtual reality in the Prototype Immersive Technology lab at Johnson, and streamed suit-mounted virtual video camera views, hand-held virtual camera imagery, and audio to another location where flight controllers and science support teams simulated ground communications.

The crew stand-ins were immersed in the lunar environment and could then share the experience with the science and flight control teams. That quick and direct feedback could prove critical to the science and flight control teams as they work to build cohesive teams despite very different approaches to their work.

The flight operations team and the science team are learning how to work together and speak a shared language. Both teams are pivotal parts of the overall mission operations. The flight control team focuses on maintaining crew and vehicle safety and minimizing risk as much as possible. The science team, as Miller explains, is "relentlessly thirsty" for as much science as possible. Training sessions like this simulation allow the teams to hone their relationships and processes.

Denevi described the flight control team as a "well-oiled machine" and praised their dedication to getting it right for the science team. Many members of the flight control team have participated in field and classroom training to learn more about geology and better understand the science objectives for Artemis.

"They have invested a lot of their own effort into understanding the science background and science objectives, and the science team really appreciates that and wants to make sure they are also learning to operate in the best way we can to support the flight control team, because there's a lot for us to learn as well," Denevi said. "It's a joy to get to share the science with them and have them be excited to help us implement it all."

This simulation, Sparks said, was just the beginning for how virtual reality could supplement training opportunities for Artemis science. In the future, using mixed reality could help take the experience to the next level, allowing crew members to be fully immersed in the virtual environment while interacting with real objects they can hold in their hands. Now that the Nobile Rim 1 landing site is built in VR, it can continue to be improved and used for crew training, something that Sparks said can't be done with field training on Earth.

While "virtual" was part of the title for this exercise, its applications are very real.

"We are uncovering a lot of things that people probably had in the back of their head as something we'd need to deal with in the future," Miller said. "But guess what? The future is now. This is now."

IMAGE: A screen capture of a virtual reality view during the Artemis III VR Mini-Simulation. The lunar surface virtual environment was built using actual lunar surface data from one of the Artemis III candidate regions. Credit: Prototype Immersive Technology lab at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

[hambrababy]

The Importance of Big Cool Sci-Fi Stuff

(This was originally posted on Blogspot on March 13, 2023)

I finished watching Turn A Gundam recently, and it’s already cemented itself as one of my favorite Gundam shows and anime in general. But one detail I appreciate is that, even with its Americana setting, it still works in some interesting, immense technological set pieces that give a great sense of scale to the show in the portions where it heads to outer space. To put it bluntly, I appreciate it when science fiction has what I like to call “Big Cool Sci-Fi Stuff,” both for the novelty but also realizing the unique potential the medium has to create a unique sense of wonder. 

A key plot point in the middle of Turn A is an orbital base called the Sackträger, which functions as a giant rotating space catapult flying around the Earth that docks and launches ships with enough momentum to overcome the Earth’s gravity and maintain inertia to reach the Moon. It doesn’t feature for many episodes, and in hindsight it mostly exists to set up the need for the journey to the Moon to take some time and thus more episodes.

But as a setpiece on its own, it’s really fun. There’s drama as the ship tries to position itself so the speeding catapult can catch it, which it only manages as Loran and Harry use their mecha to boost the ship’s thrust. The rest of the episode deals with the tension created by two enemy ships being docked so close that neither can risk attacking without destroying the station and thus their chance to get to the moon first. There are even moments where Loran and Sochie explore the size of the station with their mecha, with them and enemy mecha holding on to belted handles to traverse the immense structure. These details make the Sackträger a more unique and even characterized location with its different rules that affect the way the characters act, which also makes the episode more memorable on its own despite the location not getting revisited afterwards.

The show has similar setpieces in the later episodes, from a drifting agricultural colony to giant lunar data pods, and this got me thinking about what these design choices all accomplish; it’s all Big Cool Sci-Fi stuff. Sci-Fi is easy to do as a generic coat of paint where there’s some futuristic vehicles, spaceships, or robots. But one potential that I love, most so with media dealing with space, is the freedom to play around with massive structures and scales, technological or otherwise, that are much harder to do in other genres. Fantasy comes close at points, but visual science fiction has the added benefit of getting to use advanced technology to add to the size of these things that makes them more distinct. Space stations and larger ships, advanced towers and fortresses, natural megastructures, ruins, or even astronomical phenomena like nebulae can all fit under the umbrella of Big Cool Sci Fi Stuff, though from my view it best fits more with technological structures.

A similar anime example that stands out to me is the Sveto city from Heavy Metal L-Gaim. Without getting into too many spoilers, the enemy capital of Sveto is a giant floating city that shifts around the surface of the oceanic planet Gustgal, but it also has huge sprawling foundations and corridors that give off a great sense of scale. Again, there wouldn’t be that much difference to the broad strokes of story if this was just a tech city on a continent, but these facets of its design give a great sense of the city’s technological and size scale.

Big Cool Sci Fi Stuff is fairly common across science fiction and especially mecha anime, from the Zentradi fortress in Macross, and even the Macross itself, the Babylon project in Patlabor, the space elevator in Orguss, the Buff Clan’s Gando Rowa from Ideon, and the Iserholm Forteess from Legend of the Galactic Heroes to name a few. It’s not just any regular space station or structure, but one whose size is made a point within the story and used to stage different situations. The technological-enabled size of all of these structures makes them interesting locations on their own and also gives way to many different aesthetics used to render their scale compared to everything else.

My personal favorite example from growing up was seeing the myriad illustrations from the Terran Trade Authority books at my grandparents’ house. I mostly didn’t bother reading the actual stories or descriptions a lot of the time because I was so enthralled by the detailed and colorful illustrations on their own, and many of them conveyed that sense of wonder to me by how immense these varying spacecraft and stations were.

Aside from just wonder, Big Cool Sci Fi Stuff can also evoke larger feelings of mystery and dread as well. From the immense size and near endless internal rows of the Borg Cubes in Star Trek, the hulking derelict ship at the start of Alien, the unknown giant lenses from Story of your Life/Arrival, or the immense innards of the Citadel in Half Life 2, these all use the smallness of the humans present to instill the size of the forces within that could possibly wipe out mankind. Even the Death Star in Star Wars works on that same logic in-story as a symbol of fear by being a massive, moon-sized station that dwarfs every possible challenger and can annihilate civilizations.

More than anything else, just seeing small humans or even large spacecraft and mecha dwarfed by these towering megastructures is an engaging experience because it’s something far beyond the normal scope of humanity. Even without going into the precise scientific details of how they work, and perhaps not all of them are entirely plausible, the sense of scale alone gives a great sense of wonder that’s really only possible in science fiction. Not every science fiction work needs Big Cool Sci Fi Stuff to achieve wonder on its own, but it’s always something I appreciate whenever it's worked in. 

[anumberofhobbies]

Apollo 16 lifted off at 12:54 p.m. EST April 16, 1972, from Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. ...

Lunar module, or LM, carrying John Young and Charles Duke touched down at Descartes about 276 meters northwest of planned point (8 degrees 59′ 29″S, 15 degrees 30′ 52″E) at about 9:24 p.m. EST April 20, about five hours, 43 minutes late. During 71 hours, two minutes surface stay, astronauts explored region on three EVAs totaling 20 hours, 14 minutes. First EVA included Lunar Roving Vehicle setup and ALSEP deployment. Heat flow experiment was lost when Young tripped on electronics cable, breaking it. Rover traverse took astronauts west to Flag Crater where they collected samples and photographed the area. Return drive was south of outbound track to Spook Crater where astronauts took first measurement with the lunar portable magnetometer, gathered samples, and took both panoramic and 500 mm telephotography. Just before returning to the lunar module, they deployed the solar wind composition experiment at the ALSEP site. EVA duration was about seven hours, 11 minutes with 2.5 miles driven in the rover. Second EVA began with drive south to Stone Mountain, where surface and core samples were collected at two stations in the area of Cinco Craters, along with a trench sample, penetrometer measurements and photography. Traverse continued west, then north with stops at five additional stations for similar work. One station was deleted from the EVA plan because of time factors. Lunar portable magnetometer, or LPM, measurements were taken near Cinco. Crew returned to lunar module and ended second EVA after seven hours, 23 minutes and 6.9 miles on the rover. Real-time flight planners deleted four stops from the third and final EVA because of time constraint in meeting ascent schedule. Astronauts drove north to North Ray Crater where “House Rock,” inside the crater rim, was sampled. Returning south, the crew stopped at “Shadow Rock” for additional sampling, photography and LPM measurement. Final stop near the LM added samples and core tubes to the collection. Last LPM readings were taken at the rover parking site along with final rock samples. Closeout, including retrieval of solar wind composition, or SWC, and film from far ultraviolet camera/spectroscope, completed EVA after five hours, 40 minutes. Rover distance was 7.1 miles. Thomas Mattingly orbited the moon with cameras and SIM bay instruments operating during the surface stay of Young and Duke. The results verified Apollo 15 data and provided information on lunar terrain not previously covered. Lunar liftoff came on time at 8:26 p.m. EST April 23, in view of the rover television camera. After normal rendezvous and docking, and transfer of crew samples and equipment, the lunar module was jettisoned. Attitude control was lost, eliminating the usual deorbit maneuver and planned impact. Because of problems noted earlier, planners elected to return the mission one day early. During transearth coast, Mattingly took an 83-minute spacewalk to retrieve film cassettes from the SIM bay. Normal entry and landing resulted in splashdown at 0 degrees 42′ 0″ S, 156 degrees 12′ 49″ W, just before 3 p.m. EST April 27. Total mission time was 265 hours, 51 minutes, five seconds. Young and Duke collected 209 pounds of samples and drove the rover 16.6 miles.

[razan-safaris1]

The Marangu route, also known as the "Coca-Cola" route, is the oldest, most well-established route on Kilimanjaro. This is the only route which offers sleeping huts in dormitory style accommodations in lieu of camping. There are 60 bunk beds each at Mandara and Kibo Huts, and 120 bunk beds at Horombo Hut. Guests are supplied with mattresses and pillows, but sleeping bags are still required. The huts have communal dining halls and basic washrooms, ranging from flushing toilets and running water at the lower huts to long drop toilets and buckets of water at Kibo Hut. Many favor Marangu because it is considered to be the easiest path on the mountain, given its gradual slope and direct path. However, the short time frame of the route makes Altitude Acclimatization fairly difficult. The route approaches Mount Kilimanjaro from the southeast. Marangu is unfortunately less scenic than the other routes because the ascent and descent are along the same path. It is also the most crowded route for that reason. 

Day 1: Marangu Gate to Mandara Hut Elevation (ft): 6,046 ft to 8,858 ft Distance: 8 km Hiking Time: 4-5 hours Habitat: Rain Forest Hut: Mandara Hut. We head to the Marangu Gate for the necessary formalities before beginning our trek. The trail climbs through a tropical rain forest near the upper edge of the forest line, where we sometimes see playful blue monkeys. The trail then widens to expose beautiful hillsides until we reach Mandara Hut.

Day 2: Mandara Hut to Horombo Hut Elevation (ft): 8,858 ft to 12,205 ft Distance: 12 km Hiking Time: 6-8 hours Habitat: Heath / Moorland Our second day on the trail starts up with a steep ascent through the forest and opens into high moorland. If the sky is clear, we might get our first views of Kibo and Mawenzi Peaks. Those two volcanic peaks  make up the summit of Kilimanjaro.

Day 3: Horombo Hut to Mawenzi Hut to Horombo Hut Elevation (ft): 12,205 ft to 14,160 ft to 12,205 ft Distance: 10 km Hiking Time: 3-5 hours Habitat: Heath This extra day is used for Adaptation. We hike towards or all the way to Mawenzi Hut and back. The unique landscape offers motivating views of Kibo and Mawenzi.

Day 4: Horombo Hut to Kibo Hut Elevation (ft): 12,205 ft to 15,430 ft Distance: 10 km Hiking Time: 6-8 hours Habitat: Alpine Desert On this day we climb gently, then cross the lunar desert of the “Saddle” between Mawenzi and Kibo to reach our campsite, which sits at the bottom of the Kibo crater wall. Once at Camp, we rest and enjoying an early dinner and prepare for summit day.

Day 5: Kibo Hut to Uhuru Point to Horombo Hut Elevation (ft): 15,430 ft to 19,341 ft to 12,205 ft Distance: 22 km Hiking Time: 10-13 hours Habitat: Arctic We wake up in the middle of the night and begin the final push to reach the Roof of Africa. The trail to Gilman’s Point is very steep, and the ascent will be slow and steady. From Gilman’s, it is a traverse along the crater rim to Uhuru Peak. We stay at the summit for a short time, to take photos and enjoy the views, before retracing our steps all the way back to Horombo Hut.

Day 6: Horombo Hut to Marangu Gate Elevation (ft): 12,205 ft to 6,046 ft Distance: 20 km Hiking Time: 5-7 hours Habitat: Rain Forest A long trek is in store for today, however it is mostly downhill. Once we reach the park headquarters, there at Marangu Gate, we pick up our certificate, that proves our achievement, and catch our vehicle transfer to the Hotel in Moshi.

Included o    Park fees, o    Hut fees  o     Rescue fees o    18% VAT on tour fees & services, which cost nearly 55 % of the total cost charged. o    Transportation to & from the Mountain Gate o    Professional mountain guides, cooks and porters o    3 meals daily while on the mountain

Not Included o    Both national and international flights o    Medical Insurance o    Tips to Mountain Crew o    Items of a personal nature o    Laundry Services o    Alcoholic beverages

Contact Us via WhatApp +255 786499087

Email us Direct: razantourssafaris@gmail.com

[spacenutspod]

Before this decade is out, NASA plans to return astronauts to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo Era and build the necessary infrastructure to keep sending them back. And they will hardly be alone. Alongside NASA’s Artemis Program, the European Space Agency also plans to send astronauts to the Moon and establish a permanent habitat there (the Moon Village), while China and Russia are working towards creating the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). Numerous commercial space companies will also be there to provide crew transportation, cargo, and logistical services. All of this will happen in the Moon’s southern polar region, a topographically complex region characterized by craters, permanently shadowed regions (PSRs), and undulating slopes. This terrain could prove difficult for crews conducting extravehicular activities (EVAs) away from landing sites and habitats. In a recent study, an international team of researchers used data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to create a detailed atlas of the region that accounts for all the traverses and descents. This atlas could prove very useful for mission planners as they select landing sites for future exploration. The study was led by Eloy Pena-Asensio, a predoctoral researcher with Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (ICE, CSIC) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). He was joined by colleagues from the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Technische Universität Berlin (TUB), the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Texas A&M University, the University of Manchester, and the Center for Lunar Science & Exploration at the Lunar and Planetary Institute (CLSE-LPI). The paper that describes their findings was recently published in the journal Acta Astronautica. Shown here is a rendering of 13 candidate landing regions for Artemis III. Each region is approximately 15 x 15 km (9.3 x 9.3 mi). A landing site is a location within those regions with an approximate 100-m (328-ft) radius. Credits: NASA Old Lessons, New Challenges According to a report titled “Human Health and Performance Risks of Space Exploration Missions,” compiled by NASA’s Human Research Program in 2009, the Artemis Program will be more dependent on EVA excursions away from a pressurized habitat or vehicle than any program in the history of NASA: “EVAs will be required to conduct planned scientific expeditions, assemble structures, perform nominal maintenance, and intervene and solve problems outside of the vehicle that cannot be solved either robotically or remotely. The ultimate success of future Exploration missions is dependent on the ability to perform EVA tasks efficiently and safely in these challenging environments. With lunar missions planned for up to 30 times more EVA hours than during the Apollo era, exploration missions to the moon and Mars will present many new challenges with regard to crew health, safety, and performance.” While mission planners anticipate EVAs much longer than any performed by the Apollo astronauts, NASA’s understanding of human health and performance parameters in lunar gravity is limited to lessons learned from the Apollo Era. Subsequent observations and studies involving microgravity EVAs aboard the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS) have provided invaluable lessons. However, this data has mainly been used to design new spacesuits, like the recently unveiled Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU). Nevertheless, the report also indicates that there has been limited quantification of the physiological and biomechanical variables associated with suited activities in unit and partial gravity. For the astronauts conducting EVAs as part of Artemis III (and subsequent missions), the risks and hazards largely depend on the distance being explored and whether a rover is involved. As study co-author David A. Kring, a researcher with the CLSE-LPI, told Universe Today via email: “The initial Artemis missions will be limited to walking. The principal challenge in that type of mission will be terrain slope. Any traverse needs to be on slopes less than 20 degrees. Astronauts will also be asked to stay within 2 kilometers [1.24 mi] of the lander and, ideally, keep the lander in sight. After rovers are deployed, astronauts can travel farther from a lander. It may also be possible to reuse rovers in multiple missions. In that case, Houston will telerobotically drive rovers from one astronaut landing site to another. Topography and slope will affect the paths taken. Some of the lunar mountains are larger than Mt. Everest on Earth.” Data visualization shows the mountainous area west of the Nobile Crater and the smaller craters that litter its rim at the lunar south pole. Credit: NASA Exploring the Lunar South Pole What is needed to ensure that crews don’t exhaust themselves or fall prey to the many geographical hazards that characterize the terrain, Kring and his colleagues consulted data from the LRO’s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA), which obtained 5-meter per pixel (16.4 ft/pixel) measurements the Moon’s southern polar region in 2015 – from which, they identified 521 PSRs. They then created an automated pipeline called MoonPath, which combines a Monte Carlo approach with Dijkstra’s minimum cost path algorithm to calculate traverse paths that minimize metabolic workload. As Kring noted, these methods were developed with the help of early-career scientists and students in the midst of their Ph.D. studies. These students joined the team in Houston as part of a NASA-sponsored Exploration Science Summer Intern Program sponsored by the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). Their case study was also focused on three candidate landing regions officially identified last year by the Artemis Campaign Development Division at NASA HQ. Designated 001, 001(6), and 004, these locations are all PSRs primarily located at the base of craters near the lunar poles. Like the other candidate landing regions, they are of significant scientific interest due to the potential presence of volatile compounds like water ice, which could be used to produce everything from drinking water and oxygen gas to rocket propellants. As Pena-Asensio explained, the resulting algorithm operates under a set of constraints, including round-trip traverses, minimizing steep slopes, avoiding large boulders, and restricting the overall distance to a 2 km (1.24 mi) radius: “The optimal strategy for minimizing metabolic workload is to find the shortest and flattest route. Our tool evaluates the properties that an astronaut would encounter along the traverse, such as topographical variations, the incidence of sunlight on their bodies, direct line-of-sight to the lunar lander, temperature, and bearing capacity. Additionally, we estimate the walking speed and time based on Apollo mission records.” Atlas for Artemis The result of their work was an atlas that included all 521 traverses and descents to PSRs in the southern polar region. Based on their analysis, the team found that 94?% of all these PSRs are accessible from the rim on slopes below 15°. They further determined that 20 and 19 PSRs are accessible from potential landing sites 001 and 001(6) (respectively), four of which are accessible on slopes entirely below 10°, and that traverses around site 004 are more workload-demanding. This type of information is critical for optimizing astronaut EVAs and identifying accessible targets for science operations. As they indicate in their paper, the pipeline and traverse atlas can be used to support mission planning for the collection of ice and volatile samples and address major scientific priorities. It can also be used to calculate the minimum workload astronaut paths to any other geologic and exploration targets within the AEZ or elsewhere on the Moon. As Kring summarized: “The planning tool that the team developed will sharpen our ability to plan geologic traverses that astronauts can successfully complete on schedule. The tool be used to sharpen individual notional traverses. The tool can also be used in an automated mode that allows the team to investigate a constellation of traverse options and, thus, identify the best one from a metabolic perspective. The team developed the tool to assist Artemis astronauts, but it can also be used to explore robotic missions to the lunar surface.” Further Reading: Acta Astronautica The post Lunar Astronauts Will Need Easy Walking Trails Around the Moon's South Pole appeared first on Universe Today.

[piratesexmachine420]

LOPG I definitely agree, though it would've been neat I imagine everybody's expected it to get cancelled since day one. I certainly have.

I do think that you might be undervaluing the scientific value of crewed lunar landings -- consider that Chang'e 5 and 6 have returned a little under 4 kg of surface samples to Apollo 11's 22, or that Apollo 17 traversed ~35 km in 4 hours compared to Lunokhod 2's ~39 km in 2,808 hours -- but I'll also admit that it's a lot more expensive. The NASA science directorate would make more of that cash if they ever got the chance; which they won't 'cause national prestige and all that shit.

Crewed Mars missions are likewise I think potentially valuable but impossible in our current climate. Maybe in a hundred years. That the Trump administration would use them as justification for cancelling MSR is a real fucking gut punch.

Really though, I'm curious what your problem with Orion is. Besides the heatshield (which is IIRC getting close[r] to resolution?) and being kind of a political clusterfuck with no purpose in LEO, I think it seems like a decent vehicle? Not ideal by any means but certainly no more contrived than HLS. Is there something about it that I've missed? Or is this a glass-half-full thing?

*sounds of teeth grinding together so hard you might mistake it for a malfunctioning miter saw*

[stevebattle]

Northrop Lunar Surface Vehicle by William Sponsler (1964), Space Laboratories, Northrop Corp. Northrop experimented with a range of 4, 6, and 8-wheel, split-track and full-track vehicles. Conventional sprung suspension systems, such as those found on cars and trucks, aren’t adaptable or flexible enough to cope with the uneven surface conditions expected on the moon. It should be able to climb over all sorts of obstacles, and extricate itself if it gets stuck. Tracked vehicles, while having excellent manoeuverability traversing soft soil and crevices, have poor reliability as their tracks can become jammed or thrown. The image above shows a working model of an 8-wheeled unmanned lunar surface vehicle with many of the advantages of a tracked vehicle, such as scuff steering, but with higher efficiency and improved reliability. The test vehicle uses the Northrop ‘Walking Beam Suspension’ system. It has two pairs of wheels on each side of the vehicle, with each pair mounted at the ends of a beam that can itself be rotated. The beam can be locked at a given pitch, or can be set to freely rotate enabling the wheels to adapt to the terrain. Besides aiding climbing, this cleverly allows the vehicle to adjust its height independently at each of the four beams, to self-level or raise its belly over high obstacles.

[appache110]

IMPORTANCE: ABOVE PHOTO ILLUSTRATION DEPICTING LIKENESS OF WHAT BEING AN ADULT = A DULL FOR AFRO MALES AND FEMALES ON THE SPIRIT EATHER PLANE RESEMBLING. LISTEN TO SAME VOWEL SOUNDS AS WE TRANSLATE THE SPELLING INTO THE PROPER WORD TERMS. THE WORD TERM ( TEMPTATION IS TEMP TA TION = DIM DAY SON ) AND TO DIM DAY SON LIGHTS STAR AND SON WHEN DIMMED DAY SON UNTO EVENING MOONLIGHT LUNAR VAMPS.THE WORD TERM MAN STEMMED FROM MOON AND WOMAN IS THEN WO MOON. YOUR MOONLIGHT LUNAR SPIRIT COUNTER PARTS AFRO MALES AND FEMALES IS THE LIKENESSES OF ABOVE DEPICTIONS DUE TO YOUR RHYTHM AND BLUES = RHYTHM AND BLEW YOUR CELESTRIAL STAR AND SONSHIP LIGHTS OUT IS BECAUSE, OF YOUR ADULT = A DULL CHRISTIANITY = CREASE CHEESE AND NUTTY = CREASE CHEESE AND NAUGHTY ADULT = A DULL RELIGION FOR COUPLES WHO COUPULATINGS MAKING YOU’S TAKE ON YOUR PHYSICAL AND SPIRIT REALITY AS THE LORD = LOROD = LOWER RODS IN CHEESES CRIES = LORD BEING THE LOROD BEING MEN’S PENISES WITH ERECTIONS IN CHEESES CRIES ARE WOMEN AT SEXUAL PEAK AND CLIMAXINGS = CLIMAX SINGS. TERMS, SUCH AS, ( MOONLIGHTING, HONEY MOON = FULL MOON = FOOL MEN AND FOOL WOMEN, WHEN LOVE IS THAT YE ALL FALL = FALLING = FELL IN LOVE NOT GOING UPWARDS, BUT RATHER, DOWNWARD. WHEN, YE AFRO MALES AND FEMALES WERE ( KIDS = QIZ = QIZIZ = QIZIR = QIZIRE ) OF MULTIPLE COLOR RAYS QIZIZ CELESTRIAL STAR AND QIZIRE SONLIGHTS FOR THESE LIGHTS ARE TRAVEL VEHICLES THAT TRAVERSE UNIVERSALLY. BLUE FIGURE IN EGG SHAPE ABOVE IS YOU’S ( EVE = EVENING SPIRIT EATHER AND IS 12:00 IN THE EVENING = MOURNING AND WITHOUT CELESTRIAL STAR AND SON SHIPS MAKING US COMPATIBLE WITH ALL CELESTRIAL LIGHTS, ON THE, ACCOUNT OF BEING MADE OF STAR AND SON LIGHT OURSELVES. SEE FOLLOWING PHOTO ILLUSTRATION DEPICTING BELOW OF LIKENESSES OF WHAT BEING MULTI - COLOR RAYS STAR QIZIZ AND QIZIRE SON SHIPS APPEAR IN LIKENESSES.

[astronotmovie]

Within the shadow of the Lunar Module. The Lunar Rover rests idle upon the moon’s surface during Apollo 17, Dec 1972. Astronauts Gene Cernan & Harrison Schmitt drove the LRV a record 35.9 km on the mission totalling 4 hours & 26 min of drive time. The pair explored a record 7.6km from the LM & traversed 20.1 km on a single trip in the electric vehicle; both records. Though designed for a top speed of 8 mph (13 km/h), A17 pushed it to 11.2 mph (18.0 km/h) on the mission.

[tipsycad147]

Selene – The Greek Moon Goddess

In Greek mythology, Selene was the Titan goddess of the moon. She was known for being the only Greek moon goddess portrayed as the embodiment of the moon by the ancient poets. Selene featured in few myths, with the most famous ones being the tales that tell of her lovers: Zeus, Pan and the mortal Endymion. Let’s take a closer look at her story.

Selene’s Origins

As mentioned in Hesiod’s Theogony, Selene was the daughter of Hyperion (the Titan god of light) and Theia (also known as Euryphessa), who was his wife and also his sister. Selene’s siblings included the great Helios (the god of the sun) and Eos (the goddess of dawn). However, in other accounts, Selene is said to be the daughter of either Helios, or the Titan Pallas, son of Megamedes. Her name is derived from ‘Selas’, the Greek word meaning light and her Roman equivalent is the goddess Luna.

Selene and her brother Helios were said to have been very close siblings who worked well together as the personifications of the moon and the sun, the most significant features of the sky. They were responsible for the movement of the sun and moon across the sky, bringing forth the daylight and night.  

Selene’s Consorts and Offspring

While Endymion is possibly Selene’s most famous lover, she had several other lovers aside from Endymion. According to ancient sources, Selene was also seduced by Pan, the god of the wild. Pan disguised himself with white fleece and then slept with Selene, after which he gave her a white horse (or white oxen) as a gift.

Selene had several children, including:

With Endymion, Selene was said to have had fifty daughters, known as the ‘Menai’. They were the goddesses who presided over the fifty lunar months.

According to Nonnus, the pair were also the parents of the stunningly handsome Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection.

Some sources say that Selene gave birth to the Horai, the four goddesses of the seasons, by Helios.

She also had three daughters with Zeus, including Pandia (the goddess of the full moon), Ersa, (the personification of dew) and the nymph Nemea. Nemea was the eponymous nymph of the town called Nemea where Heracles had slain the deadly Nemean Lion. It was also the place where the Nemean Games were held every two years.

In some accounts, Selene and Zeus were said to be the parents of Dionysus, the god of wine and theater, but some say that Dionysus actual mother was Semele and that Selene’s name had been confused with hers.

Selene also had a mortal son called Museaus, who became a legendary Greek poet.

Selene’s Role in Greek Mythology

As the goddess of the moon, Selene was responsible for controlling the movement of the moon across the sky during the night. She shone magnificent silvery light down on the Earth as she travelled in her chariot pulled by snowy white horses. She had the power to give the mortals sleep, to light up the night and control time.

Like most other deities of the Greek pantheon, Selene was revered not only as the goddess of her domain, but also as a deity for agriculture and in some cultures, fertility.

Selene and the Mortal Endymion

One of the most well-known myths in which Selene appeared was the story of herself and Endymion, a mortal shepherd who had exceptionally good looks. Endymion often tended his sheep at night and Selene happened to notice him while she was on her nightly journey across the sky. Taken by his looks, she fell in love with Endymion and wished to be with him for eternity. However, being a goddess, Selene was immortal whereas the shepherd would age over time and die.

Selene begged Zeus to help her and Zeus took pity on the goddess who was besotted by the handsome shepherd. Instead of making Endymion immortal, Zeus, with the help of Hypnos, the god of sleep, made Endymion fall into an eternal sleep from which he would never wake. The shepherd did not age from that point on, nor did he die. Endymion was placed in a cave on Mount Latmos which Selene visited every night and she continued to do so for all eternity.

In some versions of the story, Zeus woke Endymion and asked him what kind of life he would prefer to lead. Endymion had also lost his heart to the beautiful moon goddess so he asked Zeus to make him sleep forever, bathed in her warm, soft light.

The poem Endymion by John Keats, with its legendary opening lines, goes on to retell the story of Endymion.

Depictions and Symbols of Selene

The moon was of great importance to the ancient Greeks who measured the passage of time by it. A month in Ancient Greece consisted of three ten day periods which were based entirely on the different phases of the moon. It was also a common belief that the moon brought dew with it to nourish animals and plants. Therefore, as the goddess of the moon, Selene had an important place in Greek mythology.

The moon goddess was traditionally depicted as a stunningly beautiful young maiden, with slightly paler skin than usual, long black hair and a cloak billowing above her head. She was often portrayed with a crown on her head that represented the moon. Sometimes, she would be riding a bull or a silver drawn by winged horses. The chariot was her form of transport each night and like her brother Helios, she travelled across the sky bringing the moonlight with her.

There are several symbols associated with the goddess of the moon including:

Crescent – the crescent symbolizes the moon itself. Many depictions feature a crescent on her head.

Chariot – the chariot signifies her vehicle and mode of transportation.

Cloak – Selen was often depicted with a billowing cloak.

Bull – One of her symbols is the bull which she rode upon.

Nimbus – In certain works of art, Selene is portrayed with a halo (also known as the nimbus), surrounding her head.

Torch – During the Hellenistic period, she was pictured holding a torch.

Selene is often depicted together with Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, and Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, who were also goddess associated with the moon. However, of the three, it was Selene who was the sole moon incarnate as we know it to be today.

The story of Selene and Endymion became a popular subject for Roman artists, who depicted it in funerary art. The most famous image was that of the moon goddess holding her billowing veil over her head, descending from her silver chariot to join Endymion, her lover who lies asleep at her feet with eyes open so that he may gaze upon her beauty.

Worship of Selene

Selene was worshipped on the days of the full and new moons. The people believed that she was at the she had the ability to bring forth new life on these days and was invoked by women who wished to conceive. They prayed to the goddess and made offerings to her, asking for inspiration and fertility. However, she wasn’t known as a fertility goddess.

In Rome, there were temples dedicated to her as the Roman goddess Luna, on the Palatine and Aventine hills. However, there were no temple sites dedicated to the goddess in Greece. According to various sources, this was because she was always seen and worshipped from almost every point on Earth. The Greeks worshipped her by gazing on her magnificent beauty, offering libations to the goddess and reciting hymns and odes.

Facts About Selene

Is Selene an Olympian?

Selene is a Titaness, the pantheon of deities that existed before the Olympians.

Who are Selene’s parents?

Selene’s parents are Hyperion and Theia.

Who are Selene’s siblings?

Selene’s siblings are Helions (sun) and Eos (dawn).

Who is Selene’s consort?

Selene is associated with several lovers, but her most famous consort is Endymion.

Who is Selene’s Roman equivalent?

In Roman mythology, Luna was the goddess of the moon.

What are Selene’s symbols?

Selene’s symbols include the crescent, chariot, bull, cloak and torch

In Brief

Although Selene was once a famous deity in ancient Greece, her popularity has waned and she is now less well-known. However, those who know her continue to worship her whenever there is a full  moon, believing the goddess is at work, traversing in her snowy chariot and lighting up the dark night sky.

https://symbolsage.com/selene-greek-moon-goddess/

[askmerriauthor]

Starbound AU World and Character Lore Notes

More things worth being aware of for characterization and such, either based in canon lore from Starbound itself or extrapolated off reasonable evidence to support the notion.  Part 1 here.  Part 2 of ??? submissions:

Economics in a Post Scarcity Setting So as discussed in the previous post, the generation of matter and material goods is a trifling affair.  Additionally, energy production and consumption is moot.  Starbound exists in a truly post-scarcity setting where things still have value based on their usefulness, but that value doesn’t become an exclusionary facet.  As far as I can tell there’s basically no genuine poverty; there’s plenty of people who live rough (particularly the vagabond remnants of the Human species in the wake of Earth’s destruction) but it doesn’t appear to be out a lack of resources.

There is an economy in Starbound; their system of currency is “Pixels”.  Pixels, simply put, are energy condensed into a stable, tangible block of yellowish pseudo-matter.  When combined together in to larger volumes they are formed as bricks, generally ranging amid values of 1k, 2k, 5k, and 10k total.

So what does this mean in the setting?  Well, Pixels aren’t used to trade for goods - they are the goods.  All manufactured material wealth, goods, and comforts in the setting are generated via a method called ‘Pixel Printing”, which is basically a mix between 3D printing technology and Star Trek’s replicators.  Remember back in the first post where I explained that matter and energy are 100% interchangeable?  Yeah, that.  If you need something, you just print it out from a Pixel Printer station using Pixels as the fodder to produce a given item.  So the “cost” of the item isn’t necessarily its actual value, but rather how much energy is used to make up its physical form (and perhaps address any additional service costs related with the use of the machine).

Now just because people have all this amazing access to technology doesn’t mean that there’s no desire for wealth.  There are mega-corporations in the setting and individuals do covet Pixels to line their coffers with.  As in any scenario, the greater means you have available to you, the more comfort and security you can live in.  So there is an actual economy surrounding Pixels and the production of goods-and-services for individual consumption, though access to said Pixels is pretty easy overall.  There’s even a refining/recycling process in which raw ore (base/precious metals, radioactive elements, etc.) can be converted into Pixels directly.  So what this likely means in-setting is that any goods sold on the market are either re-sold whole to a buyer who wants them (as used/damaged goods do still exist very commonly about the galaxy), or are recycled down into core components/raw energy to then be converted into Pixels.

Aside from Pixels, there are other naturally-occurring elements which bear value to the people of the universe.  Their value is based on their usefulness; things like raw ore, fuel, diamonds, naturally-grown food, animals/animal byproducts, and other materials that presumably cannot be generated via Pixel Printing are still precious and sought-after.  Food apparently can be produced via Pixel Printing, but there’s still a high presence of naturally-grown/produced edibles in the setting alongside artificial foodstuffs.  Might just be a matter of personal preference/accessibility or cultural preservation.

Fuel and Energy Consumption While the methods of conversion between matter and energy are 100% efficient, that isn’t to say there aren’t still inefficient methods of energy production at use in the setting.  Starships use a fuel called “Erchius”, which is an unstable isotope found on otherwise barren moons throughout the galaxy.  It’s unclear exactly what this fuel is, but it exists in both a liquid and solid crystalline state.  The liquid form basically provides a single unit of fuel while the crystal form provides two.  Whether it is naturally a liquid that eventually crystalizes to a more condensed state or if the liquid is a run-off from the crystal isn’t known.

Erchius fuel is the means through which faster-than-light (FTL) space travel is obtained.  It is possible that it is also used to power teleportation relays, but that isn’t known for sure.  What is known is that Erchius crystals are an extremely valuable commodity and mined seemingly exclusively by the Lethia Corporation - a Hylotl megacorp which owns and operates an unknown number of lunar Erchius mines throughout the galaxy.  As mentioned before, Erchius fuel is unstable and appears to have radioactive/mutagenic/corrupting side-effects on those who are exposed to its raw form for too long.

Also, it’s directly correlated with eldritch abominations possibly from another reality/nightmare dimension, and Ruin itself.  So it’s basically Hell Energy ala Doom.  Use responsibly, kids!

Because of the way FTL travel currently works compared to previous incarnations, it can’t really be examined too closely in terms of consumption and expense.  In past builds the amount of fuel used per FTL jump directly correlated to the distance traveled, but in the most recent build it’s just a flat cost.  This may change in the future, so there’s not much use in speculating at the moment.  It is entirely possible to exhaust your supply of Erchius fuel, however, so running out of gas is always a possibility.  Well... sort of.

You Never Run Out of Gas Energy use in this setting is highly efficient, if not perfect in the majority of cases.  It gets to the point that items which use energy via batteries (weapons, vehicles, teleportation nodes, construction sytems, etc) basically never run out of fuel once supplied with it.  Even guns that shoot bullets and grenades never run out of ammo - they just spawn their own ammunition and don’t have any reload functionality.  At most an item may need a cooldown period before it can be used again, which can be interpreted either as a hyper-efficient fuel source recharging itself automatically, or a piece of technology requiring a period of time to recalibrate itself following extended use so as not to burn itself out.  

When it comes to starships, their core energy system appears to be functionally limitless.  While you do have a finite amount of Erchius fuel required for FTL travel across the cosmos, your ship is fully capable of moving swiftly amid planets within the same solar system in a timely fashion at no additional cost.  This likely means that the ship is capable of moving at near-to-light speed on its own 100% efficient energy source, while exceeding light speed requires Erchius fuel to achieve.  Whether Erchius fuel and FTL travel is mandatory in-setting to actually traverse from one system to another or if it’s simply a matter of convenience vs. time cost isn’t clear, but presumably one could travel among the various star systems at impulse power over a substantially longer period of time if forced to do so by circumstances.

[nasa]

Build a Rover, Race a Rover!

Have you ever wanted to drive a rover across the surface of the Moon?

This weekend, students from around the world will get their chance to live out the experience on Earth! At the Human Exploration Rover Challenge, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, high schoolers and college students operate human-powered rovers that they designed and built as they traverse a simulated world, making decisions and facing obstacles that replicate what the next generation of explorers will face in space.

Though the teams that build the rover can be a few people or a few dozen, in the end, two students (one male, one female) will end up navigating their rover through a custom-built course at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. Each duo will push their rover to the limit, climbing up hills, bumping over rocky and gravelly grounds, and completing mission objectives (like retrieving soil samples and planting their team flag) for extra points -- all in less than seven minutes.

2019 will mark the 25th year of Rover Challenge, which started life as the Great Moonbuggy Race on July 16, 1994. Six teams braved the rain and terrain (without a time limit) in the Rocket City that first year -- and in the end, the University of New Hampshire emerged victorious, powering through the moon craters, boulder fields and other obstacles in eighteen minutes and fifty-five seconds.

When it came time to present that year's design awards, though, the honors went to the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao, who have since become the only school to compete in every Great Moonbuggy Race and Rover Challenge hosted by NASA Marshall. The second-place finishers in 1994, the hometown University of Alabama in Huntsville, are the only other school to compete in both the first race and the 25th anniversary race in 2019.

Since that first expedition, the competition has only grown: the race was officially renamed the Human Exploration Rover Challenge for 2014, requiring teams to build even more of their rover from the wheels up, and last year, new challenges and tasks were added to better reflect the experience of completing a NASA mission on another planet. This year, almost 100 teams will be competing in Rover Challenge, hailing from 24 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and countries from Bolivia to Bangladesh.

Rover Challenge honors the legacy of the NASA Lunar Roving Vehicle, which made its first excursion on the moon in 1971, driven by astronauts David Scott and James Irwin on Apollo 15. Given the competition's space race inspiration, it's only appropriate that the 25th year of Rover Challenge is happening in 2019, the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's historic Apollo 11 moon landing.

Interested in learning more about Rover Challenge? Get the details on the NASA Rover Challenge site -- then join us at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (entrance is free) or watch live on the Rover Challenge Facebook Page starting at 7 AM CT, this Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13. Happy roving!

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com  

[sciencenewsforstudents]

A truly all-terrain rover on the moon or Mars may need to put a little wiggle in its walk.

Wheeled rovers can have trouble crossing soft soil. That’s especially true with the types that cover large swaths of the moon and Mars. NASA’s Spirit rover, for example, met its end after getting stuck in a sand trap on Mars in 2009. But a new rover design could spare future robotic explorers that fate.

The new model can move its four wheels up and down and sweep them back and forth. Scientists tested a mini, plastic version of it. In the lab, this rover wiggled its wheels in different ways. Some spun and others swept side to side. This allowed the vehicle to trundle up hills of loose grains. Those same hills would stop a simple wheeled bot in its tracks, its designers note.

A new planetary rover design could help robots navigate soft soils. The rover has wheels that can lift up and down and sweep back and forth. Such movements could help the vehicle trundle across loose soils on the moon or Mars.

Physicist Daniel Goldman works at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. He and his colleagues tested the mini rover in a tilted bed of poppy seeds. Those seed piles were meant to roughly mimic lunar soil. Just spinning the wheels on even a shallow incline caused the vehicle to sink into the seeds. In no time it was stuck. Then, the team spun the wheels and swept them backward in a paddling motion. The combined motions allowed the rover to scoot forward — at least for shallow slopes.

But the team wanted the rover to reliably climb hills with steeper inclines (more than about 15 degrees from horizontal). To do that, the rover had to switch up its strategy. The vehicle spun its two front wheels to shove under its belly the seeds that had been ahead of it. This effectively lowered the hill’s slope. Meanwhile, the rover’s back wheels paddled from side to side. Those wheels kicked seeds from underneath the rover and sent them behind it. This allowed the vehicle to slowly trudge uphill.  

Goldman’s team reported its new rover’s achievements May 13 in Science Robotics.

Future rovers could be based on this design. That might allow them to traverse slopes of soft lunar soil near the moon’s poles. There they could check the soil for resources like water ice or explore other similar areas.

[anumberofhobbies]

" ... Operational constraints and conservative mission rules further limited what Apollo moonwalkers could do with the limited resources at their command. For example, during their travels on board the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) — a four-wheeled electric car — Apollo astronauts could not stray beyond a "walk-back limit." As the term implies, this was the distance beyond which they could not return on foot to the LM before they expended the life support consumables in their PLSS backpacks.

The walk-back limit meant that Apollo lunar surface crews drove to their planned greatest distance from the safe haven of the LM at the start of each LRV traverse, then worked their way back to the LM through a series of pre-planned traverse stops. As they drew nearer to their base camp, the quantity of expendables available in their PLSS backpacks decreased, but then so did the distance they would need to hike if the LRV broke down.

The limited endurance of the Apollo LM and PLSS, combined with the walk-back limit, helped to dictate the list of landing sites Apollo astronauts could explore. During the mid-1960s, proposed Apollo landing sites with scientifically interesting surface features spaced too far apart for "early Apollo" exploration were transferred to lists of candidate targets for more advanced follow-on expeditions. These expeditions would, it was assumed, be carried out in the mid-to-late 1970s within the Apollo Applications Program (AAP).

..."

[mgrgfan]

Past of the future, future of the past...

Chapter 9. A strange beginning

25.06.2000, 20 years after the Shift Neighborly Town, Sinnoh

Gentle ringing sound filled the room. With a sigh, a boy with long blue hair has removed the blanket and got up, doing morning stretches. After he was done, he took a shower, changed from his favorite dark pajamas to something more suitable and left his room, going down to kitchen for breakfast.

As always, his mom Deborah has made something amazingly-smelling and his dad Yakob was trying to start himself up with a cup of some horrifying caffeine mix, as dark as…

"Oh, and there you are, just in time!" said Deborah, as a figure has arisen from the shadows in the far end of the room.

"Suppose so. Morning, everyone," replied the Pitch-Black Pokemon, crossing the room.

"Morning, Darkrai," sighed Tobias, taking a seat. Yakob mumbled something welcoming too, then returned to drinking his crime against coffee. Darkrai visibly shifted away from Yakob, still having highly unpleasant memories about that one time he tried whatever infernal substance Tobias' dad was brewing for himself. There was a good reason it was once nearly classified as a chemical weapon, as a wide-awake Komala in Yakob's lab, who also made a mistake of trying this liquid insanity, could attest to.

After a wonderful breakfast (with Latios joining them soon after the beginning), the entire group started to pack up for today's trip in Unova. Thankfully, whatever unholy mixture Yakob was taking was sufficient to finally wake him up, so, he took the wheel, leaving Deborah, Tobias and Darkrai free to take seats, while Latios has cloaked and clung to the car's roof, loving the thrill of "riding" like that.

With a silent hiss, hydrogen started flowing into the fuel cells. Seconds later, with a quiet whine, wheel hub motors kicked in, driving the car away from the home and towards the Sunyshore City - specifically, the Theta Spaceport.

----

The not-so-young-anymore dragon silently flew underneath the forest's canopy, using the flexibility of its serpentine body to maneuver between trees. Something in the back of its mind screamed, that it shouldn't be going like this, that it should be soaring free in the sky, but immediate concerns continued to override it for many years.

Jet-black Legendary knew, that here, it was in relative safety. Humans would have massive troubles searching for it there. They won't risk using their horrific weapons there… or, at least, so it hoped.

Right now, it was nearing the edge of the forest, near the road from place, known to humans as "Pallet Town". It has decided to stay here for a bit, until the night comes… which should happen relatively soon, in fact.

Rayquaza took a rest on a tree, monitoring the situation around. Thankfully, the road wasn't used this often and Rayquaza knew, how to hide, so, even with its jet-black scales, it didn't have much trouble hiding.

Some time later, it has noticed a single young human, who was traversing down the road with two Pokemon at his side - a Pikachu and a Solosis.

Sky High Pokemon knew this human - quite a few years ago, this young human got lost in the forest and ended up taking shelter from rain under the roots of a large tree, together with a lot of Pokemon. Rayquaza knew this moment very well, especially since it also took a shelter there, coiling around others… and, despite worries of the Legendary, it all went pretty nice.

Sensing no one else of note around, the not-so-young dragon decided to take a risk and lit up the bioluminescent stripes, then flew almost right in front of the young human, even showing off a bit. While human did end up taking some device and pointing it at Rayquaza, evidently, it has malfunctioned and produced no result of worth… although Sky High Pokemon decided to stop doing the risky things now, darkened the bioluminescent stripes again and disappeared under the canopy of the forest, barely noticing Ho-oh flying above it, to which none of the participants paid much attention.

----

"Good afternoon passengers," sounded from the speakers. "This is the pre-boarding announcement for flight P-52-4 to Nuvema, Unova. Please have your boarding pass, Pokeballs and identification ready. Boarding will begin in approximately ten minutes time on Tower 12. Thank you."

Tobias, Deborah and Yakob nodded to each other and headed towards the appropriate access terminal. Two elevator and one travelator rides later, they were walking through the access arm to their vehicle, which was just finishing getting refueled with slush hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Seemingly short and stout (but only seemingly so), it, nonetheless, was capable of easily carrying up to 1000 people between any two points of Earth.

Family took their designated places, with Latios being confined to a Pokeball and Darkrai managing to secretly leave it and sneak into the shadow under Tobias' bunk.

"Attention, passengers, this is your captain speaking. The vessel will take off in ten minutes. Walkway is now retracting," sounded from speakers, as the doors to the outside world got closed and walkway got retracted. Passengers were still chatting, as they were taking their places and preparing for takeoff, some of them checking safety cards and/or watching the safety videos, some sharing their experiences, some merely talking… all was as usual.

"Attention, passengers, this is your captain speaking. The vessel will take off in five minutes. Make sure you're on your designated acceleration couch, safely strapped and with your Pokeballs put into the safe underneath it," sounded from the speakers again. Tobias, after a small check, found out Darkrai's small machination, but decided to stay quiet, knowing his oldest Pokemon partner all too well.

"Ten, nine, ignition sequence start, six, five, engine running fully... Liftoff! We have a liftoff on ballistic liner P-52-4! Tower cleared!"

As those words were being said, the plug-cluster aerospike engine has ignited and reached the nominal power. The launch clamps have opened too, letting the huge rocket soar into the sky and set the trajectory to suborbitals, while also making passengers experience moderate G-force. People, however, seem to take it just fine, some of them even joking about the flight being "Smooth, quiet and, in altogether, delightful experience".

Finally, all external fuel tanks ran dry and, with quiet dull clangs, separated from the rocket, starting their own flyback sequence to allow for easier recovery. In the meantime, ballistic liner finished the boost phase and entered the microgravity coast, with captain making another announcement:

"Good afternoon passengers. This is your captain speaking. First I'd like to welcome everyone on Talonflame Aerospace flight P-52-4. We are currently cruising at an altitude of 185 km at an speed of just under 7 km/s. The time is 1:25 pm. The weather under us looks good and with the lack of wind at the arrival point we are expecting to land in Nuvema with some fuel to spare. The weather in Nuvema is clear and sunny, with a high of 25 degrees for this afternoon. If the weather cooperates we should get a great view of the city as we descend. Right now, you will be able to unstrap yourself and to get some awesome views in the illuminators. I'll talk to you again before we reach our destination. Until then, relax and enjoy the rest of the flight."

Indeed, soon enough, people liberated themselves from the safety straps and started gathering around illuminators, with Darkrai managing to slip out of the shadows and get near Tobias too. While it did prompt some uneasiness, authority of Yakob and Deborah was sufficient to prevent it from escalating further, allowing a blue-haired boy and a white-haired Mythical to enjoy views of Earth from the space for a bit longer… until another announcement came through:

"Attention, passengers, this is your captain speaking. In five minutes, we will begin the flip maneuver. Please, return to your couches and strap yourselves back."

Grumbling, people have complied, returning back to their acceleration couches and strapping themselves in order to prevent flying away, when rocket fires maneuvering thrusters. In exactly five minutes from announcement, RCS engines rumbled and the rocket flipped around, pointing the main plug-cluster aerospike engine in the direction of travel. Soon, the main engine woke up again, decelerating the rocket a bit and correcting its trajectory.

The rocket plunged through the atmosphere, decelerating even further as it goes, with liquid hydrogen circulating through the truncated spike of main engine and cooling it down, allowing it to work as a heat shield. Soon, it ended its flight by a gentle hover landing, with exactly right position and heading to allow one of the access arms on the service tower to reach it. After the connection of access arm and opening of doors, Tobias and his family packed up and left the rocket, reaching their rented car two elevator and two travelator rides later.

As usual, human part of the family took their places in the vehicle, Latios cloaked and clung to the outside, while Darkrai stayed in shadows near the backseat.

"So…" started Tobias. "What's this conference's going to be about?"

"As always, yearly conference between researchers of Legendary and Mythical Pokemon," replied Yakob, driving the car to the hotel. "Thanks to your help, we've got some nice results."

"Yakob, if they ever try this again…" said Darkrai from the shadows in a pretty grim voice.

"I know, crouch, get to the nearest cover and wait for the Dark Void attacks to stop flying, then use the replicas of Lunar Wing over the victims, once you've cleared the area."

"Exactly. The fact of me deciding to follow Tobias and you two on my own volition does not mean me welcoming invasive experimentation."

"I sure remember the last time…" muttered Deborah in a strange voice.

"I didn't kill anyone back then, though," quickly replied the Pitch-Black Pokemon, as if slightly afraid, prompting Tobias to enter the conversation again:

"Mostly because of Latios with his Heal Pulse being capable of stabilizing their condition, until I was there to break the Lunar Wing replicas from my personal stash out."

"Yep. Exactly what I've counted on," said Darkrai, even leaving the shadow a bit and nodding.

"Not the best strategy… but, I guess, we'll have to let it slip for now." mumbled Tobias' mother, then sighed. "I hate the rocket lag, to be honest."

"We all do!" agreed everyone inside the car with her.

----

"Now arriving to the Space Colony Core-Middleway," sounded in the cabin of "Drapion" Galarian deep space transporter, as it was slowing down and preparing to dock to the still-unfinished Bernal Sphere - a greatest testament to the insane race of the Space Fever, alongside with automated factories on the Moon, as well as mass driver, which was used to deliver parts of the colony into space, where they were assembled.

"Finally…" mumbled a remarkably unremarkable human, cradling some strange case in his hands. Soon, a quiet, dull "clang" announced, that the ship has docked to the gigantic space installation. Man, blending in with the rest of passengers of the Earth-L5 express, left it through the docking tube and went through a route few people knew, heading straight to the biolabs block on the equator of the sphere.

Inside the Lab 14, another man was already waiting for him.

"So?.."

"Recovered," said the newcomer, opening his case and extracting a strange, tubular device with a faint glow inside the transparent middle section. "You have no idea, how hard it was, though. But old Fuji built some stuff real sturdy."

"Heh… brother was sure like this… was."

The colonial sighed, knowing too well, what's happened back on the planet, then went for another question:

"What about the second specimen?"

"Was unable to recover."

"Well… I guess we'll have to do with only her for now."

"I guess."

The newcomer gave the device to the colonial scientist, who, gently cradling it, took it to the adjacent room and placed it on the table, starting to connect it to the equipment.

"Lessons were learned, mistakes will not be repeated," mumbled the scientist, working on the device and, from time to time, looking at a huge empty biogrowth tube behind him. "I just hope you'll understand me, when the time comes…"

----

"Your Majesty?" sounded a message from the comm app.

"Yes?" replied the Empress.

"Project SAS is going almost as planned. Phase 2 is at 70%, industrial automation is progressing surely, second level networks are almost established."

"ISFs 3, 5 and 9?"

"Gave us all-clear on the technical side."

"And… what about possibility of Scenario 5?"

"Non-zero, but not too great. Roughly 3.6% possible."

"3.6% - not great, not terrible," concluded the Empress, before the call has ended and she relaxed in the chair, remembering, how has it all started fifteen years ago...

----

The Empress was sitting in her chair, listening to the group of scientists, who were standing before her and telling about a plan - a very audacious one, but, given, what has happened a week ago, worthy of consideration. When they've finished giving the explanation, she stood up a bit, walked to the window and, looking at the city outside of the Palace, asked:

"Automation of the economy, huh?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"And… what does it promise for the Empire?"

"Well… an economic solvency that will eclipse that of the rest of the world, no corruption, once it's fully implemented, highly-reactive planning, allowance…"

"Enough. Tell me one thing… Does it mean, that, should it be fully and completely implemented, I will lose my power and be, in fact, left without ability to rule the Empire, remaining merely a face of the new, automatic government system?"

"... Yes."

"And… will this system bring more prosperity to the Empire, than I and the rest of the current rulers can?"

"... Yes."

"... Then you have my full approval."

"... Huh?"

"You are to begin the implementation process as soon as you can. If sacrifice of my position and power will mean the best for the Empire - I am ready to do that."

"... As you wish."

The group of scientists left the room, leaving Empress looking in the window and thinking, whether this decision was right or not and should she cancel this project, while there's still some time left.

Author's notes: The ballistic liner Tobias and his family rides is based on ITHACUS global transportation rocket; The "Drapion" is based on a real project of a "Scorpion" general-purpose space transportation system; Space Fever will be explained more, as the time goes; Can you guess, what was the device the newcomer gave to the scientist on the space colony? The hint is in the only name mentioned in this section...