End of the Universe

How the Universe

Possibly Ends 

 We know about our universe’s past : the Big Bang theory predicts that all matter, time, and space began in an incredibly tiny, compact state about 14 billion years ago. And we know about the present: scientists observations of the movement of galaxies tell us that the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate. But what about the future? Do we know how our universe is going to end? Cosmologists have three possible answers for this question, called the Big Freeze, the Big Rip and the Big Crunch.

 To understand these three scenarios, imagine two objects representing galaxies. A short, tight rubber band is holding them together— that’s the attractive force of gravity. Meanwhile, two hooks are pulling them apart— that’s the repulsive force expanding the universe. Copy this system over and over again, and you have something approximating the real universe. The outcome of the battle between these two opposing forces determines how the end of the universe will play out. 

The Big Freeze scenario is what happens if the force pulling the objects apart is just strong enough to stretch the rubber band until it loses its elasticity. The expansion wouldn’t be able to accelerate anymore, but the universe would keep getting bigger. Clusters of galaxies would separate. The objects within the galaxies– suns, planets, and solar systems would move away from each other, until galaxies dissolved into lonely objects floating separately in the vast space. The light they emit would be redshifted to long wavelengths with very low, faint energies, and the gas emanating from them would be too thin to create new stars. The universe would become darker and colder, approaching a frozen state also known as the Big Chill, or the Heat Death of the Universe. 

But what if the repulsive force is so strong that it stretches the rubber band past its elastic limit, and actually tears it? If the expansion of the universe continues to accelerate, it will eventually overcome not only the gravitational force – tearing apart galaxies and solar systems– but also the electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear forces which hold atoms and nuclei together. As a result, the matter that makes up stars breaks into tiny pieces. Even atoms and subatomic particles will be destroyed. That’s the Big Rip. 

What about the third scenario, where the rubber band wins out? That corresponds to a possible future in which the force of gravity brings the universe’s expansion to a halt— and then reverses it. Galaxies would start rushing towards each other, and as they clumped together their gravitational pull would get even stronger. Stars too would hurtle together and collide. Temperatures would rise as space would get tighter and tighter. The size of the universe would plummet until everything compressed into such a small space that even atoms and subatomic particles would have to crunch together. The result would be an incredibly dense,hot, compact universe — a lot like the state that preceded the Big Bang. This is the Big Crunch. Could this tiny point of matter explode in another Big Bang? Could the universe expand and contractover and over again, repeating its entire history? The theory describing such a universe is known as the Big Bounce. In fact, there’s no way to tell how many bounces could’ve already happened— or how many might happen in the future. Each bounce would wipe away any recordof the universe’s previous history. 

Which one of those scenarios will be the real one? The answer depends on the exact shape of the universe, the amount of dark energy it holds, and changes in its expansion rate. As of now, our observations suggest that we’re heading for a Big Freeze. But the good news is that we’ve probably got about 10 to the 100th power years before the chill sets in — so don’t panic it's gonna take a long time. 

Gravitation Wave

The Gravitational

 Waves

Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime, predicted by Einstein’s laws of general relativity, but they are incredibly difficult to detect. To see them you need a detector that can accurately measure distances 10,000 times smaller than a proton. Thats crazy! That’s like trying to measure the distance from our Sun to the nearest star to accuracy of the width human hair. But we have a technology on Earth that can do that:  ALIGO the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, and back in November 2015, on a Monday morning, LIGO detected the first gravitational wave that humans have ever directly observed. Where they came from and what this means for space science is nothing short of mind blowing!

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far faraway. 1.3 billion years ago and1.3 billion light years away, two black holes were stuck in a perilous orbit around one another getting closer and closer. Black holes are incredible objects, they pull of their gravity - the amount they bend spacetime - is so strong that no light can escape them. No one knows what exists in the centre ofa black hole as normal physics completely breaks down. What we do know is that they are infinitely dense. One of these orbiting black holes was 29 times the mass of the Sun and the other was 36 times the mass of the Sun, but they were only about 200km wide. Which is tiny in comparison to the Sun which is over a million kilometres wide! And these black holes were orbiting each other really really fast, about the same frequency as the blade on a blender.

Imagine that, such massive objects rotating so quickly. These orbiting masses created ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves, and the closer they orbited the bigger these waves got, until the black holes collided at half of the speed of light. And when they merged they formed a new blackhole that rang kind of like a bell, throwing out colossal amounts of energy as gravitational waves until it settled into a perfect sphere. And all of this happened in 0.2 seconds. And in the collision, they turned a huge amountof mass into gravitational wave energy. They lost a mass equal to three times the mass of the Sun which got turned in to gravitational wave energy by Einsteins equation E=mc^2. This created a huge wake of gravitational waves that ripped out in all directions at the speed of light. And, and this is the thing that gets us, over that last fifth of a second this collision released more than ten times more energy than total output of all of the stars in the entire rest of the Universe! It just completely boggles the mind! Meanwhile on Earth… At this exact time our planet was looking very different to what we see now. It was a barren wasteland, there was no grass or trees, in fact no plants or animals at all. Life at this stage had only come as far as microscopic multicellular creatures that lived in the sea.

And while the gravitational waves tore through space towards us all of the complex life on Earth evolved and grew: plants and animals developed, amphibians crawled on land, there was extinctions, reptiles and dinosaurs and mammals, more extinctions. Primates evolved into all of human civilization right up until Saturday 12th November 2015 when the scientists at LIGO turned it on to begin their initial tests. A mere two days later and just in time the gravitational waves flew past us and the first direct detection on Earth was made. And that sound bumping is actually what these waves sounded like. Even though gravitational-waves are ripples in spacetime and not ripples in the air, they vibrate at similar frequencies, so we canactually turn them into sound waves and listen to them … boop … It might not sound very impressive, but detection of gravitational waves means a huge amount for science. The results of this detection have already been profound. This is the very first time that black holes have been directly detected, in fact gravitational waves are the only way you can directly detect them!

It will hopefully be able to look at what makes stars go supernova, and might be able to probe the very nature of spacetime and see if it is made of things called cosmic strings. But the most exciting thing is that we don’tknow what it will find. This is one of the best parts of science,when you’ve got a new tool to peer into a realm of reality that you’ve never been able to access before. Who knows what you’ll find? May be you’ll discover things that help explain some of the great mysteries of the Universe, maybe we’ll find things that we can’t explain at all, and then we have to come up with new physics. In any case I find it super exciting and no one can’t wait to see more results. So there you go, those are the basics of gravitational wave astronomy.

Galaectic Collision

Milkyway 

Vs 

Andromeda

 Astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescopeto forecast a future cosmic pile up: the titanic collision of the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy in about four billion years time. The Andromeda Galaxy, some 2.2 million light-years away, is the closest spiral galaxy to our home, the Milky Way. 

For around a century,astronomers have known it is moving towards us, but whether or not the two galaxies wouldactually collide, or simply fly past each other, remained unclear. Now, a team of astronomershas used the Hubble Space Telescope to shed light on this question, by looking at the motion stars in the Andromeda Galaxy. We wanted to figure out how Andromeda was moving through space. So in order to do that we measured the location of the Andromeda stars relative to the background galaxies.

 In 2002 they were in one place, and in 2010 they were in a slightly different place. And that allowed us to measure the motion over a period of eight years. The motion is actually incredibly subtle,and not obvious to the human eye, even when looking at Hubble's sharp images. However,sophisticated image analysis revealed tiny movements that the scientists were able to project into the future. Based on these findings, it is finally possibleto show what will happen to the Milky Way over the next eight billion years, as theg galaexies drift closer, then collide and gradually merge into a single, larger, elliptical galaxy with reedish stars. 

And might the Solar System should in fact survive this huge crash. The reason we think that our Solar System will not be much affected by this collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda is that galexies are mostly empty space. Even though our galaxy, as well as the Andromeda Galaxy, has a hundred billion stars in it, they are very far apart. So if two galaxies actually collide with each other, the stars basically pass right between each other and thecthe of two stars directly hitting each other is really, really small. So the likelihood that our Solar System will be directly impacted by another star, for example, in Andromeda as we collide with it is really, really small. Well, if life is still present on Earth when this happens, the changes in the sky will be quite spectacular. 

This collision will be very very slow because the time scales on the scales of galaxies in the Universe are very very long. So you have to think, millions of years but even then over these timescales over millionsof years, we will see big changes. If we wait a few billion years, Andromeda will be huge on the sky. It will be as big as our Milky Way because we'll be very close to it. And then later, when the galaxies merge, the merged remnant of the Milky Way Galaxy and Andromeda will look more like an elliptical galaxy and we'll be sitting right in it. So the view of the Milky Way on the nightsky will be completely gone and this band of light will be replaced by a more spheroidal distribution of light. And so, the Sun, born in the Milky Way almost 5 billion years ago will end its life in a new orbit, as part of a new galaxy. 

The New Space Race

 The New Space Race 

2020

Let’s talk about the new race for space. Countries and companies are competing to develop brand new space technology. Right now, engineers are designing space colonies. It’s time to go back to the moon. This time, to stay. France and the US have even launched their own space force. A space force  as the sixth branch of the armed forces. That’s a big statement. So in this race, who could win and what’s the big prize? And why should we care about what’s happening up there? Let’s take a second to realise how close the future actually is.

  Space tourism is taking off. Billionaire Richard Branson just made his commercial space airline publicly-traded company of its kind Virgin Galactic the first publicly-traded company of its kind. Our little company is going to be floating in space next year and today it's floating on the stock market. And earlier this year, he opened a spaceport in New Mexico where customers who’ve paid 250,000 dollars each will soon board space-planes to Earth’s sub-orbit. You’ve probably also heard of the billionaire Elon Musk and his company SpaceX. He’s unveiled detailed plans to start construction on Mars  in just 30 years time. We want to just keep improving rocket technology until there’s a city on Mars. Now I know it all sounds incredibly ambitious.  But big ideas can become very real, very quickly. It’s happened before, during the first space race. 

In the 1950s, the US and Soviet Union  were locked in a Cold War over political ideology. “President Truman signs a bill to spend   over 3 billion dollars to fight communism”.  Both sides started developing bigger and better rocket technology to use in a potential nuclear war and to keep each other in check. But they quickly took that fight to space. “Space travel became headline news with the announcement  that the United States plan to launch their first satellite by 1957”.  But the Soviets beat them to it by launching Sputnik a tiny satellite that Washington feared   could zip over the US and gather intelligence. Four years later, the Soviet Union made history again  by putting the first human in space.  But soon enough, US President John F. Kennedy raised the stakes. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard. In 1969, NASA put the first humans on the moon. That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. As to who won that, I think it's pretty clear that the USA won that race.  But it wasn't just about national prestige in a simple flag-waving sense. That's why there was such an emphasis on the various scientific instruments that were flown with the Apollo missions. 

What followed that first space race were, in fact, many  decades of science-driven space exploration.  Countries even collaborated with each other’s space programs to send space stations, telescopes, probes   and satellites across our solar system. NASA stayed in the lead, partly because of its space shuttle.  But over time, governments around the world  started pouring less money into their space programs. Including the US.  Eventually, NASA retired the shuttle for good in 2011. And in the meantime, new space powers emerged. Countries like China and India, who have  been pouring millions of dollars into their space programs. China and India are basically trying to one up each other in terms of getting into record books, with China going to the far side of the moon and India trying to land rovers on other planets. Which show a country's technological  progress, which turns into geostrategic influence. 

But it’s private companies, and the pockets of billionaires who’ve really been heating up the race. SpaceX has built the world’s first reusable rocket. And the company has been working with NASA to transport cargo to the International Space Station. The airplane manufacturer Boeing and a company called Blue Origin owned by Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, are also competing for contracts. So are dozens of other start-ups around the world, including  RocketLab in New Zealand and iSpace in Japan. And the idea is that if companies can profit, science does too. The big prize obviously for any private entity is to be profitable and make a  business. Space is very hard. It's very expensive for us. For example, it's  doing really important things that really benefit humanity in some ways and make a profit. And the rewards could potentially be enormous. NASA believes there are nearly 800,000 asteroids in our solar system which contain valuable metals like gold, iron and platinum. And just one of those asteroids, called 16 Psyche, is thought to have about 700 quintillion US dollars worth of valuable materials. There are also very real plans to mine the moon for water and Helium-3. Which could both potentially be transformed into rocket fuel. It allows us to resupply our missions to Mars and we can even refuel orbiting satellites of Earth. 

And, guess what? Laws have already been drafted in the US and Luxembourg   to allow companies to keep what they mine on the moon, Mars or anywhere else. Companies aren't going to invest their money if they think that whatever they are able to mine belongs to mankind. They want it to belong to them. And the United States passed a legislation which basically said, "Okay we're good with that". And there was some international criticism of “why does it belong to you? And that leads us to another prize in this race, which is power. Even after the Cold War, space exploration has in some ways been driven by the military.  Now, government officials, military officials are saying that they would like  to have weapons developed and deployed by 2023.

 SpaceCom will defend America’s vital interests in space the next war-fighting domain. But there are no actual weapons in space. Yet. There is an internationally agreed “Outer Space Treaty” to stop weapons of mass destruction from being used in space.  We have very few guidelines. There are no weapons of mass destruction to be placed in outer space, we are not to militarise the moon. But other than that, it's open territory.  Already, the US, Russia, China and India have carried out what they call “anti-satellite missile tests” by destroying old satellites in space. For now though, countries and companies say they are putting science first. And that’s a good thing because it’ll push the boundaries of human technology and could bring us  the answers to life’s big questions. And unlike the last space race, this time there seems to be more room for everyone. Hopefully that means everybody wins. 

Space Exploration

Humans in space

We always wanted to find out what's out there. We want to be able to, you know, expand out horizons and I think that that truly is built into the human spirit, we are always wondering "What's next?" "How much farther can we go?" - The Mercury astronauts when they get introduced they immediately callus as sort of a hero. The press conference that NASA had goes crazy and the astronauts becomeinstant celebrities. They sort a look like knights in armor, in some ways, going out there to defend the honor of The United States.

3...2...1...Lift off. - Roger, lift off and the clock has started. The feeling of that moment of exhilaration exhilaration because, of course, they'd been training for few years and in fact I was more than ready for the lift off to occur and was quite delighted inthe fact that it did occur. It occurred so smoothly. Capsules  turning around. Oh that tremendous view. - We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. - It's outward bound.

People have a human feeling I think for wanting to go outward bound and it's in us. You know, to go, to see, to touch, to understand what's there. The ignition sequence start. It finally come ,  the day, the moment. The trajectory had been wrong. They had targeted into that in hospitable place. Then, they had to fly over this area at a high forward velocity. Then, pitch up to slow down, so it would kill that forward velocity and then start down like a helicopter. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. ". The landing tome was a great celebration we had won the race, thenation was almost euphoric.  The knowledge that we gain about the origin and the evolution of the moon is one of these days, gonnahelp us right here on Earth. Course its only one area, but I believe it's an important area and I guess I'm bettin a lot on it.

NASA has been absolutely critical to improving the knowledgeof all human kind. Twelve humans walked onthe surface of the moon, which is a stunning achievement, and Americans are still the only country ever to have done that. We're going to go back to the moon and we're gonna take what we learned there and we're gonna go to mars. To get to Mars,it's about a six month journey. And as an operator, I would be really really happy if we could test out our operations and our equipment in our backyard. The moon's only three days away. The moon is the next step. So the Space Station is more than a million pounds, it's as big as two football fields. You are not going to bring that up in one single lift. So, we had to bring upthe Space Station in parts and assemble it. The Space Shuttle was instrumental into bringing up, at least the American side of that. It was more than forty missions over about thirteen years to assemble all of those parts of the Space Station.

And so human space flightis really interesting because we do adapt reallyquickly to the environment. How quickly, it feltnatural to float around. How quickly, it felt normal to look out the window and see the earth go by. - Human being are built to be able to adapt to weightlessness andthat allows us to go do that exploration and so we have improved the exercise equipment,we improved the diet, the vitamins. It mean we would come back so strong, that physically one will actually be stronger than when he left,
As the results show when the physical fitness test  is done when astronauts got back. It gives me great hope that, you know, if we have similar type of equipment on our long duration space vehicles, we're going to show up on Mars and be ready to work the minute we get there.

Orion, our state of the art space craft, is designed to take crews into deep space, and then once their work is done, safely bring them back home. Sometimes folks ask , you know, what do you think the next sixty years has in store? I don't know all of the destinations that we will visit, the mysteries we will solve, the places that we will leave footprints, again. - And we want to see what's out there, we want to see how it works, we want to go explore. There's always this desire to learn more, to satisfy that inquisitive nature. Let's go do it.

Astronomy vs Astrology

Astronomy 

Vs

Astronomy

The word Astronomy meaning "the study of stars" in initial stage but the words change meaning over time, and  it’s pretty well understood that astronomy is science, and astrology… isn’t. Millennia ago, astrology was as close to science as you got. It had some of the flavors of science: astrologers observed the skies, made predictions about how it would affect people, and then those people would provide evidence for it by swearing up and down it worked. The thing is, it really didn’t; the fault of astrology lies in ourselves and not our stars. People tend to remember the hits and forget the misses when predictions are made, which is why they sometimes sit in casino spumping nickels into machines that are in proven to be nothing more than a method for reducing the number of nickels you have. But astrology led to people to really study the sky, and find the patterns there, which led to a more rigorous understanding of how things worked in the heavenly vault. It wasn’t overnight, of course. This took centuries.

Before the invention of the telescope, keen observers built all sorts of odd and wonderful devices to measure the heavens, and in fact it was before the telescope was first turned to the sky that a huge revolution in astronomy took place. It is patently obvious that the ground you stand on is fixed, rooted if you will, and the skies turn above us. The sun rises, the sun sets. The moon rises and sets, the stars themselves wheel around the sky at night. Clearly, the Earth is motionless, and the sky is what is actually moving. In fact, if you think about it, geocentrism makes perfect sense that all the objects inthe sky revolve about the Earth, and are fixed to a series of nested spheres, some of which are transparent, maybe made of crystal, which spin once per day. The stars may just be holes in theotherwise opaque sphere, letting sunlight though. Sounds silly to you, doesn’t it? Well, here’s the thing: If you don’t have today’s modern understanding of how the cosmos works, this whole multiple-shells-of-things-in-the-sky thing actually does make sense. It explains a lot of what’s going on over your head, and if it was good enough for Plato, Aristotle, and Ptolemy, then by god it was good enough for you. And speaking of which, it was endorsed by the major religions of the time, so may be it’s better if you just nod and agree and don’t think about it too hard.

But a few centuries ago things changed. Although he wasn’t the first, the Polish mathematician and astronomer Copernicus came up with the idea that the sun was the center of the solar system, not the Earth. His ideas had problems,which we’ll get to in a later episode, but it did an incrementally better job than geocentrism. And then along came Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, who modified that system, making it even better. Then Isaac Newton - oh, Newton- he invented calculus partly to help him understand the way objects moved in space. Over time, our math got better, our physics got better, and our understanding grew. Applied math was a revolution in astronomy, and then the use of telescopes was another. Galileo didn’t invent the telescope, by the way, but made them better; Newton inventeda new kind that was even better than that, and we’ve run with the idea from there.

Then, about a century or so ago, came another revolution: photography. We could capture much fainter objects on glass plates sprayedwith light-sensitive chemicals, which revealed stars otherwise invisible to us, details in galaxies,beautiful clouds of gas and dust in space. And then in the latter half of the last century, digital detectors were invented, which were even more sensitive than film. We could use computers to directly analyze observations, and our knowledge leaped again. When thesewere coupled with telescopes sent in orbit around the Earth - where our roiling and boiling atmosphere doesn’t blur out observations - we began yet another revolution. And where are we now? We’ve come such a long way! What questionscan we routinely ask that our ancestors would not have dared, what statements made witha pretty good degree of certainty?

Think on this: The lights in the sky are stars! There are other worlds. We take the idea of looking for life on alien planets seriously, and spend billions of dollars doing it. Our galaxy is one of a hundred billion others. We can only directly see 4% of the Universe. Stars explode, and when they do they createthe stuff of life: the iron in our blood, the calcium in our bones, the phosphorus that is the backbone of our DNA. The most common kind of star in the Universe is so faint you can’t see it without a telescope. Our solar system is filled to overflowing with worlds more bizarre than we could have dreamed. Nature has more imagination than we do. It comes up with some nutty stuff. We’re clever too, we big-brained apes. We’ve learneda lot… but there’s still a long way to go. So, with that, I think we’re ready.

Let’sexplore the universe. Astronomers aren’t just people who operate telescopes, but include mathematicians, engineers, technicians, programmers, and even artists. They also wrapped up with a quick history of the origins and development of astronomy, from ancient observers to the Hubble SpaceTelescope.

Alien Base in India

Kongka la pass

India's Area51

All of you must have heard of Area 51 or the Nevada's Mystery or the Nevada Airbase. You might be surprised there exists such a place in India too. India's own Area 51. This place exists somewhere in Himalayan mountains near Aksai Chin on the India-china border.

Kongka La is the low peak region in the Himalayas. It is in the dispution on India-China border area in Ladakh. The northeastern part held by China is known as Aksai Chin and South Western part is known as Ladakh. Aksai Chin is a region where Eurasian and Indian plates have created convergent plate boundaries where a plate dives under the other and thus it is among the few areas in the world where the depth of the crust is twice as much as in the other places in the world.This the area where Indian and Chinese armies fought the major war in 1962. The area is among the least accessed areas in the world and by an agreement between the two countries there is no patrol in this part of the border.

According to many tourists, Buddhist monks and the native people in the region, the Indian Army and the Chinese Military maintains the line of control. But there is something much more serious happening in the area. A few local people on the Indian and Chinese sides, this is the place where UFOs are seen coming out of the ground frequently. Some believe, there are some underground UFO bases in the region and both the Indian and Chinese Government know this very well.

Recently, some Hindu pilgrims were on their way to Mount Kailash by the western pass and they encountered some strange lights in the sky. When a local guides while in the Chinese territory told them that this kind of incidents are common in tha area and there was nothing new, its a normal phenomenon in Kongka Pass area - a tensed border region between India and China. This strange lighted triangular silent aircraft show up from underground and moves almost vertically up.

When some adventurous tourists wanted to look into the site. They were first turned back by the Chinese guard posts as they were refused entry from the Chinese side.
When they tried to approach from the Indian side, the Indian border patrol also turned them down inspite of their permit to travel between the two countries. Natives from both sides of the border claims the existane of an underground UFO base in this region with the knowledge of both the  countries' authority. Local guides and natives said that this kind of view is not something new and it is a very common sight in Kongka La pass.

This theory is  credenced by the fact that in June of 2006, a satellite imaging on Google Earth revealed a 1:500 scale detailed terrain model of this region in question on the Chinese side of the border. The model is surrounded by buildings similar to a military facility. According to the claimants extra-terrestrial presence is well known and it is in deeps of the ground. They believe neither the Indian nor Chinese Government want to expose the fact of these sightings for some reason. When this matter is put forward by the natives and they were told by the government authorities to keep quite and call them rumers.

Alien Base in Nevada

Area 51

Nevada Airbase

The nevada airbase aka the Area 51 has a great history of UFO sightings and a lot of citizens in the area hace claimed the area to be related with alien operations. Many believe it to be a base for alien activities on the Earth.Many claim that it is a place where the American Government here research and investigate about on the aliens and alien equipments. But there are no solid proof of any kind of activities and the government has always claimed these claims to be just flukes and rumers. 

Here are the sequence of  encounters and claims of different individuals and groups about Area 51 during the first 20 years of the Area 51

Timeline:

April 12, 1955 -

 CIA officer Richard Bissell, who is overseeing the development of the U-2 plane, first sees the site that would become known as Area 51 while on an "aerial scouting mission." Bissell, along with three others, including Col. Osmund Ritland and Kelly Johnson, Director of the Lockheed Corporation's Skunk Works, agree that the area would "make an ideal site for testing the U-2 training pilots" and request the Atomic Energy Commission add the area to its real estate holdings in Nevada.

July 1955 -

 The CIA begins using Area 51 to develop the high-altitude U-2 reconnaissance plane. Other aircrafts are also tested at the site later, including the OXCART (a supersonic reconnaissance A-12 aircraft) and the F-117 stealth ground attack jet.

November 1959 -

  A radar test facility is established at Area 51.

October 13, 1961 -

 In a letter to Bissell, now the CIA's Deputy Director of Plans, by CIA Inspector General Lyman Kirkpatrick writes that Area 51 appears to be "extremely vulnerable in its present security provisions against unauthorized observation."

December 22, 1961 - 

 The A-12 arrives at Area 51.

1974 -

 Skylab astronauts inadvertently take photographs of Area 51. The images are reviewed by the National Photographic Interpretation Center ("NPIC") and then removed from the rolls of film and stored in a restrictive vault.

August 26, 1976 - 

 In a memo from the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence E.H. Knoche to General David C. Jones, the Air Force chief of staff, the National Security Council's Committee on Foreign Intelligence approves the recommendation "that management of Area 51 be transferred from CIA to Air Force by fiscal year 1978."

Space Exploration

Space Exploration

Since the Beginning

Shuttles, and space stations, horrific disasters, collaboration – but all from the tether of Earth's gravity. For us in the future, though, things might finally be about to change. Firstly, NASA have committed themselves to returning to the moon with humans by 2024 as of today, and they've been busy bees, designing the Space Launch System to launch in 2021. It could get us back to the Moon, Easy. But now we have commercial projects taking off: SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing – all of them vying to get us back on the lunar surface. Things are occurring! Obviously, going back to the Moon for science is attractive, but science probably won't be enough to keep us there, because cha-ching-ching, etc. 

There are plenty of resources for mining on the Moon: gold, platinum, yadda-yadda, and, rather more unique, helium-3 – an isotope useful for nuclear fusion. But the real dog's gonads to go back for is more spacing. The moon would be a perfect base of operations for, A : serving as a practice ground for learning how to live in hostile places for when we go to certain other planets soon – which we will – and B: fueling up and maintaining vehicles leaving Earth on their way beyond to other spots in the Solar System – when we go, which we will!

We could build mass drivers to shoot objects elsewhere with no need for propellant, establish farms, schools, administration... Buzz Aldrin took a wee on the Moon first day, whatever... But, a beginning. A point of departure to the rest of the Solar System. And one day – long from now, but one day – beyond the Solar System, too.Perhaps. If this is what you wake up to every morning, if this is the view from your lunar window, how would you feel about our petty squabbles back on Earth?

 No astronaut has ever returned from space and said: "Yeah, the universe was alright... Not as good as a nice fight though, eh? COME 'ERE Y LITTLE-" Almost all of them came back more placid, more prudent, and more inclined to see our planet as the fragile marble that it is. And as those lunar humans would look down on our fragile condition, we'd look up at them every night, and it would be a constant reminder not only of the power of human endeavor, but that we're out in the universe now. And surely that would change all of us down here. 

And if we're very lucky, maybe even change us for the better. Fifty years later, we're still living in the shadow of the Apollo program, when hundreds of thousands of men and women came together, spent a titanic amount of money, utilized an ungodly amount of brainpower to achieve something that was, by any estimation, impossible – and they did it. Some days It feels like we've forgotten how to do this: to dream crazy big – together, to reach for something – together, to look out beyond bickering and this "my team-your team" rubbish. There's an infinite playground just waiting out there for us, to explore as brothers and sisters.

 Obviously, the Apollo program came directly out of the "Space Race" between the US and the Soviet Union. It's not like the US went to the Moon just 'cause they fancied a nice view. but the solidarity inside the Apollo program and the directed attention of the American citizenry towards space was like nothing we've ever seen before. Many of you watching this, and me – we weren't alive to see the Moon landings. We didn't grow up with a single event in media that was a human project, on behalf of the entire species.

How will we feel when we see that first man or woman putting that first boot down on the red sands of Mars? I, for one, will be crying my eyes out, just happy I got to live long enough to see my species at the beginning of leaving its cradle and finally learning to walk. And then we will learn to run: to the orbits of Venus, Titan, Ganymede – wherever we feel like! Because that is us because audacity is what we do. Sometimes violently, sometimes misguidedly, but sometimes, every now and then, in solidarity – together, and for the love of reaching one mountain peak just the look to the next. In our solar system waiting – for us! – there are seven new mountains, with seven new sunrises and seven new sets of secrets. 

And if THAT doesn't unify us – Christ, nothing will. And it will all start with the Moon, our home away from home, as the springboard into the multiplanetary age of the human being. "We choose to go back to the Moon and do the other things – not because they are easy, but because they are cool!" To follow our evolutionary imperative, as it began with our emergence from the oceans and our many perilous diasporas across this great blue-green spaceship. "We've been on six dates together, Moon! Sorry we ghosted you, we've been going through some stuff! But we've changed, Moon – no more long distance, oh no, let's get it together properly. 

We're sliding back into DMs, baby! How 'bout it? Let's settle down together and raise a solar civilization, eh?" These are precarious times. So too were they precarious half a century ago, when those first explorers set off for space. If we can hold it together, this might be just the beginning of the beginning for our species. Because we are currently audacity monkeys, but we could be forever monkeys, if we wanted to. And the moon is clearly our door... into that forever.